The Tell Basta Project

Pottery, production and petrography

In the last two weeks the study of pottery from Tell Basta moved in new directions. Mandy’s work was supplemented with new data related to the work of Yiannis, a very recent member of the excavation team specializing in ceramic microscopic analysis. Their collaboration led the research along new paths and enriched the potentials of exploring the existing and newly discovered material from the site in a number of different ways. The results of this collaboration appear to be very promising.

            Mandy and Yiannis reexamined and restructured the existing fabric groups, and concluded that many of the locally produced fabrics that had already been described, could perhaps be connected together to form a larger category; on the other hand, many of the imported ceramic finds need to be revised into larger fabric groups. The latter ceramic finds constitute a number of wares coming from the broader Northern Egyptian region, or other areas in the vicinity of the Eastern Mediterranean, such as Greece and the Levant.

            Mandy and Yiannis also focused on re-examining the existing fabric descriptions by a method of chemical identification of calcareous inclusions, based on the reactions of potsherds with dilute hydrochloric acid. These simple tests showed interesting results. It seems likely that in the near future some of the existing fabric categories of Northern Egyptian clays may need to be revised and expanded with information from sciences such as geology and geochemistry.

Mandy and Yiannis observing testing samples with dilute hydrochloric acid

            In order to investigate the material in more detail, Mandy and Yiannis traveled to Cairo and visited the laboratory of the French Institute (IFAO). There, the two members of the Tell Basta team had the opportunity to examine thin sections of imported pottery which had already been sampled (mainly amphorae and small finewares), and also to compare the existing local fabrics at the Tell with other material discovered in other excavations all around Egypt, such as the Mareotic region and Tebtynis. The analysis of the thin sections indicated a variety of imported fabrics arrived at the Tell during the Late and Ptolemaic periods and Roman times, which definitely complies with the mobility of goods and the advanced transportation networks existing during those times.       

Examining thin sections from Tell Basta in the IFAO labs in Cairo

A number of new and interesting questions are now arising at the site, which require further investigation. Is local production taking place at the Tell during the above mentioned times? Could this production be identified by its own distinct characteristics? A significant problem is that large-scale local production cannot be fully investigated in the archaeological sense. A lot of the areas that may be possible production sites are located at the edges of the existing archaeological site of Bubastis, perhaps under modern buildings; therefore, the potential of excavating such areas is fairly limited. The two archaeologists are now exploring the possibility of defining production with the use of other scientific methods, such as thin section analysis (also known as petrographic analysis) and X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis (known as XRF). Mandy’s experiments in producing pottery from local clays selected from various layers of the soil are expected to play an important role in establishing comparisons.

            The two archaeologists believe that in the coming seasons the investigation of pottery at the site of Tell Basta will lead to excellent results. Until then, the examination of the ceramic finds will continue along the lines of the excavations, supplemented with new scientific methods of analysis.

Besides the scientific analysis the archaeological record of pottery continues by classifying, drawing, and photographing the material excavated during the last seasons.

Colossal Statues and Usurpation

Another week of work at Tell Basta and we still have to struggle with the weather conditions! Anyway, work proceeds, and we are quite pleased with the progress of it. One important part of our project is to study the statue fragments at the Great Temple of Bastet. Since 2009 Theresa Steckel has been doing research on them and at the moment she is finishing her data gathering for her PhD thesis, checking some last fragments. She is copying all inscriptions on statues in theGreatTempleof the goddess Bastet. To do this, she fixes plastic foil to statue fragments and copies the inscriptions with a special pen. While copying inscriptions it is important to consider the optimum time for the strongest daylight in order to detect faint lines or weathered signs. The strong wind in recent days made it rather difficult for her to do this work!

The following photo shows her copying the inscription of a colossal sitting statue which is broken into several parts. 

Theresa copying the inscription of the throne of a colossal statue

Nine fragments of this statue are still lying in the temple; the head and the right lower part, which were excavated by Edouard Naville in 1887-1889, are now in the Egyptian Museum Cairo. Theresa put these fragments together and the statue now measures about 4.50m high. Three fragments of a second sitting statue – a head and the middle and lower part – were also excavated by Edouard Naville and brought to the British Museum in London. Both statues are of granodiorite and date back to the 12^th Dynasty. They were later usurped by Osorkon II (22^nd dynasty) and erected by him in the Peristyle Court of Osorkon I (22^nd dynasty). On both statues Osorkon II erased an older inscription and replaced it with his names and titles. The column beside the left leg (see photo) was erased, but not reinscribed by him. He also erased an older cartouche on the left shoulder which belongs to the same statue. To the right of this cartouche he put his birth name as can be seen on the photo.

