Tell Tebilla 3

	EAST DELTA Tell Tebilla 3
	The Western Cemetery: 1999 - 2001 Seasons: Ceramic anthropoid coffin: Ceramic anthropoid sarcophagus lid from water plant. (Photo: P. Carstens) Anthropoid sarcophagus lid. (Artist: L. Pinch-Brock; inked by G. Mumford) During the cutting of trenches for water pipes, the municipal workers extracted the upper part of a ceramic anthropoid coffin, portions of which were found during our joint SCA and University of Toronto examination of the trench spoil heaps (kindly permitted by the Dikirnis municipal officials). A few pieces of jewelry (a carnelian bead and a jasper earring) found nearby, may have been associated with this burial. Salvage operations and discoveries in water pipe trenches and spoil heaps in the Water Plant. (Field drawing: G. Mumford; digitized image: B. Mumford) Although construction work in the water plant obscured the original context for the ceramic anthropoid coffin lid (found in mound 8 beside water pipe trench II/III), this coffin came from an area of mud brick walls and chambers that lay immediately below the Dynasty 26 surface found to the east along the mound’s edge. The potsherds from the spoil heap containing this coffin lid included Cypro-Phoenician pottery and other forms dating to the Late Period. Petrie’s excavation of a Late Period cemetery at Tell Nebesheh (south of Tanis) revealed a similar context. The foundations for the substructure of a Dynasty 26 mastaba-tomb had cut through a Dynasty 25(?) mastaba. The western burial chambers (nos.17-18) of the Dynasty 25(?) mastaba had survived and contained ceramic anthropoid coffins, Cypro_Phoenician pottery, and bronze and iron weapons. The compilation of Petrie’s drawings (illustrated below), display a similar burial type, funerary goods, and time period to the remnants found in the water pipe trenches at Tebilla. Compiled drawings of W.M.F. Petrie’s Dyns.25-26 “Cypriot” burials and funerary products from Tell Nebesheh, East Delta (Adapted by G. Mumford). Stone sarcophagi from elite burials: Limestone sarcophagus type 1 (no. 224: 267 x 143 x 124 cm). (G. Mumford) View of limestone sarcophagus. (Photo: P. Carstens) The municipal work at the southern and northern end of the water plant (the western side of Tebilla) also produced five large limestone sarcophagi, a limestone sarcophagus lid, and one diorite sarcophagus.This indicates the presence of a wealthy stratum (presumably the ruling class and relatives) in the Late Period community at Tebilla. (A granite sarcophagus? fragment also lies at the northern end of the mound). Limestone sarcophagus type 2 (No. 162: 250 x 128 x 106 cm) (G. Mumford) View of limestone sarcophagus. (Photo: P. Carstens) Black granite sarcophagus type 3 (No. 218: 212 x 88 x 63) (G. Mumford) View of black granite sarcophagus. (Photo: P. Carstens) Top of Page The el-Mansoura office of the SCA, which had supervised and recorded the excavation of these burials, kindly described and showed photographs of the faience jewelry (beads and amulets), shawabtis, and bronze amulets found with the bodies interred in the sarcophagi. One of the sarcophagi retained the remnants of two bodies and the head from a Greco-Roman period amulet. Of note, the 1908 excavations at Tebilla (by Abdallah, Chaban, and Edgar), had revealed other burials, including one large broken limestone sarcophagus. This contained a mummy with a terra cotta face mask, and wealthy funerary products such as jewelry, bronze figurines, and a bronze box. Limestone sarcophagus lid for type 1 (no. 153: 225 x 85 x 11 cm). (L. Chanery; C. Gilbert) View of limestone sarcophagus lid. (Photo: P. Carstens) The Late Period and Greco-Roman sarcophagus types included (1) four limestone "bath-tub"-style sarcophagi (with one lid) and a granite fragment which may represent the head portion from this sarcophagus type, (2) one rectangular sarcophagus with a small rectangular inset to accommodate a wooden coffin or mummy, and (3) one rectangular sarcophagus with an inset in the form of an anthropoid coffin. Chaban's limestone sarcophagus (which had been broken and plundered in antiquity) may represent type 3, while a massive, worn limestone block, currently lying on the mound's surface, may also represent type 3: It has the same dimensions as the sarcophagi but needs to be turned over to see whether it has a rectangular inset.			East Delta (Tell Tebilla) Arabic Summary Arabic Report Bibliography Bibliographic sources for Tell Tebilla Tell Tebilla 1 Project Personnel Background Survey and Excavation Results Tell Tebilla 2 Southern Cemetery 2000 Tell Tebilla 3 Western Cemetery 1999-2001 Tell Tebilla 4 Northern Cemetery 2001 Northeastern Cemetery Tell Tebilla 5 The Temple Tell Tebilla 6 The Settlement Conclusion Tell Tebilla 7 Magnetometer and Surface Survey Tell Tebilla 8 History & Commerce Tell Tebilla 9 The Material Culture from Tell Tebilla Tell Tebilla 10 Imported Pottery Tell Tebilla 11 Osteology Remote Imaging (E.Delta) Satellite Images & Aerial Photography Studies
	SCA findings from the sarcophagi burials: The SCA salvage operations, which rescued several limestone sarcophagi from the water plant construction site in 1988, revealed elite burials and grave goods in the western part of Tell Tebilla. A bronze eye-piece, with white inlay for the pupil, suggests the original presence of a wooden coffin; a duplicate eye-piece appears in the wooden anthropoid coffin of Petosiris from Tuna el-Gebel, dating to the advent of the Ptolemaic period (c.300 B.C.). Bronze eye-inlay from SCA (M. Abd Fattah) salvage work in the Water Plant (Photo: G. Mumford; courtesy Dr. Z. Hawass). At least one of the elite interments produced containers for the deceased’s entrails --extracted during the mummification process. One burial produced a limestone baboon-headed jar lid (i.e., Hapy, guardian of the lungs), which would have originally formed part of a set of four canopic jars for the four sons of Horus: Hapy (baboon), Qebehsenuf (falcon), Duamutef (jackal), and Imsety (human). Canopic jar lid of Hapy from SCA (M. Abd Fattah) salvage work in the Water Plant (Photo: G. Mumford; courtesy Dr. Z. Hawass)
	A calcite jar represents a cosmetic container, probably originally holding an unguent for the use of the deceased in life and death. A bronze mirror may have accompanied this container, often being found in cosmetic boxes for the elite.

