14th
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
