Nile River Valley

The macroarchaeometric approach has wide applicability. Climatic studies in the caves of Lascaux, France (8), and Alta Mira, Spain (9), are but two examples. This approach is now particularly useful in studies of the excavated and unexcavated ancient sites of the Nile River Valley because of the recent, accelerated deterioration of many of its monuments. It has already been applied to several ancient Egyptian archaeological sites (10-21). 

Ancient Egypt s social structure developed around the exploitation of the Nile s flood cycle, and agriculture required large-scale organisation to exploit the annual renewal. Out of the abundance came a centralised economy, with population concentrated in the river valley, and from this conformity an army could be drawn to defend and... 

Ancient civilizations were bom in environments which provided the challenge to which humans responded by action and achievements. The optimum conditions necessary for birth of civilizations were provided in the valleys of the world s great rivers, among them, the Nile, the Yellow, the Ganges, the Indus,... 

Nilotic sediments were sampled across the river from Hierakonpolis from the Nekheb formation at El-Kab (78.5-80 m above sea level), which was thought to have been deposited beginning about 11,000 years ago (15). In addition, a series of 27 Nilotic sediments were collected from along a 350-km stretch of the Nile Valley in Upper Egypt. Because the Nile sedi-... 

Almost everything that growB has been called upon to make bread for man. In remote ages the Egyptians of the Nile Valley prepared bread from the seed of lotus flowers. These flowers grew abundantly in the mud of the river bottom, and when the annual overflow receded there was a harvest of lotus flowers, just as we harvest wheat to-day. 

Fortunately conditions in the Nile valley of Egypt have remained suitable for cropping. Erosion has not been a serious problem there and flood irrigation has been the usual practice. The conditions seem to be much like those encountered in the flood plains of the rivers of China. Elsewhere in North Africa soil erosion has proceeded much as in the lands farther east. 

Through several papyrus discoveries in the lower Nile valley, and a cuneiform tablet with instructions for dyeing wool with Tyrian purple, found in Sip-par on the east bank ofthe Euphrates river and dated back to the neo-babylonian period (600-500 BC), as well as the writings of Vitruvius and Phny the Elder, we now know very well how Tyrian purple was manufactured and used in ancient times for dyeing - and how it was eked out and was the object of forgeries (Fig. 2.14). [36]... 

It is known that as early as 3300 b.c., the Egyptians developed and maintained an extensive system of dykes, canals, and drainage systems (8). A great mass of people populated the narrow fertile valley of the Nile, and irrigation works were needed to maintain the large population and exploit the skill of agriculture. The river also served as the principal means of transportation because horses, wheeled vehicles, and roads were unknown in Egypt until about 1785 B.c. (8). 

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