The Polish archaeological survey in the north-eastern part of the Nile Delta (season 2010) – the pottery from Tell el-Murra and Tell Abu el-Halyat

The recent research in the North-Eastern Nile Delta proves that a great quantity of sites existed here during Naqada III period. These sites undoubtedly played an important role both in the developing contacts between Egypt and Canaan, as well as in the processes which led to the formation of the Egyptian state. Further data concerning the Naqada III settlements in the Nile Delta have been obtained recently, during the Polish Archaeological Survey in Ash-Sharqiyyah Governorate. Most of the work in 2010 concentrated at Tell el-Murra and Tell Abu el-Halyat and this article focuses on the pottery found at these two sites. The occurrence of potsherds dated to the Protodynastic, Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom periods at Tell el-Murra points at the fact that the latest occupation at that site should be dated to the latter. Moreover, potsherds were also found decorated with a zig-zag pattern, which are quite characteristic of the Predynastic-Lower Egyptian Culture. Most of the pottery from Tell Abu el-Halyat is dated to the Early Dynastic period, but the occurrence of several fragments which could belong both to the earlier and later forms may indicate that it was probably inhabited also during the Protodynastic as well as Old Kingdom (?) periods