Egypt

Fieldwork in Umm Mawagir (Egypt)

In June, René Cappers and three students (Federica Fantone, Frits Heinrich and Simone Kaaijk) have visited the site Umm Mawagir. This recently discovered site is located in the Kharga oasis, in the Western Desert of Egypt, and is dated to the second Intermediate Period (c. 1650-1550 BC). The site is excavated by prof. John Darnell from Yale University. The recent discovery of this lost city became world news early this year. Darnell assumes that the large city not only functioned as an administrative centre, but also provided huge quantities of bread, enough to feed an army. This desert site might have played a crucial role in supporting the Pharaonic culture which was concentrated in the Thebaid, the region around modern Luxor.

Archaeobotanical research surprisingly yielded almost only charred plant remains. Most probably high ground water levels must have caused uncharred plant remains to get lost. Plant remains represent several fruits collected from the wild and two kinds of hulled cereals: emmer wheat and 2-row barley. In the industrial area, two large baking ovens, a large stone mortar for dehusking grain and an assortment of grinding stones for producing flour were found.

The question is whether the dehusking was applied to both barley and wheat or only to wheat. This has been tested by making a copy of the grinding unit and using milling stones from the site proper. Bread was baked following a contemporaneous recipe. The results were surprising and shed new light on the traditional interpretation of the use of hulled barley. These results will be presented at the GIA-day.