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

在很长一段时间里，尼罗河三角洲西北部被认为是一个偏远的沼泽，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，该地区的殖民开始不迟于前王朝到早期王朝时期。Tell el-Farain，以前被称为Buto，在早期是一个重要的中心。这一重要遗址的演变显示出明显的中断，大约在4.2 ka BP，由于未知的原因，该遗址在中王国时期被遗弃了近1000年，大概在新王国时期，包括布托在内的整个西尼罗河三角洲以更高的密度重新繁衍。本研究的地质考古研究设计旨在揭示古环境条件和高度动态的河流历史，这些河流历史决定了尼罗河三角洲的定居和土地利用，并可以解释在定居历史中观察到的重大变化。因此，全新世尼罗河沉积物是在人类定居历史背景下研究该地区环境变迁的绝佳档案。鉴于埃及当局的限制和条例妨碍了用于全面沉积学分析的样品材料的运输，目前正在开发一种新的研究方法，该方法以便携式XRF光谱仪收集的地球化学数据为基础。它将pXRF光谱仪提供的广谱元素数据与地质统计学和人工神经网络（ANN）等机器学习技术的新方法相结合。这些方法旨在检测定居点附近粘土尼罗河物质中的元素变化，这些元素变化是由定居点强度变化和技术创新造成的，并可用于制定年代地层学。结合化学特征提供的环境变化信息，可以绘制出布托周围地区人类与环境相互关系的跨时代、历时性过程。布托长达十年的研究历史以及大量的初步工作保证了这一新的研究设计的成功阐述，这对类似的地质考古研究也将具有很高的价值。

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.