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Massimo Coli & Michele Baldi Gold-mining and ornamental stones quarrying in the Wadi Hammamat, ancient Egypt: geological framework and techniques TO THE FIELD SURVEY ALSO PARTICIPATED: - Prof. Gloria Rosati, Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichità, Firenze University, Italy - Prof. Ali Abdel Motelib Ali, Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt - Dr. Abdou Abd Ellah Omran Daoud Elderby, Conservation Department, Faculty of Archaeology, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt - Dr. Chim. Gianna Giachi, Chimico Direttore, Laboratorio di Restauro, Soprintendenza Archeologica per la Toscana, Italy PREMISES From antiquity to modern times, the use of stone resources has been a main trait of human activity in the construction both of artifacts for everyday use and for monuments The remains of historical quarrying and mining sites are “landscape archives” which preserve traces and tangible evidence of man’s resource exploitation activity allowing us to study the exploitation process itself and the related cycles of production, transportation and utilization In many cases, the quarry represents the embryo of a constructed monument or artifact and therefore is historically and culturally valuable serving as the “negative” of actual monuments The study of ancient quarrying and mining activities encourages an interdisciplinary symbiosis by bringing together experts trained in different fields who can contribute their knowledge and closely collaborate with one another The study of the historical use of stone resources in ancient times highlights the diffusion of practical and geological knowledge and the evolution of technologies used as a result of social and cultural needs of populations and civilizations The renewed interest in ancient quarrying and mining exploitation has led, in recent years, to a re-evaluation of the ancient traditional quarries and mines through various initiatives such as the creation of eco-museums and other didactic and tourist activities at various levels AIM OF THE STUDY To analyze the remains of the ancient mining and quarrying activity in the Wadi Hammamat (valley of the many baths), along the QiftQuseir route, in order to define: the geological framework and its role in controlling quarry and mine activity the exploitation techniques the work organization the general context HISTORY Qift (Koptos) is a harbor on the Nile, it dates back to at least the first dynasty Quseir, on the red sea, was the harbor where goods from India and China (shells, horn, ivory, incense, myrrh, feathers and skin) were shipped to Trading expeditions followed this route linking the Red Sea to the Nile valley and vice versa QUSEIR QIFT MAIN QUARRYING AND MINING AREA GEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK In the Qift-Quseir area basement igneous and metamorphic rocks outcrop in a broad structural-high It is bounded, both on the east and west sides, by Cretaceous to Miocene continental to shallow-water formations Holocene continental deposits are present in the Nile valley and on the Red Sea coast The basement is constituted by Neoproterozoic (1000-542Ma) Arabian-Nubian Shield and consists of: - core-complexes of dismembered ophiolites, volcano-sedimentary successions of the and calcalkaline I-type intrusive complexes - post-orogenic deposits (Hammamat Group and Dokhan Volcanics) and younger granitoid plutonic complex intruded until 580Ma M = Meatiq Dome and Atallah intrusion S = Sibai Dome and Um Ba’anib intrusion Wadi Hammamat View of the Um Ba’anib granitoid plutonic complex looking south from the Wadi Hammamat 1978 Map Modern geological maps are those by: - El-Ramly & Akaad, 1960, for the Egyptian Geological Survey at the scale 1:40,000 - Akaad & Noweir, 1978, at the scale 1:50,000 1960 Map A detailed geostructural map was published by Fowler & Osman, 2001 THE HAMMAMAT GROUP THE HAMMAMAT GROUP: Age: 616 590Ma Thickness 4,000m - Deposited in a major fluvial system of continental proportions developed in a faultbounded basins linked toa N-S to NW-SE extension - Intruded, compacted and locally slightly metamorphosed by younger granite bodies, as the Um Had granitic pluton, outcropping close to the north - Affected by two compression tectonic phases NNW-SSE oriented, that resulted into NW-verging folds and SE-dipping thrusts, later coaxially compressed, refolded and thrust in the same direction In the Wadi Hammamat area there are two major periclinal NNW-SSE trending asymmetrical folds later cut by NE-SW and N-S normal faults LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY