Ballas

Alternative site names:

el-Ballas; el Ballas; Deir el-Ballas; Deir el Ballas; Zoweiyda; Zawaydah

Arabic site names:

بلّاص

Site description:

The site of a royal palace and administration centre was occupied by rulers in the Second Intermediate Period was unclosed by a wall. The complex consists of a northern palace that served as a royal residence, a southern palace that served as an administrative centre, a village for staff, workers and artisans, and various utilitarian building like granaries and stables.

Further excavations in the 1980s revealed a much larger site with additional palace complexes, a group of large houses and further settlements.

Type of site:

Town; Palace; Cemetery

Timeframe:

Town (Dynasty 17); palaces (Dynasty 17); cemetery (Early Dynastic Period).

Overlay map:

Original excavator's map of the archaeological features at el-Ballas superimposed on a modern Google map image. Created by Kristian Brink, 2015.

Relevant publications:

Catalogue of a collection of Egyptian antiquities : discovered in 1895, between Ballas and Nagada ; exhibited at University College, Gower St., London, July 1st to July 27th. 1895. London : Egypt Exploration Fund.

Petrie, W. M. Flinders and J. E. Quibell 1896. Naqada and Ballas: 1895. British School of Archaeology in Egypt and Egyptian Research Account [1] (1st year). London: Bernard Quaritch.

Site gallery:

Ballas to Naqada.jpg

[1]

Positions of Cemeteries.jpg [2]

[2]