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Return to Antinoupolis A R C H A E O L O G Y RREETTUURRNN TTOO AANNTTIINNOOUUPPOOLLIISS CCoonnttiinnuuiinngg EExxccaavvaattiioonnss aatt tthhee CCiittyy ooff AAnncciieenntt EEggyypptt’’ss LLaasstt GGoodd TThhee OOssiirr--AAnnttiinnoouuss TTeemmppllee:: PPrreelliimmiinnaarryy RReeppoorrtt by James B. Heidel he city of Antinoupolis in Middle Egypt, constructed in the 130s AD, is Roman Emperor Hadrian’s largest building pro- ject. With in the perimeter of the ancient walls, its ruins cov- er an area of 113 hectares (270 acres), which is about 1.75 x 0.75 km (a mile by half a mile). This is sixty percent larger than the ruins of ancient Pompeii, which cover about sixty- Above, Three engrTav - ings from Description nine hectares (170 acres). As suming a similar population de l’Égypte of the ruins density to Pompeii, an approximate number of inhabitants of Antinoupolis, as they appeared at the begin - for Antinoupolis when fully settled with colonists would have ning of the 19th Cen - been about eighteen to twenty thousand people. Outside of tury. Opposite, Bust of the walls, the city’s associated cemeteries, quarries, roads the deified Antinous, Second Century AD, and other features stretch for many square kilometers more. today in the Hermitage. Yet of all the grand, famous and far-flung projects of Hadri- Inset, Bust of Roman Emperor Hadri an (ruled an, Rome’s greatest emperor/builder, Antinoupolis is argu- 117-138 AD). Internet photos ably the least studied, least excavated and most poorly Kmt 28 29 Kmt Satellite view of Antinoupolis with major monuments labeled & the Osir-Antinous Temple at lower center. Author's graphic Kmt 30 Author’s photo Internet phooto understood. It is also one of the most in - ter esting. Many of Hadrian’s projects around the empire display a deft syn - cretism — or combination — of differ - ent cultures, religious/cultic traditions, architectural forms and even building techniques. Antinoupolis is perhaps the epitomic example of this hybridization: Roman architects and engineers design- ed and con structed a new city on the Hel - lenistic mo del to serve the liturgical de- mands of one of ancient Egypt’s oldest gods, in the form of a new compound- deity: Osiris joined with Antinous or “Osir-Antinous.” Roman, Greek and Egyptian forms and concerns are here all rolled into one conception to befit a young Greek who be came an Egyptian god by decree of a Ro man emperor. For the story of the foundation of Antinoupo - lis and its precipitating events, see Kmt , 23: 4, 60-67, or at: < http://antinoupolis. net/antinoupolis thecity/ >. The abovementioned obscurity of the archaeological site of Antinoupo - Above, The Barberini Obelisk lis is slowly changing, due to the ongo - of Aswan red granite & 9.25 ing efforts of the University of Florence m. tall, has stood since 1822 archaeological mission. Although they on Pincio Hill in northeast Rome. It was purchased in have held the concession (or Egyptian- the 1630s by the Barberini government permission) to conduct ar - family from the landowners chaeology at the site since 1935, it has where it was found outside only been since the year 2000 — with the the Porta Maggiore; but the appointment of Prof. Rosario Pintaudi as site of its original erection is debated, with some scholars the mission’s field director — that the Ha - arguing for Antinoupolis it - drianic city has been studied in any sys - self & others preferring vari - tematic way. In fact, so little archaeolog- ous locations around Rome. ical information regarding the Roman Commissioned by Hadrian to city has been recovered previously from commemorate the deification of Antinous, the text describes the site that it has gained a reputation for the founding of Antinoupo - being largely destroyed, with one scholar, lis, the form of its temple of Mary T. Boatwright, summing up the Osir-Antinous, as well as the general attitude when she wrote “… the city’s annual athletic games, unparalleled wealth of documentary evi - & records victorious com - petitors are given wreaths of dence … helps offset the modern destruc- flowers as prizes. In the de - tion of the site.” tail at left, the text indicates Boatwright is certainly correct in part that the obelisk was that there is an unusual amount of textur- originally located at the site al evidence regarding the earliest phases where Antinous was buried; & the vignette at the top of the city, not only from travelers’ ac - shows Amen-Re presenting counts, scattered references in ancient thousands of years to Osir- writings and the Napoleonic publication Antinous, while the latter La Description de l’Égypte , but also from presents Amen-Re with a dozens of fragments of inscribed papy- wdj3t eye. rus found, not at Antinoupolis, but at 31 Kmt Left, The excavation location at Antinoupolis in March 2017. The area worked by