James A Harrell
Biographic Data
| ID | 202535 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James A Harrell |
| GIVEN NAMES | James A |
| FAMILY NAME | Harrell |
| SIGNATURE | HARRELL J A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Toledo |
| ORCID | 0009-0007-2498-2386 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 25 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 31 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1968 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Manufacturing Metagreywacke Bangles
Bangles carved from the greenish metagreywacke of Wadi Hammamat are rare personal ornaments in royal and elite private burials of the Naqada II Period through the 2 nd Dynasty. Surface debris in quarries and three Naqada II workshops near Bir Hammamat reveal the steps in the bangle manufacturing process: quarrying thin slabs of metagreywacke, shaping of slabs into circular disks initially by knapping and then by grinding, perforation of disks by …
Archaeological Geology of Jurash, ʿAsīr Province, Southwestern Saudi Arabia
The Jurash archaeological site is located on Wādī Bīshah near the city of Khamīs Mushayt in southwestern Saudi Arabia. It has a fort and other remains from the pre‐Islamic period (third century bc to early seventh century ad ) and a settlement with two mosques from the Early Islamic period (early seventh to early 11th centuries ad ). A survey was conducted for the purposes of identifying the building materials and determining their geographic sou…
Bitumen, ancient Egypt
Bitumen is a general term for natural hydrocarbons, including asphalt, tar, and petroleum. It was widely used in antiquity for many practical applications with the most notable of these a preservative for ancient Egyptian mummies. The principal source of bitumen was the Dead Sea in Palestine, but Egypt also had other sources in the form of petroleum seeps on the shores of the Gulf of Suez. The best documented of these is the one at Gebel Zeit on …
Gebel el‐Silsila
Gebel el‐Silsila is the largest and most important of ancient Egypt's sandstone quarries. Located on the Nile River in Upper Egypt, it supplied the building materials used for most of the temples in the Theban region from the Middle Kingdom until the Roman period. The quarry is celebrated for its numerous archaeological remains of mostly New Kingdom age, including a free‐standing temple to Sobek, numerous rock‐cut funerary shrines with the larges…
Mineralogy
Most of what we understand about the ancient knowledge of the origins and properties of rocks and minerals comes from the surviving works of two classical writers: the On Stones of Theophrastus (ca. 372–287 bce ), and the Natural History (books 33–37) of Pliny the Elder (ca. 23–79 ce ). There are also scattered mineralogical references in other texts, such as the Library of History of Diodorus of Sicily, the Geography of Strabo of Amaseia, and th…
Geology of Nubia and Surrounding Regions
Nubia occupies a low, interior plain extending from southern Egypt to central Sudan. It is surrounded by high plateaus and mountains on all sides except the north. Across this plain flows the Nile River. The bedrock geology is dominated by metamorphic and igneous rocks of the mainly Precambrian to Paleozoic Basement Complex, and sedimentary rocks of the Cretaceous Nubian Sandstone Formation. Cataracts and rapids exist wherever the Nile River flow…
Exploitation of Geological Resources
Nubia is well endowed with the geological resources needed to supply a succession of ancient cultures and kingdoms. Igneous and metamorphic rocks of the region’s Basement Complex provided most of the materials, including gold, copper, gemstones, and a variety of ornamental stones. Overlying the Basement Complex are sedimentary rocks and among these is the Nubian Sandstone Formation, which supplied the material used to build Nubia’s many temples a…
When the well runs dry
Evidence from a newly discovered well at Berenike, a Hellenistic port on Egypt's Red Sea coast, suggests that the late third-century BC hiatus in occupation may have resulted from a multi-year drought that caused the city's freshwater source to run dry. This climatic shift was probably triggered by a volcanic eruption in 209 BC, an event that also caused a failure of the Nile to flood, leading to the famine-induced revolt of 207-186 BC in Upper E…
Amarna gypsite
Mapping the Tura-Masara Limestone Quarries
The Tura-Masara limestone quarries, near Cairo, supplied stone to the Old and Middle Kingdom pyramid complexes of the Memphite necropolis and also for many temples of the Middle Kingdom and later at sites throughout the Nile Valley and Delta. These underground quarries, commonly referred to as galleries, were previously known primarily from their many inscriptions. Maps with detailed plans of about 70 of the galleries were recently discovered in …
Investigating the Predynastic origins of greywacke working in the Wadi Hammamat
Les carrières de grauwacke du Ouadi Hammamat dans le désert Oriental sont la source de certains des plus importants objets de culte de l’Égypte, comme les palettes cérémonielles de la période pré- et protodynastique. Les recherches menées dans cette région se sont surtout focalisées sur la richesse des données épigraphiques, avec des études plus sporadiques de géologues et d’archéologues sur les carrières et autres questions touchant à la culture…
Mineralogy
The study of ancient mineralogy is concerned with the rocks and minerals used as building stones for temples, palaces, tombs, and city walls; ornamental stones for statues, sarcophagi, shrines, and vessels; gemstones for jewelry, amulets, and seals; and utilitarian stones for tools, weapons, and querns.
