Kom Firin
Project leader: Neal Spencer
Department: Ancient Egypt and Sudan
Project start: September 2002
End date: October 2010 (field season)
Other British Museum staff: (occasional)
Tracey Sweek, Nicholas Badcott
Other departments: Conservation and Scientific
Research, Learning and Audiences
External partners: Archaeological Geophysics
Laboratory, University of Akron, Ohio, USA www3.uakron.edu/anthro/csaa/index.htm
(2003-2005)
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge www.esc.cam.ac.uk (from 2007)
Project funded by: The British Museum - The
Townley Group
Description:
Kom Firin is an
extensive archaeological mound located near the western edge of the
Nile Delta in Egypt, an area where little fieldwork has been
undertaken. This area has never been the subject of intensive
archaeological investigation before and the project has used a
combination of geophysical survey and excavation to research
aspects of the site’s history.
The earliest remains date to the Ramesside Period
(thirteenth-eleventh century BC), when a small mudbrick and
limestone temple was built and decorated in the reign of Ramses II.
Nearly entirely destroyed, parts of an inscription of Ramses II
from a doorway in the temple describe him as a valiant ruler, who
‘gives commands at the head of his troops’.
The temple was set inside an impressive mudbrick enclosure in an
area of 44,000m², outlined by walls over five metres thick and
entered through a narrow gateway flanked with towers. It seems
possible this complex was built in response to the growing threat
from Libyan groups to the West.
Kom Firin flourished for nearly two thousand years after this
time with at least two major temple enclosures constructed in the
latter part of the first millennium BC, although the buildings
within are long since destroyed. Fragments from pottery containers
and tableware from as far afield as the Greek mainland, Rhodes,
Clazomenae and Cyprus attest to the cosmopolitan world of the Nile
Delta during this era.
Objectives:
The project aims to investigate, through excavation and
non-destructive survey, the site of Kom Firin, a fifty-five hectare
settlement mound at the western edge of the Nile Delta. The
principal objectives are:
- To obtain evidence for the nature of urban settlement in the
Western Delta, a largely unexplored area despite its strategic
importance in the Ramesside period, c.1300−1070 BCE (attempted
invasion and immigration by Libyan groups) and in the ensuing rise
of the Great Kingdom of the West, a precursor to the
26th dynasty (672-525 BCE).
- To seek material to help assess whether proximity to the Greek
trading emporium of Naukratis led to an increased exposure to
imported goods in comparison to contemporary sites further
south.
- To disseminate information through academic publications, but
also provide resources (video, images, text) on the ancient site,
and the modern village, for use in cross-curricular teaching
initiatives.
More information:
The first monograph on the site will
be available shortly: Neal Spencer, Kom Firin I: The Ramesside
temple and the site survey (British Museum Research
Publication 170, 2008).
Summaries of the work undertaken during each
season:
See a 360 degee panorama of Kom Firin
in Google Earth, created by Stefan Geens: http://www.ogleearth.com/2007/11/the_kom_firin_d.html
Publications:
N. Spencer, Kom Firin I, (London, British Museum Press,
forthcoming)
K. Smoláriková, ‘Recent identification of Greek imports from Kom
Firin’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology (in press)
N. Spencer, ‘The temples of Kom Firin’, Egyptian
Archaeology 24 (2004), pp. 38−40
Images (from top):
- Excavations in the temple of Ramses II at Kom Firin (2003)
- Limestone doorjamb with inscription of Ramses II, from the
temple at Kom Firin,
- Two globular ceramic jars (5th-4th century BC) from
north-eastern Kom Firin