Ancient Egyptian outpost found in Israel.

An approximately 5,000-year-old settlement discovered in southern Israel was built and ruled by Egyptians during the formative period of Egyptian civilization, a team of archaeologists announced last week.

The new find, which includes the first Egyptian-style tomb known to have existed in Israel at that time, suggests that ancient Egypt exerted more control over neighboring regions than investigators have often assumed, contends project director Thomas E. Levy of the University of California, San Diego.

"This discovery gives us evidence of a full-blown Egyptian colony in Israel right after the crystallization of the first Egyptian state," Levy asserts.

"It supports the theory that ancient Egyptians established a colonial system rather than simply a commerce-based trading system."

Excavations at the 32-acre Halif Terrace site, conducted over the past 3 years, have unearthed many artifacts with stylistic links to Egypt between about 3100 B.C. and 3000 B.C. These include seal impressions, glass and alabaster vessels, amulets, pottery vessels, and molds for bread. A pottery fragment found at the Israeli site bears the incised symbol of King Narmer, one of the earliest known Egyptian rulers.

The most surprising evidence of an Egyptian connection, Levy says, is the 50-foot-long stone tomb, which consists of a passageway leading into an entry area and then into a cave that served as a burial chamber. Though several other nearby sites contain evidence of Egyptian occupation, there are no similar burials. Other contemporary tombs in the region display a different structural arrangement, one attributed to the Canaanites.

Atop a stone platform at the back of the Halif Terrace burial chamber rested the skeleton of a woman who was about 25 years old, according to Levy. She lay curled up on her left side, facing east, a position typical of Egyptian burials at that time, he holds. The tomb contained no burial offerings, and it remains unclear whether it had been looted.

Ancient Egyptians believed that a proper burial on Egyptian soil ensured entry to the afterlife, the San Diego researcher adds. This raises the possibility that they considered southern Israel in the vicinity of Halif Terrace to be part of "greater Egypt," he proposes.

Although the Halif Terrace discoveries add to evidence that ancient Egypt influenced surrounding areas, the purpose of the outpost remains unclear, remarks archaeologist James Weinstein of Cornell University. "The site may have concentrated on the production or trade of olive oil and wine," Weinstein argues. "It's not clear that it was part of a colonial system."

The intriguing new burial may originally have held a high-ranking Egyptian official, he adds, and the female skeleton in the tomb may have been the wife of a powerful official.