22 June– 31 August 2013
Exhibition curator: dr Marek Chłodnicki
25 years ago the site at Tell el-Farkha appeared on Egypt’s archaeological map. The Polish Archaeological Expedition for the Eastern Nile Delta, organized by the Poznań Archeological Museum and the Archaeology Institute, Krakow’s Jagiellonian University with the cooperation of the Mediterranean Archaeology Centre, University of Warsaw, have been excavating the place for over 15 years .
Major discoveries made during the excavations have an immense significance for the understanding of the processes that led to the unification of Lower and Upper Egypt into one political entity.
The Tell el-Farkha site functioned for over 1000 years (ca 3700 – 2700 BC), first as a centre of the local Lower Egyptian Culture, then as an important power centre during the formation of the united Egyptian state. Starting with the earlyOld Kingdom, it was one of the main, or even the main administrative and economic centre in the eastern Nile Delta.
The most valuable finds include golden statuettes of a ruler, a temple deposit containing sophisticated ivory human figurines, cylindrical seals, objects made of bone, stone, flint, copper and gold.
Outstanding constructions in Tell el-Farkha include one of the world’s oldest breweries, the oldest Egyptian monumental buildings made of dried brick, and one of the first known mastaba-shaped graves.
All the finds have stayed inEgypt; the most important ones can be admired in theEgyptianMuseuminCairo. Consequently, thePoznańexhibition has to be limited to the photographs of the discovered objects and architectural complexes. To bring closer the quality of the site, it presents a 3D reconstruction of the main buildings and the layout of the settlement. The exhibition also includes artefacts from Minshat Abu Omar, a cemetery in the Eastern Delta which functioned at the same time as Tell el-Farkha.
The exhibition accompanies the international congress: “The Nile Delta as the centre of cultural exchange between Upper Egypt and the Levant”.
