| The Material Culture:
R. Hummel and S. Rayner sorting pottery. (Photo: P. Carstens)After the initial discovery, recording, and removal of pottery,
non-pottery artifacts, and other materials, these items undergo a variety of processing
through the registrar, artist, photographer, ceramicists, physical anthropologists,
paleobotanist, and |
East Delta (Tell Tebilla) |
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Top Left: Cermicists R. Hummel and K. Yamamoto, with assistant Abeirah,
working at pottery sorting tables (Photo: P. Carstens);
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Above Left: Shakira Christadoulou registering small finds (Photo: M. Rode).Top Right: Lyla Pinch Brock drawing pottery (pottery team) (Photo: M. Rode).Bottom Right: Fran Cahill drawing pottery (pottery team) (Photo: M. Rode). |
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| The vast quantities of pottery requires a chief ceramicist, several assistant ceramicists, and pottery washers, to process these materials on a daily basis. Any vessels containing materials are specially labeled with the contents removed for further recording and analysis. Vessels requiring residue analysis are scraped before washing. The artist and photographer record all intact vessels, virtually intact pots, and special diagnostic potsherds, while the ceramicists clean, sort, draw, and describe every diagnostic potsherd and groupings of body sherds and wares. Special drying and sorting tables assist with this task. | |||||
SCA Inspector Said el-Talhwa restoring pottery. (Photo: P. Carstens)To increase the speed and accuracy in drawing the diagnostic potsherd profiles, each potsherd is sawn at a right angle to the rim edge (after recording and piecing together any restorable pottery). The drawn outline of each profile is adjusted carefully to ensure that no distortion occurs in the tracing process, matching the profile thickness with the original sherd. Painted pieces and other special diagnostics are not sawn, but are drawn and photographed. Although such full recording is time-consuming, it ensures that all variants are recorded for each pottery vessel type, allowing the re-assessment of the placement of individual forms within each pottery grouping.
G. Mumford cutting diagnostic potsherds for profile drawings. (Photo: P. Carstens) |
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Patrick Carstens, working in darkroom (left) with a close-up of darkroom equipment (right) (Photo: K. Yamamoto) |
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| Under the direction of G. Mumford and R. Hummel, the field staff in Toronto (Stan Klassen; Shari Stephens; Arlete Londes) are employed year round (40 hours per week in total) to process and scan in every potsherd, non-pottery artifact, and other excavation records. This task is also assisted by work-study students (Gary Miklowic; Sarah Dedecker; Maureen Rode), who are currently digitizing all the diagnostic potsherds. | |||||
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Research Assistant Stan Klassen (left) and Work Study Student Maureen Rode (right) digitizing pottery from Tell Tebilla. (Photo: G. Mumford) |
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| This work is being undertaken in preparation for the full publication of all excavation materials on a compact disk (CD). This will accompany a hard copy publication with the text and summary illustrations of the site, artifacts, main pottery types, plans, sections, and views. | |||||
Above: Three 7th Century BC vessels from southern cemetery. (S. Shubert; L. Pinch-Brock; G. Mumford) |
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The following thumbnail views provide selected illustrations of the pottery types and non-pottery artifacts found at Tell Tebilla during the 1999-2001 seasons. The locally-made and Egyptian pottery forms, which represent the majority of the vessels from Tebilla, include jars with handles (TP/MP-28), jars without handles (TP-211; TP-133), squat vessels (TP-149), flask necks (TP-177), small juglets (TP-193), braziers, bowls (TP-196; TP-204), and lids (TP-1/SF-34) from the Late Period (ca.656-332 B.C.) and some Tell el-Yahudiyeh ware sherds from the Second Intermediate Period (ca.1650-1550 B.C.). The imported vessel forms include store jars from Syria-Palestine (TP-255; Units 4-5, TR V jar), Cypro-Phoenician jars (TP-106), and a Judean juglet (MP/TP-19) from the Saite to Late Period (Dynasties 26-30). The presence at Tebilla of imported East Mediterranean and Levantine storage jars is not unexpected since this town straddled a maritime and riverine transit route between the East Mediterranean and Egypt. The Judean juglet from Tebilla is particularly interesting, however,
since this form originates from Judah, but is manufactured from an Egyptian fabric.
