The large mound of ruins at Tell el-Maskhuta in the eastern Delta was
a town-site and capital of the 8th Lower Egyptian nome during the Late
Period, when it was known as Tjeku. Since it's excavation by Edouard
Naville in 1883, the site was identified by many scholars with the
city of Pithom which was mentioned in the biblical story of the
Exodus, but more recent excavations by the University of Toronto
during the 1970s have disagreed with this theory.
Naville found the site to consist of a large mudbrick enclosure which
contained the ruined remains of a temple of Atum and a few other
mudbrick structures. The town's ancient name, Per-Temu (House of Atum)
may derive from the name of this temple and it was on this linguistic
basis that it became associated with the Pithom of the Bible.
The fluctuating importance of the town may have been due to its
position in the Wadi Tumilat where a canal through the wadi gave
access to ships sailing from the Nile to the Red Sea during the Late
Period. Recent excavations of the site have uncovered evidence of a
Hyksos level of occupation below the city later founded by Nekau II (Wehemibre)
of Dynasty XXVI.
Tell el-Maskhuta is the second of the two Delta sites which have been
sufficiently excavated to be positively identified as centres of
Hyksos occupation (the other one is Avaris at Tell el-Dab'a), although
a number of other sites in the eastern delta have now produced
archaeological evidence of the Hyksos culture. Canaanite influence
dominated the material culture of these people, but was often blended
with Egyptian traditions, both in architecture and burial customs. Six
phases of Hyksos occupation of the site have been determined mostly
from pottery found during the excavations. Much of the non-Egyptian
pottery and ceramics are influenced by Canaanite techniques, with a
distinctive decorative style of vessels with flat bottoms and deep red
slip decoration. Both imported and imitation Canaanite two-handled
stone jars have been found at the site, two of which were used for
child burials and Hyksos tombs have been found at Tell el-Maskhuta,
with evidence of robbers' trenches dating to the same period.
The town's importance declined somewhat after Nechau's time but was
still occupied through to the Roman Period after being revived by
Ptolemy II Philadelphus with the re-opening of the canal and the
establishment of a mortuary cult for his wife, Arsinoe II. The site of
a Roman town called Heropolis exists to the north-east of the
enclosure, near the canal. |
