The archaeological record of the southern Mediterranean Littoral in Israel (from approximately south of Tel Aviv) and the Gaza Strip, and its adjacent piedmont plateau (the biblical Shephelah) has, especially in the last decade, yielded much evidence for interaction between the indigenous peoples and denizens of the Nile Valley during the second half of the 4th millennium BCE (chrono-cultural periods known as Early Bronze I in the southern Levant and Naqada II-III in Egypt).

Recent major salvage excavations at Tel Lod, at the northern reaches of the region under discussion, have introduced evidence for a large settlement dating to Late EB I and Early EB II (Dynasty 1 in Egypt). While the material culture of EB Lod is overwhelmingly local in nature, several occupation levels have, nevertheless, yielded a sizable quantity of artifacts imported from the Nile Valley. To date they represent many scores of objects that include 8 serekh bearing ceramic vessels, the largest single assemblage found to date at any one site outside Egypt. In addition, petrographic analyses indicate that Tel Lod has also yielded a substantial, but equally small element of ceramic objects of Egyptianizing morphology produced locally, somewhere in the southern Levant. Thus, while the pottery assemblage of EB Lod clearly indicates the site was primarily occupied by indigenous peoples, it does indicate an unusually high degree of interaction with the contemporary material culture of the Nile Valley.

This paper attempts to analyze the Egyptian and Egyptianized material in light of the specific archaeological contexts from which they derive at Tel Lod, offering additional details of material that is still under study.

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