Early explorers to Egypt formed the basis for the field of landscape archaeology in Egyptology. Herodotus provided the earliest written description of ancient Egyptian landscapes (Herodotus 2003 (reprint)). Although his writings were not entirely accurate, this encouraged future archaeologists to explore further. Lavish illustrations of ancient monuments of landscapes also encouraged the practice of landscape archaeology in Egypt. Landscape archaeology is, at its core, examining ancient human remains in their broader geographical contexts, and the images created by early explorers like Richard Pococke and Frederick Norden allowed this contextual-ization to take place (Pococke 1743; Norden 1757).
No group had a greater impact on landscape archaeology in Egyptology (and for future studies on the physical context of ancient Egypt) than the Napoleonic expedition of 1798-1801. Napoleon’s broader intent of invading Egypt brought naturalists, artists, architects, engineers, and historians to explore, measure, and draw every aspect of the country. This exploration of ancient Egypt remains one of the first true archaeological surveys in the broader field of archaeology. Given the general and brief description of a number of archaeological sites in the Description de I’Egypte, the Napoleonic survey team did not spend large amounts of time at each place but, nevertheless, provide information that has long since been obscured by modern building or site removal. The richly painted tombs and temples of Luxor and the pyramid fields further north merited far greater attention to detail. Maps from the Atlas Geographique volume in the Description de I’Egypte remain of great use to landscape archaeologists today (Jomard 1820). Correcting the Napoleonic maps with satellite imagery reveals a high level of accuracy. Another early contribution to Egyptology was the Lepsius expedition, sent by the Prussian government in the 1840s. Maps from this expedition cover a wider area than the Description de l’Egypte maps (from Egypt to Ethiopia) (Lepsius 1849).
Exploration and documentation by John Gardner Wilkinson and Giovanni Belzoni (to name a few) (Wilkinson 1841; Belzoni 1822) furthered both the field of Egyptology and landscape archaeology by allowing specific locations of archaeological sites to be mapped. Auguste Mariette used Strabo to help him locate the potential location of the Serapeum, which he subsequently excavated. Nevertheless, this was one of the first major uses of ancient texts to relocate ancient sites in Egypt, another hallmark of landscape archaeology (Wortham 1971: 83). Another source for early Egyptian cartography is the map of Egypt compiled by Mahmoud Bey using geometrical measurements, noted for its high degree of accuracy (Bey 1872).
Figure 1.1 Quickbird satellite image showing the Nile in relation to broader agricultural fields. Image courtesy of Google Earth Pro.
Archaeological investigations recording the locations of many sites occurred in higher frequency towards the turn of the nineteenth century, especially with survey-oriented work taking place in the Delta (in part influenced by the Delta research of the Egypt Exploration Fund) (Chaban 1906; Edgar 1907; Daressy 1912). Investigations at specific sites allowed for more in-depth research into their general environments, such as Caton-Thompson’s work in the Fayum that discovered preserved grains in buried baskets and allowed a reconstruction of ancient planting patterns (Caton-Thompson and Gardner 1934).
The 1970s brought with it a renewed focus on settlement archaeology, especially with the work of Manfried Bietak, Barry Kemp, David O’Connor, and Mark Lehner at Tell ed-Daba (Bietak 1975), el-Amarna (Kemp and Garfi 1993), Abydos (O’Connor 2009), and Giza (Lehner 1997) respectively. These archaeologists revolutionized the study of ancient Egyptian landscapes with advanced archaeological excavation methods and the use of archaeological science to study ancient faunal remains, and general environments. Comparisons could take place between highly idealized tomb paintings of landscapes and what the environment may have looked like in specific time periods. More studies were now taking place focusing on broader ancient Egyptian landscapes, specifically the work of the Egypt Exploration Society in the Delta (from the 1980s onwards), the work of John and Debbie Darnell in the Western Desert (Darnell 2002), the work of Salima Ikram and Corinna Rossi in Kharga Oasis (Ikram and Rossi 2002), and Sarah Parcak’s work in the Delta and Middle Egypt (Parcak 2003; 2004a; 2007; 2008; 2009a; 2009b). To gain a real understanding of ancient Egyptian landscapes one must start with one of its central features: the Nile.
World History
