Delta Reports 1: Research in the cultural history of the Ancient Egyptian Nile Delta

REVIEW BY SARAH GRIFFITHS

‘Without the Nile Delta, ancient Egyptian culture could not have emerged’. This bold statement begins the first of a new series of volumes that aims to publish more rapidly the fieldwork reports from sites across north Egypt. Sadly, many of the magnificent Delta cities and settlements (such as Pi-Ramesses, Buto, and Bubastis) have long since disappeared; the north ‘is but a weak reflection of what was once’, long overshadowed by the monumental landscapes of Upper Egypt. However, over the last two decades, many international institutions ‘have amassed an amazing archaeological record’, revealing the Delta’s unique environmental conditions, diverse population, and strategic position at the crossroads of Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Near East.

Delta Reports 1 contains ten reports from sites (including Tell Trugi, Wadi Tumilat, and Naukratis) that have been excavated intensively but are not well published, beginning with Tell Heboua II in north-western Sinai. Here, Elsayed Abd El-Alim of Ain Shams University in Cairo has found evidence of an important New Kingdom wine industry, reporting on finds from within the Ramesside fortress.

Some of the earliest evidence comes from Minshat Abu Omar, in the Eastern Nile Delta. Agnieszka Ma˛czyn´ska from the Poznan´ Archaeological Museum (Poland) investigated ‘bag-shaped jars’ found in Predynastic graves, and found evidence suggesting groups of these pots were produced by the same potter. Excavations in the ka-temple of Pepy I in Tell Basta (Bubastis), by a team from the University of Würzburg (Germany), have revealed the chronology of a structure found under the Sixth Dynasty temple. Beginning as an area for food storage, it may have developed into a provincial palace for the local governors. At the other end of the timeline, a team from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities working at Kom Trugi (an inland port on Lake Mareotis) has found evidence for a substantial Graeco-Roman town and a pottery workshop from the early Arab Period.