TELL AL-FARAUN, EGYPT—According to an Egypt Daily News report, Egyptian authorities announced the momentous discovery of a new complete copy of the famous Ptolemaic-era Canopus Decree, which was unearthed in the eastern Nile Delta. The Canopus Decree was a royal proclamation issued in 238 b.c. by the pharaoh Ptolemy III Euergetes (reigned 246–221 b.c.). It celebrated the king, his wife Berenice, and their many political achievements and religious contributions. Copies of the edict were ordered to be distributed and displayed in major temples across the land, but archaeologists have retrieved only six previous versions. The latest addition, which is the first complete copy of the text found in 150 years, was discovered at the site of Tell al-Faraun, also known as the ancient city of Imet. The top of the four-foot-high sandstone stele features a winged solar disk flanked by two royal cobras wearing the White and Red Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. All previously found copies of the decree were trilingual and written in three scripts—hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Greek—but the new one is entirely inscribed only in hieroglyphs. The report states that this new discovery allows for a deeper understanding of how royal ideology, religious policy, and linguistic expression evolved during one of Egypt’s most complex historical periods. To read more about the religious importance of the suburb of Canopus, go to "Egypt's Temple Town."
