The Western Nile Delta

Between 1977 and 1983 a team led by William D.E. Coulson, Albert Leonard Jr and Nancy Wilkie undertook a major survey and excavation project in the central-western Nile Delta, in the area around Kom Firin and Naukratis. They examined over thirty sites, spanning the 3rd millennium BC to the late 1st millennium AD. This was the most significant in-depth archaeological exploration of this important border region, yet it remained largely unknown with only the site of Naukratis published but misunderstood. Their work is presented, re-evaluated and contextualised here from a present-day perspective and with all new data, including results from the Egyptian excavation of a major Old Kingdom to Roman period cemetery at Silvagou near Kom Firin. Offering a key synthesis of this region, the volume sheds new light on settlement patterns, environment and historical development by bringing together data from different disciplines. Many sites hitherto identified as Ptolemaic or Roman foundations now emerge as settled in the Pharaonic period. This research also provides glimpses of a time before the rapid urban expansion and agricultural development since the late 20th century.