Publisher's Synopsis
Archaeological highlights from the Sharkeya National Museum are the focus of the second volume of the M.i.N. series. Between 1973 and 2006, this little known museum had a multitude of finds on display which almost exclusively came from excavations of the Egyptian Antiquities' Organisation (EAO) at sites in the Eastern Nile Delta. Further objects came from P. Montet's excavations at Tanis. With support of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) a total of 144 objects have been documented for the present catalogue. All are depicted in colour and thoroughly explained. The objects are currently inaccessible but it is planned to display them in another museum in the future. In Bubastis (Tell Basta) well-carved statues of officials were excavated in a huge brick palace. They were found together with reliefs of Amenemhat III and offering tables for the mayors of Bubastis in the Middle Kingdom. In the Cemetery of the New Kingdom were found stelae, jewellery, and parts of the burial equipment of the vizier Iuti and of his son Ay, a high priest of Bastet -- all objects have remained unpublished until now. In Tanis (San el-Hagar), several statues of Ptolemaic kings were found within the immense Delta temple site of Amun, Mut and Khonsu -- a temple which, since the 21st Dynasty, had been regarded as the Lower Egyptian equivalent to Karnak. Imet (Tell el-Fara'un, El-Husseiniya) was cult centre of the divinities Wadjit (Uto) and Min. From the EAO excavations in the 1960s and 70s come many finds which have remained unpublished so far. El-Sowa is the site of the necropolis of the ancient Per-Sopdu (Saft el-Hinna), cult place of the falcon god Sopdu, the Lord of foreign countries. A painted sarcophagus, richly inscribed offering tables, and mummy masks of the Graeco-Roman Period were found there. Further exhibits were excavated in the ruined cities of Pitom, Mendes and Thmuis as well as at many lesser-known sites in the Eastern Nile Delta, e.g., Ezbet Rushdi, Mit Yaish, Sintiris, Sangaha, Tell el-Shuqafeya and Tell Abu Yasin. They provide significant examples of the multicultural nature of this border region during the Late Period. Four introductory essays, unpublished excavation photographs, line drawings, and site maps supplement the documentation.
