Analysis of Nile alluvium soils

Much work has been done to classify and compare ancient and historic Egyptian ceramics. But, relatively little has been done to relate the archaeologically recovered ceramics to specific clay sources. In fact, very little is known of the relative geographic heterogeneity of Nile alluvium, from which countless ceramics were made. In an attempt to address a small part of this problem, 62 air dried soil samples, from core samplings at nine different villages between Alexandria and the Rosetta branch of the Nile River, have each been analyzed for 12 elements by INAA at SLOWPOKE - Toronto. The samples were then fired at 600 degrees C, to remove organic material and residual water, and some samples were reanalyzed. Once the effects of calcium carbonate additions and excess sand additions were taken into account, elemental concentration data was consistent with the system: Nile alluvium + water/organic material + excess sand and/or calcium carbonate