Abstract
The Nile: river of civilization, river of meeting.
Dr. Bruno Marcolongo
National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Applied Geology (CNR – IRPI)
A river is the most tangible expression of the earth surface dynamics, in other words one could say of the “mineral domain” mobility, which incorrectly is seen by most of the people as the realm of statics and permanence. Earth surface at first uplifted by endogenous forces (tectonics, orogenetic, seismic ones) is then cut and eroded by atmospheric agents and gravity force to be leveled again, by filling up of plains and lowlands to the detriment of hilly reliefs (normal cycle of erosion, after William M. Davis, 1922).
In this way the great rivers, the “sacred rivers” of the symbolic tradition of various cultures and particularly the Nile (but also Tigris, Euphrates, Indus, Ganges, Saraswati, etc.), physically form the central link of an endless water cycle (recalling “Uroboros”, hen to pan) connecting sky and earth through descending movements (rainfall, surface runoff, ground infiltration) and ascending movements (capillary ascent, evapo-transpiration, evaporation and sublimation).
Relationship between human settlements, water courses and more in general water bodies is very tight indeed.
The major and older civilizations of the past, as the Egyptian one, are “potamic” and many archaeological sites, today rediscovered in areas mostly desert and dry ones, are lying along the banks of palaeo-rivers or in their vicinity, being these ancient water-courses at the time of occupation and flowering of the sites themselves an indispensable resource of sustenance together with a natural route to convoy goods, ideas and last but not least political and military power. Moreover, on a cultural level, palaeo-rivers were contextually associated with a sacred universe, of which they were expression through alternate manifestations of benevolence (abundant discharge and deposition of fertile silt in the neighboring alluvial plain) or punishment (overwhelming and destructive floods).
The simple and nearly obvious methodological concept that archaeological sites must be inserted in their synchronic environmental context (that is they must be located on thematic maps showing the hydrographic network coeval with the period of occupation studied) has not been always applied during the past decades. Only in the last years a correct geo-archaeological approach of paleo-environmental reconstruction and analysis of the relations between old settlement models and natural resources became accepted and applied extensively.
The Nile, river which with its rhythmic breath of flooding and withdrawal of waters in the alluvial plain of lower Egypt matches the deep yearly breath of the nature and the regular celestial bodies motion, has taken on a sacred connotation since proto-historic times and among all the cultures grown along its axis from upstream down to the delta.
Outstanding examples of geo-archaeological reconnaissance will be presented concerning various stretches of the Nile’s course (upstream of the 3rd Cataract of Kerma and of the 6th Cataract of Sabaloka; downstream near Maadi and in the eastern portion of the delta), for discussing integrated procedures of data collection and analysis and proposing a project of mapping the entire course of Nile vulnerability and risk (human and natural hazards).
