The Faience Pendant in the Form of the God Bes, Excavated at the Site Deraheib (Sudan)

Alexander A. Krol; Elena G. Tolmacheva; Yulia V. Dmitrieva

doi:10.21638/spbu13.2024.305

Authors

Alexander A. Krol Lomonosov Moscow State University
Elena G. Tolmacheva Lomonosov Moscow State University
Yulia V. Dmitrieva Lomonosov Moscow State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu13.2024.305

Abstract

In December 2018, in course of the second season of the Nubian archaeological and anthropological expedition of the Research Institute and the Museum of Anthropology of Moscow State University, a faience pendant in the form of the head/mask of the Ancient Egyptian god Bes (2018/001) was discovered at the site of Deraheib in the upper reaches of Wadi al-Allaqi (Republic of Sudan). This settlement, based on the archaeological data and evidence of the written sources, dates back to the Islamic Period (9th–12th centuries). Based on the similar objects stored in museum collections and discovered in the archaeological context, this find is dated somewhere between the Late Period and early Ptolemaic Dynasty. The article describes in detail and analyzes the circumstances of the discovery of Ancient Egyptian objects in course of the works of Centro Ricerche sul Deserto Orientale (CeRDO), which conducted excavations at the settlement of Deraheib in 1997–1999, and of the Lomonosov MSU Nubian expedition in 2018. A separate part of this article deals with the history of Ancient Egyptian goldmining in Wadi al-Allaqi region, and illustrates that Egyptian expeditions reached the inlands of the Nubian desert up to the upper reaches of the wadi where Deraheib is located. In conclusion a hypothesis is drawn as to how Ancient Egyptian objects may have ended up in the fill of quartz veins excavated beneath a house built during the Islamic period.

Keywords:

Nubian archaeological and anthropological expedition, Sudan, Deraheib, Ancient Egypt, Bes, amulets, Late Period, Ptolemaic Period

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