The remains of a military town that dates back to the 26th Dynasty (664-625BC) have been unearthed in the region of Tel-Defna, Ismailiya. Tel-Defna lies in the area between Lake Manzala on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast east of the Nile and what is today the Suez Canal. It was among the significant spots on the famous Horus Military Road which guarded Egypt’s eastern frontier and which acted as a major trade route between Egypt and its eastern neighbours.
It was during the reign of the pharaoh Ramses II who was the third of the 19th Dynasty and who ruled Egypt from 1279 to1212BC, that military fortifications were first built at Tel-Defna. But a fort whose remains were among the recent discovery was erected by the pharaoh Psamtik III who ruled from 664 to 625BC.
Temple and palace
Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, head of the central antiquities administration of the Delta region and the head of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) expedition which made the recent find, said that the fort was erected over 380m x 625m of land and had a 13m-wide mud-brick fence wall. This, Dr Maqsoud said, makes it one of the largest forts in the east Delta.
The same expedition had this archaeological season unearthed the remains of a huge mud-brick temple to which was appendixed 15 storerooms 36m x 6m in size each on the eastern side of the fort, and seven rooms 57m x 8m each on the southern side.
A small eight-room mud-brick palace 14m x 15m in area was found on the northeastern side of the fort. The expedition also discovered a clay pipe drainage network to rid the buildings and storerooms of rain-water run-off by leading it some 3m deep into the sandy earth.
Bronze arrow-heads were found, Dr Maqsoud said, a strong indication of the military nature of the place.
Excavations have now been halted, to resume in the new season of 2010.
…And in Saqqara
An Egyptian archaeological expedition of the SCA has unearthed in Saqqara a number of ushabtis—an ushabti is a funerary figurine placed in a tomb as a substitute for the deceased, should he or she be called upon to do manual labour in the afterlife. They also found the remains of animal bones and birds inside a crevice on the south side of the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, Giza.
The team was originally cleaning the southern front of the step pyramid when they came upon this crevice. The find, SCA secretary-general Zahi Hawwas said, included 30 granite blocks, terra-cotta bricks bearing the names of Djoser’s daughters and his different titles, as well as remnants of gold leaf the ancient Egyptians might have used to decorate the wooden caskets or the cartonnages—lime-based material used to make Egyptian funerary masks. Hawwas noted that all pieces are now being reassembled to form a coffin in which the wooden casket is placed with the mummy of King Djoser inside.