{
    "type": "FeatureCollection",
    "name": "site",
    "crs": {
        "type": "name",
        "properties": {
            "name": "EPSG:4326"
        }
    },
    "features": [
        {
            "type": "Feature",
            "geometry": {
                "type": "Point",
                "coordinates": [
                    30.903071,
                    29.517899
                ]
            },
            "properties": {
                "id": 41,
                "site_uri": "https:\/\/4care-skos.mf.no\/site\/41",
                "modern_name": "K\u016bm Aw\u0161\u012bm",
                "ancient_name": "Karanis",
                "typology": "village",
                "date_from": -304,
                "date_to": 650,
                "dating_criteria": "",
                "place_names": [
                    {
                        "language": "Greek",
                        "pl_name": "\u039a\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u1f77\u03c2"
                    },
                    {
                        "language": "Arabic",
                        "pl_name": "\u0643\u0648\u0645 \u0627\u0648\u0634\u064a\u0645"
                    },
                    {
                        "language": "English",
                        "pl_name": "Karanis"
                    },
                    {
                        "language": "French",
                        "pl_name": "Karanis"
                    }
                ],
                "trismegistos_uri": "https:\/\/www.trismegistos.org\/place\/1008",
                "pleiades_uri": "https:\/\/atlas.paths-erc.eu\/places\/106",
                "paths_uri": "https:\/\/pleiades.stoa.org\/places\/736932",
                "description": "Located on a kom that rises about twelve meters above the surrounding plain \u2013 the plain itself lying along a limestone ridge, which forms the northeastern rim of the Qar\u016bn lake \u2013 Karanis is probably one of the better known villages of the Fayy\u016bm, despite the fact, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, local farmers obtained government permits to remove great quantities of soil from the mound to use as fertilizer (sebbakh).\u00a0Karanis, like Bakchias, provided an excellent source of sebbakh, the organic decay making the soil very rich.\r\nNevertheless, the village returned an enormous amount of daily life objects \u2013 pots, lamps, glassware, textiles, jewels, metal works, furniture, tablewares, tools, toys, hair combs, harnesses, clothing, etc. \u2013 and above all papyri.The urban settlement, whose life spans at least from the third century BCE to the end of the sixth century CE, was founded by Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-247 BCE) as part of a scheme to settle Greek mercenaries among the indigenous Egyptians.\r\n- Paola Buzi",
                "archaeological_research": "Karanis was firstly explored in 1895 by the papyrologists P.B Grenfell and A.S. Hunt, who were followed in 1924\/1925 by F.W. Kelsey, a professor of Latin language and literature at the University of Michigan, who was mainly interested in the objects related to daily life. For eleven seasons (1924-1935), Karanis became then the object of a systematic and accurate archaeological exploration and of a series of still very useful publications was produced.\r\nMore recently, specific parts of the town were explored by the Cairo University in collaboration with the IFAO (1967-1975) \u2013 when, among the other discoveries, a very well preserved Roman bath was found (el-Nassery, Wagner, Castel 1976, 231-275) \u2013, and lastly by a joint mission of the UCLA and the University of Groningen (Wendrich, Bos, Pansire 2006, 1-6).One of the main features of Karanis, together with a meaningful presence of granaries and dovecotes, is the good state of preservation of multi-storied houses \u2013 with underground rooms used for storage and an open-air courtyard on the ground floor \u2013, grouped in blocks, that the archaeologists of the University of Michigan explored room by room. \u201cThe excavators kept notebooks of