Aegyptus est imAgo cAeli. studies presented to Krzysztof m. ciAłowicz on His 60 tH BirtHdAy Marcin Czarnowicz, Martin Pasternak, Agnieszka Ochał-Czarnowicz, Jakub Skłucki THE EGYPTIAN PRESENCE AT TEL ERANI Tel Erani is one of the most important sites dated to the Early Bronze Age in the Southern Levant, Israel. It is known as one of the first places where the Egyptian presence at the end of EB IB was recognized. Unfortunately, the lack of proper publication, especially of the first excavations, lead to a situation when scholars have more questions than answers. After more than 20 years the archaeologists came back to excavate Tel Erani hoping to find the answers to the questions about the Egyptian presence at the site. The northern Negev in the Late Chalcolithic es by M. Czarnowicz and A. Ochał-Czarnowicz and Early Bronze (EB) period, belonged to the and the flint analyzes by J. Skłucki. most dynamic regions of the Southern Le- vant, Israel. Tel Erani is situated in a liminal History of research at Tel zone between the Negev, the Coastal Plain Erani, Area D and the Shepelah. Today the site consists of an elevated acropolis (16.180 m2) located in the northeastern corner and two terraces. The site of Tel Erani was first mentioned by C. The upper terrace is about 20 m bellow the Conder and H. Kitchner in the Western Pales- acropolis and covers 161.840 m2. The lower tine Survey, where it was identified as Libnah terrace is about 10 m below the upper one (Conder and Kitchener 1883: 259, 261-262). and its southern edge is cut by the Askhelon- Later W. Albright proposed to identify it as a Beit Guvrim 35 road. The whole terraced area Philistine city of Gath (Albright 1921/1922: 10- hides an outstanding Early Bronze settlement 12). In the mid 1950s the government of Israel with a strong Egyptian component. started a project to provide work to new im- From the first excavations (see below) migrants and the rest of the population of vari- at the site, the importance of Tel Erani for ous cities. Kiryat Gat was one of such places so the understanding of the socio-political pro- Shamuel Yeivin, the first director of the Israeli cesses, as well as the foreign relations of the Department of Antiquities, with the permis- Southern Levant in the 4th Millennium BC is sion of the Department of Labor and the Mu- well known to scholars. Unfortunately, the nicipality of Kiryat Gat, started a new excava- results of this first and – so far – largest ex- tion project in a neighboring archaeological cavation project located at Tel Erani have site known then as Tel Gat (Yeivin 1961: 3). The never been fully published, leading to many purpose of that task was to identify the Philis- misunderstandings (see e.g., Weinstein 1984: tine town, according to W. Albright’s expecta- 61). In order to get a clear view of – in partic- tions (Albright 1921/1922: 10-12). ular – the cultural complexity of the region Yeivin opened eight areas well located in of the Southern Levant and northern Negev strategic points of the tell. The first result of in EB. A more precise research based on ar- works in the acropolis area was the identifi- chaeological material from Tel Erani must be cation of Iron Age pottery included the well done (Fig. 1). known LMLK jars. Thanks to them S. Yeivin This article shows the point of view of the could confirm the layer of Iron Age occupa- Erani Area D3 Field Supervisors. The history tion, approximately at the same period that of the research was prepared by M. Pasternak W. Albright proposed, but connected with a and A. Ochał-Czarnowicz, pottery and analyz- different ethnic group (Yeivin 1961: 9-10). 235 mArcin czArnowicz, mArtin pAsternak, Agnieszka ochał-czArnowicz, JakuB sKłucKi Fig. 1. General plan of Area D (drawing: M. Czarnowicz) The rest of the excavation work was locat- of Aharon Kempinski and Isaac Gilead from the ed in the high and low terraces. The archaeo- Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The pur- logical material found there gave strong evi- pose of this new project was to identify and dence that the principal occupation period of understand “Late Chalcolithic” activity at the the tell belonged not to the Iron but to the site; to investigate the essence of the relation- Early Bronze Age. Early Bronze II presence ship with Egypt and to re-examine S. Yeivin’s was especially visible in the high terrace results (Kempinski and Gilead 1991: 167). (Yeivin 1960: 193-194). For a better understanding of the stratig- In 1957, Yeivin opened a new area in the raphy sequence analyzed by S. Yeivin a new lower terrace– Area D. Here, in stratum V he Area D2 was opened and located east