GEOPHYSICAL INVESTIGATION AT TELL EL‐DABAA ʺAVARISʺ ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE

Abstract

Tell El –Dabaa is one of the important archaeological sites in the Eastern part of the Nile Delta. It is located at about 7 km north of Faqous city, Sharqiya governorate, Egypt. The ancient name of El‐ Dabaa area was Avaris, which had been considered as the main capital of Hyksos (Dynasty XV) from 1650 to 1542 B.C. The whole area was covered by the deltaic deposits during the successive flood events along Nile Delta. Geomagnetic and geoelectric surveys have been carried out in order to outline the subsurface archaeological remains in this area. The target area, which is about 10000 m2, was surveyed in grid pattern each of 20x 10 m for magnetic survey and 20 × 20 m for geoelectri‐cal resistance survey. Integrated results of the magnetic and geoelectric data analysis have suc‐ceeded in delineating a clear subsurface picture of archaeological remains. The results show many linear anomalies, which may represent buried walls, as well as some small archaeological remains detached from the main walls. Also, we could notice some rectangular features with different sizes, which might be described as remains of different archaeological buildings. Besides, some circular structures with small size obtained and could be interpreted as columns foundations.