3,000 years of secrets hidden beneath Egypt’s greatest temple

Researchers have carried out the most comprehensive geoarcheological survey of Egypt's Karnak Temple near Luxor - one of the ancient world's largest temple complexes and a UNESCO World Heritage site welcoming millions of tourists every year.

The study, published in Antiquity today (October 6) reveals new evidence on the age of the temple, tantalising links to ancient Egyptian mythology, and new insights about the interplay between the temple's riverine landscape and the people who occupied and developed the site over its 3,000 years of use.

"This new research provides unprecedented detail on the evolution of Karnak Temple, from a small island to one of the defining institutions of Ancient Egypt," says Dr Ben Pennington, lead author of the paper and a Visiting Fellow in Geoarchaeology at the University of Southampton.

Karnak temple is located 500 meters east of the present-day River Nile near Luxor, at the Ancient Egyptian religious capital of Thebes.

An international research team, led by Dr Angus Graham (Uppsala University) and involving several academics from the University of Southampton, analyzed 61 sediment cores from within and around the temple site. The team also studied tens of thousands of ceramic fragments to help date their findings.

Using this evidence, researchers have been able to map out how the landscape around the site changed throughout its history.

They found that prior to about 2520 BCE, the site would have been unsuitable for permanent occupation due to being regularly flooded by fast-flowing water from the Nile. This means the earliest occupation at Karnak would have likely been during the Old Kingdom (c.2591-2152 BC). Ceramic fragments found at the site corroborate this finding, with the earliest dating from sometime between c.2305 to 1980 BC.

Dr Kristian Strutt, a co-author of the paper from the University of Southampton, said: "The age of Karnak Temple has been hotly contested in archaeological circles, but our new evidence places a temporal constraint on its earliest occupation and construction."

The land on which Karnak was founded was formed when river channels cut into their beds to the west and east, creating an island of high ground in what is now the east/south-east of the temple precinct. This emerging island provided the foundation for occupation and early construction of Karnak temple.

Over subsequent centuries and millennia, the river channels either side of the site diverged further, creating more space for the temple complex to develop.

Researchers were surprised to find that the eastern channel - until this study not much more than a supposition - was more well-defined, and perhaps even larger than the channel to the west, which archeologists had previously focused on.

Dominic Barker, another co-author also from the University of Southampton added: "The river channels surrounding the site shaped how the temple could develop and where, with new construction taking place on top of old rivers as they silted up."

"We also see how Ancient Egyptians shaped the river itself, through the dumping of sands from the desert into channels, possibly to provide new land for building, for example."

This new understanding of the temple's landscape has striking similarities to an Ancient Egyptian creation myth, leading the team to believe that the decision to locate the temple here could have been linked to the religious views of its inhabitants.

Ancient Egyptian texts of the Old Kingdom say that the creator god manifested as high ground, emerging from 'the lake'. The island upon which Karnak was found is the only known such area of high ground surrounded by water in the area.

"It's tempting to suggest the Theban elites chose Karnak's location for the dwelling place of a new form of the creator god, 'Ra-Amun', as it fitted the cosmogonical scene of high ground emerging from surrounding water," says Dr Pennington.

"Later texts of the Middle Kingdom (c.1980-1760 BC) develop this idea, with the 'primeval mound' rising from the 'Waters of Chaos'. During this period, the abating of the annual flood would have echoed this scene, with the mound on which Karnak was built appearing to 'rise' and grow from the receding floodwaters."

With a concession to study the whole floodplain of the Luxor region, the team are now planning and carrying out work at other major sites in the area, to further understand the landscapes and waterscapes of the whole Ancient Egyptian religious capital zone.

The Conceptual origins and geomorphic evolution of the temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak (Luxor, Egypt) is published in Antiquity and is available online.

The work was supported by the Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse (KAW 2013.0163) and Uppsala Universitet (HUMSAM 2014/17), together with a small grant from M och S Wångstedts Stiftelse. The work was carried out under the auspices of the Egypt Exploration Society (London) with a permit from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (Egypt).