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<< Text Pages >> Egypt's Earliest Farm Settlement Discovered - Ancient Village or Settlement in Egypt in Lower Egypt (North)

Submitted by Andy B on Friday, 15 February 2008  Page Views: 8232

Multi-periodSite Name: Egypt's Earliest Farm Settlement Discovered
Country: Egypt
NOTE: This site is 1.853 km away from the location you searched for.

Region: Lower Egypt (North) Type: Ancient Village or Settlement

Latitude: 29.316668N  Longitude: 30.833334E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
3
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Ancient Village or Settlement in Egypt. Archaeologists working at the site of a 7,000-year-old village in Egypt's Faiyum depression excavate clay floors and hearths. The site is the earliest farm settlement yet found in Egypt, providing a major breakthrough in understanding the enigmatic people of the late Stone Age who lived long before the appearance of the Egyptian pharaohs, experts say.

The discoveries were made by a joint U.S.-Dutch team of scientists digging deeper into a previously excavated mound of sand some 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Cairo

The remains of domesticated wheat, barley, pigs, sheep, and goats—all imported from the Middle East or Turkey—were also found, potentially adding a new chapter to the history of Egypt's contact with foreign cultures in pre-pharaonic times.

"It's a missing link, filling in a very important and poorly known phase of the development of agricultural systems, which led to the Pyramids and later civilizations," said Bruce Smith, an archaeobiologist and a member of National Geographic's Committee for Research and Exploration.

More details, with excavation photo at National Geographic Note: Location is currently wrong
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Nearby Images from Flickr
Faiyum Oasis
Waterrad El-Fayoum
Waterrad El-Fayoum
Fayoum Mosque of Princess (khawand) Asal-Bay (Jami' Khawand Asalbay) 1497-99 Mamluk Lamp Brass Inlaid with Silver (1)
Fayoum Mosque of Amir Sulayman (al-Masjid al-Mu'alaq) 1560 Mamluk Mihrab
Fayoum Mosque of Amir Sulayman (al-Masjid al-Mu'alaq) 1560 Mamluk Re-used Capital (1)

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
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 31.1km NW 324° Possible Pyramids near Kafr Al Masallat* Pyramid / Mastaba
 32.4km ENE 76° Meidum Broken Pyramid* Pyramid / Mastaba
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"Egypt's Earliest Farm Settlement Discovered" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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New stone age in Fayoum by coldrum on Tuesday, 20 May 2008
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New stone age in Fayoum

At the site, known as Z-Basin, on the north shore of Lake Qaroun, an archaeological and geological team from University College of Los Angeles (UCLA) and Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RUG) stumbled upon what is believed to be the most complete Neolithic settlement ever found in Fayoum. This discovery was made when the team was surveying the site to study fluctuations in the lake level which caused artefacts to be either covered with metres of sediment or dramatically displaced by erosion.

This site was previously excavated in 1925 by Gertund Caton-Thompson, who found several Neolithic remains. This time the magnetic survey revealed that the settlement was much larger than expected and that the area excavated by Thompson was only a fraction of the site.

"I cannot stress enough how important this is," mission director Willeke Wendrich says. According to Wendrich, the Fayoum Neolithic had so far been considered as one period but this view may have to change. "Our first result of study gives us reason to believe that they might be dated to different periods within the Neolithic," he says. Careful excavation and analysis of the area will be carried out in the upcoming archaeological season in an attempt to enormously augment the knowledge of such an interesting site.

In order to understand the layout of the Qaret Al-Rusas Roman village, on the northeastern side of Lake Qaroun, without excavating it, the mission carried a magnetic survey. The map shows clear wall lines and streets in an orthogonal pattern typical of the Graeco- Roman period. The village has well- preserved Roman remains of decorated limestone blocks and traces of mud- brick walls which show up in two robber trenches.

Early studies, Wendrich says, show clearly that the site was covered by the waters of Lake Qaroun at an unknown time for an unknown period, as not only the surface is completely levelled but potsherds and limestone flakes are covered with a thick layer of calcium carbonate, which is usually indicative of a stand of 30-40cm deep water.

The mission's work extended to Karanis at the northern edge of the Fayoum depression where remains of a Graeco-Roman city can be seen. The team implemented the first phase of a feasibility study for a site management project in Karanis, going on to photograph all the standing walls and covering approximately 40 per cent of the site.

"This documentation is vital for understanding the conservation needs and the deterioration of the mud brick," Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Secretary-General Zahi Hawass says. Hawass says that when a team from the University of Michigan excavated the site between 1928 and 1934 they found the houses in excellent condition with many organic remains having survived through the ages. However the site was not backfilled, and Wendrich points to damage to the buildings caused by rainfall and wind erosion.

"A virtual reality model of Karanis has been produced at UCLA which will be used to study the site and to illustrate the present preservation," he says.

An assessment made at the site focussed on determining its exact boundaries by comparing satellite photographs with the results of a magnetic survey in the southwest and northeast of the town, as well as the cemetery at the north side of the Cairo-Fayoum road. Excavation made at the southwest area revealed a poorly-built industrial neighbourhood at the edge of the Graeco-Roman village.

Excavations in the area uncovered remains of an ancient creek or pond. At that moment it had not been established whether this fresh water source co-existed with the town or was a much earlier phenomenon.

The main purpose of the magnetic survey was to better understand the archaeological and zoo-archaeological remains at Karanis in a well- excavated context, as well as understanding the life and economic activities of the people who lived at Karanis inhabitants at times

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Ruins of 7,000-year-old city found in Egypt oasis by coldrum on Tuesday, 20 May 2008
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Ruins of 7,000-year-old city found in Egypt oasis

A team of US archaeologists has discovered the ruins of a city dating back to the period of the first farmers 7,000 years ago in Egypt's Fayyum oasis, the supreme council of antiquities said on Tuesday.


"An electromagnetic survey revealed the existence in the Karanis region of a network of walls and roads similar to those constructed during the Greco-Roman period," the council's chief Zahi Hawwas said.

The remnants of the city are "still buried beneath the sand and the details of this discovery will be revealed in due course," Hawwas said.

"The artefacts consist of the remains of walls and houses in terracotta or dressed limestone as well as a large quantity of pottery and the foundations of ovens and grain stores," he added.

The remains date back to the Neolithic period between 5,200 and 4,500 BC.

The local director of antiquities, Ahmed Abdel Alim, said the site was just seven kilometres (four miles) from Fayyum lake and would probably have lain at the water's edge at the time it was inhabited.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080129/wl_mideast_afp/egyptarchaeology_080129202632;_ylt=AoU86gOSqAQQ4lOceNDB_WlFeQoB
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