Tell el-Murra (Northeastern Nile Delta Survey): preliminary report on research in 2014 and 2015

Abstract

The paper deals with the results of excavation in 2014 and 2015 at the Tell el-Murra site in the northeastern part of the Nile Delta. The investigations covered a settlement mostly from the Old Kingdom period found in trench T5; more specifically, the investigated features seem primarily connected with food production. Settlement remains from the Naqada III–possibly Early Dynastic and Protodynastic(?) periods were also explored in trench S3B. Continued research on the Early Dynastic cemetery in trench S3 yielded 16 more graves, including simple pit burials and chamber graves. In several cases bodies had been placed in pottery coffins. The presence of several mud-brick walls, possibly associated with older settlement structures, was also confirmed within the lattermost trench. Altogether the research provided new data on the settlement architecture, site development processes and burial customs invoked in the beginnings of the Egyptian state.

Keywords

• Tell el-Murra
• Egypt
• Nile Delta
• Predynastic
• Early Dynastic
• Old Kingdom