Report of the First Field Season at Tell el-Masha'la, Egypt, 2002

Abstract

Tell el-Masha'la is situated in the Sharqiya province in the eastern Nile Delta (fig. 1), about 15 km NNE of the modern town of Abu Kebir. In December 2002, a small team of investigators that I directed, conducted preliminary excavations at the site,1 in order to gauge its archaeological potential for future long term investigation and to confirm the existence of a Late Predynastic and an Early Dynastic presence previously noted there. Although no Early Dynastic remains were located,2 evidence of the earlier Predynastic occupation was found. Details of this occupation as uncovered this season are given below. The tell lies on a gezira, or turtle back, formed of pre-Nile sediments of middle Pleistocene, late Pleistocene, and Holocene age.3 The significance of this archaeologically is that these sand islets, which have continued to rise and which are still rising above the surrounding alluvial plain today, attracted ancient settlement because they were safely situated above the normal levels of the annual Nile flood. Although it has been termed a tell, the site appears essentially flat, with no perceptible mound at the surface. Tell el-Masha'la was reported to have been reused in the Late Period as a cemetery4 and, although it was thought to contain Roman and Coptic material,5 we have found no evidence to date of any occupation or use of the site in these later periods of Egyptian history.6 The