Holocene fluvial history of the Nile's west bank at ancient Thebes, Luxor, Egypt, and its relation with cultural dynamics and basin‐wide hydroclimatic variability

Willem H J Toonen,Morag A Hunter,Dominic S Barker,Kristian D Strutt,Benjamin T Pennington,Aurélia Masson‐Berghoff,Virginia L Emery,Angus Graham

doi:10.1002/gea.21631

Abstract

AbstractIn the Theban area around modern Luxor (Egypt), the River Nile divides the temple complexes of Karnak and Luxor from New Kingdom royal cult temples on the western desert edge. Few sites have been archaeologically identified in the western flood plain, despite its presumed pivotal role in the ancient ritual landscape as the territory that both physically divided and symbolically connected the areas inhabited by the living and the areas occupied by the dead. Using borehole data and electrical resistivity tomography, the current investigation of subsurface deposits reveals the location of an abandoned channel of the Nile. This river course was positioned in the western, distal part of the Nile flood plain. Over 2100 ceramic fragments recovered from boreholes date the abandonment of the relatively minor river channel to the (late) New Kingdom. This minor river branch could have played an important role in the cultural landscape, as it would have served to connect important localities in the ritual landscape. Changes in the fluvial landscape match with established periods of basin‐wide hydroclimatic variability. This links cultural and landscape changes observed on a regional scale to hydroclimatic dynamics in the larger Nile catchment, in one of the focal areas of Ancient Egyptian cultural development.

Highlights

Thebes (Luxor, Egypt; Fig. 1) is famous for its major ancient monuments, being one of the primary cities of ancient Egypt from the Middle Kingdom (MK; late 11th–13th dynasties, c. 1980-1630 B.C.E.; Hornung, Krauss, & Warburton, 2006) until the end of the Roman period
Geoarchaeological investigations at Karnak suggest that the temple complex was founded during the First Intermediate Period (FIP; c. 2118–1980 B.C.E.: Gabolde, 2000; Hornung et al, 2006) on former bars or islands of the river Nile (Bunbury, Graham, & Hunter, 2008; Graham, 2010a; 2010b)
Silt deposition and flood plain formation started before the MK–New Kingdom (NK) in the research area, because thick silty strata were found below cultural deposits of this age (Fig. 5)

Summary

Introduction

Thebes (Luxor, Egypt; Fig. 1) is famous for its major ancient monuments, being one of the primary cities of ancient Egypt from the Middle Kingdom (MK; late 11th–13th dynasties, c. 1980-1630 B.C.E.; Hornung, Krauss, & Warburton, 2006) until the end of the Roman period (overview of historical periods in Supplementary Material 1). The other focal area for temple building, dedicated primarily to the cult of the deceased king and the god Amun, is situated on the western desert edge These “Mansions of Millions of Years” are all positioned within a c. There seems to have been a strong preference for placing temple complexes on the edge of the desert, where it meets the flood plain, of which the royal cult temples of Merenptah, Ramesses II (the Ramesseum), Thutmose III, and Seti I are clear examples (Fig. 2). These royal cult temples were constructed throughout the NK. While the temple locations are not known for several kings, textual sources and titles of priests indicate the existence of temples for almost all kings during the NK with the exception of some who ruled for brief periods; during the Amarna period (c. 1353–1334 B.C.E.) when the capital along with many of its functions was moved to Akhetaten, modern Amarna (Kemp, 2006; 2012); and four of the last five rulers at the end of the

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Discussion

Conclusion