	Calcite jar (left) and Bronze mirror (right) from SCA (M. Abd Fattah) salvage work in the Water Plant (Photos: G. Mumford; courtesy Dr. Z. Hawass). Elaborate jewellery accompanied some of the elite burials, including necklaces of faience beads, scarab seals, and amulets. Such fine necklaces and amulets appear in upper class burials elsewhere.

	Faience necklace (left) and Faience scarab (right) from SCA (M. Abd Fattah) salvage excavations in the Water Plant (Photo: G. Mumford; courtesy Dr. Z. Hawass).

	Falcon-amulet (left) and Bes amulet (right) from SCA (M. Abd Fattah) salvage work in the Water Plant (Photo: G. Mumford; courtesy Dr. Z. Hawass).
	The burials also contained 13 shawabti figures of Dynasty 26 types with back pillars and square bases. Although each elite Late Period burial would ideally contain 365 shawabti figurines (and overseer figurines) to work in-place of the deceased during the afterlife, many elite burials actually yielded only a portion of the ideal number. The figurines from Tebilla are mostly fragmentary, but reveal sufficient traces of text to ascertain that they bore the same funerary spell.
	Faience Dyn.26-style shawabti from SCA (M. Abd Fattah) salvage work in the Water Plant (Drawing: G. Mumford) Acknowledgements: The University of Toronto project thanks Dr. Zahi Hawass, the permanent committee of the SCA, and Maghdy el-Ghandour of the Cairo office of the SCA, and Mohammed Abd Fettah, Naguib Noor, Salem Gabre, Aly Amrea, and Ahmed Robea of the el-Mansourah office of the SCA, for access to the SCA 1988 findings from Tell Tebilla. A joint publication with the SCA is being prepared for the materials excavated and salvaged from Tell Tebilla.
	Hypothetical reconstruction of elite tomb-chapels: Despite the loss --through municipal construction work-- of the original structures housing the elite sarcophagi, the discovery of private funerary slabs and contemporary elite tombs allow suggestions for the appearance of the elite tomb complexes at Tebilla. The municipal scraping of the ground along the exterior of the water plant compound yielded a well-carved mortuary slab (no.381) from the region of the Dynasty 26 ground level.

	Inscribed slab (381) found in 2003 municipal leveling of Dyn.26 ground level area beside the east wall of the Water Plant (Photo: P. Carstens; Drawing: G. Mumford).
	This slab, and the remains of a badly eroded second slab (no.359), suggest that some elite tombs contained inscribed slabs, and possibly even chapels, in their superstructures. Inscribed slab (359) found in 2002 municipal work in the Water Plant (Drawing: G. Mumford and others).
	Tell Nebesheh, Abydos, and other sites have yielded the remains of mortuary chapels for upper class burials with limestone sarcophagi. Several tombs at Tell Nebesheh contained limestone sarcophagi identical to those from Tebilla, with the sarcophagi being placed in subterranean chambers covered by an above-ground superstructure. The remnants of mud brick, pyramidal superstructures and adjacent mortuary chapels survive at Abydos. Hence, the elite sarcophagus burials at Tebilla may very well have been associated with the limestone funerary slabs that were found in the general vicinity of the findspot area of the sarcophagi.

	Isometric reconstruction (left) of a tomb from Tell Nebesheh, East Delta and a Late Period tomb (right) from Abydos (Drawings: G. Mumford).

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