Alexandria Flashcards
What time period is the Classical- Hellenistic Egypt?
- equivalent to the late period.
- dynasties 26-30 664-323 (some interruptions by Persians)
- Ptolemaic Dynasty 323-30 BC
- Egypt as Roman province from 30BC
What can we say about Alexandria’s location?
- Quite far away from main part of Egypt
- Excellent connections to water pathways and roads with rest of Egypt and Africa.
What were cities and urban areas like in Pharaonic Egypt?
- Temples central religious and economic features
- Temple enclosure made from mud, temple from brick.
Describe the area of Tanis in Alexandria
- Temples linked by processional paths
- Services, admin
- Outlying cemeteries
- Suburbs with elite to worker size houses
Describe the situation of cities in Egypt
- Most obvious place to rule Egypt from is Memphis
- Multiple capital cities depending on where the power is
- Key development in Alexandria.
How was the city of Alexandria organised?
- Different areas for different nationalities e.g. Naukratis, Helleneion, Greek nationalism.
- City divided into ethnic quarters.
- Some Greek and Egyptian temples.
How did the Greek and Egyptian cultures merge?
- Greek and Egyptian mixing happening even before te foundation of Alexandria.
- Amphoras (pottery) but for Egyptian or Greek consumers
- Changing patterns of eating, drinking and dining.
- Melting pot
How does Homer describe Alexandria?
Describes a small settlement which is more of a stopping place for travellers than an actual place.
What does Forster say about Alexanderia?
- Few cities have made such an impressive entrance into History
Who was Alexander the Great?
- Saviour of the Egyptians from the Persians
- Welcomed as ruler of Egypt
- Warrior/soldier/king
- Embraced Egyptian customers
- Profound impact
Where was Sita?
- Went to Sita in order not to offend anyone by not choosing their oracle (Alexander)
What is the temple of Amon reminiscent of?
- The acropolis in Athens
- ON a large hill
Why did Alexander found a new city?
- Port of trade for the east Mediterranean
- No previous settlement so no previous ties or favour
- Imperial statement, strategic centre
- Story of having a vision to build a great new city.
What is Bates island?
- Rocky outcrop of the northern coast
- Trading point since the Bronze Age
- Sea level 1.5 million lower so it was much more prominent
Describe the construction of the city of Alexandria?
- Construction joined together two places
- East and west harbour- one was always useable
- Pharos lighthouse was founded
Who first helped to design Alexandria?
- Cleomenes of Naukratis: finance, engineer
- Deinokratis of Rhodes
- Krateros of Olynthus
- Hero of Libya
- Foundation was April 7th 331BC
- Hippodamian grid
How does Strabo first describe the city of Alexandria?
- Describes the Great Harbour in the East, the Eunostos Harbour in the west and the Hepastadium which was originally an aqueduct.
What is one of the pieces of evidence for the Pharos lighthouse?
- Ancient depictions and monuments
Give some facts about the Pharos lighthouse
- Cherubs on the top laying trumpets
- 120 m high
- Light visible up to 55km away
- Guarded night and day
How do we know so much about the Pharos lighthouse?
- Drawings of H Thiersch have been most influential in reconstructions since they were published in 1906
- Extensive reconstructions
What is on the site of the Pharos lighthouse?
- Qaitbey Fort
What archaeological evidence is there for the Pharos lighthouse?
- Extensive material lying in the harbour areas
- Fell down because of the earthquake
What was the most prominent feature in the Alexandrian landscape?
- Lighthouse dominates landscape
- City construction continued after Alexander’s death
What was a problem with water in agriculture?
- Does not have it’s own fresh water supply other than a lake.
Describe cisterns in Alexandria-
- El Sahrig Nabih
- 4 levels 9th century AD
- Up to 400 recorded by Napeoleonic Commission 1799- 1803
- Cut into bedrock but how early was the system actually initiated.
Who is given credit of the construction of most of the infrastructure?
- Ptolemy II (309- 246BC)
What is noticeable about the Ptolemaic Colossus from the Pharos?
- Hybrid style statue- Greek and Egyptian influences
What does Strabo say about the general city?
