26th February 2008

The Endangered Faiyum
By Geoffrey Tassie

As already highlighted in the ECHO news article Faiyumi Sites to be placed on Tourist Map, the Faiyum Depression has been selected for development. These plans were originally formulated in 2005, by the Minister of Tourism, Ahmed el-Maghrabi and the Minister of Environment, Engineer Maged George. These plans were devised to boost environmental tourism, particularly in the Western Desert, the Bahariya Oasis and the Faiyum. These plans for the development of eco-tourism are also intended to encourage the development of communities and aid economic progress in the surrounding areas. This proposed development of the north Faiyum is compounded by the building of the 1,200 km Desert Development Corridor “superhighway” running from El-Aleman in the north to Lake Nasser in the South. A rail-track will run parallel to the superhighway. Twelve East-West connectors are planned to connect the superhighway to the main centres of population, one of which is the Faiyum Branch connector. This project is designed to promote the development of the desert north of the Faiyum depression by establishing sites for tourism, new communities and agricultural areas. It also would allow an extension to the west of the Depression for the establishment of industries such as cement production.

 It is unclear if a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been conducted in the region. However, it is clear that a report on the Wadi Rayyan was passed to the Egyptian Prime Minister, Dr. Ahmed Nazif, which asserted that this area houses several geological components, water springs and rare fossils as well as a great number of whale skeletons dating back 40 million years. A committee comprising of the ministries of higher education, environmental and foreign affairs, the Faiyum Governorate and a number of Egyptian universities experts are involved in drawing up a comprehensive plan for boosting investment in the natural and archaeological sites in the whole of the Faiyum Governorate. The UNESCO World Heritage site of Wadi al-Hitan (Whale Valley) has already opened as a tourist attraction for eco-tourists. This site has an excellent site management plan in place to prevent tourists damaging the fossils and region as a whole . However, the Arabic press in Egypt has recently reported that the Ministry of Tourism is actively seeking companies and individuals to help with the development of the north Faiyum shore. In real terms, this will result in the building of accommodation and infrastructure.

The excellent preservation of the Ptolemaic to Roman period site of Kom Aushim,
which is now in need of conservation due to erosion and digging for mud-brick (sebakhin)

The northern shore of Lake Qarun in the Faiyum Depression, from Kom Aushim in the east to Quta in the west is one of the most archaeologically sensitive areas in Egypt. It is one of the few places in the world where a nearly pristine archaeological landscape can be studied. Not only is it archaeologically important, but it is rich in fossils of extinct animals and contains a petrified forest. The discovery in the 1920s of Neolithic (5,200 and 4,500 BC) and Epi-Palaeolithic (7,200-6,200 BC) sites in this region by Gertrude Caton-Thompson and Elinor W. Gardiner rank amongst the most important in the history of Egyptology. The recent re-investigation of the K-Pits and the area up to the Z-Basin by Dr. Willeke Wendrich and her team from UCLA-RUG has added much needed information on the Neolithic. After boreholes produced evidence of settlement remains 1 km away from the K-Pits at the end of 2006 the UCLA-RUG team decided to rent a six-acre area from local farmers, who had been cultivating the area since the 1960s, so that they could continue to conduct their work in future seasons. This site has subsequently been protected by the SCA. The most recent UCLA-RUG investigations have now located a substantial settlement in the region, which although Caton-Thompson originally investigated it in 1925, the team using the geophysical method of magnetometry to conduct a sub-surface survey of the region found it to be a much larger, possibly permanent, settlement than previous investigations had indicated. Test pits also revealed that as well as the normal Neolithic package (sheep, goat, wheat and barley) pig bones were also present, along with simple dwellings indicated by clay floors and nearby hearths. Although no evidence has so far come to light, one of the most important finds would be the existence of a cemetery, for up until the time of this discovery only two burials had been found in the Faiyum, one to the North of Lake Qarun and the other to the West. These initial investigations are showing that the Neolithic of the Faiyum has various stratified periods of Neolithic occupation. For more on the Epi-Palaeolithic and Neolithic sites of the Faiyum visit Andie Byrnes excellent website on the subject at http://www.faiyum.com

