Nubian

Antibiotics were used in folk medicine at least as early as 2500 years ago when the Chinese reported the medicinally beneficial effects of moldy bean curd. Evidence for some type of tetracycline antibiotic usage by the Sudanese-Nubian civilization (350 AD) was reported in 1980 (6). Fluorescent areas in human bones from this eta were observed that were identical in location and characteristics to modern bone from patients treated with tetracyclines. Identification of tetracycline in the ancient bones was further substantiated by fluorescence spectmm measurements and microbiological inhibition studies (7). 

White, C.D. and Schwarcz, H.P. 1994 Temporal trends in stable isotopes for Nubian mummy tissues. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 93 165-187. 

Baker, B.J. 1991 Collagen preservation and composition in ancient Nubian skeletal remains. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Supplement 12 46 7. 

White, C.D. 1991 Isotopic Analysis of Multiple Human Tissues from Three Ancient Nubian Populations. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Toronto. 

F.O. Giilagar, A. Buchs, A. Susini, Capillary gas chromatography mass spectrometry and identification of substituted carboxylic acids in lipids extracted from a 4000 year old Nubian burial, Journal of Chromatography, 479, 61 72 (1989). 

Giilapar, F. O., Susini, A. and Koln, M. (1990) Preservation and post mortem transformations of lipids in samples from a 4000 year old Nubian mummy. Journal of Archaeological Science 17, 691 659. 

Park, Y.W. and H.L. Chukwu. 1989. Trace mineral concentrations in goat milk from French-Alpine and Anglo-Nubian breeds during the first 5 months of lactation. Jour. Food Compos. Anal. 2 161-169. 

Armenian cochineal may have been an important article of commerce in earlier times (10). Masschelein-Kleiner and Maes (75) identified carminic acid on ten samples of Egyptian textiles from the 5th to the 7th century A.D., but not kermesic acid. This result applies only to Armenian cochineal and not to any other of the dyes known in antiquity. The authors also found Armenian cochineal on various Nubian and Hebrew textiles. 

The royal cemetery complex (Tombs 1 and 2), where a considerable amount of fine Plum Red Ware (PRW) was found, was located in the Great Wadi. The Plum Red Ware pottery appeared to have been fired at sites along the northern side of the Great Wadi (localities 39 and 59) on the upper beds of ancient (Cretaceous) sediments (variegated shales and sandstone) that are a part of the Nubian formation. 

The Nubian sedimentary formation has a different origin than the Nile sediments, and the two types of sediments can be easily distinguished on the basis of trace element contents (4). As Figure 1 shows, these ancient variegated shales and ferrugineous sandstone beds are exposed in parts of the low desert surface west of the cultivation zone, as well as in the high desert areas that border the Great Wadi. 

In most areas of the wadi floor and the low desert area, the Nubian formation is covered by an average of 5-7 m of Pleistocene Nile silts (9). These older Nile sediments represent different episodes in the evolution of the Nile River (10-13), The oldest Nile sediments (called Protonile) in the area, exposed at high (about 125 m above sea level) Pleistocene terraces, were deposited during the Lower to Middle Paleolithic period (10). 

Figure 4. Concentrations of Co and Sc in bulk samples of sediments found at Hierakonpolis. The Nubian sandstone ( ) and the Protonile sediments contain far less Co and Sc than the Neonile (Masmas, Sahaba, and El Kab) sediments ( + ). For comparison the average concentrations for Units B ( ), N (x), C ( ), and the NRSC (A) are shown. Although sediments from Units B and N are Neonile, the low concentrations suggest higher proportions of sand (dilutant) than in the older Neonile sediments from the low desert area.

With the possible exception of Cr, the acid wash removes only relatively small amounts of these trace elements. Although it was not measured in all samples, the Ca content was low (1.5-3% CaO) and much was easily removed in the acid wash. There are, however, layers of crystalline white salt in the older Nubian sediments (such as the Esna or variegated shales) along the... 

Arabian-Nubian Shield NE Africa-Middle East 0.90-0.87 Stein and Goldstein (1996)... 

Other Proterozoic oceanic plateau terranes have been identified in the Birimian province of western Africa (Figure 18) (Abouchami et aL 1990 Boher et aL, 1992), the Arabian-Nubian Shield (Stein and Goldstein, 1996), and the Flin Flon belt in Canada (Stem et aL, 1995). 

Stein M. and Goldstein S. L. (1996) From plume head to continental lithosphere in the Arabian-Nubian shield. Nature 382, 773-778. 

Dissolution of evaporite minerals in sedimentary basins is also a common cause of salinization. This type of salinization occurs in the Ogallala Formation in the Southern High Plains, Texas, USA (Mehta et al, 2000a,b), the Dammam aquifer in Kuwait (Al-Ruwaih, 1995), the Nubian sandstone aquifer in the Sinai and Negev (Rosenthal et al., 1998), and the Great Artesian Basin in... 

A parallel trend has been found to exist between the isosalinity lines and the isopiezometric lines in the fossil aquifers of the Nubian sandstones in southern Israel and the central Sinai. The flow pattern in these aquifers determines the rate of mixing between paleo-seawater and paleo-meteoric water. This flowpattern is determined by the spatial relations between the Nubian sandstone outcrops in the central Sinai and the major fault lines of the Dead Sea and Suez rift valleys. 

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