in C. Durand, J. Marchand, B. Redon, P. Schneider (éds.), Networked Spaces, The Spatiality of Networks in the Red Sea and Western Indian Ocean, Actes du colloques Red Sea 9, 2-5 juillet 2019 à Lyon, 2022
The excavation of the sites of Ayn Sukhna and then Wadi el‑Jarf on the Egyptian coast of the Red ... more The excavation of the sites of Ayn Sukhna and then Wadi el‑Jarf on the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea has made it possible, these last twenty years, to reassess the implication of the Pharaonic State in this area and its participation in the networks of exchanges in the Red Sea. From the beginning of the Old Kingdom, the Egyptian monarchy, whose need for copper was considerably increased by the policy of major works in the Nile Valley, set up an expeditionary system that allowed it to send teams of miners to the South Sinai zone, both by land and by sea. This involved the establishment of intermittent harbours – occupied only during the time of the expedition – on the maritime coast, which served as a logistical platform for the expeditions: Wadi el‑Jarf first, then Ayn Sukhna. The recent work carried out on these two sites also allows a better understanding of the daily life of the expeditions, the organization of their supply, or to study the craft activities they practiced, which is a significant contribution to the history of techniques in ancient Egypt.
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provides an opportunity to revisit the attribution of the stela Louvre E 25982, showing a king bearing the Horus name of Qahedjet embraced by the deity Horus, which had been dated to the end of the 3rd dynasty when it entered the museum’s collections.
—Publication of a new protosinaitic inscription that was recently found in South Sinai (survey of South Sinai mining zone - Sorbonne Université / IFAO)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW2XMrOJPXE
Books by Pierre Tallet
provides an opportunity to revisit the attribution of the stela Louvre E 25982, showing a king bearing the Horus name of Qahedjet embraced by the deity Horus, which had been dated to the end of the 3rd dynasty when it entered the museum’s collections.
—Publication of a new protosinaitic inscription that was recently found in South Sinai (survey of South Sinai mining zone - Sorbonne Université / IFAO)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW2XMrOJPXE
Red Sea shore that was used at the beginning of the IVth dynasty
to reach the copper and turquoise mines of the south-western
part of Sinai Peninsula. During the 2013 archaeological campaign,
hundreds of fragments of papyrus from the end of Khufu’s reign were
collected at the entrance of one of the storage galleries that are one of
the most remarkable features of the site. This is at the moment the oldest
papyrus archive ever found in Egypt. It is related to a team of sailors and
mainly includes two categories of documents: accounts of commodities
delivered to the workers, and logbooks registering their daily activities
over several months. Those last documents record missions led under
the direction of the inspector Merer that are related to the transport
of limestone blocks from the quarries of Tura to the Great Pyramid of
Khufu at Giza, then under construction on the opposite bank of the
Nile. This book is the publication of the two best preserved logs of this
archive.
A chapter is also devoted to dry pulleys and tenons discovered near the galleries, which could be rigging elements of the boats that were used on the site. Finally, two studies are devoted one to faunal remains – which give an insight into food consumption by pharaonic teams during expeditions – the other to hundreds of fragments of crucibles found in this area, which correspond to a metallurgical activity dated to the early Middle Kingdom.
Au-delà de l’image d’une Égypte des pyramides immobile dirigée par un despote tout puissant, les recherches les plus récentes, issues de l’analyse de la documentation écrite et iconographique autant que des dernières découvertes archéologiques, amènent au contraire à peindre un tableau beaucoup plus nuancé. Du rôle essentiel de l’échelle locale aux jeux de pouvoir entre grandes familles de la Cour, de l’économie vivrière aux échanges internationaux, de l’exploitation des déserts entourant l’Égypte aux expéditions au long cours vers le Sinaï, Pount, le Soudan ou le Proche-Orient, c’est un royaume en constante évolution qui est ici dépeint. Au-delà du résumé de la trame
chronologique essentielle à la compréhension de l’histoire égyptienne, l’ouvrage aborde les problématiques historiques propres à chacune de ses grandes périodes, touchant à l’histoire, mais aussi à la société et à la culture, en présentant également les débats historiographiques en cours.
The Red Sea in Pharaonic Times. Recent Discoveries along the Red Sea Coast.
