The late Holocene record of Lake Mareotis, Nile Delta, Egypt

Clément Flaux,Christophe Morhange,Abel Guihou,Mena El-Assal,Valérie Pichot,Matthieu Giaime,Pierre Deschamps,Christelle Claude,Nick Marriner

doi:10.5194/egqsj-70-93-2021

Abstract

Abstract. Lake Maryut (northwestern Nile Delta, Egypt) was a key feature of Alexandria's hinterland and economy during Greco-Roman times. Its shores accommodated major economic centers, and the lake acted as a gateway between the Nile valley and the Mediterranean. It is suggested that lake-level changes, connections with the Nile and the sea, and possible high-energy events considerably shaped the human occupation history of the Maryut. To reconstruct Lake Maryut hydrology in historical times, we used faunal remains, geochemistry (Sr isotopic signature of ostracods) and geoarcheological indicators of relative lake-level changes. The data show both a rise in Nile inputs to the basin during the first millennia BCE and CE and a lake-level rise of ca. 1.5 m during the Roman period. A high-energy deposit, inferred from reworked radiocarbon dates, may explain an enigmatic sedimentary hiatus previously attested to in Maryut's chronostratigraphy.

Highlights

Lake Mareotis, precursor of the modern Maryut lagoon located just south of Alexandria (Egypt), constituted a dense traffic waterway during antiquity (Empereur, 1998), straddling the northwestern Nile Delta
Following Stanley (2019) quoting Butzer (1976, p. 56), “it has become difficult to ignore the possibility that major segments of ancient Egyptian history may be unintelligible without recourse to an ecological perspective.”. We suggest that this statement resonates strongly with the human occupation history of Lake Mareotis, as originally perceived by De Cosson (1935)
The Sr isotopic signature of ostracods and geoarcheological indicators of lake levels show both a rise in Nile inputs to the basin during the first millennia BCE and CE and a lake-level rise of ca. 1.5 m during the Roman period. Such changes highlight a complex co-evolution of Alexandria’s lakeside occupation history and Nile flow changes, the latter being divided into fluctuating distributaries at the delta scale that were diverted by irrigation and drainage networks (e.g., Blouin, 2006)

Summary

Introduction

Lake Mareotis, precursor of the modern Maryut lagoon located just south of Alexandria (Egypt), constituted a dense traffic waterway during antiquity (Empereur, 1998), straddling the northwestern Nile Delta. Lake-level oscillations were mediated by Nile floods. This vision furnishes a static view of the lake, whose shores were occupied for a period of 1000 years or more, as recently underscored at Kom el-Nogous close to Taposiris Magna (Fig. 1), occupied during the New Kingdom (Redon et al, 2017). 56), “it has become difficult to ignore the possibility that major segments of ancient Egyptian history may be unintelligible without recourse to an ecological perspective.”. We suggest that this statement resonates strongly with the human occupation history of Lake Mareotis, as originally perceived by De Cosson (1935) Following Stanley (2019) quoting Butzer (1976, p. 56), “it has become difficult to ignore the possibility that major segments of ancient Egyptian history may be unintelligible without recourse to an ecological perspective.” We suggest that this statement resonates strongly with the human occupation history of Lake Mareotis, as originally perceived by De Cosson (1935)

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Conclusion