Greek letters on Egyptian tiles

Greek Letters on Egyptian Tiles

The significance of these letters is that if Ramses III lived in the 12th century BC as commonly taught, then why are there Greek letters found in Egypt from that early time?[20] Does that then also mean the Israelites and Greeks were neighbors in the Nile delta? That is a point conventional historians would not like to hear.
But Ramses III of the 20th Dynasty is Nectanebo I of the 30th Dynasty and he lived in the 4th century BC.

Tiles of Ramses III. The front side of some tiles with Persian motifs found in the ruins of a palace of Ramses III at Tell el-Yahudiya in the Nile Delta.[100]

Reverse side of the tiles of Ramses III with Greek letters, carved before firing. The top row of letters, from left, are alpha, chi, lambda, and lambda. The mark on the large tile, may be iota; the other is clearly epsilon.

Inscriptions from Tell El Yahoodieh show that the Greek letter for a capital `alpha' was written at that time with a bent horizontal line as shown on the tile above.

"When Brugsch-Bey came to Tell el Yahoodieh for the first time in 1870, his attention had been directed to the place by some very fine enameled tiles and inlaid ornaments which he had purchased from a dealer at Shibeen el Kanater. He began by excavating a small mound in the longer axis of the city, towards the western side of the Tell. It was about 24 or 30 feet high, and near it the Arabs had found fragments of columns and pillars, and traces of an alabaster pavement. Having cleared as much as remained of the pavement, Brugsch there found a considerable number of enameled and porcelain tiles; but the building itself was so much ruined, that it was impossible to reconstruct the plan. He brought back from this mound 3600 disks of various sizes, and a great number of tiles more or less broken, bearing either flower ornaments, or birds, animals, and portraits of Asiatic or negro prisoners; besides fragments of hieroglyphic inscriptions, giving the names and titles of Ramses III.; also the base of an alabaster column similarly inscribed. All these fragments are now in the museum of Boolak."

"There is a curious fact about the disks which have been found in such large numbers; some of them are inscribed on the back with Greek letters while others bear Egyptian signs. The Greek letters show that strangers were at some point employed in the work. The greatest part of the building was however thoroughly Egyptian in style, as may be judged from the remains of columns still in situ. The enamel ornaments, though unusual, cannot be considered as a foreign import, as something similar has already been found in one of the pyramids of Sakkarah. It is not likely that later kings, such as the Saites or the Ptolemies, should have taken the trouble to build for their predecessor, Ramses III., such a beautiful chamber, the walls of which were not only ornamented with representations of plants or animals, but also recorded the feats of war of Rameses, and depicted the prisoners he had brought to Egypt. I believe, therefore, that the chamber of Rameses III. was built under his reign and by his order, and that it was damaged in one of the numerous wars or invasions which swept over the Delta. One of the subsequent kings, possibly a Ptolemy, may have had it repaired in the same style by the hands of Greek workmen. The disks which adorned the friezes of the chamber were the pieces most likely to fall off and be lost; a great number would therefore have to be renewed, and that would account for the fact that it is chiefly on the disks that we find the Greek letters."

For an original report see Prof. T. H. Lewis, Tel El-Yahoudeh' in TSBA, Vol. VII, January 1881, Part 2, p. 177-192.; This report shows color images of tiles found at the site.

Comments: On August 22, 1798 Napoleon Bonapart set up the `Egyptian Institute of Arts and Sciences' at Cairo. The Institute had 4 disciplines: 1.Mathematics, 2. Physics, 3.Political Economy, and 4. Literature and Arts. The first French savants were Joseph Fourier, Math; Villiers du Terrage, engineer and Dominique Vivant Denon, artist. Before this time the existence of a pharaoh Ramses III. was unknown to Europeans. Therefore his monuments and vivid battle scenes were of great curiosity among the French arrivals. Their early placement of this king was a natural after considering possibilities who his enemies might have been. Their conclusion taking supposed biblical information in account, he must have been fighting the Philistines. This assessment was fortified later by the development of the Sothic dating method.

Today we must reject Sothic dating as a means of aligning the past of the ancient Middle Eastern countries chronologically since it has been shown that the `sothis' star was not Sirius but the planet Venus. Similarly astronomical dating methods of ancient Egypt also have been shown to be unreliable based on modern assumptions of dubious references by some taken as references to eclipses. But tiles with Greek letters were primary `in situ' evidence explained away by chronological thinking based on the above mentioned erroneous assumptions. The exchange on the 20th dynasty remains at Yahudiyeh went on like this: "The Ramesside date of these remains has been contested by E. Brugsch, who assigns the enamels to the Ptolemaic period. Hayter Lewis also supposes that they are in part Ptolemaic restorations. The question involves a great difficulty. The potters' marks include, besides less definite cyphers, several hieroglyphics and the following, which may be interpreted as Greek letters, A, E, I, D, M, O, C. T, X. The rosettes are abundant, and bear all varieties of marks. Good examples of the tiles are being rarer, there is some doubt about them; but I have found `T' endorsed on a captive's head, and on one of a similar series a label is attached to the girdle, bearing the name of Ramses III.

