Flinders Petrie was the first archaeologist working in Egypt to exploit the importance of stratigraphy, the principle that through time archaeological remains are deposited in layers or strata of soil. Many factors can complicate the stratigraphy of archaeological sites, from animal burrowing to earthquakes, but in general the latest artifacts and other remains are in layers closest to the present surface, while the earliest ones are lower in the ground, just above bedrock or sterile soil. Petrie applied the principle of stratigraphy in archaeology in 1890 at his excavation of Tell el-Hesy in Palestine, when he dated the different layers of the settlement by the associated pottery, which he knew from Egypt. Petrie recorded these strata in his drawings of sections, the vertical record of excavated cross-sections through different strata of the mound.
Before Petrie, excavators in Egypt generally discarded pottery. Recognizing the significance of changing pottery styles as a chronological marker, Petrie sampled and classified the pottery from his excavations. one result of his investigations of Predynastic cemeteries was the first seriation of graves, using pottery types and other artifacts. In his seriation scheme Petrie ordered the graves in a relative sequence (which he called Sequence Dating; see Box 5-A), from early to late, which we now know roughly spanned the fourth millennium bc (based on radiocarbon dating, which was not invented until the mid-20th century). Seriation is a technique which archaeologists routinely use today to order finds into relative periods of time, from early to late.
Another important early development in archaeological methods was George reisner’s survey strategy to find and record threatened sites when the first High Dam at Aswan was heightened in 1907. Traverses were done along both banks of the Nile in the northern half of Egyptian Nubia up to the height that would be flooded. This was the first large-scale, systematic salvage or rescue archaeology done anywhere in the world; such archaeology would be conducted increasingly in the later 20th century, as archaeological sites in most countries became endangered by expanding towns and cities, and by economic and agricultural development.
With the construction of the second High Dam at Aswan in the 1960s, a number of prehistorians did fieldwork in southern Egypt and northern Sudan for the first time. They employed rigorous methods for the survey and excavation of prehistoric sites, and the classification and analysis of artifacts, especially stone tools and pottery.
As anthropologically trained archaeologists, many prehistorians working in Egypt and Sudan were influenced by new developments in archaeological method and theory in North America and Europe in the 1960s and 1970s. Processual archaeology proposed that archaeology should be done using scientific methods and theory. Although some scientific methods from the “hard sciences” are not applicable for archaeology, hypothesis testing, where a model of some aspect of socio-cultural development is formulated and then tested by archaeological fieldwork, was deemed important for research design. Field investigations include both excavations and archaeological survey, not only to locate sites, but also to obtain data about settlement patterns (although this has often been very difficult to do in Egypt because of the poor preservation of ancient settlements; see 3.3). Bruce Trigger’s pioneering study of settlement patterns in Nubia since the beginnings of agriculture was the first of its kind. An important project which has studied late prehistoric settlement patterns in an area in Upper Egypt (and changes in settlement location through time) has been that of Michael Hoffman and his successors at Hierakonpolis (see 5.3).
How sites in Egypt are surveyed and/or excavated very much depends on the period of the site and the goals of the archaeologists - as well as the amount of funding they have for research and the terms of their permits. Increasingly, satellite image analysis is used to
Figure 1.5 Quickbird and WorldView-1 satellite image of Tanis, Egypt, processed using band combinations, high pass filtering and additional techniques. Source: used by permission of Sarah Parcak, university of Alabama at Birmingham.
Locate archaeological evidence before any fieldwork is ever conducted and the work of Sarah Parcak is especially pioneering in the methodology used. through satellite image analysis Parcak has possibly located a major site, the Middle Kingdom capital of Itj-tawy-Amenemhat (see 7.1), as well as entire streets of houses in the third Intermediate Period capital of tanis (Figure 1.5; see 9.3). Her analyses suggest that a number of ancient settlements in Egypt may still be preserved - and therefore are excavatable.
With data from satellite image analysis, archaeologists can then locate and record the ancient evidence still on the surface in the field, such as concentrations of potsherds or remains of architecture, and conduct small-scale test excavations to verify the buried evidence. With such information, archaeologists can then establish priorities for excavation and/or conservation of specific sites or evidence within a site.