Osorkon II usurped many colossal statues in the Great Temple of Bastet. In thePeristyle Courthe set up these two sitting statues (south side) and also two colossal standing statues (north side). 

Left shoulder of a sitting colossal statue which was usurped by Osorkon II

A Pavement, pottery and pigments

The first two weeks of work at Tell Basta have been full of a variety of different activities. Work in two new gridsquares has started, already revealing promising structures. Remains of a massive mudbrick wall and a large floor came to light in X/4. The mud brick structures belong to the walls of the Late Period - Ptolemaic tower houses that were mentioned in the previous post. The floor is especially interesting. It consists of limestone chips, some as large as a fist, some crushed nearly to dust. The whole mixture makes a quite durable pavement. We hope in due course to determine whether this are was used for specialised activities which required a hard-wearing floor.

Tell Basta - cleaning of Y5

Y/5, the other gridsquare, shows the contexts of the adjacent square Y/4, excavated in the previous seasons. Here we discovered one small room containing a large quantity of figurines, mostly of terracotta but some made of limestone. Some of them showed the remains of their original plaster and paint. The pottery found there also showed the remains of colours. Very handily, we also found a some of the colour pigments for producing yellow and blue colours, and it seems that the pottery vessels were used for mixing the colours used to paint the figurines. This all hints to the fact that the building might have housed a workshop.

Digging in a pit in Y4

An extraordinarily challenging task for Daniela and Eva was to draw mud brick walls of a very impressive thickness, as hundreds of unburnt mudbricks had to be drawn! It took us almost a week, quite often hampered by the capricious weather conditions: rain, sandstorms, hot sun… 

As you know our attention also extends to the animals living at the site. Nectanebo III got some company when we discovered a new canine family: a mother with five puppies living in grid square R/2 where our monumental statue of a queen (a reused statue of a Ramesside queen) was found a few years ago. Alas, no cats yet…

Arrival in Egypt, storms and the return of an old friend

The Tell Basta team arrived in Egypt on February 21st. As usual, we spent the first two days in Cairo to get our SCA paperwork done. Having succesfully accomplished our first task, we went to Zagazig, the modern city close to the ancient site of Tell Basta on Friday 24th.

Here, also as usual, we faced the first challenge of the season: we had to clean our flat from the dust of the last months and settle in.

Work on site started at 7 o’clock the next morning. As planned we continued our excavation in Area A, the entrance area of the temple of Bastet and the current main focus of our project. The excavations of the last few seasons had revealed remains of tower houses dating to the Late and Ptolemaic Periods some 40m east of the temple. We assume that these buildings were once a part of the subsidiary system of the temple.

Stormy weather at Tell Basta

Unfortunately, the first week was very trying in terms of the weather! After two days of bright sky and sunshine, we found ourselves exposed to cold sandstorms followed by heavy rainstorms. All possible work – digging and cleaning as well as taking measurements and drawing – was extremely hindered by the strong winds which blew away not only paper sheets but even heavy tools! In order to find some shelter we were forced to have our second breakfast in our container, where we used a camping stove to warm ourselves up.

Apart from the weather, the first week started under a good omen: the puppy we found in the temple and took care of during the last autumn season (“Nectanebo III”, see http://goo.gl/GNzWt) has survived. A little taller now but still a very cute and playful young dog, he at once renewed his friendship with us and is a joyful companion at the site.

Goodbye for now!

So, one last blog from the Tell Basta Project. We have finally finished our study season at Tell Basta and just left Zagazig to spend our last 1 1/2 days at Cairo.

We have been busy today finishing everything: sealing the containers, signing contracts and of course saying goodbye to our workers, whom we will hopefully see again next year. We have now just arrived in Cairo to hand in all necessary papers for the next year season at the SCA and will go back to Berlin on Tuesday.