Hammamat Group: Shihimiya Fmt. Um Hassa Greywacke Um Had Conglomerate Rasafa Silstone Igla Fmt. - Lamination and bedding structures are well-developed in siltstones and greywackes - Siltstones and greywackes are much more abundant than conglomerates - Cross-bedded layers of greywacke can reach up to 40m in thickness - Conglomerates are massive and poorly sorted, composed of oval, rounded and subangular rock fragments from a few to 15cm in size, cemented by a finer greenishgrey to brownish matrix - Pebbles are of various rock types, including volcanic rocks, granitoids, and reworked fine-grained sedimentary rocks - In the Wadi Hammamat area clasts are constituted of: 30% mafic rocks, 25% granodiorite, 25% intermediate volcanics, 20% felsic volcanics THE TURIN MINING PAPYRUS The Wadi Hammamat area was first mapped for mining purposes by Amennakhte, about 1150 B.C., during one of the quarrying expeditions sent to the Wadi Hammamat by Pharaoh Ramses IV (1156-1150 B.C.), New Kingdom’s 20th Dynasty This map is displayed in the Egyptian Museum in Turin (Italy), therefore it is known as “the Turin Mining Papyrus” The top of the map is toward the south as the source of the Nile River THE TURIN MINING PAPYRUS The Turin Mining Papyrus was discovered at Deir el-Medina by Bernardino Drovetti (Napoleon‘s Proconsul) sometime before 1824 AD The map shows a 15km stretch of Wadi Hammamat and has depictions of this wadi's confluence with wadi Atallah and wadi el-Sid, the surrounding hills, the bekhen-stone quarries, the gold mines and the settlements at Bir Umm Fawakhir The Papyrus also includes numerous annotations identifying the features shown on the map: the destinations of the wadi routes, the distance among quarries and mines, the location of the gold deposits in the hills, the sizes of the quarried bekhen-stone blocks The Turin Mining Papyrus is not only a topographic map but also a geological map (the earliest known): it accurately shows the local distribution of different rock types (with black and pink hills) and the lithologically diverse wadi gravels (with brown, green and white dots), and contains information on quarries and mines The draughtsman clearly and carefully distributed distinctive features in accordance with the reality of a particular area, adding clarity by the use of legends and contrasting colors The Turin Mining Papyrus map may also be regarded as the earliest known geographic information system IN 1992 HARREL PROPOSED A DIFFERENT ASSEMBLAGE OF THE PAPYRUS WHICH REINFORCED THE IDEA THAT THE MAP REFERS TO THE WADI HAMMAMAT AREA THE NEW PAPYRUS INTERPRETATION 1 - the road that leads to the sea 2 - another road that leads to the sea 3 - the road of Tent-p-mer [the translation of the last word is uncertain – it may be the name of an unknown locality or it may mean ‘treasurer’ or ‘harbor’] 4 - mountains of gold 5 - mountains of gold 6 - the houses of the gold-working settlement 7 - cistern [or ‘water reservoir’; the text is written on top of the water sign] 8 - stela of Menma’atre, life, health and prosperity! [king Sety I, 1290-1279 BC, of the New Kingdom’s 19th Dynasty]2 9 - the road of Ta-menti [the last word is apparently the name of an unknown locality] 10 - the shrine of Amun of the pure mountain 11 - the mountains in which gold is worked, they are colored pink 12 - mountains of gold and silver [or perhaps ‘mountains of electrum’, where electrum is a natural mixture of gold and silver] 13 - … the hill of Amun 14 - the hill where Amun rests 15 - [not translatable; appears to be part of a name for some locality] 16 - [too fragmentary to translate, but it appears to be comments on travel from one unnamed locality to another; a travel time of ‘one day’ and ‘gold’ are mentioned] 16’- mountains of gold [appears to be a continuation of 16 but is a separate text] 17 - distance from the gold-working settlement to the mountain of bekheny,…khet [this text is repeated three times, apparently for emphasis; the distance in units of khet is missing]3,4 18 - …the bekheny-stone that is found in the mountain of bekheny, 19 - [not translatable] 20 - the place in which they work in the great business of bekhen-stone which was established as a quarry 21 - the measurement of this… 22 - [not translatable] 23 - …of stone that is pulled by men from the east…3 cubits wide [about 1.6 m]4 24 - …bekheny… 25 - breadth of 2 cubits, 2 palms [about 1.2 m]; thickness of 2 cubits, 3 palms…fingers [about 1.3 m] 26 - breadth of 2 cubits [about 1.0 m]; thickness of 2 cubits 27 - …palms…fingers 28 - …palms; thickness of 2 cubits…palms Harrel’s reconstruction and interpretation well fit with