Abstract:

If you want to understand ancient Egypt, the Nile Delta is of key importance. Excavations and surveys in the Delta keep unearthing new information about how the ancient Egyptians lived, how they envisaged the afterlife and how they interacted with other cultures. The study of finds from the Delta gives us a glimpse into the beliefs and everyday life of the ancient Egyptians.

From 1979 to 2014 Willem van Haarlem worked on several archaeological sites in the Nile Delta, focusing on the excavations at Tell Ibrahim Awad in the eastern Delta from 1991 onward. At the same time he was curator of Egyptian Antiquities at the Allard Pierson, the heritage collections of the University of Amsterdam. On the occasion of his retirement a number of archaeologists, Egyptologists and museum curators have written a series of short studies in his honour, varying from current excavation results from Delta sites to new or renewed research into museum objects from this region. This book offers a rich palette of subjects to scholars interested in Delta archaeology and above all provides hitherto unpublished materials from excavations and museum depots that will inspire the next generation of Nile Delta scholars.

Contents

Preface and acknowledgements
Wim Hupperetz and Ben van den Bercken

Bibliography Willem M. van Haarlem

Tabula gratulatoria

Willem van Haarlem, an appreciation
Manfred Bietak

Tell el-Iswid. A predynastic settlement in the eastern Delta
Béatrix Midant-Reynes and Nathalie Buchez

‘A curious feature was the presence of several ivory or bone rods.’ Ancient Mikado or something very different?
Vincent Boele

An unusual ripple-flaked knife from Cemetery U at Abydos/Umm el-Qaab
Thomas Hikade

Forgotten Excavations, part IV. The first excavation season at Kufur Nigm/Ezbet el-Tell (1961)
Aiman Ashmawy Ali

Buto: towards a further investigation of the Old Kingdom?
Clara Jeuthe and Rita Hartmann

Four notes on Tia and Iurudef
Jacobus van Dijk

Worked mollusc remains from Qantir/Piramesse
Chiori Kitagawa

An (un-)usual cooking pot from Qantir/Piramesse
Henning Franzmeier

Diversity in the Delta. Egyptian portraits of Persians in the Allard Pierson collection
Geralda Jurriaans-Helle and Laurien de Gelder

Once again about the term nw
Galina A. Belova

A glass ba bird in the Allard Pierson
René van Beek

Neilos and Euthenia
Robert Lunsingh Scheurleer

A Ptolemaic king as Egyptian pharaoh
Branko F. van Oppen de Ruiter

Re-excavating Gheyta’s Roman-period cemetery. Some preliminary results on the recontextualisation of excavated artefacts
Ben van den Bercken