Archaeologists claim they discovered a lost 4,500-year-old solar temple in Egypt

(CNN) – A group of archaeologists discovered what they believe to be one of Egypt’s lost “solar temples”, dating back to the mid-25th century BC. The team discovered the remains buried in another temple at Abu Gorab, about 20 km south of Cairo. mission co-director Massimiliano Nuzzolo, assistant professor of Egyptology at the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, told CNN on Monday.

In 1898, archaeologists working at the site discovered the solar temple of Nyuserre, also known as Neuserre or Nyuserre, the sixth king of the fifth dynasty, who ruled Egypt between 2400 and 2370 BC.

Now, discoveries made during the last mission suggest that it was built on the remains of another solar temple.

“Archaeologists from the 19th century only excavated a very small part of this adobe building underneath the stone temple of Nyuserra and concluded that it was an earlier construction phase of the same temple,” Nuzzolo told CNN in an email.

“Now our discoveries show that it was a completely different building, erected before Nyuserra,” he said.

The finds include engraved seals with the names of the kings who ruled before Nyuserre, which in their time were used as stoppers for jugs, as well as the bases of two limestone columns, which were part of an entrance portico, and a limestone threshold.

A tool to legitimize the power of the king

The original construction was made entirely of adobe, said Nuzzolo, whose team also found dozens of beer mugs intact during the excavation. Some of the jars are filled with ritual clay, which was only used in specific religious rituals, he added, and the pottery has been dated to the mid-25th century BC, a generation or two before Nyuserre lived.

The adobe monument “was impressive in size,” Nuzzolo said, but Nyuserra ritually destroyed it to build her own solar temple.

While these temples were dedicated to the cult of the sun god Ra, the king legitimized his power through the temple and presented himself as the only son of the sun god on Earth, he said.

“Indirectly, therefore, the main purpose of the temple was to be the place of deification of the living king,” Nuzzolo said.

Findings in the solar temple of Egypt will allow us to learn more about daily life

Historical sources suggest that in total six solar temples were built, but only two had been unearthed so far, Nuzzolo said. From these sources we know that all the solar temples were built around Abu Gorab, he added.

The Nyuserra solar temple has a layout very similar to that of the adobe building. However, it is larger and made of stone, Nuzzolo said.

The adobe building would not have been built by Nyuserra, he added, because the kings of Egypt are not known to have built adobe temples and then rebuilt them with stone.

“It usually happens that when a king, for some reason, is in a hurry, he builds the monument in adobe with key elements in stone,” said Nuzzolo, who believes that these findings make it “very likely” that some of the remaining solar temples were also built. with adobe with some stone elements.

“This may have facilitated its demise over the centuries, as it did with several other ancient Egyptian monuments built from the same perishable material,” he said.

“Also, adobe buildings can be easily demolished and buried under other constructions, as probably happened in our case.”

The team hopes to find out which king was responsible for building the temple through further excavations at the site, he said.

The study of ceramics, in particular, will allow them to find out more about how the people of the time lived, Nuzzolo added. This includes what they ate and what they believed.

Nuzzolo and his team’s discovery was featured on National Geographic’s “Lost Treasures of Egypt” program, which aired on Sunday.

The excavation is part of a joint mission of the University of Naples L’Orientale and the Polish Academy of Sciences.