The New Kingdom settlement of Amara West (Nubia, Sudan): mineralogical and chemical investigation of the ceramics
- PDF / 3,784,814 Bytes
- 23 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 67 Downloads / 158 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
The New Kingdom settlement of Amara West (Nubia, Sudan): mineralogical and chemical investigation of the ceramics Michela Spataro & Marie Millet & Neal Spencer
Received: 24 July 2013 / Accepted: 30 May 2014 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
Abstract Forty-three pottery samples from the New Kingdom site at Amara West in Nubia (Sudan) were analysed by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopyenergy dispersive X-ray spectrometry to identify pottery potentially produced at the site. Twenty-two samples from modern local alluvial soils, modern locally made pottery and archaeological material (mudbricks, daub, oven liners and kiln fragments), likely to have been made from locally sourced clays, were also studied. The analytically and microscopically defined pottery fabrics were cross-correlated with macroscopic fabrics defined on-site during fieldwork to demonstrate not only the potential and limitations of both approaches but also how the complementary datasets can provide new insights. The mineralogical and chemical analyses, of 65 samples, suggest that locally manufactured pottery included both Egyptian-style tableware and Nubian-style cooking pots. At the same time, the community at the site imported ceramics from a variety of different regions, including Egypt itself.
Keywords Amara West . New Kingdom pottery . Thin sections . SEM-EDX . Provenance . Nubia . Vienna system
M. Spataro (*) Department of Conservation and Scientific Research, The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG, UK e-mail: [email protected] M. Millet Département des Antiquités égyptiennes, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France e-mail: [email protected] N. Spencer Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, The British Museum, London, UK e-mail: [email protected]
Introduction Amara West, located downstream of Sai Island and near the modern town of Abri (Fig. 1), was the administrative centre of Upper Nubia (Kush) during the Ramesside Period (ca. 1300– 1070 cal BC). Excavations by the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) in 1938–1939 and 1947–1950 revealed a decorated temple, storage facilities and houses, set within a walled town (Spencer 1997, 2002). Burials associated with the town are located in two cemeteries, to the north and northeast of the settlement. A British Museum project, instigated in 2008, is seeking to elucidate the lived experience of the ancient inhabitants and the permeability between Egyptian and Nubian cultures, set within a bioarchaeological and environmental framework (Ryan et al. 2012; Spencer et al. 2012; Spencer 2014a, b, in press). In terms of geological context, Amara West is located on the north (left) bank of the Nile, but originally upon an alluvial island in the river, in the Cretaceous Nubian sandstone formation, which includes sandstone, siltstones and mudstone conglomerates. A formation of an undifferentiated schist group (marble, quartzite and mica schist) and some outcrops of younger granites are located southeast of the site, while to the northeast l
Data Loading...
