Welcome to the Past environments, future challenges site

Subsistence in Egypt has always relied heavily on the Nile floods and the earliest urban centres were placed within the Nile valley. Evidence for the earliest domestic cattle in Africa, alongside that for cotton cultivation, comes from Egyptian archaeological sites. From initial landscape clearance to intensive agriculture, and from early settled areas to complex bureaucratic centres, the different regimes of landscape exploitation over time were accompanied by relevant suites of insect assemblages. Similarly the redistribution of commodities via the Nile provided efficient means for the spread of insect travellers on foodstuff and other materials including dunnage, and a pathway for the introduction of infectious diseases, some of them insect borne, like bubonic plague which was endemic in the area. Egypt offers unique opportunities for environmental archaeological research, both on climate change and human impact over the longer timeframe.

However, changes in water table, irrigation and other activities in settlements close to archaeological sites impact on the preservation of organic remains and are leading to the loss of information.

Palaeoecological research, therefore, is not only important but needs to take place on Egyptian sites as a matter of urgency, to conserve parts of the heritage in terms of the organic remains which are threatened with destruction.Our project, using information from insect remains, seeks to obtain a detailed understanding of:

• landscape change over time and the drivers behind it
• the process of urbanisation and living conditions in settlements including storage losses, hygiene and potential for the spread of diseases
• similarities and differences both between faunas from different periods over time and modern assemblages
• affinities with existing assemblages from the eastern Mediterranean in terms of movement of humans, distribution of commodities and accidental introduction of exotic species as uninvited guests.