Tell el-Murra

Tell el-Murra

• Project name:

  Polish Archaeological Expedition to the North-Eastern Nile Delta

  Project website:

  www.murra.pl

• Type of site:

  Settlement, cemetery

  Location:

  Egypt
  Nile Delta
  About 100 km north-east from Cairo

  Dating:

  – Predynastic period (Lower Egyptian culture)
  – Early Dynastic period (1st–2nd dynasty)
  – Old Kingdom (3rd–6th dynasty)
  – Absolute dating: ca. 3500–2200 BC
  

Most interesting finds:

– Discovery of Lower Egyptian culture remains and determining that the beginnings of the settlement at Tell el-Murra date to about 3500 BC
– Discovery of remains attesting to a very high level of the flooding of the Nile, which probably destroyed a large part of the settlement at the end of the Lower Egyptian culture
– Confirmation of a break in the settlement at Tell el-Murra (in the Naqada IID period) between the decline of the Lower Egyptian culture and the period directly preceding the creation of the Egyptian state
– Acquiring of data on settlement architecture (structures and archaeological material from the times of the 2nd and 3rd dynasties), which is important in light of the small number of excavated settlements from this still insufficiently recognized period
– Uncovering of bread-baking installations
– Noting the difference between the burials from the 1st–2nd dynasty in Tell el-Murra and the ones in other cemeteries in the Delta from the same period

History of research:

Dates of work:

2008, since 2010 yearly

Type of research:

Survey, excavations

Directors:

Mariusz Jucha, Institute of Archeology, Jagiellonian University in Kraków (2008- )
Grzegorz Bąk-Pryc, Institute of Archeology, Jagiellonian University in Kraków (2013- )

Co-operating institutions:

– Institute of Archeology, Jagiellonian University in Kraków
– Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw

Additional information:

In 2008, the Polish Archaeological Expedition to the North-Eastern Nile Delta began research work in the Ash-Sharqiyyah Province to locate sites from the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennium BC. Pottery material from this period was discovered on the following sites: Tell el-Murra, Tell Abu el-Halyat, Tell el-Akhdar, Gezira el-Faras, and presumably Minshat Radwan. Tell el-Murra was selected for further investigation.

Research in Tell el-Murra was carried out in the framework of the following projects:
– “Settlements of the Eastern Nile Delta in the Pre- and Early Dynastic periods and their role in the development of trade with the Near East” – project financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (grant no. 2195/B/H03/2009/36, in the course of realization handed over to the National Science Centre), realized from 03.07.2009 to 02.05.2012.
– “Between Southern Egypt and Canaan. The development and decline of Tell el-Murra, a trade route settlement from the 4th–3rd millennium BC” – project financed by the National Science Centre, decision no. DEC-2013/09/B/HS3/03588, realized from 06.02.2014 to 05.12.2016.

Description of the site and research:

Tell el-Murra lies in the eastern part of the Nile Delta, about 100 km north-east from Cairo. The tell, which covers the remains of an ancient settlement and cemetery, rises approximately 3 to 4 m above the surrounding cultivated fields /Fig. 1/.

Tell el-Murra was one of the sites surveyed as part of the project conducted in the years 2008 and 2010–2011 in the Eastern Nile Delta, in the Ash-Sharqiyyah Province. The excavations confirmed the existence of cultural layers dating to the Predynastic, Early Dynastic, and Old Kingdom periods. It means that Tell el-Murra existed for 1300 years (about 3500–2200 BC).

Exploratory works in 2011 focused on three parts of the tell: south-western (trial pits S3 and S2), north-eastern (trial pit S1), and eastern (trial pit S4). The site was selected for further regular archaeological excavations based on the analysis of the material collected from the surface and the trial pits, as well as the results of geophysical research and geological drilling. The pottery found on the surface and in the trial pits (S1, S3, S4) that were explored in 2010–2011 allowed the team to determine the chronology of the settlement. The preliminary dating from about 3500 to about 2200 BC was confirmed during subsequent research carried out in 2014–2016, which also helped distinguish the subsequent phases of development and decline of the settlement.

The oldest settlement was founded in the Predynastic period by the representatives of the Lower Egyptian culture, which had developed in the northern part of Egypt. Its remains have been studied so far in two trenches: S1 (2011) and S4 (2016). Research in 2016 also confirmed earlier assumptions about a break in the settlement in the Naqada IID period, between the decline of the Lower Egyptian culture and the period directly preceding the creation of the Egyptian state.

The site was resettled at the end of the Predynastic period (the so-called Protodynastic period), possibly shortly before the unification of the country. The settlement also functioned in the Early Dynastic period (1st–2nd dynasty) /Fig. 4/. However, it became smaller, and its north-western part, until then occupied by domestic structures, was turned into a cemetery (trench S3). Burials in pottery coffins /Fig. 8/ were often found in the excavated graves from this period /Figs 5, 6, 7/.

During the Old Kingdom (3rd–6th dynasty), the settlement still concentrated only in the eastern (trench S4) and northern (trench T5 and material collected from the surface of the tell) parts of the site /Figs 2, 3/. Research conducted in 2013–2016 showed that despite a short crisis and a decrease in size, Tell el-Murra flourished in the Early Dynastic period (1st–2nd dynasty), and especially in the first part of the Old Kingdom (3rd–4th dynasty). The next decline in importance happened in the second part of the Old Kingdom (5th–6th dynasty), as evidenced by the very modest remains uncovered in 2013–2014. At the end of that period, during the reign of the 6th dynasty, the site was abandoned; no later material has been found to date.

The excavators uncovered extensive settlement structures (domestic buildings, silos, storage pits, bread-baking installations), which provide important information on Egyptian architecture. Small finds from the settlement include numerous querns, grinders, sickle inserts, plant remains, and animal bones. In light of this data, it can be assumed that the inhabitants of Tell el-Murra supported themselves with agriculture, animal husbandry, and fishing. At the same time, the presence of imported objects confirms the existence of contacts with other regions.

The excavations conducted in the cemetery demonstrated the differences between burials on contemporary sites in the Delta. They are especially evident in the case of the pottery coffins, present in Tell el-Murra but completely absent in some of the neighboring cemeteries from the same period (e.g., Tell el-Farkha, Minshat Abu Omar).
Current work carried out in Tell el-Murra encompasses primarily the south-western part of the site (trench S3), where Early Dynastic graves are being uncovered, as well as the older settlement and the north-eastern part of the site (trench T5), where the remains of the settlement functioning to the end of the Old Kingdom are studied.

Gallery: