Tell el-Farkha (Ghazala) and Tell el-Murrah (Egipt), 2010

Tell el-Farkha and Tell el-Murrah (Egypt)

For current work at Tell el-Farkha and Tell el-Murrah see the blog (in Polish): http://farcha.blox.pl/html.

Tell el-Farkha (Ghazala) (Egypt)

Digging dates: 13 March – 29 April 2010

Team:
Co-Directors: Dr. Marek Chłodnicki (Poznań Archeological Museum), Prof. Krzysztof M. Ciałowicz (Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University)
SCA Representative: Mohamed Mustafa Shabana
Archaeologists: Katarzyna Błaszczyk, Artur Buszek, Dr. Joanna Dębowska-Ludwin, Katarzyna Juszczyk, Piotr Kołodziejczyk, Michał Kurzyk (all from the Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University), Magdalena Nowak (freelance), Maciej Jórdeczka, Jacek Kabaciński (both Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Science, Poznań)
Ceramologist: Dr. Mariusz Jucha, Magdalena Sobas (both Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University), Michał Rozwadowski (Center for Archaeological Heritage Rescue Research, Poznań)
Anthropologists: Anna Kozłowska, Anna Kubica (both Institute of Zoology, Jagiellonian University), Izabela Maciuszczak (Institute of Anthropology, Adam Mickiewicz University)
Archaeozoologists: Dr. Renata Abłamowicz (Silesian Museum in Katowice), Daniel Makowiecki (Institute of Archaeology, Mikołaj Kopernik University in Toruń)
Architect: Karolina Rosińska-Balik (Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University)
Geologists: Prof. Maciej Pawlikowski (Institute of Mineralogy, University of Science and Technology in Kraków), Dr. Małgorzata Mrozek-Wysocka (Institute of Geology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań)
Conservators: Władysław Weker (State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw), Małgorzata Żukowska (Poznań Archeological Museum)
Photographer: Robert Słaboński (freelance)
Documentalists: Halina Żarska-Chłodnicka (ARCHmedia s.c., Poznań)
Student-trainees from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

All three koms forming the site were examined. On the Western Kom work continued in an area opened in 2006 and revealed further layers of occupation connected with the Naqada IIIB period. It was confirmed that the complex of rooms surrounding an empty space, probably a courtyard, limited by massive walls discovered in 2007–2009, has earlier phases. In the northern part of this structure a complex of small rooms was still visible.

On the Eastern Kom four new graves were excavated. Grave 109, without any equipment, was connected with Old Kingdom last phase of occupation at Tell el-Farkha. Grave 111, where the deceased was accompanied by pottery and miniature vessels of alabaster, is dated to the turn of the First Dynasty. Grave 112, with no dating elements, belonged to an infant. Grave 114 is preliminarily dated to Dynasty 0; it contained pottery, stone vessels, a rectangular schist palette and a necklace of stone beads.
On the northern part of the Eastern Kom, a settlement dated to the Early Dynastic period was excavated and a road leading from the NE to the SW (to the eastern facade of the mastaba of grave 10) was discovered. On the Central Kom only a small test trench was dug on the eastern slope.

Tell el-Murra (Egypt)

Digging dates: 27 February–24 March 2010

Team:

Director: Dr. Mariusz A. Jucha, archaeologist (Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków)

SCA representative: Ismail Abdel Razik Abdel Moaty Ali (Faqus SCA Inspectorate)

Archaeologists: Grzegorz Pryc, Katarzyna Błaszczyk, Michał Kurzyk (all PhD candidates, Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków)

Archaeologist, geologist: Dr. Michał Wasilewski (Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków)

Archaeologist, geophysicists: Artur Buszek (PhD candidate, Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków)

Student-trainees from the Institute of Archaeology of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków

Much of the work of the Northwestern Nile Delta Survey Project involved research at Tell el-Murra, a site in the northeastern part of the Nile Delta chosen for excavation on the basis of results from the 2008 survey season. Archaeological testing was coupled with magnetic prospection and geological core drillings in an effort to establish site stratigraphy and chronology. An analysis of the assemblage of finds (mainly pottery), confirmed occupation of the northeastern part of the site in the Old Kingdom period, after the southwestern part had already been abandoned. Core drilling results suggested the presence of Predynastic layers below the Protodynastic strata explored in 2010. A continued survey around Tell el-Murra comprised prospection at the sites of Tell Abu el-Halyat, Tell el-Akhdar, Minshat Radwan, Tell Gezira el-Faras, Gezira Sangaha, Mantiqat el-Qalaa and Kafr el-Hadidi. Naqada III pottery was confirmed at the first four of these sites.

[Text: PAM]

Contact
K.M. Ciałowicz: kmcialowicz@interia.pl
M. Chłodnicki: mchlod@man.poznan.pl
M. A. Jucha: jucha_m@hotmail.com