Rural Experiences: The Western Desert

2019 ◽  
pp. 95-130
Author(s):  
Henry P. Colburn
Keyword(s):  
Castor Oil ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Western Desert ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Old Kingdom ◽  
New Towns ◽  
Irrigation Technology ◽  
Imperial Power ◽  
Strategic Location ◽  
Artesian Wells

This chapter is concerned with the Dakhla and Kharga Oases in the Western Desert. This was an obscure region, considered by the Egyptians to be outside of Egypt proper. Population there was limited, especially after the Old Kingdom when the artesian wells dried up. This picture changes dramatically under Achaemenid rule. Several temples were established or expanded in the oasis. One of these, the Hibis Temple is the earliest example of the ‘pan-Egyptian’ temples that characterized the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. New towns were built along with these temples, and these towns were supplied with water by means of qanats, an irrigation technology that originated in Iran. The resurgence of the oasis, then, served an imperial purpose, namely to link this important strategic location more closely to centers of imperial power in the Nile valley. But, as the Demotic ostraca from Ain Manawir indicate, this act also created a thriving local economy with ties to the Mediterranean and the production of cash crops, notably castor oil, for export. Once again, the empire’s impact in the oases produced varied consequences.

The Chronology of Sudanese Arabic Genealogical Tradition

2000 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 325-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Spaulding
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
World War I ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Old Kingdom ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Many ◽  
Islamic Faith

Modern nationalisms first arose during the later eighteenth century around the wide periphery of the ancient heartland of western culture and gnawed their way inward during the course of the nineteenth century to the core, culminating in World War I, Each new nationalism generated an original “imagined community” of human beings, part of whose ideological cohesion derived from a sense of shared historical experience. Since the actual historical record would not necessarily satisfy this hunger, it was often found expedient to amend the past through acts of imagination aptly termed the “invention of tradition.”One of the many new “imagined communities” of the long nineteenth century took shape in the northern Nile-valley Sudan between the final disintegration of the old kingdom of Sinnar (irredeemable after the death of the strongman Muhammad Abu Likaylik in 1775) and the publication of Harold MacMichael's A History of the Arabs in the Sudan in 1922. The new national community born of the collapse of Sinnar, strongly committed to Arabic speech and Islamic faith, was tested by fire through foreign conquest and revolution, by profound socio-economic transformation, and by the challenges attendant on participation in an extended sub-imperialism that earned it hegemony—first cultural, and ultimately political—over all the diverse peoples of the modern Sudan.One important response of the nascent community to the trials of this difficult age was the invention of a new national historical tradition, according to which its members were descended via comparatively recent immigrants to the Sudan from eminent Arabs of Islamic antiquity.

Egypt’s Old Kingdom in Contact with the World

2020 ◽  
pp. 397-458
Author(s):  
Pierre Tallet
Keyword(s):  
Red Sea ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Sinai Peninsula ◽  
Building Projects ◽  
Old Kingdom ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
The World ◽  
Written Sources

Throughout the Old Kingdom period, the Egyptian state maintained close relations with all the regions surrounding the Nile valley. At the time when the pharaonic state launched monumental construction projects—notably the building of the gigantic pyramids of the Fourth Dynasty—the exploitation of mineral resources in the desert margins and in more distant areas was sharply accentuated. The establishment of harbors on the Red Sea shore served to reach the south of the Sinai peninsula for the exploitation of copper and turquoise, as well as to bring back aromatics and exotic products from the land of Punt in the Bab el-Mandab area. The need for labor to realize building projects and develop the Egyptian infrastructure, for example as required to control major trade routes, led to repeated military raids against Libya, Nubia, and the Levant. Drawing on archaeology and written sources, including the tomb autobiographies of state officials of the Sixth Dynasty, this chapter offers perspectives on the complex military and diplomatic activities that linked the Old Kingdom to the surrounding regions.

Ha in Sheta

2016 ◽  
Vol XXIV (2) ◽  
pp. 83-92
Author(s):  
Andrzej Ćwiek
Keyword(s):  
Western Desert ◽  
Symbolic Meaning ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Semantic Field ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
Old Kingdom ◽  
The Temple

The coronation cycle in the Portico of the Birth in the temple of Deir el-Bahari includes a scene of purification of Hatshepsut by a god captioned as Ha in Sheta. This seemingly hapax toponym provides the key to a proper understanding of the highly symbolic meaning of the scene. The place name, composed of basic cosmographical hieroglyphs, has at the same time a spelling that refers to a vast semantic field of the notions of “mystery”, “secret”, “be hidden”, etc. It appears that the purification made by a god of the western desert in a “mysterious” place refers to the initiation of the female pharaoh into the secrets of the sun god, enabling her to fulfill her role as the provider of sustenance for humanity. The role of the god Ha as a protector against hunger, rooted in the Old Kingdom tradition and expressed also in the text of BD 178 in the Offering Chapel of Hatshepsut, is crucial in this respect.

