Egyptian or Nubian? Dry-Stone Architecture at Wadi el-Hudi, Wadi es-Sebua, and the Eastern Desert

2017 ◽  
Vol 103 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Liszka
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Desert ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Exterior Wall ◽  
Construction Techniques ◽  
Type Site

When building in dry-stone, Nubians and Egyptians used different techniques to construct walls. Wadi es-Sebua has been used as a type-site for C-Group Nubian settlements. Its exterior wall exhibits courses of stones laid at an angle, a technique I associate with Nubians. The Egyptian fortified mining settlements at Wadi el-Hudi, el-Hisnein, and Dihmit use dry-stone architecture, similar to the architecture at Wadi es-Sebua. Texts and pottery support that many Nubians also worked for contemporary Egyptian mining expeditions in the Eastern Desert during the early Middle Kingdom. I suggest that Nubian workforces carried out much of the architectural construction of these fortified settlements using their own traditional building techniques, but following an Egyptian design, and I argue that the so-called ‘loopholes’ found in these exterior walls were not for military defence, but rather were windows. These construction techniques point to a latent Nubian agency within the operation of Egyptian mining settlements.

scholarly journals Interlayer Reinforcement Combined with Fiber Reinforcement for Extruded Lightweight Mortar Elements

Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 4778
Author(s):  
Carla Matthäus ◽  
Nadine Kofler ◽  
Thomas Kränkel ◽  
Daniel Weger ◽  
Christoph Gehlen
Keyword(s):  
Flexural Strength ◽  
Thermal Insulation ◽  
Fiber Reinforcement ◽  
Steel Reinforcement ◽  
Exterior Wall ◽  
Weak Spot ◽  
Construction Techniques ◽  
Lightweight Mortar ◽  
Wall Components ◽  
Mortar Matrix

Lightweight mortar extrusion enables the production of monolithic exterior wall components with improved thermal insulation by installing air chambers and reduced material demand compared to conventional construction techniques. However, without reinforcement, the systems are not capable of bearing high flexural forces and, thus, the application possibilities are limited. Furthermore, the layer bonding is a weak spot in the system. We investigate a reinforcement strategy combining fibers in the mortar matrix with vertically inserted elements to compensate the layer bonding. By implementing fibers in the extruded matrix, the flexural strength can be increased almost threefold parallel to the layers. However, there is still an anisotropy between the layers as fibers are oriented during deposition and the layer bond is still mainly depending on hydration processes. This can be compensated by the vertical insertion of reinforcement elements in the freshly deposited layers. Corrugated wire fibers as well as short steel reinforcement elements were suitable to increase the flexural strength between the layers. As shown, the potential increase in flexural strength could be of a factor six compared to the reference (12 N/mm2 instead of 1.9 N/mm2). Thus, the presented methods reduce anisotropy in flexural strength due to layered production.

scholarly journals Operating and defending Red Sea harbors and Eastern Desert trails in the Hellenistic and early Roman periods: the case of Berenike

2019 ◽  
pp. 389-409
Author(s):  
Marek Adam Woźniak
Keyword(s):  
Red Sea ◽  
Road Network ◽  
Eastern Desert ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Old Kingdom ◽  
Gold Mines ◽  
Desert Region ◽  
Equal Importance

The Hellenistic road network in the Eastern Desert and Red Sea coast of Egypt has been at the nexus of important archaeological research on several sites in the region in the second half of the 20th century. The work was focused at first on the Roman remains of this network, but with time it became evident that the Romans had made use of a system developed in Hellenistic and even earlier, Pharaonic times. French and Italian investigations at Marsa Gawasis, Gebel Zeit and Wadi al-Jarf contributed data on the marine expeditions of Old Kingdom rulers into the Sinai and Middle Kingdom rulers to the Land of Punt. Key information for the Hellenistic period came from the French exploration of gold mines and fortified features at Samut and the fort at Abbad. Of equal importance was the work of a Dutch–American and then Polish–American team at the Hellenistic and Roman coastal harbor of Berenike Trogodytica. This work uncovered remains of a Hellenistic port-base in the Eastern Desert region of Egypt, giving grounds for broadening a general understanding of the daily functioning, logistics, and functional interdependence of the Hellenistic road network in the region, which enabled in turn a comparison with the Roman counterpart. The present paper considers the functioning of this system based on the author’s work in Berenike.

Amethyst Mining in the Eastern Desert: a Preliminary Survey at Wadi El-Hudi

1993 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Shaw ◽  
Robert Jameson
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Desert ◽  
Preliminary Survey ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Archaeological Remains

The most important of the archaeological remains at Wadi el-Hudi are a series of amethyst mines of the pharaonic period. Inscriptions associated with the site were published by Ahmed Fakhry in 1952, but the Middle Kingdom settlement and fortress adjacent to the mines were only briefly described. A preliminary survey of the site, undertaken in November 1992, has provided sufficient new data to allow the archaeological significance of the Wadi el-Hudi mining settlements to begin to be assessed.

Archaeological fieldwork in Berenike in 2014 and 2015: from Hellenistic rock-cut installations to abandoned temple ruins

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 315-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iwona Zych ◽  
Steven E. Sidebotham ◽  
Martin Hense ◽  
Joanna K. Rądkowska ◽  
Marek Woźniak
Keyword(s):  
Red Sea ◽  
Satellite Imagery ◽  
Eastern Desert ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Red Sea Coast ◽  
The City ◽  
The Town ◽  
Sea Coast ◽  
Late Roman

The report brings a comprehensive summary of archaeological fieldwork and survey carried out in Berenike on the Red Sea coast of Egypt and in the Eastern Desert hinterland over the course of two seasons in 2014 and 2015. The completed magnetic map of the site is discussed in some detail, assessing the potential for future excavations. The report covers the most important discoveries of the two seasons, which include fragments of Middle Kingdom Pharaonic stelae, possibly pushing back the foundation of the harbor, archaeological evidence of a rock-cut watercollection system forming part of the Hellenistic-age fortifications and two inscribed stone bases, one of which records a secretary of an aromatics warehouse at Berenike, discovered undisturbed in the courtyard of the Great Temple of Berenike (also called the Serapis Temple). A previously unknown religious(?) complex was discovered on the western outskirts of the site thanks to work with Corona satellite imagery. In turn, analysis of the magnetic mapping of the city revealed an administrative(?) complex in the northern part of the town; the later, 5th and 6th century layers were examined inside a chamber with niche forming part of this complex. Work also continued in the early Roman harbor, uncovering among others a complete timber ship frame, and a collection of garnets in subsidiary buildings in the late Roman temenos located in the entrance to the southwestern bay.

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