ROTAB, T el-   [219]

 
 
 

Polish-Slovak Archaeological Mission in Tell el-Retaba:  In 2009, the 3rd season of the Polish Mission directed by Dr. Slawomir Rzepka and Dr. Jozef Hudec, was plannd to continue excavations in 2 areas in which they werestarted in 2008: on the northern defence wall of the Ramesside fortress, and in N-W part of the site, where a domestic architecture from the time of Third Intermediate Period was discovered. However, several days after the beginning of the fieldwork we were informed about the planned construction of the second line of the road running through the site. This project will cause a significant damage to the site, therefore the mission concentrated on rescue excavations on the endangered area. Discovery of a series of well datable infant burials proved that the earliest fortifications documented by Petrie (his 'Wall 1') do not belong to the Hyksos period, but to the late 18th-early 19th Dynasty. Also excavated was a fragment of an ancient road (in use since the late NK till the TIP) leading from the migdol toward the centre of the fortress. It seems that the area south of this road served a domestic purpose and was covered by houses of significant size, of which at least some had more than one floor, while north of the road there was a kind of industrial area.

Bietak, M., Tell ed-Daba II. Vienna 1975, p. 221. Gardiner, A. H., in JEA 5 (1918), 268ff. Helck, in VT 15 (1965), 31f. Holladay, J.S., Tell el-Maskhuta. Malibu 1982, 6ff. Naville, E., The Shrine of Saft el-Henneh and the Land of Goshen. London 1888, 24f. and pl.11. Petrie, W. M. F. Hyksos and Israelite Cities. London 1906, 1f. and pl.35. PM IV, 55. Rzepka, S., Hudec, J., Wodzinska, A. and Herbich, T., 'Tell er-Retaba 2007-2008', Ägypten und Levante XIX (2009), 241-8.