Egypt - Tanis

For centuries, the Tanis site appeared a series of hills astray in the middle of inhospitable lands. It was subject to intensive digging by Pierre Montet starting from 1929, as he had the pleasure of discovering the tombs of several pharaohs from the 21st and 22nd dynasties. In 1965, after a few years of inactivity, the digs resumed, under the leadership of Jean Yoyotte until 1985. The research work carried out in Tanis since 1985 have given rise to profound changes in the site’s general look and the scientific vision which the historian can have of the problems arising from this as a result of its evolution. The hypothesis that Tanis is like a Thebes of the North and a replica designed in the image of Upper Egypt, has turned out particularly fruitful, with the discovery of two new temples, Amon of Ope and Horus of Mesen in the centre of the tell, as well as new urban neighbourhoods and a very extensive people’s necropolis.

Background

Tanis effectively illustrates the major variations that have affected the northeast of the Delta for three millennia. The original sand hills ended up, following the change in regime of the Nile’s branches, incorporated into land conducive to the development of a city born of ill-defined economic, political and religious conditions, but founded on rivalries internal to Egypt, due to crises in the waning New Empire and also the growing pressure from the Northern and Eastern countries in international relations. The city developed from the end of the 20th century (around 1100 BC). Under the 21st dynasty (1070 to 945 BC), became the capital of an Egypt that was once again left to the fancies of the traditional divisions between North and South. A religious and funerary metropolis under the 22nd dynasty, it maintains undeniable importance until the end of the Ptolemaic era and became the seat of the bishop’s palace at the start of Christian Egypt. Over the course of this time, as some of the coastal regions subsided, Lake Menzaleh expanded, the salt water advanced and farmland went out of existence. Tanis collapsed. The site gradually took on the appearance that 18th- and 19th-century visitors have recorded in their tales.