The Athribis Project is an archaeological and philological endeavour investigating the ruins of the Pharaonic and later Coptic Christian community of the Ancient Egyptian town of Athribis, near to the modern city of Sohag, Egypt. The aim of the project is to fully and thoroughly research, preserve and publish the written records, material technologies and phases of construction of the large temple in the town, which was dedicated to the god Min-Re, his wife Repyt and their son, the child-god Kolanthes.
A team of Egyptologists, conservationists and architectural experts from Germany, Poland and Egypt have been working on the project since 2003, under the leadership of Christian Leitz, professor of Egyptology at Tübingen University.
Geographical location
Athribis is located about 7 kilometres or 4 miles southwest of the modern city of Sohag (about 200km or 125mi north of Luxor), at the foot of the mountains on the west bank of the Nile. This area would have been part of the 9th Upper Egyptian nome of Ancient Egypt, whose capital was at Achmim, directly opposite Athribis on the east bank of the Nile. The archaeological site stretches over more than 30 hectares which for the most part remains unexcavated and consists of the temple complex, a settlement, the necropolis and quarries. The temple currently being excavated measures 75 by 45 metres, while the other of the two temples is still buried underneath the sand.
Archaeologigcal activity
Early find-collecting expeditions to Athribis were made by John Gardner Wilkinson (in 1825), Nestor l'Hôte (1839) and the Prussian Expedition led by Karl Richard Lepsius (1845). However the first archaeologist to examine the temple complex was Flinders Petrie. For 6 weeks in 1906/1907 he excavated the main temple as part of the activity led by the British School of Archaeology in Egypt (BSAE). His aim was to draw up a floor plan of the temple layout, which he managed even in such a short time, and his findings were published in the Reports of the BSAE. After his excavations, Petrie reburied the temple to preserve it against various potential environmental damages.
After that, the Supreme Council of Antiquities conducted researched in the main temple from 1981 to 1996, however they only excavated two thirds of the temple and left the rest untouched.
The current Athribis Project began in 2003 under the leadership of Christian Leitz, professor of Egyptology at Tübingen University. The biggest challenge at that time was dealing with approximately 400 collapsed stone blocks, weighing up to 34 tonnes, which had to be removed with specialised inflatable air pads like those used at Sheikh Abd el-Qurna near Luxor. Once these had been retrieved, the excavation could begin in earnest in 2012. The blocks are now stored near the temple and are being studied there.
An important part of the work is the documentation and appraisal of the large collection of texts found in relief on the stones which make up walls, columns and roofs. There are about 1,300 different inscriptions, many of which are completely new to modern Egyptology, having no counterpart in any other temple and which are very enlightening about Late Egyptian religion. One of the most important of these is an inscription to the god Min in the east colonnade. It consists of 110 lines of text along a 21 metre long stretch of wall, and is significantly better preserved than any other older version of this text from the 19th or 20th dynasties that has been found.
Since 2015 a team from Yale University has been excavating a portion of the cloisters of the Coptic Christian nunnery that surrounds the main temple.
Financial support
The project was initially supported by the Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftung from 2003 to 2004. Since 2005, the project has been generously supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).
Historical classification of finds
The period of building and decoration in the temple spans more than 200 years. Ptolemy XII (ruled 81-58 and 55-51 BC), one of the last kings of the Ptolemaic dynasty and father of Cleopatra VII, built the 75m by 45m temple and decorated the interior rooms.
The decoration of outer walls and pillars surrounding this however date to the reigns of Tiberius (14-37 AD), Caligula (37-41 AD) and Claudius (41-54 AD). Their names have been found in inscriptions in the form of traditional Ancient Egyptian titulary.
Vespasian (69-79 AD), Titus (79-81 AD) and Domitian (81-96 AD) are also mentioned in short texts, and beyond this even the name of Hadrian (117-138 BC) has been discovered on a limestone block, but it is not clear whether this belongs to the main temple or not.