5,000-Year-Old Egyptian Settlement Uncovered in Israel

KRAKOW, POLAND—A trading post was established in Israel at the site of Tel Erani by members of Egypt’s Nagada culture more than 5,000 years ago, according to a Science in Poland report. Krzysztof Ciałowicz of Jagiellonian University said people living in Upper Egypt in the fourth millennium B.C. imported copper and oil from the Levant in exchange for meat and fish products. Ciałowicz and his colleagues discovered a wall, bread forms, ceramics, and other objects crafted in the Nagada style at Tel Erani underneath a settlement dating to the Early Bronze Age. “We are convinced that we have reached its base,” team member Marcin Czarnowicz said of the ancient wall. “Importantly, we were able to confirm the date of construction of this structure. We now know that it is over 5,300 years old.” Future excavations at the site will try to determine the extent of the structure, and locate the kiln where the ceramics were fired. To read about clay tablets from a Bronze Age site in Turkey that provide evidence for the earliest long-distance trade network, go to “The Mesopotamian Merchant Files.”