On the left , the oven in Room IV; on the right, the mud-brick platform after removal of the oven. (Courtesy of the University of Hawaii Tell Timai Project)
BASOR No. 376, Novemberarticle, “A Hellenistic Household Ceramic Assemblage from Tell el-Timai (Thmuis), Egypt: A Contextual View,” by Nicholas Hudson (University of North Carolina).
Large deposits of domestic pottery from primary contexts in Ptolemaic Lower Egypt are uncommon and seldom presented in their entirety. This article presents four primary deposits from the destruction level of a late third/early second-century structure at Tell el-Timai in the Nile Delta (ancient Thmuis). The architectural setting for the deposits is presented, followed by presentations of each deposit in its entirety, organized by functional classifications. Analyses of the deposits are then used to suggest behavioral possibilities, with particular attention to bread baking and drinking activities. This is followed by a discussion of the nature of the total assemblage within the context of Egyptian pottery studies and an explication of how the assemblage can be understood as part of the broader region of the Levant during the Hellenistic period.
