An international team of researchers has made a significant discovery in the ancient hydraulic engineering of the Nile Valley. They found an extensive network of stone walls, referred to as “river groins,” along the River Nile in Egypt and Sudan. These walls have revealed an exceptionally long-lasting form of hydraulic engineering and connectivity between ancient Nubia and Egypt. The study was conducted collaboratively by the British Museum’s Amara West Research Project and the Sudanese National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums and published in Geoarchaeology.
Dr. Matthew Dalton of The University of Western Australia, the lead author, said that they used multiple methods, including satellite imagery, drone and ground surveys, and historical sources, to locate almost 1,300 river groins between the 1st and 4th Cataracts in Egypt and Sudan. The Aswan High Dam reservoir has submerged many of these river groins, but they were able to relocate them through travellers’ diaries from the 19th century, a 200-year-old map, and archives of aerial photographs, some of which were taken by the Royal Air Force in 1934.
Most of the river groins are currently located in ancient dry Nile channels that are now desert areas. As the study’s co-author, Professor Jamie Woodward of The University of Manchester, stated, “We know that reaches of the Nile in Sudan had multiple channels earlier in the Holocene, and many of them dried out when river flows decreased due to climate change.”
The research team performed radiocarbon and luminescence dating to establish that some walls in the ancient channels are more than 3000 years old. Fertile silts that were trapped by these walls during the Nile’s annual inundation enabled crops to grow on the reclaimed land without artificial irrigation. Radiometric dating suggests that indigenous Nubian communities and the inhabitants of towns established later by the ancient Egyptian state first undertook this form of landscape engineering.
Dr. Dalton stated, “From speaking with farmers in Sudanese Nubia, we also learned that river groins continued to be built as recently as the 1970s, and that the land formed by some walls is still cultivated today. This incredibly long-lived hydraulic technology played a crucial role in enabling communities to grow food and thrive in the challenging landscapes of Nubia for over 3000 years.”
The researchers also discovered much larger stone walls within the Nile. Some were up to five meters thick and 200 meters long and served as barrages that directed river flow and facilitated boat navigation through Nile rapids.
Dr. Neal Spencer, the deputy director at the Fitzwilliam Museum (University of Cambridge) and Director of the Amara West Research Project, commented, “This study shows how interdisciplinary research can provide insights into enduring traditions, technologies, and agricultural practices within Nubia, balancing the inherently biased information in the ancient Egyptian textual record.”
More information:
Matthew Dalton et al, Three thousand years of river channel engineering in the Nile Valley, Geoarchaeology (2023). DOI: 10.1002/gea.21965
Citation:
Walls along River Nile reveal ancient form of hydraulic engineering (2023, June 13)
retrieved 13 June 2023
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