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Saïs Report, 2009

Saïs Report, 2009

3. Survey work in the Sais Area

The survey team of James Taylor, Veronica Tamorri and Maria Correas and Penny Wilson made visits to a number of towns, greatly assisted by our Inspector, Ahmed Bilal, the tourist policemen and driver Nagy Ageb.

Survey team members.

Map showing sites in the vicinity of Sa el-Hagar
i. Kom el Najjar

Kom el Najjar lies 1.1 km almost directly east of Sa el Hagar. It is situated at the meeting point of 3 roads and on the western side of the Tirat Kom el Najjar. A canal runs through the modern village from east to west. The oldest part of the village lies on the southern side of the canal Masraf Ratib, with the modern development having happened to the northern side. The sides of the canal did not seem to show any signs of stratified deposits, but they were mostly covered in rubbish. One of the bridges across the canal had footings made of older looking red brick. The cemetery was on a flat area to the west and although there was no significant mound here, it was slightly raised above the level of the fields.

The two oldest mosques in the village are that of Sheikh Abu Roash and Tag al Din. The latter stood on small mound, where the colour of the soil was slightly greyer than that in the surrounding fields. A sketch plan was made of the mound in order to determine its extent and height. There were noticeable pottery scatters on the ground surface. A number of large blocks of light brown orthoquartzite were built into the foundations of the steps of the mosque. One of the blocks had a kheker-frieze decoration. Although the other blocks had worked sides, no other decoration was visible.

Block with kheker-frieze built into the mosque at Kom el Najjar.
A number of deep trenches were being dug on the southern side for water pipes. There was a good amount of pottery sherds in the fill from the trenches and also the soil removed from them was quite variable in its colour and texture. It varied from dark grey-black in one area, with some pottery in it (possibly a birket or water features), to more layered brown soil in other parts of the trench system. A deep hole to 3.5 metres had no pottery fragments in it according to the workman digging it. Some of the trenches were clearly full of redeposited material and modern rubbish, presumably because they had already been dug out more than once before. A small sample of pottery was collected for study.

ii. Surad and Kom Surad

Surad is approximately 13.5 km almost due east from Sa el-Hagar, with Ezbet Kom Surad lying about 0.5 km to the west of Surad. The oldest mosque in the village of Surad was that of Sidi el-Ghamry. It was situated in a small square on a very small raised area, with houses around it. A survey was made to provide some height measurements and the arrangement of the streets running off the main square. To the north-east there was a house which was being built and the foundation pits had been prepared. There was virtually no stratified material in the pits – just new looking red bricks, although some limestone chunks had come from the holes.

There was a large block of brown orthoquartzite at the corner of the mosque street, standing upon its narrow end. It did not seem to be inscribed. Its dimensions were: 70 x 30 x 33 cm (but the full length was not clear as it was partially buried).

On the west side of the village there is a cemetery, which appeared to be slightly raised above the level of the fields and then to the west there is Kom Surad. The eastern edge of the kom was cut away to show that there had been a low mound, here, perhaps around 2m high at its highest point. In Kom Surad the oldest mosque stood upon this mound. A local lady said that if you looked in the side of the mound there were some bones of humans, because this used to be a cemetery area. The stratigraphy was not very clear, however, but there were a few large pieces of pottery sherds in the sections.

Cut-away section where the settlement mound at Kom Surad once stood.
The fields between Ezbet Kom Surad and the cemetery of Surad were also interesting. They were densely covered in pottery, thinning out to the north and the south. The team fieldwalked in the potato fields and collected a good number of sherds, including some embossed ARS/CRS bowls, amphora necks and one piece of glass. The material consisted of Roman pottery dating from the Early to late Roman period. The configuration of the kom, the fields and the cemetery, suggested that the kom once must have extended over this area between the two villages. At some point the fields had been cut into the kom, removing most of it, except for the western edge and a small part to the east. Whether this also tailed off into the village and the Sidi Ghamry mound was not clear, but it could be a possibility. The conclusion from the visit was that the kom was Roman in date and had been cut away partly to make fields but perhaps still partly existed underneath the two adjacent villages.

