Kom Firin

Later structures at Kom Firin

IntroductionNegative of an enclosure wall
Present-day appearance of the site
The south east temple
Domestic installation in the ruined temple
Fortified enclosure
Local histories and traditions

While the Ramesside temple and enclosure gave way to modest domestic buildings in the Third Intermediate Period, the appearance on the art market of donation stelae from the site suggest a temple to Sekhmet and Heka may have existed here in the early first millennium BC.

Aegean and Phoenician pottery

Later, the two objects in the British Museum suggest a Saite temple existed at the site, a theory further supported by the excavation of shabtis belonging to priests oStanding segment of monumental mud-brick wall f this period, in the adjacent cemetery (Silvagou).

A standing segment of enclosure wall stands at the modern entrance to the site (right), and the extension of the magnetometry survey in 2005 suggested the possible presence of two further enclosures, to the north of the Ramesside fortifications.

Pottery collected from around an exposed patch of brickwork from one of these northern walls included very distinctive sherds from decorated transport amphorae. The decoration and fabric indicate these come from the Aegean and Phoenicia, and date to the 6th century BC. Is this newly identified enclosure the remains of a Saite temple complex?

Surface ceramics suggest Kom Firin continued to flourish for many centuries, perhaps until the 7th century AD. Excavations in the Citadel area of the site, during 2007 and 2008, revealed a dense collection of houses, with areas for cooking, cereal storage and pottery firing. These can be dated to the 7th-5th centuries AD.

Images (from top):

  • Negative of an enclosure wall? Accumulated layers of fill have built up againts a now lost feature, which may have been up to 5m thick. This 'channel' aligns well with the new enclosure wall found through magnetometry survey in 2005
  • Aegean and Phoenician pottery collected in surface survey in and around exposed segments of a monumental mud-brick wall in the north-eastern part of Kom Firin.
  • Standing segment of monumental mud-brick wall in the north-eastern corner of the site.