Latest news with #4thCenturyBCE
The Sun
28-06-2025
- Science
- The Sun
Lost 2,400-year-old city uncovered by archaeologists with multi-storey buildings and temple dedicated to cobra goddess
A ONCE bustling city with multi-storey tower houses and a cobra goddess temple built 2,400 years ago has been discovered by archaeologists. The densely built city dates back to the 4th century BCE - and even used to have a thriving local economy and religious traditions, researchers said. 5 5 5 Buried under modern day Tell el-Fara'in, Egypt, state-of-the-art technology has been used to uncover the ancient city of Imet. Boffins from the University of Manchester and the University of Sadat City in Cairo made the groundbreaking discovery in the African nation's Nile Delta. A team of archaeologists led by Dr. Nicky Nielsen excavated an array of extraordinary artefacts - which point to the location's booming economy and religious practice. The team said: "The University of Manchester is bringing the ancient Delta back one discovery at a time." They said locating the forgotten city of Imet allowed them to have a greater understanding of "daily life, spirituality, and urban planning in the Delta". The incredible city dates back to the Late Period in Egypt - the final era of Egyptian rule which was killed off by Alexander the Great's conquest. Archaeologists used remote sensing including high-resolution satellite imagery. They first detected ancient mudbricks, which led them to discover 'dense architectural remains'. These included multi-storey buildings with "exceptionally thick foundation walls". The team dubbed these "tower houses". The 4th-century Egyptians are understood to have built them to accommodate their soaring population. Imet, as well as the Delta region, became an urban center, the scientists said following their breakthrough finding. Leading researcher Dr Nielsen said: "These tower houses are mainly found in the Nile Delta between the Late Period and the Roman era, and are rare elsewhere in Egypt. "Their presence here shows that Imet was a thriving and densely built city with a complex urban infrastructure." In another shocking revelation, the scientists also discovered a large building dating to the mid-Ptolemaic Period - even older than the Late Period. This fascinating find meant that the city may have had even more ancient roots. The building, which is understood to be older than the rest of the city, had a limestone plaster floor and massive pilars. It was also built across a processional road that connected it to a temple dedicated to the city's patron deity, Wadjet, the cobra goddess. But it was abandoned around the mid-Ptolemaic era, sparking theories that religious beliefs may have changed at the time, the experts said. Archaeologists also uncovered a grain-processing area and animal pens - proof that Imet had a developed local economy and religious traditions. And they found artefacts which supported the idea that the Delta centre was once a thriving Ancient Egyptian community. Their most prized discoveries included a green faience ushabti from the 26 th Dynasty, a stela of the god Harpocrates with protective iconography, and a bronze sistrum adorned with the twin heads of Hathor, goddess of music and joy. These finds have helped experts piece together one of Ancient Egypt's long-lost cities - shining new light on the empire's final days. 5
The Guardian
01-06-2025
- General
- The Guardian
The ancient Chinese text of the Zhuangzi teaches us to reject entrenched values – and treasure the diversity of humanity
The Zhuangzi, an ancient Chinese Daoist text written by the philosopher known by the same name, has a lot to say about people who are considered 'disabled'. This is interesting in itself, as parts of it were written around the 4th century BCE, when only the privileged could read and write. Why would the authors of this text, men of privilege, be interested in people who were considered at the time to be 'less than normal'? The answer relates, at least in part, to the fact that the text was critical of how its society promoted and prioritised the 'valuable' or 'useful', and what was regarded as important to humanity. Within such a society, whatever – or whoever – falls short of the accepted standards is seen in demeaning ways. But the Zhuangzi rejects this way of thinking. So how might we put some of these ideas into practice today? The Zhuangzi tells the story of a wondrous tree, so large that its canopy provided shade for thousands of oxen. The tree only became this large because its wood was deemed to be 'useless' for any human project. Therefore, it was left alone and allowed to grow into its magnificent size. This story shows how easy it is for us to adopt entrenched values. Are we guided too much by what society tells us is 'useless'? It allows us to turn the tables on our own assumptions and challenge our thinking of what 'normal' and 'useful' means. This is reflective of Daoism more broadly, which advocates for diversity in how we think about humanity and human achievements. Daoism resists what would today be considered an ableist approach to life. It teaches us that looking at life through an ableist lens only leads to negativity about those who are deemed 'not good enough'. Such an approach looks for how people are deficient, rather than how they are capable. The Zhuangzi's point is not that we cannot celebrate excellence. Rather, it champions the richness of life by showing that people can be excellent in many different ways. Instead of telling us how to fix people's medical and physiological conditions, it prompts us to reflect on the shallow attitudes of those who see others as 'disabled', who want to draw attention to what some people lack, rather than what they might have. There isn't a word in the Zhuangzi that means 'disability'. Rather, the ancient text uses storytelling and exaggerated language to try to show how society sees some people in derogatory ways. Stories about 'sad horsehead humpback' or 'hunchback limpleg' show that these are not labels that the men were born with; they were given to them by a society that wrongly prides itself on 'normalising' able-bodied people. Through these stories, we learn that sometimes the word 'disability' is used unfairly to define people, so that our interactions with them are determined by the label. As the Zhuangzhi shows, life is too important for us to take a one-size-fits-all approach to it. The philosophy encourages us to embrace the richness of life by appreciating its diversity. Karyn Lai is a professor of philosophy in the faculty of arts, design and architecture, University of New South Wales
