Town and archaeological site in Egypt
El-Tod
(
Arabic
:
???
a?-??d
, from
Coptic
:
????? or ????
,
Ancient Egyptian
:
?rty
,
lit.
'falcon',
[2]
Ancient Greek
:
Τουφιον
,
Latin
:
Tuphium
[3]
) was the site of an
ancient Egyptian
town
[4]
and a temple to the
Egyptian god
Montu
.
[5]
It is located 20 kilometres (12 mi) southwest of
Luxor
,
Egypt
,
[4]
near the settlement of
Hermonthis
.
[6]
A modern village now surrounds the site.
History
[
edit
]
The history of the site can be traced to the
Old Kingdom
period of Egyptian history. A granite pillar of the
Fifth dynasty
pharaoh,
Userkaf
, is the oldest object found at El-Tod.
[5]
It was this same pharaoh who ordered that the temple to Montu be enlarged.
[7]
Evidence of
Eleventh dynasty
building is shown in the discovery of blocks bearing the names of
Mentuhotep II
and
Mentuhotep III
. Under
Senwosret I
, these buildings were replaced with a new temple.
[5]
Further additions to this temple were made under
Ptolemy VIII
.
[5]
Culture
[
edit
]
Aside from Montu, to whom a temple was dedicated, the Egyptian goddess
Iunit
was of local importance.
[8]
According to
Flinders Petrie
, the god of Tuphium was
Hemen
.
[9]
As part of the
Thebaid
, the area also saw the worship of Sebak (
Sobek
), the Egyptian crocodile god.
[10]
[11]
Remains
[
edit
]
On 7 March we visited the ruins of the ancient Tuphium, now Taoud situated on the right bank of the river but in the vicinity of the Arabic chain and very near to
Hermonthis
which is on the opposite bank. Here there are two or three little apartments of a temple, inhabited by
Fellahs
or their cattle. In the largest there are still some
bas-reliefs
, which informed me that the triad worshipped in the temple consisted of
Mandou
, the goddess
Ritho
, and their son
Harphre
, the same as in the temple of Hermonthis, the capital of the
nome
(district) to which Tuphium belonged.
Tod Treasure
[
edit
]
Tod Treasure on display at
the Louvre
In 1936, archaeologists discovered in the support structures under the ruined temple building a number of metallic and lapis lazuli artifacts. Most of the metallic objects were made of silver. They were earmarked for some authorities of unknown origin and epoch, who are believed to have been of non-Egyptian origin. Nevertheless, the style of the objects resemble artifacts that were excavated in
Knossos
, which date to c. 1900?1700 BC.
[13]
Yet, at Knossos such objects were made of clay, possibly imitating metal.
Four chests containing treasure of El-Tod.
The initial discovery of four chests (inscribed with the name of Pharaoh
Amenemhat II
[14]
) made of copper and containing the objects had been made by
F. Bisson de la Roque
.
[4]
[15]
Some sources posit that the treasure is of Asiatic origin and that some of it, in fact, was manufactured in Iran (the latter as claimed by
Roger Moorey
).
[14]
Some gold artifacts are also part of the Treasure, and they may have originated from
Anatolia
. A similar conclusion is drawn on the origin of the silverware based on evidence obtained from relative analysis of the metallic constituents.
[16]
[17]
Objects that were found as part of the Treasure seem to have originated from various parts of the world, indicating trade contacts between the Ancient Egyptians and other early civilizations.
The total weight of all gold items was 6.98 kg, and of the silver items 8.87 kg.
[18]
After discovery, the Treasure was divided between the
Louvre Museum
and the
Egyptian Museum
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Gauthier, Henri (1929).
Dictionnaire des Noms Geographiques Contenus dans les Textes Hieroglyphiques Vol. 6
. pp. 130?131.
- ^
Peust, Carsten.
"Die Toponyme vorarabischen Ursprungs im modernen Agypten"
(PDF)
. p. 95.
- ^
"TM Places"
.
www.trismegistos.org
. Retrieved
12 October
2022
.
- ^
a
b
c
Simon Hayter.
"Tod the site of ancient Djerty (Graeco-Roman Tuphium)"
.
