Anthedon revisited: a re-examination of Petrie and Ellis' 1937 excavation report

The settlement of Tell el-Zuweyid, located 2km away from Modern Gaza, is one of many archaeological sites dispersed across the North Sinai Peninsula. It is also one of the many sites that Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie excavated in this region. While both the Ben Gurion University and l’Ecole Biblique and Archéologique Français also excavated in this area between 1972-1982 and 1995 respectively, a disruption in the latter excavations mean that they only reached the Assyrian levels, Petrie and Ellis (1937) being the only archaeologists to find a possible Late Bronze Age settlement. Given the limited methodology that Petrie (Petrie and Ellis 1937) had at his disposal, this thesis critically examines both his results and those of academics who have cited him. The limited architectural remains and artefacts present at Tell el-Zuweyid are compared to Late Bronze Age Egyptian and Iron Age Philistine fortresses and artefacts from this area, to try to identify the possible occupants. This thesis also analyses references to the Egyptian Ways of Horus sites, including Seti I’s Karnak relief, to establish what purpose Tell el-Zuweyid may have performed during the Late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age Period.