Neal Spencer Speaks on the Excavations of the British Museum at Kom Firin in a Lecture at the BA
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Alexandria—
The BA hosted on Thursday, 4 October 2007, Dr. Neal Spencer, Curator in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum, London, and Director of the British Museum Excavations at Kom Firin (Beheira), in a lecture co organized by the BA and Egypt Exploration Society, entitled "Near the Edge of the Nile Delta".
Kom Firin is located 5 km from Delengat in Beheira. It is an extensive archaeological mound located near the western edge of the Nile Delta in Egypt, an area where little fieldwork has been undertaken.
Dr. Neal Spencer stated that the Kom Firin Excavation Project started in 2002, funded by the British Museum. He added that the 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 project is expected to end in 2008.
Spencer explained through a picture presentation the earliest remains dating to the Ramesside Period (thirteenth-eleventh century BC), when a small mud brick 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 mud brick enclosure in an area of 44,000m², outlined by walls over five meters thick and entered through a narrow gateway flanked with towers. The complex was built in response to the growing threat from Libyan groups to the West.
On the objectives of the project, Dr. Spencer said that the principal objectives of the project 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, a precursor to the 26th dynasty
• To seek material to help assess whether proximity to the Greek trading emporium of Naukratis led to an increased exposure of imported goods
• 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