As well as these Epi-Palaeolithic and Neolithic remains are Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, Ptolemaic and Roman sites. The UCLA-RUG team have also been investigating the Roman site of Qarat el-Rusa using Magnetometry to build a complete map of the site. This sub-surface survey revealed the existence of a network of walls and pathways. Test pits have confirmed the existence of walls and houses in mud-brick and blocks of dressed limestone, as well as a large quantity of pottery and the foundations of ovens and grain stores.  The team are also conducting site management work at the Ptolemaic to Roman period site of Kom Aushim (Karanis). As part of this research the team are determining the exact boundaries of the site using magnetometry and have found a previously unidentified industrial area. Unfortunately the Cairo-Faiyum motorway cuts the main settlement off from its cemetery, where mud-brick pyrimidions cover the graves with the owners’ names written on them. The area of the cemetery is an area that reports say has been sold off for commercial development, hopefully the site management plans can fence off the area and prevent the cemetery from being destroyed. An ancient small river or a pool has also been located, but it is not yet certain whether the stream had a renewable water source at the time when the settlement was flourishing. Kom Aushim is in close proximity to Caton-Thompson’s Site I, which has similar Neolithic remains to the famous Kom K and Kom W, and it is hoped that the team may re-locate this site as part of their survey, for Caton-Thompson was prevented from excavating this site when the University of Michigan got the concession to excavate Karanis.

The towering walls of the Ptolemaic to Roman city of Dimai

Also located on the northern shore of Lake Qarun are the Middle Kingdom temple at Qasr Sagha and the towering Ptolemaic to Roman period structures of Dimai, and although they are impressive, the archaeological knowledge they impart is secondary in importance when compared to that gained from the Neolithic and Epi-Palaeolithic sites in the region,. To put this in perspective, if the sites of Dimai or Qasr Sagha were located in England, the USA, or even Italy, they would probably be inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. This is because the amount of Neolithic and Epi-Palaeolithic sites found outside of the Faiyum in Egypt’s Nile Valley is minimal – Badari, Merimde Ben Salame, Sais, Omari, Maadi and only a handful of others. This makes the Faiyum sites particularly precious to archaeology.
 

The Middle Kingdom temple at Qasr Sagha

The number of archaeological sites to the north of Lake Qarun amounts to:

1.Palaeolithic = 3
2.Epi-Palaeolithic = 19
3.Neolithic = 36
4.Predynastic = 4
5.Old Kingdom = 19
6.Middle Kingdom = 2
7.Ptolemaic = 24
8.Roman  = 13

These figures do not include sites to the northwest of Lake Qarun, which is an area commonly termed the Empty Quarter, because from Quta in the west to Qasr Sagha, minimal archaeological investigation has been conducted. It is hoped that if funding can be procured that ECHO members will conduct an archaeological survey in the region later this year. Unconfirmed rumours indicate that this area to the northwest has already been purchased by developers, so the urgency of this survey may be particularly acute. It is expected that sites will be discovered in this region which are of equal or greater importance to those under investigation to the northeast of Lake Qarun for the understanding of the beginnings of Egyptian civilisation.

It is uncertain what form the development of the northern shore of the Faiyum will take, but it is certain that watching briefs are essential for any development in the area. Consultation with archaeological bodies such as the EAIS, the SCA and CultNat are crucial if the destruction of major settlements such as Kom W are to be avoided.

An ancient calcified tree to the southwest of Qasr Sagha

Tragically, it seems that it is already too late for some sites, such as Kom K, that are already in the midst of modern agricultural development projects. Moreover, the bringing of any tourists to the area puts not only the known sites at great risk, but may destroy evidence of sites which are yet to be discovered. Unless the tours are strictly managed and all the tourists are carefully briefed and monitored it could result in lithics and potsherds being removed (which is a criminal offense) by unsuspecting tourists who want a souvenir of their visit. Taking tourists to fragile sites in the Eastern and Western Deserts has resulted in appalling intentional vandalism as well as the careless and harmful handling of rock art. Rather than preserving the past, the opening up of the north shore of the Faiyum to eco-tourism may have the opposite of the desired effect, for it may destroy the very thing that the tourists want to see and archaeologists wish to preserve: the origins of one of the world’s earliest and greatest civilisations.