The “cardo” was paved with large limestone blocks that gleam in the Egyptian sun, and it is possible to see the stones along the “cardo” far across the site. Now on site, I cannot wait to see the town plan in person and begin the first full day at Antinoupolis with the rising sun at dawn.įor me to get a sense of the site, TAF’s President Jay Heidel (who invited me to join the mission) and the mission’s Director Rosario Pintaudi kindly showed one of the main attractions in person: the “cardo” complete with some of the granite column shafts in situ. Google satellite image of the remains of ancient Antinoupolis I have included small red dots near the “wadi,” the “cardo,” and the “decumani.” These features are still visible today and can be seen from Google satellite images. Jomard’s topographic city plan of Antinoupolis (1818)īecause the official founding of the city occurred under the Roman emperor Hadrian, the Roman period city included urban elements similar to the rest of the empire. In ancient Roman cities, the “cardo” refers to the primary north-south street, and a “decumanus” is a primary street that runs east-west. The engraving shows the city plan with a large hippodrome to the east of the Nile, a “wadi” that runs from the east to the Nile, and three major streets: the “cardo” that runs north-south and is parallel to the Nile and two “decumani” that run east-west and are perpendicular to the Nile. The site, along with its street grid, was documented by Edmé Francois Jomard, one of the scholars who accompanied Napoleon’s army to Egypt in 1798–1801, and published in the massive Description de l’Egypte. In my last blog post, I mentioned the vast archaeological site that is home to the ancient city’s remains on the Nile River. You can read all the latest news, history of the city, and its archaeological campaigns at The Antinoupolis Foundation’s website and blog. The Istituto’s mission, along with The Antinoupolis Foundation (TAF) under President James Heidel, is to build a complete archaeological picture of the city, cult center, and its inhabitants. According to Egyptian tradition, he was affiliated with the god Osiris and thus deified after his death Hadrian founded the city as the cult center of the new god-Osir-Antinous. Antinous is said to have drowned in the Nile River in 130 BCE. I am thrilled to join the team here at this famous ancient city, which has been important since pharaonic times (there is a temple built by Ramses II that I will return to in a future post) and especially after its founding under the Roman emperor Hadrian as a Greek poleis in Egypt (administrative center of a nome, or district) for his companion, Antinous. Vitelli” of the University of Florence’s (Istituto) Italian Mission at Antinoupolis under direction of Rosario Pintaudi, PhD. I arrived at Sheikh Abada for Egypt’s Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA) and the Istituto Papirologico “G.
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