Gebel el‐Silsila
Gebel el‐Silsila, Egyptian Kheny or Khenu, is an ancient sandstone quarry located at N 24° 38.6',E 32° 55.9', about 60 km north of Aswan.
Bitumen, ancient Egypt
Petroleum seeping at the Earth's surface thickens by evaporation of volatiles and bio‐degradation to form viscous heavy oil, commonly referred to as tar or pitch, and semi‐solid to solid asphalt.
Hatnub
Dolerite Pounders
Dolerite pounders are hand-held stone took that were widely used in Egypt from the third to late first millennium BCE for quarrying and dressing granite and other hard rocks. In addition to documenting the size distribution of 1,419 pounders from Aswan and describing red paint markings (owner labels, in part) found on about 4 percent of these, this study refutes two popular misconceptions about the dolerite pounders. First, the desired form of th…
Building and ornamental stones of the Awam (Mahram Bilqis) Temple in Marib, Yemen
One of the most famous monuments of the ancient Kingdom of Saba is the first‐millennium BC Awam Temple in Marib, Yemen. Despite its fame, almost nothing has been published about the building and ornamental stones used in its construction, or the quarries that supplied these stones. This paper presents the results of the first geological study of the Awam Temple and its stone quarries
The Origin, Destruction and Restoration of Colour in Egyptian Travertine
Travertine was one of ancient Egypt's most popular ornamental stones. Upon prolonged exposure to sunlight, the rock's translucent brownish calcite is bleached to nearly white. Ultraviolet and gamma irradiation experiments were undertaken to investigate the source of the brownish colour and the process by which it fades. It was found that the coloration results from the activation of colour centres by natural radioactivity within the rock, and tha…
A Water Temple at Bir Abu Safa (Eastern Desert)
Steven E. Sidebotham, Gabriel T. Mikhail, James A. Harrell, Roger S. Bagnall, A Water Temple at Bir Abu Safa (Eastern Desert), Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 41 (2004), pp. 149-159
Knekites
Sources of mummy bitumen in ancient Egypt and Palestine
Bitumen used as a preservative in ancient Egyptian mummies was previously thought to come only from the Dead Sea in Palestine. Other, closer sources of bitumen were investigated at Abu Durba and Gebel Zeit on the shores of Egypt’s Gulf of Suez. Bitumen from these localities and from five mummies was analysed using molecular biomarkers derived from gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. It was found that four of the mummies contained Dead Sea bitum…
The Roman Quarry and Installations in Wadi Umm Wikala and Wadi Semna
A detailed surface survey of the gabbro quarry and related facilities in Wadis Umm Wikala and Semna indicates activity in the first to second or early third centuries AD. Surface pottery found associated with quarry faces, loading ramps, related huts, skopeloi, a putative temple, a main adminstrative building and nearby hydreuma attest to intensive operations here contemporary with periods of early exploitation of the larger quarries of Mons Clau…
An Early Dynastic Quarry for Stone Vessels at Gebel Manzal El-Seyl, Eastern Desert
The quarry that supplied two of the stones used for vessels during the Early Dynastic Period, green tuff and tuffaceous limestone, has been found on Gebel Manzal el-Seyl in Egypt's Eastern Desert. Scattered across this 3 km long ridge are about 200 excavations, and littering the ground around them are hundreds of roughed-out vessel blanks, several of which are inscribed with the sign ∩. The blanks were carried across the desert at least 200 km to…
An Early Dynastic Quarry for Stone Vessels at Gebel Manzal el-Seyl, Eastern Desert
The Colossi from the Early Shrine at Coptos in Egypt
For more than a hundred years the three colossal limestone figures from Coptos have challenged anyone wishing to write on the development of culture and society in early Egypt. Beginning from a fuller documentation of the three, a reconstruction of their original context is proposed, namely, an array of standing stones, a type of sacred structure of which a growing number of examples are known in the region. A study of the signs carved on their s…
Sources of mummy bitumen in ancient Egypt and Palestine
Bitumen used as a preservative in ancient Egyptian mummies was previously thought to come only from the Dead Sea in Palestine. Other, closer sources of bitumen were investigated at Abu Durba and Gebel Zeit on the shores of Egypt’s Gulf of Suez. Bitumen from these localities and from five mummies was analysed using molecular biomarkers derived from gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. It was found that four of the mummies contained Dead Sea bitum…
Amarna gypsite
An Old Kingdom Basalt Quarry at Widan el-Faras and the Quarry Road to Lake Moeris
Ancient Egyptian Limestone Quarries
Ancient Egyptian limestone quarries in the Nile Valley occur in six geological formations of Palaeogene age. Samples were collected from 23 of the 48 known quarries, and analysed by thin‐section petrography and X‐ray fluorescence spectrometry. Results of the analyses show that the geological formations can be identified from rock texture and allochem types, and a plot of SiO 2 /Al 2 O 3 versus CaO/[CaO + MgO]. The application of these petrographi…
