Offering Deposits in the Capital of the Hyksos Avaris

Since the late Middle Kingdom foreigners from Syria-Palestine settled in the capital of the Hyksos, Avaris, the modern village of Tell el-Daba in the eastern delta of Egypt. By keeping some of their peculiarities they adapted strongly to the Egyptian culture. Of special interest from this excavation are the so-called offering pits. They consist of round pits filled with pottery vessels and sometimes animal bones as well. The inventories allow the distinction of two groups: one group contains miniature vessels nearly exclusively, in the other group ceramics of everyday-use and occasionally animal bones were deposited and therefore represents relics of cultic meals. Some vessels of the second group were additionally burnt together with the animal bones before their deposition and/or broken intentionally. The find circumstances reveal that cultic meals were mainly held in temple forecourts and less often in cemeteries of living areas. Pits with miniature vessels however, were mainly dug next to tombs and appear only rarely in other contexts. Miniature vessels were produced not only in Egypt from the very beginning, but they predominate in cultic contexts and served as symbolic substitutes for containers of real offerings. Also cultic meals were of great importance in different religious contexts. The latter are mainly known from inscriptions and representations and only rarely are archaeological objects found. The situation is not due to their rare appearance however, but reflects the scientific interests of former excavators who did not consider sherds important in light of the overwhelming masses of decorated stone architecture, statues, the innumerable inscriptions and artifacts. In the eastern Levant this problem was not as significant as in Egypt, as spectacular objects and especially inscriptions, are rather the exception in this area. Also in the Levant relics of cultic meals could occasinally be detected but nowhere do the appear in the wealth of Avaris/Tell el-Daba. Of special interest is one offering pit wich was found in the forecourt of a temple of syrian-palestinian design. It was dug only in the early 18th dynasty and shows clearly that cultic activities in the foreign temple continued also after the defeat of the Hyksos. Due to the neglect of ceramic studies in Egyptology an unusually large part of the publication is dedicated to the typlogical analysis of the pottery vessels and their chronological development. Therefore, this book not only gives insight into cultic practices of Egypt and the Levant only rarely attested up untill now but also represents a thorough chronological analysis of sherds and complete vessels of the late Middle Kingdom, the Second Intermediate Period and the early New Kingdom.