Artefacts of Excavation

Tell el-Muqdam was an important city from at least the 19th Dynasty through the Late Antique Period. It was a substantial enough settlement to be capital of the 11th Lower Egyptian nome during the Ptolemaic Period, a Roman provincial capital, and a Metropolitan Archbishopric. It appears that the city was centre of dynastic power in the 23rd Dynasty, but only the tomb of Queen Karomama, the mother of king Osorkon IV has been discovered. In the eastern part of the Tell, the temple of the local chief deity, the lion god Mahes was discovered. As was true of many Delta sites, monuments and statuary was usurped by later rulers and the extant architecture was dismantled for reuse in the Late Antique Period.