Geochemical analyses of sediments to reconstruct landscape changes and settlement dynamics in the western Nile Delta, Egypt

长期以来，尼罗河三角洲西北部被认为是一个偏远的沼泽地，过去很难进入和开垦。在过去的几十年里，该地区的考古活动和勘探表明，该地区的殖民化开始不晚于前王朝至王朝早期。Tell el-Farain，原名Buto，在这一早期时期是一个重要的中心。这个重要的网站的演变显示出显着的中断，并在约4.2 ka BP，由于未知的原因，该网站被遗弃了近1000年，在中王国，大概新王国之前，整个西部尼罗河三角洲，包括布托，重新填充在一个更高的密度。本研究的地质考古学研究设计旨在揭示古环境条件和高度动态的河流历史，这决定了尼罗河三角洲的定居和土地利用，并可以解释定居历史中观察到的重大变化。为此，全新世尼罗河沉积物是研究该地区环境变化与定居历史的极好档案。由于埃及当局的限制和规定妨碍了为进行综合沉积学分析而运输样品材料，因此正在开发一种新的研究方法，该方法以便携式X射线荧光光谱仪收集的地球化学数据为基础。它将pXRF光谱仪提供的广泛元素数据与地质统计学和机器学习技术（如人工神经网络（ANN））中的新方法相结合。这些方法的目的是检测元素的变化，粘土质尼罗河材料附近的定居点，导致在结算强度和技术创新的变化，可用于阐述年代地层。结合化学特征提供的环境变化信息，可以为布托周围地区绘制一幅跨越时代的人类与环境相互关系图。在Buto的十年跨越的研究历史以及大量的前期工作保证了这一新的研究设计的成功阐述，这也将对可比的地质考古学研究具有很高的价值。

For a long time, the northwestern Nile Delta was considered as a remotely lying swampland, which was difficult to access and to reclaim in the past. During the last decades archaeological campaigns and prospections in this region showed that colonization of this region started not later than in Predynastic to Early Dynastic times. Tell el-Farain, formerly known as Buto, served as an important centre during this early period. The evolution of this important site shows significant interruptions, and at about 4.2 ka BP, for reasons unknown, the site was abandoned for almost 1000 years during the Middle kingdom and presumably New Kingdom before the whole western Nile Delta, including Buto, was repopulated at a much higher density. The geoarchaeologic research design of this study aims to cast light on the palaeoenvironmental conditions and the highly dynamic fluvial history which determined settlement and land use in the Nile Delta and could explain major changes observed in the settlement history. For this purpose, the Holocene Nile sediments are excellent archives to study the environmental transformation of the area in context with the settlement history. Out of the fact that restrictions and regulations of the Egyptian authorities undermine the transport of sample material for comprehensive sedimentological analyses, a new research approach is being developed, which is based on geochemical data gathered with a portable XRF spectrometer (pXRF). It combines the wide spectrum of elemental data delivered by the pXRF spectrometer with new methods in geostatistics and machine learning techniques such as artificial neural networks (ANN). These methods aim to detect element variations in the clayey Nile material near the settlements that result from changes in the settlement intensity and technologic innovations and which can be used to elaborate a chronostratigraphy. Together with the information the chemical signatures provide on environmental changes, an epoch-spanning, diachronous course of human-environment interrelations can be drawn for the area around Buto. The decade-spanning research history at Buto as well as substantial preliminary work guarantee the successful elaboration of this new research design that will also be of high value for comparable geoarchaeologic studies.