About 10km north of Aswan, Wadi Kubbaniya (24°12′ N, 32°52′ E) is one of three major wadis that reach the Nile from the southwestern desert, draining most of the area between the river and the Eocene scarp on the west. On each side of the wadi are steep sandstone scarps, 30-40m above the wadi floor. Near the mouth of Wadi Kubbaniya is one of the densest and most extensively studied groups of Late Paleolithic sites in Egypt.
Throughout the Late Paleolithic, Egypt was probably drier than today and human habitation was confined to the Valley. The river then was much smaller than now, with perhaps less than 20 percent of the modern flow, and was confined to a network of braided channels. Each summer, rain in the central African mountain headwaters of the Nile caused floods downstream in Egypt. The floodwaters were laden with silt, which was deposited over the floodplain. The accumulation of silt caused the floodplain to gradually build up until the Valley was choked with sediment. By 21,000 years ago, the floodplain at Aswan was some 16m higher than today, and still rising. When the Valley fill became higher than the mouth of Wadi Kubbaniya, the seasonal flooding would invade the wadi and, at its maximum, would extend up the wadi for several kilometers, so that the lower part of the wadi became a large embayment of the floodplain.
The water permitted vegetation to grow along the edge of the floodplain, and this vegetation began to trap the sand blowing into the wadi from the north, which formed dunes. The level of the Nile continued to rise, and each year the summer floods covered the dunes, leaving silty sediments on their surfaces. Thus began a process of simultaneous dune and silt accumulation that resulted in the formation of an extensive dune field close to the northern scarp of the wadi, while the center of the wadi remained a floodplain where only silts were deposited.
The dune and silt accumulation continued throughout the Late Paleolithic, advancing southward across the wadi floor. By 13,000 BP (years before present), a barrier had been created near the wadi mouth, preventing the Nile floods from reaching up-wadi. Seepage from the floods, however, formed extensive ponds behind the barrier and occasionally floods were also able to overflow the barrier.
During this period, the first Late Paleolithic occupants of Wadi Kubbaniya settled on the dunes and on the seasonally dry floodplain. The settlements in both areas are large and were used repeatedly. There are also a few sites near the mouth of the wadi, several meters higher than the other sites. Most of the Late Paleolithic sites in Wadi Kubbaniya are assigned to the same taxonomic unit, the Kubbaniyan. The stone tools are characterized by numerous (backed) bladelets with light retouch along one edge (known as "Ouchtata" bladelets) and a few other tools (mostly truncations, scaled pieces and burins). There are also grinding stones, hand stones and mortars. Numerous radiocarbon dates indicate an age between circa 19,000 and 17,000 BP.
The actual surfaces upon which people lived in the dune field have all been removed by deflation. However, some of the debris from each occupation, including organic remains, have been preserved at the front of the dunes, covered by seasonal silting and wind-blown sand, which occurred repeatedly in a stratigraphic order.
The identified floral remains (besides wood charcoal, all of which is tamarisk) include ten varieties of tubers and soft vegetable tissues. Tubers of purple nut-grass and club-rush are by far the most common. There are also eleven varieties of fruiting structures, which, like the tubers, still grow on the wetlands and swampy areas near the Nile, Plants identified from human coprolites include club-rush and camomile seeds, and possibly grass-stem fragments. All of these plants are edible and are believed to have been part of the diet of the Kubbaniyan people. Radiocarbon dates on twelve specimens from three different sites confirm that the plant remains were contemporaneous with the Kubbaniyan occupations.
When mature, nut-grass tubers are rich in complex carbohydrates but also contain toxins and must be processed, by grinding and boiling or roasting. The grinding stones in the dune sites were probably used primarily for this purpose, and for grinding other fibrous foods such as reed rhizomes and fruits.
