EES North Launch Event: Landscape Development and Climate Change in Ancient Egypt: the Delta and the Valley
Event Info
Host: EES
Type: Education - Lecture
Time and Place
Start Time: Saturday, 23rd October 2010, 2:00 pm
End Time: Saturday, 23rd October 2010, 7:00 pm
Location: Manchester Conference Centre/Days Inn Hotel, Weston Building
Street: Sackville Street
City/Town: Manchester
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Contact Details
Email: contact@ees.ac.uk
Phone: 0207 242 2268
Link:
Description
The Egypt Exploration Society will be launching EES North in October this year. EES North will run Society events in the north of England at various venues, beginning with a study day and reception in Manchester. The study day will present a series of talks by EES field directors on their recent field work, articulating one of the Society's research areas, landscape development and climate change in Egypt.
2.00pm: Karen Exell (Acting Chair, EES): Welcome
2.10pm: Penny Wilson (The EES/Durham University Mission to Sais): Fishing, Feasting and Famine: A Guide to Ancient Nile Delta Environments
2.50pm: Tea and Coffee
3.20pm: Angus Graham (The EES Karnak Land- and Waterscapes Survey): Islands, marshes, sloughs and the Nile - Karnak within a Dynamic Theban Floodplain
4.00pm: David Jeffreys/Judith Bunbury (The EES/UCL The Survey of Memphis): A view from the White Walls: New Work at Memphis
5.00pm: Wine Reception
ABSTRACTS:
Penny Wilson:
The Nile Delta environment is extremely rich in food and economic resources. These were exploited from Neolithic times around 6000 years ago by fishermen on the banks of the multiple Nile channels and the Delta floodplain provided vast pastures for cattle and sheep, vineyards and grain fields. Egypt was even reputed to have fed Rome at the height of the Roman Empire. The Delta, however, was at the mercy of the Nile and its flood, leading to natural disasters and famines when there were either high floods or not enough water. This talk will explore how the archaeological evidence from specific sites such as Sais, or from wider regions such as the north and west Delta enables us to see the trials and tribulations of life in the Delta, even until modern times.
Angus Graham:
The past land- and waterscapes of Karnak have been (re)constructed through the study of sediments and artefacts retrieved by a programme of hand augering begun in 2002 and more recently Electrical Resistance Tomography profiles, combined with earlier sedimentary records of the site and archaeological evidence from the temple and settlement. This talk will begin with a concrete view of the changes in the Theban landscape over the last two centuries beginning with the maps of Napoleon's geographers and Richard Lepsius to the paintings of David Roberts, early photographs and the most recent maps and satellite images. We will then step back to look at the island origins of the site of Karnak and why practically and cosmologically this was an 'ideal' location to found a temple. The island in time became attached to the east bank and with the migration of the river westwards this allowed for the expansion of the temple in the New Kingdom. As channels silt up in this dynamic floodplain they leave behind sloughs and marshy environments - others features of the temple 'ideal' and perfect for those 'fowling and fishing' trips we see in the tombs of the elite.
We will finally look at the oscillations of the the river in the the Theban region over the last four millennia bringing us back to today.
David Jeffreys/Judith Bunbury:
The EES survey of Memphis began in the early 1980s and has run uninterrupted to the present. This talk describes the philosophy behind the survey, the methodologies used, recent results and future directions in our study of the ancient Egyptian capital.
We plan a sort of 'double act' between David Jeffreys and Judith Bunbury to showcase recent field results and highlight the potential for non-intrusive techniques for the recovery of ancient environments in the Nile valley and delta.