Badia epigraphic survey

Archaeology in Jordan, 2018

Archaeology in Jordan 2, 2020

1994

More than 70 years ago an early Predynastic culture was discovered in the Badari region near Asyut. It was named the Badarian and it represents the oldest known agricultural tradition in the Nile Valley of Upper Egypt. However, much remains to be learned about the Badarian as well as subsequent Predynastic developments in the region which may be expected to throw light on the adoption of agriculture in the Nile Valley and the rise of the Egyptian state. Consequently, new field investigations were initiated in r989. A large part of the area was field surveyed and test excavations were carried out at the site of Hemamieh, originally excavated by Gertrude Caton-Thompson in the r92os and famous for its stratified sequence of Predynastic levels. During the r989 season, the authors visited 42 sites, the majority of which have Pre dynastic remains. Most of the Predynastic occurrences date to the Badarian or Gerzean phases. Very little material was seen that could be assigned to the intervening Amratian phase, raising the possibility that elements of the Badarian culture remained prevalent in the Badari region at a time when only the Amratian was represented elsewhere in Upper Egypt. Our test excavations at Hemamieh revealed a stratigraphy similar to that described by Caton-Thompson with cultural deposits sandwiched between a surface scree layer and a cemented Limestone gravel deposit or 'breccia'. The pottery recovered shows a continuous sequence beginning with the Badarian and ending with the Gerzean. Four radiocarbon dates were also obtained. Two of these are on samples from levels with Badarian ceramics and provide calibrated age estimates spanning c. 4400-4000BC.

New Epigraphic Material from Wadi Gawasis 1 bàt -l' auteur est prié de signer chaque page B o n -à -t i r e r 1. I would like to take this opportunity to pay homage to Professor Abd el-Moneim M. Sayed, a pioneer who discovered the site at Wadi Gawasis and lay the foundations for Red Sea studies, and to Professor Mahmoud Abd-el Raziq, who discovered the Ayn el-Soukhna site. 2. Sayed 1983, p. 29-30. T his paper provides an overview of ancient Egyptian occupation at the Wadi Gawasis site according to the available epigraphic documentation. 1 The sources were gathered progressively over nearly two centuries, from observations made by J.G. Wilkinson and J. Burton to the current research conducted by Rodolfo Fattovich and Kathryn Bard, with significant finds in the late 1970s by Professor Abd el-Moneim M. Sayed. In order to give a clear idea of the contribution of the recent campaigns and of the major reappraisal they have brought about, we have tried to establish an exhaustive catalogue of all the Middle Kingdom expeditions that are now attested on the site, using all the available documentation for each one.