progress in the field, recording finds and observations as they occurred. Each artifact, as it was found, was identified by a label designating its level, house and room and was assigned a permanent number in the camp registry. On occasion, experts in the conservation of archaeological materials were consulted in an effort to provide appropriate care and treatment for the excavated finds. Detailed photographs were taken of every house and group of artifacts as they were excavated layer by layer. In addition, movies were filmed of excavations in progress; these alone provided thousands of images of the city as it carne to light\u201d (Gazda 1983, 5).\r\nDuring the excavations of the University of Michigan among the numerous papyri found were documents that shed light on a wide variety of the financial, legal, political and social transactions and relationships of the Egyptian, Greek and Roman residents. Surprisingly, however, both archaeological and papyrological finds datable to Late Antiquity were not so numerous.\r\nAs for the first aspect, the archaeologists of the University of Michigan did not identify any church or monastery and, on the basis of a lack of pottery remains and coins dated later than the fifth century, they were convinced that the site was abandoned between the end of the fourth century and the beginning of the fifth, an opinion that was re-proposed also in recent times (Bagnall 1993, 111, in part revised: Bagnall 2001, 234).\r\nIt has been demonstrated, however, that many materials datable to the sixth-seventh centuries had been brought to the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, were they are still awaiting for an appropriate study and publication (Pollard 1998, 147-162; Buzi 2006, 111-133).\r\nMoreover, a Late Antique Christian necropolis has been identified on the kom located on the other side of the road connecting Cairo with Mad\u012bnat al-Fayy\u016bm (Buzi 2004, 97-106; Buzi 2006, 111-133). This occupies a series of little mounds on which the tombs are arranged in more or less regular rows and on more levels, being the bodies poorly embalmed and simply covered by a layer of sand. The presence of these Christian mummies \u2013 their faith being proved by a poor funerary kit that includes pendants with crosses \u2013 is evidenced by little mud brick truncated pyramids, that have the function of mark the location of the tombs.\r\nAlready in the \u201930s of the twentieth century, however, the specialists of the University of Michigan had described the re-use of some houses of the most external area of Karanis for Christian funerary purposes. From the textual point of view, it will be sufficient to mention the famous papyrus attesting to the first use of the term \u201cmonachos\u201d to define a monk, a fact that clearly shows the presence of monks in Karanis (Judge 1977, 72-89).Most of the texts found in Karanis are now preserved in the University of Michigan Papyrus Collection. One of them (Michigan University, Library P. 5421) is the only Coptic text from Karanis identified so far.\r\nIn brief, there is no doubt that Karanis had a Late Antique and Christian phase of occupation that lasted at least to the beginning of the seventh century. New archaeological explorations on the site and a re-evaluation of the papyrological materials \u2013 published and unpublished \u2013 will tell us more about it in the future.\r\n- Paola Buzi",
                "bibliography": "\u2022\u00a0Bagnall, R. S. 1993. Egypt in Late Antiquity, 111. Princeton: Princeton University Press.\u2022\u00a0Bagnall, R. S. 2001. \u201cArchaeological Work on Hellenistic and Roman Egypt.\u201d American Journal of Archaeology 105: 234.\u2022\u00a0Batcheller, J. C. 2013. \u201cLate Roman Textiles from Karanis, Egypt: An Investigation into the Characterization of Archaeological Textiles.\u201d PhD. Thesis. University of Manchester. \u2022 Boak, A. E. R. 1926. \u201cThe University of Michigan\u2019s Excavations at kKaranis: 1924-5.\u201d Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 12: 19-21.