Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists Abstracts of Papers

XICE – Abstract of Papers
and cultural heritage, to whom can be acknowledged an important social role —it
does not matter the way and the reasons”. 157
The Apries Palace, Memphis
Maria Helena Trindade Lopes and Teresa Rita Mateus Pereira
Kôm Tumân is situated north of Mit Rahîna and south of the modern cemetery of
Sheikh Said in Kôm Aziz. The site covers approximately 220 000 m2 and today is
bordered southwest by the Ezbet Gabry village.The Palace rises at the northwest
corner of the vast plain, built on an artificial hill and about 13.66 m high. This
platform is founded on a net of thick adobe walls whose gaps were filled with debris,
broken ceramics and pieces of stone, in order to produce a solid, strong base for the
upper constructions.
This great structure was built with adobe and stone, and its dimensions can be
calculated according to the sections of limestone columns and capitals located on the
upper level. The walls, which Petrie described as approx. 4 m thick (Petrie, 1909:1),
were made of adobe and sustained with stone on the lower sector. The floor, the
thresholds and the steps were also made of stone. The access to the Palace was done
through the south, by a colossal ramp 87 m wide. The main entrance led directly to a
bridge over a ditch, which was about 3 m wide and bounded by curbs. Once the
bridge was crossed, the internal activity at the Palace was done through two corridors.
To the left of the “new corridor” was the house of the guards and the kitchen, and to
the right there were several compartments (PETRIE, 1909:2). From the “old corridor”,
also encircled by unidentified compartments, there was direct access to the Great
Royal Room. The northern part of the Palace corresponds to the “Mandara”, which
was built following an adobe cellular structure, with an oval plan and probably
cupolas (KEMP, 1977:103).
Annexed to the Palace laid the “Military ground” of Apriés, spreading out to
northwest, east and southeast, where several mercenary groups might have lodged,
especially Greeks and Carians. The entire area, covering Palace and Ground, was
fortified and the fencing walls show a 10 m width on the base. In his excavations,
Petrie also detected a large gate, on the northeast side of the fortification (PETRIE,
1909b:12, pl. XXX). As mentioned before, this site was in the past subject to two
excavations and two probes. M. DANINOS PACHA (PACHA, 1904: 142-143) completed
the first excavation, in 1901-1902, working on the west area of the Palace platform.
W.F. PETRIE led the second and most important excavation (1909-1910), and his
works exposed the fortified palace and the access ramp (PETRIE, 1909: 1-5; PETRIE,
1910: 40-41). The brilliant English archaeologist also probed the fencing wall, which
may have been repaired in the Ptolemaic or Roman periods (JEFFREYS, 1985: 41), at
an unidentified area in the field, to the east (JEFFREYS, 1985:42).
According to PETRIE, the Apriés Palace was built over the most ancient palaces
(PETRIE, 1909: 1; PETRIE, 1910: 40-41). Although Petrie wasn’t able to confirm his
intuition, the objects and the painted ceramics of the New Empire that were found and
referred to by PETRIE and KEMP can lead us to determine which New Empire
installations were used to build the palace, specially if the foundations were built with
157 D. JALLÀ, ‘Funzioni e ragioni del museo contemporaneo: una proposta di riflessione’, in: L. BALDIN
(ed.), Progettare il museo. Atti della V Conferenza Regionale dei Musei del Veneto. Padova, 24-25
settembre 2001 (Treviso 2002), 99.
258