A team led by Béatrix Midant-Reynes (CNRS), supported by the Anthropological Centre of Toulouse (UMR 8555 of CNRS) and the IFAO and financed by the Midi-Pyrénées Region and the IFAO, undertook a first excavation season at the site of Kom el-Khilgan, located south-east of el-Samara, 40 km from Mansoura. Two main periods of activity were identified. A protodynastic sequence (Naqada III), exclusively represented by funerary structures, occupies the lower strata of the gezira, between 1 m and 1.20m below the surface. The Hyksos period is thereafter represented by a thick brown occupation layer overlying the gezira, with a relatively long occupation sequence. A final period of occupation is represented by simple inhumations and pittings.

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