A brief communication on the history of the Greek letter `alpha'

Since the letter `alpha' appears on the tiles from the temple of Ramses III and since the alpha is written in a characteristic way, we shall explore the history of writing the `alpha' in that peculiar configuration.

The examples shown were found at the necropolis of Tell el Yahudiyeh among later Greek and Jewish period tombs. The evidence from Tell el Yahudiyeh suggests that the `v' shaped horizontal was in use together with the `straight' horizontal bar according to the tomb evidence in the necropolis. In other inscriptions among the tombs the alpha is written only with the `v' shaped middle line or vice versa with the straight line. We can be quite certain that these letters were drawn accurately as they were seen by the artist. This is why the `A' underlined in blue shows a double horizontal line one of which is probably a slip by the artist's hand or else later weathering damage to the rock surface. (The image will expand if downloaded for easier viewing.)

E. Naville, `The Mound of the Jew and the City of Onias', Plate IV
Lewis, T.H., `Tel-el-Yahoudeh', Transactions Society of Biblical Archaeology, 1881, pp. 182, 189.
Brugsch, Emil, `On et Onion, Receuil des travaux relatif a la philo. et. hist. Egypt. et Assyr', Vol. VIII, 1885, p.5.
Griffith, F.L.L., `The Antiquities of Tell-el-Yahudiyeh', p. 41

Besides the rosettes and the figure series, there are tiles inlaid with hieroglyphic legends only. Of this class Brugsch found no specimens with "Greek" letters. But I do not see how the classes can be kept distinct as to date. The hieroglyphic and figure tiles relate to Ramses III., but the figure tiles bear Greek letters: why should not the rosettes be of the same period?
That they are natural representatives of Ramesside work is shown, I think, by the enameled cartouches of Seti II. from Khata'neh and elsewhere. A few very similar enameled tiles from Nimrud are of the ninth century BC., and it is not likely that this was an Asiatic art introduced by the conquerors of the New Kingdom. But are they imitations made for a Ptolemaic restoration? This seems to me very improbable, even when the king to be thus honored was Rhampsenitus himself. Light will be thrown on the question some day. A few of the marks are shown in Pl. xi 27 and 30. There is a fine collection of the tile work in the British Museum. No dedications to deities are found in the inscriptions; I therefore suppose that this royal hall was erected for some secular purpose, but formed perhaps an adjunct to the temple." [See the plates accompanying the papers of Hayter Lewis and E. Brugsch]
[E. Naville, `Mound of the Jew and The City of Onias', 1887, p. 6-7]

The Forms of the Greek Letter `ALPHA' in the Empire

A list of examples and their sources: [`Greece and the Helenistic World', Oxford, 1988]

The Straight Line Style

1. Silver Tetradrachm of Athens from 440-430 BC with Athena's head and the owl with olive twig on the reverse including the letters `AOE'.
2. Fragment of a tribute list for the year 440-439 BC paid to Athens by the Athenian League written in Attic alphabetic numerals.
3. Public ballots of the 5th-4th centuries found in a building near the Agora, Athens.
4. `Relief of Gratitude' to Samos loyalty to war in 405 BC found on the Acropolis of Athens.
5. Hand written examples: Duke University's Special Collections Library has a papyrus dated to 592 BC which appears to show a straight line capital letter `alpha'.

See: Scriptorum.

The `V' Shaped Style

1. The `Curator Inscription' from Wadi Semna. [L.A. Tregenza, `Egyptian Years', Oxford, 1958, p. 173]
2. Mosaic portrait of the `New Comedy Poet' Menander who died about 292 BC found in a Roman villa of the 4th century AD on the island of Lesbos. If this example is supposed to show how `alpha' was written around the time of Menander it fits the period.
3. Painted animals in a tomb at Marissa (Marêshah) in Jordan after 250 BC. Greek letters were painted over these in a subsequent burial.
4. A Stele from the Greek Island of Delos dated between 150 to 50 BC also was carved with the `V' shaped Alpha. It reads: `The Israelites on Delos who make offerings to hallowed Argarizein crown with a gold crown Sarapion, son of Jason, of Knossos, for his benefactions toward them. [`Argarizein' is the equivalent of Mount Gerizim', John 4:20; There exists another Greek inscription dated to about 250-175 BC, which reads: `[the] Israelites [on Delos] who make offerings to hallowed, consecrated Argarizein ... . These inscriptions testify to the Samaritan Diaspora of some Israelites on the Island of Delos. See `Biblical Archaeologist', Mar 1984, p. 44]

Below: `V' shaped examples continued

5. Hand written examples: A Duke Special Collections Library Sample dated to 370 BC is perhaps less conclusive.

. See: Scriptorum. Only imagination may see a `v' shaped cross-bar on the alpha. A better example may be this a bit pale letter alpha as written in 368 BC by a hurried scribe.

