The Settlement:
Remnants of the Old Kingdom and Late Period settlement appeared in the Water
Plant grounds, within water pipe trench side sections and spoil heaps. These
contexts revealed multiple strata, burn layers, large mud brick walls,
grinding stones, pounders, lithics, domestic and industrial pottery, and other
evidence. Southwest Area of mound (2003): The Southwest part of Tell Tebilla
contains two areas with evidence for domestic and industrial activities dating
to the Late Period and possibly extending into the Ptolemaic period. In
the interior, southwest corner of the fort-temple wall SCA salvage
operations uncovered the base of a square mud brick enclosure containing a furnace. The furnace installation consisted of two parallel
channels lined by thick baked clay walls, separated by about one metre. The
outer side of both channels displayed a short, round-ended channel
perpendicular to the main channel. The discarded remnants of many baked clay,
cylindrical pieces (with a flat underside and curved top) lay near the
installation. The enclosure wall surrounding this installation had been placed
in a foundation trench which had cut through the tops of Dynasty 26 mastabas,
which had a different orientation. The duplicate orientation and
vertical placement of the installation and fort-temple enclosure wall, suggest
that they are contemporary, namely dating to Dynasty 30. The adjacent mound
top and edge were scraped down to reveal that the complex surrounding
the furnace continued to the north, containing at least two more rooms,
forming an L-shaped structure.
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East Delta (Tell Tebilla) |
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Area SW-1: furnace
installation contemporary with the Dyn.30 fort-temple enclosure wall (Photo:
G. Mumford).
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| The remnants of another non-mortuary structure also lay several metres to the west of the exterior, southwest corner of the fort-temple enclosure. The SCA excavation area contained the remnants of a structure with a small, circular oven. Like the furnace installation, this oven and structure also appeared to match the orientation of the fort-temple enclosure, and displayed radical differences in orientation and design from the rectangular and square blocks of Dynasty 26 mastabas excavated to the south and southeast. | |||||
Central mound area (2003):
Near
the southeast corner of the fort-temple enclosure wall, surface scraping
revealed a large structure
(Units X-8, W-8, X-9, and W-9) oriented parallel to the adjacent enclosure wall. The excavation of a trench between the
enclosure wall and this southeast structure (SE Building) revealed that both
structures contained duplicate alignments and had been placed in foundation
trenches cut from some point not far above the modern surface. |
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Unit X-8: room 1 in SE-structure.
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excavation of one room and two room sections in the SE-Building showed that
the structure contained two phases of construction. An earlier, yellow
brick walling system and lower floor level were visible along the western end
of the building. It contained at least three rooms with a lower floor. |
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Left: Unit X-8: Reed matting
and earlier phase of construction within Room 1 of the SE-structure (Photo:
P. Carstens).
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The eastern part of the SE building contained grey bricks and overlay part of the yellow brick structure. It was also placed within a foundation trench and had two rooms with a courtyard and an oven and furnace to the east and a complex of chambers situated to the northeast. This complex would appear to date to Dynasty 30. |
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Western side of north-mound (2003):The top of a large, square structure was traced to the immediate west of the eastern, fort-temple enclosure wall in Grid Units M-P.4-7. The context, design, and orientation of this structure assigned its original date and function to that of a Dynasty 26 mastaba. However, the occurrence of an oven in one of the chamber tops suggests that the exposed top of the structure had been reused as a domestic building before the construction of the Dynasty 30 enclosure wall. Future investigations of this structure should uncover more details. |
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Left: Eastward view of an earlier
structure (with oven) cut by the Dynasty 30(?) enclosure wall (about 80m.
north of SE corner), and
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A courtyard with circular ovens lies about 25 metres to the northeast of this structure, being located in Grid Unit K-7. The ovens lay close to the modern surface, measured about 75-80 cm in diameter and had thin walls of baked clay. Traces of an enclosure wall lay around the ovens, which lay in a row along two walls, forming a right-angle. This complex had the same alignment as the earlier Dynasty 26 mastabas, but would appear to represent a brief period of domestic occupation (squatters?) between the Dynasty 26 phase of burial (ca.664-525+? B.C.) and the Dynasty 30 construction of the fort-temple enclosure wall (temp. Nectanebo I: ca.378-360 B.C.). |
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Left: Unit K-7: courtyard lined by ovens or
burnt silos (Photo: P. Carstens).
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Conclusion:
The
1999-2001 and 2003 seasons at Tebilla have enhanced our knowledge of the Late Period
maritime town and its relations with the Delta, Upper Egypt, and the East
Mediterranean. Despite periods of foreign invasions, rebellions, reprisals,
and civil war, the town accumulated sufficient wealth and prosperity through
international and inter-regional trade. Its burial population and material
culture assemblage attest to a broad range of social stratification, poor to
elite burials, local, regional, and imported materials and products, a
state-sponsored stone temple, and private and royal patronage through the
provision of votive statuary and wall inscriptions in the temple precinct.
Ro-nefer is singled out --in conjunction with Per-Bast-- as a
major domain under the control of King Osorkon IV (Tanite Kingdom of Dynasty
22). This king and Ro-nefer appear in a list of enemy Egyptian territories
and rulers opposing King Piye (Kushite kingdom), who campaigned briefly into
northern Egypt in circa 728 BC. In reviewing the evidence to-date, at this point we can suggest a preliminary reconstruction of the town's layout in Dynasties 21-31: Middle class burials lay to the south; middle class to elite burials occurred in the west and north; a limestone temple existed along the west side of the mound, a cultic maritime harbour appeared along the west side of the mound (beside the estuary); the town was located along the east side. In the Greco-Roman period the nature of occupation at the site began to change dramatically. The temple gradually diminished in importance until it was closed down and then quarried for stone in the later Roman period; the earlier mastabas were robbed in the Roman period. The location of the Ptolemaic-Roman town associated with Tebilla remains unknown, but traces from this period have been reported from nearby Dikirnis and elsewhere (Tell Timai). Gregory Mumford |
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