Al-Moghraqa

When al-Moghraqa was discovered in 1996, it was located in a mixed environment combining agricultural land and sand dunes.{{sfn|Steel|Manley|Clarke|Sadeq|2002|p=939}} It covered an estimated {{convert|15|ha}}.{{sfn|Clarke|Steel|1999|p=215}} It was established on low-lying ground.{{sfn|Steel|Clarke|Sadeq|Manley|2004a|p=37}}

Archaeologists identified three phases of occupation at al-Moghraqa, all dated to the Middle Bronze Age (periods MBA IIb-c){{sfn|Steel|Clarke|Sadeq|Manley|2004a|pp=51-52}} – the early part of the 2nd millennium BC.{{sfn|Sharon|2013|p=63}} The date was arrived at based on the artefacts discovered at the site.{{sfn|Steel|Clarke|Sadeq|Manley|2004a|pp=51-52}} This period in the Levant was characterised by the development of new societal organisation, with centralised fortified settlements and satellite villages.{{sfn|Greenberg|2019|pp=180, 262-263}}

Al-Moghraqa was inhabited at approximately the same time as Tell el-Ajjul, and the two sites were less than {{convert|1|km}} apart. The proximity of the two sites led the archaeologists who investigated Tell al-Moghraq to suggest that it may have been a "satellite settlement" of Tell el-Ajjul.{{sfn|Steel|Manley|Clarke|Sadeq|2002|pp=939-940}} Gaza and its surrounding area were part of the New Kingdom of Egypt in the 2nd millennium BC and economically and militarily important, connecting Egypt to Asia.{{sfn|Steel|Clarke|Sadeq|Manley|2004a|p=38}} After the settlement was abandoned, the area was used agriculturally and later covered by sand dunes.{{sfn|Steel|Clarke|Sadeq|Manley|2004a|p=52}}

Moain Sadeq, the director of the Department of Antiquities in Gaza, discovered the site in 1996. It was revealed during building works which removed sand dunes in the area.{{sfn|Clarke|Steel|1999|p=214}} The site was surveyed as part of the Gaza Research Project in 1999, with excavations following in 2000. Subsequent investigations were planned but suspended due to the Second Intifada.{{sfn|Steel|Manley|Clarke|Sadeq|2002|pp=939-940}} The area was used agriculturally, and in late 2023 the Gaza Maritime Archaeological Project documented clearances and demolition in the locality of al-Moghraqa and Tell el-Ajjul.{{sfn|Andreou|2023|p=11}}

Artefacts recovered from al-Moghraqa were similar to funerary objects found at Tell el-Ajjul and the archaeologists investigating al-Moghraqa suggested it could have been used as a cemetery.{{sfn|Steel|Manley|Clarke|Sadeq|2002|pp=939-940}} The survey work identified two concentrations of activity (designated Site 1 and Site 2) that most likely constituted a single site.{{sfn|Steel|Clarke|Sadeq|Manley|2004a|pp=42-43}} Artefacts found at al-Moghraqa include pieces of terracotta funerary cones with stamps from the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III and Hatshepsut.{{sfn|Steel|Clarke|Sadeq|Manley|2004a|pp=37-38}} While the cones are unique in the region, they are similar to cones from Egypt dated to the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt.{{sfn|Steel|Manley|Clarke|Sadeq|2002|pp=939-940}} Despite parallels from Egypt the purpose of the cones is uncertain.{{sfn|Steel|Manley|Clarke|Sadeq|2004b|p=329}}

• Tell Gaza
• Tell el-Ajjul
• Tell es-Sakan
• Deir al-Balah
• Tall Rīdān
• Tell Muntar
• Tall as Sanām

{{reflist}}

{{Refbegin|indent=yes}}

• {{cite report |last=Andreou |first=Georgia M. |title=Gaza Maritime Archaeology Project |url=https://honorfrostfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GAZAMAP-2023-Short-Report.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240823052454/https://honorfrostfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GAZAMAP-2023-Short-Report.pdf |archive-date=23 August 2024 |year=2023 |publisher=Honor Frost Foundation}}
• {{cite book |last1=Clarke |first1=Joanne |last2=Steel |first2=Louise |year=1999 |chapter=Demographic patterns and differential settlement in the Bronze Age landscape of Palestine |title=The Landscape of Palestine: Equivocal Poetry |pages=211–231 |publisher=Birzeit University |location=Birzeit |url=https://fada.birzeit.edu/bitstream/20.500.11889/4685/1/The%20landscape%20of%20Palestine%20%20equivocal%20poetry.pdf#page=249 |hdl=20.500.11889/4685}} {{free access}}
• {{cite book |last=Greenberg |first=Raphael |title=The Archaeology of the Bronze Age Levant: From Urban Origins to the Demise of City-States, 3700–1000 BCE |year=2019 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location= Cambridge |doi=10.1017/9781316275993|isbn=978-1-316-27599-3 }}
• {{cite book |last=Sharon |first=Ilan |chapter=Levantine chronology |title=The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant |year=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |pages=44–65 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199212972.013.004|isbn=978-0-19-921297-2 }}
• {{citation |last1=Steel |first1=Louise |last2=Clarke |first2=Joanne |last3=Sadeq |first3=Moain |last4=Manley |first4=Bill |last5=McCarthy |first5=Andrew |last6=Munro |first6=R. Neil |title=Gaza Research Project. Report on the 1999 and 2000 seasons at al-Moghraqa |journal=Levant |date=2004a |volume=36 |pages=37–88 |doi=10.1179/lev.2004.36.1.37}}
• {{Cite journal |last1=Steel |first1=Louise |author-link1=Louise Steel (archaeologist) |last2=Manley |first2=Bill |last3=Clarke |first3=Joanne |last4=Sadeq |first4=Moain |author-link4=Moain Sadeq |date=2004b |title=Egyptian 'Funerary Cones' from El-Moghraqa, Gaza |url= |journal=The Antiquaries Journal |language=en |volume=84 |pages=319–333 |doi=10.1017/S0003581500045856}}
• {{citation |last1=Steel |first1=Louise |last2=Manley |first2=Bill |last3=Clarke |first3=Joanne |last4=Sadeq |first4=Moain |title=Late Bronze Age Gaza: prestige production at el-Moghraqa |journal=Antiquity |date=2002 |volume=76 |issue=294 |pages=939–940 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00091663}}

{{Refend}}

{{Scholia}}

• [https://www.cbrl.ac.uk/project-library/the-gaza-research-project/ The Gaza Research Project (1997–2000)]

{{Gaza Governorate}}

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Category:1996 archaeological discoveries

Category:Archaeological discoveries in Palestine

Category:Archaeological sites in the Gaza Strip

Category:Archaeology of the Near East

Category:Bronze Age sites in Palestine

Category:History of Palestine (region)

Category:Populated places established in the 2nd millennium BC

Category:Populated places disestablished in the 2nd millennium BC