GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NORWAY SPECIAL PUBLICATION n 12 Ancient Egyptian quarries – an illustrated overview James A. Harrell1 and Per Storemyr2 1Department of Environmental Sciences (MS #604), 2801 West Bancroft Street, The University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606–3390, USA. 2Geological Survey of Norway, 7491 Trondheim, Norway/CSC Conservation Science Consulting, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland. Present address: Herrligstrasse 15, CH-8048 Zurich, Switzerland. E-mail: [email protected] and [email protected] The surviving remains of ancient Egyptian material culture are dominated by the stones used for building, ornamental, gem, and utilitarian applications. These came mainly from the Nile Valley and Eastern Desert (with some also from the Western Desert), where over 200 quarries have been dis- covered spanning about 3500 years from the Late Predynastic Period to the Late Roman Period. The harder stones (nearly all the igneous and metamorphic rocks plus silicified sandstone and chert) were quarried using stone tools aided by fire setting and wood levers up until the Late Period, when the stone tools were replaced by iron ones. The softer stones (mainly limestone, sandstone, and travertine) were extracted with copper and, later, bronze picks and chisels during the Dynastic Peri- od, with iron tools again replacing the earlier ones by the end of the Late Period. Until the advent of suitable roadways and wagons rugged enough to transport them in the Greco–Roman Period, the larger pieces of quarried stone were carried on sledges, often along prepared roads, and probably pulled by teams of men to the building sites or to the Nile River for shipping. Ancient quarries are more than just sources of stones, but are also rich archeological sites with ruins and other cultural remains. Their study and preservation is necessary because they provide a unique perspective on life in ancient Egypt. Harrell, J.A. and Storemyr, P. (2009) Ancient Egyptian quarries—an illustrated overview. In Abu-Jaber, N., Bloxam, E.G., Degryse, P. and Heldal, T. (eds.) QuarryScapes: ancient stone quarry landscapes in the Eastern Mediterranean, Geological Survey of Norway Special Publication,12, pp. 7–50. 7 n JAMES A. HARRELL And PER STOREMYR Introduction concludes with a review of the typical in the Nile Valley and desert wadis, and archeological remains found at quarry aeolian sand in the Eastern Desert and Much of what remains of ancient Egypt sites. This overview is intended for the especially in the Western Desert with its consists of stone. There are building general reader and so reference citations vast Saharan ‘sand sea’. During the Qua- stones for temples, pyramids, and tombs; are largely omitted from the text but are ternary, biogenic deposits accumulated ornamental stones for vessels, sarcopha- included in the bibliography. along Egypt’s coasts, with carbonate gi, shrines, stelae, statues, and other dunes forming behind the Mediterra- sculptures; gemstones for jewelry and nean beaches and carbonate reefs form- the decorative arts; and utilitarian stones Overview of Egyptian ing off the Red Sea shore. for tools, weapons, grinding stones, and geology Outcrops of Precambrian basement other applications. It is with the sources rocks are restricted to the southern Sinai and varieties of these stones that this Egypt’s oldest rocks date to the late Pre- Peninsula, the southeast and southwest paper is concerned. We have excluded cambrian and early Phanerozoic eons, corners of the Western Desert, and the those rocks supplying precious metals, approximately 500 to 2600 million years Red Sea Hills of the Eastern Desert. The such as gold and copper, but for these ago (Ma), with most forming during the latter outcrops broaden westward at the see Ogden (2000) and Klemm et al. Pan-African Orogeny of 500 to 1200 Ma latitude of Aswan and extend all the way (2001, 2002). The term ‘quarry’ is used (see Table 1 for the geologic time scale to the Nile, where they form this river’s here for all extraction sites, although and the geologic ages of the quarry stones, ‘First Cataract’. Another five cataracts in- those for gemstones (and precious met- and attached, fold-out map for the gen- terrupt the Nile River in northern Sudan. als) are more commonly referred to as eralized geology of Egypt and the quarry Outcrops of sedimentary rocks, mainly ‘mines.’ In the sections that follow, the locations). These include both igneous sandstone in southern (Upper) Egypt geology of Egypt is first summarized in and metamorphic rocks, collectively re- and limestone to the north in Middle order to provide a general idea of the ferred to as Egypt’s ‘crystalline basement and Lower Egypt, form the ‘walls’ of the stones available to the ancient Egyptians. complex’. The basement rocks are mostly Nile Valley and the surfaces of the adja- A database of known ancient quarries is buried beneath layered sequences of cent plateaus of the Western and Eastern then presented and this is followed by a younger Phanerozoic sedimentary rocks. deserts. discussion of the various uses to which Overlying most of the latter are geologi- During the Paleozoic and Mesozoic the quarried stones were put. The pa- cally recent (Quaternary period) deposits eras of the Phanerozoic eon, Egypt was per continues with a description of the of unconsolidated sediments, including alternately elevated above sea level and quarrying technologies employed, and fluvial siliciclastic gravel, sand, and mud inundated by shallow seas with mostly Table 1. Geologic time scale. Dates are from USGS (2007). Eon Era Period Epoch Million years Egyptian quarries before present Quaternary Holocene present–0.0115 Pleistocene 0.0115–1.8 all limestone along the Mediterranean coast Tertiary Pliocene 1.8–5.3 limestone at Dahshur and Gebel el-Gir Miocene 5.3–23 all anhydrite and gypsum along the Red Sea coast Oligocene 23–33.9 Gebel Ahmar silicified sandstone and all basalt Eocene 33.9–55.8 all limestone in the Nile Valley, except at Dahshur, Gebel el-Gir and el-Dibabiya; all travertine and chert; and the Umm el-Sawan gypsum Paleocene 58.8–65.5 limestone at el-Dibabiya Cretaceous 65.5–145.5 all sandstone, including the silicified variety except at Gebel Ahmar Jurassic 145.5–199.6 all turquoise and some malachite Triassic 199.6–251 Permian 251–299 Carboniferous 299–359.2 Devonian 359.2–416 Silurian 416–443.7 Ordovician 443.7–488.3 Meso- Cenozoic Paleozoic zoic Cambrian 488.3–542 542–4,000+ all igneous and metamorphic rock varieties, except basalt; and all gemstones except turquoise and some malachite Pre- Phanerozoic cambrian 8 AnCIENT EgYPTIAN QUARRIES – AN ILLUSTRATED OVERVIEW n siliciclastic sedimentary rocks forming to the late Quaternary. For additional that will remain unknown because they (conglomerate, sandstone, and mudrock) information on the geology of Egypt have been destroyed by urban growth, plus some limestone. The thickest and see Said (1990) and Tawadros (2001), modern quarrying, or natural weather- most areally extensive of these deposits is and for a non-technical introduction see ing and erosion. Moreover, the database the Nubia Group (or Sandstone), which Sampsell (2003). does not include quarries earlier than the dates to the latter part of the Cretaceous Late Predynastic Period, such as those of period and was deposited in shallow- Paleolithic and Neolithic age for tools marine to mainly fluvial environments. Ancient Egyptian quarries made from chert (flint) and silicified From the Late Cretaceous through the database sandstone (quartzite). Eocene epoch of the Tertiary period, The authors’ publications and other most of Egypt was under a shallow sea Just over 200 ancient quarries are known selected sources on specific Egyptian and accumulating carbonate sediments from Egypt, and these range in age from quarries and their stones are provided in that are best represented today by the the Late Predynastic to the Late Roman the bibliography. Other useful sources various Eocene limestone formations. Period, a span of about 3500 years (see of information include Lucas (1962, Beginning in the Oligocene epoch and Table 2 for the chronology of ancient p. 50–74, 386–428), De Putter and continuing through the Quaternary pe- Egypt). The attached map shows their Karlshausen (1992), and Klemm and riod, most of Egypt was above sea level distribution and provides, on the back, Klemm (1993, 2008). See Figures 10 and once again receiving predominantly the names and coordinates of the quarry and 11 for images of selected ancient siliciclastic sediments. localities as well as their stone types and quarry stones. The mid-Tertiary uplift of Egypt, general ages. Detailed plans of several which initiated the return of siliciclastic of the larger, more important quarries sedimentation, was caused by the open- (and the associated quarry landscapes) Sources and uses of stone ing of the Red Sea, a plate tectonic rifting are provided in Figures 7–8, 19, 21–22, in ancient Egypt event that separated the Arabian Penin- 26, 28 and 32. Nearly all quarries, ex- sula from the African landmass, begin- cept those now under Lake Nasser, were Building stones ning about 30 Ma. As a consequence located in the field by the authors. Their Limestone and sandstone were the main of this rifting, the crystalline basement latitudes and longitudes, as reported building stones of ancient Egypt (Fig- complex was pushed up to form the Red here, are those determined from Google ures 1–10). From Early Dynastic times Sea Hills, a south-to-north flowing pa- Earth satellite images (www.GoogleE- onward, limestone was the material of leo-Nile river developed along a fracture arth.com). The workings for most of the choice within the limestone region for zone west of the Red Sea Hills, magmatic quarries are visible on these images, but pyramids, mastaba tombs, and temples.