For excavations, all archaeological data must be recorded within their context, within the strata in which they were deposited, otherwise their chronological and cultural significance is lost. The excavation of many prehistoric sites, often containing no other artifacts than stone tools, requires the painstaking recording of microstratigraphic sequences within small excavation units (such as 1 x 1 meter in area). For the excavation of pharaonic period sites with large-scale architecture, archaeologists work in units of up to 10 x 10 meters in area and record the stratigraphy of finds within the architectural units. Stratigraphy can be excavated and recorded using the older method of square excavation units separated by vertical walls of soil called baulks, where the stratigraphy is evident in profile (“Wheeler squares,” named after the early 20th-century British archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler, who pioneered the
Figure 1.6 Wheeler excavation squares at a site. Source: used by permission of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
Technique; Figure 1.6), or the more recent method of excavating in Harris “stratigraphic units,” where each stratum, feature (such as a hearth), or architectural component is given a separate number in order to establish a graphic “matrix” to identify the sequence of these units. The Harris methodology is useful for recording strata of many different types of sites - from strata of a few centimeters often encountered at prehistoric sites to tomb structures and their interior deposits to large, open area excavations of features and architecture.
Although Akhenaten’s city at Tell el-Amarna was only briefly occupied in the 18th Dynasty, and thus most of its architecture dates to only one phase of construction, excavating ancient architecture can often be complicated by multi-phased constructions - additions or remodeling from later periods, which also need to be carefully recorded. Such recording is made even more complex when these structures were built and rebuilt in tells, mounds of ancient settlements which have been built up through time by many layers of human habitation (see 3.3). The problems of excavating within ancient architecture, such as stone temples or rock-cut tombs, sometimes require the work of architects or engineers to stabilize the structure so that it is safe enough for human excavators. It can also be challenging to record stratigraphic sequences within deposits of sand, which is soft and shifting, such as is often encountered at sites in Upper Egypt, whereas in the Delta the stratigraphy of cultural material in deposits of silts and sand is more distinct. Another problem archaeologists often face when working in the Nile floodplain or the Delta is the increasingly high water table: pumping out ground water in archaeological trenches is a continuous process - and very costly.
Archaeology in Egypt now includes statistical analyses of archaeological data, as well as various types of scientific analyses. Material scientists and other specialists analyze the materials used in every aspect of past cultures, from the minute remains of paint in rock drawings to the metallurgy of metal tools. Form, artifact function and use, as well as the technology involved in their production are studied. To better understand ancient technology, artifacts (and even a small Egyptian pyramid!) have been reproduced in what is called experimental archaeology.
Ancient botanical evidence is obtained through a technique called flotation: small plant remains (especially carbonized seeds) float to the surface when soil samples from sites are processed in water. Paleo-ethnobotanists, who do such analyses, study the origins of agriculture and Neolithic cultures in Egypt, and also provide important economic information about agriculture and plant exploitation in pharaonic Egypt. Ethno-archaeologists study traditional crafts, housing and settlements, farming and food preparation, and other practices in rural Egypt, to help explain archaeological evidence through ethnographic analogy. there are scientists who study ancient deposits of pollen (palynology), which may yield environmental information. Phytoliths, microscopic casts of plant cells, may also be present at sites for study.
Human bones (and teeth) are analyzed by physical anthropologists to determine age, sex, and stature, as well as evidence for diet, nutrition/nutritional deficiencies, and overall health; diseases and pathologies; long-term (occupational) stress; and accidents and physical trauma.
Analysis of ancient DNA derived from the cell nuclei of human remains (from bones, for example) may yield information about an individual’s sex and genealogy. But the ancient DNA may have been badly degraded through time, requiring special laboratory techniques to process. Contamination of samples with modern DNA is also a potential problem.
Animal bones are studied by zooarchaeologists not only for age and sex, but also to determine many other factors about both wild and domesticated species - in order to better understand animal husbandry practices. Identification of the dung of domesticated animals, which is sometimes well preserved in Egyptian settlements, may also yield information about animal behavior - and human intervention in this.
Increasingly geologists, geomorphologists, and specially trained geoarchaeologists work with archaeologists, helping to differentiate natural geological processes at archaeological sites from the results of human activities, as well as the processes that transformed a site after it was no longer used (see 3.3). On-ground remote sensing (geophysical prospecting) is used to locate buried remains, and includes the use of equipment such as magnetometers and ground-penetrating radar (Figure 1.7). Geological boring is also used to gain a better understanding of (buried) sites as well as how such sites relate to changing landscapes and water courses. Topographic mapping of excavated remains is done by professional surveyors.
