Functions of an Egyptian town - Case study of Tell el-Dab´a

Tell el-Dab`a, ancient Avaris, is a key site for understanding the function of an Egyptian town. The long term research of the Austrian Archaeological Institute at the site has provided a general map of the town and given a first idea of its plan. However, the extensive archaeological work (by excavation, augering and especially by geomagnetic survey) is only the starting point for further investigation. The focus of research within recent years has been mainly on the palatial districts. For future research the approach will be more holistic, and focus on the town itself and its organization. The aim of this project, which will launch this new approach will be to study specific- not necessarily elite - quarters of the town which are crucial for the understanding of the organization of Avaris. The areas taken as examples for further analysis are area R/III: an administrative quarter and a domestic town quarter area R/IV: the main harbour of Avaris with its feeder channels the Pelusiac Nile branch Area R/III gives the unique opportunity to study an administrative area and a domestic quarter in the central part of the town. The city was in the 2ndMillenium B.C. a major port for international trade between Egypt and the Ancient Near East, and research in the harbour area R/IV will provide important information as to how a harbour for seagoing ships was arranged and functioned.It will furthermore enlarge our picture of the town organization. The research on the Pelusiac branch, the major Nile branch of Avaris, has to be seen in close connection with the town organization. The focus of this part of the research will be on the shift of this important river way. As a first step these areas will be studied individually, with the focus on the different aspects of the material culture (pottery, scarabs and sealing impressions, lithic, faunal remains and human and animal bones). In the area of the Pelusiac Nile branch, core drillings and resistivity measurements will be undertaken; in area R/IV also excavations. The field work in area R/III has been completed. The next step will be to compare the individual quarters and to highlight their similarities and differences. As a final step these specific quarters will be set in the framework of the whole town of Avaris. The study will be interdisciplinary within the larger framework of a geoarchaeological approach, an approach which has a successfully history at Tell el-Dab`a.The study of the sealing impressions and the lithics will be of special importance within this project, both groups of material only recently having become central to the research project.

Tell el-Daba (ancient Avaris), the capital city of the Hyksos rulers of the 15th Dynasty, and with the southern part of Piramesse forming the capital of the Ramesside kings, is located in the eastern Nile Delta, in the modern province of Sharqeya. It is a key site for the research on Ancient Egyptian towns and urban archaeology. Intensive research and survey have for the first time enabled an overview of Avaris and revealed the approximate locations of functional areas (residential, domestic, suburban, cultic) through which to understand the town and its structure. Although Tell el-Daba is considered to be a key site for urban archaeology, earlier work in fact focussed on cemeteries, temples and, during the last 20 years, palaces, with other aspects of urbanism usually being treated as unpopular by- products. The goal of this project was to shift the focus towards actual settlement archaeology, concentrating on crucial urban/domestic areas of Avaris, and to take a more holistic approach to the town and how the landscape of Avaris was changed by human and natural influences. Two areas with clearly defined functions within the settlement were selected for further investigation, areas R/III and R/IV, and these were also studied in connection with the fluvial system and harbours as key factors in the understanding of the function of an Ancient Egyptian town in the Pharaonic period. Area R/III, located in the eastern part of the town, was demonstrated to be partly an administrative and partly a domestic quarter. Area R/IV lay within the main harbour district in the middle of the town. The harbour depression was a natural basin adapted by human agency according to need. The basin became smaller over the time, through a combination of natural causes and human activity, and the town extended over the original basin. Although it was a seagoing harbour, the basin was only seasonally accessible. The harbour area does not show any evidence for occupation during the 18th Dynasty. This result is especially interesting as the Tuthmoside naval base Peru Nefer was suggested to be located here by some scholars, but this must be incorrect. An important result of this study was to show that Avaris was an island surrounded on all sides by branches of the river Nile. This shows the town fits into a known tradition of settlement in Egypt, in that many major towns of the Pharaonic period were based on islands. An important historical discovery was the discovery of a seal impression from area R/III bearing the name of King Khayan of the early 15th Dynasty. This is the earliest evidence for this Hyksos ruler in Lower Egypt, and a workshop (the publication of which is currently in press) organised as part of the project has prompted major re-evaluation by leading scholars of the chronology of the period and the connection of various occupations phases or strata at Tell el-Daba with absolute dates and Egyptian chronology.