Tell el-Borg I

Book excerpt: Between 1999 and 2008, a team of experts and specialists worked together at Tell el-Borg, a site in north Sinai, in the delta region of Egypt. This volume comprises the first report on the site. Tell el-Borg, as it turned out, was composed of four significant areas: the military zone where two forts were found (Fields IV, V, and VIII), the public space (Field II), the domestic area (Field VI), and the cemeteries (Field III and VII). The focus of this first of two volumes is as follows: the historical and archaeological setting of north Sinai, the east frontier military area commonly known as the Ways of Horus (Chapter 2); the paleo-environmental setting of Tell el-Borg and its environs (Chapter 3); the introduction to Tell el-Borg and the initial discoveries (Chapter 4). The two forts and the related discoveries are treated in detail (Chapters 5 and 6), followed by the magnetometer survey conducted in 2006 and 2007, which demonstrated that we had nearly exhausted the site’s potential (Chapter 7). The pottery finds from all fields are treated here by ceramic specialists: Egyptian pottery (Rexine Hummel, Chapter 8), Levantine wares (Catherine Duff, Chapter 9), Cypriote imports (Stuart Swiny, Chapter 10), and some ceramic specialty studies (Chapter 11). Last, a study of the weaponry discovered from the fort is offered (Chapter 12). The second volume will appear in the next few years.