Dolerite Pounders
Dolerite pounders are hand-held stone took that were widely used in Egypt from the third to late first millennium BCE for quarrying and dressing granite and other hard rocks. In addition to documenting the size distribution of 1,419 pounders from Aswan and describing red paint markings (owner labels, in part) found on about 4 percent of these, this study refutes two popular misconceptions about the dolerite pounders. First, the desired form of th…
The Colossi from the Early Shrine at Coptos in Egypt
For more than a hundred years the three colossal limestone figures from Coptos have challenged anyone wishing to write on the development of culture and society in early Egypt. Beginning from a fuller documentation of the three, a reconstruction of their original context is proposed, namely, an array of standing stones, a type of sacred structure of which a growing number of examples are known in the region. A study of the signs carved on their s…
The Oldest Surviving Topographical Map from Ancient Egypt
James A. Harrell, V. Max Brown, The Oldest Surviving Topographical Map from Ancient Egypt: (Turin Papyri 1879, 1899, and 1969), Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 29 (1992), pp. 81-105
Building and ornamental stones of the Awam (Mahram Bilqis) Temple in Marib, Yemen
One of the most famous monuments of the ancient Kingdom of Saba is the first‐millennium BC Awam Temple in Marib, Yemen. Despite its fame, almost nothing has been published about the building and ornamental stones used in its construction, or the quarries that supplied these stones. This paper presents the results of the first geological study of the Awam Temple and its stone quarries
The Origin, Destruction and Restoration of Colour in Egyptian Travertine
Travertine was one of ancient Egypt's most popular ornamental stones. Upon prolonged exposure to sunlight, the rock's translucent brownish calcite is bleached to nearly white. Ultraviolet and gamma irradiation experiments were undertaken to investigate the source of the brownish colour and the process by which it fades. It was found that the coloration results from the activation of colour centres by natural radioactivity within the rock, and tha…
Federal dissemination of child abuse and neglect information
Negro Leadership in the Election Year 1936
Negro Leadership in the Election Year 1936
Federal dissemination of child abuse and neglect information
The United States public health policy
The Oldest Surviving Topographical Map from Ancient Egypt
James A. Harrell, V. Max Brown, The Oldest Surviving Topographical Map from Ancient Egypt: (Turin Papyri 1879, 1899, and 1969), Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 29 (1992), pp. 81-105
Ancient Egyptian Limestone Quarries
Ancient Egyptian limestone quarries in the Nile Valley occur in six geological formations of Palaeogene age. Samples were collected from 23 of the 48 known quarries, and analysed by thin‐section petrography and X‐ray fluorescence spectrometry. Results of the analyses show that the geological formations can be identified from rock texture and allochem types, and a plot of SiO 2 /Al 2 O 3 versus CaO/[CaO + MgO]. The application of these petrographi…
An Old Kingdom Basalt Quarry at Widan el-Faras and the Quarry Road to Lake Moeris
An Early Dynastic Quarry for Stone Vessels at Gebel Manzal El-Seyl, Eastern Desert
The quarry that supplied two of the stones used for vessels during the Early Dynastic Period, green tuff and tuffaceous limestone, has been found on Gebel Manzal el-Seyl in Egypt's Eastern Desert. Scattered across this 3 km long ridge are about 200 excavations, and littering the ground around them are hundreds of roughed-out vessel blanks, several of which are inscribed with the sign ∩. The blanks were carried across the desert at least 200 km to…
An Early Dynastic Quarry for Stone Vessels at Gebel Manzal el-Seyl, Eastern Desert
The Colossi from the Early Shrine at Coptos in Egypt
For more than a hundred years the three colossal limestone figures from Coptos have challenged anyone wishing to write on the development of culture and society in early Egypt. Beginning from a fuller documentation of the three, a reconstruction of their original context is proposed, namely, an array of standing stones, a type of sacred structure of which a growing number of examples are known in the region. A study of the signs carved on their s…
The Roman Quarry and Installations in Wadi Umm Wikala and Wadi Semna
A detailed surface survey of the gabbro quarry and related facilities in Wadis Umm Wikala and Semna indicates activity in the first to second or early third centuries AD. Surface pottery found associated with quarry faces, loading ramps, related huts, skopeloi, a putative temple, a main adminstrative building and nearby hydreuma attest to intensive operations here contemporary with periods of early exploitation of the larger quarries of Mons Clau…
Sources of mummy bitumen in ancient Egypt and Palestine
