Serabit el-Khadim

File:Serabit el-Chadim 019.JPG, Serabit el-Khadim]]

Serabit el-Khadim (Arabic: سرابيط الخادم Arabic pronunciation: [saraːˈbiːtˤ alˈxaːdɪm]; also transliterated Serabit al-Khadim, Serabit el-Khadem) is a locality in the southwest Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, where valuable resources such as turquoise were mined extensively in antiquity, mainly by the ancient Egyptians. Archaeological excavation, initially by Sir Flinders Petrie, revealed ancient mining camps and a long-lived Temple of Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of sensual power,{{Cite web |title=Gods and Goddesses in Ancient Egypt: the main names at the main places |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/religion/deitiesplaces.html#Hathor |access-date=27 February 2025 |website=Digital Egypt for Universities}} who was favored as a protector in desert regions and known locally as the mistress of turquoise.

The Sinai Peninsula between Egypt and Western Asia was an important mining area for copper and malachite in ancient Egypt, Serabit el-Khadim being the most important copper mining site in the region.{{Cite web |title=Sinai: Serabit el Khadim (Serabit el-Chadim) |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/sinai/index.html |access-date=27 February 2025 |website=Digital Egypt for Universities}} The temple was first established during the Middle Kingdom in the reign of Senusret I (reigned 1971 BC to 1926 BC) and was partly reconstructed in the New Kingdom.{{Cite web |last=Fuller |first=Michael J. |title=Serabit Temple |url=http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/Serabit/SerabitTemple.html |access-date=21 March 2022 |publisher=St Louis Community College}} The temple is located about 10 kilometers north of Wadi Maghara, another archaeological site, and roughly 43 kilometers east of the modern-day city, Abu Zenima.{{Cite web |title=Serabit el-Khadim, South Sinai Governorate, Egypt |url=https://www.mindat.org/loc-228179.html#:~:text=Serabit%20al%20Khadem%20is%20a,mainly%20by%20the%20ancient%20Egyptians. |access-date=15 March 2025 |website=mindat.org}} The function of the temple was to honor the goddess Hathor who acted as a guide to the Egyptian Kings who had undertaken expeditions to utilize these mines, and to glorify the power of the Pharaohs that had overseen these missions.

Various chapels were also constructed by the rulers that would follow, and commemorative stelae were erected along the path by the expedition and mining groups that came to work at this location. The temple was a place of worship and healing practices, as evidenced by the numerous votive stelae found along the pathway, inside the temple itself and within the nearby caves. The site's name is derived from these as well, with 'Serabit el-Khadim' translating to "Columns of the Slave," in reference to the tall inscribed columns that make up and surround the temple.

The copper and turquoise mines at the site were in use throughout the Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom periods. The mines were worked by prisoners of war from southwest Asia who presumably spoke a Northwest Semitic language, such as the Canaanite that was ancestral to Phoenician and Hebrew.

Inscriptions

File:Serabit inscription.JPG, found by Flinders Petrie|upright=1.2]]

File:SerabitCourtPToA3OffersToHathor.jpg

Found at the site, there are about 30 early inscriptions in a "Proto-Sinaitic script" which shed light on the history of the alphabet.{{cite journal |last=McCarter |first=P. Kyle |author-link=P. Kyle McCarter Jr. |title=The Early Diffusion of the Alphabet |journal=The Biblical Archaeologist |volume=37 |issue=3 (September 1974:54–68) |pages=56–58}} These Sinaitic Inscriptions are some of the earliest examples of alphabetic writing and were discovered in 1904 by British archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie.{{Cite web |title=Sinaitic inscriptions {{!}} ancient writing |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sinaitic-inscriptions |access-date=21 August 2019 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}

The inscriptions date from the beginning of the 16th century BC, and while not fully deciphered, provide an early example of alphabetic rather than ideographic writing. These inscriptions were likely influenced by Egyptian Hieroglyphics and Canaanite writing from around 1900-1800 BCE, which would seemingly provide ancestry for the North Semitic Alphabet, the earliest fully developed alphabetic system. Other findings at the site include private and royal stelae and offerings which originated from the New Kingdom time period.

