DOI: 10.33547/Aegypt2025.01
About a pig, a hippopotamus and much more. An archaeozoologist’s account of research at Tell el-Farkha (Egypt)
by: Renata Abłamowicz 
in: M.A. Jucha, J. Dębowska-Ludwin, G. Bąk-Pryc (eds), Per vias Aegypti et Orientis Medii. Studies Presented to Krzysztof M. Ciałowicz, Kraków: Institute of Archaeology Jagiellonian University, Archaeologica Foundation, Profil-Archeo Publishing House, 2025, pp. 11-21.
Abstract: Polish excavations at Tell el-Farkha in the north-eastern Nile Delta began in 1998 and continue to this day. The work is directed by Prof. Krzysztof M. Ciałowicz of the Institute of Archaeology Jagiellonian University Kraków and Dr. Marek Chłodnicki from the Poznań Archaeological Museum. The site consists of three anthropogenic hills (koms) with a total area of approximately 4.5 hectares, rising on the edge of the present-day village of Ghazala. They conceal relics of a settlement, a cemetery and a ceremonial and residential complex. The settlement at Tell el-Farkha covers the period from around 3700 BC to around 2600 BC. Today, it is one of the most important archaeological sites explored in Egypt.
The author of the text, which is structured as a diary, recounts the backstory of her research as an archaeozoologist at the Tell el-Farkha site, which she conducted between 1999 and 2019. The descriptions refer to only four selected seasons. In addition to matters of a professional nature, she also reports on the daily lives of the expedition participants and a whole range of related incidents, both funny and more complex ones.