Archaeologists excavating the underwater metropolis of Thônis-Heracleion in Egypt’s harbor of Abū Qīr unearthed wicker fruit baskets dating from the fourth century BCE.
Kuj ceeb tias, cov rhawv zeb tseem muaj cov txiv ntoo thiab cov txiv hmab txiv ntoo, cov txiv hmab txiv ntoo ntawm African xibtes ntoo suav tias yog dawb huv los ntawm cov neeg Iyiv thaum ub.
"Tsis muaj dab tsi cuam tshuam," marine archaeologist Franck Goddio qhia Dalya Alberge ntawm Tus Saib Xyuas. "Nws zoo heev uas pom pob tawb txiv hmab txiv ntoo."
Goddio thiab nws cov npoj yaig ntawm European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM) tau nthuav tawm cov thawv hauv kev koom tes nrog Egypt Ministry of Tourism thiab Antiquities. Cov kws tshawb fawb tau tshawb xyuas lub nroog qub Mediterranean chaw nres nkoj ntawm Thônis-Heracleion txij li nws rov tshawb pom hauv 2001, raws li Egypt Independent.
The baskets were stored in an underground room and may have been funerary offerings reports the Greek City Times. Nearby, the researchers found a 197- by 26-foot tumulus or burial mound, and an extravagant array of Greek funerary goods likely left by merchants and mercenaries living in the area.
“Everywhere we found evidence of burned material,” says Goddio in a statement, as quoted by CNN’s Radina Gigova. “Spectacular ceremonies must have taken place there. The place must have been sealed for hundreds of years as we have found no objects from later than the early fourth century BCE, even though the city lived on for several hundred years after that.”
Lwm yam khoom pom nyob rau hauv los yog ib puag ncig lub tumulus suav nrog cov tais diav thaum ub, cov khoom siv tooj liab, thiab cov duab qhia txog tus vajtswv Iyiv Osiris.
"Peb pom ntau pua qhov tso nyiaj ua los ntawm cov ceramic," Goddio hais rau Tus Saib Xyuas. “Ib qho saum lwm qhov. Cov no yog imported ceramic, liab ntawm cov duab dub. "
Thônis-Heracleion was established in the ninth century B.C.E. Before the foundation of Alexandria about 331 BCE, the city functioned as the “obligatory port of entry into Egypt for all ships arriving from the Greek world,” according to Goddio’s website.
The thriving commercial center peaked between the sixth and fourth century BCE Structures fanned out from a central temple, with waterways linking various portions of the city. Houses and other religious structures stood on islands near Thônis-Heracleion
Once an epicenter for maritime commerce, the city sank into the Mediterranean in the eighth century CE. Some historians attribute the metropolis’ downfall to rising sea levels and collapsing, unstable sediment, as Reg Little wrote for Oxford Mail in 2022. Others posit that earthquakes and tidal waves caused a 42-square-mile segment of the Nile Delta to collapse into the sea, as per CNN.
As the Art Newspaper’s Emily Sharpe reported in 2022, experts once thought that Heracleion, referenced by Greek historian Herodotus in the fifth century BCE — was a separate city from Thônis, which is the site’s Egyptian name. A tablet found by Goddio’s team in 2001 helped researchers conclude that the two locations were the same.
Rov qab cov khoom los ntawm cov ruins ntawm Thônis-Heracleion yog ib txoj hauj lwm nyuaj heev vim muaj cov txheej txheem tiv thaiv sediment npog lawv.
"Lub hom phiaj yog kawm kom ntau li ntau tau los ntawm peb qhov kev khawb av yam tsis muaj kev cuam tshuam," Goddio hais rau Art Newspaper xyoo 2022.
According to the Oxford Mail, other finds at Thônis-Heracleion include more than 700 antique anchors, gold coins and weights, and scores of small limestone sarcophagi holding the bones of mummified animals. Archaeologists discovered a well-preserved second-century BCE military vessel in a separate section of the city last month.
Cov khoom ntxiv yuav tsum tau tshawb pom ntawm qhov chaw yav tom ntej, raws li cov kws tshaj lij. Goddio hais rau Tus Saib Xyuas tias tsuas yog 3% ntawm lub nroog faus neeg tau kawm hauv 20 xyoo tom qab nws rov tshawb pom dua.
