Tell el Yahudiyeh is a city in the Eastern Delta with remains dating from the Second Intermediate to the Roman Period—a palace at the site dates, most likely under Ramesses III. There is also a Hellenistic Jewish temple (temple of Onias) described by ancient authors and identified and excavated by Petrie.
Location of Tell el Yahudiyeh
Tell el Yahudiyeh is about 20km north of Cairo and about 2 km from the village of Shibin el-Qanatir, off the road to Ismaliya.
Etymology
The Delta site of Tell el-Yahudiya (Mound of Jews) probably takes its name from the remains of a temple and town built in the 2nd century BC by a Jewish priest called Onias. Ptolemy IV Philometor permitted Onias to build a temple modelled on Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. The town was constructed for Jewish exiles from Jerusalem and flourished for 200 years before the temple was closed by Vespasian in AD 71.
Temple of Onias
Onias’s temple and the town were only a small part of the whole site, which had been called by the ancient Egyptians Nay-ta-hut and Leontopolis (City of Lions) by the Greeks. The site dates back to at least as early as the Middle Kingdom and seems occupied up to the Roman Period. Tell el-Yahudiya was first excavated and published by Naville in 1890, Petrie in 1906, and later investigated by du Buisson for the French Archaeological Institute.
The main focus of interest in the site has centred on a massive rectangular walled enclosure, measuring about 515m by 490m, dated to the late Middle Kingdom or early Second Intermediate Period. The purpose of the enormous earthwork is not clear. There are no Egyptian parallels for a structure with such massive defensive earthen walls, sloping and plastered on the outer face and almost vertical on the inner face. For this reason, the enclosure was considered of foreign design and was often interpreted as a Hyksos fortification known as the ‘Hyksos Camp’.
The Hyksos people were of Asiatic origin and were known to have gradually infiltrated the Delta regions during the late Middle Kingdom, becoming a potent force in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period. Tell el-Yahudiya may have been one of their many strongholds, although some Egyptologists regard the structure as religious rather than military. Little of the enclosure walls survive today.
Statues of Rameses II
Remains of colossal statues of Rameses II have been found inside the northern part of the enclosure, and he may have also built a temple here. On the western side of the enclosure wall was a temple of Rameses III and probably a palace decorated with faience tiles depicting cartouches, rosettes and flowers, rekhyt birds and foreign captives (many tiles are now in Cairo and other Museums).
Tell el-Yahudiya ware
Tell el-Yahudiyeh Ware or Tell el-Yahudiya ware (often abbreviated TEY) is a distinctive ceramic ware of the late Middle Bronze Age / Second Intermediate Period. The ware takes its name from its site at Tell el-Yahudiyeh in the eastern Nile Delta of ancient Egypt and is also found in many Levantine and Cypriot areas. It was first recognised as a distinctive ware by Sir Flinders Petrie during his excavation of the type site.
The ware first appears in strata dating to the MBIIA period, reaching its peak popularity in the MBIIB-C periods, when it is encountered very frequently in contemporaneous Canaanite and Delta sites. The last vestigial expressions of this ware die out during the LBI period.
Tell el-Yehudiyeh Ware forms a handy diagnostic indicator for the MBIIB-C Period especially. In the Nile Delta, it is often considered to mark the presence of the Hyksos invaders.
Many ceramicists see the form of the Tell el-Yehudiyeh juglet as firmly grounded in earlier Canaanite ceramic traditions, able to be traced back to earlier prototypes such as the juglets from Tomb A at Jericho.
Fabric and technique
The clay used in Tell el-Yehudiyeh Ware is ordinarily grey or light brown, with numerous gritty inclusions.
Decoration
Tell el-Yehudiyeh Ware is characterised by its distinctive mode of decoration, applied after slipping and burnishing, and created by repeatedly “pricking” the surface of the vessel with a small sharp object to make a large variety of geometric designs (‘puncturing’ according to some writers – not an entirely accurate description of the process, as it appears to have been the potters’ intention not to ‘puncture’ or ‘pierce’ the vessel wall, but merely to make a series of small impressions or dents). These designs appear in lines, stripes, triangles, squares and occasionally circles. Vessels of Tell el-Yehudiyeh Ware frequently have a dark surface (the burnished slip varying from brownish black to grey to yellowish), the multiple holes often being filled with chalk or lime, the contrasting white material making the surface design even more dramatic.
Morphology
Tell el-Yehudiyeh Ware is primarily seen in juglets but includes many zoomorphic (animal-shaped) vessels and some shaped like fruit.
Distribution
Well represented in the Nile Valley up into Nubia (though primarily in the eastern Nile Delta of Egypt), the southern portion of Canaan, the north coast of Canaan, the Phoenician and Syrian beaches and the island of Cyprus (primarily the eastern regions). Not presently found in inland Syria.
Cemeteries of Tell el Yahudiyeh
To the east of the enclosure, there are cemeteries of various dates.