Tell el-Farkha
Dates of work: 8 March–10 April 2014
Team:
Co-directors: Dr. Marek Chłodnicki, archaeologist (Archaeological Museum in Poznań), Prof. Krzysztof M. Ciałowicz, archaeologist (Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University)
MSA representatives: Mohammed Abdel Aziz Al-Sayed Gabr, Emad Hassan Mohamed Salamah
Archaeologists: Bartosz Adamski, Marcin Czarnowicz, Jacek Karmowski, Dr. Piotr Kołodziejczyk, Karolina Rosińska-Balik, Maciej Wacławik (all Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University), Jakub Mugaj (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Poznań)
Ceramologist: Magdalena Kaźmierczak (Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University), Dr. Agnieszka Mączynska (Archaeological Museum in Poznań)
Photographer: Robert Słaboński (freelance)
Documentalist: Halina Żarska-Chłodnicka (Patrimonium Foundation, Poznań)
Conservator: Małgorzata Żukowska (Archaeological Museum in Poznań)
Archaeology student-trainees: Michał Kłosowski, Jakub Skłucki, Daria Białobrzecka, Natalia Skórnicka, Magdalena Płoszaj, Alicja Jurkiewicz, Mariusz Gamrat, Magdalena Więckowska, Merita Dreshai (all Jagiellonian University in Krakow) Malwina Brachmańska, Marta Kaczanowicz, Jakub Mugaj (all Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań), Marta Krzyżańska (University College London) Training for young inspectors from Mansura was also conducted.)
(Joint description of seasons 2014 and 2015)
The archaeological site of Tell el-Farkha is composed of three mounds excavated continuously by the Polish team since 1998. In the 2014 and 2015 seasons, covered in this report, investigations were carried out in already opened trenches in three sectors. On the Western Kom, another brewery was explored to add to the already existing set of investigated installations of this kind. It demonstrated three phases of use, the topmost separated from the middle one by a thick layer of burnt soil and ashes. The deposit attests to a conflagration that consumed the entire settlement.
The study of a huge Naqadian building was continued on the Central Kom. Two occupation phases were distinguished: an older one at the beginning of the Naqada IIIA1 period and a younger one attributed to Naqada IIIA1–IIIA2. Remains of Lower Egyptian structures were unearthed below the foundations of this building. A big clay stamp-seal with hieroglyphs from the mid First Dynasty period was found associated with this feature. On the Eastern Kom, a big mud-brick edifice of unknown function was investigated. A further 17 graves, mostly from the second half of the First and the beginning of the Second Dynasty, were discovered as well.
The two field campaigns were financed from National Science Centre grants 1057/B/H03/2011/40 and 2014/13/B/HS3/04976 sponsored further by the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Archaeological Museum in Poznań, the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw and Patrimonium Foundation, Poznań.
[Text: Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 25]