NAUKRATIS, an ancient Greek settlement in Egypt. The site was discovered by Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie in 1884, on the eastern bank of a canal, about 1 o m. W. of the present Rosetta branch of the Nile. In ancient times it was approached by the Canopic mouth, which was farther to the west. The identification of the site is placed beyond doubt by the discovery of inscriptions, with the name of the town, and of great masses of early Greek pottery. The site was excavated in 1884-86 by the Egypt Exploration Fund, and a supplementary excavation was made by the British School at Athens in 1899. A list of the temples of Naukratis is given by Herodotus (ii. 178) ; they were the Hellenion, common to all the colonizing cities, and those dedicated by the Aeginetans to Zeus, by the Samians to Hera, and by the Milesians to Apollo. A temple of Aphrodite is also men tioned by Athenaeus. Traces of all these temples, except that of Zeus, or at least dedications coming from them, have been found in the excavations, and another has been added to them, the temple of the Dioscuri. In addition to these temples, there was also found a great fortified enclosure, about 86o ft. by 75o, in the south-eastern part of the town ; within it was a square tower or fort. A portico of entrance and an avenue of rows of sphinxes
was added in Ptolemaic times, as is shown by the foundation de posits found at the corners of the portico ; these consisted of models of the tools and materials used in the buildings, models of instruments for sacrifice or ceremonies, and cartouches of King Ptolemy Philadelphus. Dr. Hogarth subsequently found traces of another great walled enclosure to the north-east of the town, together with pottery dedicated rois `EXXOci.w and he claims with reason that this enclosure is more likely than the other to be the Hellenion.
Apart from the historic interest of the site, as the only Greek colony in Egypt in early times, the chief importance of the ex cavations lies in the rich finds of early pottery and in the inscrip tions upon them, which throw light on the early history of the alphabet. There are clear traces of a settlement going back to the 7th century, including a scarab factory, and yielding fragments of early Greek pottery. It seems a fair inference that the makers of these were Greeks, and that they probably represent the early Milesian colony, settled here in the time of Psammetichus I.