The Rosetta Stone , the ancient slab that finally allow for modern archaeologists tocrack hieroglyphic , is more renowned today forhow its content is writtenthan what the message in reality says . But just like any diachronic document , it contains a wealth of info about aliveness in Ptolemaic Egypt – the good and the high-risk .
One such record contained on the Edward Durell Stone concerns the Great Revolt : a decennary - long Egyptian rebellion against Greek - Macedonian rule that began in 207 BCE and continued until 184 BCE . It ’s an event that Egyptologist have sleep with about for hundreds of years , thanks to historical text like that on theRosetta Stone – but it ’s only now , with a new excavation at a internet site known as Tell Timai , that we finally know exactly where it happened .
“ Archaeological evidence from the [ revolt ] is quite uncommon , ” Jay Silverstein , project co - music director and an archaeologist and senior reader at Nottingham Trent University , toldThe Art Newspaper .
A) Deposit B ceramic assemblage; B) Deposit C ceramic assemblage; and, C) column krater from Deposit C (Hudson 2016a). Image credit: Silverstein and Littman, Journal of Field Archaeology, 2022 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
“ There are of course a number of edict and lettering , like the Rosetta Stone , some historical accounts , and a few Egyptian paper rush with collateral reference , ” he explained . “ But when it comes to finding the locations where the blade meets the bone , as far as I can tell , this is the first that has been recognised . ”
The story of the breakthrough snuff it all the way back to 2007 , when archaeologists at the University of Hawai’i set up theTell Timai Project , but it was n’t until two years later that excavations at the ancient site initially started . Located on the Nile Delta , about 102 kilometers ( 63 miles ) magnetic north of Cairo , Tell Timai was once theimportant and industriousGreco - Roman urban center of Thmouis .
In other words , it was a site advanced with possible action . Perhaps the team would find relic from the city ’s prosperous essence trade , or evidence of its function in other Christianity .
A) Remains recovered from N7-6-F1461: A-1) remains from N7-6-F1461 in anatomical position and A-2) closeup of left forearm. B) Remains recovered from the kiln at O6-8: B-1) post-excavation of remains at Kiln O6-8 showing that remains are aligned with the kiln opening in the southeast. Image credit: Silverstein and Littman, Journal of Field Archaeology, 2022 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
But what they ascertain or else was even more surprising .
“ At first I was seeing thing that piqued my curiosity and began to realize that we were look at the destruction layer , ” Silverstein toldLive Science . “ And then we bulge out finding bodies . ”
intelligibly , Tell Timai had been the site of some major battle . Over the form of several class , mining give away remains of burned buildings , weapons , and stones thrown by siege engines . coin found beneath a home base ’s floorboards , as well as fragments of pottery and spell Greek item , allowed the team to date the discoveries to the Early Ptolemaic era – on the dot the time of the Great Revolt .
A sample of coins from the coin hoard and from the fill-leveling layer. Image credit: Silverstein and Littman, Journal of Field Archaeology, 2022 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
But it was the human bodies , found strew among ruins or dumped in rubble and refuse , that really bear out .
“ InEgypt , mass pay off a lot of attention to burying people , so to have masses unburied tells you a lot , ” Silverstein told Live Science . “ All these findings were place a subject matter that there was some consequence here in history and we had to project out what it was . ”
Among the utter was a immature humanity , found inside a kiln with only his legs outside the oven . It ’s not as gruesome as it sounds : the kiln was potential non - functioning , Silverstein said , and he had crawled inside to shelter from the onset . Another world , in his 50s , whose body expose earlier heal wound , appears to have died defending himself – he may have moulder sit vertical , the researchers note .
Tell Timai , or Thmouis , was far from the only Egyptian insurrection against their Greek overlords during the Ptolemaic dynasty , but itwas the largest and longest - durable . With the breakthrough of its forcible position , the researchers hope that more evidence and perceptivity into life in Ptolemaic Egypt will follow to light – and perhaps make forcible an ancient earthly concern that has so far existed only through text and imagination .
“ We have open a new doorway into our understanding of Hellenistical colonialism , indigenous electric resistance , and the chemical mechanism of control including the brutality of the Macedonian dynasty ’s rule of Egypt , ” Silverstein order The Art Newspaper . “ Many other cities suffer a standardized fortune to that of Thmouis and I hope that this find will help broaden the scope of our archaeological understanding of these events . ”
The written report is published in theJournal of Field Archaeology .
