Mendes

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Djedet (ḏd.t)
in hieroglyphs

For information about the Portuguese language surname Mendes, see the article Mendez.

Mendes (Μένδης), the Greek name of ancient Djedet (modern تل الربع Tell el-Rubˁ), is a city in the eastern Nile delta (30°58′N 31°30′E). It was the capital of the 16th Lower Egyptian nome, and during the 29th dynasty, it was the capital of ancient Egypt. It lies on the Mendesian branch of the Nile (now silted up), about 35 kilometres east of al Mansurah.

1 History
2 Ruins
3 Religion
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Mendes was a famous city in ancient times, attracting notice of most ancient geographers and historians, including Herodotus (ii. 42, 46. 166); Diodorus (i. 84); Strabo (xvii. p. 802); Mela (i. 9 § 9); Pliny the Elder (v. 10. s. 12); Ptolemy (iv. 5. § 51); and Stephanus of Byzantium (s. v.). The city was the capital of the Mendesian nome, situated at the point where the Mendesian arm of the Nile (Μενδήσιον στόμα, Scylax, p. 43; Ptol. iv, 5. § 10; Mendesium ostium, Pliny, Mela, ll. cc.) flows into the lake of Tanis. Archaeological evidence attests to the existence of the town at least as far back as the Naqqada II period. Under the first Pharaohs, Mendes quickly became a strong seat of provincial government and remained so throughout the Pharaonic period. In Classical times, the nome it governed was one of the nomes assigned to that division of the native army which was called the Calasirii, and the city was celebrated for the manufacture of a perfume designated as the Mendesium unguentum. (Plin. xiii. 1. s. 2.) Mendes, however, declined early, and disappears in the first century AD; since both Ptolemy (l. c.) and P. Aelius Aristides (iii. p. 160) mention Thmuis as the only town of note in the Mendesian nome. From its position at the junction of the river and the lake, it was probably encroached upon by their waters, after the canals fell into neglect under the Macedonian kings, and when they were repaired by Augustus (Sueton. Aug. 18, 63) Thmuis had attracted its trade and population.

[edit] Ruins

The site is today the largest surviving tell in the Nile delta, and consists of both Tell al-Ruba (the site of the main temple enclosure) and Tell Timai (the settlement site to the south). Overall, Mendes is about three kilometres long from north to south and averages about 900 metres east to west. An Old Kingdom necropolis is estimated to contain over 9,000 interments. Several campaigns of 20th-century excavations have been led by North American institutions, including New York University and the University of Toronto and a Pennsylvania State University team led by Donald Redford. Under the direction of Prof. Redford, the current excavations are concentrating on a number of areas in and around the main temple. Work on the New Kingdom processual-style temple has recently uncovered foundation deposits of Merenptah below the second pylon. It is thought that four separate pylons or gates existed for each of the avatars of the main deity worshipped here. Evidence has suggested that their construction dates from at least the Middle Kingdom, as foundation deposits were uncovered. The original structures were buried, added to, or incorporated into later ones over time by later rulers. Billy Morin, now with the Archaeological Department at the University of Cambridge in England, led a team that investigated these and uncovered a mud-brick wall. Eighteen of those bricks were stamped with the cartouche of Menkheperre, the pre-nomen of Thutmose III. On the edge of the temple mound, a sondage supervised by Matthew J. Adams has revealed uninterrupted stratification from the late Old Kingdom/First Intermediate Period down to the First Dynasty. Coring results suggest that future excavations in that sondage should expect to take the stratification down into the early Naqada Period. The material excavated so far is already the longest uninterrupted stratification for all of the Nile Delta, and possibly for all of Egypt. An architectural and ceramic report on this unprecedented sequence is currently in progress.

[edit] Religion

The chief deities of Mendes were the ram deity Banebdjedet (lit. Ba of the Lord of Mendes), who was the Ba of Osiris, and his consort, the fish goddess Hatmehit. With their child Har-pa-khered ("Horus the Child"), they formed the triad of Mendes.

The ram deity of Mendes was described by Herodotus in his History (Book II) as being represented with the face and legs of a goat, rather than a ram, and being considered by Egyptians as analogous to the Greek Pan. According to Herodotus, the sacrifice of goats was forbidden at his temples, and sheep were slaughtered instead. Presumably following Herodotus' description, the occultist Eliphas Levi in his Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1855) called his goat-headed conception of Baphomet the "Baphomet of Mendes", thus popularising and perpetuating this incorrect attribution, which has given rise to a flood of spurious connections, such as "The Goat of Mendes" by the black metal band Akercocke.

[edit] References

Redford, Donald Bruce. 2001. "Mendes". In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, edited by Donald Bruce Redford. Vol. 2 of 3 vols. Oxford, New York, and Cairo: Oxford University Press and The American University in Cairo Press. 376–377.

———. 2004. Excavations at Mendes. Volume 1: The Royal Necropolis. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 20. Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill. ISBN 90-04-13674-6