El-Lahun
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Located in the Faiyum, Kahun (Arabic: كاهون) is the workers village of the pyramid of Senusret II. It is located in the modern village of el-Lahun (Arabic: لاهون), and is often referred to by that name.
The workers here both constructed, and were then part of, the funerary cult of the king to sustain the king in the afterlife.
It is located about 800m from the pyramid, on the edge of cultivation. Not much of the structure remains, as it was constructed of mud-brick, and is now covered by drifting sand. Some buildings were removed when a railway was built through the area.
It was excavated by Petrie (in 1888-90 and again in 1914). His excavations found many household objects (and tools), and these are thought to be a good indication of daily life in C12 BCE. Also found in the town are the Kahun papyri, made up of about 1000 fragments, covering legal and medical matters.
The site was occupied into the late Thirteenth Dynasty, then again in the New Kingdom, where there were large land reclamation schemes in the area.
Town Layout
The town was laid out in a regular plan, with mudbrick town walls on 3 sides (no evidence of a 4th wall), and the town might have been open to the Nile. It was rectangular in shape, with about 1/3 of the town walled off by an internal wall. The houses in this section are larger, and this may indicate a wealthier quarter. In the rest of the town, the houses are smaller and rougher.A major feature of the town was the so-called ‘acropolis’ building. This was an important building, as indicated by the presence of column bases. Petrie suggested that this may have been the King’s residence whilst he was visiting construction work. The building seems to have been out of use and derelict before the end of occupation.
Bibliography
- BRUNTON G., Lahun I: The Treasure (BSAE 27 en ERA 20 (1914)), London 1920.
- DAVID A.R., The Pyramid Builders of Ancient Egypt: A Modern Investigation of Pharaoh’s Workforce, London, Boston en Henley 1986.
- GUNN B., The Name of the Pyramid-Town of Sesostris II, in JEA 31 (1945), p.106-107.
- KEMP B.J., Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization, London 1989.
- PETRIE W.M.F., BRUNTON G., MURRAY M.A., Lahun II (BSAE 33 en ERA 26 (1920)), London 1923.
- PETRIE W.M.F., GRIFFITH F.LL., NEWBERRY P.E., Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara, London 1890.
- PETRIE W.M.F., Illahun, Kahun, and Gurob, London 1891.
- QUIRKE S. (ed.), Lahun Studies, New Malden 1998.
- QUIRKE S., Lahun: A Town in Egypt 1800 BC, and the History of Its Landscape, London 2005.
- SCHARFF A., Illahun und die mit Königsnamen des Mittleren Reiches gebildeten Ortsnamen, in ZÄS 59 (1924), p.51-55.
- WINLOCK H.E., The Treasure of el Lahun, New York 1973.
See also
- Lahun pyramid
External references
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