Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists Abstracts of Papers

XICE – Abstract of Papers
and it was adapted as a settlement area of more egalitarian pattern. At the end of
phase G/3-1 (= c) a plague seems to have occurred, because the settlements were
partly abandoned and many simple pit graves, mostly without grave goods, were
found.
The aims of the project comprise the distinction of the three phases H, G/4 and
G/3-1 within the area A/II and the presentation of the finds of each phase and any
development that can be deduced in turn. The bulk of the finds are ceramic in nature,
but there are smaller numbers of small finds, animal bones, archaeo-botanic remains
and a few metal and silex finds, some of which where studied by specialists. 6 These
studies will be incorporated within a comprehensive analysis of the finds. This
addition will enable us to greatly increase our knowledge of the environmental
circumstances in which the rather humble inhabitants lived about 3800 years ago, and
therefore add to the field of settlement archaeology in Egypt.
The theories of spatial analysis 7 will be applied to the object groups within the
ground plans of the excavation, to test if, and if so which, patterns emerge. This
analysis will help to learn more about use and function and functional areas in the
various parts of the settlement as well as allow to test, if there are spatial differences
detectable to other Egyptian settlements. This will be especially interesting taking into
consideration the non-Egyptian ethnic background of many of the inhabitants of these
three settlement layers. Thus it will be possible to study for the first time if an impact
of a foreign population on a settlement in Egypt can be observed in the material
remains, as the skeletal remains suggest that a part of the inhabitants of Tell el-Dab c a
belongs to a non-Egyptian population group. 8 The existence of such groups especially
from Canaan can be seen as a long standing tradition in the Egyptian Delta since predynastic
times. 9 Their presence in this settlement give us the unique chance to
compare the material remains to other sites in Egypt and to apply and to test
acculturation theories, 10 that hitherto have been utilised mostly for languages and only
in limited scale to material culture. The progress of the work will be shown by means
of one compound and the finds made within, which include stone implements, flints
and pottery that constitutes the bulk of them.
Meroitic pottery from Napata. The Hellenistic influence [poster]
Grażyna Bąkowska
6 J. BOESSNECK, Tell el-Dab c a III. Die Tierknochenfunde (Vienna, 1976); J. BOESSNECK, Angela von
den Driesch, Tell el-Dab c a VII, Tiere und Historische Umwelt im Nordost-Delta im 2. Jt. v. Chr.
anhand der Knochenfunden der Ausgrabungen 1975 – 1986 (Vienna, 1992); U. THANHEISER,
Untersuchungen zur ägyptischen Landwirtschaft in dynastischer Zeit anhand von Pflanzenresten aus
Tell el-Dab c a, Diss. d. Univ. (Wien, 1987).
7 I. HODDER and C. ORTON, Spatial Analysis in Archaeology (Cambridge, 1976).
8 E.M. WINKLER and H. WILFING, Tell el-Daba VI, Anthropologische Untersuchungen an den
Skelettresten der Kampagnen 1966-69, 1975 – 80, 1985 (Wien, 1991), 120.
9 St. QUIRKE and J. MALEK, ‘Memphis, 1991: epigraphy’, JEA 78 (1992), 13-8; J. BAINES, ‘The stela of
Khusobek: private and royal military narrative and values’, in: J. OSING (ed.), Form und Maß, FS für
G. Fecht, ÄAT 12, (Wiesbaden, 1987), 43-61; U. LUFT, Asiatics in Illahun: A Preliminary Report, Atti
di Sesto Congresso Internazionale di Egittologia, Bd.2 (Turin, 1993), 291-7.
10 I. EVEN-ZOHAR, ‘Polysystem Studies’, Poetics Today 11:1, Duke Universtity Press (Durham, 1990);
R. EICHMANN, Migration und Kulturtransfer. Der Wandel vorder- und zentralasiatischer Kulturen im
Umbruch von 2. zum 1. vorchristlichen Jahrtausend, Akten des internationalen Kolloquiums, Berlin
23. bis 26. November 1999 (Bonn, 2001).
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