Mersa/Wadi Gawasis, Mission 2007-2008 - Kathryn A. Bard and Rodolfo Fattovich et alii

Paleoethnobotany - K. Borojevic and R. Gerisch

Wood and charcoal - R. Gerisch

In the course the 2006-07 post-excavation work, further studies revealed the occurrence of a second mangrove species beside the commonly found grey mangrove, Avicennia marina, which provided an important wood fuel along the Egyptian Red Sea coast. It belongs to the Rhizophoraceae family and can be ascribed to either Rhizophora or the Bruguiera genus. The red mangrove, Rhizophora mucronata, is distributed over the whole of tropical Asia, Australia, East Africa and Madagascar. In Egypt the tree is nowadays found near the Sudanese border, where it occurs in monospecific stands or together with Avicennia marina. The distribution extends southwards to cover the whole Red Sea coast of Sudan. In comparison with A. marina, the red mangrove is less tolerant to high soil salinity and requires more humid conditions. It is an evergreen tree growing in the tropics up to 25 m high, in Egypt 3-6 m. The wood structure, which is different to that of A. marina, does not contain included phloem with lignified conjunctive parenchyma bands. It is characterized by small vessels arranged mostly solitary and in short radial rows and clusters of 2-4, by scalariform perforation plates, very thick-walled fibers, and numerous rays.
Another mangrove species along the eastern coast of Africa is the large-leafed or oriental mangrove, Bruguiera gymnorrhiza. The tree reaches 30-36 m in height, but is commonly only 7-20 m. Because of anatomical similarities of the wood of both genera, the term Rhizophora/Bruguiera is used (Tengberg 2002). The yellow mangrove, Ceriops tagal (Rhizophoraceae), is also distributed along the coast of Eritrea southward to the Kosi Bay in South Africa, but the tree wood differs anatomically in the confluent axial parenchyma. Charcoal from Rhizophora/Bruguiera was mainly identified from WG 47 (2007-08) and WG 32 (2006-07); a few fragments came from other units such as WG 53 and WG 55. These samples represent the first substantial reference for ancient Egypt. It can be assumed that the wood was either cut and brought from mangrove woodlands in the south on the return of seafaring expeditions to Mersa/Wadi Gawasis, or there were natural stands along the Egyptian shoreline during pharaonic times, and it was distributed farther north than in recent times and later disappeared due to human exploitation.

