Mohamed Kenawi's Alexandria's Hinterland: Archaeology of the Western Nile Delta Egypt joins a series of publications on survey activities in the Western Nile DeltaFootnote 1 with a site gazetteer containing comprehensive information collected at 63 sites. The area covers parts of the governorate of Beheira, which in antiquity was limited to the west bank of the Canopic branch and included for example the well-known Naucratis, Kom Firin and Kom el Hisn. Within the survey conducted some regions of the Beheira province were excluded, and instead only the administrative districts (markaz) formed part of the investigated area: Abu al-Matamir, Damanhour, Abu Hummus, Kafr al-Dawar, Mahmoudia, Hosh Isa and Dilingat.
The author began his research in late 2007 and was field director of the surveys conducted in Beheira in the years 2008–2010, following a series of survey work already carried out by P. Wilson and D. Grigoropoulos in the The West Delta Regional Survey, Beheira and Kafr el-Sheikh Provinces as part of the Sais and its Hinterland Project and the Delta Survey of the Egypt Exploration Society and Durham University. The results presented by M. Kenawi in the publication Alexandria's Hinterland were part of his PhD thesis, which he submitted at Siena University.
The book is divided into five chapters. Three main research goals are outlined: 1) detailed presentation of sites in the Beheira province; 2) land-use and networks; 3) landscape transformation due to human intervention.
Chapter 1 ‘Introduction and Methodology’ provides a research history rather than an insight into the methodological practices. An overview of history from prehistoric to modern times is given with a focus on land reclamation and economic history over the centuries (9–10), and a brief outline of the geological formation of the Delta. With the subtitles ‘Documentation of the past’ (6) and ‘Rescue survey: emergency research and rapid documentation’ (6) M. Kenawi points out the need for protection of the cultural heritage of the Delta. He underlines the urgency of increasing awareness of the ancient sites and offers a status quo of the actual situation, making a strong point for their rapid documentation (7). This is one of the most important issues of this monograph.
One of the outstanding outcomes of the book is presented in Chapter 2 ‘The Late Roman period and the Arab sources’ where M. Kenawi refers not only to the standard Graeco-Roman sources, but also focuses on the Arab ones, studies that often are ignored by scholars working on similar subjects. He discusses sources written by Arab historians and geographers who provide rich information about the Delta's history (12–13), about destruction and rebuilding phases of villages and towns, and about changes or modifications of sites, roads and Nile branch names. Crucially, he points out the problems locating the sites, caused by translation errors and missing congruencies. By collecting ancient site names from Arabic sources, giving an approximate location and author reference (16–18) M. Kenawi provides a concordance with modern sites and is able to reconstruct the topography of the Western Delta Beheira region from the point of view of the Arab sources. This dataset is very useful for future work in the area.
In Chapter 3 the site gazetteer (26–174) presents 63 surveyed sites, 25 of which are revisited following their publication by P. Wilson and D. Grigoropoulos in 2009. The headings include: ‘Location, Directions, History of Research’, ‘Survey maps of Egypt’ and ‘Fieldwork and Finds’. Detailed studies are dedicated to the production of wine and to the re-use of amphorae in a ancient commercial plant nursery, seen near Abu Hummus.Footnote 2 The author has collected together a record of building remains, provides site sketches and illustrates finds from each site and gives information about the status quo of the site at the moment of visiting.
This data collection is completed with Chapter 4, where the surface finds are presented. The finds’ analyses are based on the largest group of finds, namely pottery. Surface finds are listed by site, functional group and fabric. The amphorae are presented with a short introduction into the main types of Egyptian amphorae and some imported finds. The finds for each site are collected in a pottery catalogue. Chapter 5 ‘Discussion and Conclusion’ (223–226) gives a short summary of the research project with concluding remarks.
This volume is essentially a publication on the status quo of a historical region in the Delta, which succeeds in alerting people to the situation and drawing attention to the region in order to protect sites and to educate everyone about the area's cultural heritage. It provides a very concrete contribution to the preservation of archaeological monuments and how to deal with them, and the author underlines the importance of educating the locals and involving them in the cultural/natural heritage of their homeland. M. Kenawi's claim to focus on the material from an emic, not an external point of view, as presented in Chapter 2, should be taken seriously by everyone working in similar regions.
However, the general problems of the book are missing bibliographical references and a common source criticism. The Arabic sources are translated without any analytical approach to their context, or to the translation in general, and references are often omitted. The same can be observed in other parts of the book. Footnotes are used rarely and randomly, references to complementary studies are sometimes neglected. Scholars working in the same region are often ignored, research topics not explained in detail. A similar inaccuracy can be observed regarding the illustrations: photos, pencil drawings and maps are informative, but not as user-friendly as they could be since they are often not as self-explanatory as the author perhaps assumes.
The imbalance between descriptive and interpretive data analyses characterizes the book. Research questions raised by the author for example regarding land-use, landscape transformation and networks are tackled. The view from outside, looking from Alexandria towards the Western Delta, considering its impact on site development of the hinterland, is touched upon, but does not go further. The same issues arise with the presentation of the finds. The typo-chronology of the pottery, especially the amphorae and their production in the Delta region is very well established, eg D. Dixneuf 2011 in her studies on Amphores Égyptiennes: Production, Typologie, Contenu et Diffusion with an extended typology. M. Kenawi uses the standards to a certain extent, however when it comes to the description of a new amphora production site located at Kedwet Hasan he does not follow established patterns and creates his own typology (178). Instead of going into detail, he just scratches the surface. This is regrettable, as current research uses pottery for important questions concerning socio-economic relations. Whenever the chaine d'operatoire from production to trade can be followed it should be used to establish a network-outline for the region.
Even though M. Kenawi offers a thoroughly compiled gazetteer, the discussion and conclusions are short, and the relationships and mechanics of the economy not discussed in detail. However, this might be due to the fact that his main aim ‘is (…) to facilitate the future study of the region (…), by creating a fundamental database of sites’ (226), rather than working on research questions addressing Alexandriás role in relation to its hinterland or working out a general approach regarding ecological and economical site development, as the book title might suggest. Even though he is right in his assessment of the situation, that ‘we need at least ten years of fieldwork (…)’ (27), he could have extended his analysis in at least some exemplary cases.
Maybe it is an appeal from M. Kenawi to those working in hinterland regions to continue interpretative investigation more profoundly, by offering us a fundamental data-set for future research, ‘(…) preserving what remains in the Delta before total destruction occurs (…)’ (226). With his call to focus on cultural heritage, on educating the locals, educating them about the historical value and cultural importance of the sites, but also his appeal for rapid documentation ‘(…) before many of these sites disappear. (…)’ (7) he underlines the urgency of action and we are certainly in agreement here. With this monograph he has taken an important step forwards, not only by educating people in the region, documenting its potential, but also by developing future research towards a better understanding of relations between sites and the economical potential of Alexandria's hinterland.
