Author Description

This volume is the result of a comprehensive analysis of one of Tell el-Dab?a's residential areas, the ancient Avaris, one of the largest cities of the Eastern Mediterranean in the second millennium BCE. The presentation of the domestic architecture and material culture aims at reconstructing the socio-economic setting of one neighborhood (F/I) of the site and its inhabitants. On the basis of the theoretical foundations and methodological considerations from the field of household archaeology, this study paints a vivid picture of daily life in a borderland of Egypt in the late Middle Kingdom and early Second Intermediate Period (ca. 1770-1650 BC). The archaeological evidence for household life cycles and generational change gives a rare insight into the development of such a borderland society with mixed cultural backgrounds. With its seaport, the site eventually became an important hub in the trade exchange and commerce of the Eastern Mediterranean. The development from a formerly egalitarian society into one with a hierarchical structure is a rare example of settlement dynamics in Egypt. This publication thus contributes another piece of the puzzle helping to uncover the historical and political setting of a site that played a decisive role as the capital of the Hyksos dynasty. This study reveals the multicultural environment in this important centre at the crossroads of Egypt, the Eastern Mediterranean and the wider Near East.