Tell el-Farkha (Ghazala) (Egypt)
Dates of work: 2 March – 25 April 2013
Team:
Co-directors: Dr. Marek Chłodnicki, archaeologist (Archaeological Museum in Poznań), Prof. Krzysztof M. Ciałowicz, archaeologist (Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków)
MSA representative: Ali Mahfouz Abass Hassan, Yousri el-Sayed Ahmed
Archaeologists: Bartosz Adamski, Marcin Czarnowicz, Dr. Joanna Dębowska-Ludwin, Piotr Kołodziejczyk, Karolina Rosińska-Balik, Marcin Szymanowicz (all Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków), Dr. Maciej Jórdeczka (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznań), Dr. Anna Longa (independent)
Ceramologists: 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; 2012, 2013)
Archeozoologists: Dr. Renata Abłamowicz (Silesian Museum, Katowice)
Geologists: Prof. Maciej Pawlikowski, Edyta Słowioczek (both AGH University of Science and Technology, Kraków)
Conservator: Małgorzata Żukowska (Archaeological Museum in Poznań)
Photographer: Robert Słaboński (freelance)
Documentalist: Halina Żarska-Chłodnicka (Patrimonium Foundation, Poznań)
Student-trainees: Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Nicolaus University of Warsaw (2013)
(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]