Pharaonic Quarrying and Mining

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Pharaonic quarrying and mining:

settlement and procurement in Egypt’s

marginal regions

IAN SHAW*

Across the rocky landscapes of Egypt lies evidence for pharaonic quarrying and mining; fresh fieldwork at neglected sites, such as the Hatnub travertine quarries and the Wadi el- Hudi amethyst mines, now tells us more. The surviving remains of quarrying and mining

settlements suggest subtle adaptations in versatile response to changing economic and geographical parameters.

Introduction

Although much research has been devoted to the monuments and funerary equipment of pharaonic Egypt, little attention has been paid to the procurement of the raw materials essential to these two aspects of the culture. This situ- ation is by no means peculiar to Egyptological work - a recent review of the archaeology of stone-working suggested, ‘our information on the activities at quarries and workshops ranks among the most abysmal’ (Ericson & Purdy 1984: 8). In Egypt, the lack of archaeological fieldwork relating to quarrying and mining con- trasts sharply with the abundance of surviving ancient texts commemorating these two activities (Couyat & Montet 1912-13; Anthes 1928; Gardiner et al. 1955; Sadek 1980-85; Seyfried

1981).

Many pharaonic procurement sites have been investigated only by epigraphers record- ing the inscriptions and graffiti carved into the quarry-walls. The archaeological remains have received scant attention from Egyptologists over the last hundred years, although Petrie &

Currelly (1906), Clarke & Engelbach (1930) and Caton-Thompson & Gardner (1934) are notable exceptions. Unlike many more permanent settlements in the Nile Valley itself, the surface remains of quarrying and mining sites are often well-preserved in situ; there are therefore invaluable (and still relatively unexploited)

opportunities to examine the horizontal patterning of mineral procurement and processing.

Since the 1970s a few projects have begun to explore the full archaeological potential of Egyptian quarries and mines (Dreyer & Jaritz 1983; Shaw 1986; Rothenberg 1988; Caste1 &

Soukiassian 1989; Harrell 1989; Arnold 1991; Shaw & Jameson 1993). Others have concentrated on scientific provenancing of the miner- als used in monumental structures, statuary and funerary equipment (Klemm & Klemm 1979; 1981; 1984; Bowman et al. 1984; Greene 1989;

Middleton & Bradley 1989) or the study of pharaonic stone-working and masonry techniques, often using experimental methods (Stocks 1986; 1989; 1993; Moores 1991; Isler 1992).

Pharaonic quarrying and mining sites are scattered across the Western Desert, the East- ern Desert, the Sinai peninsula and southern Palestine (FIGURE 1 and TABLE I), typically in- corporating settlements of varying size and per- manence, as well as debris relating to the exploitation of the materials concerned. This body

of data deserves to be examined methodically, for the use of stone and metal lay close to the heart of the economy of pharaonic Egypt.

Mineral resources, power and social change

A number of prehistorians have argued that the

* Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology, Downing Street, Cambridge CBZ 3DZ, England. ANTIQUITY 68 (1994): 108-19

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site period of exploitation

OK FIP MK SIP NK LP PT R

Aswan (granite) Aswan (sandstone)

Gebel el-Ahmar (sandstone) Gebelein (limestone) Gebel Qatrani (basalt) Gebel el-Silsila (sandstone) Gebel el-Zeit (galena) Hatnub (travertine) Ma’sara (limestone)

Serabit el-Khadim (turquoise) Timna (copper)

Tura (fine limestone) ‘Tushka’ quarries (gneiss) Umm el-Sawwan (gypsum) Wadi Abbad (gold)

Wadi Allaqi/Gabgaba (gold) Wadi Gerrawi (travertine) Wadi Hammamat (gold) Wadi Hammamat (bekhen) Wadi el-Hudi (amethyst) Wadi Maghara a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a ? a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a

OK = Old Kingdom (2649-2134 BC), FIP = First Intermediate Period (2134-2040 BC), MK = Middle Kingdom (2040-1640

