Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier on Naukratis Being Preexilic

While questioning the evidence for Greek colonies in in the Levant during the 7th century BC, Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier did believe that Naukratis was a preexilic Greek colony in Egypt:

 

There is no site comparable to Naukratis which, from at least 620 B.C. onward, became a Greek trading city with temples dedicated to different Greek gods . . . (Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier, “Archaic Greeks in the Orient: Textual and Archaeological Evidence,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 322 [May 2001]: 24)

 

For more on Naukratis being a preexilic site, see, for e.g., the records found here.