the topography, the geology, and the quarry and mine remains in the area of the Wadi Hammamat There are still dissenting opinions; according to some, represent the Wadi Hammamat area in Egypt but: the map does not - The area of Berenice Pancrisia in (Del Bufalo, 2002) - A site in South Australia (??????) http://www.historykb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/archaeology/7438/There-is-no-evidence-that-the-Turin-Papyrus-gold-mine-was-in ON THE BASIS OF HARREL’S RECONSTRUCTION, WE GEOREFERENCED THE “PAPYRUS” ON GOOGLE-EARTH IMAGES THAT RESULTED VERY FRUITFUL FOR A FOCUSSED FIELD WORK BASED ON WGS84 GPS DATA QUARRIES AND MINES Ancient quarries and mines, located in the area of the Wadi Hammamat, supplied valuable stones for the Pharaohs, Romans and Byzantines WADI ATALLAH THE GOLD MINES The Wadi Hammamat was one of the main gold-mine sites of ancient Egypt, here mines were active from the late Predynastict period through the Roman period until the Byzantine period, the main Roman and Byzantine mining settlement was in Bir Umm Fawakhir GOLD IN EGYPT In the Old and Middle Kingdom gold was mainly mined in the Wadi Hammamat area (the Gold of Koptos), but during the Middle Kingdom the ancient exploitation techniques did not allow for further extraction of gold from the Wadi Hammamt ores Mining activities then moved to southern Egypt and Nubia (the Gold of Kush and the Gold of Wawat) The loss of control on the southernmost region of Egypt and Nubia during the New Kingdom and the introduction of new techniques both forced and allowed the reopening of the gold mines of the Wadi Hammamat in the Late New Kingdom It has been estimated that in the Pharaohic Era an average of 400kg/y of gold was mined (more than 1kt in total), whereas since the birth of Christ less than 100t of gold has been mined in total, of which only 7t in the XX Century GOLD SUPPLY Gold mines were under the direct control of the Pharaoh: gold shipments from remote mining areas required a complex and effective organization in terms of workers, slaves, soldiers and administrative staff, as in a military campaign During the Roman-Byzantine Age mines were under the direct control of the Emperor: they established permanent settlements with forts and signal towers which safe-guarded mines, working places and routes Gold in Egypt occurs both in alluvial placers and in primary ore bodies in quartz veins as in the Wadi Hammamat area MINING GOLD Mining was carried out mainly by slaves who were either prisoners of war or convicts (damnata ad metalla), but also paupers, often with their entire families Early techniques consisted in making a fire against the rock in order to heat it up, then the rock was doused with cold water The sudden change in temperature crumbled the rock revealing the presence of gold, if there was any This technique was used in open-cast trenches following the quartz veins at the surface Newer techniques, with copper, bronze and later iron tools, allowed the miners to dig shafts horizontally or diagonally into the mountainsides following down quartz veins Shafts had stone walls reinforcing the entrances or platforms at the edge, presumably to aid in raising and lowering men, boys, baskets, tools, and ore THE MINING WORK The organization of mining operations during the Ptolemaic period, II Century B.C., was described with full particulars by a Greek author, Agatharchides of Cnidus, as recorded one century later by the historian Diodorus Siculus Bibliotheca Historica, III, 12-14; for the text see point 12, 13, 14 at: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3A*.html That appears to be not too much different as the modern clandestine mines THE QUARRIES In the Wadi Hammamat there are the quarries which produced MANY HIEROGLYPHICS AND GREEK some famous historical ornamental stones: INSCRIPTIONS, SOME BEKHEN-STONE (LAPIS BASANITES) OF WHICH DATE BACK BRECCIA VERDE ANTICA (LAPIS HECATONTALITHOS) TO 4,000 B.C., COVER THE ANCIENT SERPENTINA MOSCHINATA (LAPIS BATRACHITES) QUARRY-FACES GRANITE OF WADI UMM FAWAKHIR The quarries seem to have been extensively exploited from the second to the sixth Dynasty and during the Middle and New Kingdoms Pharaoh Amenhotep’s expeditions in the area numbered 1,000 workers, 100 quarrymen, 1,200 soldiers, 200 donkeys and 50 oxen, but the largest expedition was organised by Ameny, around 1950 B.C. (Early XII Dynasty): it numbered about 18,500 people with 17,000 conscript workers plus soldiers, fishermen, shoemakers, sutlers and administrative staff Pharaoh Ramses IV (1,160 BC) visited the quarries in person The quarries were still exploited during Roman- Byzantine