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THE TRUTH BEHIND THE ALLEGED DISCOVERY OF A NEOLITHIC 'CITY'IN EGYPT'S FAIYUM OASIS A New Report by Andrew Collins
London, Thursday, 31 January 2008: Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) announce the discovery of a 7,000-year-old city in the Faiyum Oasis in northern Egypt. The discovery, made public on Tuesday, 29 January, was apparently made by a team of US and Dutch archaeologists working close to the Birket Qarun lake, the Lake Moeris of antiquity. The prehistoric settlement, located at Kom Aushim, close to the ruins of a newly discovered Graeco-Roman village, is thought to have been constructed by Egypt's 'first farmers', who thrived in the region between 5200 and 4500 BC. According to Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the SCA: 'An electromagnetic survey revealed the existence in the Karanis region of a network of walls and roads similar to those constructed during the Greco-Roman period.' Hawass
goes on to say that the site consists mainly of 'walls and houses in terracotta
or dressed limestone as well as a large quantity of pottery and the foundations
of ovens and grain stores.' Much of the settlement remains buried beneath the sands of Egypt. Excavations are under way, with further announcements expected in due course. For
the original report from the Egyptian news agency AFP/MENA click here
"The discovery [of the city] was made by a University of California (UCLA) team in the area of Kom Aushim. In the area there were the remains of settlement structures made of mudbrick and decorated blocks of granite. They also found various types of vessel and stone tools. The remains were covered with a layer of calcium carbonate, which indicates that they had at some stage been covered by the waters of Lake Qarun." Click here to read the full story. Thanks to Chris Ogilvie Herald for first bringing this story to my attention, and suggesting its implications.
So in summary, no Neolithic city has been found. It was all a confusion created by the Egyptian press agency originally responsible for releasing the information offered by the SCA. To help understand what really was found, read the following from Egypt's respectable Al-Aharm Weekly: "In order to understand the layout of the Qaret Al-Rusas Roman village, on the northeastern side of Lake Qaroun, without excavating it, the mission carried a magnetic survey. The map shows clear wall lines and streets in an orthogonal pattern typical of the Graeco-Roman period. The village has well-preserved Roman remains of decorated limestone blocks and traces of mud-brick walls which show up in two robber trenches." See
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/883/he2.htm So
the magnetic survey relates not to the Neolithic settlement, but to the Graeco-Roman
'village'. Then we read separately of what has emerged from the same site dating
to the Neolithic era:
"Archaeologists
from UCLA and the University of Groningen (RUG) in the Netherlands have found
the earliest evidence ever discovered of an ancient Egyptian agricultural settlement,
including farmed grains, remains of domesticated animals, pits for cooking and
even floors for what appear to be dwellings. "The
findings, which were unearthed in 2006 and are still being analyzed, also suggest
possible trade links with the Red Sea, including a thoroughfare from Mesopotamia,
which is known to have practiced agriculture 2,000 years before ancient Egypt." As newly released photos show, there is no evidence of a Neolithic 'city', and it is unlikely that one will be found.
This
said, we hold out hope that out of this confusion, some kind of major discovery
is still possible at the site of the Neolithic settlement, but until then we can
only wish the archaeologists involved every success in their work.
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