About Bast:
Bast was a goddess of considerable importance in ancient Egypt. She was venerated in many locations outside of her temple complex at Bubastis:
Giza
Saft el-Henna
Memphis
The Bubasteion
Heliopolis
Dendera
Abydos
Thebes
Herakleopolis Magna
Sais
Leontopolis
Philae
Behun
Faiyum
Alexandria
Menouthis
Bast in the News in the 21st Century
October 3, 2013 - A red granite statue of Ramses II was discovered to the east of Goddess Bastet temple in Tell Basta, 85 km from Cairo by the German-Egyptian mission working in the site. The statue is 195cm height and 160cm width showing Ramses II standing between Hathor and Ptah. Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim said "The importance of this discovery that it could lead to discovering a whole temple." The mission also discovered a statue of a high official of the 19th dynasty. The limestone statue of 35cm height and 25cm width. The hieroglyphics inscriptions on the back refers that it was presented to Goddesses Sekhmet and Bastet. Both statues were moved to the open museum in Tell Basta.
March 27, 2013 - Unexpected discoveries of large amounts of post-Pharaonic glass during recent excavations at Bubastis/Tell Basta has led to the inclusion of two leading glass experts, Thilo Rehren (UCL-Qatar) and Ian Freestone (UCL), to analyse and interpret data.The work of the Egyptologists and these two experts on ancient glass revealed the glass found at Bubastis came from at least two primary producers. Notably the so-called “Roman” glass, dating to the first three centuries AD with an unknown production area, and “HIMT” glass (High in Iron, Maganese and Titania), which started being produced from the fourth century onwards on the Northern Sinai. Because of its location in the Eastern Nile Delta, Bubastis was a prime center the glass trade during the Roman period.
March 21, 2013 - New epigraphic documentation has begun of the decorated Old Kingdom tombs situated at Tell Basta. These tombs belong to the very rare category of decorated tombs of the Old Kingdom in the Nile Delta of which only a handful of examples are known to have survived (such as those at Mendes). The decorated tombs, dating to the sixth Dynasty, were first excavated by Mohamad Ibrahim Bakr in the 1980’s. They form a part of an elite cemetery of the nobles of Bubastis. The tombs were built of mud brick, with vaulted roofs. The sarcophagus chamber in one of these tombs, was revetted with polished limestone slabs. The slabs than were decorated with reliefs and paintings, showing offering tables, several grave goods and inscriptions, with the name and titles of the owner of the tomb, an official named Ankh-em-Bastet, “He who lives in Bastet (Bubastis)”. The particular tomb has been embellished with delicate painted reliefs.
The German-Egyptian team are also completing the excavation of the temple precinct and its Ptolemaic and Late Dynastic period buildings, opening another grid at the axis of the temple dromos. Dr. Eva Lange of the University of Würzburg writes: "The project is growing more and more with a lot of sub-projects evolving."
December 3, 2012 - An archaeological mission discovered two sandstone statues of kneeling lions from the Ptolemaic era in Fayoum, Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Ali announced Monday. In a statement issued by the Antiquities Ministry, the minister said the two statues were found on the western bank of the Nile, in the area of Dima al-Sebaa in Fayoum Governorate. The statues were found surrounded by ruins of parts of the temple of the god Sunkobaius (a local form of Sobek). They were used to decorate the gutter of temple, the minister explains, like those found on the roofs of the Greco-Roman eras temples in Upper Egypt. A mission from the Italian University of Salento in Lecce discovered the statues. Ali stressed that the two statues indicate that the temple, which dates back to the Ptolemaic and Roman eras, was built with high quality material, comparable to famous temples built in these eras in Upper Egypt. This is the first time of its kind that lion-shaped statues were found adorning gutters at a Greco-Roman settlement in Fayoum, he said. Professor Mario Capasso, head of the mission, said the two statues are in good condition, measuring 1.6 meters long, 0.9 meters deep and 0.8 meters high. The lions' facial features significantly simulate nature, but differ from one another in terms of shape and detail.
November 5, 2012 - The German Egyptian mission directed by Dr. Eva Lange, a co-operation between the Egypt Exploration Society/ University of Göttingen and MSA issued an announcement on Monday. While working at the site of Tell Basta (Bubastis) near the modern day city of Zagazig in the province of Sharkia in Egypt, they found a pink granite statue of Ramses II of 247cm height, 200cm width and 92cm depth. The mission also discovered mud brick structures dating back to the late period, located southeast of the entrance of the temple of Bast at Tell Basta. According to Adel Hussein, Director of the Lower Egypt and Sinai antiquities, the statue was found in layers of sediment dated to the Roman era. The statue represents Ramses II positioned between the goddess Bast and god Atum. On the back of the statue, there are remains of three columns of hieroglyphic inscriptions along with the cartouche of Ramses II. The statue was moved to the Open Air Museum in Tell Basta.