The Kubbaniyan sites yielded many fish bones and various large mammal bones, particularly wild cattle, hartebeest and gazelle. The fish are mostly adult catfish, together with tilapia and eels. A massive harvest of catfish probably occurred during the spawn, which begins with the onset of the flood (early July) and ends just before the water recedes (early September). The quantities of fish taken were so large (over 100,000 fish bones in one site) that some of them may have been dried or smoked for later consumption. The dune sites also yielded a few shells of an edible freshwater mussel, and bird bones, many of which are of species which still spend winters in Egypt.
These faunal and floral collections provide a glimpse of what must have been a very complex and seasonally diverse diet during the Late Paleolithic in the Nile Valley. The yearly round in the Nile Valley was governed by the flood, and in Late Paleolithic times the main channels of the river were several meters higher than today; and the seasonal rise was at least as great. At peak flooding, the area under water extended several kilometers up Wadi Kubbaniya and the known Kubbaniyan sites were probably under water. Sites that might have been occupied then are unknown and have probably been destroyed by deflation. There may also have been some large mammal hunting at this time; the rising water would have forced the animals from the lowland areas to the edge of the floodplain where there was less cover. As the floodwaters began to recede, fishing probably continued in the swales and cutoff ponds on the floodplain.
After the seasonal flooding, plants were also important components of the diet. Among the first may have been seeds of annuals, including camomile, which are available in October. The gathering of immature nut-grass and club-rush tubers could have begun then; they would have required only rubbing and roasting to be edible. However, tubers reach their maximum food value only at maturity in December and January, when they require processing; thus, the presence of grinding stones and carbonized tubers in the dune sites suggests winter occupation. Purple nut-grass probably grew as a dense carpet over much of the wadi, including the dune areas, and a surplus could have been gathered and stored for later consumption. Once dried, the tubers retain their food value for several months.
Use of the dunes later in the year is indicated by dom palm fruits, which mature in February and March, and by occasional shells of the freshwater mussel (Unio abyssinicus), which probably could be gathered only in the period of lowest water, between February and the end of June. However, there is no other evidence that these sites were much used in the driest part of the year and it seems likely that most of the settlements at that time were closer to the deeper Nile channels.
Large mammals were probably hunted all year round, but they were not as important as fish. Despite the greater size and density (and hence survivability) of mammal bones, they represent only about 1 percent of the bones in the dune sites.
At Kubbaniya, key areas were probably reused to exploit a variety of seasonal resources, but there was no semi-permanent or permanent occupation. This may correlate with the appearance of a new subsistence system in the Nile Valley, based on the intensive use of seasonally available foods which could be processed and stored for later consumption. Such intensive use is evident during two periods of the year: in the summer when large quantities of spawning catfish were taken; and in the autumn, winter and spring when wetland tubers were gathered. Together, these two foods could have provided the basis of a balanced diet: catfish are rich in protein and fat, and wetland tubers contribute carbohydrates and dietary fiber.
The earliest Late Paleolithic in Wadi Kubbaniya is called "Fakhurian-related," because of its resemblances in stone artifacts to sites at Deir el-Fakhuri, near Esna in Upper Egypt. Characteristic stone tools include backed bladelets, elegant perforators, retouched pieces, notches and denticulates. There are three Fakhurian-related sites at Kubbaniya, with radiocarbon dates between 21,000 and 19,500 years ago.
A highly fossilized human skeleton was found near the Fakhurian-related sites, and is probably around 21,000 years old. In physical type, the skeleton is similar to a robust but fully modern population (called the Mechtoids) associated with Late Paleolithic sites throughout North Africa. In the Kubbaniya skeleton there is evidence of violence, including several healed wounds and a presumably fatal wound inflicted by two bladelets found in the pelvic cavity. Wadi Kubbaniya continued to be used by Late Paleolithic groups long after the period of the Kubbaniyan. The stone tool industries include some of those already known both farther south in Egyptian and Sudanese Nubia and farther north in Upper Egypt. After 12,500 BP a dune barrier formed across the mouth of the wadi, which would have destroyed the conditions favoring the wetland plants and made impossible the massive seasonal fish harvests. The series of exceptional floods around 12,500 BP and the subsequent down-cutting of the Nile would also have contributed to the changes in the economic system. Elsewhere in the Nile Valley, however, the system based on intensive exploitation of seasonally available foods may have persisted throughout the Late Paleolithic.
