A joint archaeological team from China and Egypt has uncovered a number of important relics and artifacts near Cairo, the Egyptian capital, shedding new light on the site's historical features and human activities across different periods.
The results of the archaeological mission at the Sekhmet Temple site in the ancient city of Memphis, about 20 kilometers south of Cairo, were announced on Tuesday at the Shanghai Museum. The joint excavation was conducted by archaeologists from the museum and Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The temple site in Memphis was discovered in 1959, according to Xinhua News Agency, and it witnessed archaeological missions in 1961 and 1962.
Chen Jie, deputy director of the Shanghai Museum, said that the joint team completed the first large-scale systematic excavation of the site and its surroundings in more than six decades. "It was our first excavation mission to Egypt, so we wanted to choose a site that we Chinese scholars consider important," he said.
The city of Memphis was built around 3100 BC, and it served as the capital of ancient Egypt during the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BC) period. The Sekhmet Temple, located in the core area of Memphis, was part of the Great Temple of Ptah complex, which was dedicated to the Egyptian god of creation.
Chen said that the joint excavation work, which was carried out from October to June, has revealed new details about the Sekhmet Temple's structure, its reuse later, and the everyday life that continued around it for centuries.
The team started preliminary fieldwork by clearing most of the aboveground remains of the temple, revealing its basic layout and internal structure. The rectangular temple was mainly built of limestone, with some stone components bearing ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, providing important clues for determining the temple's purpose.
Archaeologists also uncovered the remains of a mud-brick residential area nearby, consisting of multiple houses and courtyards. They found a large number of stone architectural components and statue fragments in later layers that disturbed the original structures.
On the east side of the temple, the team found a limestone structure. As grape seeds were discovered at its base, the structure was preliminarily identified as a facility that may have been used for wine production. Large quantities of discarded faience fragments also suggest that the area may have once contained a craft workshop.
These findings suggest the reuse of the temple and its surroundings, demonstrating long-term continuous human activity in the settlement.
"We've adopted some new technical methods, documenting and registering all of our archaeological data, which have been recognized by our Egyptian colleagues," Chen said. "In next year's excavation, we plan to invite more experts to help us to carry out deeper research into the connections between environmental evolution and urban settlement evolution."
Mohamed Abdel-Badie, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector at Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that even after the Sekhmet Temple declined as a major religious center, life in ancient Memphis continued, with the city gradually transforming into a residential area.
The Shanghai Museum said it hopes to display the findings of the archaeological mission in an exhibition at its upcoming north branch.