BC), SIP = Second Intermediate Period (1640-1550 Bc), NK = New Kingdom (1550-1070 BC), LP = Third Intermediate Period and Late Period (1070-332 BC), PT = Ptolemaic Period (332-30 BC), R = Roman Pcriod (30 BC-AD 395)

This table includes all of the quarrying and mining sites mentioned in the text, as well as a few others too important to omit. Lucas & Harris (1962: 50-63, 386-428), Harrel (1989: tables 1, 2) and Arnold (1991: tables 2.2, 2.3) provide more detailed listings of Egyptian stone quarries, while Caste1 & Soukiassian (1989: 10-12) list virtually all of the major Egyptian and Nubian gold, copper, turquoise, galena, iron, amethyst and chrysocolla (copper silicate) mines, with an accompanying map showing their locations.

TABLE 1. Principal phases of exploitation at the major pharaonic mines and quarries.

control of mineral resources was c:rucial to the emergence of the Egyptian state, with early Upper Egyptian ‘proto-states’ such as Naqada and Hierakonpolis apparently gaining prosperity through their grip over the gold from the wadis of the Eastern Desert (Hoffman 1979: 339; Trigger 1983: 3 9 4 0 ; Rice 1990: 34-6). The fluc- tuating scale of stone-quarrying in the Old King- dom (c. 2649-2134 BC) acts as a barometer of

royal power and perhaps also of social cohe- sion (Kemp 1983: 86-9; Lehner 1985: 109-10). There are even some Egyptian rulers, such as the 11th-dynasty pharaoh Nebtawyre Mentu- hotep IV (c. 1998-1991 BC), whose names would

barely have survived if it were not for the inscriptions commemorating their quarrying or

mining expeditions.

Such textual sources as the annals of Tuthmosis I11 suggest that the prosperity and stability of the Egyptian empire in the late 2nd

millennium may have been partially founded on the success of their gold mines. Although Janssen (1975: 253) suggests that ‘the economic aspects of gold production are still largely ob- scure’, O’Connor (1983: 259-60, figure 3.19) argues that the mines of southern Egypt and Nubia were consolidated and expanded during the reign of Amenophis I11 (c. 1400-1350 BC),

underlining the importance of gold in Egypt’s economic and diplomatic relations with western Asiatic neighbours.

The control of mineral deposits was itself a valuable commodity, sometimes forming part of the assets of temples or funerary estates. Ac- cording to an inscription on the walls of a rock- temple of the early 13th century BC in the Wadi

Abbad, about 35 km east of Edfu in Upper Egypt, the gold mines in the vicinity were owned by the temple of Seti I at Abydos (Schott 1961: 143- 59). The temple endowment included the gold

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concession at Wadi Abbad, a large team of miners, their settlement and a well said to have been dug at the king’s orders. Clearly the skilled workmen, their equipment and the unmined gold formed a single ‘economic package’ consisting of valuable mineral rights along with the means to exploit them.

The expensive procurement of stone and metal was also part of the socio-economic bar- gain between the Egyptian ruler and his nobles; loyal members of the Blite could rely on the king to provide raw materials for their funerary equipment. For instance, the autobiography of a 6th-dynasty official called Weni, carved on one wall of his tomb at Abydos, describes the quarrying expeditions he organized for the king and mentions the royal gift of a fine limestone sarcophagus from the quarries at Tura (Lich- theim 1973: 19).

Settlements and encampments associated with mining and quarrying

The archaeological components of a pharaonic quarrying or mining site can be categorized as: 1 traces of quarrying/mining activity

2 remains of settlements and encampments 3 facilities for provision of water

4 arteries of transport and communication 5 evidence of processing and manufacturing

activities

6 textual and pictorial memorials of the expeditions

7 ritualistic and religious remains.

The earliest surviving Egyptian map is an annotated pictorial record of an expedition to the bekhen-stone (‘greywacke’ or siltstone) quarries of Wadi Hammamat in the Eastern Desert. The ‘Turin Mining Papyrus’, now in the Museo Egizio, Turin, dates to the mid 12th century BC;

it identifies the essential elements of a gold- mining site in the Wadi Hammamat and the principal siltstone quarries, located further to the east. The area depicted in the map can be fairly confidently identified with the surviving archaeological site at Bir Umm Fawakhir.