Wadi Maghara
Wadi Maghara ("Valley of the Caves" in Arabic) is located in South Sinai (28°54′ N, 33°22′ E), about 19km east of the Gulf of Suez; it lies in a mountainous sandstone region containing ancient and modern turquoise mines. During the Old, Middle and New Kingdom periods, Egyptian expeditions either crossed the Eastern Desert and the Red Sea, or traversed the Wadi Tumilat, the Isthmus of Suez and the coastline of West Sinai to reach el-Merkha Bay, and then followed Wadi Sidri and its tributary Wadi Iqneh to arrive at Maghara. Egyptian texts at Maghara refer to this region as the "Terraces of the Turquoise" (^rf>,,,, mflJrj.
Since Seetzen’s rediscovery of Maghara in 1809 many travelers have visited this region. The first significant explorations at Maghara include Richard Lepsius’s 1845 expedition to Sinai, the residence of Major C.K.Macdonald at Maghara between 1854 and 1866, mining turquoise and making squeezes of Egyptian rock inscriptions, and the British Ordnance Survey in 1868-9. Captain Weill published two volumes concerning pharaonic activity in South Sinai, and accompanied Flinders Petrie’s 1904-5 Sinai expedition, during which Petrie excavated settlement areas and mines and recorded inscriptions at Maghara. The Harvard University Expedition visited Maghara in 1932, noting numerous Nabataean graffiti in Wadi Qena. Many Israeli archaeological surveys of the Sinai peninsula occurred between 1967 and 1982, including one in 1968 by Rothenberg who explored Maghara; a Tel Aviv University expedition in 1970 which planned the mining camps at Maghara; and visits by Giveon, who rediscovered the second inscription of Sekhemkhet in 1973 and found two new Old Kingdom texts in 1978. In 1978, Stone recorded many Greek and Nabataean inscriptions in the region, including an Armenian pilgrim inscription at Maghara. Valbelle directed a survey of South Sinai in 1987, during which J.M.Vingon and M.Chartier-Raymond mapped the hilltop settlement at Maghara and excavated one structure.
The first evidence for a direct Egyptian presence in South Sinai occurs during the Old Kingdom at Maghara and consists of two settlement areas and twenty-five hieroglyphic rock inscriptions near the turquoise mines. The 3rd Dynasty rock tablets include two of Sanakht, who is depicted smiting an enemy before the jackal god Wepwawet, one of Zoser, who appears beside a goddess, and two virtually identical rock tablets of Sekhemkhet. The 4th Dynasty rock tablets include two of Seneferu, who is depicted striking enemies, and one of Khufu, who is described as "smiting the tribesmen" as he accompanies the deities Wepwawet and Thoth. The 5th Dynasty rock tablets include two of Sahure, who is described as "smiting the Mentju of/and all foreign lands" (and who also appears on a rock tablet at Wadi Kharig to the north); two of Nyusserre, who accompanies a libation vase, Horus of Bcljdet Thoth and a caption ("Thoth, lord of the foreign countries, may he give cool water"); one of Menkauhor; and three of Djedkare-Isesi. One of Djedkare-Isesi’s texts records an expedition’s arrival at the "Terraces of the Turquoise" during the year after the third cattle census (which usually occurred every second year), while another tablet depicts the king "smiting the chief of the foreign land" during the ninth year of the cattle census. The 6th Dynasty rock tablets contain a text of Pepi I which dates to the year after the eighteenth cattle census, and an inscription of Pepi II which dates to the year of the second cattle census. The remaining eight Old Kingdom rock tablets encompass three graffiti (including two of Administrators of a Foreign Land discovered by Giveon in 1978), a fragmentary text listing an expedition of 1,400(?) men, a 5th(?) Dynasty graffito of a controller of officials, and three 5th/6th Dynasty graffiti.
