The molluscs from stone and mudbrick tombs in Abusir (Egypt) and the provenance of so called (Nile-)mud
Abstract
More than 200 archaeological features were looted in Abusir during the Egyptian Lotus revolution, in January 2011. The survey of looted features brought to light among other material mollusc shells from mudbrick, mud plaster and layers covering and filling the tombs and shafts.
Sixteen features could be dated to the Old Kingdom (5th-6th dynasty, ca. 2435-2118 BC); there are two possible features from the 3rd dynasty or early 4th dynasty (ca. 2543-2436 BC) and one feature datable to the Late Period (664-404 BC). Four species of gastropods and five species of bivalves were identified.
Some species now either extinct or with limited range in the Nile were among them: Unio elongatulus, Coelatura aegyptiaca, Anodonta cygnaea, and probably Etheria elliptica. Most frequent freshwater species in the corpus, from the slow flowing or stagnant waters, could be the evidence for the environment, in which the mud for mudbrick and mud plaster was extracted.
It could be Lake of Abusir, irrigation channels or slower flowing part of the Old Kingdom west branch of the Nile.