The Polish archaeological survey in the north-eastern part of the Nile Delta (season 2010) – the pottery from Tell el-Murra and Tell Abu el-Halyat

• Authors: Mariusz Jucha
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The recent research in the North-Eastern Nile Delta proves that a great quantity of sites existed here during Naqada III period. These sites undoubtedly played an important role both in the developing contacts between Egypt and Canaan, as well as in the processes which led to the formation of the Egyptian state. Further data concerning the Naqada III settlements in the Nile Delta have been obtained recently, during the Polish Archaeological Survey in Ash-Sharqiyyah Governorate. Most of the work in 2010 concentrated at Tell el-Murra and Tell Abu el-Halyat and this article focuses on the pottery found at these two sites. The occurrence of potsherds dated to the Protodynastic, Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom periods at Tell el-Murra points at the fact that the latest occupation at that site should be dated to the latter. Moreover, potsherds were also found decorated with a zig-zag pattern, which are quite characteristic of the Predynastic-Lower Egyptian Culture. Most of the pottery from Tell Abu el-Halyat is dated to the Early Dynastic period, but the occurrence of several fragments which could belong both to the earlier and later forms may indicate that it was probably inhabited also during the Protodynastic as well as Old Kingdom (?) periods.

Keywords

EN

Tell el-Murra; Tell Abu el-Halyat; Nile Delta; Naqada III; Old Kingdom

• Publisher: Instytut Archeologii Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
• Journal: Recherches Archéologiques Nouvelle Serie
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 3
• Pages: 179-194

Dates

published

2011

Contributors

author

Mariusz Jucha

• Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University; Gołębia St. 11, 31-007 Kraków, Poland

