Although a well-fortified site of the late New Kingdom was located at Tell el-Retabah in the Wadi Tumilat (eastern Delta), in Saite times the major settlement (and fort) in the wadi was moved east to Tell el-Maskhuta, about 15 kilometers west of modern Ismailia. According to John Holladay, the University of Toronto archaeologist who directed excavations at the site (1978-1985), Tell el-Maskhuta had been a small unfortified Hyksos village in the later Second Intermediate Period. But when the Delta canal through the Wadi Tumilat was begun by the Saite king Nekau II, Tell el-Maskhuta became the wadi’s most important frontier fortress. A large temple of the god Atum was built, to the north of which are the remains of mud-brick houses, granaries, and ovens - probably to be associated with the community of temple personnel and workers.
Possibly following Nekau’s defeat in Syria at Carchemish, a huge defensive wall, 8-9 meters thick and 200 meters long on each side, was built at Tell el-Maskhuta. According to Holladay, two phases of destruction occurred when the site was attacked by the army of the
Figure 9.12 Plan of the 26th-Dynasty tomb of lufaa at Saqqara. Source: Zahi Hawass, “Abusir Tomb,” National Geographic Magazine 194 (5) (1998), p. 107. Reproduced by permission of Kenneth Garrett/National Geographic creative.
Chaldean king nebuchadrezzar II, in 601 bc and 568 bc. The fortress was also attacked by the Persian army in 525 bc, after which the settlement inside the walls expanded to cover the entire area of the enclosure. In the Wadi Tumilat the Persian king darius erected four stelae (inscribed in four languages), about his completion of the delta canal.
Much imported pottery has been excavated at Tell el-Maskhuta, especially Phoenician and East Greek pottery dating to Saite times and the 60 years of Egyptian rule between the two Persian dynasties. during a rebellion against the Persians in 487 bc a large well outside the fort’s walls was blocked up with refuse, including much pottery. South Arabian silver coins and small limestone incense altars in South Arabian style point to trade with the southern Red Sea region during the 30th Dynasty.
Gaps in occupation occurred at Tell el-Maskhuta at two major junctures in time: when the Persians were ultimately defeated by Alexander the Great, and at the end of the Ptolemaic
Dynasty when Egypt became a Roman province. Occupation at the site resumed after the Delta canal was rebuilt, first by Ptolemy II and later under the roman emperor Trajan.
To the north of the Wadi Tumilat in the northwest Sinai is another fortress, Tell el-Herr, which has been excavated by French archaeologist Dominique Valbelle as part of salvage operations to investigate sites in the region before they were destroyed by new agricultural development. Somewhat smaller than Tell el-Maskhuta, the Tell el-Herr fortress (ca. 125 meters long on each side) was located to the south of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile on an important overland route across the northern Sinai. Four different stages of occupation have been identified at the site, from the first period of Persian domination to the late roman Period.
The locations of these fortified settlements indicate the importance of the overland route into Egypt across the Sinai - through which invading armies would have traveled - and the new canal route, which was important for sea trade between the Mediterranean world and the Red Sea (and beyond). With the defeat of the Persians Egypt became increasingly connected to powers that were centered on the northern side of the Mediterranean - first with the Macedonian Greeks and the subsequent founding of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, and later with the Roman world.
World History