Gallery

File:Mapwithserabit.png|Map from Petrie, The Making of Egypt{{cite book |last=Petrie |first=William Matthew Flinders |author-link=Flinders Petrie |url=https://archive.org/details/Petrie1939/page/n100/mode/1up?view=theater |title=The Making of Egypt |date=1939 |publisher=The Sheldon Press |location=New York |page=183 |via=Internet Archive}}

File:Lepsius-Projekt_tw_1-1-10_Serabit_el-Khadim.jpg|Illustration prepared by a 19th-century Prussian expedition

File:Map_of_Hathor_Temple_in_Serabit_el-Khadim.png|Floor plan of the Hathor temple in Serabit el-Khadim

File:Egyptian_ruins,_known_as_Surabit_el_Khadim,_on_Gebel_Garabe._Wellcome_V0049452.jpg|1840s sketch from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia

File:Sarabit_el_Khadim_in_the_1869_Ordnance_Survey_of_the_Peninsula_of_Sinai_(cropped).jpg|Serabit el-Khadim in the 1869 Ordnance Survey of the Peninsula of Sinai

File:Valleys_of_Serabit_El_Khadem_(map).jpg|1906 map by Flinders Petrie

File:SerabitBothChapels.jpg|2009

File:Romain_Butin,_Serabit_el-Khadim_inscriptions,_374,_375.jpg|Serabit el-Khadim inscriptions, 358 (1936).

File:Romain_Butin,_Serabit_el-Khadim_inscriptions,_table_of_the_alphabet.jpg|Table of the Alphabet, found at Serabit el-Khadim (1928).

File:Serabit_el-Khadim.jpg|Votive Pillars at Temple to Hathor

References

Sources

{{cite journal |last=Albright |first=W. F. |title=The Early Alphabetic Inscriptions from Sinai and Their Decipherment |location=Oakland |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |date=April 1948 |number=110 |pages=6–22 |doi=10.2307/3218767|jstor=3218767 |s2cid=163924917 }}
{{cite journal |last=Butin |first=Romain F. |title=The Serâbît Inscriptions: II. The Decipherment and Significance of the Inscriptions |journal=Harvard Theological Review |volume=21 |issue=1 |date=January 1928 |pages=9–67 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/S0017816000021167 |s2cid=163011970 }}
{{cite journal |last=Butin |first=Romain F. |title=The Protosinaitic Inscriptions |journal=Harvard Theological Review |volume=25 |issue=2 |date=April 1932 |pages=130–203|doi=10.1017/S0017816000001231 |s2cid=161237361 }}
{{cite book |last=Flinders Petrie |first=W. M. |authorlink=Flinders Petrie |title=Researches in Sinai |location=London |date=1906 |publisher=John Murray}}
F. W. Holland. (1868). "Recent Explorations in the Peninsula of Sinai". Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London. 204-219. JSTOR 1798934
{{cite book |last=Giveon |first=R. |title=The Stones of Sinai speak |location=Tokyo |date=1978 |publisher=Galuseisha |asin=B0007B5V1A}}
{{cite book |first=Lina |last=Eckenstein |authorlink=Lina Eckenstein |title=A History of Sinai |location=London |publisher=Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge |date=1921}}
{{cite journal |last1=Lake |first1=Kirsopp |last2=Blake |first2=Robert P. |title=The Serâbît Inscriptions: I. The Rediscovery of the Inscriptions|journal=Harvard Theological Review |volume=21 |issue=1 |date=January 1928 |pages=1–8|doi=10.1017/S0017816000021155 |s2cid=161474162 }}
"Gods and Goddesses in Ancient Egypt: the main names at the main places". (2002). Digital Egypt for Universities. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/religion/deitiesplaces.html#Hathor
"Sinai: Serabit el Khadim (Serabit el-Chadim)". (2002). Digital Egypt for Universities. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/sinai/index.html
"Serabit el-Khadim, South Sinai Governorate, Egypt". (Last updated 2024). mindat.org. [https://www.mindat.org/loc-228179.html#:~:text=Serabit%20al%20Khadem%20is%20a,mainly%20by%20the%20ancient%20Egyptians. https://www.mindat.org/loc-228179.html#:~:text=Serabit%20al%20Khadem%20is%20a,mainly%20by%20the%20ancient%20Egyptians.]

External links

[http://archaeology.tau.ac.il/?page_id=2206 Serabit el-Khadem, Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv]

Category:Archaeological sites in Egypt

Category:Egyptian mythology

Category:Egyptology

Category:Open-air museums in Egypt

Category:Proto-Sinaitic script

Category:Hathor