Pelusium, an Ancient Port Fortress on Egypt's Nile Delta Coast: Its Evolving Environmental Setting from Foundation to Demise

Abstract

Abstract This study documents the evolution of the coastal site on which an ancient port fortress, Pelusium, was positioned in the NE corner of Egypt's Nile Delta. Focus is on the stratigraphy, petrology, and faunal assemblages of radiocarbon-dated core sections recovered at major ruins at the site. The late Holocene development of this margin surface is unusual in that it has been subject to important geologically recent uplift since the city's founding, in contrast to predominant subsidence and relative sea-level rise that characterize most of the delta margin west of Pelusium. Vertical tectonics resulted from displacement along the Pelusiac Line, a major structural feature several kilometers south of Pelusium. The geoarchaeological survey shows the was built with ready access to the Mediterranean, after tectonic uplift, from ∼1000 to 800 BC. It was then, when Egypt was subject to Assyrian control, that the margin evolved from an open shallow marine (prodelta, delta-front) setting to a coastal one. The ...