New Delta project looking at Delta-Levant connections in 4th Millennium BC

Dr. Agnieszka Mączyńska from the Archaeological Museum in Poznań is one of fourteen winners of grant awarded in the second edition of "POMOST" programme of the Foundation for Polish Science. Together with our foreign partners she will analyse the role of the Nile Delta in the period preceding the formation of the Egyptian state. The programme POMOST awards grants to parents, to facilitate their return to scientific work. They also support the scientific work of pregnant women.

The Foundation has granted Dr. Mączyńska the sum of nearly PLN 400 thousand for a project entitled "Delta of the Nile as a centre of cultural interaction between Upper Egypt and the southern Levant in the 4th millennium BC".

Until recently, northern Egypt has been neglected by archaeologists. Larger excavation projects began only in the last two decades. Due to the covering of the oldest settlements with thick layers of Nile silt, reaching the layers of the period preceding the rise of the Egyptian state has proved particularly difficult.

So far, archaeologists have based their knowledge of its origins primarily on the research of surveys in Upper Egypt, so the picture is still far from complete and not objective. The grant awarded to Dr. Mączyńska is important in terms of balancing the sources of knowledge on the origins of the centralized state of the pharaohs. It will also contribute to the understanding of mechanisms that gave rise to one of the oldest civilizations.

"The Nile Delta has been long regarded as a province, a passive participant of the cultural expression processes. My task is to show that this opinion is unjust, as the then inhabitants played an active role" - said Dr. Mączyńska.