NELC and Oriental Institute Excavation Team Discovers Ancient Urban Villa with Shrine for Ancestor Worship in Egypt
A Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Oriental Institute team unearthed a large urban villa at the site of Tell Edfu in southern Egypt dating back to the New Kingdom, about 1500–1450 B.C.E. The excavation includes a large hall containing a rare, well-preserved domestic shrine dedicated to family ancestors. “It has been more than 80 years since such a shrine for the ancestors was discovered in Egypt, and the ones we did have were rarely within an undisturbed context,” said Nadine Moeller, associate professor of Egyptian archaeology in NELC, who leads the Tell Edfu Project excavation with Oriental Institute research associate Gregory Marouard.