FORTIFIED DELTA – A CASE STUDY FROM TELL EL-RETABA

• Authors: Smoláriková Květa
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The primary function of fortresses and in a wider context various kinds of fortifications, too, are to control and protect important sites/areas, but they are also very potent symbols of political and economic power. As a special type of military architecture, fortresses were usually erected in sensitive border regions to stop waves of invaders. From the period of the Middle Kingdom at least, many and varied sources testify to the fact that the area of the Nile Delta and particularly the eastern Delta/Sinai was protected by a chain of fortresses to prevent enemy attacks The importance of the ‘Walls of the Ruler’ within the Middle Kingdom defence system is undisputed; its approximate location at the entrance of Wadi Tumilat is known. The military picture of Egypt’s eastern frontier would not be complete without mentioning another huge military installation which was built during the New Kingdom in order to protect Egypt’s eastern border: the so-called ‘Ways of Horus’. To these military activities of Seti I can also be added the fortress at Tell el-Retaba, built at the beginning of the Ramesside era in the military sensitive region of Wadi Tumilat. The evident expenditure on the construction and its subsequent reconstruction indicates that its location was considered highly strategic and economically important. The promising results of the current archaeological excavations of the Polish-Slovak missions at this site may help us to uncover and consequently better not only understand the building history of one of the fortress-towns on the border of Egypt but also shed more light on the nature and various facets of the mutual relations between Egypt and his north-eastern neighbours.

Keywords

EN

EASTERN DELTA; TELL EL-RETABA; EGYPT; ARCHEOLOGY; FORTRESS-TOWN

• Publisher: Institute of Oriental Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Asian and African Studies
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 28
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 19 -29

Contributors

author

Smoláriková Květa

• Institute of Oriental Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovak Republic