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Al-Moghraqa

Al-Moghraqa
A flat landscape with a steep upward bank and the left-hand side
Al-Moghraqa during the 2000 excavations
Al-Moghraqa is located in State of Palestine
Al-Moghraqa
Shown within State of Palestine
LocationAl-Mughraqa, Gaza Governorate, Gaza Strip, Palestine
Coordinates31°28′21″N 34°24′56″E / 31.47250°N 34.41556°E / 31.47250; 34.41556
TypeSettlement
Area15 hectares (37 acres)
History
FoundedMiddle Bronze Age (early 2nd millennium BC)
Site notes
Discovered1996
Excavation dates2000

Al-Moghraqa is a Bronze Age former settlement in Gaza Governorate of the Gaza Strip in Palestine. It was discovered in 1996 in the town of Al-Mughraqa and investigated in 1999 and 2000 as part of the Gaza Research Project. The site was inhabited in the early 2nd millennium BC, and may have been associated with the nearby settlement of Tell el-Ajjul, which was inhabited at around the same time.

Location and topography

When al-Moghraqa was discovered in 1996, it was located in a mixed environment combining agricultural land and sand dunes.[1] It covered an estimated 15 hectares (37 acres).[2] It was established on low-lying ground.[3]

History

Archaeologists identified three phases of occupation at al-Moghraqa, all dated to the Middle Bronze Age (periods MBA IIb-c)[4] – the early part of the 2nd millennium BC.[5] The date was arrived at based on the artefacts discovered at the site.[4] This period in the Levant was characterised by the development of new societal organisation, with centralised fortified settlements and satellite villages.[6]

Al-Moghraqa was inhabited at approximately the same time as Tell el-Ajjul, and the two sites were less than 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) apart. The proximity of the two sites led the archaeologists who investigated Tell al-Moghraq to suggest that it may have been a "satellite settlement" of Tell el-Ajjul.[7] Gaza and its surrounding area were part of the New Kingdom of Egypt in the 2nd millennium BC and economically and militarily important, connecting Egypt to Asia.[8] After the settlement was abandoned, the area was used agriculturally and later covered by sand dunes.[9]

Discovery and investigation

Moain Sadeq, the director of the Department of Antiquities in Gaza, discovered the site in 1996. It was revealed during building works which removed sand dunes in the area.[10] The site was surveyed as part of the Gaza Research Project in 1999, with excavations following in 2000. Subsequent investigations were planned but suspended due to the Second Intifada.[7] The area was used agriculturally, and in late 2023 the Gaza Maritime Archaeological Project documented clearances and demolition in the locality of al-Moghraqa and Tell el-Ajjul.[11]

Artefacts recovered from al-Moghraqa were similar to funerary objects found at Tell el-Ajjul and the archaeologists investigating al-Moghraqa suggested it could have been used as a cemetery.[7] The survey work identified two concentrations of activity (designated Site 1 and Site 2) that most likely constituted a single site.[12] Artefacts found at al-Moghraqa include pieces of terracotta funerary cones with stamps from the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III and Hatshepsut.[13] While the cones are unique in the region, they are similar to cones from Egypt dated to the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt.[7] Despite parallels from Egypt the purpose of the cones is uncertain.[14]

Bronze Age sites near Gaza

References

  1. ^ Steel et al. 2002, p. 939.
  2. ^ Clarke & Steel 1999, p. 215.
  3. ^ Steel et al. 2004a, p. 37.
  4. ^ a b Steel et al. 2004a, pp. 51–52.
  5. ^ Sharon 2013, p. 63.
  6. ^ Greenberg 2019, pp. 180, 262–263.
  7. ^ a b c d Steel et al. 2002, pp. 939–940.
  8. ^ Steel et al. 2004a, p. 38.
  9. ^ Steel et al. 2004a, p. 52.
  10. ^ Clarke & Steel 1999, p. 214.
  11. ^ Andreou 2023, p. 11.
  12. ^ Steel et al. 2004a, pp. 42–43.
  13. ^ Steel et al. 2004a, pp. 37–38.
  14. ^ Steel et al. 2004b, p. 329.

Bibliography

  • Andreou, Georgia M. (2023). Gaza Maritime Archaeology Project (PDF) (Report). Honor Frost Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 August 2024.
  • Clarke, Joanne; Steel, Louise (1999). "Demographic patterns and differential settlement in the Bronze Age landscape of Palestine". The Landscape of Palestine: Equivocal Poetry (PDF). Birzeit: Birzeit University. pp. 211–231. hdl:20.500.11889/4685. Free access icon
  • Greenberg, Raphael (2019). The Archaeology of the Bronze Age Levant: From Urban Origins to the Demise of City-States, 3700–1000 BCE. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781316275993. ISBN 978-1-316-27599-3.
  • Sharon, Ilan (2013). "Levantine chronology". The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 44–65. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199212972.013.004. ISBN 978-0-19-921297-2.
  • Steel, Louise; Clarke, Joanne; Sadeq, Moain; Manley, Bill; McCarthy, Andrew; Munro, R. Neil (2004a), "Gaza Research Project. Report on the 1999 and 2000 seasons at al-Moghraqa", Levant, 36: 37–88, doi:10.1179/lev.2004.36.1.37
  • Steel, Louise; Manley, Bill; Clarke, Joanne; Sadeq, Moain (2004b). "Egyptian 'Funerary Cones' from El-Moghraqa, Gaza". The Antiquaries Journal. 84: 319–333. doi:10.1017/S0003581500045856.
  • Steel, Louise; Manley, Bill; Clarke, Joanne; Sadeq, Moain (2002), "Late Bronze Age Gaza: prestige production at el-Moghraqa", Antiquity, 76 (294): 939–940, doi:10.1017/S0003598X00091663
Scholia has a profile for al-Moghraqa (Q126877407).
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