Recent research reveals that a significant change in the course of the Nile River about 4,000 years ago expanded the floodplain near Luxor, which could have caused agriculture to flourish in ancient Egypt and influenced the location of historical sites.
Research reveals a significant change in the Nile River about 4,000 years ago, which expanded the floodplain near Luxor and caused agriculture to flourish in the area, which likely contributed to the prosperity of ancient Egypt. The changes in the behavior of the Nile affected the settlement patterns and historical structures. The research, through drilling and sediment dating, shows the evolution of the river from a split system to one stable channel due to climate changes and human influences.
The researchers studied the development of the Nile River over the past 11,500 years and examined how changes in its geography might have affected the fate of the ancient Egyptian civilization.
The study, published in Nature Geoscience, reveals that a significant change in the Nile River occurred about 4,000 years ago, after which the floodplain in the Nile Valley near Luxor expanded significantly.
The development of the landscape and culture
Dr Benjamin Pennington, co-author of the paper from the University of Southampton, said: "Flood area expansion significantly increased the area of arable land in the Nile Valley near Luxor (ancient Thebes) and improved soil fertility by regularly adding alluvial soil Fertile.”
"Although it is not possible to infer specific causal relationships between this change and contemporary social developments, the changes in the landscape are nevertheless an important factor that must be considered when discussing the development of ancient Egyptian culture."
The study also suggests that the changes in the behavior of the Nile River and the landscape may have influenced settlement patterns and the location of iconic historical buildings, such as the Karnak Temple.
The research was conducted by an international team led by Dr. Angus Graham from Uppsala University in Sweden, and included a number of archaeologists and geographers from the University of Southampton.
Dominic Barker, another co-author from the University of Southampton, explained how the research was carried out: "We drilled 81 boreholes, many of them by hand, throughout the Nile Valley near Luxor - an unprecedented move in Egypt. Using geological information obtained from the cores and dating the sediments using a technique called 'optically stimulated illumination', we were able to piece together the development of the river landscape."
Changes in the Nile River over thousands of years
The team discovered that between 11,500 and 4,000 years before our time, the Nile experienced significant river deepening, meaning the river cut its bottom, creating deeper channels and a narrower floodplain. These flooding dynamics existed between the Epipaleolithic period (the period of hunter-gatherer societies) and the Old Kingdom (the age of the pyramids) and perhaps even the Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt.
"The Egyptian Nile that we see today looks very different than it did for most of the last 11,500 years," says Dr. Pennington. "For most of this time, the Nile was composed of a network of interlaced channels that changed frequently."
About 4,000 years ago, the Nile changed its course rapidly and began to receive large amounts of sediment, which led to the creation of a wider and more stable floodplain.
The researchers say that the major change in the behavior of the Nile River was probably caused by a reduction in the volume of water flowing in the river and an increase in the supply of rainfall. This was due to the desiccation of the Nile basin, with the transition from the African humid period to the creation of the current Sahara desert. The change in regional climate may have combined with changing human impacts on the land and made the land more susceptible to erosion.
The new insights into the development of the Egyptian Nile Valley near Luxor provide an essential landscape context for archaeologists and Egyptologists to reinterpret ancient sites in the region and reconsider settlement locations in the Nile Valley.
More of the topic in Hayadan:
Comments
There is a problem with the caption under the photo because two photos taken in different areas of Egypt were combined.
The correct one is to write "The Nile in the Aswan area and a processed combination of the pyramids near Cairo in the background".
Today the process is reversed
When the forecast is that following global warming, the water yield in the Nile will decrease by 75%
And on top of that, the current picture of the river is full of garbage, mostly plastic