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.

很长一段时间以来，西北尼罗河三角洲被认为是一个遥不可及的骗子，过去很难获得和回收。在过去的几十年中，该地区的考古运动和探索表明，该地区的殖民化始于王朝至王朝早期时代。告诉El-Fain，以前称为Buto，在此早期担任重要中心。这个重要地点的演变显示出明显的中断，出于未知的原因，该地点在中间王国期间被遗弃了近1000年，大概是在包括Buto在内的整个西部尼罗河三角洲之前的新王国，在包括Buto在内的整个王国，都以更高的密度进行了重现。这项研究的地理考古学研究设计旨在阐明古环境条件和高度动态的河流历史，这些历史确定了尼罗河三角洲的定居和土地利用，并可以解释在定居历史上观察到的重大变化。为此，全新世尼罗河沉积物是根据定居历史研究该地区的环境转变的出色档案。由于埃及当局的限制和法规破坏了样本材料进行全面的沉积学分析的运输，因此正在开发一种新的研究方法，该方法基于使用便携式XRF光谱仪（PXRF）收集的地球化学数据。它结合了PXRF光谱仪传递的广泛元素数据与地统计学和机器学习技术（例如人工神经网络（ANN））中的新方法。这些方法旨在检测由定居强度和技术创新变化产生的定居点附近的粘土尼罗河材料中的元素变化，并且可以用来详细说明年度地层学。以及化学特征提供的有关环境变化的信息，可以为Buto周围的区域绘制人类环境相互关系的时代跨越，期权的过程。 BUTO的十年跨越研究历史以及实质性的初步工作确保了这种新的研究设计的成功阐述，这对于可比的地理学研究也将具有很高的价值。