Ägypten und Levante XXVIII / Egypt and the Levant XXVIII (2018)

This archaeological report presents results of rescue excavations conducted by the Ministry of Antiquities at Tell el-Mansheya located in close proximity to Tell el-Koa in Wadi Tumilat. The site was discovered accidentally by the local inhabitants during agricultural works. The archaeological work brought to light a small cemetery and remnants of a settlement dated to the Second Intermediate Period; more precisely to the second half of the 15th Dynasty.

Keywords: Tell el-Mansheya, Wadi Tumilat, Second Intermediate Period, cemetery, settlement

This article provides a brief summary of archaeological fieldwork conducted by the University of Vienna Middle Egypt Project at el-Sheikh Fadl Umm Raqaba with a special focus on one particular Late Period tomb, A2 T1. Having been discovered by Flinders Petrie in the early 20th century, this rock-cut tomb is of special interest because of a lengthy Aramaic dipinto inscription with a literary text telling the tale of the Egyptian rebel Inaros who fought against the Assyrian occupation during the 7th century BCE. The tomb was fully excavated for the first time by the Austrian mission in 2016 and 2017. Significant and substantial new evidence was uncovered including large quantities of human remains and artefacts that provide insights into the ancient occupation of the tomb as well as its dating. Importantly, the Aramaic inscription and the underlying original painted decoration of the tomb were subject to intensive new study that included first-hand confirmation of the reading of the rebel’s name as ynḥrw being the Aramaic form of the Egyptian name ’ir.t-ḥr-r.r=w (Greek Ináros). Further, the inscription and decorations were recorded with the assistance of Multispectral Imaging (MSI) technology which enabled to counterbalance degeneration and modern graffiti to enhance better reading. The first results of this new archaeological work would suggest that the tomb itself probably dates somewhat later than had been previously suggested, which, nevertheless, opens up new possibilities to explain the significance and provide an interpretation for this unusual inscription as well as for the tomb, the site and the region surrounding el-Sheikh Fadl.

Keywords: el-Sheikh Fadl, Late Period tomb, Aramaic dipinto inscription, Ináros, Multispectral Imaging (MSI) technology

Tel Akko is an imposing site on the northern side of the Haifa Bay. It was active as a maritime hub in the Eastern Mediterranean during the 2nd millennium BCE. This study proposes that during the Late Bronze Age, especially in Late Bronze II, Akko’s anchorage on the southern outskirts of the tell was the main maritime contact between Egypt and the Egyptian administrative centre in Beit She’an. This stood in contrast to the anchorage of the same period at Tell Abu Hawam, situated on the same bay, whose main trade network was with sites that lay to the north and west in the Eastern Mediterranean. The study deals with the route used for travelling between Akko and Beit She’an, as well as with textual accounts and petrographic analyses of the el-Amarna Letters.

Keywords: Tel Akko, Late Bronze Age, Beit She’an, anchorage

The Middle Kingdom building complex at Tell Basta, which was first excavated by Shafik Farid in 1961, was originally interpreted as a temple, but later understood as a palace. In this artice, it will be suggested that it might have been a "royal cult complex". This interpretation is supported by several finds from the building, which have not been fully published yet. New photographs of these will be provided.

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Numerous examples of simple house ground plans of the late Middle Kingdom are discussed in this article and the line of development is traced as far as possible. This type of domestic architecture consists exclusively of mud brick. Measurements as well as proportions are given as possible means for dating such dwellings. The point of departure is the late Middle Kingdom settlement in Area A/II at Tell el-Dabca, where a number of one and two room houses were excavated. While some of these houses are free standing, it is possible to find bipartite core-units, with one wide and one narrow room, embedded in other architectural assemblages in Egypt. These are known from at least the early Middle Kingdom onwards with a possible earlier tradition. At Tell el-Dabca itself, the bi-partite ground plan exists from the Middle Kingdom to the New Kingdom. House models and other comparanda were also used to learn more about the distribution of this very simple architectural type used by non-elite individuals. In an overall cultural comparison various other socio-economic topics such as subsistence strategies, placement and capacity of storage facilities and various influences on the assemblage found in Area A/II of the late Middle Kingdom are also discussed.