Tell Basta Project workmen in the temple moving blocks

Last week was full of last minute duties. Mandy and Eva took pictures at the Old Kingdom necropolis – a site where we would really like to undertake some work in the future! It all looks very promising and this necopolis would definitely need some reconsidering. Otherwise our regular work has come to an end: Mandy finished classifying of relevant pottery from the Area A in order to undertake petrographical analysis and further studies during the next seasons. Daniela did the same with all glass fragments that came to light at Tell Basta during the last ten years and Eva finished her epigraphic work in the Osorkon I entrance area of the temple of a Bastet. Our new magazine has been closed and will be used again in only three months time.

Mandy found out that certain fabrics were used for particular vessels of the Ptolemaic Period: the same Egyptian fabric was used for some types of bowls as well as for cooking pots. By contrast some fabrics, especially imported ones, need further investigation to clarify their origin and to enable us to understand more about Bubastis’ trading relations in the Late and Ptolemaic Periods.

Daniela’s work revealed that the Late Ptolemaic to Late Antique glass discovered at Tell Basta seems typologically to be much closer to the glass discovered at the Northern Sinai than to the contemporary glass discovered at Upper Egypt. These results shed more light on Tell Basta’s importance and position in the Roman and Late Antique glass market. 

Eva copied about 25 reliefs of the Osorkon I entrance hall of the temple of Bastet that escaped Naville’s attention when he undertook epigraphical work at the temple of Bastet more than a hundred years ago. She will publish her work in due course.

As stated above, we will all go back to Berlin on November 15th and are looking forward to seeing many EES members  on November 19th for the EES/Freie Universitaet Study Day, ‘Current research in the Nile Delta’, at which Eva will give a talk about Bubastis’ history in the Old Kingdom which has long been neglected.

Good Bye / Ma’salama from Tell Basta!

Last but not least: we became close friends with a little puppy during our last days at Tell Basta which we named Nectanebo… Given the two pharaohs with this name already attested he should be Nectanebo III! He has obviously been abandoned by his mother and we were happy to make him part of our team and take care of him. He looks much better now after some days of being fed with lots of sausages and a little human kindness!

New team member Nectanebo III

Pots from around the ancient world

We are almost at the end of our study season at Tell Basta which has been more than fruitful! Our main focus has been to re-sort the stored finds and to continue our studies of the relevant material.

Daniela’s and Mandy’s work on glass and pottery takes place in our new magazine building (see earlier entries below). This has been cleaned and well prepared by one of our local workers named Gouda, an old fellah, who has helped Mandy with the pottery for many years.

Gouda cleaning the magazine

Our ongoing documentation work includes cleaning, drawing and photographing ceramics from the assemblages recently excavated in the area connecting the temple of Bastet and the settlement. The pottery corpus discovered there dates to the Late and Ptolemaic Periods.

Statistics, typology and fabric studies on Egyptian and imported wares are helping us to classify the Tell Basta pottery in more detail. While some ceramic types of the Ptolemaic Period continue pharaonic traditions, several other types of vessels are made from Egyptian fabrics but imitate Greek kitchen and table ware shapes. We also discovered black and red slipped vessels imported from Greece, mainly of Attic origin. Most of the imported amphorae found at Tell Basta originate from Greek regions as well, but some were produced in the Syro-Palestinian area. The most frequent Greek imports are Rhodian amphorae, as is proven by the discovery of stamped handles. Phoenician imports are mainly amphorae of the so-called ‘torpedo’ type. These are made from different fabrics such as a very typical dense and hard, fired beige clay deriving from Phoenicia. Greyish and greenish fired Marl fabrics are also common for the Torpedo jars, as well as white slipped versions made from Nile fabrics imitating imports and Marl variants. Further studies on fabrics are still in progress and will continue next season.

In the meantime Mandy also is also teaching our three Egyptian trainees to document ancient ceramics by sorting, measuring and drawing sherds.

Mandy teaching the Egyptian trainees

A recent visit by Pamela Rose, Manuela Lehmann and Ashraf Senussi from the Tell el-Daba team provided a very good opportunity for us to exchnage thoughts on various aspects of pottery studies.

Pamela Rose (left) and Mandy

For ongoing work at Tell Basta please keep checking this page!