Ancient Egypt Web Site
. Retrieved
15 December
2011
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Arnold, Dieter (2003).
The encyclopaedia of ancient Egyptian architecture
. I.B.Tauris. p.
86
.
ISBN
978-1-86064-465-8
. Retrieved
17 December
2011
.
- ^
Jean-Francois Champollion
(1814).
L'Egypt sous les Pharaons: ou Recherches sur la geographie, la religion, la langue, les ecritures et l'histoire de l'Egypte avant l'invasion de Cambyse
(in French). Chez de Bure freres. p. 195
. Retrieved
15 December
2011
.
- ^
Nicolas Grimal; Nicolas-Christophe Grimal (1994).
A history of ancient Egypt
. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 76.
ISBN
978-0-631-19396-8
.
- ^
Lurker, Manfred (2004).
The Routledge dictionary of gods and goddesses, devils and demons
. Psychology Press. p. 95.
ISBN
978-0-415-34018-2
.
[
permanent dead link
]
- ^
Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie
(1939).
The making of Egypt
. Sheldon Press. p. 68
. Retrieved
17 December
2011
.
- ^
Tiele, Cornelis Petrus
(1882).
History of the Egyptian religion
. London: Trubner and Co. p. 135
. Retrieved
16 December
2011
.
- ^
Budge, E. A. Wallis
(1904).
The gods of the Egyptians, or studies in Egyptian mythology
. Vol. 2. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company. p. 357.
ISBN
0-7661-2988-8
. Retrieved
16 December
2011
.
- ^
"The London literary gazette and journal of belles lettres, arts, sciences, etc"
. H. Colburn. 1829. p. 634.
- ^
According to P-B Genevieve of the
Louvre museum
- ^
a
b
Moorey, P.R.S.
(1999).
Ancient mesopotamian materials and industries: the archaeological evidence (415 pages)
. Eisenbrauns.
ISBN
1-57506-042-6
. Retrieved
13 December
2011
.
cf.
E. Porada, (1982) "Remarks on the Tod Treasure in Egypt",
- ^
Pierrat-Bonnefois Genevieve,
Louvre Museum website.
Musee du Louvre, Multimedia Division, Cultural Production, Department 75058, Paris, Cedex 01,France [Retrieved 2011-12-13]. Also see at
the Louvre Museum website
- ^
Paul T. Nicholson, Ian Shaw
books.google.co.uk
Ancient Egyptian materials and technology
(702 pages) Cambridge University Press, 2000
ISBN
0-521-45257-0
,[Retrieved 2011-12-19]
- ^
K.R.Maxwell-Hyslop (
citing
E.Porada
)
JSTOR
A Note on the Anatolian Connections of the Tod Treasure Anatolian Studies
Vol. 45, (1995), pp. 243-250 (article consists of 8 pages) Published by: British Institute at Ankara [Retrieved 2011-12-13]
- ^
"Ancient Egypt and Archaeology Web Site - The Tod Treasure"
.
www.ancient-egypt.co.uk
. Retrieved
26 February
2018
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Dominique Collon (1990).
Near Eastern seals
. University of California Press. p. 33.
ISBN
978-0-520-07308-1
.
- Gerald Massey (2007).
A Book of the Beginnings
. Cosimo, Inc. p. 369.
ISBN
978-1-60206-830-8
.
- Charles Louis Fleury Panckoucke (1821).
Description de l'Egypte: ou, Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont ete faites en Egypte pendant l'expedition de l'armee francaise
(in French). C.L.F. Panckoucke. p.
405
. Retrieved
17 December
2011
.
- Richard Stillwell; William L. MacDonald; Marian Holland McAllister (1976).
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites
. Princeton University
. Retrieved
12 December
2011
.
- John Gardner Wilkinson
(2006) [1847].
Hand-book for travellers in Egypt; including descriptions of the course of the Nile to the second cataract, Alexandria, Cairo, the pyramids, and Thebes, the overland transit to India, the peninsula of Mount Sinai, the oases, &c. Being a new edition, corrected and condensed, of "Modern Egypt and Thebes"
(Electronic edition)
. London: John Murray. p. 405
. Retrieved
13 December
2011
.
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Tod
.