Dissertation Project of Nicolas Sartori

Since 2006, the Austrian Archaeological Institute has been excavating the first palatial structure ever discovered which can be related with the Hyksos rulers (17^th-16^th century B.C.). Several hundreds of sealing fragments wearing impressions have yet been uncovered which are related to a certain kind of administrative control over transported or stored commodities.

The project aims for the complete publication of these objects and of their archaeological context. It will focus on iconographical as well as administrative and historical aspects. A comparison should be done with scarab corpus of Tell el-Dab^ca to compare the local patterns with Egyptian and Palestinian series. An important chapter will be dedicated to the large topic of sealing practices in Egypt and the Near East in the 2nd millenium B.C.