Ruins of 7,000-year-old city found in Egypt oasis

Source: ABC (Australia) ^ | January 30, 2008 - 9:47AM | U/A

[Fred Nerks]

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.

"An electro-magnetic 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," Mr 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 from Fayyum lake and would probably have lain at the water's edge at the time it was inhabited.

- AFP

[SunkenCiv]

I’d imagine that little non-unique artifacts of that kind “fall” into many a pocket at sites all over the world. :’)

[SunkenCiv]

Maybe. The Middle Kingdom was the time during which the Fayyum came (back?) into its own, and stayed there. The size of the lake has varied much over the centuries, but during Graeco-Roman times it was a pretty popular place to live. If I had to speculate, okay, okay, quit twisting my arm, I’d say that the Egyptians who eventually produced the Middle Kingdom pharaohs wound up in the Fayyum when they had to regroup after the Old Kingdom fell and Egypt declined into the 1st IP.

If the dating of these new finds holds up, it’ll make sense, since there was Lake Tritonis to the west of Egypt, and other proto-Egyptian finds are found in that direction, rather than upriver or downriver (either of which would make more sense had the climate conditions been the same then as they are now) or along it.

Other oldies but goodies...

Tell Ibrahim Awad:
http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/predns.htm

structure of Khasekhemwy:
http://www.hierakonpolis.org/site/fort.html

[Fred Nerks]

the Egyptians who eventually produced the Middle Kingdom pharaohs wound up in the Fayyum when they had to regroup after the Old Kingdom fell

thanks for the links, I'll follow them up...and btw, it does all make sense now.

[SunkenCiv]

• The Lost City: A discovery in the desert could rewrite the history of ancient Egypt