Recording finds and Halloween

We arrived at Tell Basta four weeks ago and documentary work has started with Daniela concentrating on studying the glass fragments discovered during the last seven seasons, and Mandy continuing her work on documenting hundreds of pottery sherds. Eva is undertaking additional epigraphical work at the Osorkon I entrance area of the Great Temple of Bastet. Theresa is studying the Ramesside statues and their inscriptions in more detail and Veit is analysing the terracotta figurines that came to light during our recent excavations.

Daniela recording glass fragments

The quantity of glass finds discovered at Tell Basta is unique and reflects Bubastis’ important position within the trade network from Late Ptolemaic to Late Antique times. These finds represent the only notable amount of glass dating to these periods in the whole Eastern Nile Delta. Almost 2,200 glass fragments have been discovered so far, mainly deriving from three areas: 

• the entrance area of the Bastet temple where excavations took place between 2001-2006 
• the survey area in the far east where, following Herodotus, the settlement of Bubastis must be assumed and 
• the so-called Area A that connects the temple entrance area and the settlement to the east.

All fragments have been carefully studied – they were remeasured, additional pictures were taken and more drawings produced. It has become clearer that the Tell Basta glass corpus reflects an impressive variety of types, including cups, beakers, flasks, jugs, bowls, plates, unguentaria, aryballoi, lamps, flagons and jars; a certain amount of glass beads, counters and bracelets were among the finds as well.

A glass bead

Their date ranges from the 2^nd century BC to the early 7^th century AD, thus covering a time span of almost a millennium. Among the earliest finds are pieces of cast-ribbed bowls and other cast vessels.  Some glass represents imported material that was produced in the Levantine area – especially among the typologically earlier finds – while locally produced glass is mainly found among later objects. Work is ongoing to narrow down the time frame of the introduction of locally produced glass at Bubastis and to determine the relationship of the other glasses to producers further afield, reflecting the wide trade network of which Bubastis was an integral part.

Last Tuesday we were visited by some members of the Tell Dab’a team – a visit especially valuable for Mandy as she was able to discuss many pottery related aspects with other specialists. The day ended with a tour through the temple that everyone enjoyed. 

On a more personal note: we did not forget to celebrate Halloween at our flat in Zagazig…

Halloween in Zagazig!

Our work will continue until November 14^th, so please do check our regular updates.

Tell Basta - start of fieldwork

We’ve been here at Tell Basta for more than a week now and work has begun on the detailed documentation of the finds of the last season, especially glass (by Dr Daniela Rosenow), pottery (by Mandy Mamedow) and terracotta (by Dr Veit Vaelske). These studies should provide interesting insights into the material culture of Bubastis from the Third Intermediate Period until the early Middle Ages as well as new information on trade and cultural relations with other regions - both within Egypt as in the wider Mediterranean world.

Eva copying a relief in the entrance hall of the temple

In addition epigraphic work, conducted by Eva Lange, has started in the temple. Here the reliefs of the Entrance hall of Osorkon I will be drawn on plastic sheets after identifying the blocks already published by Naville. This work is especially interesting and challenging as we have to play ‘hide and seek’ to find those published by Naville among the heaps of blocks, many of them enormous, which once formed the edifice. After only a week’s work it has become clear that Naville was not able to document all the blocks of Osorkon I and several remained unpublished, among them real beauties such as Q/5.42, a block showing Bastet receiving anointment from the king. Here the sublime playfully arrangement of words and pictures (the Bas-vessel is offered to Bastet) by the ancient artists is especially charming.

View of a gridsquare in the temple (to west).

Other work in the temple is the ongoing documentation of the many fragments of monumental statues, conducted by Theresa Steckel as the basis of her dissertation about the statues in the temple of Tell Basta.

This season we will be joined for the first time by three Egyptian trainees, Hanea, Tamir and Ahmed, who will be taught about several aspects of fieldwork, especially the documentation of pottery and other finds as well as epigraphic work.

Hanea and Ahmed sorting pottery.

But the real coup for us is that the mission has finally managed to rent a storage building on the site, providing us with enough space for antiquities found by the expedition as well as rooms for photographing, drawing and teaching. Having in mind that from next year onwards we plan to conduct fieldschools, the new possibilities are just great and this building will be the future centre of our work. It’s a very simple building but for us it’s like a palace and a very important step for the future development of the project.

Our new magazine.