Archaeology of the Nile Delta

An account of the project's work in the museums of Zagazig, Herriat Raznah, and, most recently, in Ismailia, in cooperation with the Museum Sector of the Ministry of Antiquities, Egypt; see also file:///C:/Users/Helmut/Downloads/paperandposterabstracts2015-7-1.pdf

Bu çalışma Mehmet Akif Ersoy Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Sosyal Bilgiler Öğretmenliği, Yerşekilleri ve İnsan ilişkileri dersi için hazırlanmıştır. Çalışmada Nil Nehri'nin tarih boyunca öneminden ve insanla olan ilişkisinden detaylı bir şekilde bahsedilmiştir. Bu çalışma ödev amaçlı hazırlanmıştır.

In the early 2nd millennium BCE, Near Eastern groups of diverse origin penetrated the Nile Delta, via sea and land. The Wadi Tumilat was one of the two principal overland routes in and out of Egypt for Asiatics arriving from the East. Unlike the Western Asiatics from the harbour town of Tell el-Dab‘a who predominantly migrated from the northern Levantine coast, Asiatics who arrived overland into the Wadi Tumilat (from the desert areas beyond Egypt’s eastern border), belonged to a different backdrop and different socio-economic networks. The issue of identifying the geographical affiliations of these groups remains complicated. Nonetheless, micro-regional specificities in the material culture of the Wadi Tumilat, and distinctive traits in funerary practices, daily-life equipment and, more generally, lifestyle, allow the tracing (albeit preliminarily) of connections to specific sub-regions and socio-economic networks in the Levant. At least one or more substantial elements amongst the Asiatic components which entered the wadi from the East, and contributed to the establishment of Asiatic communities during the 15th Dynasty (following the Hyksos takeover and renewed commercial interests in caravan operations to the Southern Levant), may denote cultural and social ties with the southernmost part of Canaan. This adds more evidence to the multifaceted picture being created of the Asiatic groups and subgroups which infiltrated the Egyptian Delta in the early 2nd Millennium BCE and eventually led to the rise of Hyksos rule.

Zusammenfassung: Von der prädynastischen Zeit bis zur römischen Herrschaft in Ägypten war Bubastis (Tell Basta) eine bedeutende Metropole im südöstlichen Nildelta; bekannt durch teils einzigartige antike Bauwerke. Durch die Urbanisierung sind große Teile der Stätte jedoch im Laufe des letzten Jahrhunderts überbaut worden und es liegen für viele dieser Bereiche keine, bzw. nur unvollständige Dokumentationen über das Gelände und früher Grabungen vor. Um die Transformation von Tell Basta nachzuvollziehen, wurde auf Grundlage moderner und historischer kartographischer und fernerkundlicher Quellen eine Geodatenbasis erstellt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass ein Großteil des nordwestlichen Tells ist im Zuge der Ausdehnung von Zagazig verlorengegangen ist. Dementgegen zeigte die Analyse von Wilkinsons Karte (1822-1827), dass im südöstlichen und nördlichen Bereich noch heute potentiell archäologische relevante Areale zugänglich sind.

Tell el-Murra, located in the north-eastern part of the Nile Delta, is the subject of excavations conducted by the Institute of Archaeology of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, following surveys carried out in 2008 and 2010–11. Settlement remains dating to the Predynastic Lower Egyptian culture through the end of the Old Kingdom period as well as an Early Dynastic cemetery have been explored. This report focuses on the results of recent research in the south-western (trench S3 and test trench S3B) and north-eastern (trench T5) parts of the site, conducted in the 2013–15 excavation seasons. In trench S3, 23 graves from the Early Dynastic period were explored and several others located, including both, simple pit burials and chamber graves. The bodies were usually laid on and covered by matting. In seveeral cases, they were buried in pottery coffins. The burial goods comprised mainly pottery and stone vessels. In trench T5, remains of the settlement from the Old Kingdom period were explored, including storage pits and rounded silos as well as rectangular buildings constructed from dried bricks. The pottery material comprised mostly potsherds; however, a few complete or almost complete vessels were attested as well. Petrographic analyses of pottery samples and an archaeozoological study of bones collected from both the settlement and cemetery are also presented.