Important Site to Reveal New Evidence
Tell Ibrahim Awad, Sharkiah Governorate
Naglaa Habib El Zahlawi
Civilization had started in Sharkiah area from pre dynastic eras as attested by evidence and went on during Pharaonic and Graeco-Roman Periods. San El Haggar or Tanis was the Capital of Egypt during the 21st Dynasty, while Tell Basta or per Bastet was the Capital during the 22nd Dynasty. Per Ramses, actually Kanteer built by Ramses II is still traced in Sharkiah as well as Avaris or Tell el Daba'a, the Hyksos' capital. Important archaeological sites lye all over the actual governorate all significant in history, to name few but not all Tell El Yahudia, Tell Basta, Beni Amer, El Sowa, Saft El Henna, belbeis, Tell Pharaon, San El Haggar…etc* Abdel Halim Nur El Din, Egyptian Sites and Museums, 1998.
Excavations revealed a necropolis including many tombs referred to the Archaic Period as attested by the Serekh of King Narmer while the temple area goes back to the Old Kingdom, the late First Intermediate Period and early Middle Kingdom.
Tombs are simple pits covered with mats; this denotes poor burials of poor individuals. The cemeteries built in mudbrick walls include oval pits and rectangular mudbrick tombs. Other tombs built in mud-bricks surmount some pits. Several skeletons were discovered covered with mats; some are heading north, others east while the arms are crossed over the pelvis or stretched along the body. Generally speaking the human remains are of dead young people that were in good health. One of the discovered burials refer to the Old Kingdom, First Dynasty; it seems that the individual had witnessed a violent death.
Digs unearthed fragments of pottery, some necklace beads, faience items and ivory objects. Pottery headrests were also found under one of the deceased's head and diorite flints came out of some tombs.
A temple referred to the Old Kingdom was also discovered. A powerful pumping system was applied around the temple as the ground water had reached a high level. The members of the acting mission succeeded in eliminating the water table, which allowed them to reach pre-Dynastic levels, as attested by the fragments of discovered potteries. Traces of one of the earliest bricks used to erect a temple were found for the first time in Egypt. The foundations of an early Middle Kingdom temple are erected over the leveled structure of an early First Intermediate Kingdom/ Old Kingdom temple that had a completely different layout, size and orientation. Parallel mud-brick walls extend from east to west. The uncovered part of the temple is probably a passage with a floor partly covered with mud-bricks. The structure is not complete.
The Netherlands Foundation of Archaeological Research in Egypt is still proceeding further excavations with the assistance of SCA archaeologists in the area to locate more important evidences and the close cooperation of the Russian Academy of sciences. They document unregistered objects found in the site and actually stored in Tell El Dabaa magazines where an active Austrian mission is working. Restoration of pre-mentioned objects is thoroughly done by competent restorers.
An accurate survey is practiced over the pre- mentioned site through an electro magnetic instrument in order to detect in the subsoil any archaeological substructure non-visible from the surface. The magnetometer used in this purpose has proven its accuracy to detect objects lying under 2-m depth. The instrument is provided with an internal memory to register data transmitted to a PC computer.
International combined efforts are in close relation to unearth important evidence that facilitate the new task Egyptologists had undertaken during the 8th International Congress held in Cairo. This task is resumed in the rewriting of the Egyptian History according to newly attested evidences and the transfer of events to date some 100 or 200 years before the actual chronological events as was announced during the important debates of the congress.