Kom Firin
Introduction
The British Museum has now completed six seasons of
fieldwork at Kom Firin in the Western Delta, directed by Neal
Spencer.
Several factors
led to the choice of this site for a new fieldwork project. It
presents an extensive amount of archaeological deposits above the
water table, an important consideration in the Delta, where
excavations would otherwise require a water-pump.
Kom Firin also provides the opportunity to
investigate a settlement and its temple(s) in the Western Delta, an
area having received little systematic archaeological exploration,
despite its undoubted strategic importance throughout much of the
late second and early first millennium BC.
Furthermore, like many sites in the region, it
is under serious threat from the encroachment of agriculture.
Finally, Kom Firin has a historical link to
the British Museum. Flinders Petrie visited the site in 1886, as
part of his fieldwork on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Fund. He
acquired two objects now in the British Museum, which suggest the
presence of a Saite temple at the site.
Images (from top):
- Map of the Nile Delta,
indicating the location of Kom Firin
- The present-day access
track to the site echoes the route of the Delta Light Railway
- Bronze barque-fitting,
inlaid with gold and bearing the cartouche of Amasis. Purchased by
Flinders Petrie at Kom Firin.
Height: 14cm. British Museum EA 16041