Tell el-Dabʿa XXII ‒ "Der Mund der beiden Wege"

Tell el-Dab'a XXII is the comprehensive final publication of the results of an excavation by the Cairo branch of the Austrian Archaeological Institute in the area of Ezbet Rushdi, northeast of Tell el-Dab'a (area R/I). A first excavation at that site in the 1950s by the Egyptian Antiquities Organisation had revealed the existence of a large mud brick temple plus surrounding settlement structures of 12th dynasty date. The Austrian archaeological work in 1996 under the directorship of Manfred Bietak had the initial scope to re-examine the previous results and to clarify some details. However, it developed into a more substantial excavation held in two campaigns, which yielded many new results and finds. The temple building was re-studied; it could be established that it was founded not earlier than the middle-12th dynasty (probably in the fifth year of Sesostris III). A previous settlement stretching under the temple was newly discovered. The focal point of the present publication in two volumes (Part 1: text; Part 2: illustrations, plates, profiles) is the presentation of the architecture of both the temple and the houses of the settlement, as well as the presentation and study of the many findings (ceramics, flints, statue-fragments, etc.).