The main Old Kingdom settlement at Maghara lay on the summit of a 59m high hill in Wadi Iqneh. It contained 125 rough stone structures with large amounts of wood ash, Old Kingdom potsherds and a copper borer. Chartier-Raymond’s 1987 excavation of a six-chambered house (Building A) and its exterior passage produced some vessel sherds (of Nile Valley clays) which date from the Old Kingdom and the late Middle Kingdom to the Second Intermediate Period. This settlement was accessed by a stone staircase on the hill’s northern edge, while a stone wall extending westward across the wadi from the hill’s northern end probably formed a defense against hostile bedouins (who are depicted in the smiting scenes).
The rock ledges at the western foot of the hill fort yielded numerous Old Kingdom potsherds, while a wide shoal further to the west produced well-built stone structures. These structures had straight walls with smoothed faces, and contained some turquoise, large quantities of copper slag and smelting waste, copper ore chips, numerous crucible fragments, hammerstones (for crushing ores), a broken ingot mold, numerous Old Kingdom potsherds and some Middle Kingdom pottery. Two nearby large refuse heaps produced hundreds of flint tools such as flakes, blades, awls and scrapers. The slag heaps and vicinity of the mines yielded hundreds of turquoise fragments, many stone pounders, picks, mauls and hammerstones, but lacked copper ore and flint tools. The use of stone tools and copper chisels is attested by marks on the walls of the turquoise mine galleries.
Egyptian mining expeditions returned to South Sinai during the Middle Kingdom, leaving at least twenty rock inscriptions at Maghara. One of three inscriptions dating to year 2 of Amenemhat III depicts this king before Hathor and Thoth and mentions the dispatch of 734 men to collect "copper and turquoise" under the command of the Chief Chamberlain of the Treasury, Khentekhtayhotep-Khenomsu. Other texts dating to years 20+, 30, 41, 42 and 43 of Amenemhat III mention the opening of turquoise galleries, list expedition members and titles, request invocation offerings for the kas of expedition members, and refer to Hathor ("Lady of the Turquoise Country"), Sopdu ("Lord of the East"), Ptah ("South of his Wall") and a deified King Seneferu. Three texts date to year 6 of Amenemhat IV. The remaining Middle Kingdom inscriptions include five hieroglyphic texts and two graffiti in hieratic, a 12th Dynasty stela (no. 500) to the north of Maghara. A Middle Kingdom stone structure lay to the west of the hilltop settlement; it contains five chambers with a storage pit in the center of each room. Three pits contained a lining of grinding stones and Middle Kingdom storejars and small bowls. The rooms yielded large amounts of copper slag, smelting scraps, crucible fragments, crushed ore in a crucible, charcoal, two tips from copper chisels/picks, many hammerstones, and numerous shells and echini (sea-urchin) spines.
KEY TO MAGHARA: *=Exact location unknown
DYNASTY III (2705-2630 BC)
1=Sanakht (inscr. no. 3)
2=Sanakht (inscr. no. 4)
*=Zoser (Inscr. no. 2)
3=Sekhemkhet (Inscr. no. 1)
23=Sekhemkhet (2nd Inscr.)
