Naqada III – Old Kingdom pottery in the Nile Delta: a view from Tell el-Akhdar

Recent research in the northeastern Nile Delta proves that sites situated there played an important role both in developing contact between Egypt and Canaan, as well as in the processes which led to the formation of the Egyptian state. The new data concerning the early history of the Nile Delta has been obtained over the course of the last five years from the Polish Archaeological Survey in Ash-Sharqiyah Governorate. Rim fragments belonging to forms dated to the Naqada III period occur at five sites. Tell el-Akhdar is one of them. It is situated c. 2.5km to the southeast of the modern town of Abu Umran in Ash-Sharqiyah Governorate and halfway between the archaeological sites at Tell el-Murra to the west and Tell el-Iswid to the east. The distance to both is only c. 3km. The pottery material from Tell el-Akhadar comprises fragments of bread moulds, flat plates and different types of bowls, as well as fragmentsof jars. Most of these forms show an affinity with pottery foundat other Early Dynastic sites. The similarities are especially visible when we compare it with the Early Dynastic pottery from Tell el-Farkha, Tell el-Murra and Tell Abu el-Halyat. Although the material found at Tell el-Akhdar during previous research was dated to a later period, our investigation has confirmed that it was also present from at least the Naqada III period.