Appendix A: Archaeological Work in the Faiyum

The Faiyum area has been visited since the early 1800s (and even before) by travellers including French herbalist Paul Lucas (1714), Richard Pococke (1743), Dr P.D. Martin (1801) Linant de Bellefonds (1818-1828), and Paul Lenoir (1872). It has been inspected by both archaeologists and geologists and continues to receive attention from both. Related areas (E.G. Merimda, el-Omari, Maadi) were also the subject of early studies and are shown in the Bibliography. See the Bibliography for full details, but the main investigations of the Faiyum include:

Dates	Project	Excavators	Discoveries	Comment
1934 (Surveys 1924,’25 ’26,’27, ‘28)	Combined British School of Archaeology in Egypt and the Royal Anthropological Institute Survey	Caton Thompson and Gardner (and Huyazzin)	Numerous Neolithic and Epipalaeolithic sites, northern Faiyum. Small samples of an industry with late Levalloisian traits	The Epipalaeolithic was  wrongly interpreted as a late Neolithic industry.
1966-1968	Institute of Palethnology (University of Rome) Survey	Puglisi et al	Ten surface concentrations dating to Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic	Focused on the north-east of modern Birket Qarun. Found an Epipalaeolithic industry which is not 100% consistent with the Qarunian
1968-1969	Combined Prehistoric Expedition	Wendorf, Schild, Said et al	A number of Epipalaeolithic, Neolithic and Early Dynastic concentrations in the northern Faiyum	Discovered and identified changes in the lake and tied this into settlement activities, obtaining C14 dates.
1980s	Faiyum Survey Project	Wenke et al	Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic	Two sites (FS2 and FS1) in particular are of value and importance
1986	Polish Mission	Ginter and Kozlowski	Epipalaeolithc and Neolithic	Classification of some of their Epipalaeolithic finds as Moerian

Geological Work in the Faiyum

Investigations of the Faiyum, and fluctuations of Lake Qarun (after Hassan 1980)

Period		Date of Publication	Investigator	Geomorphology	Archaeology
Classical Period		450 BC	Herodotus	Reported a 13,000 km sq lake, 13 times the present size	Believed at the time to have been excavated by King Moeris as a reservoir backfilling into the Nile
		?	Strabo, Diadorus, Pliny	Confirmed the existence of the lake	Under the Ptolemies, the level of the lake dropped due to land reclamation projects
Classical Consensus
British Imperial Period	1886		Shewinfirth	Recognised several ancient shorelines
	1892		Brown	Postulated a lake at 19-25m asl from earliest times through the dynastic period
	1905 – 1918		Beadnell, Petrie, Wilcocks	All confirmed Brown’s views. Beadnell (1905) identified deposits from the Pleistocene lake at 22m
	First Modern Consensus
	1934 (Surveys 1924,’25 ’26,’27, ‘28)		Caton Thompson and Gardner	Postulated: A Pleistocene lake 40m asl in the Middle Palaeolithic Subsequent level falls and severs the Nile connection Nile re-enters at the beginning of the Neolithic resettlement Continued shrinkage which produced low levels in the Dynastic	Identified Neolithic settlement (“Faiyum A”) The Qarunian “Faiyum B” was identified as a post Faiyum A Neolithic Settlement
	1929		Sandford and Arkell	Agreed with Caton Thompson and Gardner on many points and postulated that Postulated a late Palaeolithic level of 34m asl Identified beaches falling from Mousterian, consistent with falling lake Lake drains into Nile then rises to 18m asl in the Neolithic	Identified a number of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic industries
	1939		Ball	Evaluated existing evidence and produced a synthesis of the known information
	1940		Caton-Thompson and Huzayyin	Reaffirmed Caton-Thompson and Gardner’s 1934 results.  Postulated that Lake Qarun was a fresh water lake on the basis of mollusc species	Reaffirmed Neolithic.
	Pre World War II Consensus
	1972-1976		Wendorf, Schild and Said Combined Prehistoric Expedition	Postulated: A Pleistocene lake A subsequent lake predating the Neolithic Several distinct lake stages of pre-Neolithic lake Palaeo-Moeris Premoeris Protomoeris Lake levels rose in the Neolithic Lake level 23m asl in Old Kingdom	Concluded: Neolithic occupation took place during rising lake levels Caton-Thompson and Gardeners falling lake hypothesis based on false assumptions and resulted in incorrect conclusions about the Qarunian Qarunian was an Epipalaeolithic industry
	1986		Hassan	Confirms Wendorf and Schild and: Identifies two Holocene lakes, Palaeo, Pre and Protomoeris Palaeo, Pre falls to below 12m asl, then rises to 19-24m asl marking the beginning of the Protomoeris	Proposed chronology for Epipalaeolithic, Neolithic and Predynastic correlated with lake levels Confirms high lake levels in the Old Kingdom
Hassan’s 1986 Chronology Establishes Current Status

Information about Dynastic lake levels in the Faiyum was postulated by Shafei (1940, 1960) and Butzer (1976).