Kahun - the town
King Senwosret II (1897—1878 BCE), see chronology, the fourth Pharaoh of the Twelfth Dynasty, decided to locate his pyramid complex near the Fayoum. The construction of a pyramid was a large royal venture that required an exceptional amount of building material and personnel. A whole workforce of labourers and skilled artisans would be required. Senwosret's workforce lived in a settlement near to the pyramid. The town was named after the pyramid -Htp snwsr.t - Senwosret is satisfied.
After approximately 100 years of occupation the town was deserted. There is no evidence to suggest why the desertion occurred, but there are many theories. Perhaps the workers left for pastures new after the pyramid and associated temples fell into disuse, perhaps disease was a contributory factor. Whatever the reason, the inhabitants of the town left suddenly, practically overnight. The archaeological evidence for a sudden departure is strong, with the population leaving behind many of everyday belongings, including high-quality tools, papyri, serving-dishes, 'magical' wands and masks. This has given resent day Egyptologists a time capsule of life in Kahun in the XIIth Dynasty.
Before its discovery, knowledge of the ancient Egyptian people was limited to that gleaned from papyrus texts and scenes with inscriptions found in tombs and temples. Here was a town offering up the secrets of everyday life, none of which had ever been seen outside illustration. Excavations also brought to light the question of who actually lived in the town. Petrie himself supposed that some of the inhabitants were possibly foreigners because some of the finds do not fit in with the then-known Egyptian ideal. Such items include some jewellery, the unusual inscribed pottery dishes and some "Phoenician-style" black pottery ware.
The main building material was mudbrick, although larger buildings such as the temple would have been faced with stone. The excavations by the ROM also show many areas where rush-matting is present as an additional layer in the building. Over the millennia since the town was deserted the bricks and stone have been reused by the inhabitants of the local villages as either building material or, in the case of the mudbrick, as fertilizer.
