DOI issue:
Egypt
DOI article:Chłodnicki, Marek; Ciałowicz, Krzysztof M.: Tell el Farkha (Ghazala): interim report, 2000
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41368#0096
TELL EL LARKHA
Fire was used inside the substructures
to heat whatever was inside the vats. It
may have been a place for brewing beer.
Assuming this conclusion is borne out,
then what we have here is the oldest
known brewery from the Nile Delta, the
only older one being the brewery from
Hierakonpolis.4)
The most recent discoveries that refer
to phase 1 at Tell el Farkha are also
surprising and unparalleled on the whole.
While fragmentary structures of the kind
discussed above are known from other sites
in Lower Egypt (e.g. Maadi and Buto),
nowhere have they been preserved in such
condition and nowhere are they equally
big. About 0.60 m below the bottom of
the Nagadan building of phase 3, a Lower
Egyptian structure was found to extend
over practically the entire excavated area
(10 by 7 m). The thick layer of silt
covering it hindered explorations con-
siderably (Fig. 9), proving, however, that
the flooding of the gezira at Tell el-Farkha
(before human activity resulted in
a significant raising of its level) and more
or less extensive periods of abandonment
were relatively frequent. The building,
Fig. 9- Western Kom. Uppermost level of the Lower Egyptian structure
(Photo R. Slabonski)
4) J. Geller, “From Prehistory to History: Beer in Egypt”, in: R. Friedman, B. Adams (eds.), The Followers of Horus.
Studies Dedicated to M.A. Hoffman (Oxford 1992), 19-26.
94
Fire was used inside the substructures
to heat whatever was inside the vats. It
may have been a place for brewing beer.
Assuming this conclusion is borne out,
then what we have here is the oldest
known brewery from the Nile Delta, the
only older one being the brewery from
Hierakonpolis.4)
The most recent discoveries that refer
to phase 1 at Tell el Farkha are also
surprising and unparalleled on the whole.
While fragmentary structures of the kind
discussed above are known from other sites
in Lower Egypt (e.g. Maadi and Buto),
nowhere have they been preserved in such
condition and nowhere are they equally
big. About 0.60 m below the bottom of
the Nagadan building of phase 3, a Lower
Egyptian structure was found to extend
over practically the entire excavated area
(10 by 7 m). The thick layer of silt
covering it hindered explorations con-
siderably (Fig. 9), proving, however, that
the flooding of the gezira at Tell el-Farkha
(before human activity resulted in
a significant raising of its level) and more
or less extensive periods of abandonment
were relatively frequent. The building,
Fig. 9- Western Kom. Uppermost level of the Lower Egyptian structure
(Photo R. Slabonski)
4) J. Geller, “From Prehistory to History: Beer in Egypt”, in: R. Friedman, B. Adams (eds.), The Followers of Horus.
Studies Dedicated to M.A. Hoffman (Oxford 1992), 19-26.
94