Wadi al-Garf

Wadi al-Garf
Wadi al-Garf
Coordinates	28 ° 53 '  N , 32 ° 39'  E Coordinates: 28 ° 53 '  N , 32 ° 39'  E
Basic data
Country	Egypt

The Wadi al-Garf ( Arabic وادي الجرف, DMG Wādī l-Ǧarf ; also Wadi al-Jarf and Wadi al-Jarf ) is a small valley on the west coast of the Red Sea , on the Gulf of Suez in Egypt . During Pharaonic times it was used as a port for shipping with the Sinai Peninsula in the 4th Dynasty . The archaeological site was discovered in the early 19th century, but more detailed investigations have only been carried out since 2011.

location

The Wadi al-Garf is not far from the south-eastern end of the Wadi Araba , a wide mountain cut and an important connecting route between the northern Nile valley and the Red Sea. It is located 24 km south of the modern city of Zafarana . About 10 km to the southwest is the Paulus Monastery , which is connected to the site via the Wadi ed-Deir . The Gulf of Suez has a width of 50 km at this point. To the east-northeast of Wadi al-Garf, on the opposite side of the sea, near al-Marcha, the fortified Ras Budran goods transshipment point was recently discovered, which also dates to the Old Kingdom and most likely served as a port of call for ships leaving from Wadi al-Garf. Ras Budran, on the other hand, is not far from the most important mining areas for copper and turquoise on the Sinai Peninsula. Less than 50 km away are Wadi Maghara to the southeast and the temple complex of Serabit al-Chadim to the east .

Research history

The site of Wadi al-Garf was first described in 1832 by John Gardner Wilkinson , who visited it in 1823 with James Burton . However, it received no further attention until the middle of the 20th century. It was not until the 1950s that it was rediscovered by French pilots during the Suez Crisis and named as Rod al-Chawaga. The political conditions at the time made it impossible to carry out a more detailed investigation that had already been planned, and so the square fell into oblivion again. It was not until 2008 that research came back to the fore with the publication of archive material from the 1950s. In 2011, the Institut français d'archéologie oriental excavations began under the direction of Pierre Tallet .

description

The entire site runs for a distance of about 5 km in a west-east direction from the mountains to the coast. It is divided into six sites, four of which are elevated on the foothills of the mountains. This is a large complex of galleries that were used as storage rooms and, 500 m north of it, three building complexes that served as accommodation. About two-thirds of the way between these complexes and the coast is a single large building on the plain with a previously unknown function. The actual port facility on the coast consists of an approximately L-shaped breakwater and an artificially raised hill 200 m inland, which probably served as a landmark .

Zone 1: The galleries

At the foothills of the mountains there is a complex of 25–30 galleries, four of which were examined in 2011. These are long, rectangular rooms that have been driven into the limestone . They have lengths between 16 and 34 m, an average width of 3 m and an average height of 2.5 m. Paths between 2 and 3 m in length sunk into the rock form the access to the galleries. The entrances were closed by sandstone slabs. At the entrance of the largest gallery, the remains of an inscription were discovered that names an official, the scribe of the Fayum , Idu.

Numerous finds were made in and in front of the galleries. These include ropes, textiles, the papyrus Jarf A and B as well as numerous storage vessels and wood . The wood finds are mainly acacia and Lebanon cedar . Parts of boxes and ships were found , including several planks and the end of an oar . Another special piece is a semicircular frame with a diameter of 2.75 m.

The storage vessels were made on site, as the discovery of a pottery right next to the galleries shows. Several thousand shards were found. Some of them were labeled with the names of workers' and ship crews and ships.

Zone 2–4: Accommodation and camp sites

To the north of the galleries are three groups of buildings and smaller storage areas. The largest complex consists of several rectangular buildings used as accommodation, which are divided into small, cell-like rooms.

Zone 5: The big building

The large, isolated building made of dry stone masonry is oriented roughly northeast-southwest. It has a length of 60 m, a width of 30 m and is divided into 13 long main rooms, which in turn are divided into two or more parts. It is the largest building from Pharaonic times discovered on the Red Sea coast to date.

Zone 6: The port

An artificial hill made of limestone blocks was built 200 m behind the coastline, which probably served as a landmark. It has a width of 10 m and a height of 6 m. Smaller camp sites were discovered around him.

The port facility consists of a pier that initially runs 160 m to the east and then bends to the southeast, where it runs in a somewhat irregular shape for a further 120 m. It thus encloses an anchorage of over 3 hectares. Near the coast, the structure still protrudes well above the surface of the water, but its south-easterly arm is only slightly above it at low water.

