Tell el-Murra | The Levantine Ceramics Project

Site: Tell el-Murra

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Site Information

Site name (primary, secondary):

Tell el-Murra

Country/region:

Egypt/Delta

Alternate names & spellings:

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Coordinates (N,E):

30.883333 , 31.883333

Periods attested by vessels on the LCP:

1st Dynasty

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Site Description

Tell el-Murra sits in the eastern Nile Delta, about 120 kilometers northeast of Cairo. The site's ancient name is unknown. It was occupied from about 3500 BCE until about 2200 BCE, encompassing the Naqada III Culture, which includes the Protodynastic and Early Dynastic periods (1st–2nd dynasty). It was abandoned after the Old Kingdom period. The mound rises to a height of 3 to 4 meters, and measures 250 meters from north to south and 180 meters east to west for a total area of about 4.5 hectares. A cemetery lies in the southwestern part of the mound and settlement activity has been found in the northern, eastern and south-eastern portions. In the 1980s the Amsterdam University Survey Expedition in the area noted Old Kingdom surface pottery at the site. Following a regional survey season in 2008, excavations at Tell el-Murra began in 2010 by a team from the Institute of Archaeology of Jagiellonian University in Kraków under the direction of Mariusz A. Jucha and Grzegorz Bąk-Pryc.

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Related Images

Tell el-Murra, excavation view (photo by M. A. Jucha; https://pcma.uw.edu.pl/en/2019/01/13/tell-el-murra-2/)

Tell el-Murra, Cemetery, Grave 1, Early Dynastic Period (photo G. Bąk-Pryc; https://pcma.uw.edu.pl/en/2019/01/13/tell-el-murra-2/

Vessels 24

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Tell el-Murra, G7-VC-4

Beer jar

Tell el-Murra

29th century BCE

1st Dynasty

Tell el-Murra, G18-VC-2

Beer jar

Tell el-Murra

29th century BCE

1st Dynasty

Tell el-Murra, G2-VC-10

Beer jar

Tell el-Murra

29th century BCE

1st Dynasty

Tell el-Murra, G27-VC-4

Beer jar

Tell el-Murra

29th century BCE

1st Dynasty

Break Photos 8

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Tell el-Murra, G12-VC-1

Beer jar

Tell el-Murra

29th century BCE

1st Dynasty

Tell el-Murra, G12-VC-3

Beer jar

Tell el-Murra

29th century BCE

1st Dynasty

Tell el-Murra, G6-VC-1

Beer jar

Tell el-Murra

29th Century BCE

1st Dynasty

Tell el-Murra, G33-VC-4

Beer jar

Tell el-Murra

29th century BCE

1st Dynasty

Petrographic Samples 2

CV 6/IFAO 9427
Tell el-Murra, G6-VC-1
Tell el-Murra

29th Century BCE

1st Dynasty

Magnification:
100x

Polarized Light?
XPL

CV 7/IFAO 9428
Tell el-Murra, Trench 5 14-VC-144
Tell el-Murra

29th century BCE

1st Dynasty

Magnification:
100x

Polarized Light?
PPL

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Site/Project URLs and Database Links

Site/Project URLs

Tell el-Murra (https://pcma.uw.edu.pl/en/2019/01/13/tell-el-murra-2/)

Tell el-Murra (http://www.murra.pl/bibliografia/)

Database Links

OpenStreetMaps (https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=30.883333&mlon=31.883333&zoom=15#map=15/30.88333/31.88333)

Associated Wares/Ware Families/Style

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Associated Petro-fabrics

Egypt/Nile Clay with Plant Remains

Associated Kilns/Workshops

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Bibliography

Mariusz Jucha. "Tell el-Murra: The Predynastic—Old Kingdom site in the North-East Nile Delta" Folia Orientalia 47 (2010), 379-390
Mariusz Jucha. "Tell el-Murra 2008-2015. Excavation of the Nile Delta Site from the IVth–IIIrd Millennia BCE" Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 7.4 (2015), 71-74
Mariusz Jucha. "The burial customs in early dynastic Egypt: a view from the cemetery at Tell el-Murra (Nile Delta)" in Egypt at its Origins 6275-296, ed(s). Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference 'Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt, Vienna, 10th-15th September 2017. 303. Peeters Publishers, 2021
M. A. Jucha, G. Bąk-Pryc, N. Małecka-Drozd, M. Kazimierczak. "Tell el-Murra (Northeastern Nile Delta Survey): research in 2016–2017" Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 27/1 (2018), 149-167

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Discussion/Acknowledgements

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