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Tell Tebilla Project:
Map of the East Delta of Egypt,
with the location of Tell Tebilla and its environs.
Project Personnel:
- Expedition Director:
- Dr. Gregory D. Mumford (University of Toronto)
- SCA inspectors:
- Yesser il-Gamal
- Said El-Tahlwa
Ahmed Robea
- Photographer/Asst. Director:
- Patrick Carstens (Toronto)
- Geoarchaeologist:
- Dr. Larry Pavlish (University of Toronto)
- Ceramicists:
- Rexine Hummel (University of Toronto)
- Dr. Steven Shubert (University of Toronto)
Kei
Yamamoto (University of Toronto)
- Assistant Ceramicists:
- Frances
Cahill (University of California Los Angeles)
- Julie l'Heureux (University of Toronto)
Lyla
Pinch-Brock (Cairo)
- Sarah Rayner (American University in Cairo)
Maureen
Rode (University of British Columbia)
- Osteologists:
- Dr. Peter Sheldrick (M.D.; SSEA Trustee)
Alison Graver (University of Ottawa)
- Artist-Registrars:
- Shakira Christodoulou (Cambridge University)
Tannis Davidson (University of Toronto)
Lyla Pinch-Brock (Cairo)
- Registrar:
- Dr. Monica Bontty (UCLA)
- Conservator:
- Maher
Suiliman (SCA, el-Mansourah)
- Project Assistants:
- Alwyn Burridge (University of Toronto)
Laura Chinery (University of Toronto)
Kelly Diamond (Brown University)
- Christopher Gilbert (University of Toronto)
- Darlene Gorzo (University of Toronto)
- Charlotte Kerlik (University of Toronto)
- Zoe McQuinn (University of Toronto)
- Sarah Parcak (Yale University; Cambridge University)
- Katalin Szabados (University of Toronto)
- Overseer of the Workforce:
- Reis Anwar el-Shared (Cairo)
Reis Mohammed
el-Shared (Cairo)
- Project Staff Members (Based in Toronto):
- Shari Stephens (University of Toronto)
Stanley Klassen (University of Toronto)
Arlette Londes (Toronto)
-
Work-study students (Based in Toronto):
- Sarah
Dedecker (University of Toronto)
Gary Miklowic (University of Toronto)
Maureen Rode (University of Toronto)
-
Translator (English-to-Arabic):
- Sherine
Elsebaie (University of Toronto)
December 1999 University of Toronto expedition to Tell Tebilla:
P. Carstens; G. Mumford; D. Gorzo, L. Pavlish, Y. il-Gamal.
(Photo: P. Carstens)
The 2000 University of Toronto expedition to Tell Tebilla.
(Photo: P. Carstens)
Back row: P. Carstens, Mohammed, C. Gilbert, L. Chinery, L. Pavlish
Middle Row: K. Diamond, S. Parcak, S. Shubert, G. Mumford
Front Row: S. el-Tahlwa, T. Davidson, K. Szabados, C. Kerlik
The 2001 University of Toronto expedition to Tell Tebilla
(Photo: P. Carstens).
Back row: L. Pavlish, R. Hummel, G. Mumford, S. el-Tahlwa, Reis Anwar, C. Gilbert, and
Reis Abdallah; Front row: P. Carstens, L. Pinch-Brock, S. Parcak, M. Bontty, S. Rayner, Z.
McQuinn, and J. l'Heureux.
 The 2003 University of Toronto expedition to Tell Tebilla (Photo: P.
Carstens).
Back row: P. Carstens, L. Pavlish, L. Chinery, P. Sheldrick, K.
Yamamoto, F. Cahill, M. Rode, A. Graver, M. Shared, A. Shared; Front
row: R. Hummel, A. Burridge, G. Mumford, S. Parcak, S. Christadoulou,
L. Pinch.
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East Delta (Tell Tebilla)
Bibliographic sources
for Tell Tebilla
Tell Tebilla 1
Project Personnel
Background
Survey and Excavation Results
Southern Cemetery 2000
Western Cemetery 1999-2001
Northern Cemetery 2001
Northeastern Cemetery
The Temple
The Settlement
Conclusion
Magnetometer and
Surface Survey
History & Commerce
The Material Culture
from Tell Tebilla
Imported Pottery
Osteology
Satellite Images & Aerial Photography Studies
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Background:
Tell Tebilla is situated in the East
Delta, 12 km. north of Mendes, along the now defunct Mendesian branch of the Nile. It lies
at the southern edge of ancient marshlands bordering Lake Manzala. It initially provided a
maritime port for Mendes in the Old Kingdom and later periods, before the coastal lagoon of
Lake Manzala formed and cut off access to the Mediterranean Sea during the late
Roman/Coptic period (ca. AD 400-500). The surviving mound rises eight metres above the
flood plain and measures 400 by 400 metres in area. It may have extended originally at
least 1100 metres north-south by 800 metres east-west (revealed by off-site sherd density
distributions and water pipe trench sections).