Field with pottery cover in the centre, cemetery beyond it and modern town at Surad in the background.
iii. Kom el Abyad

The ezbet of Kom el Abyad lies about 7.5 km west-north-west of Sa el-Hagar. It was a very small village, with the town of Shubratu being the main settlement in the area.

There was no high mound in Kom el-Abyad. The local farmers said that the name of the place was because of the white sand here. They said it was no more than 2 m under the fields and that the presence of the sand gave its name to the area. It is possible that there was once some sort of outcrop here, perhaps part of a river system, but that it is now all covered by sediment. In the village there was no high hill area, with the highest point only 1.21 m above the level of the fields. There was no sign of any pottery fragments lying upon the ground.

At the oldest mosque in Kom el-Abyad, there were a few blocks of limestone lying near it. They were roughly square in shape, with a raised ridge running along the top (or bottom). Two were in the immediate area of the mosque, another was on the road to the canal.

Dimensions of the limestone blocks:
Near canal: 58 x 54 x 22 (at max), 12 (at min) cm
By mosque 1: 56 x 56 x 19 (all) cm
By mosque 2: 41 (but buried) x 37 x 16-18 cm

Shaped block (1) of limestone near the mosque at Kom Abyad.
iv. Najrij

Najrij lies about 9.5 km west of Sa el-Hagar. There is a cemetery mound on the north-eastern side of the village. On the north-eastern side of the mound there was some pottery in the section of the hill, but it consisted mostly of Nile silt body sherds. Three distinctive fragments were found, including one light coloured fabric amphora neck. A local lady said that there was some red brick in the hill, but otherwise there were no signs of any antiquities. It looked as if the mound had been used as a cemetery for some time and there were many human bones on the ground surface, which had fallen out of the sections.

There was a very large fragment of granite near the cemetery, most of which was buried in the ground.

Cemetery mound at Najrij.
v. Kom Abbud

Kom Abbud lies approximately 9 km south-west of Sa el-Hagar, near the larger town of Qaranshu. On the eastern side of the village there is another called Hissat Abar. A canal used to run between the two villages but seems to have been filled in and new houses are being constructed on it. The village of Kom Abbud is small and compact with a good pathway around it and a few narrow alleys through it. It was slightly elevated above the level of the fields, to a maximum of around 2.5 m. The headless statue of a Roman woman, perhaps limestone, was found here not so long ago (now in Tanta Museum store).

On the eastern side of the village there was a potato field which had a fairly dense coverage of pottery sherds. A number were collected for cleaning and identification. A few embossed sherds of Late Roman type were noted as well as a fragment of a green glazed dish or bowl. The material is most likely to be Late Roman to Medieval in date. The farmer who worked the field said that the earth in it had not been brought from anywhere else, but had always been there. The adjoining fields were either flooded or under crops so that it was difficult to see the surface of the fields. The football pitch next to the potato field also had a light sherd scatter, so the area may well have extended along the eastern side of the village, although the scatter could equally be from soil removed and put onto the fields.

Potato field with pottery sherds — a sight to delight Delta Survey team members!
On the northern side of the village there were two cut away sections. They did not show any clear stratigraphy or large amounts of pottery, but they did seem to consist of mud brick. The piles of earth could have been dumped there, but they were more likely to have been from old mud brick houses.

We made a survey around the area of the kom, but the impression was of a small medieval hamlet and nothing older or more substantial.

Two blocks of stone were noted:

i. An irregular block, with slightly rounded top and smoothed flat face. Dimensions: 74 x 30 and 20 cm was showing above the ground, but it was buried. The stone have been black basalt or orthoquarzite, but it was not clear.

ii. A roughly square block of red granite, with a depression hollowed out on the top surface. It had been used as a water-zir holder. Dimensions: 43 x 49 and the maximum amount showing was 25 cm. This may have been the total thickness of the stone.