Excavations in Egypt are now multi-disciplinary, requiring the input of many specialists from different disciplines (see Box 1-B.). Especially important for Paleolithic investigations are lithic analysts because stone tools and the debris from their manufacture are the most frequently recovered artifacts. Ceramics become more frequent at sites dating after ca. 6000-5000 Bc, and pharaonic sites can contain huge volumes of potsherds, which need
Figure 1.7 Tell el-Balamun, magnetic map ofthe temple enclosure. Source: Reproduced by permission of tomasz Herbich, Polish Academy of Science, the British Museum and the Egypt Exploration Society. Background image © Google Earth.
To be studied by ceramic analysts. Philologists and Egyptologists are needed on excavations of pharaonic sites, and classical scholars on excavations of Greco-roman sites. Highly trained specialists in different disciplines are also frequently needed, such as the nautical archaeologists who have studied the ship timbers at the pharaonic harbor of Mersa/Wadi Gawasis on the red Sea (see Box 7-A).
Conservation and preservation of archaeological sites and artifacts are extremely important concerns in Egypt. Many archaeological projects are involved in the preservation, restoration, and reconstruction of ancient monuments and tombs. At major temples, such as that of Amen-ra at Karnak, study and restoration of the architecture and reliefs were conducted throughout the 20th century and continue today. Specially trained artifact conservators are now often part of archaeological expeditions, and there are special projects to conserve and record tomb paintings, as well as reliefs and inscriptions in temples and
Box 1-B The lost city of the pyramids at Giza
Since the late 1980s archaeologist Mark Lehner (Ancient Egypt Research Associates, AERA) has directed multidisciplinary investigations to the south and east of the Giza pyramids. until this project began, almost nothing was known about the organization of the workers and the work program that produced the Giza pyramids. Evidence of the “Lost city” now provides much more social and economic information about the enormous undertaking of royal pyramid construction.
What has emerged in the excavations to the south of the enormous stone “Wall of the crow” at Giza is the “Lost city,” where a huge 4th-Dynasty production facility, with long narrow galleries, including evidence of paved streets, a large columned hall, a copper workshop, workers’ housing, many storerooms, and state bakeries to feed the workers, was first excavated. Eastern and Western “Towns” have now been excavated with the residences of higher - and lower-status workers and their families. The most recent excavations include a re-examination of the small town associated with the monument of a 4th-Dynasty queen, Khentkawes, to the west of the “Lost City,” and the structures connecting this town to the Menkaura Valley Temple, excavated by George Reisner in the early 20th century (see 6.6 and 6.7).
Geophysical prospecting to locate buried remains has been conducted with a magnetic gradiometer, and professional surveyors have mapped the different settlements. An osteo-archaeologist has excavated the much later human burials (26th Dynasty and later) and studied the human remains. Animal bones are studied by a zooarchaeologist, and botanical remains are examined by a paleo-ethnobotanist. Artifact analysis is done by lithics and ceramic analysts, and Associate Director John Nolan, an archaeologist and epigrapher, has studied the hieroglyphic impressions on the clay sealings found throughout the site.
The multidisciplinary AERA excavations are an example of how archaeology is now done in Egypt. Egyptian archaeologists and specialists in ceramic analysis and other fields have also been trained in AERA field schools - and are providing their newly acquired skills at other archaeological sites in Egypt.
Tombs. Major projects to conserve ancient monuments in Egypt include archaeologists, epigraphers, and art historians, but also engineers, architects, geologists, and other specialists in cultural heritage management.
The Giza Sphinx is an example of a monument that has been restored over the past 3,500 years, with the most recent repairs done in the late 20th century. Stone monuments are increasingly threatened by salts in the ground water, and paintings in subterranean rock-cut tombs are especially vulnerable to environmental conditions. In western Thebes the tomb of Nefertari (see 8.9), the chief wife of Rameses II, was closed for most of the later 20th century because of the poor condition of its paintings, but it has now been preserved through a major restoration project by the Getty conservation Institute and the Egyptian Antiquities Organization.
World History
