Archaeogeophysical study on the site of Tell Toukh El‐Qaramous, Sharkia Governorate, East Nile Delta, Egypt

Abstract

The archaeological site of Tell Toukh El-Qaramous, which is located to the south of Abu Kebir, Sharkiya Governorate, was subjected to detailed geophysical studies using magnetic vertical gradient and geoelectric resistivity survey. The success of these surveys depends on the contrast in the physical properties between the dominant sedimentary deposits (clays and sands) and the buried archeological constructions. The area of study occupies about 80 acres at present. It was subjected firstly to a regional geophysical survey to discover the subsurface conditions above one of the most important military fortress that had been constructed to be vanguard of the eastern entry to Egypt during the Ptolemaic age (323-30 BC). Detailed gridded magnetic (0.5 m grid interval) and geoelectric resistivity surveys (2 m grid interval) were also carried out at a selected site of about 50 ð 100 m according to the recommendations of the archaeologists who periodically carried out excavation of the archaeological remains. Such surveys could help mapping of the anomalous features that probably reflect the buried archaeological remains.The integrated results of the magnetic gradient images obtained as well as apparent resistivity maps for depths ranges from 1 to 5 m gave fascinating results. The results indicate that the Tell-Toukh El-Qaramous has been built on a buried sand gezira. Also, groups of ancients walls made of mud bricks and some interesting locations of archeological buried artefacts have been delineated. Both the magnetic and resistivity data supported each other and are in good agreement for the same locations of archeological interest.

Ground-penetrating radar exploration for ancient monuments at the Valley of Mummies -Kilo 6, Bahariya Oasis, Egypt

“…In many cases, significant savings can be realized if exploratory excavations are sited on the basis of "leads" provided by non-invasive subsurface geophysical imaging technologies (Aitken, 1974;Clark, 1990;Scollar et al, 1990;Gaffney and Gater, 2003). Indeed, geophysical methods in general and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) in particular are successfully used in imaging the subsurface at several archeological sites in Egypt (Abdallatif, 1998;Odah et al, 1998;Kamei et al, 2002;Ghazala et al, 2003;Elbassiony, 2001;Ismail, 2003;Khozym, 2003;Shaaban et al, 2003).…”

Electrical Resistivity Tomography for the Modelling of Cultural Deposits and Geomophological Landscapes at Neolithic Sites: a Case Study from Southeastern Hungary

“…All researchers acknowledge that the geophysical investigation of such sites is a particularly difficult geophysical problem, due to the complex subsurface property distribution, the size of the buried targets and the uneven topographical terrain. Integrated geophysical approaches based on magnetic gradiometry and apparent resistivity mapping have provided significant results in tells where the archaeological relics are buried in relatively superficial layers (Dockrill et al, 1995;Ibrahim et al, 1998;Ghazala et al, 2003;Schmidt and Fazeli, 2007). Recent applications involve the three-dimensional mapping of geological and cultural deposits in multiperiod archaeological sites utilizing the GPR method (Herrmann, 2013).…”

Gradiometer survey to locate the ancient remains distributed to the northeast of the Zoser Pyramid, Saqqara, Giza, Egypt

“…The magnetic method is the most widely used method in prospecting for archaeology all over the world (Aitken, 1974;Clark, 1990;Scollar et al, 1990). It has been used extensively at many sites in Egypt (Abdallatif, 1998;Odah et al, 1998;Kamei et al, 2002;Ghazala et al, 2003;Herbich, 2003), including Saqqara (Elbassiony, 2001;Khozym, 2003), and has produced impressive results for buried mud-brick structures and features (rich with magnetic minerals), which show a reasonably high magnetic gradient.…”