Ancient Egyptian Medicinal Practices Part 2: The Ecosystems of Ancient Egypt
The Ecosystems of Ancient Egypt
The boundaries of ancient Egypt spanned from the First Cataract of the Nile River in the south to the Delta in the north and from the Red Sea in the east to the Western Oases. Life abounds in ancient Egypt, allowing nearly anything to be grown in the fertile soils along the banks of the Nile and in the Oasis depressions of the Western Desert (Nunn: 1996, 8).
Key to the survival of the Nile Valley civilization was the Nile River. Every year, thanks to the monsoons in Ethiopia, the Nile flooded its banks, causing a rush of water carrying a new layer of silt to cover the nutrient deprived soil from the previous year. The land affected directly by the inundation of the Nile was known as the Black Land or Kemet in the ancient language. The deserts and other areas not directly affected by the flood were known as the Red Land or Deshret (Nunn: 1996, 8). While the Nile Valley depends on the Nile’s annual flood, there is no connection between the River Nile and the Oases. The Oases, in fact, depend entirely on natural groundwater, as will be discussed later (Heinl: 1989).
The Oases are celebrated throughout history as jewels of fertility. This is true, but the truth is accentuated by the surrounding bleakness of the desert. When approaching the Oases, one sees nothing besides the dusty, lifeless golden sands of the Sahara. The monotony is broken by little jewels of green that cling to life in the middle of an unforgiving oven. In antiquity, such plants as dates, grapes for wine, olives, doum palms, and acacia trees have been grown in the Oases with great success. These crops, also grown in the Nile Valley, were successful due to the fertility of the Oases (Giddy: 1987, 4). If the annual inundation was good enough in the Nile Valley, food was never a worry for the ancient Egyptians and most years the flood was ample enough to ensure a good food supply for the rest of the year. Also, if the fertility of the Oases held true, again there was an ample supply of food. This abundance of food left a great deal of time allotted for other pursuits, among these writing, artistry, and medicine (Nunn: 1996, 23).
The Oases of Egypt consist of five major geological depressions. From North to South, these depressions, or Oases, are Siwa, Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhleh and Kharga (Giddy: 1987, 1). The Oases are actually located approximately 300 meters below the Libyan Plateau on which the Nile Valley is located (Kleindienst: 1999, 8). These depressions, located at the base of the Libyan Plateau escarpment, rest on a bed of sandstone known as the Nubian Sandstone Series. Water is supplied to these depressions through a bed of sandstone known as the Taref formation, which may contain the thickest ground water layer in the world (Giddy: 1987, 1). The Taref sandstone is highly porous and is incased in shale creating a perfect natural aquifer that can carry water for miles without much water escaping (Giddy: 1987, 4). This sandstone aquifer underlies a great deal, if not the entirety, of the desert, but is only accessible to the depressions that dip into the aquifer, exposing the water enough to allow life to flourish in the middle of the Sahara (Giddy: 1987, 1). The water in this natural aquifer is ancient water, hailing from Pre-dynastic times when the Sahara was humid. While they have attempted to date the age of the water, it is far beyond the ability to ascertain the age using the C14 dating method. As this water is so old, it is safe to assume that no water has been added in recent times to the aquifer. Thus, the Oases are slowly depleting their water sources (Heinl: 1989).
The Egyptian Oases are located in the Western Desert, a part of the Sahara, thus it goes without saying that water is precious. One might believe that this is a perfect situation in which to be in, but this idyllic existence comes with some problems. Often water is over tapped, leaving it standing in the Oasis. This is not only wasteful, but it is damaging to the environment of the Oases. The standing water brings out the salinity in the soil, often ruining the nutritious soil that sustains the Oases. The solution to this ongoing problem is a simple, if drawn out, process. As the salinity in the soil makes cultivation in a certain area impossible, that area is abandoned and left to the wind. The wind, over time, will scour the salt off the upper layers of the soil, eventually exposing the lower, more fertile soils for cultivation. This time-consuming process has allowed the Oases to become flourishing, life sustaining islands in the middle of the desert (Giddy: 1987, 4).
One aspect of Oasis weather that is inherently dangerous is wind. Both men and plants suffer from the wind, whether it is a violent sandstorm or simply the blowing that is constant in the Oases. With the constant blowing of the wind comes dust and sand particles that mow down crops and poison the lungs of men and animals alike. This “Curse of the Oasis” may be dangerous, but does not detract from the lure of the Oases and their overall fertility (Giddy: 1987, 3).
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