The pottery assemblage from Locus
1016 indicates local ceramic production, mostly vessels of Egyptian tradition
and some of Middle Bronze Age II B-C origin. These were probably made of
Egyptianized Canaanites during the last years of the Hyksos rule in Avaris, and
reused at the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The appearance of new shapes
and fabrics, and the more frequent use of a slightly improved tall-stemmed
wheel show the ceramic changes produced in Avaris in the transitional period at
the end of the Fifteenth Dynasty and the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
The execration pits preserved the
skeletons or parts of the skeletons of defeated enemies. The pit with the three
skills represents sacrificed enemies, local or foreigners, buried in connection
with the construction of new buildings after the occupation of Avaris by
Ahmose, as part of an execration ritual to purify the area in the recently
conquered Hyksos palace district. I think that the pit, Locus 1016, with the
two skeletons and the large amount of pottery, could have had the same meaning,
figurines of the enemies were usually used as substitutes for the real body of
these enemies, with their names and the so-called execration texts, written on
them, as well as on pottery vessels. In the execration ritual these figurines
and the vessels with the names of the enemies were broken, with the aim of
destroying the person named.
In the Middle Kingdom fortress at
Mirgissa, figurines and jars were found in situ inside two pits. On three stone
statuettes representing prisoners buried in sandy soil, and on a large amount
of broken pottery placed in a pit, “execration texts” were written. In another pit
a human skull was found. At Mirgissa not only human figurines and broken
pottery but also human remains were buried, which means that an actual human
sacrifice could have been made during this execration ritual.
The two execration pits at Tell al-Dab’a
are similar to those found at Mirgissa. The execration pit, Locus 1055, with
the three human skulls is similar to the Mirgissa pit containing a human skull.
The execration pit, Locus 1016, with the two human skeletons and the broken pottery,
could be similar to those with three limestone figurines embedded in sand, and
to the pit with the inscribed broken pottery.
The special feature of the execration
pit, Locus 1016 at Tell al-Dab’a, is that the figurines with the name of the
defeated enemies were substituted with the sacrifices of two defeated enemies,
the non-inscribed pottery probably broken on them, and their bodies covered
with it and with fragments of different stones and objects, as if they had been
stoned (even though there is no evidence of injuries). If this happened, we do
not know why the Egyptians sacrificed enemies in Avaris instead of using
substitute figurines as usual. This ritual of the destruction of pottery and
the actual execution of prisoners, as happened with the rebels, could have been
an execration ritual performed as part of the ceremonies for the celebration of
the conquest of the city and for the construction of new buildings. (Perla
Fuscaldo, “Tell al-Dab’a: Two Execration Pits and a Foundation Deposit,” in Egyptology
at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century: Proceedings of the Eighth
International Congress of Egyptologists Cairo, 2000, ed. Zahi Hawass, 3
vols. [Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2003], 1:187-88)
