Full description
The data collection contains a complete record of the excavations, images of the site, images of all categories of artefacts and illustrations of items excavated from ancient Kellis, modern-day Ismant el-Kharab (Ismant the Ruined) in Egypt. Items photographed include documentary papyrus, literary papyrus, private letters, administrative documents, account books, ceramics, clay tablets, wooden boards, coins and parchments. The collection also contains an archive of black and white line drawings, and a catalogue of the artefacts. The textual material includes private letters, legal documents, administrative and religious material in Greek, Latin, Ancient Syriac and Coptic. Exploration of the site of Ismant el-Kharab has been in progress since 1986. It forms part of the Dakhleh Oasis Project directed by Anthony J. Mills, sponsored by the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto), The Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities (Toronto), The University of Durham and the American Research Center in Egypt (Cairo). From 1991-1997 the Ismant el-Kharab excavations were funded by the Australian Research Council and thereafter from Monash University, Columbia University through Professor R.S. Bagnall, and Australians Studying Abroad. The funds have all been administered through Monash University, with assistance from The Egyptology Society of Victoria (Monash University), Edith Cowan University (Perth), and Rosemary and Eric Cromby. Permission to work in the Dakhleh Oasis is granted by the government of the Arab Republic of Egypt through the Supreme Council of Antiquities. The principal investigators for this site are Associate Professor Colin Hope and Dr. Gillian Bowen of Monash University. The area excavated covers approximately one square kilometre and includes residential buildings, churches, columbariums, cemeteries and administration buildings. There is a complete record of all ceramics discovered in Dakhleh by the project. The Ismant el-Kharab section of the Centre for Archaeology and Ancient History website contains a link to an extensive list of publications relating to Ismant el-Kharab and a number of high quality images.
Notes
Several thousand high quality colour images (jpeg); complete record of all ceramics excavated in Dakhleh; catalogue of artefacts; detailed mostly hard copy drawings of individual items; several thousand black and white line drawings arranged according to archaeological sites within the greater area of Dakhleh Oasis.
Significance statement
The archive is a major primary research tool of international importance. It is the largest discovery in the last sixty years of textual material from the early Roman to late Roman Period, 1st-2nd to 4th-5th centuries CE.
Created: 2009
Data time period: 1991 to 1997
Spatial Coverage And Location
iso31661: EG
text: Ismant el-Kharab
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- Handle : 1959.1/489119
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