Archaeological Implications of Differences in the Composition of Nile Sediments

Abstract

The ability to distinguish Nile sediments from different time periods and different sources allows identification of sediments at different archaeological sites. Nile river sediments representing a range of geological ages from Predynastic sites at Hierakonpolis were analyzed by instrumental neutron activation analysis. Some Nile sediments and the Egyptian pottery produced from them can be distinguished on the basis of the relative distributions of the lanthanides. Other groups of sediments are chemically similar but have differences due to "dilution" by sand (mostly quartz). Fractions of Nile sediments separated on the basis of size showed that most of the trace elements were in the fine-grained fraction, but the trace elements in the sand-size fraction seemed to reflect the relative contributions of the different Nile tributaries and the geology of the drainage basins.

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