In the 2007-08 field season, microscopic examination of carbonized and desiccated wood from the camp and harbor site of Mersa/Wadi Gawasis was continued to obtain valuable information on the ancient environment, use of timbers in ship building, and reuse of debris from ship repair work as fuel. In the first five days, one box with a large amount of charcoal that remained unidentified from the last field season was studied and documented. This material comprises 24 samples with 659 pieces. Analysis has yielded the identification of 10 taxa: Acacia nilotica: 391 pieces (4,597.2 ml), Avicennia marina: 60 pieces (62.9 ml), Cedrus libani: 101 pieces (540.5 ml), Diospyros sp.: 1 piece (1 ml), Faidherbia albida: 1 piece (0.6 ml), Ficus sycomorus: 16 pieces (77.8 ml), Leptadenia pyrotechnica: 3 pieces (1.1 ml), Quercus sp., deciduous: 48 pieces (356.2 ml), Rhizophora/Bruguiera: 17 pieces (9.7 ml), Tamarix sp.: 5 pieces (2.1 ml). Most of the remaining material that was excavated after the author's departure comes from WG 39. Among the charcoal from this trench, many more pieces of deciduous oak appeared in the sample bags. They were found in squares A7, SU16; A8, Surface, SU11, SU14, SU15, SU16, SU17, and A9, SU17. In each of the 9 samples between 1-20 pieces (5.5-176.9 ml), mostly 1-4 pieces, occurred. The largest sample was collected from A8, SU14 and contained: Acacia nilotica: 8 pieces (99.2 ml), Cedrus libani: 3 pieces (5 ml), Ficus sycomorous: 2 pieces (7 ml), and Quercus sp., deciduous: 20 pieces (176.9 ml). It can be assumed that these finds are associated with the ship remains.
In the following two weeks, charcoal material excavated during the current season was analyzed, comprising 33 samples with 1,760 pieces. The main components of the ancient fuel are again Acacia nilotica, Cedrus libani and Avicennia marina. The assemblages are characterized by the presence of 16 taxa: Acacia nilotica: 847 pieces (1,132.7 ml), A. sp.: 1pc (1.2 ml); Avicennia marina: 372 pieces (241.5 ml); Calotropis procera: 1 piece (2.5 ml); Cedrus libani: 250 pieces (331.2 ml); Diospyros sp.: 8 pieces (5 ml); Faidherbia albida: 40 pieces (68.3 ml); Ficus sycomorus: 14 pieces (9.7 ml); Leptadenia pyrotechnica: 16 pieces (9.1 ml); Pinus sp., pinoid pits: 5 pieces (9.7 ml); Quercus sp., evergreen: 3 pieces (3.8 ml); Rhizophora/Bruguiera: 62 pieces (44 ml); Salix sp.: 22 pieces (21.2 ml); Suaeda sp.: 87 pieces (111 ml); Tamarix sp.: 28 pieces (33.4 ml); Vitis vinifera: 1 piece (5 ml). Newly found taxa are Calotropis procera and Vitis vinifera (V. vinifera, however, was a surface find). Most of the species occur in excavation units WG 54 and WG 55. The largest number of taxa was found in sample WG 54, A2-3, B2-3, SU1, with 283 pieces (448.3 ml) yielding 12 taxa (Figure 34). In WG 47 a hearth was uncovered, which contained charcoal of both mangrove families: concerning the charcoal volume about two-thirds was of Avicennia marina and one-third of Rhizophora/Bruguiera. Again some fragments of ebony (Diospyros sp.) were identified in the charcoal remains. The contexts in which ebony was found in the 2007-08 field season are WG 32, SU25 and WG 55, SU2, SU3; those from 2006-07 are WG 16, SU19 and WG 32, SU16, showing that the majority of the ebony charcoal was so far recovered by the fossil coral terrace with the man-made caves. A sample composition with ebony obtained from this season is: WG 55, C-D-E 1-2-3, SU2 /Acacia nilotica: 206 pieces, 230 ml; Avicennia marina: 20 pieces, 14 ml; Cedrus libani: 13 pieces, 13.5 ml; Diospyros sp.: 6 pieces, 4 ml; Faidherbia albida: 1 piece, 1.2 ml; Ficus sycomorus: 6 pieces, 4.5 ml; Leptadenia pyrotechnica: 3 pieces, 1.7 ml; Pinus sp., pinoid pits: 1 piece, 0.4 ml; Salix sp.: 16 pieces, 13.5 ml, Suaeda sp.: 32 pieces, 29 ml; Tamarix sp.: 7 pieces, 5.5 ml.
Samples from more ship timbers were collected from Cave 2 (T51); the exterior of Cave 2 (T58); Cave 3 (T56, T57, T61, T64-T70, a block-like wooden object); WG 32, SU33 (T22); WG 33, SU2 (T71); and the types of wood were determined. The planks and beams are made of cedar wood, only plank T56 is of sycamore. Two finds of poles, T68 and T70, were of Nile acacia. Examined in situ in the excavations were small wood pieces of a newly discovered deck beam (T73) and a badly preserved steering oar blade (T72), which was left in the ground. The sample of the blade, taken by the excavator, was identified as Faidherbia albida; it shows similarities to steering oar blade T2 discovered in 2004-05, where the upper portion was of the same wood type. A few tenons (W378, W379, W380 and one from T72) were made of Nile acacia wood, as is the case with all previously excavated tenons and dovetails.
From the large quantities of wood debris that were excavated again this field season, a reasonable amount was investigated (30 samples, 741 pieces). Most of the debris pieces are the by-product of ship repair work; some are parts from boxes. The pieces were documented in preservation, weight, length, width, presence or absence of salt crystals, remains of gribble or shipworm and red paint, and photographs were taken. While the wood debris excavated in Cave 3 in 2006-07 is well preserved, hard and strong, the wood debris excavated outside the caves in 2007-08 was in poorer condition: more soft and disintegrating, and some with salt incrustations. From excavation unit WG 32: A4, SU1, SU10, SU25 (Figure 3); A5, SU10, SU25, SU39; B4, SU33; C4, SU25; C9, SU39; and WG 32, A4/WG 53, L4, SU10, 358 pieces of Cedrus libani, 19 of Acacia nilotica, and 14 of Ficus sycomorus were identified. In WG 52, Surface and SU1, 60 pieces of Cedrus libani, 4 of Acacia nilotica, and 1 of Ficus sycomorus were identified. In WG 52, additionally, a few branches from Avicennia marina were also found: length 60 cm, width 1.9-3.0 cm; length 14.6 cm, width 3.5-4.0 cm; length 10 cm, width 2.6 cm; and length 10 cm, width 1.2-1.5 cm. Excavation unit WG 53, Surface, SU10, SU25 provided 135 pieces of Cedrus libani, 8 of Ficus sycomorus, and 3 of Acacia nilotica.


Seeds - K. Borojevic

A lump of charred grains was collected in WG 55, C2, SU2. Even on the basis of the photo they can be easily identified as Hordeum vulgare. It seems as if this lump was from storage, rather than from a cooking context, because the grains are whole and stacked in one layer upon the other.

Pleases find attached .pdf files with the full report and the related figures