While the Turin Papyrus may constitute an ancient blueprint for the process of procurement (Birch 1852; Klemm & Klemm 1988; Harrell & Brown 1992), numerous questions remain unanswered. Why do methods of trans- portation vary from one site to another, and why are there so many different types of workers’ settlements and encampments? Do these specialized

sites differ for functional, chronological or geo- logical reasons

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or perhaps a combination of all three?

The three basic types of mining/quarrying accommodation are: rectangular walled settlements built of drystone or mud brick, and with varying degrees of fortification (e.g. Qasr el- Sagha and Wadi el-Hudi Site 9), dense concen- trations of drystone huts, often located on a high point and surrounded by an enclosure wall (e.g. Wadi Maghara, Wadi el-Hudi Site 5), and, most frequently, wide scatters of rough stone shelters and wind-breaks (e.g. Hatnub, Umm el- Sawwan, Gebel el-Zeit). Most sites, such as Wadi Maghara, Wadi el-Hudi and Hatnub (Shaw 1986; 1987), incorporate two or three of these different types of accommodation. At one or two remote sites, such as the Serabit el-Khadim turquoise mines, there appears to be no evidence

of a substantial settlement at all (Petrie &

Currelly 1906).

Not unexpectedly, some of the least significant ancient workers’ settlements have been found at mineral sources close to existing substantial towns or villages, as in the case of As-

wan (granite and sandstone), Gebel el-Silsila (sandstone) and Tura (limestone). At these sites only minimal accommodation was required, since the quarry-workers were close to permanent settlements.

Dispersed settlements: state versus private exploitation

It is not clear whether the exploitation of raw materials outside the Nile valley was subject to royal monopoly, but the sheer scale of many expeditions shows that few individuals could have undertaken them without royal backing. Nevertheless, archaeological evidence at the Hatnub travertine (‘Egyptian alabaster’) quarries, the Umm el-Sawwan gypsum quarries and the Gebel el-Zeit galena (lead sulphide) mines suggests that there was intermittent private exploitation of certain raw materials throughout the pharaonic period (c. 3100-332 BC), perhaps

following in the footsteps of the major expeditions. An archaeological distinction may be made between low-level exploitation of mineral resources by individuals and the higher level of organization and visibility associated with large-scale expeditions designed to acquire stone or metals for Blite purposes (Shaw 1986: 197; Kemp 1989: 246-7).

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The Hatnub travertine quarries are situated some 1 7 km southeast of el-Amarna in the East- ern Desert. The associated settlement consists of several hundred drystone structures dispersed over an area of more than a square kilo- metre, mainly extending west and northwest of the largest quarry (FIGURE 2), which contained numerous rock-carved inscriptions and graffiti (Anthes 1928). Most of the settlement dates to the Old and Middle Kingdoms (c. 2575-1650

BC), but there was also an encampment dating

to the New Kingdom ( G . 1550-1070 BC).

The Old and Middle Kingdom structures at Hatnub are usually sprawling multi-roomed huts evidently housing organized gangs of workmen. The drystone construction in these buildings is of a fairly high standard, using closely packed pebbles and medium-sized stones. The overall settlement pattern in the Old and Middle Kingdoms is open to a number of interpretations: dispersed structures and an apparent lack of communal protective measures suggests a low level of concern regarding at- tacks from the desert, as well as relatively low-

key organization and administrative hierarchy, particularly in comparison with the Old King- dom hilltop settlement at Wadi Maghara and the Middle Kingdom settlements at Wadi el- Hudi and Qasr el-Sagha (discussed below). The Hatnub settlement is much more comparable with those at the Umm el-Sawwan gypsum quarries in the northern Faiyum and the gneiss quarries in the Western Desert, 80 km from Tushka. It also resembles the dispersed encampment surrounding the other major travertine quarries at Wadi Gerrawi, near Cairo, estimated to have accommodated about 200 workers (Petrie & Mackay 1915: 38-40). Mining and quarrying sites in Egypt proper may not gener- ally have been considered to be under threat, whereas expeditions to locations such as Wadi Maghara and Wadi el-Hudi, at the northern and southern frontiers of Egypt, were regarded

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in the Old and Middle Kingdoms at least - as forays into relatively hostile territory.