Bitumen used as a preservative in ancient Egyptian mummies was previously thought to come only from the Dead Sea in Palestine. Other, closer sources of bitumen were investigated at Abu Durba and Gebel Zeit on the shores of Egypt’s Gulf of Suez. Bitumen from these localities and from five mummies was analysed using molecular biomarkers derived from gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. It was found that four of the mummies contained Dead Sea bitum…
Knekites
A Water Temple at Bir Abu Safa (Eastern Desert)
Steven E. Sidebotham, Gabriel T. Mikhail, James A. Harrell, Roger S. Bagnall, A Water Temple at Bir Abu Safa (Eastern Desert), Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 41 (2004), pp. 149-159
Building and ornamental stones of the Awam (Mahram Bilqis) Temple in Marib, Yemen
One of the most famous monuments of the ancient Kingdom of Saba is the first‐millennium BC Awam Temple in Marib, Yemen. Despite its fame, almost nothing has been published about the building and ornamental stones used in its construction, or the quarries that supplied these stones. This paper presents the results of the first geological study of the Awam Temple and its stone quarries
The Origin, Destruction and Restoration of Colour in Egyptian Travertine
Travertine was one of ancient Egypt's most popular ornamental stones. Upon prolonged exposure to sunlight, the rock's translucent brownish calcite is bleached to nearly white. Ultraviolet and gamma irradiation experiments were undertaken to investigate the source of the brownish colour and the process by which it fades. It was found that the coloration results from the activation of colour centres by natural radioactivity within the rock, and tha…
Dolerite Pounders
Dolerite pounders are hand-held stone took that were widely used in Egypt from the third to late first millennium BCE for quarrying and dressing granite and other hard rocks. In addition to documenting the size distribution of 1,419 pounders from Aswan and describing red paint markings (owner labels, in part) found on about 4 percent of these, this study refutes two popular misconceptions about the dolerite pounders. First, the desired form of th…
Mineralogy
The study of ancient mineralogy is concerned with the rocks and minerals used as building stones for temples, palaces, tombs, and city walls; ornamental stones for statues, sarcophagi, shrines, and vessels; gemstones for jewelry, amulets, and seals; and utilitarian stones for tools, weapons, and querns.
Gebel el‐Silsila
Gebel el‐Silsila, Egyptian Kheny or Khenu, is an ancient sandstone quarry located at N 24° 38.6',E 32° 55.9', about 60 km north of Aswan.
Bitumen, ancient Egypt
Petroleum seeping at the Earth's surface thickens by evaporation of volatiles and bio‐degradation to form viscous heavy oil, commonly referred to as tar or pitch, and semi‐solid to solid asphalt.
Hatnub
Investigating the Predynastic origins of greywacke working in the Wadi Hammamat
Les carrières de grauwacke du Ouadi Hammamat dans le désert Oriental sont la source de certains des plus importants objets de culte de l’Égypte, comme les palettes cérémonielles de la période pré- et protodynastique. Les recherches menées dans cette région se sont surtout focalisées sur la richesse des données épigraphiques, avec des études plus sporadiques de géologues et d’archéologues sur les carrières et autres questions touchant à la culture…
Mapping the Tura-Masara Limestone Quarries
The Tura-Masara limestone quarries, near Cairo, supplied stone to the Old and Middle Kingdom pyramid complexes of the Memphite necropolis and also for many temples of the Middle Kingdom and later at sites throughout the Nile Valley and Delta. These underground quarries, commonly referred to as galleries, were previously known primarily from their many inscriptions. Maps with detailed plans of about 70 of the galleries were recently discovered in …
Amarna gypsite
Geology of Nubia and Surrounding Regions
Nubia occupies a low, interior plain extending from southern Egypt to central Sudan. It is surrounded by high plateaus and mountains on all sides except the north. Across this plain flows the Nile River. The bedrock geology is dominated by metamorphic and igneous rocks of the mainly Precambrian to Paleozoic Basement Complex, and sedimentary rocks of the Cretaceous Nubian Sandstone Formation. Cataracts and rapids exist wherever the Nile River flow…
Exploitation of Geological Resources
Nubia is well endowed with the geological resources needed to supply a succession of ancient cultures and kingdoms. Igneous and metamorphic rocks of the region’s Basement Complex provided most of the materials, including gold, copper, gemstones, and a variety of ornamental stones. Overlying the Basement Complex are sedimentary rocks and among these is the Nubian Sandstone Formation, which supplied the material used to build Nubia’s many temples a…
Archaeology (21 works) · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology (19 works) · Geography (17 works) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (16 works) · Geology (15 works) · Geology (14 works) · History (12 works) · Ancient history (11 works) · Archaeological Research and Protection (8 works) · Art (7 works)