Other locally-made Judean juglets appear in the east Delta (e.g., Tell Defenneh; Tel Qedwa
[Site T.21]) and northern Upper Egypt (Kafr Amar, near Tarkhan), while Tell el-Maskhuta
(East Delta) has yielded at least two imported examples (personal communication from Dr.
John Holladay). A study of these vessels is being prepared by J. Holladay, who
indicates that such vessels frequently appear in mortuary contexts in Judah (and
Egypt). The presence of locally made Judean juglets in Egypt probably indicates a
small Judean population in the East Delta during a period in which historical texts
indicate the flight of Judeans (and others) to Egypt in the 7th century B.C. to early 6th
century |
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Selected artifacts from southern cemetery. (Artist: L. Pinch-Brock; T. Davidson; inked by G. Mumford).The non-pottery artifacts are also varied. They include fragmentary faience
vessels (e.g., Dynasty 26 New Year’s flasks: MP-6), a Ptolemaic amulet head
(Sarcophagus 147: SF-1), limestone figurines (Unit 6 Loc.39 SF-16), ceramic figurines
(Unit I-14 Loc.2, SF-13; Unit 5 Loc.2 SF-8), bronze figurines (Unit I-15 Loc.1 SF-4:
Osiris figurine), shawabtis (Unit 4 Loc.2 SF-5), Heh-amulets (Unit I-14 Loc.1 SF-14),
Thoth/baboon-amulets (Unit H-15 Loc.1 SF-1), wadjet eye amulets (Unit H-14 Loc.1, SF-1+;
Unit 5 Loc.1 SF-14), Ptah-Sokar amulets (Unit 6 Loc.5 SF-8), Bastet amulets (Unit 6 Loc.33
SF-12), bell amulets (Unit 5 Loc.5 SF-2), beads (Water Plant Loc.1/surface SF-2), bronze
earrings (Unit 6 Loc.35 SF-14), and iron and bronze items (Unit H-15 Loc.19, SF-39). |
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Conservation:Many bronze pieces were discovered during the 2003 season, requiring cleaning and restoration. Upon consulting with SCA inspector Ahmed Robea and Naguib Noor (director of el-Mansourah SCA inspectorate), we obtained a chief conservator, Maher Suliman. He cleaned and restored a wide range of bronze items, including figurines and fittings from statuettes. He also restored some faience fragments, while the pottery team restored many fragmented pottery vessels. |
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Left: SCA inspector Ahmed Robea and conservator Maher Suliman
working on bronze pieces (Photo: P. Carstens).
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TP-28: Late Period store jar |
Selected
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TP-177: Late Period flask spout |
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 TP-211: Late Period jar |
 TP-204: Late Period bowl |
 TP-133: Late Period jar |
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TP-149: Late Period vessel |
TP-193: Late Period miniature juglet |
TP-132: Late Period Bes-jar at surface |
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 TP-196: Late Period bowl |
TP-102: Tell el-Yahudiyeh ware sherd |
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 TP-255: Store Jar from Syria-Palestine |
TP-19: 7th Century BC:
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 TP-106: Cypro-Phoenician body sherd |
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 Store jar from Syria-Palestine |
 Unit 2 Loc. 7 , TP-6:
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 Loc. 149: SF-1: Faience figurine head from sarcophagus |
 Unit 6 Loc.39 SF-16:
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 Unit 8-14 Loc.2 SF-13:
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 Unit I-14 Loc.1 SF-14:
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 Unit H-15, Loc.1 SF-1:
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 Unit H-14, Loc.1 SF.1+: Wadjet eye amulets from necklace |
 Water Plant, east of spoil
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 Unit H-15, Loc.19 SF-39:
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