Southern Kharga oasis: The peopling of Kharga oasis through time
Michel Wuttmann (Head of the Datation, Restoration, and Materials Analysis Laboratory, Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, Cairo).
Claire Newton (Nottingham): I have been involved in the regional project on different scales since 2000, in collaboration with specialists in various disciplines of archaeology, history and environmental studies.
Non-covered part of a qanât at Ayn-Manâwir, looking downstream
towards the modern oasis of Douch.
Several sites excavated and archaeological survey on a regional scale including Neolithic (KS 043), Old Kingdom (Douch), First Persian occupation (Douch, 'Ayn-Manâwir), Ptolemaic (Douch), Roman ('Ayn-Manâwir).
The large scale survey aims at tracing the evolution of the settlement pattern over time (from the Palaeolithic to modern times) in relation to the natural features of the landscape and to its subsequent transformations. The relationship between water availability and settlements and/or fields is at the heart of the matter in this hyper arid region of the Eastern Sahara, and combines palaeo-climatic and palaeonvironmental issues with the history of hydraulic techniques and social organisation.
Roman pool (MQ10) used to retain water from a qanât.
Date palm stumps are preserved around the basin.
Photograph by Thierry Gonon.
The individual site excavations tackle more precise issues linked to the period and the type of site. The aim of the archaeobotanical studies therefore also varies accordingly. The Neolithic material (from site KS043, currently excavated by Béatrix Midant-Reynes and François Briois) provides precious information on the natural vegetation growing before large scale artificial irrigation and cultivation transformed it into oases, and on its exploitation by humans for fuel, food and fodder. The Old Kingdom material (from site DAA, excavated by Michel Wuttmann and Sylvie Marchand) is so far scarce, and mostly represents fuel remains from a halt on a long distance trade route. Its palaeoenvironmental signification is therefore similar to the Neolithic site's, giving another marker for the local vegetation dynamics before the creation of oases.
From at least the First Persian domination (mid first millennium BC) onwards, the regional settlement pattern cannot be dissociated from Egyptian history. The exceptional state of preservation of the organic material on some of the sites and of ancient field limits, especially from the Roman period, allows for a more detailed approach to agriculture than is usually possible. Domestic buildings, as well as pools, gardens and irrigation features (qanâts and water distribution devices upstream from the fields) are being excavated and investigated in relation to each other. These can be interpreted with the additional light from texts (ostraca) recovered in situ.
Sieving archaeological soil to recover organic remains.
Site KS043, Dec. 2005. Photograph by Béatrix Midant-Reynes.
Neolithic hearths after excavation. Site KS043.
Bibliography (archaeobotanical)
Barakat, H. and Baum, N., 1992. La végétation antique de Douch (Oasis de Kharga) ; une approche macrobotanique, DFIFAO XXVII. Cairo: Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale. [On late Roman tomb material]
Newton, C., Gonon, T. and Wuttmann, M., 2005. Un jardin d'oasis d'époque romaine à 'Ayn-Manâwir (Kharga, Égypte), Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale 105: 167-196.
Newton, C., 2002. Environnement et économie végétale en Haute-Égypte à Adaïma au Prédynastique ; Approches archéobotaniques comparatives de la Deuxième dynastie à l'Époque romaine, Chapters 4-5. Unpublished PhD thesis, Université Montpellier II.
Newton, C., 2001. Le Palmier Argoun Medemia argun (Mart.) Württemb. ex Wendl. in Encyclopédie religieuse de l'Univers végétal, Croyances phytoreligieuses de l'Égypte ancienne (ERUV) II . Orientalia Monspeliensia XI, pp. 141-153.