Cairns in context : GIS analysis of visibility at Stelae Ridge, Egypt
This thesis describes a new approach tor investigating cairns, stone enclosures, stone alignments and other small archaeological features found in the deserts around the Egyptian Nile valley. Investigation of these features has previously been restricted by their ephemeral nature, damage from modern development and the limited artefactual, epigraphic or archaeological evidence associated with them. This research focuses on a case study of eight cairns and adjacent courts at the Middle Kingdom carnelian mine of Stelae Ridge in the Gebel el-Asr quarries in southern Egypt. While accepting previous interpretations of the cairn-courts as ritual structures created for the worship of local divinities, this research sought a fuller interpretation of the site in its landscape context and a more nuanced understanding of the structures, their chronological development and the decisions which governed their location and layout. This was achieved through systematic visibility analysis of the eight cairn-courts with geographic information system (GIS) software, which provided new data concerning the patterns of visibility associated with the structures. Interpretation of these patterns in the context of the archaeological
Pethen, Hannah
D051 Ancient History ; GN Anthropology ; H Social Sciences (General)
Cairns in context : GIS analysis of visibility at Stelae Ridge, Egypt. This thesis describes a new approach tor investigating cairns, stone enclosures, stone alignments and other small archaeological features found in the deserts around the Egyptian Nile valley. Investigation of these features has previously been restricted by their ephemeral nature, damage from modern development and the limited artefactual, epigraphic or archaeological evidence associated with them. This research focuses on a case study of eight cairns and adjacent courts at the Middle Kingdom carnelian mine of Stelae Ridge in the Gebel el-Asr quarries in southern Egypt. While accepting previous interpretations of the cairn-courts as ritual structures created for the worship of local divinities, this research sought a fuller interpretation of the site in its landscape context and a more nuanced understanding of the structures, their chronological development and the decisions which governed their location and layout. This was achieved through systematic visibility analysis of the eight cairn-courts with geographic information system (GIS) software, which provided new data concerning the patterns of visibility associated with the structures. Interpretation of these patterns in the context of the archaeological
context gis_analysis visibility ridge egypt describes new investigating cairn stone enclosures stone alignment small archaeological feature_find desert around egyptian nile valley investigation feature previously restrict ephemeral nature damage modern development limit artefactual epigraphic archaeological_evidence associate_them focus case_study adjacent court middle_kingdom mine ridge asr quarry southern egypt accept previous_interpretation cairn ritual structure create worship local divinity seek fuller interpretation site landscape_context nuanced structure chronological_development decision govern location layout achieve systematic visibility analysis cairn geographic_information system gis software provide_new data concern pattern visibility associate structure interpretation pattern context archaeological