scholarly journals Sand Seas and Dune Fields of Egypt

Geosciences ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Olaf Bubenzer ◽  
Nabil S. Embabi ◽  
Mahmoud M. Ashour
Keyword(s):  
Satellite Images ◽  
Land Reclamation ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Field Measurements ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Optically Stimulated Luminescence ◽  
Western Desert ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
The North ◽  
North Sinai

The article reviews the state of knowledge about distribution, sizes, dynamics, and ages of all sand seas (N = 6) and dune fields (N = 10) in Egypt (1,001,450 km2). However, chronological data (Optically Stimulated Luminescence, Thermoluminescence), used in the INQUA (International Union for Quaternary Research) dune database, only exists from three of the five sand seas located in the Western Desert of Egypt. The North Sinai Sand Sea and four of the ten dune fields are located near the Nile Valley, the delta or the coast and therefore changed drastically due to land reclamation during the last decades. Here, but also in the oases, their sands pose a risk for settlements and farmland. Our comprehensive investigations of satellite images and our field measurements show that nearly all terrestrial dune forms can be observed in Egypt. Longitudinal dunes and barchans are dominant. Sand seas cover about 23.8% (with an average sand coverage of 74.8%), dune fields about 4.4% (with an average sand coverage of 31.7%) of its territory. For the Great Sand Sea and the Farafra Sand Sea, situated in the central and northern part of the Western Desert, a Late Glacial transformation by strong westerlies was found, but not for the Selima Sand Sea, situated in the south of Egypt. Regarding the sparse chronological data up to now, for a reasonable estimation of future sand mobility in the course of global climate change, further data are essential. Finally, further studies concerning sand mobility, local wind systems, and land use are needed.

scholarly journals Disturbance of Mangrove Forest Due To Climate Change: The Prospects of Sundarban

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (12) ◽  
pp. 1306-1313
Author(s):  
Shimul Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tropical Cyclone ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Mangrove Forest ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Regeneration Capacity ◽  
Natural Properties ◽  
Strategic Location ◽  
Employment Generation

Mangrove forest has a significant importance in protecting natural disaster, environmental sustainability and in local economy. In Bangladesh, only mangrove forest Sundarban also servicing for environmental sustainability, protecting tropical cyclone, local employment generation and so on. Thus, its natural properties are being hampered through people involvement and natural calamities. Moreover, Rapid population growth and climate change stimulating these disturbances of natural properties of Sundarbans. This paper aim at how climate change is disturbing mangrove forest in Bangladesh and how this disturbance may be threatful for future environmental sustainability. Interrelation between climate change and disturbance of Sundarbans has been established through various exiting literature review and for quantifying the amount of disturbance remote sensing data has been applied and future threat of environmental sustainability has been assessed by comparing regeneration capacity of Sundarban after a tropical cyclone and amount of disturbance by a tropical cyclone. Result found that climate change increasing the frequency of natural calamities and affecting significantly on mangrove forest due to its complex bio-diversity and strategic location before regeneration of disturbance. On the other hand, threat of mangroves as well as environment is associated with temperature rising, ice melting and sea level rising are increasing because of frequent  occurrence, magnitude as comparing with regeneration capacity.

scholarly journals Heritage Stone 6. Gneiss for the Pharaoh: Geology of the Third Millennium BCE Chephren's Quarries in Southern Egypt

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Heldal ◽  
Per Storemyr ◽  
Elizabeth Bloxam ◽  
Ian Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Raw Material ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Free Standing ◽  
Old Kingdom ◽  
Aesthetic Appearance ◽  
Early Dynastic ◽  
Il Y A ◽  
Permanent Settlement ◽  
Third Millennium Bce ◽  
Egyptian Desert

