Asyut - centre of ancient trade

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jochem Kahl
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 426702318

Asyut, situated 375 km to the south of Cairo, on midway between two ancient Egyptian capitals Memphis and Thebes, was a political and cultural centre of Middle Egypt since the First Intermediate Period (c. 2100 BCE) at the latest, and remained such to the decline of the Pharaonic epoch. The city formed a part of the cultural memory of Ancient Egypt and also had a highly strategic importance thanks to its location. Moreover, during the Byzantine and Islamic Periods, Asyut played, and still plays, an important superregional role in Christianity. Asyut must also have been an important place on the map of the trade centres that took part in exchange already in the Antiquity. For the Pharaonic Period and Late Antiquity, the role of Asyut as a centre of merchandise became well-defined thanks the most recent research done by the project applicants on Gebel Asyut al-gharbi.The aim of the project is to clarify the role of Asyut as a hub of trade during Pharaonic and Byzantine Periods (i.e. 3rd millennium BCE to 1st millennium CE) as well as to reveal what factors had shaped this trade in particular historical epochs.Four pillars of scholarly activities are planned in the frame of the project i.e. A) fieldwork including a) excavation of the so-called Byzantine building, which could have given access to the Darb el-Arba’in route (the famous Forty Days Road) towards the Western desert; b) surveying three areas on Gebel Asyut al-gharbi: around the Tomb of the Dogs, at geological steps 7 and 8 of the Gebel; c) at Tomb V.B) studying objects: especially pottery, plant and faunal (molluscs) remains and textiles. Planned methodology involves for pottery the formal (typological) analysis, comparative and statistical studies as well as petrographic analysis and chemical tests (GC/MS) that may help to identify various organic substances within a sample extracted from a vessel such as fats (animal and vegetable), wine, resins, etc. As to the textile material, the work assumes identifying raw materials, weaves and decorative patterns, that would allow identification of the type of workshop (domestic/professional, local/imports). Portable technologies such as multispectral imaging (MSI) and fibre optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS) might be applied in order to identify the dyes. C) studying Greek and Coptic dipinti on Roman and Byzantine amphorae;D) studying the history of Asyut with a special focus on cultural contact. Information and data concerning Asyut from the 4th Millennium BCE to the end of the 1st millennium CE will be collected and will be combined with the results of the above mentioned case studies.The project will reconstruct the exchange of goods between Asyut and different countries/regions in Europe, Africa and Asia. It will show how closely connected the world was from the 2nd millennium BCE at the latest to the 1st millennium CE.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Poland
• Partner Organisation: Narodowe Centrum Nauki (NCN)
• Cooperation Partner: Professorin Teodozja Izabela Rzeuska, Ph.D.