times, but with the decline of the Empire the demand for Bekhen-stone diminished: many blocks now lie abandoned in the wadi BEKHEN-STONE In archaeology the Bekhen-Stone was known as Basanite Bekhen-stone is a beautiful grey/green ornamental stone used widely in the production of artistic artifacts It was already quarried in the late Predynastic period and a large number of artifacts in bekhen-stone have been found in pyramids, tombs and temples Many ancient Pharaohs had their sarcophagus made of bekhen-stone (e.g.: Unas, Teti, Pepy I, Merenre Old Kingdom) Analysts of the past, who could use only very few samples from artefacts and who did not know anything about its origin, classified it as a special “type of basalt” because of its mineropetrographic composition Subsequently, when a similar type of basalt (typical from hot-spot source) was found, it was called Basanite But Basanite/Bekhen-Stone is a meta-sedimentary rock deriving from regional contact metamorphism due to a plutonic intrusion which acted onto continental clastic deposits deriving from the dismantling of mainly basic rocks and also granite and carbonate ones, therefore now it again called Bekhen-stone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basanite http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basanite RAMESES II The statue of Darius in Persepolis was made of bekhen-stone The Romans largely used the bekhen-stone both for mediatic purpose and for the production of bowls, statues and sarcophaguses, until the III Century A.D. With the decline of the Empire the demand for bekhen-stone diminished: many blocks still lie abandoned along the wadi AGRIPPINA MINORE BRECCIA VERDE ANTICA The “Breccia Verde Antica” was used by the Egyptians to make many beautiful bowls, statues and steles and also the sarcophaguses of Ramses II, Ramses IV, Nectanebo I and Nectanebo II The Romans used “Breccia Verde Antica” to make bowls and other objects The most outstanding examples are a column in the church of San Vitale in Ravenna (Italy), made by order of Emperor Justinian (VI Century A.D.), three other columns are in Rome SERPENTINA MOSCHINATA The Serpentina Moschinata was commonly used from the Predynastic period to the New Kingdom and it was possibly partially used also by the Ptolemaics The Romans used this ornamental stone for tiles (Baia, Pompei, Ercolano, Roma, Leptis Magna, Cirene, Cos) and for small statues GRANITO WADI UMM FAWAKHIR This granite was only used by the Romans in the I and II centuries for columns and pillars and for tiles It can be found in Rome, Verona, Venice (Saint Mark’s church), Pompei, Ercolano, Leptis Magna, Apollonia, Tiro In the settlements along the Wadi Hammamat buildings were made with cobblestone and small boulders from “collection and use” of the local granite debris and regolites which lie in great quantity on the ground In these settlements Romans and Byzantines used this granite only for special structural purposes like bars, tiles, lintels, jambs QUARRYING TECHNIQUES BEKHEN-STONE Since slopes are generally covered by debris, the first quarries were opened in the lower outcrops at the base of the slopes When these quarries were no more longer exploitable both because their faces were too high and the overhanging debris, quarrying activity was moved to upperslope outcrops, reachable by the construction of row sledge-ways The Bekhen-stone corresponds to the Rasafa Siltstone Member of the Hammamat Group and consists of dark greenish-grey to mainly greyish-green, medium- to very fine- grained, occasionally pebbly, chloritic meta-greywacke, mainly constituted by fine to very fine sand grains (0.06-0.2mm) and dark-grey-green, basalt-looking, meta-siltstone QUARRYING TECHNIQUES BEKHEN-STONE The rock-mass presents three joint sets: two vertical, at about 90°of each other, and one horizontal, joints are up to a few meters spaced so they delimit blocks up to a few cubic meters Quarries were opened in the main natural outcrop on the cliffs of the wadi by using the three sets of joints to dismantled the rock-mass into blocks, which can be broken by letting them fall to the wadi bottom In order to dismantle the rock-mass and dress the blocks, quarriers used handspikes, stones and later copper, bronze and iron tools and chisels, wood hammers … The stone-blocks were then dressed in situ to the right size, during this job the main schistosity (continuous and fine, dipping of about 45o)can cause the blocks to break The final handwork and polishing was carried out at the final destination in order to avoid any damage to the faces during transportation QUARRYING TECHNIQUES BRECCIA VERDE