\u2022\u00a0Boak, A. E. R. ed. 1933. Karanis. The Temples Coin Hoards Botanical and Zo\u00f6logical reports. Seasons 1924-31. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.\u2022\u00a0Boak, A. E. R. 1955. \u201cThe Population of Roman and Byzantine Karanis.\u201d Historia 4: 157-162.\u2022\u00a0Boak, A. E. R. and E. E. Peterson. 1931. Karanis. Topographical and Architectural Report of the Excavations During the Seasons 1924-28. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.\u2022\u00a0Buzi, P. 2004. \u201cLo scavo di una necropolis di et\u00e0 tardo-antica a Karanis (Kom Aushim): alcune annotazioni.\u201d Ricerche di egittologia e di antichit\u00e0 copte 6: 97-106.\u2022 Buzi, P. 2006. \u201cAncora sulla necropoli tardo-antica di Karanis: indizi per lar determinazione della datazione del definitivo abbandono del sito.\u201d In Il Coccodrillo e il Cobra. Aspetti dell'universo religioso egiziano nel Fayyum e altrove, Bologna 20-21 aprile 2005, edited by S. Pernigotti and M. Zecchi,\u00a0 111-133. Imola: La Mandragora.\u2022\u00a0Davoli, P. 1998. L\u2019archeologia urbana nel Fayyum di et\u00e0 Ellenistica e Romana, 73-90. Napoli: G. Procaccini. \u2022\u00a0El-Nassery, S. A. A. and G. Wagner. 1975. \u201cA New Roman Hoard from Karanis (IIIrd Century A.D.).\u201d Bulletin de l'Institut fran\u00e7ais d'arch\u00e9ologie orientale 75: 183-202.\u2022 El-Nassery, S. A. A., G. Wagner and G. Castel. 1976. \u201cUn grand bain gr\u00e9co-romain \u00e0 Karanis. Fouilles de l\u2019Universit\u00e9 du Caire (1972-75).\u201d Bulletin de l'Institut fran\u00e7ais d'arch\u00e9ologie orientale 76: 231-275.\u2022\u00a0Gazda, E. K. 1983. Karanis: An Egyptian Town in Roman Times. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.\u2022\u00a0Gazda, E. K. et al. 1978. Guardians of the Nile: Sculptures from Karanis in the Fayoum (c. 250 B.C.-A.D. 450). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.\u2022\u00a0Geremek, H. 1969. Karanis: communaut\u00e9 rurale de l\u2019\u00c9gypte romaine au II-III si\u00e8cle de notre \u00e8re. Wroklaw, Warsaw, Krak\u00f3w: Zak\u0142ad Narodowy im. Ossoli\u0144skich-Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk.\u2022\u00a0Haatvedt, R. A. and E. E. Peterson. 1964. Coins from Karanis. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.\u2022\u00a0Harden, D. B. 1936. Roman Glass from Karanis Found by the University of Michigan Archaeological Expedition in Egypt, 1924-29. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.\u2022\u00a0Husselman, M. 1975. Karanis: Excavations of the University of Michigan in Egypt, 1928-1935. Topography and Architecture. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.\u2022\u00a0Judge, E. A. 1977. \u201cThe Earliest Use of Monachos for Monk and the Origin of Monasticism.\u201d Journal of Ancient Civilisations 20: 72-89.\u2022\u00a0Pollard, N. 1998. \u201cThe Chronology and Economic Condition of Late Roman Karanis: An Archaeological Reassessment.\u201d Journal of the American Research Center in Cairo 35: 147-162.\u2022 Timm, S. ed. 1984-1992. Das Christliche-Koptische \u00c4gypten in Arabischer Zeit: Eine Sammlung Christicher St\u00e4tten in \u00c4gypten in Arabischer Zeit unter Ausschyss von Alexandria, Kairo, des Apa-Mena-Klosters (D\u0113r Ab\u016b Mina), der Sk\u0113tis (W\u0101di n-Na\u1e6dr\u016bn) und der Sinai-Region,\u00a0Vol. 3, 1222-1224. Weisbaden: Dr Ludwig Reichert.\u2022 Van Minnen, P. 1994. \u201cHouse-to-House Enquiries: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Roman Karanis.\u201d Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Papyrologie und Epigraphik 100: 227-251.",
                "external_links": [],
                "authors": [
                    {
                        "author": "Paola Buzi",
                        "year": "2019"
                    },
                    {
                        "author": "Rhiannon Williams ",
                        "year": "2020"
                    },
                    {
                        "author": "Victor Ghica ",
                        "year": "2020"
                    }
                ]
            }
        }
    ]
}