The Arabic name of the village, Sa el-Hagar is probably derived form
the important site of ancient Sa (Zau), which is better known by its
Greek name, Sais, the home of the kings of Dynasties XXIV and XXVI
(Saite Period). The modern village lies on the eastern side of the
Rosetta branch of the Nile, due west of Samannud.
Over the years the buildings of modern Sa el-Hagar have spread over
much of the archaeological site, which may have been an important cult
centre of the goddess Neith from as early as Dynasty I. Virtually
nothing remains at the site today, its massive mudbrick enclosure
walls having been largely removed for fertilizer by the Sebakhin and
the town mound destroyed. Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC,
described large obelisks, a sacred lake and a huge granite naos of
Ahmose II at Sais, while in the 19th century AD Lepsius noted traces
of a temple inside an enclosure wall. There has been little
archaeological study of the site until recently, when Penny Wilson
began surveying work there for the Egypt Excavation Society in 1997.
Sais, capital of the 5th Lower Egyptian Nome, came to prominence
during the turbulent Third Intermediate Period and there are no
surviving remains from before the New Kingdom. The semi-independent
local ruler, Tefnakht Shepsesre, who declared himself Pharoah, is
traditionally thought of as the founder of Dynasty XXIV. He based his
home at Sais and expanded his authority over the central and western
Delta. He was succeeded by Bakenenref Wahkare (Manetho’s Bochchoris),
who proclaimed himself king of all northern Egypt and is attested for
the burial of an Apis bull at the Serapaeum during his 6th reignal
year. After a brief interlude during Dynasty XXV (when the Nubian
kings came to power in Egypt), for the next 150 years or so,
Tefnakht’s descendents under Psamtek Wahibre, ruled over the whole of
Egypt from their royal residence at Sais until the Persian invasion in
525 BC and were probably buried there.
The goddess Neith whose emblem was a shield with two crossed arrows,
seems to have had a cult centre at Sais from the Early Dynastic Period
and there is some evidence that a wooden label dated to the Dynasty I
King Aha, from Abydos, depicts his visit to a cult shrine at Sais. At
least two Early Dynastic queens had names compounded with the element
Neith (Neithhotep and Mernieth). Neith was a formidable goddess of
warfare, a creator goddess who is depicted wearing the red crown of
Lower Egypt, suggesting that she was closely associated with that
region. The Greeks identified Neith with Athena, another warlike
goddess.
Only rubbish heaps and a few scattered relief blocks now remain at Sa
el-Hagar, though some of those removed have been found in nearby
villages. The Temple of Neith seems to have been destroyed by the 14th
century AD when parts of the huge naos were taken to Cairo and
Rosetta. Egyptologist Labib Habachi, writing in 1942, suggested that
many of the blocks found at Rosetta, including the famous ‘Rosetta
Stone’ which provided the key to the decipherment of hieroglyphs, came
originally from Sais. |