ANTICA Quarriers used the natural discontinuities as preferential surfaces to force the block to fall down, therefore the quarries were opened on the northern side of the wadi where the two main pudding layers met the wadi with a down-slop dip, this setting fostered a “controlled” slip-down of the extracted stone-blocks The Breccia Verde Antica was quarried from the Umm Had Conglomerate Member of the Hammamat Group: a dark, purplish and greenish-grey to mainly grayish-green, chloritic metasiltstone, with a few layers of clastsupported meta-pudding with greenish chloritic matrix (locally reddish), siltgrained, and well-rounded subspherical pebbly to cobbly clasts of many different lithologies and colors QUARRY 1 QUARRY 2 QUARRYING TECHNIQUES BRECCIA VERDE ANTICA Quarriers used the natural discontinuities (represented by the lithological layering and two joint sets which lie at about 90o) to let the blocks fall down The fallen blocks measured a few cubic meters and therefore they were later cut into smaller blocks dressed to the right size In order to do this, a line of wedge-shaped holes was chiselled into the rock, then iron wedges were inserted into them and hammered until the block split along the line Wedging was used for rough splitting, but for a more controlled cut quarriers used the “pointillé” pits method: a straight line of small, shallow pits was chiselled across the rock surface, then quarriers hammered special short chisels along the pits until the rock split QUARRYING TECHNIQUES SERPENTINA MOSCHINATA During our field survey we had not enough time to look for this quarry; a second mission was not possible due to paucity of funding and the general political situation BROWN & HARRELL (1995) report a partially destruction of the quarry due to recent quarrying activity, but also the presence of scarce remains of Romans buildings QUARRYING TECHNIQUES GRANITE Quarriers used natural single sized boulder and cobbles or cut blocks cut away from the massive granite body To do this they cut a lines of close spaced large wedge holes where then iron wedges were hammered to split out the rock into blocks Boulders and blocks were later dressed to the required dimensions THE SETTLEMENTS Close to each quarry and mine there was a settlement where the materials were carved, dressed or worked The main one was Bir Umm Fawakhir Settlement buildings were made of dry-walls by using boulders of the local granite, there are also remains of some gold working tools (mortars and mills), in granite too! REST AND SAFEGUARD STRUCTURES In order to safeguard the gold mines, the trade routes and the quarries, the Romans and Byzantine built forts (praesidia) and watch towers all along the Koptos-Quseir route Each praesidium had a well (hydreuma), hosted a garrison of about 50-70 Egyptian auxiliaries and offered rest and water to travelers, who had to pay a tax to pass through The garrison also supplied sentinels for the watch towers and escorts to travelers A chain of watch towers allowed a strict control of the whole route; since towers are visible from one to another, messages could be quickly transmitted by mirrors and flags Forts and towers were built with local stones collected in the area surrounding each site, therefore, according to the local geology they were built in granite, schist, metabasite … Some of the hydreuma are still active and with water at the bottom about 2025m below the wadi ground Persons and goods had to pay taxes to pass through this route It is very interesting to note the rating values at that time (90 A.D.): - helmsmen: 10 drachmas (400 €) - seamen: 5 drachmas (200 €) - shipyard hands: 5 drachmas (200 €) - skilled artisans: 8 drachmas (320 €) - wife of a soldier: 20 drachmas (800 €) - mounted head of household: 1 dr. (40 €) - all his women: 4 drachmas each (160 €) - a prostitute: 108 drachmas (4,320 €) - a camel: 1 obol (6.66 €) - a donkey: 2 obols (13.32 €) - a wagon: 4 drachmas (160 €) - a ship's mast: 20 drachmas (800 €) FINAL REMARKS The results of this study outline a deep relationship for quarrying and mining both with the geological setting and the excavation techniques Antique quarry and mine locations and their exploitation techniques testify a deep knowledge of the territory (i.e. local geology and its setting) on the part of the Egyptians and the Romans/Byzantines A follow-up of this study could be the definition of criteria and methods for the conservation of the many aspects of cultural heritage present in the Wadi Hammamat area: mines, quarries, settlements, hieroglyphics and the whole know-how of that historical extraction activity Thanks for your attention