Location | al-Mughraqa), Gaza Governorate, Palestine |
---|---|
Coordinates | 31°28′22.80000″N34°24′54.00000″E / 31.4730000000°N 34.4150000000°E |
Type | Settlement |
Area | 15 hectares (37 acres) |
History | |
Founded | Middle Bronze Age (early 2nd millennium BC) |
Site notes | |
Discovered | 1996 |
Excavation dates | 2000 |
al-Moghraqa is a Bronze Age former settlement in Gaza Governorate of the State of Palestine. It was discovered in 1996 in the town of Al-Mughraqa and investigated in 1999 and 2000 as part of the Gaza Research Project. The site was inhabited in the early 2nd millennium BC, and may have been associated with the nearby settlement of Tell el-Ajjul which was inhabited at around the same time.
When al-Moghraqa was discovered in 1996, it was located in a mixed environment combining agricultural land and sand dunes. [1] It covered an estimated 15 hectares (37 acres). [2] It was established on low-lying ground. [3]
Archaeologists identified three phases of occupation at al-Moghraqa, all dated to the Middle Bronze Age (periods MBA IIb-c) [4] – the early part of the 2nd millennium BC. [5] The date was arrived at based on the artefacts discovered at the site. [4] This period in the Levant was characterised by the development of new societal organisation, with centralised fortified settlements and satellite villages. [6]
Al-Moghraqa was inhabited at approximately the same time as Tell el-Ajjul, and the two sites were less than 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) away. The proximity of the two sites led the archaeologists who investigated Tell al-Moghraq to suggest that it may have been a "satellite settlement" of Tell el-Ajjul. [7] Gaza and its surrounding area were part of the New Kingdom of Egypt in the 2nd millennium BC and economically and militarily important, connecting Egypt to Asia. [8] After the settlement was abandoned, the area was used agriculturally and later covered by sand dunes. [9]
Moain Sadeq, the director of the Department of Antiquities in Gaza, discovered the site in 1996. It was revealed during building works which removed sand dunes in the area. [10] The site was surveyed as part of the Gaza Research Project in 1999, with excavations following in 2000. Subsequent investigations were planned but suspended due to the Second Intifada. [7] The area was used agriculturally, and in late 2023 the Gaza Maritime Archaeological Project documented clearances and demolition in the locality of al-Moghraqa and Tell el-Ajjul. [11]
Artefacts recovered from al-Moghraqa were similar to funerary objects found at Tell el-Ajjul and the archaeologists investigating al-Moghraqa suggested it could have been used as a cemetery. [7] The survey work identified two concentrations of activity (designated Site 1 and Site 2) that most likely constituted a single site. [12] Artefacts found at al-Moghraqa include pieces of terracotta funerary cones with stamps from the reign of Pharoah Thutmose III and Hatshepsut. [13] While the cones are unique in the region, they are similar to cones from Egypt dated to the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. [7] Despite parallels from Egypt the purpose of the cones is uncertain. [14]
Tel Megiddo is the site of the ancient city of Megiddo, the remains of which form a tell or archaeological mound, situated in northern Israel at the western edge of the Jezreel Valley about 30 kilometres (19 mi) southeast of Haifa near the depopulated Palestinian town of Lajjun and subsequently Kibbutz Megiddo. Megiddo is known for its historical, geographical, and theological importance, especially under its Greek name Armageddon. During the Bronze Age, Megiddo was an important Canaanite city-state. During the Iron Age, it was a royal city in the Kingdom of Israel.
Tel Arad or Tell 'Arad is an archaeological tell, or mound, located west of the Dead Sea, about 10 kilometres west of the modern Israeli city of Arad in an area surrounded by mountain ridges which is known as the Arad Plain. The site is about 10.1 ha.
The year 2000 in archaeology included many events, some of which are listed below.
The year 1999 in archaeology involved some significant events.
The year 1996 in archaeology involved some significant events.
Sharuhen was an ancient town in the Negev Desert or perhaps in Gaza. Following the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt in the second half of the 16th century BCE, they fled to Sharuhen and fortified it. The armies of Pharaoh Ahmose I seized and razed the town after a three-year siege.
Wadi Gaza and Besor Stream are parts of a river system in the Gaza Strip and Negev region of Palestine and Israel. Wadi Gaza is a wadi that divides the northern and southern ends of the Gaza Strip, its major tributary is Besor Steam. In 2022 work began to rehabilitate Wadi Gaza Nature Reserve.