The New Kingdom encampment at Hatnub is a set of temporary, mainly one-room shelters hastily and loosely assembled from large lime-

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4 e d g e o f e s c a r p m e n l

.. - natural drainage lhnes 5- d r y s t o n e ~ e l t l e m e n f

.

a r e a 0 1 flint 1001 P r o d u C t l O n

/ contour lines at

Q Q Y P S U m O U l C r D P S

FIGLJRE 3. Plan of Umm el-Sawwan (after Caton-Thompson & Gardner 1934).

stone slabs and boulders. The difference between the earlier and later settlements echoes the evidence of the inscriptions; the state-spon- sored Old and Middle Kingdom expeditions were housed in dispersed communal structures, whereas the New Kingdom settlement bears the hallmarks of a small group of individuals without much bureaucratic or organizational backing from the local or national government. It is therefore not surprising that the quarry walls bear almost no written commemoration of the New Kingdom phase of exploitation (Shaw The gypsum quarries of Umm el-Sawwan, at the northern edge of the Faiyum region and about 35 km southwest of Cairo, date primarily to the Old Kingdom (c. 2575-2134); in 1928 they were surveyed and excavated by Caton- Thompson & Gardner (1934). The workers were accommodated in a large sprawling settlement of at least 250 small stone-built structures simi- lar to those at Hatnub (FIGURE 3). Caton- Thompson also found considerable evidence for 1986: 201-3).

the local production of flint tools for quarrying and vase-making. Some of the gypsum appears to have been carved into small funerary items for private tombs; considerable quantities were ground into mortar for large-scale state-spon- sored building purposes. In the same way, travertine at Hatnub and Wadi Gerrawi was used not only for small vessels, statuettes and offering tables, but also for purely Blite purposes, such as colossal statuary and architectural elements.

The Gebel el-Zeit galena mines, located on the Gulf of Suez coast about 50 km to the south

of Ras Gharib, date from the Middle Kingdom to the Ramessid period (i.e. most of the 2nd millennium BC). The settlement pattern, again

essentially dispersed, shows two main regions

of ancient activity. Site 1 is a network of more than 30 gallery-mines and associated drystone encampments spread over the northwestern slope of Wadi Kabrit: at the centre is a small sanctuary, evidently dating from the Middle Kingdom to the 19th dynasty (c. 2040-1200 BC).

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FIGURE 4. View of part of the fortified Old

Kingdom settlement at

Wadi Maghara.

Site 2 , covering a larger area in the southern part of Wadi Kabrit, consists of hundreds of mine-shafts, as well as numerous drystone shelters and votive structures.

There are no surviving large-scale commemorative inscriptions and carvings at Gebel el-Zeit, but recent investigations have revealed a cache of votive objects in the sanctuary at Site 1, including small stone and faience portable stelae (Caste1 & Soukiassian 1985). Some stelae bear depictions of kings making offerings to ‘Horus master of the deserts’ and ‘Hathor mis- tress of galena’, suggesting a degree of official involvement in the galena mining. One stele was left by Minemhat, a 17th-dynasty gover-

nor of the province of Coptos, traditionally the nerve-centre for quarrying and mining in the eastern Desert. Gebel el-Zeit would have been the northernmost outpost for expeditions spon- sored by 17th-dynasty kings (c. 1674-1567 BC),

whose power-base was at Thebes.

Castel & Soukiassian (1985: 293) suggest that the lack of large rock-carved memorials at Gebel el-Zeit may partly result from the quality of the local rocks, too poor for such grandiose gestures. They note that the modest scale of the mines and encampments combine with the small stelae to suggest the sending of repeated small- scale expeditions to Gebel el-Zeit, as opposed to the more impressive

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but also more spo- radic -royal expeditions sent for travertine or turquoise. The acquisition of galena may have

lain somewhere between that of gypsum and travertine in the degree of government involvement, the constancy of demand and the pres- tige associated with its procurement.

