Eclipse and Mutation: The end of the sun temple of Heliopolis (Egypt)

赫利奥波利斯是古埃及宗教和文化的象征。赫利奥波利斯的崇拜通过创造神话解释了埃及的政治秩序。世界上很少有其他地方有由统治者赞助的持续不少于2400年的礼拜传统。它作为古埃及智慧之源的声誉据说将欧洲科学和哲学的先驱（如柏拉图）带到这座神庙及其图书馆。在现代，temenos的城市遗址——夹在建筑、垃圾山和不断上升的地下水位之间——被普遍认为没有纪念碑。然而，埃及-德国代表团（2012-2019）进行的第一次系统发掘揭示了该遗址随时间变化的古景观和地形，以及公元前4 - 1千年的重要个体纪念碑和特征的第一个证据。神庙的黄昏：拟议的项目（2021-2023）在其最新阶段首次解决了temenos的建筑和铭文，代表了它拥有国际声誉的最后时期。公元前4世纪的上层仍然可以通过地球物理调查和现场几乎所有地方的挖掘来记录。特别是不同时期的建筑和纪念碑的共存仍然没有得到很好的理解。该研究计划将重点关注2017-2019年期间通过地球物理调查和分析确定的主要栖息地和三个保护区的遗迹。该项目还将调查保存在文物和旅游部当地储藏室中的建筑元素，特别关注寺庙的最后阶段。从1950年到1985年进行的未发表的埃及发掘将成为档案研究的主题。该项目还将对大量从亚历山大港运往罗马和其他地方的赫利奥波利坦纪念碑进行重新背景化，以便对埃及赫利奥波利坦圣殿的视觉性质产生更精确的认识。拟议项目的下一阶段（2024-2026）将在temenos的南部周边进行挖掘，寻找小型避难所和仪式准备设施的证据。因果研究：该项目的第二个组成部分调查了赫利奥波利斯历史上被忽视的原因。在公元前4世纪晚期，这座神庙突然失去了皇室的赞助，导致了希腊罗马时期物品的再利用和移动，而赫利奥波利斯则继续生活在文本文化中。记忆的痕迹：在希腊罗马时期，赫利奥波利斯是埃及唯一一个被拆除的主要圣殿，而这个国家的大多数其他圣殿仍然活跃。在拟议项目的后续阶段（2024-2026），将全面记录和解释该遗址遗产的重新利用程度。

Heliopolis is an icon of ancient Egyptian religion and culture. The cult of Heliopolis explains the political order of Egypt through the myth of creation. Few other places worldwide have a continuous tradition of worship sponsored by rulers for a period of no less than 2,400 years. Its reputation as a source of the wisdom of Ancient Egypt supposedly brought the progenitors of European science and philosophy (e.g. Platon) to this temple and its library. In modern times the urban site of the temenos – sandwiched bet¬ween constructions, mountains of garbage, and a rising groundwater level – was widely considered to be devoid of monuments. The first systematic excavations undertaken by the Egyptian-German Mission (2012-2019) revealed, however, the first evidence the paleo-landscape and topography of the site through time, as well as important individual monuments and features of the 4th–1st millennium BCE.Twilight of a temple: The proposed project (2021-2023) addresses for the first time the architecture and epigraphy of the temenos in its latest phase, representing the last period when it had international fame. The upper layers of the 4th century BCE can still be documented by geophysical survey and excavations almost everywhere at the site. Especially the coexistence of structures and monuments of various periods is still not well understood. The research program will focus on the remains of the main dromos and three sanctuaries that have been identified by geophysi¬cal surveys and sondages carried out from 2017-2019. The project will also investigate the architectural elements preserved in the local storerooms of the Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism, with a specific focus on the temple’s last phase. Unpublished Egyptian excavations carried out from 1950-1985 will be the subject of archival stu¬dies. The project will furthermore re-contextualize the considerable number of Heliopolitan monuments that were shipped from Alexandria to Rome and other locations in order to generate a more precise idea about the visual nature of the Heliopolitan sanctuary in Egypt. A subsequent phase of the proposed project (2024-2026) will carry out excavations in the southern perimeter of the temenos with evidence for minor sanctuaries and facilities for ritual preparations.Causal study: A second component of the proposed project investigates the reasons for the historical neglect of Heliopolis. The temple suddenly lost its royal patronage in the late 4th century BC resulting in the reuse and movement of objects during the Greco-Roman Period, while Heliopolis continued to live in the textual culture.Traces of Memory: Heliopolis was the only major sanctuary in Egypt to be disassembled during the Greco-Roman Period, when most other sanctua¬ries in the country remained active. The extent of this re-purposing of the heritage of the site will be comprehensively documented and interpreted in the subsequent phase of the proposed project (2024-2026).