Delta Discovery

Join us for an 8 week exploration as we venture deep into the Nile Delta, an area often underestimated, yet crucial to our understanding of ancient Egypt. We visit 8 key sites exploring religious centres, capital cities,  royal treasure tombs  and enigmatic predynastic discoveries.  Your Delta Discovery adventure awaits…

Lecture1) Humid, Flat and nothing is what it used to be: An Introduction to the Delta This area of Egypt, along the many tributaries of the Nile are where the vast majority of ancient Egyptian people would have lived worked and died. We will explore the delta’s unique environment to see how it was used in the past and the challenges modern use and the environment pose for archaeologists working in this area today.

Lecture 2) Golden Beginnings: Tell el-Farkha and other early Sites of the Eastern Delta The site of Tell el-Farkha  revealed spectacular finds  from the 4th millennium BC. The oldest brewery found in Egypt, the largest predynastic residential building from Egypt and votive deposits containing two unique golden statues, dating to c. 3200 BC. 

Lecture 3) Always there (and many cats): Bubastis Life at Bubastis can be traced from the early dynastic period until today. The site has many tantalising references and remains:  a Ka-house of 6th Dynasty king Pepi I. The temple of Bastet (22nd-30th Dynasties). A palace of a governor of the Middle Kingdom.   Tombs of viziers and vice-roys of Kush from the early 20th Dynasty. The Third Intermediate Period sees the greatest importance of Bubastis with the 22nd Dynasty being based at the city.

Lecture 4) Buto The site of Buto, must have been one of the most important sites in the Nile Delta, leaving an important cultural legacy. It was understood as lower Egyptian pendent to the Upper Egyptian Hierakonpolis and features prominently in religious texts. The Butic burial might refer to early Lower Egyptian ceremonies for rulers.

Lecture 5) Sais Capital of the 26th Dynasty, Sais poses a mystery with the remains of the actual city very much destroyed. Yet it is here that Solon is said to have received the story of Atlantis and that Plutarch reports that a shrine of “Athena” carried the inscription “I am all that hath been, and is, and shall be; and my veil no mortal has hitherto raised“.  We know it was an important place in early times, the Ramesside and Third Intermediate Period where it became was capital of Egypt. 

Lecture 6) The City of the Ram-Man: Mendes Rivaling Tanis in size and Bubastis in longevity Tanis was settled from the Early Dynastic Period and became the nome capital in the Old Kingdom. This status developed and the 1st millennium BC  saw it rise to national capital during the short-lived 29th Dynasty. In the Ptolemaic Period the nearby sister city of Thmuis (modern Tell el-Timai) took over it’s function as regional centre and the city went into decline.

Lecture 7) Egypt’s most impressive Tell: Tanis Once thought to have been both Avaris and Pi-Ramesses, Tanis is the place of the highest surviving tell in Egypt. 32 meters of human remains are a testimony to more than 15 centuries of settlement activities. The most important finds are the royal tombs of the Third Intermediate Period. While not as rich as the tomb of Tutankhamun, they still allow for a deep insight into this lesser known period and show the breaks and continuities between the New Kingdom and the following dynasties.

Lecture 8) The Eastern Border of the Delta: Tell el-Retaba, Tell el-Maskhuta, and Tell el-Yahudiyeh At the Eastern edge of the Delta and the Wadi Tumilat, leading to the Red Sea a couple of settlements are located which especially inform us about the Second Intermediate Period, the later New Kingdom and the Late Period. Fortifications, palaces, pottery production, settlements, foreign relations and biblical accounts all help to tell the story of these interesting places.