Tall al-Ajjul or Tell el-'Ajul is an archaeological mound or tell in the Gaza Strip. The fortified city excavated at the site dates as far back as ca. 2000–1800 BCE and was inhabited during the Bronze Age. It is located at the mouth of Wadi Ghazzah just south of the town of Gaza.
Funerary cones were small cones made from clay that were used in ancient Egypt, almost exclusively in the Theban Necropolis. The items were placed over the entrance of the chapel of a tomb. Early examples have been found from the Eleventh Dynasty. However, they are generally undecorated. During the New Kingdom, the cones were smaller in size and inscribed in hieroglyphs with the title and name of the tomb owner, often with a short prayer. The exact purpose of the cones is unknown, but hypotheses exist that they variously served as passports, architectural features, and symbolic offerings, among others.
Al-Mughraqa is a Palestinian town in the Gaza Governorate of the Gaza Strip, located six kilometers southwest of Gaza City. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), al-Mughraqa had a population of 11,458 in 2017. The town's alternate name, "Abu Middein" derives from the Bedouin Abu Middein tribe that inhabits the area, part of the larger al-Hanajreh tribal confederation.
The known history of Gaza spans 4,000 years. Gaza was ruled, destroyed and repopulated by various dynasties, empires, and peoples.
Tell es-Sakan is a tell about 5 km south of Gaza City in what is today the Gaza Strip, on the northern bank of Wadi Ghazzeh. It was the site of two separate Early Bronze Age urban settlements: an earlier one representing the fortified administrative center of the Egyptian colonies in southwestern Palestine from the end of the 4th millennium, and a later, local Canaanite fortified city of the third millennium. The location at the mouth of what was probably a palaeochannel of the river, allowed it to develop as an important maritime settlement with a natural harbour. Its geographical location endowed it with a position of importance at the crossroads of land-based trade routes between the Canaan region, the Old Kingdom of Egypt, and Arabia. As of 2000, the early Egyptian settlement was the oldest fortified site known to researchers in both Egypt and Palestine.
Tell el-Burak is an archaeological site located in a lush agricultural section of southern littoral of Lebanon, it has been under investigation by the American University of Beirut and the University of Tübingen since 1998. The excavations have revealed three occupations on the tell, the latest in the Ottoman Period, the next in the Iron Age, and the earliest in the Middle Bronze Age.
Peter M. Fischer is an Austrian-Swedish archaeologist. He is a specialist on Eastern Mediterranean and Near Eastern archaeology, and archaeometry. He belongs to the University of Gothenburg and is associated with the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Sweden. He is the founder and director of the Swedish Jordan Expedition, the Palestinian-Swedish Expedition at Tall al-Ajjul, Gaza. He became the director of the Swedish Cyprus Expedition in 2009 and carried out excavations at Hala Sultan Tekke since 2010. He is member/corresponding member of The Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg, Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities. and The Austrian Academy of Sciences.
The Tell el-Ajjul gold hoards are a collection of three hoards of Bronze Age gold jewellery found at the Canaanite site of Tell el-Ajjul in Gaza. Excavated by the British archaeologist Flinders Petrie in the 1930s, the collection is now mostly preserved at the British Museum in London and the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem. The treasure ranks amongst the greatest Bronze Age finds in the Levant.
Tell Jemmeh or Tell Gemmeh, also known in Hebrew as Tel Gamma or Tel Re'im, is a prominent mound, or tell, located in the region of the northwestern Negev and the southern coastal plain of Israel, about 12 km south of Gaza, bounded by the kibbutz of Re'im 2 km to the east, and the kibbutz of Kisufim 6 km to the west, and is 9 km east of the Mediterranean coast. The site is located at the confluence of two streams, Nahal Besor and Nahal Gerar. Both have changed their course in this area many times throughout history.
Tell el-Far'ah (South) is an archaeological site on the bank of HaBesor Stream in the northern Negev region, Israel. Not to be confused with the site Tell el-Far'ah (North). It is located between the modern settlements of Ein HaBesor and Urim, some 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) from the modern city of Ofakim and 20 kilometres (12 mi) from Gaza.
Moain Sadeq is a Palestinian-Canadian archaeologist specialising in the archaeology of Gaza. He teaches at Qatar University and has worked at colleges in Canada. After completing a doctorate at the Free University of Berlin, Sadeq co-founded the Faculty of Education in Gaza, which later became Al-Aqsa University. In 1994, Sadeq co-founded the Department of Antiquities of Gaza. While working at department, Sadeq jointly led excavations at Tell es-Sakan and Tell el-‘Ajjul.
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