IMHICIHU   13380
INSTITUTO MULTIDISCIPLINARIO DE HISTORIA Y CIENCIAS HUMANAS
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
capítulos de libros
Título:
The Imported Pottery
Autor/es:
BASÍLICO, SUSANA
Libro:
Tell El-Ghaba II. A Saite Settlemet in North Sinai, Egypt (Argentine Archaeological Mission, 1995-2004)
Editorial:
Eduardo Obineta y Asociados
Referencias:
Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2007; p. 67 - 86
Resumen:
The Argentine Archaeological Mission at Tell el-Ghaba Between 1995 and 2002 the Argentine Archaeological Mission worked at Tell el-Ghaba, North Sinai, Egypt (Maps I and II), in the frame of the “Archaeological Salvage Project of the Monuments in North Sinai”, headed by Faiza Hekal and Mohamed Abd el-Maksoud, under UNESCO patronage. The Argentine Archaeological Mission at Tell el‑Ghaba was a joint project involving the former Programa de Estudios de Egiptología (now the Department of Egyptology, of the National Scientific Council (CONICET-Buenos Aires) and the School of Philosophy and Letters (Facultad de Filosofía y Letras), University of Buenos Aires (UBA). Declared of national interest by the Government of the Argentine Republic, this project is currently under the patronage of the Department of Cultural Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship and the National Museum of Oriental Art (Museo Nacional de Arte Oriental). In 1995 the Argentine Archaeological Mission at Tell el-Ghaba started to work in North Sinai, with a team of Egyptologists and Archaeologists from the National Scientific Council (CONICET) and the University of Buenos Aires. The first part of the project was under my direction. At present it is under the direction of Silvia Lupo, who is still working with the same team. The site Tell el-Ghaba (Map I) was one of the sites on the ancient “Ways of Horus”, the land bridge between the eastern Nile Delta and the Levant. It is located at 30° 58’ North and 32° 25’ East, between Tell Hebwa to the west and Tell Kedwa to the east, at the edge of the eastern part of a lagoon, near the former Pelusiac branch of the Nile (Map II). In the VII century AD, the Pelusiac branch dried out and the region became a desert. Thus, by the time we started to work at Tell el-Ghaba, this deserted region was covered with dunes and brushwood. It was an area used for pasturing camels and hunting birds (Plates I:1 and I:2). The fieldwork done under the direction of Eduardo Crivelli, and the geophysical survey carried out by Jorge Trench showed that the site had at least an extension of 12 Ha (120,000 m2), 500 m long and 250 m wide; the latter measurement would be the distance  from the border of the lagoon (Plan I). The archaeological deposit is around 1.80 m deep, the sediments are salt-rich and the water table is quite high, the organic material is badly preserved, and the upper part has been swept away by erosion. Only the basement of the mud brick structures remains. The Egyptian pottery from Tell el-Ghaba corresponds to the Phase IV North, the imported one to the Iron Age IIC and Cypro-Archaic I (IV), which shows the connection between Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean, especially with the Levant. The pottery, used as the main chronological indicator, dates Tell el-Ghaba as an early Saite settlement, from the beginning of the 26th Dynasty, in the second part of the reign of Psametichus I, until the beginning of that of Psametichus II. It is probable that before the Saite expansion on the Levant, which started with the capture of the harbour of Ashdod by Psametichus I in his 29th year (635 BC.), the kings of the 26th Dynasty built some forts and settlements in the “Ways of Horus” for the campaigns in Judah. Tell el-Ghaba could have been one of these sites. The large amount of Levantine amphorae found in the site points to an important land-trade with Judah and Israel, which could have increased in connection with the Egyptian expansion to the Euphrates carried out by Necao II (609-595), who fought in Megiddo against Judah and was defeated by the Babylonians in Karkemish. A clay plaque with the representation of a nude female with Nubian features, could be connected with the campaign of Psametichus II against Nubia (592-590 BC) at the beginning of his reign.