An interesting, old mud-brick house upon the small settlement mound at Kom Abbud.
vi. Shabas Shuhada

Map of the area near Disuq, with the two towns called Shabas.
Shabas Shuhada lies approximately 10 km south-west from Disuq. It is one of the suggested locations for the ancient town of Cabasa. The modern town is approximately 1.1 km by 1.2 km and straddles the railway line between Kafr el Sheikh and Disuq. On the western side of the town there is a very large cemetery, part of which is quite high. The westernmost side has the double shrine of Sheikh Shuhada, formerly known as Shabas Sunkur. Local people said that this part of the town was the oldest town and had been settled since pharaonic times. When the railway line was built in the nineteeth century, the settlement had moved east. Sections of the mound showed stratigraphic layers of pottery sherds and burning. The mound was covered in, mostly modern graves, but there was also a good amount of ancient pottery lying on the site. This could be dated to the Roman period, with some possible Ptolemaic examples amongst the sample. A survey of the cemetery mound showed that it was approximately 260 by 200 metres and rose to a maximum height of about 4 m above the surrounding fields. Although not so high, the area was clearly once part of a sizeable settlement.

Cemetery mound at Shabas Shuhada.

Mosque of Sheikh Shuhada.
The modern town did not seem to be standing upon high ground, but there were a number of limestone and hardstone blocks lying in the streets of the town. Many of them had come from the foundations of the mosque of Sheikh el Ghamry. The mosque had recently been rebuilt and the stones found underneath it had been taken to various houses throughout the town. A second mosque of Sidi Abdallah al Maghraby, near El Ghamry was being rebuilt at the time of out visit and a large worked limestone block was lying in the debris from the foundations.

A number of blocks were recorded around the town:

a. in front of the El Ghamry mosque, a limestone block with worked sides and tool marks: W. 60 x H. 53 x T. 29 cm;
b. A decorated limestone block, with floral motifs, perhaps part of a column capital behind the El Ghamry mosque 57 x 58 x 37 cm;
c. Another like the last;
d. Another limestone column top with floral motifs 66 x 27 x H. 46 cm;
e. Grinding stone and wheel-grinder in town, made of orthoquartzite;
f. Granite grinding stone;
g. Small lump of black basalt and larger fragment of basalt;
h. Granite column fragment, beside corner of house fronting onto the cemetery;
i. A number of octagonal limestone column elements.

Limestone column fragment (d) at Shabas Shuhada.
vii. Shabas Umayyir

Shabas Umayyir lies around 13 km south-east of Disuq, a further 3.75 km on from Shabas Shuhada. It has also been suggested as the possible location of ancient Cabasa. This town was slightly different to Shabas Shuhada in that the ancient area comprised two cemetery mounds, rising to a height of about 4 metres. Each contained pottery and sherd material which was collected for study. The main sheikh’s tomb was that of Sidi Shaab and Sidi Masraf ibn Abdullah ibn Omar il Khattab. A new school had been constructed to the south of the cemetery area, perhaps on land which was previously empty. The pottery also could be dated to the Roman period and seemed to be broadly similar to that from Shabas Shuhada. It is possible that both settlements may have been part of the ancient Cabasa, if a river channel ran between the two in the course of the Masraf No.9, which could be the ancient Saitic course. Then they would have stood on each bank of the channel and thus controlled the surrounding areas.

Cemetery mound at Shabas Umayyir.

Pottery collected from the mound.
The Mud-brick and Organic House Survey (Maria Correas Amador)

Several houses were surveyed in Saïs and the surrounding areas with the intention of investigating local building techniques with mud and mudbricks. Interviews with their owners gave a useful insight into the mud-making and house-building processes, as well as the practicalities of living in this type of structure.

Although mud houses are abnormalities in the urban landscape and have only escaped destruction in certain villages, the surveyed examples show a variety of layouts and styles which lend themselves to further investigation. Not only are mud houses constantly being reshaped due to the need for maintenance and repair, but they are progressively modified to fit the various needs of their dwellers in a relatively short span of time. Therefore, it would appear that the layout of these buildings seems to respond to a more organic development rather than a repetitive standard pattern.

If this was the case, it could have significant implications for the excavation and interpretation of mud remains from the archaeological record. However, further research and comparison to other areas are necessary before further conclusions can be drawn.

Above : Grain storage units. Kom an Najjar.

Left : What lies beneath the paint. Birma.


A staircase shaped by time in Kom an Najjar.