Neolithic settlement found in the Faiyum

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Arabian Business

A team of US archaeologists has discovered the ruins of a city dating back to the period of the first farmers 7,000 years ago in Egypt's Fayyum oasis, the supreme council of antiquities said on Tuesday.

"An electromagnetic survey revealed the existence in the Karanis region of a network of walls and roads similar to those constructed during the Greco-Roman period," the council's chief Zahi Hawwas said.

The remnants of the city are "still buried beneath the sand and the details of this discovery will be revealed in due course", Hawwas said.

"The artefacts consist of the remains of walls and houses in terracotta or dressed limestone as well as a large quantity of pottery and the foundations of ovens and grain stores."

The remains date back to the Neolithic period between 5,200 and 4,500 BC.

The local director of antiquities, Ahmed Abdel Alim, said the site was just seven kilometres from Fayyum lake and would probably have lain at the water's edge at the time it was inhabited.

El Universal

Thanks to the Amanuense email group for the above story. Here's a rough translation of some of the main bits. U.S. experts have discovered the remains of a human setlment dating the the Neolithic period, approximately 5000BC, in the province of Faiyum to the southeast of Cairo, according to a notice issued by the Egyptian news agency MENA. The announcement was made by Zahi Hawass. The discovery was made by a University of California (UCLA) team in the area of Kom Aushim. In the area there were the remains of settlement structures made of mudbrick and dressed blocks of granite. They also found various types of vessel and stone tools. The remains were covered with a layer of calcium carbonate, which indicates that they had at some stage been covered by the waters of Lake Qarun.

Expertos estadounidenses han descubierto vestigios de un asentamiento humano que data de la época neolítica, (5.000 años a.C.), en la provincia de Al Faiyum, al suroeste de El Cairo, informó hoy la agencia egipcia de noticias MENA.

El anuncio lo hizo el secretario general del Consejo Superior de Antigüedades (CSA), el egiptólogo Zahi Hawass, en un comunicado difundido por la agencia.

El hallazgo fue realizado por arqueólogos de la Universidad de California en excavaciones en el área de Kom Auchim, precisó el responsable egipcio.

En el sitio fueron encontrados restos de muros de viviendas construidas con adobes de barro y bloques de granito ornamentado, y varios cantaros y vasijas de cerámica, además de utensilios fabricados de roca, afirmó Hawass.

Esas piezas estaban recubiertas con una capa de carbonato de calcio, lo que indicaría que el área antiguamente estuvo cubierta por las aguas del lago Qaron, próximo a Kom Auchim.

See the above page for the full story, which goes on to say that Graeco Roman finds have also been discovered in the area.