Gold mining in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, from the New Kingom to medieval times: new insight from the Samut district

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bérangère Redon ◽  
Julie Marchand ◽  
Thomas Faucher
Keyword(s):  
Gold Mining ◽  
Eastern Desert ◽  
Mineral Processing ◽  
Mining District ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
Organizational Evolution ◽  
Gold Mines ◽  
Processing Site ◽  
Excellent Preservation ◽  
First Time

Gold was plentiful in Egypt and had been used by the Pharaohs from earliest times as a means of asserting their power. But the history and archaeology of the mining and production of the Egyptian gold is a lot less known than the splendour of the country’s kings. Between 2013 and 2016, the French Eastern desert mission aimed to fill in these gaps in our knowledge through the excavation of the gold mining district of Samut, located between Edfu and Marsa Alam. It hosts one of the largest Ptolemaic mineral processing site of the region, Samut north. The excellent preservation of the remains made possible, for the first time, a comparison between archaeological remains and the well-known treatise of Agatharchides of Cnidus exposing the awful conditions of living in the gold mines of the Ptolemies. Besides, three other sites were explored: the impressive village of Samut el-Beda, dated to the New Kingdom, and two small villages of medieval times. In all the sites structures and artifacts related to the gold processing were unearthed, that held crucial data on the technological and organizational evolution of the gold exploitation over more than two millennia in the Eastern desert.

ASSESSING THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF GOLD MINING ACTIVITIES, SUKARI MINE, CENTRAL EASTERN DESERT, EGYPT

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Abdelaal ◽  
◽  
Mohamed Sultan ◽  
R.V. Krishnamurthy ◽  
Mustafa Kemal Emil ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Gold Mining ◽  
Eastern Desert ◽  
Mining Activities ◽  
Central Eastern Desert ◽  
Central Eastern

scholarly journals Dating the End of the Neolithic in an Eastern Sahara Oasis: Modeling Absolute Chronology

Radiocarbon ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 305-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Wuttmann ◽  
François Briois ◽  
Béatrix Midant-Reynes ◽  
Tiphaine Dachy
Keyword(s):  
Bayesian Modeling ◽  
Liquid Scintillation ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
Cultural Complex ◽  
Scintillation Method ◽  
First Time ◽  
Ostrich Eggshell

The Neolithic site KS043, excavated by the Institut français d'archéologie orientale (IFAO), is situated in the southern basin of the Kharga Oasis (Egypt). It is one of the very few stratified prehistoric sites of the eastern Sahara. The archaeological remains were found near artesian springs that provided water for pastoralists during the dry Middle Holocene. In situ settlement features provided well-preserved material (charcoal, ashy sediment, ostrich eggshell) sufficient to perform radiocarbon dating in the IFAO laboratory in Cairo by the conventional liquid scintillation method. In 2 cases, ostrich eggshell and charcoal within the same in situ context gave significantly different results of, respectively, ∼600 and ∼1200 yr younger dates for the ostrich eggshells. The strong discrepancy is here highlighted for the first time and we suggest that it may be linked with postdepositional phenomena in the vicinity of the artesian springs. A thorough review of 14C dates available for the Holocene in eastern Sahara shows that ostrich eggshells have been widely used. They seem slightly more prone to be discarded than other material but were never the object of a particular study in this context. Bayesian modeling shows that the Neolithic occupation at site KS043 spans a range from 5000 to 3950 cal BC (and concentrated around 4600–4350 cal BC). Characteristic flint tools and pottery relate this occupation to the end of the Neolithic and show links with the Tasian culture, confirming the timing of the presence of this cultural complex in the desert before its appearance in the Nile Valley.

scholarly journals Assessment of the Challenges in Policy Implementation in the Small Scale Gold Mining Sector in Ghana – A Case Study

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Arroja Eshun ◽  
E. Okyere
Keyword(s):  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Gold Mining ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Mining District ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Mining Sector ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
Mining Sites ◽  
Adequate Knowledge ◽  
Acquisition Processes

In recent times, stakeholders in the mining sector have expressed concerns about the environmental degradation and the social impacts of uncontrolled Small Scale Mining (SSM) activities in Ghana despite the existence of legislative instruments that define the procedures required for the acquisition of licences and operations of SSM activities in the country. This paper assesses the challenges in policy implementation in the small scale gold mining sector of Ghana by reviewing policies on regularisation and environmental management. It further identifies challenges faced by small scale mining operators in adhering to laid down policies for the smooth operation of the sector and furthermore assesses the views of some principal stakeholders on the benefits and challenges of small scale mining using the Dunkwa mining district as a test case. The methods employed include: field visits to some  small scale mining sites within the Dunkwa mining district; interviews and questionnaire administration; and statistical and content analysis of data. The study reveals the following factors, among others, to have contributed largely to the difficulty in regularisation, environmental and social challenges that have plagued the SSM sector: low level of education of majority of miners; bureaucracies and centralisation of licence acquisition processes; lack of sources of finance for SSM projects; lack of geological information on mineable areas; and lack of adequate knowledge of the laws and regulations on mining and environment. In addressing the challenges the following recommendations are made: decentralisation of the regularisation processes to simplify licence acquisition; adequate geological investigations should be undertaken on SSM blocked-out areas to reduce the try and error mining approach adopted by miners; and continuous education and training of miners on good mining and environmental practices. Keywords: Small Scale Mining, Mineral Policies, Environmental Impact, Regularisation, Challenges

