An enticing lecture title - tea or coffee? Something to eat?  Not quite time for the coffee break - but Anna Wodzinska is moving forward in time to talk about the Ottoman evidence from Tell el-Retaba. There is pottery from the Hyksos 'period' onwards, through 18th Dynasty, Third Intermediate and Late Period (as we have just heard), but also Ottoman. Contexts include ovens, and also the chronologically indicative Ottoman pipes. Even tobacco seeds have been found - and coffee cups! Moving onto the pottery, Anna is telling us about some of the cooking vessels - notably some that have been in constant used which we can see from the heavy burning. Apparently some of the technological aspects of the utilitarian cooking ceramics are similar across wide regions - even beyond Egypt. We have a really clear idea about how people were living and consuming during the Ottoman period in the Eastern Delta - and Anna finished with some tantalising suggestions as to what the evidence implies - transitory inhabitants, but the purpose remains unclear, at least for now.

Anna Wodzinska showing us some of the Ottoman pipes from Tell el-Retaba.

Some comparative data!