Planned and fortified settlements: organiza- tional and defensive factors

Expeditions to sites such as Wadi Maghara and Wadi el-Hudi, at the very edges of Egypt proper, were necessarily tightly organized, small-scale military operations, without the mass of unskilled workers whose rough stone shelters dot the landscapes of Hatnub, Wadi Gerrawi or Umm el-Sawwan. Commemorative texts list smaller numbers of workers on the expeditions to Sinai and Wadi el-Hudi than in the Wadi Hammamat or Hatnub (Sadek 1980: 104), where major expeditions and the movement of heavy, awkward loads would have required large numbers of unskilled corv6e-labourers.

The Sinai peninsula was the major Egyptian source of turquoise and copper throughout the pharaonic period. The mines at Wadi Maghara, 225 km southeast of Cairo, were particularly exploited during the Old and Middle Kingdoms. Petrie, examining the site in 1904-5, found a hill-top miners’ settlement, primarily used during the Old Kingdom and consisting of about 125 stone-hilt structures (Petrie & Currelly 1906; Chartier-Raymond 1988; see FIGURE 4). There were also two unfortified groups of slightly larger and more regular Old Kingdom

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FIGURE 5. Plan of the Middle Kingdom miners’fortress (site 9) at Wadi el-Hudi

structures - one next to the remains of an enig- matic wall or dam built across the northern end of the wadi and the other built on a shoal at the southwestern end of the wadi (largely destroyed by flash-floods and modern quarrying activity). Petrie’s excavations at Wadi Maghara revealed numerous artefacts, including evidence of copper-smelting in situ. The three components of the

site - hilltop settlement, wadi-floor settlement, wall/dam - reflect the isolation and vulnerabil- ity of the miners, housed in a tightly clustered, defensive main settlement combined with un- protected accommodation in reasonable proxim- ity to the mines themselves.

In the Old Kingdom and early Middle King- dom, the region to the south of the first Nile cataract at Aswan represented the hostile southern frontier of Egypt proper. Exploitation of the amethyst mines at Wadi el-Hudi, about 35 km southeast of Aswan, appears to have peaked in the Middle Kingdom, a period of many inscriptions and graffiti at the site (Fakhry 1952; Sadek

1980-85; Shaw & Jameson 1993). Three distinct areas of Wadi el-Hudi were in use during the Middle Kingdom: a low hill adjoining an amethyst quarry and surmounted by the remains of a rough stone fortified enclosure, containing about 40 drystone workmen’s shelters; another hill, about 200 m southeast of the first, with a large number of Middle Kingdom texts and drawings carved into the rocks at its summit; and a rectangular drystone fortified settlement (70 x 50 m), a further 400 m to the south, associated with two amethyst quarries (see FigURES 5 & 6).

Texts and ceramics at Wadi el-Hudi suggest two successive major phases of amethyst exploitation, dating to the 11th and to the 12th-13th dynasties. The 11th-dynasty hilltop settlement at Wadi el-Hudi (site 5) is clearly comparable with the Old Kingdom settlement at Wadi Maghara: both are densely concentrated and crudely fortified versions of the more dispersed drystone encampments at Hatnub and Umm el-Sawwan,

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FIGURE 6. Part of the drystone wall sur- rounding the fortress

[site 9) at Wadi el-

Hudi.

adaptations of the conventional quarrying or mining settlement to more dangerous circum- stances. The 12th-dynasty fortified settlement at Wadi el-Hudi (site 9) -a small drystone version of the archetypal Nubian fortress - is more than a local adaptation: it is an expression of new Egyptian attitudes both to quarrying expeditions and to Nubia.

Lower Nubia had effectively become a colo- nized province of Egypt after the reign of Sesostris

I (c. 1971-1926 BC). The area between the first

and fourth cataracts was controlled by 12th-dynasty fortresses and watchtowers, some as much depots as garrisons, concerned with military control over the Nubians and with trading and mining expeditions into the Middle Nile and sur-

rounding deserts. The 12th-dynasty amethyst mining settlement appears to have been affected by this new military style of organization and bureaucracy which characterizes most Egyptian activities during the period. Quarriers were housed like colonists in a quasi-permanent settlement and amethysts were procured in a more military manner.

