Monuments on a migrating Nile

Title: Monuments on a migrating Nile
Creator(s): Hillier, John K.; Bunbury, Judith M.; Graham, Angus
Date: 2007
Is Part Of: Journal of Archaeological Science
Volume: 34
Issue: 7
Pages: 1011-1015
Language: eng
ISSN: 0305-4403
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2006.09.011
URI: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440306001890
Zotero BiDiAr: https://www.zotero.org/groups/5293298/bidiar/items/Y8CG74KG/item-list
Abstract: River courses migrate, but many Egyptologists plot the present-day River Nile on maps of the valley in archaeological times. This may have misled interpretations of ancient monuments and settlements. We show a river migrating rapidly on historical timescales in the Luxor region, sweeping>5km across the valley at rates on the order of 2–3km per 1000 years. Satellite elevation data (SRTM), processed by a novel method, and Landsat imagery are used to trace ancient river levees and extend trends present in 200 years of archive maps thousands of years into the past. This supplements observations by Ptolemy (121–141 AD) and places local geo-archaeological studies in a wider spatial and temporal context. Satellite data are demonstrated to be a relatively quick and easy constraint upon ancient river courses, and a basis for investigations along the Egyptian Nile, even in logistically inaccessible regions.

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