January, 2010 - A 2,000 year old temple dedicated to Bast was discovered buried beneath the city of Alexandria. It is the first trace of the royal quarters of the Ptolemies to be unearthed in Alexandria. The temple was discovered in the area known today as Kom el-Dekkah. It is believed to have belonged to Queen Berenike II, wife of Ptolemy III, third century BCE, according to Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. The temple is 60m (200ft) high and 15m (50ft) wide.
2008 - 2012 - The Tell Basta Mission of the University of Potsdam resumed work in 2008 under the directorship of Dr. Eva Lange. Dr. Daniela Rosenow also of University of Potsdam conducted a geomagnetic survey and drill-augering work at the site in 2009.
Dr. Eva Lange, Dr. Daniela Rosenow and their team now operate as The Tell Basta Project, which is a joint mission of the Egypt Exploration Society, the University of Göttingen and the MSA. They were able to return and work at the site in Spring 2011 and Spring 2012.
Many Egyptologists have long believed that there may be further monuments at the site of the temple of Bast at Bubastis waiting to be uncovered. A belief that is being substantiated by the efforts of The Tell Basta Project. Their work at the site of the Temple of Bast has revealed 25 previously unpublished reliefs from the Festival Hall of Osorkon II and evidence of walls dating back to the Late Period, as they continue excavations in the vicinity of the entrance to the Temple of Bast.
August 22 - November 16, 2008 - An art exhibition titled “Between the Sky and My Head” created by Yoko Ono, at Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany, featured a work titled “Bastet.” It was comprised of eleven plinths inscribed on the front with the name “Bastet,” upon each plinth sat sculptures of nine large cats rendered in the classic ancient Egyptian style.
April, 2004 - An Egyptian-German team discovered a fragment of a stela dating from 238 BCE in one of the temple areas at Bubastis. The stone records the Canopus Decree in the name of Ptolemy III Euergetes (238 BC) and mentions a reform in the Egyptian calendar. The inscription is recorded in ancient Greek, in hieroglyphs and demotic script. The Canopus Decree stelas were reserved for placement in temple complexes that were considered of high importance. The example excavated at Bubastis is currently only one of four known to exist to date.
October 9, 2003 - An open-air museum has been established in Tell Basta displaying 55 items covering the history of the four ancient capitals of the Delta (Tanis, Tell Basta, Qantir and Avaris), has been established in a garden at Tell Basta near Zagazig in Sharkia Governorate by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). Tell Basta was selected owing to its important position located on a commercial caravan route in ancient times and because it also contains the monuments of Bubastis, a major city during the New Kingdom (1550-1069 BC). The idea of the outdoor display was brought about by the discovery of numerous large artefacts from the many excavations in this archaeologically-rich area.
March 05, 2002 - A large granite statue of a Pharaonic queen has been unearthed in Tell Basta. The Egyptian-German archaeological mission, headed by German Egyptologist Gunther Dryer, unearthed an important find inside the Tel Basta temple of king Ramses II. The find is similar to a statue of Meret-Amon unearthed in Akhmim, Sohag. The work carried out by this team yielded results that date earlier than any previous findings. Bubastis was an important settlement during the latter pre-dynastic period before the unification of the Two Lands.
2001 - 2006 - Excavations carried out at Tell Basta by a team from Potsdam University. During this time period the entrance area of the temple of Bast was excavated. A series of geodetic scans were conducted, and the orientation of the remaining foundations of the temple of the Middle Kingdom were studied. A Middle Kingdom palace complex was excavated. Plans for an open air museum were drawn up.
November, 2001 - According to records left by ancient historians and inscriptions found in Egypt, lions were bred in special precincts and given burial in sacred cemeteries. Although their breeding and burial as sacred animals is attested in ancient sources, no one had found a mummified specimen until 2001. French archaeologists Alain Zivie, Cecile Callou and Anaick Samzun unearthed the remains of a male lion in November 2001. The feline was discovered in a tomb at Saqqara in northern Egypt. The tomb belonged to Maia, wet nurse of King Tutankhamun. Maia was interred around 1430 BCE. Typical of the practices of the last few centuries BCE, the tomb was re-used, first for burial of humans and later for animals, mostly mummified cats. Analysis of the teeth revealed a certain amount of wear, demonstrating the lion lived an old age and must have been one of the sacred animals referred to in ancient sources that were kept and bred. Saqqara is the home of the Bubasteion, a cat cemetery dedicated to Bast.