A remarkable campaign of decorative stone quarrying took place in the southwestern Egyptian desert almost 5000 years ago. The target for quarrying was Precambrian plagioclase−hornblende gneiss, from which several life-sized statues of King Chephren (or Khafra) and thousands of funerary vessels were produced. The former inspired George Murray in 1939 to name the ancient quarry site 'Chephren's Quarries.' Almost 700 individual extraction pits are found in the area, in which free-standing boulders formed by spheroidal weathering were worked by stone tools made from local rocks and fashioned into rough-outs for the production of vessels and statues. These were transported over large distances across Egypt to Nile Valley workshops for finishing. Although some of these workshop locations remain unknown, there is evidence to suggest that, during the Predynastic to Early Dynastic period, the permanent settlement at Hierakonpolis (Upper Egypt) could have been one destination, and during the Old Kingdom, another may have been located at pyramid construction sites such as the Giza Plateau (Lower Egypt). Chephren's Quarries remains one of the earliest examples of how the combined aesthetic appearance and supreme technical quality of a rock made humans go to extreme efforts to obtain and transport this raw material on an ‘industrial’ scale from a remote source. The quarries were abandoned about 4500 years ago, leaving a rare and well-preserved insight into ancient stone quarrying technologies. RÉSUMÉUne remarquable campagne d’extraction de pierres décorative a été mené dans le sud-ouest du désert égyptien il y a près de 5000 ans. La roche cible était un gneiss à plagioclase–hornblende, de laquelle ont été tiré plusieurs statues grandeur nature du roi Khéphren (ou Khâef Rê) et des milliers de vases funéraires. C’est pourquoi George Murray, en 1939, a donné au site de l’ancienne carrière le nom de 'Chephren’s Quarries.' On peut trouver près de 700 fosses d’extraction sur le site, renfermant des blocs de roches formés par altération sphéroïdale qui ont été dégrossis avec des outils de pierre pour la production de vases et de statues. Puis ils ont été transportés à travers l’Égypte jusqu’aux ateliers de finition de la vallée du Nil. Bien que la localisation de certains de ces ateliers demeure inconnue, certains indices permettent de penser que, de la période prédynastique jusqu’à la période dynastique précoce, l’établissement permanent à Hiérakonpolis (Haute Égypte) aurait pu être l’une de ces destinations; durant l’Ancien empire une autre destination aurait pu être située aux sites de construction de pyramides comme le Plateau de Giza (Basse Égypte). Les Chephren’s Quarries l’une des plus anciennes exemples montrant comment la combinaison des qualités esthétiques et techniques remarquables de la roche ont incité les humains à consentir de si grands efforts pour extraire et transporter ce matériau brute à une échelle industrielle d’un site éloigné. Les carrières ont été abandonnées il y a environ 4500 ans, nous laissant une fenêtre rare et bien conservé sur des technologies anciennes d’extraction de pierre de taille.Traduit par le Traducteur

scholarly journals The hydro‐geomorphological setting of the Old Kingdom town of al‐Ashmūnayn in the Egyptian Nile Valley

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willem H. J. Toonen ◽  
Kylie Cortebeeck ◽  
Stan Hendrickx ◽  
Bettina Bader ◽  
Jan Peeters ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nile Valley ◽  
Old Kingdom

Novelties on the Nile

2020 ◽  
pp. 26-48
Author(s):  
Karen Polinger Foster
Keyword(s):  
Gift Exchange ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Royal Family ◽  
Indirect Contact ◽  
Old Kingdom ◽  
Funerary Monuments ◽  
The Third ◽  
Elephant Ivory ◽  
Lapis Lazuli

This chapter examines the role of exotica in the Egyptian mind. Egypt’s involvement with exotic flora and fauna began in earnest in the Old Kingdom, which flourished during the final two-thirds of the third millennium. The best evidence for Old Kingdom exotica comes from several pharaonic funerary monuments, but more often from the tombs of the notables buried near their kings. Many of these officials, courtiers, and members of the royal family had commercial and diplomatic responsibilities that brought them into direct or indirect contact with foreign lands and peoples. Cedar, myrrh, turquoise, lapis lazuli, and elephant ivory were among the desirable commodities that had to be obtained from beyond the Nile Valley and Delta. Animals and plants were sometimes shipped as well, either as additional items in a consignment or as early examples of royal and elite gift exchange. Indeed, the notables’ tombs include numerous scenes of exotic creatures being caged, watered, fed, and otherwise tended.

Spatial and Verbal rhetorics of power: Constructing late old kingdom history

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Richards
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Political History ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Centralized Control ◽  
Primary Case ◽  
Old Kingdom ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
History Of ◽  
Actual Profile ◽  
Spatial Rhetoric

AbstractIn writing ancient Egyptian social and political history, we take for granted that we should privilege neither textual nor material cultural evidence; rather, we should weave narratives incorporating both strands in weights commensurate with the actual profile of available data in a specific time and place. The mosaic of data available from the later Old Kingdom provides an especially compelling rationale for adopting this multidimensional approach. Earlier accounts of this pivotal era in ancient Egyptian history have relied most heavily on textual evidence ‐ not least because for the first time there existed lengthy biographical inscriptions of government officials providing tantalizing detail on individual political careers and legitimizing verbal rhetoric regarding possible historical events. In this particular period, however, the amounts of such textual data are outweighed in sheer quantity by contemporary archaeological remains. I have previously argued that spatial patterning, both in the synchronic distribution of these remains and (perhaps more compellingly) in the shifts of these patterns over time, should play an equal or even more prominent role in writing a socio-political history of this particular period. A primary case study explored in this essay is the late Old Kingdom mortuary landscape at Abydos where new data has emerged strengthening the diachronic evidence for the manipulation of a spatial rhetoric of political ideology, providing further insight into ancient Egyptian elites’ responses to perceived or real crises in centralized control of the country. This phenomenon at Abydos was only one part of a broader program of materializing central authority throughout the Egyptian Nile Valley at a time when the verbal rhetoric of royal power was limited in voice, audience, and context.

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