Auaris

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Auaris (also Avaris) is the Greek name of the ancient Egyptian city of Hut-waret. It was located in the eastern Nile Delta in the immediate vicinity of the present town of Tell el-Dabʿa.

History of research
Already in 1885 Édouard Naville carried out the first investigations. Although there were Syrian-Palestinian bronzes and ceramics among the finds, these were only published cursorily and received little attention. In 1928 Mahmud Hamza came across about 2 km north of Tell el-Dabʿa, on the southern edge of the village of Qantir, during excavations on a huge palace complex from the time of the 19th and 20th dynasty, which he identified as Pi-Ramesse. Fayence tiles and architectural parts came to light, which could be combined into thrones, appearance windows and magnificent portals. After excavations west of Tell el-Dabʿa from 1942 to 1944, Labib Habachi identified this site as the first Hyksos capital of Auaris. At the same time, he reinforced the view that the Qantir site was Pi-Ramesse, as he encountered portals on the nearby Didamun Canal, which came from houses of high officials from the Ramessid period.

However, Egyptologists such as Pierre Montet argued that Auaris and Pi-Ramesse must be located in Tanis, as there are a myriad of stone monuments that can only come from Pi-Ramesse and Auaris. One could not imagine that the enormous amount of stone monuments during the 21st and 22nd centuries of the The dynasty of Qantir was transported to Tanis, 25 km away. On the other hand, not a single block was found in Tanis in original in situ use.

Shehata Adam discovered during excavations from 1951 to 1954 a part of the area from the 12th century. Dynasty at ʿEzbet Rushdi, including a temple for the cult of Amenemhet I. Since 1966 (with a short interruption from 1970 to 1974) the area is examined by the Austrian Archaeological Institute, from 1966 to 2009 under the direction of Manfred Bietak, since 2009 under the direction of Irene Forstner-Müller. Due to the earlier excavations, a clear localization of Auaris in Tell el-Dabʿa and Pi-Ramesse in Qantir could be made.

Recent research focuses (as of 2014) shifted from excavations in palaces to real settlement archaeology, meaning that urbanist considerations are now in the foreground. The basis for this is provided by Tell el-Dabʿa’s overview plan based on magnetics. These include research into the ancient river arms and the reconstruction of the port landscape.

Geographical and topographical characteristics

Today, Tell el-Dabʿa is located in the Egyptian East Delta on the Didamun Canal, about 8 km north of Faqus and about 140 km northeast of Cairo. In ancient times, Auaris was at the easternmost of the delta arms, the Pelusian Nile arm. However, from the late eleventh century BC, the river began to sink and relocate