This distinctive 12th-dynasty approach to mineral exploitation was not restricted to Nubia: there is another rectangular, planned quarrying settlement (measuring about 115 x 80 m) at Qasr el-Sagha, 75 km southwest of Cairo at the northern end of the Faiyum basin. This village and its adjacent cemetery were linked by an ancient paved road with the basalt (dolerite) quarries of

Gebel Qatrani quarries, abput 10 km to the north (Arnold & Arnold 1979; Sliwa 1992). There are two other zones of pharaonic remains at Qasr el- Sagha: to the north, a small stone temple (10 x 5 m), assigned to the Middle Kingdom on the ba- sis of its architectural style, and to the northeast a second, more amorphous area of mud-brick settlement (about 140 x 100 m). Both of the settlements are dated to the 12th dynasty by their ceramics. Like the roughly contemporary pyramid- town of Kahun, the rectangular village (FIGURE 7) clearly housed a specialized community under direct state control.

Although Qasr el-Sagha is only 25 km from the Umm el-Sawwan gypsum quarries, the differences between the two sets of settlement remains are strik- ing. Umm el-Sawwan dates mostly to the Old King- dom and Qasr el-Sagha to the Middle Kingdom, but there is also a significant difference in terms of the two materials and the needs they served. Good quality basalt - heavy, bulky and used for building and sculptural projects - was held in such high esteem by the Egyptian elite that a paved road and planned village were constructed to facilitate its procurement on a fairly ambitious scale. Gypsum, on the other hand, could be exploited in smaller quantities by individuals and without the full backing of the state. Neither Qasr el-Sagha/Gebel Qatrani nor Umm el-Sawwan are marked by the stelae and graffiti that characterize Hatnub or Wadi Hammamat, but then the two former are in less isolated areas.

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11

U

r o a d to basalt quarries e x c a v a t e d a r e a s o o v e n North entrance Q A S R E L - S A G H A

4

WESTERN SETTLEMENT ternole 0 1 0 20 3 0 South entrance R Z C ,--- m e t r e s

i

FIGURE 7. Plan of the rectangular walled settlement at Qasr el-Sagha.

Discussion

The quarrying and mining sites described above are less elaborate than longer-lived pharaonic sites in the Nile valley, such as Abydos or Thebes. They nevertheless constitute valuable information on the fundamen- tals influencing Egyptian settlements. Their archaeological remains also incorporate such features as wells and dams (Dreyer & Jaritz 1983), evidence for religious activity, and the use of a variety of tools (reflecting the level of technology, the nature of the material ex- tracted and the availability of local materials from which different tools could be made). The settlement patterns demonstrate that the essential characteristics of each site result from the interaction of technology, eco- nomics, environment and topography. Promi- nent aspects of these factors are:

1 the nature (and necessary quantities) of the material procured

2 the degree to which the material was proc- essed in situ

3 the distance from sources of food and water

4 the perceived need for a relatively constant supply of the material

5 the risk of attack

6 the stability and character of the Egyptian socio-economic system at different periods and in different areas

7 the composition of the workforce, i.e. the proportions of skilled and unskilled, local and professional workers

8 the primary destination of the material and its range of intended uses.

The permanent settlement sites so far identified in the Nile valley comprise such specialized and elaborate types as temple-towns, pro- vincial capitals, workmen's villages and agri- cultural communities. Survey and excavation at these major sites (e.g. Kemp 1989: 261-317;

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Jeffreys 1985) are beginning to indicate the rich variations between different sections and sub- urbs of individual towns. In the same way, the subtle differences between the comparatively rudimentary and ephemeral accommodation associated with quarrying and mining sites ex- press the Egyptians’ ability to adapt their settlement strategies to changing contexts and cir- cumstances. Like the string of functionally and topographically variable Middle Kingdom fortresses and garrisons in Nubia, they suggest a high degree of flexibility and spontaneity in Egyptian civilization.

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