PALEOECOLOGIC SIGNIFICANCE OF MALACOFAUNA, OLDUVAI GORGE, TANZANIA

Palaios ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 319-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
CLAUDIA C. JOHNSON ◽  
JACKSON K. NJAU ◽  
DIRK VAN DAMME ◽  
KATHY SCHICK ◽  
NICHOLAS TOTH
Keyword(s):  
Olduvai Gorge ◽  
Snail Species ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
Intermediate Hosts ◽  
Running Water ◽  
Northern Tanzania ◽  
Environmental Setting ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Channel Deposits ◽  
First Time

Abstract The rich record of vertebrate, hominin and archaeological remains recovered from Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania stands in stark contrast to the largely unexplored macroinvertebrate record from the region. Here we examine fossil malacofauna from Olduvai Gorge, inclusive of new discoveries and previous reports, and survey their potential as paleoecologic indicators. Recorded for the first time from Olduvai, an assemblage of fossil bivalve shells is attributed by character comparison to modern Chambardia wahlbergi, a freshwater unionid species widespread across Africa. The fossilized shells were localized in Bed III conglomerate channel deposits, with channel geometry exhibiting scour bases and superimposed fill structures with fining upward sequences. The ecology of recent C. wahlbergi combined with sedimentological data indicate the aquatic environment in this region during Olduvai Bed III times can be reconstructed as a periodically desiccated floodplain bordering a river channel or channels with permanent running water and marked seasonal fluctuations. This paleo-environmental setting presents drastic change compared with that of the lower Bed I and Bed II deposits, when an alkaline/saline lake extended over the site and fresh water was restricted to standing groundwater-fed pools with snail species known today to be intermediate hosts for the trematode genera Schistosoma (schistosomiasis) and Fasciola (fascioliasis). This research enhances details of landscape evolution at Olduvai basin and furthers paleoenvironmental interpretations during the time of Bed III deposition.

scholarly journals XIII.—Further Facts in the History of the Early Discovery of Australia

Archaeologia ◽  
1874 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-241
Author(s):  
Richard Henry Major
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
The West ◽  
Gold Mines ◽  
Good Fortune ◽  
Special Commission ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cape York ◽  
First Time

In the year 1861 I had the satisfaction of laying before the Society of Antiquaries, and thereby making known to the world for the first time, the important fact that the great continental island of Australia had been discovered in the year 1601 by a Portuguese navigator, named Manoel Godinho de Eredia. Up to that time the earliest authenticated discovery of any part of the great southern land was that made a little to the west and south of Cape York by the commander of the Dutch yacht the Duyfhen, or Dove, about the month of March 1606. Thus the fact which I announced in 1861 gave a date to the first authenticated discovery of Australia earlier by five years than that which had been previously accepted in history, and transferred the honour of that discovery from Holland to Portugal. The document on which this fact, so entirely new to the world, was based, was a MS. Mappe-monde in the British Museum, in which, on the northwest corner of a country which could be shown beyond all question to be Australia, stood a legend in Portuguese to the following effect:— “Nuça antara was discovered in the year 1601 by Manoel Godinho de Eredia, by command of the Viceroy Ayres de Saldanha.” This mappe-monde had the great disadvantage of being only a copy, possibly made even in the present century, from one the geography of which proved it to be some two centuries older. Still, the mere fact of its being a copy laid it open to a variety of possible objections, which fortunately I was able to forestall by arguments that I believe to be unanswerable, and which I think I need not repeat now, as they are already printed in the “Archaeologia,” vol. xxxviii. I will merely say that I had the good fortune at the time to find a happy confirmation of what was stated in the map in a little printed work which described the discoverer as a learned cosmographer and skilful captain, who had received a special commission from the Viceroy at Goa to make explorations for gold mines, and at the same time to verify the descriptions of the southern islands.

The Dolaucothi Gold Mines I: The Surface Evidence

1969 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. R. Lewis ◽  
G. D. B. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Gold Mine ◽  
Research Committee ◽  
Mine Area ◽  
Gold Mines ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Mine Workings ◽  
First Time

SummaryThe first-fruits of the programme of research organised under the auspices of the Dolaucothi Research Committee are presented here in a survey of the surviving surface remains from the Roman gold mine in South Wales. The mine-workings are comprehensively describedfor the first time with particular reference to the complex aqueduct system that still survives relatively intact above the main workings. In addition to the aqueduct derived from the River Cothi, a second has been tracedfrom the headwaters of the River Annell. The inter-relation of the aqueducts and their derivatives offers, it is suggested, a way to chart the over-all development of the mines. The stage is now setfor a programme of underground survey in the mine area proper and excavation on a large scale in the associated settlement nearby.

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