Keywords: mud brick architecture, settlement, domestic housing, Middle Kingdom, Second Intermediate Period, Egyptian cubit, self-organised settlement

The Lower Nubian borderlands of the Second Intermediate Period, situated between Kush and Egypt, was witness to one of the most culturally complex episodes in the Pharaonic period. The intersection of an ascendant Kush over local Egypto-Nubian elites living in C-Group lands provided for a set of mixed cultural expressions. This region was witness to one of the few episodes in Pharaonic Egypt where Egyptian administrators served a foreign king, in this case the ruler of Kush. A number of documents produced by this elite give us unique insights into the power of Kerma and its efforts to project that power in its newly acquired territories. A reassessment of one particular stele (Khartoum no. 18) demonstrates that its ruler of Kush ‘Nedjeh’ is not a reference to an individual King at all but rather a rare title, a counterpart to the common Second Intermediate epithet ‘strong king’. This stele, along with other documents in the new Kushite realm, reveals the attempts of Nubian rulers to adopt a new elite Egyptianizing language of power to express their local dominance.

Keywords: Second Intermediate Period, Nedjeh, Kerma, C-Group, Nubian ruler, Kush

Scholars observed that pyramid shape hills or rocks (so called ‘natural pyramids’) in some cases are related to tombs, and some attention was paid to this phenomenon in the past, but focusing only on individual cases. So far, the subject was never studied in a broader context. The aim of this paper is to explore and examine such landmarks in ancient Egypt in order to understand, how this idea developed, and how such structures were interpreted and utilised. Several archaeological sites where such structures are attested were visited and analysed in the context of funerary landscapes (the research included spatial, chronological and textual researches). As a result, it is clear that such mountains and rocks were conceptualised as pyramids. Some of them were seen as structures meaningful on their own, i.e. they were not substitutes for man-made pyramids. These form an previously overlooked aspect of Egyptian funerary landscapes showing how ancient Egyptians projected their beliefs on the landscape and how they used the landscape to evoke status and religious symbols.

Keywords: Religion, Funerary landscape, Pyramids, Tombs.

This paper focuses on the probable land route between the Faiyum region and Bahariya Oasis during the Pharaonic period. Literary, archaeological and remote sensing data are analysed and discussed in this study. The possible ancient termini of this route are also taken into account in order to shed new light on trade connections in so far scarcely explored sectors of the Egyptian Western Desert.

Keywords: Western Desert amphorae", Medinet Maadi, Gurob, Bahariya Oasis, Faiyum, Desert trade routes, Desert Archaeology, remote sensing

The focus of the recent investigation lies on the cultural assignment and archaeological chronology of the A-Group, the scientific result of which is to establish an internal chronology. With the emphasis on the Nubian pottery classes and type groups the study is mainly based on the find materials of the early surveys in the 20th century but also on the lately published works of the Aswan – Kom Ombo – Survey. The bulk of the published find material represents the material culture that was excavated during the different salvage campaigns conducted in Lower Nubia and in the Second Cataract area.

Keywords: Pottery, Chronology, cultural assignment, 4 th millennium, Lower Nubia, A -Group

During the 19th century, remains of an ancient harbour were found underwater at a depth of 5 to 6 meters in the eastern port of Alexandria. A research program was undertaken to determine when the harbour of Alexandria submerged underwater. Data were collected through underwater surveys by scuba diving and by campaigns of corings on land. Geomorphological (i.e. notches and pebble beaches), archaeological (harbour structures), and biological (i.e. marine macrofauna, bioconstructions, and biodepositions) sea level indicators were correlated to understand changes in relative sea level during the last 6 millennia. For each proxy, the altitudinal (vertical) and chronological ranges of imprecision were discussed. The results indicate that the rate of the relative sea level rise is ~80 mm per century between the middle of the 6th millennium and the 5th‒6th c. AD. An abrupt relative sea level rise (3.5 m + 1.5 m) occurred during the mid 8th c. to the end of 9th c. A D. I n t he 8 th c. A D, a s imilar p henomenon was observed for Heracleion (25 km east of Alexandria). Thus, a wide movement of sinking affected in a synchronous manner the western coastal margin of the Nile delta. Since this 8th- 9th c. AD event, the subsidence has increased around 2 m. The role of abrupt sinking events and subsidence remain determining in the deltaic context to anticipate future coastal adaptations and the risk of submersion.

Keywords: Egypt, Nile delta, Alexandria, risk, ancient city, ancient harbour, Mediterranean, geoarchaeology, collapse, subsidence, Holocene, sea level

Gates are an integral part of settlements and installations. They can reflect the inhabitants’ perception of their neighbours and the state of defence technology. Because of that it is necessary to use a consistent system to describe gates in order to compare them and beyond it, to draw conclusions from their composition. This paper outlines a newly innovated gate typology developed first for Egyptian gates of fortified installations of the Middle and New Kingdom but with the desire to be used as a system to describe other (non-Egyptian) gates as well. This typological system uses an add-on principal that allows needed adaptations for any gate description, like adding further architectural elements. The about 40 presented Egyptian gates will be described with 6 major types, whereas each type can be subdivided into dependent types to specify the appearance of a gate more detailed. The analysis revealed that all 6 major types can only be identified during the Middle Kingdom, whereas the variety of types is more limited during the New Kingdom.

