Investigation of El-Zayyan Temple Site in Kharga Oasis, Egypt

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A quadrate area of 10 x 10 meters was selected according to GPR survey results and excavated. Some mud brick structures: a circular structure like a -kiln with a diameter of about 2 meter, a rectangular building whose walls cut into the circular structure, a slightly curved wall which meets the northern part of the circular structure, and so on. A large amount of pottery was also uncovered; especially, many of it were found along the slightly curved wall and have complete shapes. It is a remarkable feature of this site that the number of pottery objects with their complete shape is larger than other sites around El-Zayyan site. Some of the pottery found in this excavation were cleaned, restored and examined. Comparing with pottery discovered at other sites in Kharga and Dakhra oases, the dating of the pottery uncovered here until now roughly falls within Roman period, especially Coptic period.By observing the ground surface around the temple, some evidences that water had existed in th … More e past and some traces of water channels were found. Location of them were measured by GPS and they were plotted on a map. These traces of channels extend 2 km towards the west of the temple, and marks of cultivation were found around them. The date of those trace and marks are not clear, but they should be very important to reconstruct the ancient environment around the El-Zayyan Temple and to clarify a history of water use in oases.Digitally recording the three-dimensional shape of present El-Zayyan Temple building was almost finished. Recording the day-by-day progress of excavation in digital data was tried.Physico-chemical analysis of sand deposits was tried to reconstruct the past environment around the El-Zayyan Temple. By using results of measurement of penetration resistance, sand deposits has been classified into eight types: platy, root, hard, coarse, sticky, field, wet and dump. The pH, electrical conductivity, cation amount, grain size distribution, Fe, Al and Si contents, organic matter contents were measured for the sand samples. The results of such analyses have interesting correspondence to the classification of sand deposits. Compared characteristics of sand each point, it is assumed that the environment changed water-rich and plant-rich in the past to dry in the present around the Temple.A research report in English titled "El-Zayyan 2003-2006" was published. Less