Résumés
The former city of Avaris is one of the biggest in the Nile delta. The city was the capital of the Hyksos kings who ruled Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, around 1650-1550 BC. The city was built on the edge of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile River, in the middle of a complex anabranching river system. Historical sources mention the existence of a fluvial harbour in Avaris. This large town required a harbour complex to fulfil its economic and military role. Until recently, the precise location of Avaris’ harbour basin was unclear. A pluridisciplinary project was set up in order to locate this harbour, by implementing various methods and tools. This project was part of a broader study of the palaeo-landscape of the whole city that provided us with a better knowledge of the palaeo-environment and its depositional processes. We were able to suggest the most likely area where a harbour could have been built. Extensive geomagnetic surveys backed the sedimentary boreholes analysis in order to get a precise image of the harbour basin, also helped by archaeological findings. The relationships between the basin and the Nile were also explored, especially a small channel linking the harbour to the main river as well as another one connecting it to a secondary channel of the Pelusiac branch at the south. We used OSL dating to reconstruct the history of the harbour, from the natural formation of a favourable geomorphologic site to its adaptation and maintenance by man during the apogee of the Hyksos capital.
L’ancienne cité d’Avaris est l’une des plus importantes du delta du Nil. Durant la Deuxième période intermédiaire, aux environs de 1650-1550 av. J.-C., elle fut la capitale des souverains hyksôs qui régnèrent sur l’Égypte. La ville fut construite au bord de la branche pélusiaque du Nil antique. Les sources historiques mentionnent la présence du port fluvial d’Avaris, une installation indispensable pour que la ville puisse assurer ses fonctions économiques et militaires. Cependant, jusqu’ici, l’emplacement du ou des bassin(s) portuaire(s) d’Avaris restait inconnu. Un projet interdisciplinaire a été lancé afin de combler ce manque. Diverses techniques et méthodes d’analyse ont été mises en œuvre. La connaissance préalable des différents environnements de sédimentation et du paléo-paysage d’Avaris en général a permis le repérage de l’emplacement le plus probable de son port. La combinaison des prospections géomagnétiques, de preuves archéologiques et de plusieurs campagnes de carottages, a permis d’établir la configuration du bassin et de mettre en évidence sa relation avec le fleuve, notamment l’existence de chenaux d’accès. Plusieurs datations OSL ont permis la reconstitution de l’histoire du port, depuis la mise en place naturelle d’une zone géomorphologiquement favorable à ce type d’implantation, jusqu’à sa mise en valeur artificielle durant l’apogée d’Avaris.
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Ce document sera publié en ligne en texte intégral en avril 2014.
Plan
Introduction
The study area: an anastomosing fluvial landscape
Methods
Location and characterisation of the harbour of Avaris
Stratigraphy
The central depression compared to the other river areas
The Pleistocene substratum and the pre-Pelusiac transition layer
A thick organic layer with a societal imprint: the harbour of Avaris
Shape of the basin
Geophysical and archaeological insights
Data derived from the drillings
Accessing the harbour from the Nile: the two entrances
Stratigraphy of the north-western entrance
Proof of the existence of the south-eastern entrance
The Horemheb wall, a testimony of changes made to the harbour?
Conclusions
Aperçu du texte
Introduction
The Austrian Archaeological Institute has studied the ancient city of Avaris, near the modern village of Tell el Dab’a, since 1966 (Bietak, 1975). The city, capital of the Hyksos during their reign over Egypt (2nd Intermediate Period, between 1674 and 1548 BC), is located at the eastern margin of the Nile delta (fig. 1). The city was built near the now defunct Pelusiac branch of the Nile (Stanley et al., 1993). The disappearance of the Pelusiac branch is one of the many hydrogeomorphologic changes of the delta that took place at various spatial scales, some being natural (avulsions, sedimentation of abandoned channels), and others being anthropogenic (bank stabilisation, etc.; Coutellier and Stanley, 1987). Avulsions of the channels, maybe cyclical as in most anastomosing systems (Nanson and Knighton, 1996; Makaske, 2001), led to a changing landscape that had to be adapted by man to suit its needs (Tronchère, 2010). On a more regional scale, the delta itself forms a larg...
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Référence papier
Hervé Tronchère, Jean-Philippe Goiran, Laurent Schmitt, Frank Preusser, Manfred Bietak, Irene Forstner-Müller et Yann Callot, « Geoarchaeology of an ancient fluvial harbour: Avaris and the Pelusiac branch (Nile River, Egypt) », Géomorphologie : relief, processus, environnement, 1/2012 | 2012, 23-36.
Référence électronique
Hervé Tronchère, Jean-Philippe Goiran, Laurent Schmitt, Frank Preusser, Manfred Bietak, Irene Forstner-Müller et Yann Callot, « Geoarchaeology of an ancient fluvial harbour: Avaris and the Pelusiac branch (Nile River, Egypt) », Géomorphologie : relief, processus, environnement [En ligne], 1/2012 | 2012, mis en ligne le 01 avril 2014, consulté le 20 mai 2013. URL : http://geomorphologie.revues.org/9701 ; DOI : 10.4000/geomorphologie.9701
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Auteurs
UMR 5133 Archéorient - Université Lyon 2 - 7, rue Raulin - 69007 Lyon - France (herve.tronchere@mom.fr).
UMR 5133 Archéorient - Université Lyon 2 - 7, rue Raulin - 69007 Lyon - France.
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