- ‘The city compromises superb public areas’
- Describes the gymnasium as the most beautiful building.
How was the city of Alexandria laid out?
- Modern city gives a sense of the old footprint of the city.
- Cluster of buildings in the centre including the Library, the Gymnasium, the Caesareum, the temple of Poseidon
- Royal palace and the temple of Artemis on the edge at the harbour
Describe the Orthogonal grid layout
- Architect Deinokrates of Rhodes
- Comparable to new city of Milet, Ionia in 5th century BC
- Canopic Road, 33m wide: east Canopic gate western Gate
- Colonnaded for protection from sun
- Intersected by north-south road, with Sun gate to north, Moon Gate to south, connecting seashore and lake harbour
- Road used for processions.
What was the general appearance of the city of Alexandria?
- Condense city but with very wide streets.
- Pleasant sea facing climate
What were the Shallalat gardens?
- Ancient walls; restored
- Probably Arab, but using older foundations and stone
What were the physical, social and religious limits of Alexandria?
- Fortification walls- probably since Ptolemy I to delimit city
- Cemeteries outside the limits and city walls
- Area inside divided into quarters, and given letters of Greek alphabet, Alpha to Epsilon
- Delta area for Jews
- Alexandria/ Greek citizenship important for status and taxation
Describe the Royal Quarter: Great Harbour
- Most successful place for identifying buildings and materials
- Big harbour with lots of little inlets
- Lots of boat parties and processions
- Giant theatre of power
What types of architectural fragments have been found in Alexandria?
- Limestone pavements
- Column shafts, capitals and bases
- Pharonic blocks and reused sculptures
- Hellenistic and Roman sculpture made in Alexandria with royal patronage.
- Red brick walls from harbour installations
What do we know about the Timonium?
- Site found using radar mapping
- Had a dramatic approach
- Square building
Describe the Grey granite head found underwater?
- Ht 80cm
- Possibly Augustus
- Typical style
- Reminisent of sphinx
- Curly hair- very reminiscent
- Made from Egyptian granite
Describe the Priest of Canopus statue
- From Royal quarter
- Repeated combination of Egyptian and Greek blended styles
Describe the land area of the royal quarter
- Modern corniche covers the bazillion or main Ptolemaic palace (where Cleopatra’s were erected)
- Textual info is unreliable so any reconstructions based on them cannot be trusted
- Foundations and lowest levels of building were found. Much of upper building was removed for reuse in the medieval period.
- Scale of foundations showed they were royal buildings
What is one of the problems of archaeological evidence in Alexandria?
- Quality of excavations are quite poor due to rushed work
- Excavations often carried out in time pressure scenarios
Describe they tomb of Alexander the Great
- Visited by classical authors, tombs of early Ptolemaic kings
- 300BC Latin Cemetery, east side, close to the city wall
Describe ruler cults
- Arsinoe II became a goddess and living ba. Her statue would be placed in all the sanctuaries as a guest goddess.
- She also became a Greek goddess
- Festivals were held in Alexandria in her honour
- Evidence for her cult throughout the Aegean
Describe the area of the Rhakotis
- Older settled part of the city
- High hill with a temple on it- potentially replicating the idea on the Acropolis.
Describe the different sections of the library
- Ptolemaic reconstruction
- Statue in main temple
- Catacombs under temple
- Daughter library
Describe the acropolis of Alexandria
- Roman Serapeum
- Temple repurposed over time
- Destroyed by Christians during Roman times
How was the temple of Alexandria described by Aphthonius?
- The column stands out in the city and is a considerable reference point in the city.
What were some of the Egyptian temples in Alexandria?
- Isis- Pharia, Isis-Plousia, Isis-Demeter
- Bastet
- Neilos
What were some of the Greek temples in Alexandria?
- Hermaion (built by Cleopatra, now St Michael’s Church
- Thetis
- Poseidon
- Isis (Aphrodite)
Describe the museum and the library?
- Inside royal palace area
- 700,000 volumes
- Famous texts including Homeric texts
Who were some heroes of ALexandria?