Scriptorum. We are unable to verify the dates for the papyrus samples shown. Overall these hand written examples are inconclusive. (Used in accordance with stated permission.)

Other busts with `V' shaped alpha cross bars:
1. A small bust bearing the name `Isocrates'. A Roman copy too faint to see on a scanned image.
2. Described as a Roman period copy of a 4th century BC Greek original bust inscribed with the name `Lysias' now located in the `Capitoline Museum' in Rome.
3. A portrait herm (bust) of Periander, inscribed with his most famous saying, `Practice is everything', now located in the `Vatican Museum' in Rome. Periander (627-585 BC) was tyrant of Corinth. Time of production of bust is unknown to us.
4. On a 3rd century AD mosaic panel from Baalbek showing `a portrait' of Solon and inscribed with his most famous saying, `Nothing too much'. Located in the Beirut, Lebanon, Museum.
5. On a herm bearing the name `Theophrastos', from a villa near Tivoli, Rome, Villa Albani.
6. On a Roman period copy of Hermes, by the Greek sculptor Alcamenes (440-400 BC). Located in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.

Described as an Ionic Capital of c. 550 BC from Paros bearing an inscription of the 4th century BC: "Archilochus of Paros, the son of Telesicles, rests here."
Bust of Bias

Above the 3 red dots is in each case the letter with a `V' shaped cross bar. The bust bears his most famous saying, `Most men are bad'. An expression we ought to strife for to give reason to change for the better.

Red dot indicates location of `alpha'. [Image expands if downloaded for better view]

7. For other examples of the peculiar `alpha' style see also artifacts from Naucratis in N. Reeves, `Ancient Egypt The Great Discoveries', p. 68. It also shows an unfinished sandstone relief of a warrior wearing a Greek style, crested Corinthian helmet and carries a shield and spear.
8. Another undated example of a `V' shaped alpha-bar comes to us from a Greek inscription on an ossuary found in Room B of Cave 2 at Jerusalem reading: "Eleazar of Beirut has made it." [BAR, Nov/Dec 1994, in `Akeldama - resting place of the rich', by Gideon Avni & Zvi Greenhut, p. 41]
9. Another `v' shaped example are the 13 survivng inscriptions, including one by the 'Keratapeians', cities in Asia Minor to mark the opening of the Sebastoi temple. The inscriptions originally began with a reference to the emporer Domitian, placing them between the years 81 and 96 AD. In 96 AD, following Domitian's condemnation by the Roman Senate, Domitian's name was chiseled off the inscription and replaced by Vespasian. [See image in BAR, May/June 1993, p. 34]
10. The lengthy Greek `Theodotus, son of Vettenus' inscription from sometime before 70 AD and found in an ancient cystern in Jerusalem decades ago also displays the `v' shaped alpha. [BAR, Jul/Aug 2003, p. 25]
11. In 1935 a fragmentary flat limestone was found in the Old City of Jerusalem which once formed the balustrade surrounding the inner courts of Herod's Temple. The inscription was in Greek using the `v' shaped alpha containing a dire warning to any foreigner entering the Temple court. A good example what fanatical religion of the region and in so many other countries has accomplished for several thousands of years. There is a difference between earnest and fanatical religion. [Ibid., p. 41]

Notes & References

[020] Professor T. Hayter Lewis, Tel El Yahoudeh in TSBA Vol. VII, January 1881, p. 177-192. Includes numerous color images of types of tiles found. Mentions but does not show the Greek letters. (on file)
[100] See also a ca. 5 inch wide half round bronze brooch with glass inlay found at Sardis during the 1979/80 archaeological campaign, Crawford H. Greenwalt, Andrew Ramage, The Sardis Campaign of 1979/80 in BASOR, Winter 1983, p. 1-39. Finds included remains of a Greek inscription, perhaps a consular title, "(hypat[ikos]". Acolumnar monument honoring Tiberius from the time of perhaps the 17 AD earthquake, lots of mudbrick and difficult to interprete construction sequences, "a gold ring set with a stone of light and dark blue layered structure that appears to be sardonyx ...", mentioning of a chariot scene. Also the report of firing a wood burning kiln for 11 hrs consuming 250 kg of pine and oak wood pieces.

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