the Egyptian Antiquities Organization 1991- 1994 is at lower right, the most recently excavated area at upper left. Below, A limestone door-jamb thickness with the name of Osiris at the center. Author’s photos for the Archaeological Mission of the University of Florence nearby sites, chiefly Oxyrhynchus. cient texts, the city’s Temple of Osir-An - mix ed or hybridized, containing both co- From these documents we can tinous. Clement of Alexandria — in the lumns like the “ancients” (meaning phar- begin to learn about the architectural for - middle of a diatribe against the worship aonic style) and like the Greeks (meaning mulation of the city, since they mention of Serapis in that city — complains, “But classical style). specific buildings, including: a praetori- now we have a tomb … a temple and a There are a number of areas um (governor’s residence); an agora (or city of Antinous.” And this temple is also around the city where the distribution of perhaps two, a northern and southern mentioned in one of the most important architectural remains on the surface sug - one); an unusual and elaborate circular texts we have for learning about the foun- gest as yet-undetected major honorific gymnasium; a Caesareum; a bouleuter- dation of Antinoupolis: the text carved architecture of a scale similar to those ion (or city council building) and its ar- on the Barberini obelisk. This red- granite monuments shown in the Description chives; and the temple or temples asso ci- monument is 9.25 meters tall, erected plates. Among these areas the Italian mis - ated with the worship of various deities, since 1822 on Pincio Hill in Rome, al - sion has located, perhaps the most inter - chief among them the Temple of Osir- though its original find-spot is disputed. esting and significant, is the one which, Antinous. We also have knowledge of It commemorates the deification of Anti - as said, we are currently excavating. Our certain of the city’s monuments from the nous and the foundation of Antinoupo- work has shown this site, in the center of Description and other onsite investiga - lis, with descriptions of the legal advant- the city on the Nile, to be a temple pre- tion including our own. These monuments ages of the citizens of that city; the activ - cinct dedicated to the worship of Osir- include an 80 x 80 meter bath building; a ities of the funeral games of Antinous, Antinous himself; and, although there 400 x 100 meter hippodrome; a 115 x 75 the Megala Antinoeia; and a description must have been many shrines dedicated meter peristyle and gate complex, serv - of some of the features of the temple of to Osir-Antinous around the metropolis, ing as the eastern entrance to the city; a the titular deity of the city, Osir-Antin- the precinct’s central location and size six-story triumphal (or commemorative) ous, which must have been the most im - suggests that it is perhaps the Temple of arch, with a wider span than the Arch of portant and central architectural complex Osir-Antinous men tioned on the Barber- Constantine in Rome, accompanied by in a city filled with massive, honorific ini Obelisk. two open-air pavilions composed of forty architecture. The obelisk states that the Excavations in this location were two-story granite columns each; a 75 x city’s Osir-Antinous temple is, “built of opened in 1991 by the Egyptian Ministry 150 meter theater complex with a six- good white stone with sphinxes surround- for Antiquities/Supreme Council for An - story tall entrance gate; two triumphal ing it as well as statues of the gods, and tiquities (then the Egyptian Antiquities four-columned crossroads; and about 2.5 many columns like those made by the an - Organization) and were carried out in mul - kilometers of colonnaded main streets, cients and by the Greeks likewise….” In tiple campaigns until 1994. A pavement, where pedestrians could walk under ar - addition to recording that the temple is fallen columns and a deep ashlar-and-con- cades and out of the Egyptian sun. made of limestone and filled with sphinx - crete retaining wall were located. The ex- However, the monument we are es and statues, the interesting thing in the cavators concluded, based on the wall and currently excavating has not been previ - description — from an architectural the style of the columns, that the monu - ously noted by onsite investigation and point of view — is the implication that ment was a “Ptolemaic harbor,” which, may well be one mentioned in the an - the style of the temple’s architecture is if correct, would be the first Ptolemaic Kmt 32 monument found at Antinoupolis. University of Chicago’s Epigraphic Sur - When I joined the Italian expe - vey for translation and interpretation of dition in 2009, I was struck by these re - all the inscriptions associated with this mains; and it seemed to me that the con- monument.
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