Pharaonic necrostratigraphy: a review of geological and archaeological studies in the Theban Necropolis, Luxor, West Bank, Egypt

Abstract

We present a review of archaeological and geological studies on the West Bank as a basis for discussing the geological setting of the tombs and geologically related problems with a view to providing archaeologists with a framework in which to conduct their investigations on the restoration, preservation and management of the antique monuments. Whereas the geology of the Upper Nile Valley appears to be deceptively simple, the lithological succession is vertically variable, and we have recognized and defined several new lithological units within the upper Esna Shale Formation. We have been able to delineate lithological (shale/limestone) contacts in several tombs and observed that the main chambers in some were excavated below the Esna Shale in the Tarawan Chalk Formation. We have been able to document changing dip in the strata (warping) in several tombs, and to delineate two major orientations of fractures in the field. Investigations behind the Temple of Hatshepsut, in the Valley of the Kings and around Deir El Medina have revealed four broad regional structures. We confirm that the hills located near the Nile Valley, such as Sheik Abdel Qurna, do not belong to the tabular structure of the Theban Mountain, but are discrete displaced blocks including the Thebes Limestone, as supported by Google Earth photographs.

The Study of Application of Nano Fluid Synthases in the Treatment of Structural Disintegration and Architectural facades of Hatshepsut Limestone Temple in Deir El-Bahari

“…Ancient Egyptians constructed houses, palaces, temples and tombs mainly of environmental stones (Falana et al, 2020) and limestone and sandstone was the most commonly used materials in the construction of sacred buildings in Egypt because of its resistant to harsh weather. During the period of Queen Hatshepsut, Hatshepsut temple was built of local materials from Thebes limestone extracted from ancient quarry in Gebel Qurna (Aubry et al, 2009), (Pawlicki, 2017) (King, 2017). The study of Graue et al, (2007) revealed that severe deterioration results into the structural disintegration of rock masses, which is as a result of a clearly pronounced cataclastic overprint and has become a major structural problem since the tomb's origin.…”

Geophysical anomalies detected by electrical resistivity tomography in the area surrounding Tutankhamun's tomb

“…Conversely, the hill above the KV62 tomb is constituted both by limestone of the Thebes formation and by natural aerated debris from the valley sides. Further details on the geology and on the properties of the materials could be found for example in Wust and McLane, 2000;Aubry et al, 2009, Dupuis at al., 2011, King et al, 2017 and other references cited therein. This paper is organized as follows.…”

Genesis and geometry of tilted blocks in the Theban Hills, near Luxor (Upper Egypt)

“…This study is an outcome of the field-mapping project of the Theban International Geological Project (TIGA; Aubry et al, 2009a), which has as its goal the construction of a geological map for the West Bank at Thebes. It is based on the careful analysis of geometrical relationships in a region of sharp contrasts where areas with well-exposed stratigraphies are juxtaposed with areas whose geological features are hidden below thick covers of screes, rubbles and breccias.…”

“…The tombs of the Valley of the Queens were excavated at the base of a massive tilted block (Cobbold et al, 2008;Aubry et al, 2009a) that towers over the Wadi el-Melikat (Fig. 18a).…”