(Proceedings of the Colloquium held in) Cairo/Ayn Soukhna 11th-12th January 2009
Longtemps ignoré des égyptologues, le rivage de la mer Rouge a livré depuis une dizaine d’années une quantité appréciable d’informations qui permettent maintenant de se faire une idée des modalités de son utilisation à l’époque pharaonique. Le site portuaire de Mersa Gawasis, découvert en 1977 par l’archéologue égyptien Abd el-Moneim Sayed, a ainsi fait l’objet d’une reprise d’étude à partir de 2001. De nouvelles fouilles, effectuées par une équipe italo-américaine, ont permis de démontrer sans appel – notamment grâce à la mise au jour d’un abondant matériel archéologique et épigraphique — l’utilisation de cette station comme point de départ pour des expéditions lancées en direction du pays de Pount, aux confins méridionaux de la mer Rouge, pendant l’ensemble de la XIIe dynastie. Dans le même temps, la fouille du site d’Ayn Soukhna, découvert en 1999 par Mahmoud Abd el-Raziq au nord du golfe de Suez, a livré progressivement les vestiges d’un point d’embarquement aménagé dès le début de l’Ancien Empire pour se rendre par voie maritime aux mines de cuivre et de turquoise du Sinaï. Les vestiges d’embarcations complètes du Moyen Empire y ont été découverts, entreposés dans des galeries-magasins aménagées sur le site. L’objectif de ce colloque, qui s’est tenu au Caire et à Ayn Soukhna en janvier 2009, a été de réunir la plupart des spécialistes engagés dans des travaux de recherche sur la côte de la mer Rouge, et sur les pistes mettant cette zone en relation avec la vallée du Nil. Les Actes réunis ici permettent de faire un point d’étape sur les connaissances récemment acquises dans ce domaine nouveau de l’archéologie égyptienne.
The long-neglected Red Sea shore area has, over the past ten years, yielded a considerable amount of data that has enabled us to understand its specific role in pharaonic times. In 2001, fieldwork resumed in the former harbour of Mersa Gawasis, which was first identified by Abd el-Moneim Sayed in 1977. The rich archaeological and epigraphical findings by a joint American-Italian team demonstrated that the site was used throughout the 12th dynasty as a launching harbour for expeditions to the land of Punt, which lay to the south of the Red Sea. North of the Gulf of Suez, vestiges of a harbour built early on in the Old Kingdom were progressively unearthed at the site of Ayn Soukhna, which was discovered by Mahmoud Abd el-Raziq in 1999: the full remains of Middle Kingdom vessels were found there, stored in onsite galleries between expeditions to the copper and turquoise mining sites of the Sinai. The aim of this conference, which was held in Cairo and Ayn Soukhna in January 2009, was to bring together most of the specialists studying the Red Sea shore area and its relations with the Nile Valley. The proceedings give an overview of the most recent research on this strategic zone during the pharaonic period.
and B of this archive, was produced recently by the press of the French Institute of Archaeology in Cairo. They constitute the “Diary of Merer”, which is the logbook of a
small official involved in the transportation of blocks of limestone to the Giza pyramid,
then under construction, reporting daily the work of his team. But hundreds of smaller fragments, belonging to at least four other logbooks, are still under study. The aim of this small presentation is to give a general idea of the information they can provide us.
https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1cnv5,rVDBVSrZ
In this paper, a solution is proposed to answer the problematic issue of the type of fuel used in the early Middle Kingdom smelting furnaces at Ayn Soukhna based on a strict experimental protocol. The protocol was repeated 17 times, for a total of approx. 1500 h of experimental work. In correspondence with the archaeological data obtained at Ayn Soukhna, the combined use of fresh acacia and donkey dung as fuel for smelting is proposed; the use of charcoal for smelting can be excluded.
A holistic evaluation of experimental and archaeological evidence has shown that a combination of fresh wood and donkey dung was most likely the standard fuel choice at Middle Kingdom Ayn Soukhna. This is evidenced by the compatibility of results from experimental smelting using wood and donkey dung in terms of furnace lining impact and colorimetry, slag typology and deposition, ash and charcoal distribution, and raw copper shape and size. The use of charcoal systematically results in incompatible smelting results, as does smelting without donkey dung. In addition to green wood, donkey dung is required to regulate the temperature distribution inside the furnaces and to increase the production of copper prills. Green wood creates a favourable atmosphere for the smelting of copper carbonate ore. It heats the lining of the column less, allowing the furnaces to be reused over several campaigns. The dual fuel use of green wood and donkey dung, however, has resulted in the best agreement between experimental smelting results and corresponding archaeological evidence.
This archaeometallurgical research in the Nile Valley is carried out by a team composed of Georges Verly, in charge of archaeology and experimental archaeology, and Frederik Rademakers, in charge of archaeometry, as well as numerous master students and a Maître d’art, Hugues Paridans. Dialogue and interdisciplinarity are the assets of this project, dictating equality between its members, representing the sum of ideas and debates, building all research protocols and publications.
programme disponible : http://www.orient-mediterranee.com/IMG/pdf/PROGRAMME_COLLOQUE_ce_re_ales.pdf
Colloque co-organisé par Pierre Tallet et Adeline Bats les 5 et 6 novembre 2015
Maison de la Recherche - 28, rue serpente 75006 Paris, salle D035
entrée libre sur réservation au 01 53 79 49 49 ou [email protected]
en partenariat avec l'Université Paris Sorbonne