Keywords: fortification, military, gates, architecture, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom, Nubia, Egypt, Sinai, southern Levant

The knapped stone assemblages of two settlement sites, Tell el-Dabca and Tell Edfu, are presented in this paper. They cover both the periods from the Middle Kingdom till the New Kingdom, although a part of the finds from Tell Edfu date back to ending Old Kingdom / beginning First Intermediate Period. Because of the settlements’ locations in both Lower and Upper Egypt, the artefacts allow insights into regional characteristics such as knapping technologies and pattern of selection regarding blanks and tools as well as their development in the various periods. Although the all over number of studies is still limited today, the differences in raw material selection, local blank production and preferred tool types point to the existence of economic networks and state supply, which cannot only be explained by the settlement locations and the corresponding access to raw materials.

Keywords: chert artefacts, Tell el-Dab'a, Tell Edfu, 2nd Intermediate Period, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom, distribution, state supply, economic networks

The discovery of exceptionally well-preserved plant macroremains in an early Iron Age (11th century BCE) compound in Tell Abu al- Kharaz, Jordan Valley, sheds light on agricultural and storage practices in the Southern Levant. The samples, which primarily were intended to serve as dating material, were collected in four different basement rooms of the compound. The analysed samples consisted of edible plants such as wheat, barley, chickpea, grass pea, flax, lentil, olive, pomegranate and common grape. In contrast to other Levantine sites, where free-threshing wheat dominates in the Iron Age, the dominant cereal crop at Tell Abu al-Kharaz was emmer wheat, which is more tolerant to drought and poor soils and less susceptible to diseases. It is also easier to store, because is more resistant to pests, yet requires more work to process than free-threshing wheats. The assemblage in one of the rooms represents prime grain in the final stages of crop processing for meal preparation, which is further supported by the presence of (bread) ovens (tawabin and tananir) as well as mortars and grinding implements in the compound. Judging by the storage capacity and the variety of botanical remains, it is suggested that the basement of the compound represents a private storage facility associated with domestic areas in the upper storey, rather than a communal storeroom.

Keywords: archaeobotany, early Iron Age, Jordan, agriculture, storage

This article is one of several, which aimed to synchronise major excavation sites along the Levantine coast with the relative chronology of Tell el-Dabca. Research was done in the frame of the EU MSCA project “Egypt in the Levant”. While the main part of this studies was to synchronise newly excavated sites with Tell el-Dabca, also promising museum material from old excavations was taken into consideration. As the Byblos area was one of the most important trading partners for Tell el-Dabca, it was decided to re-investigate the Royal Tombs of the Middle Bronze Age and try to synchronise their material with the stratigraphy of Tell el-Dabca. Since their discovery in the early 1920s, there is an ongoing debate about their chronological dating, which was strongly influenced by the appearance of Egyptian prestige objects naming the kings Amenemhet III and IV inside two of these tombs (tomb I and II). With a few exceptions, most of the scholars tend to date the bulk of these burials into the MB IIA period, with the tombs I and II being contemporaneous with the reign of these late 12th Dynasty kings. The re-investigation of the Egyptian, Egyptianising and local material from the Royal Tombs I, II and III as well as their synchronisation with the Tell el-Dabca stratigraphy is presented in this study.

Keywords: Byblos, Royal Tombs, Tell el-Dabca, Chronology, Middle Bronze Age, Synchronisation, Egypt

This article discusses the Mekal stele, a New Kingdom funerary stele from Beth-Shean (northern Palestine) depicting a certain Amenemopet and his son Paraemheb worshipping a god named “Mekal, god of Beth-Shean”. Mekal is a most mysterious god, as he still lacks secure identification in other Egyptian and Levantine sources. This article offers a new edition of the stele, and a fresh discussion of the iconographic type of Mekal in relation to other Egyptian depictions of Asiatic gods, such as Baal-Seth and Reshef. It then offers a critical review of the main past attempts at identifying epigraphic and onomastic parallels to Mekal, and also discusses the dating of the stele, formerly set in Dynasty 18, but now provable to belong in Dynasty 19. It finally argues for the presence of a second funerary stele of Amenemopet in Beth-Shean, before offering a cautious conclusion regarding the god’s identity.

