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| For the past 3,000 years, the "Lost Golden City" has been hidden under Luxor. (Photo courtesy of Egypt's Tourism and Antiquities Ministry.) |
The city has zigzag walls, a bakery, and other amenities.
The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities declared
Thursday that archaeologists have discovered a "Lost Golden City"
hidden underneath the ancient Egyptian capital of Luxor for the past 3,000
years (April 8).
Amenhotep III (ruled 1391-1353 B.C.), the grandfather of
Tutankhamun, or King Tut, founded the city known as The Rise of Aten. During
Amenhotep III's co-regency with his uncle, Amenhotep IV (who later changed his
name to Akhenaten), as well as during the reign of Tut and the pharaoh who
succeeded him, known as Ay, people continued to use the "Golden
City."
Despite the city's long history — historical records say it
housed King Amenhotep III's three royal palaces and was Luxor's largest
administrative and industrial settlement at the time — archaeologists have been
unable to find its remains until now.
In a translated quote, Zahi Hawass, the archaeologist who
led the Golden City excavation and the former minister of state for antiquities
affairs, said that several foreign missions searched for the city but never
found it.
In the year 2020, his team set out on a mission to find King
Tut's mortuary temple. They chose this area because "both Horemheb and Ay
temples were found in this area," according to Hawass.
When they started uncovering mud bricks wherever they dug,
they were taken aback. The team quickly realized they had discovered a big city
in relatively good condition. "The city's streets are flanked by
homes," Hawass said, some with walls as high as 10 feet (3 meters). Rooms
in these houses were crammed with knickknacks and equipment that ancient
Egyptians used on a regular basis.
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| The walls of many of the ancient houses and structures were still intact. (Photo courtesy of Egypt's Tourism and Antiquities Ministry.) |
According to Betsy Brian, a scholar, the discovery of this
lost city is the second most significant archeological find after the tomb of
Tutankhamun, which was discovered in 1922. The discovery of the Lost City will
not only provide a rare insight into the lives of ancient Egyptians at a time
when the empire was at its most prosperous, but it will also shed light on one
of history's greatest [mysteries]: why did Akhenaten and [Queen] Nefertiti
choose Amarna as their new home?
(The Golden City was abandoned a few years after Akhenaten
began his reign in the early 1350s B.C., and Egypt's capital was transferred to
Amarna.)
The team began dating the Lost City as soon as they knew
they had found it. They did this by looking for ancient artifacts with
Amenhotep III's cartouche seal, which is an oval filled with his royal name in
hieroglyphics. The cartouche was discovered on wine pots, rings, scarabs,
colored pottery, and mud bricks, confirming that the city was active during the
reign of Amenhotep III, the ninth king of the 18th dynasty.
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| At the site, a painted artifact was discovered. (Photo courtesy of Egypt's Tourism and Antiquities Ministry.) |
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| The cartouche of Amenhotep III was discovered on a variety of items by archaeologists. (Photo courtesy of Egypt's Tourism and Antiquities Ministry.) |
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| At the ancient site, archaeologists have discovered a variety of treasures. (Photo courtesy of Egypt's Tourism and Antiquities Ministry.) |
The archaeologists discovered multiple neighborhoods after
seven months of digging. The team also found the remains of a bakery in the
city's south end, which had a food preparation and cooking area with ovens and
ceramic storage containers. According to the comment, since the kitchen is
huge, it likely catered to a large clientele.
Archaeologists discovered an administrative and residential
district with larger, neatly-arranged units in another, still partly covered
area of the excavation. The area was walled off by a zigzag fence, an
architectural style common toward the end of the 18th Dynasty, with only one
access point leading to the residential areas and internal corridors. According
to the declaration, the single entrance served as a security measure, giving
ancient Egyptians power over who entered and exited the city.
Archaeologists discovered a manufacturing area for mud
bricks, which were used to build temples and annexes, in another area. The team
noticed seals with the cartouche of King Amenhotep III on these bricks.
The team also discovered hundreds of casting molds for
amulets and decorative objects, indicating that the city had a thriving
manufacturing line for temple and tomb decorations.
The archaeologists discovered tools related to industrial
work, such as spinning and weaving, all over the region. They also discovered
metal and glass-making slag, but the workshop that produced these materials has
yet to be discovered.
The archaeologists have discovered multiple burials,
including two rare cow or bull burials and a remarkable burial of a human with
outstretched arms to the side and a rope wrapped around the knees. The
researchers are still looking into these burials in the hopes of figuring out
what happened to them and what they say.
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| It's unknown why a cow or bull's bones were buried in the Lost Golden City. (Photo courtesy of Egypt's Tourism and Antiquities Ministry.) |
The team recently discovered a vessel containing
approximately 22 pounds (10 kilograms) of dried or boiled meat. The inscription
on this vessel reads: Year 37, dressed meat from the slaughterhouse of the
stockyard of Kha made by the butcher luwy for the third Heb Sed festival.
The archaeologists said in a statement that this important
knowledge not only gives us the names of two people who lived and worked in the
area, but also confirms that the city was active during King Amenhotep III's
co-regency with his son Akhenaten. Furthermore, the team discovered a mud seal
that reads "gm pa Aton," which translates to "the realm of the
dazzling Aten," the name of a temple founded by King Akhenaten at Karnak.
The capital was transferred to Amarna one year after this
pot was crafted, according to historical records. This was ordered by
Akhenaten, who was notorious for requiring his people to worship only one god,
the sun god Aten. However, Egyptologists remain perplexed as to why he
relocated the capital and if the Golden City was actually lost at the time.
According to the statement, it's also unknown if the city was repopulated when
King Tut returned to Thebes and reopened it as a religious center.
Further excavations can reveal more about the city's
turbulent past. And there's still a lot of ground to cover. "We can reveal
that the city stretches all the way to the famous Deir el-Medina," Hawass
said, referring to an ancient worker's village populated by the crafters and
artisans who constructed the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings and Valley
of the Queens.
In addition, archaeologists discovered a massive cemetery in
the north that has yet to be completely excavated. So far, the team has
discovered a group of rock-cut tombs that can only be reached through rock-cut
stairs, a feature that can also be found in the Valley of the Kings and Valley
of the Nobles.
Archaeologists hope to excavate these tombs in the coming
months to learn more about the people and treasures buried there.
Read Original Article Here Published By Live Science.
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