Eastern Badia archaeological project in Jordan's black desert dates the site to 7th millennium BCE. On January 4, 2018 the following structure with pillar has been highlighted. Excavated Late Neolithic building with standing pillars, on slope of Mesa 7, at Wadi Al Qattafi (Photo courtesy of Yorke Rowan and Eastern Badia Archaeological Project) I suggesst that this building with standing pillars on slope of Mesa 7 is virtually identical to a structure found in Dholavira. Dholavira archaeology reveals further detailed information about the possible function of the stone structure with standing pillars. A pair of pillars fronted this building in Dholavira. I have suggested that the pair of pillars and the stone structural building with a standing pillar are related to smithy/forge work, consistent with the decipherment of over 8000 Indus Script inscriptions as hypertexts which signify wealth metalwork accounting ledgers. That a similar structure of Eastern Badia in Jordan's Black Deseert dated to 7th millennium bears a striking resemblance should make researches pause. In the context of R̥gveda tradition, an octagonal pillar discovered in Binjor archaeological site on Sarasvati River Basin points to the use of a skambha as a fiery pillar of light and flame to infuse (godhuma caṣāla) carbon into molten metal in a furnace to harden the metal. Clearly, further researches are called for tracing the shape, form and function of Eastern Badia neolithic building of 7th millennium BCE with the Dholavira archaeological finds which clearly relate to the Tin-Bronze Revolution, including the message of the Dholavira Sign Board. Binjor discovery of aṣṭāśri skambha, Indus Script seal with inscription (detailed metalwolrk wealth creation ledger) attesting to performance of Soma Yajña. The octagonal shape of the pillar becomes the Rudrabhāga of Śivalinga. Linga with One Face of Shiva (Ekamukhalinga), Mon–Dvaravati period, 7th–early 8th century. Thailand (Phetchabun Province, Si Thep) Stone; H. 55 1/8 in Indus Script hypertexts of two pillars of Dholavira signify the message: copper metalcastings mint. Dholavira Indus Script Signboard proclamation of engraved molten casts, implements, dula thã̄bh, 'two pillars' rebus dul tã̄bā 'copper castings' http://tinyurl.com/z7h7336 Hieroglyphs skambha, stambha signify kammaṭa 'mint', tã̄bā 'copper'. A statue of Uma, a Cham divinity holding two lingas by her hands. National Museum of Vietnam History. Cf. two stone pillars of Dholavira. The sivalingas are signified by the orthography of the pillars: the pillars are octagonal अष्टाश्रि 'with 8 corners'. Adjacent to the ground in Dholavira, where two stambhas exist, is a raised place with an 8-shaped structure. This shape compares with a furnace of Harappa. he remnants of pillars are seen in the middle of the 8-shaped structure. Furnace. Harappa The two pillars are associated with the furnace which is celebrated as kole.l 'smithy, forge' rebus: kole.l'temple'. T Why two stambhas? dula 'pair' rebus: dul 'cast metal' stambha, skambha 'pillar' rebus: tã̄bā 'copper' kammaṭa 'mint' Thus, the two pillars of dholavira signify copper metalcastings mint. See: The Late Neolithic colonization of the Eastern Badia of Jordan by Gary Rollefson1, Yorke Rowan2 1 and Alexander Wasse https://www.whitman.edu/Documents/Academics/Division-I/Levant%2046(2).pdf Pioneering research by Betts and by Garrard in the eastern steppe and desert of Jordan demonstrated the presence of Late Neolithic (c. 7000–5000 cal BC) pastoral exploitation of this currently arid/hyper-arid region, but the scale of Late Neolithic presence in the area was difficult to assess from the reports of their surveys and excavations. Recent investigations by the Eastern Badia Archaeological Project at Wisad Pools and the Wadi al-Qattafi in the Black Desert have shown that conditions during the latter half of the 7th millennium and into the 6th, permitted substantial numbers of pastoralists to occupy substantial dwellings recurrently, in virtual village settings, for considerable amounts of time on a seasonal basis, relying heavily on the hunting of wild animals and perhaps practising opportunistic agriculture in addition to herding caprines. See: Eastern Badia archaeological project: Maitland’s Mesa, Jordan by Yorke M..Rowan https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/ar/11-20/12-13/12-13_Eastern_Badia.pdf Piles of rocks in Jordan’s Black Desert offer clues to ancient past By Saeb Rawashdeh - Jan 04,2018 - Last updated at Jan 04,2018 Excavated Late Neolithic building with standing pillars, on slope of Mesa 7, at Wadi Al Qattafi (Photo courtesy of Yorke Rowan and Eastern Badia Archaeological Project) AMMAN — When a group of scholars in 2008 began to work together in the Black Desert (eastern Jordan), they found many piles of rocks that once were structures. “Initially it was easy to miss them,” said Yorke Rowan, an anthropological archaeologist who received his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. He, and fellow scholars Alex Wasse and Gary Rollefson found doorways under collapsed basalt rubbles, Rowan recalled, noting that “we thought that perhaps they were similar to the burial structures in the Sinai known as nawamis [circular pre-historic stone tombs] that date to the 4th millennium BC”. “The first one we excavated at Maitland’s Mesa [M-4] at Wadi Al Qattafi [ around 130km east of Amman], turned out to be a structure dated to the Late Neolithic, a type of structure that we didn’t know from the region. It seemed to have a corbelled, low roof, with exterior storage space that was still standing [with roof and stone pillar],” the scholar explained. As they excavated a few more of these structures at Qattafi and Wisad Pools [further to the east], they began to realise that there were hundreds of these structures, at Qattafi and Wisad Pools [and probably other places in the desert too], he elaborated. “No one had ever studied these, or even commented on them, as far as I know. We started by taking notes, photographing, and taking GPS points,” Rowan said. However, most photos from the ground looked similar — piles of black basalt rocks — and to properly survey so many collapsed structures accurately would take years, the researcher noted. “Our colleague, Austin ‘Chad’ Hill, suggested that he could begin to map these structures using inexpensive drones that he could build himself — he has been building model planes and flying them since he was a kid, “ Rowan said, adding that by putting cameras on the model airplanes, flying methodically over an area and using the geolocation of the photographs, highly accurate maps can be constructed by orthorectifying the images (correcting them for distortion). The team has completed the survey of an area along Wadi Al Qattafi, about 32 square kilometres. He stressed that they still must mark all the structures, but Chad has completed the processing of the thousands of images they collected from the UAVs. “We knew that there were kites [the hunting traps] in the desert, as this have been noted by many flying over the area for many decades; we knew that there were some in and around the Wadi Qattafi area, but our aerial survey discovered more of these kites because they are so difficult to spot from the ground,” he pointed out. Furthermore, scholars have also used the drones, on a much smaller scale, at Wisad Pools to map the rock art. There are over 400 petroglyphs (pecked rock art) in a small concentrated area right around the pools, where animals would have come for water, he continued. The expert said: “The most prominent type of animals represented are ibex, followed by other horned animals. Only a few humans are represented. What is surprising is how many kites are pecked into the rocks!” On the other hand, the ghura huts which they recognised at the top of Maitland’s Mesa, are even more difficult, Rowan said. “We excavated two of them, but found very little inside: No animal bones, no burned material, and no objects that could tell us when they were built. We also don’t believe that they had a stone roof because the huts are built with very small basalt rocks, and the walls wouldn’t have been more than half a metre high,” he emphasised. Possibly a skin was held in place by these rocks, and the ghura hut was a small, simple shelter with a skin roof, he speculated, adding that recently “our colleague Bernd Mueller-Neuhof excavated very similar structures to the north, and he found some carbonised material that suggests these date to the mid-4th millennium BC, or the transitional period between the Chalcolithic to the Early Bronze Age”. “Since most of what we have explored is not funerary, I can’t really say too much yet about the burial of the dead; we do have evidence that later people would sometimes build their tombs on top of a collapsed Neolithic structure, presumably to increase the height and prominence of the later tomb,” the scholar highlighted. One of these included some nice objects, such as a bronze spear head, earrings, and beads that seem to date to the end of the Late Bronze Age or early Iron Age, Rowan stressed..

2019

The Wādī Salma Area Epigraphic Survey was, therefore, designed to make a systematic epigraphic survey of three areas: (1) Wādī Salmā itself and its tributaries; (2) a number of other specific and well- defined areas within its vicinity; and (3) an area, to the south-east, Wādī al-Ghuṣayn, from which many other important inscriptions had been published but with very few photographs and confused provenances.

Sudan & Nubia 22, 2018