Book contents
- The Nile Delta
- The Nile Delta
- Copyright page
- For Mona Abaza
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Call Me by My Names
- 3 The Nile Delta before the Pharaohs
- 4 The Khetem-Border-Posts in the Delta during the New Kingdom
- 5 New Land amongst New Rivers?
- 6 The Mareotis Area
- 7 From Memphis to Alexandria
- 8 Growing with the Empire? From Village to Town
- 9 Mapping the Cult of Christian Saints in the Nile Delta from the Fifth to the Ninth Century CE
- 10 Alexandria
- 11 Imperial Power, Tribal Settlement and Fiscal Revolts in the Early Islamic Delta (Seventh to Ninth Century CE)
- 12 The Nile as Nexus
- 13 Water and Prices
- 14 Water Development in the Medieval Western Delta
- 15 The Nile Delta in European Cartography, 1200–1800
- 16 Just Passing Through?
- 17 Reclaiming the Archive
- 18 Short Commentary on Accounting Documents from a Vanishing Cotton Estate (ʿIzba) in the Nile Delta
- Index
- References
5 - New Land amongst New Rivers?
Reconstructing the Ancient Waterscape and Settlement History in the Central Northwestern Delta
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2024
- The Nile Delta
- The Nile Delta
- Copyright page
- For Mona Abaza
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Call Me by My Names
- 3 The Nile Delta before the Pharaohs
- 4 The Khetem-Border-Posts in the Delta during the New Kingdom
- 5 New Land amongst New Rivers?
- 6 The Mareotis Area
- 7 From Memphis to Alexandria
- 8 Growing with the Empire? From Village to Town
- 9 Mapping the Cult of Christian Saints in the Nile Delta from the Fifth to the Ninth Century CE
- 10 Alexandria
- 11 Imperial Power, Tribal Settlement and Fiscal Revolts in the Early Islamic Delta (Seventh to Ninth Century CE)
- 12 The Nile as Nexus
- 13 Water and Prices
- 14 Water Development in the Medieval Western Delta
- 15 The Nile Delta in European Cartography, 1200–1800
- 16 Just Passing Through?
- 17 Reclaiming the Archive
- 18 Short Commentary on Accounting Documents from a Vanishing Cotton Estate (ʿIzba) in the Nile Delta
- Index
- References
Summary
Edward Lane’s view of the northern Delta, first drafted in 1829, describes a desolate, marginal landscape – difficult to get to and lacking in reasons to do so. This view has remained largely unchallenged by Egyptologists for a long time. This chapter puts the north of Egypt at its centre and discusses in particular when and how this region was used. First, we discuss the landscapes of the northern Delta, their diachronic development and the geographic work investigating this part of Egypt. Second, there is an overview of the state of archaeological research in this region. The reasons for the scientific lack of interest for this region in Egyptology will be addressed. Next, we introduce the historiographical hypothesis, which suggests that under the Ptolemies the northern Delta was an area of land reclamation, comparable to what was achieved in the Faiyum. A case study is presented of a region in the central northwestern Delta, which was investigated in a multidisciplinary combination of archaeological surveys, geophysical work on the ground and analysis of remote sensing data. Based on the preliminary results, a reconstruction of the ancient landscape and settlement history is proposed, and the historiographical hypothesis refuted.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Nile DeltaHistories from Antiquity to the Modern Period, pp. 185 - 218Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024