Abstract:
Tell el-Fara'in, the site of ancient Buto, is one of the most imposing mounds in the Northwest Delta. Situated roughly four kilo-meters north of the hamlet of E1 Aguzein on the main road linking Kafr-el-Sheikh and Dissuq, the tell occupies the 900 meters that separate the villages of Baz and Sekhmowi and measures slightly more than one kilometer from north to south. The jagged remains of mud-brick walls of the last occupation of the site give it a gaunt but dramatic skyline and make it visible for miles around. The area of domestic occupation rises in two massive mounds, separated by a dusty, slightly undulating plain between two and three hundred meters in breadth. One naturally thinks of the bipartite nature of ancient Buto, and since the cache of bronzes which Engelbach published in the early '20s and in which Horus of Pe figured prominently was discovered on the southern of these two hills, the members of the present expedition have dubbed that mound "Pe", and its northern counterpart "Dep". Situated between and to the east of these two hills of debris is a fairly well-preserved temenos wall of mud brick, rectangular in shape, which seems orientated towards the west.