Absent kings: Khaba and Huni
DYNASTY IV (2630-2524 BC)
4=Seneferu (Inscr. no. 5)
5=Seneferu (Inscr. no. 6)
6=Khufu (Inscr. no. 7)
Absent kings: Radjedef, Khafre, Menkaure and Shepseskaf
DYNASTY V (2524-2400 BC)
Absent king: Userkaf
7=Sahure (Inscr. no. 8)
*=Sahure (Inscr. no. 9)
Absent kings: Meferirkare-Kakai, Shepseskare-Isi and Meferefre
8=Nyussere-Ini (Inscr. no. 10)
*=Nyussere-Ini (Inscr. no. 11) South of Old Kingdom tablets
9=Menkauhor-Ikauhor (no. 12)
*=Djedkare-Isesi (Inscr. no. 13) North of point 8
*=Djedkare-Isesi (Inscr. no. 14)
*=Djedkare-Isesi (Inscr. no. 15) South of point 9
Absent king: Unas
DYNASTY VI (2400-2250 BC)
Absent kings: Tety and Userkare
*=Pepi I Meryre (Inscr. no. 16) South of point 9
Absent king: Merenre I Antyemsaf
*=Pepi II (Inscr. no. 17)
Absent kings: Merenre II Antymsaf and Queen Mitocris
OLD KINGDOM (2705-2250 BC)
*=Rock Inscriptions nos. 18-22, and two new ones south of point 9
10=125 huts/settlement on hill (200 feet above wadi)
11=Occupation debris: Old Kingdom pottery sherds at foot of hill
12=Stone structures with traces of copper processing
13=Waste heap A (contained flint tools)
14=Waste heap B (contained flint tools)
15="Old Kingdom" Wall across wadi
*=Mine waste heaps (Contained mining tools, and lacked the tool types found within the settlement debris)
DYNASTY XII (1991-1783 BC)
Absent kings: Amenemhet I, Senwosret I, Senwosret II, Amenemhet II and Senwosret III
16=Amenemhat III (Inscr. no. 23): Location?
17=Amenemhat III (Inscr. no. 24-5): year 2
*=Amenemhat III (Inscr. no. 26): year 30
18=Amenemhat III (Inscr. no. 27): year 41
18=Amenemhat III (Inscr. no. 28-9): year 42
18=Amenemhat III (Inscr. no. 30): year 43
*=Amenemhat III (Inscr. no. 31-2): year 20
18=Amenemhat IV (Inscr. no. 33-35): year 6
Absent ruler: Queen Sobekneferu
MIDDLE KINGDOM (1991-1787 BC)
19=Middle Kingdom (Inscr. nos. 38-41)
*=Middle Kingdom (Inscr. nos. 37, 42 and 43)
*=Middle Kingdom (Stela no. 500)
20=Structure with five rooms and a central pit (in which pottery jars and bowls were found)
21=Dynasty 12 mine ("XII" on Petrie’s 1906 Map)
PROTO-SINAITIC INSCRIPTION:
*=One Proto-Sinaitic Inscription discovered by H.Palmer 1868-9 (Inscr. no. 348: now lost)
DYNASTY XVHI-XIX (1552-1188 BC)
22=Hatshepsut and Tuthmose III (Inscr. no. 44) found near a New Kingdom mine
*=Ramesses II stela (Inscr. no. 45) Reported by Ebers
NEW INSCRIPTIONS:
23=Sekhemkhet inscription (rediscovered 1973) 35 metres north of Inscription no. 1
24=Old Kingdom inscription (R.Giveon: 1978)
*=Old Kingdom inscription (R.Giveon: 1978) 500 metres north of Old Kingdom Wadi Wall
*=Armenian Pilgrim inscription (M.Stone: 1979) c. 7th to 10th Century AD
Figure 129 Location of recorded scripts at Wadi Maghara, Sinai
An inscription that may date to either the Middle Kingdom or the 18th Dynasty requests future travelers to this "mining region" to give invocation offerings and libations and burn incense for the kas of three officials, in exchange for a safe return home and rewards from Hathor and Thoth. Evidence for New Kingdom activity at Maghara is limited. One rock stela dates to year 16 of Hatshepsut and Tuthmose III, and depicts Tuthmose III offering bread to Hathor, "Lady of the Turquoise," while Hatshepsut presents wine to Sopdu, "Lord of the East." Eber’s report of a stela of Ramesses II remains unconfirmed.