Keywords: Mekal, Beth-Shean, Reshef, Baal, Seth, Canaanite religion

Deposit f (nos. 15121–15567), found in the sanctuary of the Obelisk Temple at Byblos, remained – unexpectedly – rather underrated in Egyptological and Near East studies, lying in a ‘no-man’s-land’ straddling between Egypt and the Levant. Notwithstanding, it includes a high number of key objects over a total of 455 artefacts for understanding Middle Bronze Age I–II (1850–1650 BC) Egyptian material culture in contact. Three main questions remain open: the dating of this deposit; the type of deposit; and the material production of its objects, whether they were manufactured in Egypt and imported or locally produced. The deposit includes also a vast array of faience figurines (294) typically manufactured in the (late) Middle Kingdom Egypt. Through a preliminary analysis, mainly based on the published material, the paper aims at providing a more comprehensive picture of the archaeological context of the deposit, including the nature of the artefacts placed in it. In particular, the corpus of faience figurines seem to have been manufactured in Egypt and imported in the Levant as a result of the frequent relations between the two areas during the Middle Bronze Age.

Keywords: Byblos, Obelisk Temple, Middle Bronze Age, deposit, faience figurines, Egyptian material culture

Neo-Assyrian influences over southern Levant had been long debated and criticised. During the 8th and 7th centuries BC the veneration of the moon god Sîn of Ḫarrān experienced a remarkable international reputation, possibly linked to the deity’s peculiar status as a protective and legitimating authority for the Neo-Assyrian westward imperialism under the Sargonid kings. As Stratum V at Tel Seraʿ shows a meaningful Neo-Assyrian milieu pertaining architectural and material records, this paper dedicates a closer focus to a very rare bronze crescent standard, one of the three only records thus far known for this special item, which can be considered the threedimensional counterpart to both tasseled and pendants- equipped lunar crescent standards portrayed on western royal stelae as well as on glyptic records. Since the crescent represents a meaningful religious emblem into the Levantine cultural framework during the Iron Age, the aim of this paper is to investigate a specific dimension of the Neo-Assyrian cultural impact over southern Levant, focusing on the symbolism and meaning conveyed by the bronze lunar crescent standard unearthed at Tel Seraʿ, and on its possible use as a ritual paraphernalia and/or military emblem.

Keywords: 7th century, southern Levant, Bronze crescent standards, Tel Seraʿ, Neo Assyrian

The article reports on the results of the project of non-destructive X-ray fluorescence analysis of 15 artefacts, deposited in the Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien. Artefacts from the sites of Giza, Kubbaniya, Mostagedda, Tura and Toshka were chosen, predominantly from documented archaeological contexts. The periods represented are Early Dynastic, the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom and the Nubian C-Group. The finds were excavated and published by H. Junker and G. Brunton, yet they were analysed for the first time only in the framework of this project. The analysis confirmed the use of copper with impurities in the Early Dynastic period and of arsenical copper in the Early Dynastic period, the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom and the Nubian C-Group. Moreover, on a Dynasty-4 carinated bowl with spout (ÄS 7441) was discovered previously unknown inscription, most probably of the Vizier Seshathetep Heti.

Keywords: Ancient Egypt, copper metallurgy, X-ray fluorescence, arsenical copper, Early Dynastic period, Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, C-Group

This paper presents the results of a longterm survey conducted in the Bakırçay/Kaikos Valley and the vicinity of Pergamon, which provides a new primary dataset for the 2nd millennium BCE developments in this area. The archaeological evidence will be outlined in detail for the first time here, embedded in broader cultural and material developments of the Western Anatolian Middle and Late Bronze Ages. The discussion will not be limited to ceramic wares and shapes and the chronological assessment of the finds only, but their distribution within the valley and site hierarchies will be assessed as well. Finally, the significance of the Bakırçay Valley within the broader cultural landscapes of Western Anatolia will be reconsidered.

Keywords: Western Anatolia, Eastern Aegean, Bronze Age, Pottery, settlement chambers, survey, prehistoric Pergamon

The excavations led from 1966 at Tell el-Dabca show that ancient Avaris was a major harbour town and a trading centre of international importance. As a testimony of extended connections with the Eastern Mediterranean, the site has produced the largest collection of Middle Cypriot pottery in Egypt. However, apart from genuine imports, the excavations yielded an unequalled assemblage of local vessels imitating Cypriot ceramics or inspired by them. Through the example of a group of local jugs painted according to the Cypriot Pendent Line Style, this paper will explore both concepts of imitation and inspiration as well as their implications at Tell el-Dabca. The specific characteristics of these locally produced vessels will be addressed as well as their development within the site’s stratigraphy. Finally, this article will conclude with some observations about the evolution of trading connections between Tell el-Dabca and Cyprus, and how such connections could be linked to other political and cultural developments, which occurred during the Second Intermediate Period.

Keywords: Trade, Imitation, White Painted Pendent Line Style, Cypriot Pottery, Egypt, Cyprus, Second Intermediate Period, Hyksos