- Theron- philosophy
- Euclid- maths
- Archimedes- multiple
Name some of the monumental buildings in Alexandria
- Hippodrome- Sporting club
- Racecourse- Serapeum area
- Great Atrium- Court cases
- Agora- Crossroads in centre
Describe the necropolis areas?
- South west of Serapeum
- Western cemeteries
- Pharos cemeteries
- Eastern Necropolis
What did it mean to be Alexandrian?
- hereditary
- Could be conferred by naturalisation
- Being Alexandrian gave you special privileges
What privileges did Alexandrian civilians have?
- Exemption from poll-tax
- Reduced tax on garden land in Egypt
- Could be punished by beating with rod instead of with whip
- Public offices/services had to be carried out
- Doesn’t distinguish between Greek and Egyptian.
What were some problematic sources in Alexandria?
- Conspicuous consumption
- Money
- Housing
- Mosaics
- Industries and art
- Funeral industry
What was the Dionysian procession?
- described by Kallixeinos of Rhodes
- From a pavilion through the city stadium
- Episodes from life of Dionysus staged on wheel carts
- Morning star
- Celebration of the parents of the king
- Procession of the gods
- Evening star
- Returns as a new person
- Giant wheels in the procession each celebrating different stages of Dionysus’ life
Describe money in ALexandria?
- Huge amount of wealth and power
- Propaganda power of coins- used for Serapeum
- Coins became smaller over time due to economic difficulties
Describe the coins of Claudius
- More efficient transactions
- Homogenuous economy
- In service of political agenda of kings
- more complete collection of salt tax
- Transactions become much more efficient
- Not necessary to carry things to exchange with
Describe the housing in Alexandria
- Limestone, 2 storey house, late period Ptolemaic
- Shops, workshops, ground floor
- Made of mud brick, some wooden bits
- Rented out by rich landlords
- Tall and thin, fitting lots of people in vertically
- Rural areas- animals on ground floor
Give an example of a wealthy style house in Alexandria
- House alpha Kom el Dickens 2nd AD
- Pseudo- peristyle courtyard house
What facilities did wealthier houses in Alexandria have?
- Baths
- Lecture rooms
- Theatre
- Cistern
- Houses and workshops
What is house D?
- Kom el Dickens
- 4th- 7th century AD
- Workshops either side of a courtyard
- Domestic quarters upside
- Small communities within these buildings- insular
Describe house decoration in Alexandria
- Craftsmen thought to have been Alexandrian
- Mosaics
- Survive because they are often floor layers
- Designs created to stimulate conversation
What craft increased in the 2nd-1st century BC?
- Glassmaking because of increase in technology
What was a Faience jar?
- Produced in huge quantities
- Sold within the city but also exported outside of Egypt
- Had a figure of Bes on it
- 3rd century BC
- Height 18.5cm
Describe metalworking in Alexandria
- Goblet
- Dionysian scene in a Grape arbour
- Silver and gold
Describe Aphrodite in Alexandria
- Hellenistic statue height 25cm
- Cult of this goddess in Alexandria as early as Ptolemaic period
What were terracotta?
- Placed in tombs
- Generally showed women in Greek styles
- Clay also imported from Creca
Describe the funerary industry in Alexandria
- Extensive industry
- Particular locations favoured at different periods
- Hypogeum’s cut down into the soft bedrock. Stairways often led to main entrance.
Describe the catacombs at Kom el Shoqafa
- More luxurious tombs for the more elite
- Further underground
- Dining rooms created just for funeral feast
- Anubis shown wearing Roman armour
- Egyptian columns
- Strong symbolism and industry
Describe the Tegran tomb in Alexandria
- Medusa medallion
- Isis and Nephthys
- Winged desk mummy
- 2nd century AD
- Hybrid style
- Roman bed with Egyptian and Greek imagery
Describe Amphorae in Alexandria
- 55,000 stamped amphora handles
- Strong links with Rhodes
- Alexandria imported empty amphorae from Rhodes
What was the population of Alexandria?
- 300,000-500,000
What was Alexandria’s location situation?
- Alexandria trapped in a peninsula and surrounded by water
- Lake Mareotus provided a kind of southern port
- Orchards grown on west side by the delta
What were the communication networks like in Alexandria?
