Mummification Museum Lecture - Geological and Geochemical Analysis

Luxor News

Jane Akshar has again shared her notes re the latest Mummification Museum lecture on her blog. In this lecture Dr Hany Hamroush spoke on the subject of Geological and Geochemical Analysis of Nile Sediments and Ancient Ceramics.

This was one of the not to missed lectures, Dr Hany was superb communicator who brought the complicated subject to life and made it fascinating. He is very well qualified and has worked with many equally well qualified geologists.

The lecture was sufficiently complicated that I think without his slides my notes make no sense so I will précis.

The Nile has three main tributaries and then goes on for some time with none. This makes it suitable for analysing and identifying the deposits: sand, mud and gravel as to their location. So you can find out whether the main deposits were coming from Central Africa or East Africa. The rock of central Africa is Precambrian but that of East Africa is Tertiary Igneous. Natural weathering of these rocks means that the broken fragments of these old rocks go down to the delta. Dr Hany has investigated Nile silt of all ages and by normal methods it is impossible to identify differences.

See the above page for the rest of Jane's notes.