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In January 1998, among the Archives of Gilbert Bagnani at Trent University
in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, were discovered notebooks,
diaries, correspondence and black and white photographs from the Italian
excavations at Tebtunis in Egypt. The photos included 48 overlapping aerial
photographs taken in 1934 and 1935 over the site. Since the excavations of
1929-1935 were never finally published, and since the then exposed
buildings are in many cases no longer standing, these photos are the only
surviving visual record of the town as it was when first exposed. Thus the
data contained in them need to be exploited to the fullest extent possible.
The Applicant is responsible for publishing the excavation records
including the photos and for their architectural interpretation.
Tebtunis was occupied for over a thousand years. Settled as a result of
Ptolemaic irrigation of the desert in the Fayum, it had an unusually
extensively preserved Egyptian sanctuary surrounded by public buildings and
Greco-Roman houses as well as an early Coptic monastery of frescoed
churches and dependant buildings. Thus uniquely at Tebtunis can be seen
intense urban revision as the town evolved from an Egyptian healing
sanctuary to a Roman tourist attraction, to a military base to finally a
monastic retreat in the desert as the areas of cultivation contracted with
the abandonment of the irrigation ditches. Excavations at the site resumed
in 1988 under the Direction of Prof. Claudio Gallazzi of the University of
Milan.
The lost notebooks, diaries, correspondence, and
photographs of the Italian excavations at Tebtunis in the 1930s
have been discovered among the papers left by Gilbert and Stewart
Bagnani to the archives of Trent University in Peterborough,
Ontario, Canada. The site is located on the southern fringe of
the Fayum depression southwest of Cairo. It is best known for the
many papyri found there since Grenfell and Hunt began excavating
in 1899 and discovered their first mummified crocodile full of
papyri. The Italian excavations from 1929 until 1936 were
intended to examine the town urbanistically but were never
published except for a few preliminary reports up until 1934. The
Institut Francais d'Archeologie Orientale resumed excavations on
the site in 1988 under the Direction of Professor Claudio
Gallazzi of the Institute of Papyrology of the University of
Milan. Since the Bagnani archives encompass considerably more
than the documents of this one site, their publication is an
ongoing project of which this website is a preliminary first
step.
The Greeks of Ptolemaic Egypt diverted and channelled the
water flowing into the Fayum depression from the Nile,
considerably enlarging the amount of arable land. Many new towns
were founded in which Greeks and Egyptians intermingled. With the
gradual economic collapse by the end of the Roman empire, the
irrigation system was neglected and the towns abandoned with
their papyri to the desert.
The site consists of a Ptolemaic
sanctuary of the local crocodile god Soknebtunis that is unusual
in the preservation of the surrounding priestly dwellings and
outbuildings. A sacred processional avenue over 200 m long
leading to the temple was lined with lions, sphinxes, altars, and
ritual dining halls. To the east were several blocks of
Graeco-Roman houses, many with papyri, while to the west were
more public structures of the Roman period whose functions are
not yet clear. After a thousand years of occupation, the
community withdrew or contracted toward the northeast where
several churches formed part of a Coptic monastic complex. The
later Arab houses to the north of this area were too close to the
modern cultivated zone and were demolished by hunters of
fertilizer (sebakh) and gatherers of reusable mud bricks.
Of great significance for the architectural study of Tebtunis are
the four dozen aerial photographs which were taken mostly in 1934
and 1935. Only one was previously published by Gilbert Bagnani in
1934 but the later series was shot at a lower altitude. We hope
to be able to create plans and possibly 3D reconstructions of the
walls as they were when first uncovered through the use of stereo
photogrammetry.
They will be subjected to intensive study of
which this web posting is a first step to solicit international
cooperation. The coauthors of this website hope that, by posting
these photographs on the web, we can encourage other
photogrammetrists to participate in this challenge by contacting
us with their responses. A small sample of the variety of
documentation on Tebtunis is presented here to indicate the
versatility and efficiency of CART, created by Steve Nickerson
. He would welcome suggestions regarding
possible approaches to analysing the photos.
As Coordinator of
the Bagnani Project, Begg is collaborating with the current
excavator, Professor Claudio Gallazzi of Milan, in order to
combine their respective resources for the publication of the old
excavations. It is anticipated that the great variety of Greek
and Roman architectural forms at Tebtunis will require several
seasons of study. In addition, the Bagnani Archives are unusually
rich in describing life in Egypt during the 1930s. He would
request that anyone with a knowledge of the old excavations at
Tebtunis or an interest in the Italian colony in Egypt contact
him at .
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Inquiries to:
steve@icomos.org
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