Karnak founded on Nile island in Old Kingdom, study finds

An international team of archaeologists says new geoarchaeological evidence shows Egypt's Karnak Temple complex near Luxor was founded on a fluvial terrace, or small island, and was first occupied in the Old Kingdom period around 2520 BCE. The study, published in the journal Antiquity, is based on the most comprehensive survey of the site to date and ties the temple's origins to shifts in the Nile's channels that created elevated ground suitable for lasting construction.

Researchers collected 61 sediment cores across the Karnak precinct and analyzed tens of thousands of ceramic fragments recovered from the site to reconstruct past landscapes and establish a timeline. The sedimentary record indicates that before about 2520 BCE the area would have been regularly flooded by fast-moving Nile channels and therefore unsuitable for permanent occupation. Ceramic evidence places the earliest datable human activity on the newly formed island between roughly 2305 and 1980 BCE, consistent with an Old Kingdom foundation and subsequent development into the Middle and New Kingdoms.

The team reports that the island emerged when river channels cut to the east and west, leaving a pocket of higher...