Book Description

Archaeological sites are often recognized as the basis for studies of the cultural landscape, even as many have noted that the site concept itself has become more fractured over time. In Egypt, different meanings of the term have been cultivated over two centuries of scholastic practice and heritage law, though surprisingly it has rarely been applied to investigations of regional settlement in the Nile floodplain, particularly the Delta. Such a circumstance stands in direct contrast to the Delta's potential contributions to a fuller narrative of Egyptian culture. In considering the archaeological and geoarchaeological record of the western Delta, this research draws together historical cartography, remote sensing data, prior archaeological work, and ancient texts to investigate its cultural and natural landscape. Fragmented information on relict channels from Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, Corona satellite imagery, and British Survey of Egypt maps informed a program of drill augering to investigate and confirm several observed distributaries of the Rosetta and Canopic branches. Prior archaeological work by the Egypt Exploration Society Delta Survey, the Naukratis Project regional survey of the 1970s and 80s, and others guided systematic surface collection that elucidated spatial distribution of ceramics on several elevated mounds (koms) occupied from the New Kingdom to Late Roman periods (1535 B.C.E. -- 650 C.E.). Simultaneously, surface collection units and drill augering transects were arranged both within and beyond the visible extents of koms in order to test hypotheses about site extent. Moreover, detailed topographic survey coupled with observations of Quickbird-2 satellite imagery allowed for theorizing about subsurface architecture and modeling patterns of kom and site preservation. By exploring the promise of surface collection and other minimally destructive means of analysis, this study proposes an integrated methodology for investigating the cultural and natural landscape of the Nile floodplain, taking tentative steps towards more fully realizing the tremendous, largely untapped potential of the sown lands of Egypt.