プロジェクト紹介

1997-2001

アコリス考古学プロジェクト Akoris Archaeological Project

 中エジプトのアコリス遺跡とその周辺では、川西宏幸を団長として40年以上にわたり日本人研究者を主体とする考古学的調査が行われてきています。西洋古代史の研究者としては、周藤芳幸が1997年から2001年までの都市域北端部の発掘に参加し、そこから出土した地中海系のアンフォラについての研究を行いました。その報告については、H. Kawanishi and Y. Suto, Akoris I: Amphora Stamps, Kyoto 2005(下記のAkoris Archiveのサイトからダウンロードできます)、研究成果の概要については、周藤芳幸『ナイル世界のヘレニズム エジプトとギリシアの遭遇』名古屋大学出版会 2014の第16章「地中海の海上交易とナイル世界」をご覧ください。また、2005年からは、エジプト学の内田杉彦とともに、周藤芳幸と高橋亮介が、アコリス遺跡の南約12キロの地点に位置するニュー・メニア古代採石場で採石工程で記録されたグラフィティの研究を行っています。こちらの研究の概要については、『HERITEX』2, 2017所収の特集「プトレマイオス朝エジプトの採石場におけるグラフィティと知の伝達」、及び『文化遺産の世界』39, 2021所収の高橋亮介「グラフィティが語るヘレニズム時代の採石活動」をご参照ください。なお、アコリス遺跡について特集したこの『文化遺産の世界』39の記事は、ウェブ上でお読みいただくことができます(https://www.isan-no-sekai.jp/list/vol39)。アコリス遺跡についての報告書、概報などは、アコリス考古学プロジェクトのアーカイヴ(Akoris.jp)で公開されています。

Ancient Akoris is located c.230km south of Cairo on the east bank of the Nile. A conspicuous rock to the south of the modern village of Tihna el-Gabal serves as a good landmark of the site. The vast ruins of ancient city, which measures 600m north-south and 300m east-west, spread on a flat plateau below the rock. The earliest levels have not yet been confirmed due to the deep accumulation of debris of Coptic period, though a rock-cut mastaba and many shaft tombs show that this site was already been inhabited in the Old Kingdom period. Huge rock-cut tombs of the Middle Kingdom period and such monument as the relief of Rameses III testify the continuous occupation of this site, and a monumental rock-cut dedicatory inscription for Ptolemy V indicates that the strategic importance of Akoris was no less appreciated in the Hellenistic Period. The colonnaded chapels in the southwestern area of the city built in the reign of Roman emperor Nero and the small temple of Sarapis in the central area of the city testify the thriving urban life in Akoris under the Roman rule. The city area ceased to be inhabited in c.700 A.D. presumably due to a devastating conflagration. The site was already known in the 19th century, but it was not until 1981 that a Japanese mission launched on the first series of systematic excavations of the city area. The result of these excavations was published in 1995 and its PDF file is now available on the website of Akoris Archive (Akoris.jp). In 1997 Akoris Archaeological Project was reorganized under the direction of Hiroyuki KAWANISHI, then professor of archaeology at University of Tsukuba, and started the excavations at the area on the northern edge of the city. Yoshiyuki SUTO published the stamped amphora handles of Hellenistic times from this area in 2005, and its PDF file is also available on Akoris Archive. Recent investigations have been conducted at the southern slope of the conspicuous rock (houses, storerooms, workshops, and tombs of the Third Intermediate Period and the Late Period) and at a large limestone quarry of Ptolemaic period at New Minya, located c. 12km to the south of Akoris. Yoshiyuki Suto and Ryosuke Takahashi, together with Sugihiko Uchida, are investigating the Greek and Demotic graffiti left on the site.