Tell el-Farkha (Ghazala) (Egypt)
Dates of work: 3 March – 25 April 2012
Team:
Co-directors: Dr. Marek Chłodnicki, archaeologist (Archaeological Museum in Poznań), Prof. Krzysztof M. Ciałowicz, archaeologist (Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków)
MSA representative: Dr. Saad El Sayed Mansur
Archaeologists: Katarzyna Błaszczyk, Artur Buszek, Marcin Czarnowicz, Dr. Joanna Dębowska-Ludwin, Piotr Kołodziejczyk, Michał Kurzyk, Karolina Rosińska-Balik, Urszula Stępień (all Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków), Dr. Maciej Jórdeczka, Dr. Jacek Kabaciński (both Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznań), Dr. Anna Longa (independent)
Ceramologists: Dr. Mariusz Jucha, Magdalena Sobas (both Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków), Dr. Agnieszka Mączyńska (Archaeological Museum in Poznań), Michał Rozwadowski (independent)
Anthropologist: Anna Kozłowska (Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków)
Archeozoologists: Dr. Renata Abłamowicz (Silesian Museum, Katowice), Prof. Daniel Makowiecki (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń)
Geologists: Prof. Maciej Pawlikowski, Edyta Słowioczek (both AGH University of Science and Technology, Kraków)
Conservators: Władysław Weker (State Archaeological Museum, Warsaw), Małgorzata Żukowska (Archaeological Museum in Poznań)
Metallurgist: Dr. Thilo Rehren (University College London)
Photographer: Robert Słaboński (freelance)
Documentalist: Halina Żarska-Chłodnicka (Patrimonium Foundation, Poznań)
Student-trainees: Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
(Joint description of season 2012 and 2013)
Excavations at Tell el-Farkha in 2012 and 2013 were conducted on all three koms making up the site. The upper layers excavated on the Western Kom during the first campaign were connected with the beginning of phase 4 at Tell el-Farkha and the lower layers with phase 3. A few poorly preserved rooms were unearthed, mainly in the southern part of the trench. Also part of a brewery dated to Naqada IIIA1 was explored. A rectangular building with thick walls discovered on the Central Kom was most probably the remains of a big Naqadian store. Results of geophysical research from 2000 were verified; excavations uncovered a round edifice, 7 m in diameter, surrounded by a wall almost 2 m thick. In a test trench on the Eastern Kom, a rectangular room (2.50 m by 6 m) with two regular entrances from north and south was unearthed. In the main trench, work concentrated on the area north and south of the monumental mastaba uncovered a few seasons earlier.
Both campaigns were financed by the National Science Centre (No. 1057/B/H03/2011/40) and sponsored by the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, the Archaeological Museum in Poznań, the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of the University of Warsaw, and the Patrimonium Foundation, Poznań.
[Text: Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 24/1]