Molluscs from the Stone and Mud-brick Tombs in Abusir (Egypt) and the Provenance of so-called “Nile-mud”

More than 200 archaeological features were looted in Abusir during the Egyptian Lotus revolution in January 2011. The survey of the looted features brought to light among other material mollusc shells from mud-brick, mud plaster and layers covering and filling tombs and shafts. Sixteen features could be dated to the Old Kingdom (5 th -6 th dynasty, ca. 2435-2118 BC); there are two possible features from the 3 rd dynasty or early 4 th dynasty (ca. 2543-2436 BC) and one feature datable to the Late Period (664-404 BC). Four species of gastropods and five species of bivalves were identified. A number of the species are now either extinct or have a limited range in the Nile with these including: Unio elongatulus, Coelatura aegyptiaca, Anodonta cygnaea, and in all probability Etheria elliptica. The most frequent freshwater species in the corpus, from slow flowing or stagnant waters, could be evidence for the environment from which the mud for mud-brick and mud plaster was extracted. It could have been the Lake of Abusir, irrigation channels or the slower flowing part of the Old Kingdom west branch of the Nile

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Brick · Geography · Nile delta · Period (music · Provenance · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · History · Marine and environmental studies · Paleopathology and ancient diseases · Geology · Paleontology

• The National Museums of Scotland Saqqara Survey Project 1993-1995

  Ian Mathieson, Elizabeth Bettles et al.•The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology•1997

  Incluir item

• Brick Architecture in Ancient Egypt

  J Jacquet, A J Spencer•The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology•1985

  Incluir item

• The National Museums of Scotland Saqqara Survey Project 1993–1995

  Open Access•Ian Mathieson, Elizabeth Bettles et al.•The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology•1997

  Incluir item

• Diachronic development of the Lake of Abusir during the third millennium BC, Cairo, Egypt

  Open Access•Václav Cílek, Miroslav Bárta et al.•Quaternary International•2012

  Incluir item

• Handbuch der Orientalistik

  Nicholas Poppe, Bertold Spuler et al.•Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies•1954

  Incluir item

• Mudbrick Typology, Sources, and Sedimentological Composition

  Maury E Morgenstein, Maury Morgenstein et al.•Journal of the American Research…•1998

  Incluir item

• Abusir and Saqqara in the Year 2000

  Peter Brand, Peter J Brand et al.•Journal of the American Research…•2002

  Incluir item

• Mudbrick as a bearer of agricultural information

  Sekkina Ayyad, Knut Krzywinski et al.•Norwegian Archaeological Review•1991

  Incluir item

• Real and Literary Landscapes in Ancient Egypt

  Open Access•Judith Bunbury, David Jeffreys•Cambridge Archaeological Journal•2011

  Incluir item