- Internal port which had good access in various directions
- Customs point situated in Schedia
Describe communication networks in Berenike
- Ptolemy II 275BC to AD550
- 1st c AD long distance trade between India and Spain Peppercrons. Big harbour
- Mid 4th to 5th c trade with India and Sri Lanka
- Egypt very dependent on the river Nile
- New port founded by Ptolemy II and used up to late roman period
Where were a lot of Alexandrian goods sold?
- Big consumer bases in Alexandria, Nikopolis and the Canopic mouth
- Whole of lake developed
- Idea of satellite cities which supported Alexandria.
What happened to trade in Berenike during the early Roman Period?
- Port was extensively expanded during the early Roman period.
- The peninsula had been growing an built up through natural silts.
Describe consumer demand for Alexandrian goods in Rome
- Quarries in the Eastern desert were exploited during the Roman period e.g. Mons Claudianus
Describe Canopus, Herakleon-Thonis and menouthis
- Disney-land-by the sea
- Series of islands in the canopic mouth
- From the late period to 7th century AD
- Subsided under sea by 10th C AD
- Temple to canopus, the Nile, Heracles
- These areas have only been investigated in the last 15-20 years
What has been found in the canopic mouth areas?
- Colossal statues of Ptolemaic king and queen (4.9m)
Describe the Wadi Natrun and glass works?
- Presence of sand suggested glass work
- Only investigated recently
- Near to natura resources but removed from populations.
- Roman period glass kilns for the production of raw glass and finished glass found here
What was just inland of Alexandria, Canopus, Herakleion and Menouthis?
- Lake Mareotis
What was Taposiris Magna?
- Big temple
- Found to be the burial place of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony
- Change in the 7th century
- Lots of temple treasure and ritual equipment suggests vast wealth
- Small settlement attached to the temple.
Describe the Taposiris Cemetery 2nd C
- One of the main monuments in the cemetery is a miniature version of the Pharos lighthouse.
Describe Marea
- Wine production, fishing, transhipping
- Amphora kilns
- Glass kilns
- Links to Paraetonium and Siwa
- Marina el Alamein
What were the two main phases of use of Marea?
- Ptolemaic city
- Byzantine Port
- Evidence of bath houses and quay sites
- Was a part of Alexandria’s extensive Hinterland
Describe site no 118 Marea: LMRP Blue and Khalil
- 3 multi roomed coastal structures
- Limestone
- Ptolemaic/early roman pottery
- Finewares, amphorae, cooking pots etc
- Presence of domestic quarters, locally built, relatively short-lived ‘boom’.
- Built by state or private entrepreneurs
Describe lake Mareotis
- Leisure resorts
- Wine growing
- New settlements from Ptolemaic period onward
- Shipping goods from western delta, Canopic branch to Mareotis shores and Alexandria.
- Well known from Roman accounts
- Place to go to escape the bustle of the city.
- Wilson et al (2009)
Describe the Fayum
- Estates: Zenon Archive for Apollonius
- Land available tripled to 1350km2 by new irrigation technology.
- 170,000-200,000 people in the Roman period
- Ca. 267 BC Arsinoite nome created
- New towns created for Greek and Egyptian settlers
- Extensively improved during the Ptolemaic period
- People migrating from all over the Mediterranean
What were estates given as gifts referred as?
- Doreai
- 10,000 Arourae for officials and members of Alexandrian elite.
Describe Tebtunis
- South Fayum
- Double cropping? By using a wall to hold back water
- and leased at 15 artabas per aroura agricultural production was doubled
- well excavated area
- land much more valuable here
Describe the Nile Valley and Delta during the Ptolemaic period?
- Royal land
- Temple land
- Cleruchic land (soldiers)
- Private land
Describe the Nile Valley and Delta land during the Roman period
- Public land
- Temple land
- Katoikic land (settlers)
- Private land
- Imperial land
What were the conclusions of the Lake Mareotis Research Project?
- Alexandria not an agricultural or industrial city but a combination.
- Economy primarily based on commerce, administration providing services for internal and overseas transport
- Continuous supply of raw materials and manufactured products was vital/.
- Efficient, well managed organisation of supply and consumption
