Geochemical analyses of sediments to reconstruct landscape changes and settlement dynamics in the western Nile Delta, Egypt

对沉积物进行地球化学分析，以重建埃及尼罗河三角洲西部的景观变化和沉降动态

• 批准号: 392434407
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Jürgen Wunderlich
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Physische Geographie (IPG)
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2017-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/392434407?language=en
• 关键词: Geochemical; analyses; sediments; reconstruct; landscape

For a long time, the northwestern Nile Delta was considered as a remotely lying swampland, which was difficult to access and to reclaim in the past. During the last decades archaeological campaigns and prospections in this region showed that colonization of this region started not later than in Predynastic to Early Dynastic times. Tell el-Farain, formerly known as Buto, served as an important centre during this early period. The evolution of this important site shows significant interruptions, and at about 4.2 ka BP, for reasons unknown, the site was abandoned for almost 1000 years during the Middle kingdom and presumably New Kingdom before the whole western Nile Delta, including Buto, was repopulated at a much higher density. The geoarchaeologic research design of this study aims to cast light on the palaeoenvironmental conditions and the highly dynamic fluvial history which determined settlement and land use in the Nile Delta and could explain major changes observed in the settlement history. For this purpose, the Holocene Nile sediments are excellent archives to study the environmental transformation of the area in context with the settlement history. Out of the fact that restrictions and regulations of the Egyptian authorities undermine the transport of sample material for comprehensive sedimentological analyses, a new research approach is being developed, which is based on geochemical data gathered with a portable XRF spectrometer (pXRF). It combines the wide spectrum of elemental data delivered by the pXRF spectrometer with new methods in geostatistics and machine learning techniques such as artificial neural networks (ANN). These methods aim to detect element variations in the clayey Nile material near the settlements that result from changes in the settlement intensity and technologic innovations and which can be used to elaborate a chronostratigraphy. Together with the information the chemical signatures provide on environmental changes, an epoch-spanning, diachronous course of human-environment interrelations can be drawn for the area around Buto. The decade-spanning research history at Buto as well as substantial preliminary work guarantee the successful elaboration of this new research design that will also be of high value for comparable geoarchaeologic studies.

长期以来，尼罗河三角洲西北部被认为是一片偏远的沼泽地，过去难以进入和开垦。过去几十年来，该地区的考古活动和勘探表明，该地区的殖民化开始时间不晚于前王朝至早王朝时期。 Tell el-Farain（以前称为布托）是这一早期时期的重要中心。这个重要遗址的演化显示出显着的中断，在距今 4.2ka 左右，由于未知的原因，该遗址在中王国时期和可能是新王国时期被遗弃了近 1000 年，然后整个西尼罗河三角洲，包括布托，在更高的密度。本研究的地质考古研究设计旨在揭示古环境条件和高度动态的河流历史，这些历史决定了尼罗河三角洲的聚落和土地利用，并可以解释在聚落历史中观察到的重大变化。为此，全新世尼罗河沉积物是研究该地区在定居历史背景下的环境转变的优秀档案。由于埃及当局的限制和法规破坏了用于综合沉积学分析的样品材料的运输，因此正在开发一种新的研究方法，该方法基于便携式 XRF 光谱仪 (pXRF) 收集的地球化学数据。它将 pXRF 光谱仪提供的广泛元素数据与地质统计学新方法和人工神经网络 (ANN) 等机器学习技术相结合。这些方法旨在检测聚落附近粘土尼罗河物质中由于聚落强度和技术创新变化而引起的元素变化，并可用于详细阐述年代地层学。结合化学特征提供的有关环境变化的信息，可以为布托周围地区绘制出人类与环境相互关系的跨时代、历时的过程。布托跨越十年的研究历史以及大量的前期工作保证了这一新研究设计的成功阐述，这对于类似的地质考古研究也具有很高的价值。