A large cluster of anchors was found just west of the northeast corner of the breakwater . These all consist of perforated limestone in triangular, rectangular or cylindrical shape. Their height varies between 60 and 80 cm, their width between 48 and 62 cm. A total of 21 anchors were found, several of them in pairs. It is the first finding of ancient Egyptian ship anchors in their original context. All anchors found previously, for example in the port facility at Mersa Gawasis , were secondary installed. It is also the largest and oldest collection of anchors from the Early Bronze Age to date . Previously only about 35 ancient Egyptian anchors were known, the majority of which dated to the Middle Kingdom . In addition to the anchors, several completely preserved storage vessels were found in the harbor basin.

Dating

Thanks to the numerous ceramic finds in all zones , the Wadi al-Garf site can be dated quite precisely to the early 4th dynasty. This is also confirmed by several hieroglyphic written documents: An imprint of a seal gives the name of King Sneferu ; further impressions, control marks and a papyrus name his son Cheops . More recent reports are not yet known. Wadi al-Garf seems to have been abandoned under Cheops' son Chephren in favor of Ain Suchna , which is further north .

literature

• F. Bissey: Vestige d'un port ancien dans le golfe de Suez. In: Bulletin de la Société d'études historiques et geographiques de l'isthme de Suez. (BSEHGIS) Volume 5, 1953–1954, p. 266 ( full text as PDF file ).
• Ginette Lacaze, Luc Camino: Mémoires de Suez: François Bissey et René Chabot-Morisseau à la découverte du désert oriental d'Égypte, 1945–1956. Société d'égyptologie de Pau, Pau 2008, ISBN 978-2-914989-06-0 .
• Pierre Tallet: Ayn Sukhna and Wadi el-Jarf: Two newly discovered pharaonic harbors on the Suez Gulf. In: British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan. (BMSAES) Volume 18, 2012, pp. 147-168 ( online ).
• Pierre Tallet: Les papyrus de la mer Rouge (ouadi el-Jarf, golfe de Suez). In: Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (CRAIBL). Volume 2013, 2013, pp. 1015-1024 ( online ).
• Pierre Tallet: Les "ports intermittents" de la mer Rouge à l'époque pharaonique: caractéristiques et chronologie. In: Bruno Argémi and Pierre Tallet (eds.): Entre Nil et mers. La navigation en Égypte ancienne (= Nehet. Revue numérique d'Égyptologie Volume 3). Université de Paris-Sorbonne / Université libre de Bruxelles, Paris / Brussels 2015, pp. 31–72 ( online ).
• * Pierre Tallet: Les papyrus de la Mer Ruge I, Le << Journal de Merer >> (Papyrus Jarf A et B). (= Mémoires publiés par les membres de l'Institut Français d'archéologie orientale du Caire. [MIFAO] Volume 136) Institut français d'archéologie orientale, Cairo 2017, ISBN 978-2-7247-0706-9 .
• Pierre Tallet, Grégory Matouard: An early pharaonic harbor on the Red Sea coast. In: Egyptian Archeology. Volume 40, 2012, pp. 40-43 ( online ).
• Pierre Tallet, Grégory Marouard: The Harbor of Khufu on the Red Sea Coast at Wadi al-Jarf, Egypt. In: Near Eastern Archeology. Volume 77/1, 2014, pp. 4-14 ( online ).
• Pierre Tallet, Grégory Marouard: The port of Cheops on the Wadi el-Jarf. In: Sokar. Volume 35, 2017, pp. 14-27.
• Pierre Tallet, Grégory Marouard, Damien Laisney: Un port de la IVe dynastie au Ouadi al-Jarf (mer Rouge). In: Bulletin de l'Institut Francais d'Archéologie Orientale. (BIFAO) Volume 112, 2012, pp. 399-446 ( online ).
• Pierre Tallet, El-Sayed Mahfouz: The Red Sea in pharaonic times: Recent discoveries along the Red Sea Coast. Proceedings of the Colloquium held in Cairo / Ayn Soukhna 11th – 12th January 2009. Institut Francais d'Archéologie Orientale, Cairo 2013, ISBN 978-2-7247-0598-0 .
• John Gardner Wilkinson: Note on a part of the Eastern Desert of Upper Egypt. In: Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. Volume 2, 1832, pp. 28-34 ( online ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Pierre Tallet: Les "ports intermittents" de la mer Rouge à l'époque pharaonique: caractéristiques et chronologie. 2015, p. 60 (Table 2).