The Pliocene and Pleistocene Deposits of Wadi Qena and of the Nile Valley between Luxor and Assiut (QAU)

Abstract

I. Introduction. In §§ V, VI, & VII the following plan is adopted:—Wadi Qena, being well adapted to the purpose, is taken as a type-area in which to explain general principles; the region between Luxor and Qena is used for a like purpose. A rapid survey is then carried northwards along both sides of the Nile, the principles being taken for granted, and only new features emphasized and their bearing upon the general condition explained. Economy of space is thus effected. For bibliography such references are given as will deal with the question in hand, and will lead to the full literature; no attempt is made to give a complete bibliography within the paper itself. In the summer of 1925 Sir Flinders Petrie, F.R.S., on behalf of the British School of Archaeology in Egypt, invited me to investigate certain problems which required purely geological training. These had already been set forth in print. I went to Egypt in November of that year, and spent the winter months with a small camel-caravan on a march of some 600 miles (excluding offsets); the route is shown in Pl. XXVI. The results, so far as the particular task was concerned, have been published in part, together with certain geographical, archaeological, and other data. In the course of the work, however, allied problems of more general importance presented themselves, and provided the solution of the original object of research. I propose now to present and discuss the geological results of the survey. Between Assiut