from S. found another significantly different type of Yeivin’s D (Kempinski and Gilead 1991: 167). In pottery. It was cylindrical, burnished shred the 1987season, building 232, a major complex with white slip, incised and looked surpris- built of mud brick material that corresponds ingly similar to an Egyptian Predynastic type to the Early Bronze Age I, was discovered there (Yeivin 1959: 270). (Kempinski and Gilead 1991: 167-168). Still in the same Area D in 1959, S. Yeivin During these excavations two main layers C discovered an element that marked a new and D were separated. Most of the finds includ- case of study: a piece of pottery with the ed a massive structure that belongs to Layer C serekh of the first king of a unified Egypt – dated to the Early Bronze Age I b1 period. The Narmer (Yeivin 1960: 195-199). The works pottery assemblage from Layer C was divided during the following year also gave inter- into two groups: group A with local examples esting finds. In the north-west corner of the and group B – 21% of assemblage composed tell (Area N), S. Yeivin uncovered a part of a with Egyptian and Egyptian-like pottery. These significant wall made of mud brick material vessels were made of fine yellow-brown silt (Yeivin 1960: 202-203). With these discoveries rich in organic remains. Although many exam- S. Yeivin posed to the archaeological world a ples seem to have been produced locally, the new question about the dynamic and nature shapes clearly suggested Egyptian influence. A of the relationship between Egypt and South- red slip and burnish were common (Kempinski West Canaan and the importance of Tel Erani, and Gilead 1991: 177, 179). The layer D deposits which is far from being Tel Gat. contain pottery assemblage similar to Layer C, In the mid-1980s a new expedition started but with a much higher proportion of Egyptian work at Tel Erani. Short excavations between and Egyptian-like pieces, including the local 1985 and 1988 were opened under the direction imitations of burnished and black-topped ves- 236 tHe egyptiAn presence At tel erAni sels (Kempinski and Gilead 1991: 174). The EB after the end of the A. Kempinski and J. Gilead Ib2 period was not present in Area D2 (Kem- project, were excavated. None of the squares pinski and Gilead 1991: 174) and Chalcolithic was excavated to bedrock. At Area D3H, due to finds were rare: an insignificant number of the slope, every square shows a different chron- cornets and V-shaped bowls were found with- ological unit starting from early EB II (Square out an archaeological context (Kempinski and G12) to late EB I (J12). At D3L a part of the large Gilead 1991: 171). building was found dating to the middle of EB These excavations opened up new ground I. It was adjacent to the street previously exca- for analysis of the archeological material from vated in the most western square of D2 and vis- the tell, and its importance in the second half ible also in easternmost located square of D3L. of the Fourth Millennium BC. The analysis was That led its excavators to the conclusion that subsequently re-evaluated (Yekutieli 2006) to both constructions – the building excavated by give new horizons to future excavations. A. Kempinski and J. Gilead and the one by our team represent the same phase. A new project – the joint Israeli-Polish expedition General situation at Area D3H In November 2012 a delegation from the Ben- Gurion University of the Negev (Y. Yekutieli, The area of D3H was previously flattened, pos- E. Cohen-Sasson, M. Pasternak and O. Shalev) sibly during S. Yeivine’s works (this is area of met with the representatives of the Jagiellon- his squares B8-B9) and does not reassemble the ian University in Cracow (K. Ciałowicz and M. original slope of the tell. The edge of this little Czarnowicz; also E. Braun and A. Mączyńska artificial plateau was chosen for placing three from Poznan Archaeological Museum took squares called H12, G12 and J12. They were part in the meeting) to discuss the frames of placed in a row on the W-E axis. At this place further co-operation and plans to excavate the terrain slopes down slowly towards the the site. Both sides with great enthusiasm east. The westernmost square, and at the same agreed to run a joint archaeological project fo- time the highest placed, was G12. Above only a cused on two main topics – relations between thin layer of modern date occurred (Layer I). In Egypt and the Levant and the chronology of the NE corner a row of stones was found (Layer the city wall, discovered by S. Yeivin. With II), possibly the remains of an earlier construc- finances from the National Science Centre of tion excavated by S.