The origin and use of basalt in Old Kingdom funerary temples

Abstract

Conventional petrographic analysis suggests that basalts in Old Kingdom funerary temples are mineralogically and texturally similar to the Haddadin basalt flow of northern Egypt. To affirm that the Haddadin flow is the stone source, a total of 88 augite and 74 plagioclase electron microprobe analyses were obtained from two Abu Sir (Sahure, Fifth Dynasty) and three Giza (Khufu, Fourth Dynasty) temple paving stone samples and compared to all known, possible (unaltered), basalt units in Egypt (total of 379 augite and 265 plagioclase analyses). Cluster analysis using the averaged temple paving stone and flow unit mineral chemistry data shows that indeed the paving stones are most similar to the Haddadin flow. Discriminant analysis applied to individual augite and plagioclase analyses substantiates this conclusion. Quarrying of the Haddadin flow, probably at Gebel Qatrani, may have lasted more than 900 years, but production peaked during a 320-year period in the Old Kingdom when funerary temples were being constructed. It is not clear why the Haddadin basalt was so popular, but ease of quarrying (because of columnar jointing), transportability, homogeneity, lack of tectonic joints, religious and symbolic traditions related to color, and resistance to wear may have all been important factors. The methods presented here are applicable to a wide variety of provenance questions involving igneous rocks. More specifically, the discriminant diagrams used to source the temple floor rocks should help in determining the origin of basalts used in other Egyptian artefacts. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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