The Nile Delta of Egypt: Kom Firin
Introduction
The British Museum has now completed four 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 De
lta, 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