Hatnub was the location of Egyptian alabaster quarries and an associated seasonally occupied workers' settlement in the

Eastern Desert The Eastern Desert (Archaically known as Arabia or the Arabian Desert) is the part of the Sahara desert that is located east of the Nile river. It spans of North-Eastern Africa and is bordered by the Nile river to the west and the Red Sea and ...

, about from el-Minya, southeast of

el-Amarna Amarna (; ar, العمارنة, al-ʿamārnah) is an extensive Egyptian archaeological site containing the remains of what was the capital city of the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The city was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of the Ph ...

. The pottery, hieroglyph inscriptions and hieratic graffiti at the site show that it was in use intermittently from at least as early as the reign of

Khufu Khufu or Cheops was an ancient Egyptian monarch who was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, in the first half of the Old Kingdom period ( 26th century BC). Khufu succeeded his father Sneferu as king. He is generally accepted as having co ...

until the

Roman period The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

(''c.'' 2589 BC–AD 300). The Hatnub quarry settlement, associated with three principal quarries, like those associated with gold mines in the

Wadi Hammamat Wadi Hammamat ( en, Valley of Many Baths, ''India way; gateway to India'') is a dry river bed in Egypt's Eastern Desert, about halfway between Al-Qusayr and Qena. It was a major mining region and trade route east from the Nile Valley in ancien ...

and elsewhere, are characterized by drystone windbreaks, roads, causeways, cairns and stone alignments. Hatnub was first described in modern times by

Percy Newberry Percy Edward Newberry (23 April 1869 – 7 August 1949) was a British Egyptologist. Biography Percy Newberry was born in Islington, London on 23 April 1869. His parents were Caroline () and Henry James Newberry, a woollen warehouseman. Newber ...

and

Howard Carter Howard Carter (9 May 18742 March 1939) was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist who discovered the intact tomb of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun in November 1922, the best-preserved pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the K ...

in 1891. There are many inscriptions on the rocks, and these were first described by

George Willoughby Fraser George Willoughby Fraser (baptized 5 August 1866 – 24 November 1923) was an English civil engineer who operated at the service of the Egypt Exploration Fund. His parents were Sir Thomas Fraser and Matilda Wildman. As part of his work f ...

and

Marcus Worsley Blackden Marcus, Markus, Márkus or Mărcuș may refer to: * Marcus (name), a masculine given name * Marcus (praenomen), a Roman personal name Places * Marcus, a main belt asteroid, also known as (369088) Marcus 2008 GG44 * Mărcuş, a village in Dobâr ...

, members of this same expedition. For nearly hundred years, archaeologists concentrated on finding and translating these inscriptions which illuminated much ordinary life in ancient Egypt. Only when Ian Shaw and his team began studying the material remains were the two integrated to give a fuller picture. For example, no

New Kingdom New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

inscriptions were found, and it was thought that the quarries were not used during that period. Shaw and his team found New Kingdom pottery fragments showing that workers from this period must have used the quarries.

Ramp

In 2018, researchers from the University of Liverpool's Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology (ACE) and the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale (IFAO) announced the discovery of an ancient ramp at the site. The well-preserved ramp, which dates to the reign of

, may shed light on how his

Great Pyramid The Great Pyramid of Giza is the biggest Egyptian pyramid and the tomb of Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khufu. Built in the early 26th century BC during a period of around 27 years, the pyramid is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, ...

was constructed. Project co-director Yannis Gourdon from the IFAO says that "the system is composed of a central ramp flanked by two staircases with numerous post holes. Using a sled which carried a stone block and was attached with ropes to these wooden posts, ancient Egyptians were able to pull up the alabaster blocks out of the quarry on very steep slopes of 20 percent or more."

Bibliography

*R. Anthes, (1928) ''Die Felseninschriften von Hatnub", (UGAA 9) (Leipzig). *G.W. Fraser, (1894), 'Hat-Nub', ''PSBA''16: 73-82. *

T.G.H. James Thomas Garnet Henry James, (8 May 1923 – 16 December 2009), known as Harry James, was a British Egyptologist, epigrapher, and museum curator. He is best known for his career long association with the British Museum, serving with the Department ...

, (1991), 'The discovery and identification of the Alabaster Quarries of Hatnub' in Melanges Jacques Jean Clere CRIPEL 13. *I. Shaw, (1986), 'A survey at Hatnub', ''Amarna reports'' III, ed. B.J. Kemp (London), 189-212. *I. Shaw, (2010), ''Hatnub: Quarrying Travertine in Ancient Egypt, EES Excavation Memoir 88'', (London) *''The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt,'' pg. 119-20

References

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