References

• Bader B., 2009 The Late Old Kingdom in Herakleopolis Magna? An Interim Interpretation, (in:) T.I. Rzeuska, A. Wodzińska (eds.), Studies on Old Kingdom Pottery, Warsaw, pp. 13–41.
• Dębowska-Ludwin J., Jucha M., Kołodziejczyk P., Pryc G., 2010 Tell el-Farkha 2009: grave no. 100, Studies in Ancient Art and Civilization, 14, pp. 23–42.
• Faltings D., 1989 Die Keramik aus den Grabungen an der nördlichen Pyramide des Snofru in Dahschur. Arbeitsbericht über die Kampagnen 1983–1986, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo, 45, pp. 133–154.
• Forstner-Müller I., Raue D., 2008 Elephantine and the Levant, (in:) E.-M. Engel, V. Müller, U. Hartung (eds.), Zeichen aus dem Sand. Streiflichter aus Ägyptens Geschichte zu Ehren von Günter Dreyer, Menes, 5, Wiesbaden, pp. 127–148.
• Hendrickx S., 1999 Le Chronologie de la préhistoire tardive et des débuts de l’histoire de l’Egypte, Archéo-Nil, 9, pp. 13–107.
• Hendrickx S., van den Brink E. C. M., 2002 Inventory of Predynastic and Early Dynastic cemetery and settlement sites in the Egyptian Nile Valley, (in:) E.C.M. van den Brink, T.E. Levy (eds.), Egypt and the Levant. Interrelations from the 4th through the Early 3rd Millennium BCE, London-New York, pp. 346–399.
• Jacquet-Gordon H., 1981 A tentative typology of Egyptian bread moulds, (in:) Do. Arnold (ed.), Studien zur Altägyptischen Keramik, Mainz, pp. 11–24.
• Jucha M. A., 2005 Tell el-Farkha II. The pottery of the Predynastic settlement (Phases 2 to 5), Kraków-Poznań.
• Jucha M. A., 2006 Western Kom. The Settlement Pottery of phase 1, (in:) M. Chłodnicki, K.M. Ciałowicz, Polish excavations at Tell el-Farkha (Ghazala) in the Nile Delta. Preliminary report 2004–2005, Archeologia, 57, pp. 77–80.
• Jucha M. A., 2008 The Corpus of “Potmarks” from the Graves at Tell el-Farkha, (in:) B. Midant-Reynes, Y. Tristant with the collaboration of J. Rowland and S. Hendrickx, Egypt at its Origins 2. Proceedings of the International Conference “Origins of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt” Toulouse (France), 5th–8th September 2005, OLA, 172, Leuven-Paris, pp. 133–149.
• Jucha M. A., 2009a Beer jars of Naqada III Period. A view from Tell el-Farkha, (in:) T. I. Rzeuska, A. Wodzińska (eds.), Studies on Old Kingdom Pottery, Warsaw, pp. 49–60.
• Jucha M. A., 2009b The North-Eastern Part of the Nile Delta – research perspectives. Polish Archeological Survey in the Ash-Sharqiyyah Governorate, (in:) J. Popielska-Grzybowska, J. Iwaszczuk (eds.), Proceedings of the Fifth Central European Conference of Egyptologists. Egypt 2009: Perspectives of Research, Pułtusk 22–24 June 2009, Acta Archaeologica Pultuskiensia, vol. II, Pułtusk, pp. 83–88, Figs. 33–41.
• Jucha M. A., 2010 Tell el-Murra. The Predynastic – Old Kingdom site in the North-Eastern Nile Delta, Folia Orientalia, 47, pp. 379–390.
• Jucha M. A., 2011 The development of pottery production during the Early Dynastic period and the beginning of the Old Kingdom: a view from Tell el-Farkha, (in:) R. Friedman and P.N. Fiske (eds.), Egypt at its Origins 3, Proceedings of the International Conference "Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt", London, 27th September–1st August 2008, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 205, Leuven, pp. 953–974.
• Kaiser W., 1969 Die Tongefässe, (in:) H. Ricke, Das Sonnenheiligtum des Königs Userkaf, vol. II, Die Funde, BÄBA, 11, Cairo, pp. 49–82.
• Köhler Ch., 1996 Bearbeitung der Keramik, (in:) G. Dreyer, E.-M. Engel, U. Hartung, T. Hikade, E.Ch. Köhler, F. Pumpenmeier, Umm el-Qaab. Nachuntersuchungen im frühzeitlichen Königsfriedhof 7./8. Vorbericht, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo, 52, pp. 11–81.
• Köhler E.C., 1998 Tell el-Fara'in Buto III. Die Keramik von der späten Naqada-Kultur bis zum frühen Alten Reich (Schichten III bis VI), Archäologische Veröffentlichungen 94, Mainz am Rhein.
• Köhler E. C., Smythe J. C., 2004 Early Dynastic pottery from Helwan – establishing a ceramic corpus of the Naqada III period, Cahier de la Céramique Égyptienne, 7, pp. 123–143.
• Köpp H., 2003 Keramik, (in:) G. Dreyer, R. Hartmann, U. Hartung, T. Hikade, H. Köpp, C. Lacher, V. Müller, A. Nerlich, A. Zink, Umm el-Qaab. Nachuntersuchungen im frühzeitlichen Königsfriedhof 13./14./15. Vorbericht, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo, 59, pp. 116–124.
• Köpp H.,2009 Die Rote Pyramide des Snofru in Dahschur – Bemerkungen zur Keramik, (in:) T. I. Rzeuska, A. Wodzińska (eds.), Studies on Old Kingdom Pottery, Warsaw, pp. 61–69.
• Kroeper K., 1988 The excavations of the Munich East-Delta expedition in Minshat Abu Omar, (in:) E. C. M. van den Brink (ed.), The Archaeology of the Nile Delta. Problems and Priorities, Amsterdam, pp. 11–46.
• Kroeper K., Wildung D., 2000 Minshat Abu Omar II, Ein vor- und frühgeschichtlicher Friedhof im Nildelta: Gräber 115–204, Mainz.
• Mączyńska A., 2011 Lower Egyptian-Naqada transition: a view from Tell el-Farkha, (in:) R. Friedman and P.N. Fiske (eds.) Egypt at its Origins 3, Proceedings of the International Conference “Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt”, London, 27th September–1st August 2008, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 205, Leuven, pp. 879–908.
• Op de Beeck L., 2004 Possibilities and Restrictions for the Use of Maidum-Bowls as Chronological Indicators, Cahiers de la Céramique Égyptienne, 7, pp. 239–280.
• Oren E. D., 1973 The overland route between Egypt and Canaan in the Early Bronze Age, Israel Exploration Journal, 23, pp. 198–205.
• Petrie W. M. F., 1921 Corpus of Prehistoric pottery and palettes, London.
• Petrie W. M. F., 1953 Ceremonial slate Palettes, Corpus of Proto-Dynastic Pottery, London.
• Raue D., 1999 Ägyptische und Nubische Keramik der 1.-4.Dynastie, (in:) W. Kaiser, F. Arnold, M. Bommas, T. Hikade, F. Hoffmann, H. Jaritz, P. Kopp, W. Niederberger, J-P. Paetznick, B. von Pilgrim, C. von Pilgrim, D. Raue, T. Rzeuska, S. Schaten, A. Seiler, L. Stalder, M. Ziermann, Stadt und Tempel von Elephantine 25./26./27. Grabungsbericht, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo, 55, pp. 173–189.
• Rzeuska T., 2004 The Pottery, (in:) K. Myśliwiec et al., The Tomb of Merefnebef. Saqqara I, Warsaw, pp. 195–236.
• Rzeuska T., 2006 Pottery of the Late Old Kingdom. Funerary Pottery and Burial Customs. Saqqara II, Warsaw.
• Tristant Y., 2005 L’occupation humaine dans le delta du Nil aux 5e et 4e millénaires. Approache géoarchéologique à partir de la region de Samara (delta oriental), vol. I–III (doctoral dissertation, Toulouse).
• Van den Brink E. C. M., 1987 A geo-archeological survey in the North-Eastern Nile Delta, Egypt; the first two seasons, a preliminary report, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo, 43, pp. 7–31.
• Van den Brink E. C. M., 1993 Settlement patterns in the Northeastern Nile Delta during the fourth–second millennia B.C., (in:) L. Krzyżaniak, M. Kobusiewicz and J. Alexander (eds.), Environmental change and human culture in the Nile Basin and Northern Africa, Studies in African Archaeology, 4, Poznań, pp. 279–304.
• Vereecken S., de Meyer M., Dupras T., Williams L., 2009 An Old Kingdom Funerary Assemblage at Dayr al-Barsha (in:) T. I. Rzeuska, A. Wodzińska (eds.), Studies on Old Kingdom Pottery, Warsaw, pp. 187–207.
• Wenke R. J., Buck, P. E., Hamroush H. A., Kobusiewicz M., Kroeper K., Redding R. W., 1988 Kom el-Hisn: Excavation of an Old Kingdom Settlement in the Egyptian Delta, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, 25, pp. 5–34.
• Wodzińska A., 2000 The Early Dynastic Pottery from the Trenches C2-C3 and D1-D4, (in:) D. Faltings, P. Ballet, F. Förster, P. French, Ch. Ihde, H. Sahlmann, J. Thomalsky, Ch. Thumshirn, A. Wodzińska, Zweiter Vorbericht über die Arbeiten in Buto von 1996 bis 1999. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo, 56, pp. 154–158.
• Wodzińska A., 2009 A Manual of Egyptian Pottery, Vol.2, Naqada III–Middle Kingdom, Boston.