Mersa Gawasis (Red Sea - Egypt): UNO/IsIAO and BU 2003-2004 Field Season under direction of Rodolfo Fattovich and Kathryn Bard

General Remarks

The 2003-2004 fieldwork at Mersa Gawasis provided more evidence of different phases of occupation of this coastal site, and suggests that the harbor was most likely used from the very end of the Old Kingdom and/or First Intermediate Period to the end of the Middle Kingdom and/or beginning of the New Kingdom. Most evidence, however, dates to the Twelfth Dynasty (ca. 1985-1773 BC), with some ceramics possibly dating to the reigns of Amenemhat II (ca. 1911-1877 BC), Senusret II (ca. 1877-1870 BC), and Amenemhat III (ca. 1831-1786 BC) (for the absolute chronology, see Shaw 2000).
The "Nubian" potsherds are associated with very few sherds of pharaonic wares (ranging in time from the Old Kingdom/First Intermediate Period to the early Middle Kingdom), a lithic industry with perforators on flakes similar to Nubian types of the late 3rd - early 2nd millennia BC, and many shells at the base of the stratigraphic sequence at WG 18. The context of the Nubian sherds suggests that the site was initially frequented by people with Nubian cultural traditions.
The great number of tuyères, sometimes associated with copper ore and slag and from all strata dating to the Twelfth Dynasty, points to a use of the site for metalworking at this time. The furnaces were located along the shore of the wadi and the western playa, most likely with the main concentration at the base of the western slope of the coral terrace.
The clay ovens on the western slope of the terrace were possibly used to make bread molds, as an oven with a profile like the Mersa Gawasis one is represented in the Theban tomb of Antefoker (ca. 1956-1911 BC) with a pile of bread molds inside (see de Garis Davies 1920: pl. Xib).
The use of the site for maritime activities is supported by the numerous anchors and fragments of anchors from the settlement area on the western side of the terrace and the ceremonial area along the seashore, as well as shaped fragments of timber (cedar) from boats found in the settlement area.
Most likely, the roughly oval structure (Feature 4) associated with anchors on the eastern edge of the coral terrace was used by the workers and sailors as a cultic place, similar to the Hathor shrine at Gebel Zeit. The other ceremonial structures in the same area of the site were memorials of maritime expeditions, which were recorded in the small stelae usually associated with these structures. Most of these stelae were recorded by Abdel Moneim Sayed in the 1970s, and are in the archaeological museum of the University of Alexandria, Egypt (Sayed 1978). The maritime memorial structures basically consisted of a two small rooms, which were constructed with conglomerate slabs and were associated with offering deposits and two anchors on the outside. The rooms were sustained with a cairn of coral rocks and/or gravel. The evidence from the 2003-2004 field season, however, demonstrates that different construction techniques were used in these structures.