Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (17.2005(2007))

TELL EL-BALAMUN

EGYPT

was found in the small area excavated was
some broken limestone and, without the
advantage of the magnetic plan, there was no
way to interpret the significance of it. The
magnetic result suggests that the stone
debris may have been part of a stone-built
avenue or similar construction. If so, this
approach appears to end in the area to the
west of the gate detected by the magnetic
survey in the inner enclosure wall. The end
of the avenue is marked by an anomaly of
slightly higher magnetic values (in C5) with
an orientation rotated about 12 degrees east
relative to the pylon of the temple of
Psamtik, but the nature of this needs further
investigation.
To the west of the small temple of
Psamtik the magnetic map revealed the
outline of an earlier temple [cf. Fig. 3}.
Although the date of this building has not
yet been confirmed, it must be older than
the temple of Psamtik, since the foundation
of the latter monument cut through the rear
part. The magnetic map shows the usual
outline of a temple with a wide front pylon
and narrower naos, and also indicates that
the pylon was approached by some kind of
avenue. Three trenches were excavated to
a shallow depth to check whether the
position of the foundation of this temple
could be confirmed. This work revealed the
different phases of construction in the area,
beginning with the interior of the
foundation pit of the Psamtik temple, with
some of the remaining sand filling, retained
by a mud-brick wall, 2.34 m thick. Beyond
this for some 0.90 m was a band of fill which
marked the extent of the original cut made
in creating the foundation for the Psamtik
temple, then further west the edge of the
foundation of this older temple, revetted
with mud brick and aligned approximately
north-south. In the small excavation there
was insufficient pottery to permit an

attempt at dating the temple substructure,
so this area will require more investigation
in the next season.
Other areas of the survey produced
evidence for many mud-brick structures and
for industrial areas with pottery kilns or
similar manufacturing facilities. A number
of industrial features, such as kilns (marked
by anomalies of oval shape, of high values of
intensity of the magnetic field, recorded in
C6, C7, B7, cf. Fig. 2) lies to the east of the
small temple of Nectanebo I. An industrial
zone seems also to have developed between
the two enclosure walls on the southwest
side, where a series of buildings is visible,
accompanied by kilns or similar structures
(in FI, F2, G3, northeastern corner of H3).
The alignment of these buildings between
the walls suggests that this part of the Saite
wall was still standing to some height even
after the construction of the Thirtieth-
Dynasty enclosure. This would agree with
the modern contours of the ground, where
both walls on this side are embedded in
a high ridge of debris.
In some places the magnetic map shows
evidence of structures on multiple levels as,
for example, in the building described as the
Fort Annex, excavated by the expedition in
1993. At the time of excavation, the
detection of the southern part of this
building proved very difficult. The magnetic
scan now reveals that this part was
completely overbuilt by a later structure of
rectangular shape, with its longer dimension
aligned from the north-west to the south-
east (southeastern corner of E4, southwestern
corner of E5, northwestern corner of F5 and
northeastern corner of F4; cf. Fig. 2). The
presence of this second level of building has
proved far simpler to detect on the magnetic
scan than through actual excavation, and
again shows the value of magnetic scanning
as preliminary to other fieldwork.

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