AKHMIM (Ahmim). — A city in Middle Egypt with a high percentage of Coptic population, situated on the site of ancient Panopolis, sacred to the cult of Min-Pan. From the name of the deity came the Coptic name of the place, Smin, and from this the Arabic Akhmim. In Coptic tradition the city is renowned for its merry population, fond of pleasures and attached until late times to the ancient Egyptian religion transformed in the Hellenic manner. The statue of Pan, described by Stephanus of Byzantium, was destroyed only in the time of Shenudi (4th century), who made several incursions into the city at the head of his monks to combat the pagans and overthrow the temples. The destruction of one of these, called Métros, is attributed to St. Athanasius. Christianity was introduced early into A., and the father of cenobitic monasticism, Pachomius, founded three monasteries there. Two of its bishops took part in the Councils of Nicaea and Ephesus (E. Amélineau, *La géographie de l'Égypte à l'époque copte*, Paris 1893, pp. 18-22).
In the city stands the Coptic church of the Virgin (al-Adra), not very ancient: it belongs to the type widely diffused in Lower Egypt and is said to have parallel naves formed by square bays covered with domes or groin vaults, and with three apsidal sanctuaries. The construction is entirely of brick (v. SOMMERVOGEL, CHARLES, *Christian Antiquities in the Nile Valley*, Oxford 1912, pp. 144-45).
Archaeologically A. is very important for its vast necropolis, in which numerous fragments of decorated textiles and even entire garments (tunics) with textile inlays have been found. The necropolis was discovered by G. Maspero, but unfortunately it was subjected to clandestine excavations by the local people, and even those carried out by Europeans were not notable for their method, so that the elements that might have provided the final chronology of the tombs were destroyed or not collected. On the finds at A. see the works of R. Forrer, *Die Gräber- und Textilfunde von Achmin-Panopolis*, Strasbourg 1891; *Römische und Byzantinische Seiden-Textilien aus dem Gräberfelde von Achmin-Panopolis*, 1891; *Mein Besuch in El Achmin*, 1895. The chronology of the textiles of A. was established on the many specimens purchased by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and on stylistic criteria by A. F. Kendrick, *Catalogue of Textiles from Burying-grounds in Egypt*, London 1920-22. The necropolis includes burials from all periods, from the Graeco-Roman down to the late Christian and even Muslim eras.
The Christian subjects represented in the early period include equilateral crosses, gemmed crosses and crosses in the form of ankh, sometimes within garlands borne by flying angels; later appear nimbed figures, the orant, Daniel among the lions and Gospel scenes. An important group of textiles consists of fabrics with colored impressions, perhaps produced by the *batik* process: among these are some fragments probably of Indian importation. Those of local manufacture (with the characteristic substitution of A. for P. in the inscriptions) show saints (ΘΩΜΑC, MAPKOS, ΠΕΤΡΟC), the Annunciation, the Raising of Lazarus and other Gospel scenes, as well as Moses on Sinai. Another important group is that of the silk textiles, which it has not yet been possible to determine with certainty whether they are products of Egyptian or, more probably, Syrian industry and important in Egypt. Stylistically and in the scenes represented, the second hypothesis seems the more secure: Asian influences are predominant. Some of these fragments bear the names ΖΑΧΑΡΙΟΥ, ΙΩΣΗΦ, which seem to be those of the weavers, although there is no agreement among scholars on this interpretation.
Ugo Monneret de Villard