 Diminishing size of Tell Tebilla from 1798 to the present (Drawing: G.
Mumford).
The University of Toronto expedition observed surface pottery
sherds dating to the Old Kingdom to early First Intermediate Period, Second Intermediate
Period to early Dynasty 18, and Dynasties 21-31 through the Greco-Roman periods. Despite
the presence of a dozen Second Intermediate Period sherds (i.e., two Yahudiyeh ware
vessels and black-rimmed vessels), the excavation work, surface sherd
collections, and coring across the mound, have indicated both a one metre gap in
occupation debris and a 1000 year hiatus from the First Intermediate Period to Third
Intermediate Period. This situation is similar to the occupation sequence at Buto (West
Delta); it presumably reflects a period in which the Mendesian branch of the Nile had
moved away from Tebilla, perhaps reducing the site to a small village in the Second
Intermediate Period (reflected by two juglet sherds of Tell el-Yahudiyeh ware).
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Above: Regional east-west flood plain beside Tebilla
(simplified from 1:50,000 map by G. Mumford).
Left: Contour map of Northeast Delta,
showing Tebilla, Mendes, etc. (G. Mumford)
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The inscribed statuary and wall blocks from Tell Tebilla, and
inscriptions found outside the site, have revealed that its temple lay in the district of
Ro-nefer and was dedicated primarily to Osiris-khes. Other deities attested at this site include
Isis, Horus, Anubis, Sobek, and the four sons of Horus (Imsety, Duamutef,
Qebehsenuef, and Hapy). According to ancient Egyptian legends the
nearby nome capital of Mendes was associated with the phallus of Osiris, one of 14 body
parts disposed of throughout Egypt by the god Seth. In the Third Intermediate Period, the
district of Ro-nefer (including Tell Tebilla) appears aligned politically with the Tanite
kingdom of King Osorkon IV. This ruler controlled the northern end of the Mendesian
branch of the Nile during King Piye's ca.728 BCE campaign against northern Egypt. After
the Saite (Dynasty 26) reunification of Egypt, Ro-nefer may have returned to the Mendesian
nome: A neighbouring Saite period mayor (Osiris-nakht) apparently dedicated a statue at
Tell Tebilla, mentioning the temple of Osiris in the district of Ro-nefer.
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Like other East Delta settlements, Tell Tebilla experienced a fair
amount of turmoil during the Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and Persian invasions of Egypt. For
example, in ca.454 BC the Persians defeated an Athenian fleet entering the Mendesian
branch of the Nile. In addition, periods of civil warfare and strife occurred between the
first and second Persian occupations of Egypt. For instance, between ca.360 and 358 BC,
Nectanebo II fought a series of battles in the east delta with a rebel ruler from Mendes;
in 343 BC Artaxerxes III invaded Egypt, besieging and destroying towns throughout the
delta. Of note, excavations at nearby Mendes (by Dr. D. B. Redford and the Supreme Council
of Antiquities) have revealed late fourth century BCE destructions, by Artaxerxes III, of
the Ram hypogeum, Nepherites I's mortuary chamber and chapel, a storehouse area, and
shrines of Nectanebo I-II. |
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Survey and Excavation Results:
Topographic map of Tell Tebilla
(generated by L. Pavlish)
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The 1999-2001
and 2003 seasons at Tell Tebilla concentrated upon
(1) generating a topographic map of the mound,
(2) conducting a magnetometer survey in the southern part and eastern
half of Tebilla,
(3) collecting and analyzing potsherds from the surface of the mound and
its environs,
(4) producing artifact density plots (from randomly selected, one by
one metre units examined across the mound),
Sherd distribution beyond
current mound edge. (L. Pavlish)
L. Pavlish and Alexander Redford cleaning auger. (Photo:
P. Carstens)
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(5) coring to reveal the mound's geological and occupation history, (6) cataloguing, photographing, and drawing (selected pieces) of all the
surface monuments found across the mound and in the neighbouring village and fields,
(7) recording and salvaging the stratigraphy, monuments, and artifacts
observed within an adjacent municipal construction site for a water filtration plant (west
side of Tebilla),
(8) excavating a Late Period, middle class cemetery at the
southern edge of the mound,
(9) excavating destroyed Late Period structures (reused
for burials) along the northern end of the mound, and
(10) tracing a Dyn 30 fort-temple enclosure (235 x 352 m.) and associated
structures.
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 Reconstruction of Tell Tebilla in relation to various levee and river
systems and coastal waters prior to the formation of Lake Menzala
(Drawing: G. Mumford).
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Panoramic View of Tell Tebilla:
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