Past environments, future challenges: Fossil insects and the preservation of environmental evidence from Egyptian archaeological sites

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This project, taking advantage of the optimal preservation by desiccation in the Egyptian desert of organic materials, in particular insect remains, will produce new information on environmental and climate change through the study of insects by researching rural and urban environments from pharaonic and Roman Egypt and placing them in the context of existing environmental and archaeological research in the eastern Mediterranean. The sites selected for analysis are the ongoing excavation of Elephantine, in Aswan and material on permit in the UK from Qasr Ibrim. Environments and climate will be reconstructed, based on evidence from within and around settlement areas, in particular species from the natural insect fauna as well as those which live with man as uninvited guests and accidental travelers including insect pests, flies and ectoparasites. In addition, analytical techniques will be applied to material currently outside of Egypt either on permit or in museum collections. Both AMS dating and DNA of insect chitin will refine interpretation and produce new results.