| Visited
and mapped by Penny Wilson for the Delta Survey
in 2004-5, who reported as follows: Kom Difshu is a large archaeological
area with several distinct zones, but most of it is underneath a
modern cemetery belonging to the nearby villages of Ezbet Mohammed ed Din
and Zinzu. The main area is a mound sloping gently up to the north-west
with a high point of about 10-12m above the level of the fields. It is
covered with modern tombs. The area to the south of the modern cemetery
mound is flat and sandy, about 1-2m above the cultivation-level. It was
excavated by Ahmed Kamal about 15 years ago for the EAO, but no obvious
structures remain in the trenches. The surface of the unexcavated portion
looks as if there are mud brick structures and some red brick walls.. In
the section at the south-western side there are pottery coffins buried
about 1m below the surface, indicating that at least this sandy area was
the cemetery in antiquity. There is human bone elsewhere amongst the surface
material.
The height of the mound is clear when viewed from the village where there it is truncated by a high section, which shows layers of pottery, smashed limestone and some cut away sandy brick and mud brick walls. Some of these walls are quite substantial and may represent large administrative buildings or enclosures rather than houses. Their presence implies that the whole mound contains a substantial settlement or specialised complex of some kind, with the sandy area to the south-east being used as the cemetery. The area to the north under the village may also have originally been part of the site. Drill coring at the site showed that there was some eary settlement material, perhaps from pre-Ptolemaic period. The main archaeological phases of the site seem to be in the Roman-Late Antique period. The indications are that the whole site is situated upon a sand gezira and the settlement mound seems to have been created on its top. The depth of the settlement material and human cultural deposits (pottery and burnt material) in the southern part of the mound suggests that there are different phases of settlement. The upper layers are probably of Late Roman date and are contemporary with the mud brick ramparts at the north-west corner of the site. Beneath this is a layer of ‘clean’ sand, and then a further settlement layer between 5.9 to 7.08 m. The soil here contains burnt material, pottery fragments and some faience was also found here, suggesting the possibility that the stratum could be Pharaonic in date. This material was situated on top of the sand hill. At the north of the mound, there was evidence for deep settlement layers with bone and pottery coming from around ground level, then below this there were also some limestone fragments and pottery going down to 5m where there was a black silt layer mixed with pottery. This material was upon the sand and tafl base. To the north of the mound, the drill cores indicated that there was little settlement outside the immediate mound area and that the local matrix was yellow sand, with some shale strata. The presence of broken limestone in both the cores and the sections, suggests that there was a limestone building here before the mud brick structures now visible. The limestone must have been broken up for mortar or gypsum powder, or burnt for quicklime as was common from the Roman period onward. The main archaeological features at the northern end of the mound consist of some substantial brick walls from large buildings, foundation layers and burnt material. The mud brick used to make the walls is of three kinds: sandy silt (making yellow bricks), silt with shells (brown with shells), mud brick (brown mud). These were probably made locally and so reflect the local soils available. |
A selection
of photographs from a collection of 51 images, taken by Dr Penny Wilson
in 2004. (Copies of others kept at the EES).
|
| See Wilson, P., The West Delta Regional Survey, Beheira and Kafr el-Sheikh Provinces, 60-70, 302-7. |
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