Egypt
For full details of the best known of the Eastern Desert gold mines, Bir Umm Fawakhir, with excellent images and a short bibliography, see the following web pages:
- Gold Mining In Ancient Egypt
Mining Weekly (Jade Davenport) Via the Petrie Museum Unofficial Facebook page. The history of gold is as old as that of man. There is no doubt that it was one of the first metals known to primitive man, as it exists in nature in an elemental state....
- Exhibition: Coins Bring Great Change
Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref) The Egyptian Museum is holding a temporary exhibition on "Coins Through the Ages". Over the past eight years the museum has hosted a series of temporary exhibitions, the most recent of which focussed on five artefacts...
- Centamin Mines Pharaohs’ Gold
FT.com (William MacNamara) A mine known to the pharaohs has re-entered service as modern Egypt’s only large gold producer. A papyrus map indicates that the Sukari gold deposit, in Egypt’s eastern desert near the Red Sea, was mined during the time...
- Eastern Desert - Renewed Gold Production
Monday Morning This may appear to be slightly off-topic, but it is of interest in terms of the potential damage to the Eastern Desert that the mining might inflict on the archaeology. I've written on my Eastern Desert website both about gold exploitation...
- Pharonic Gold Mine Areas Yield New Possibilities
http://www.sis.gov.eg/online/html12/o300625k.htm The Minister of Oil, Sameh Fahmi has announced that three gold mines have been discovered in al-Ela1qi Valley, South of Eastern desert. "An Australian company discovered the three sites and said that the...
Egypt
Exhibition: Gold
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/gold/
There's an exhibition at the moment at the American Museum of Natural History (New York) which looks at gold, including its geological context, how it is extracted and its use in different ancient socieities. Having just returned from Egypt's Eastern Desert, where gold was extracted from mines from Pharaonic times onwards, it was nice to see the above page featuring the Wadi Hammamat: "The Turin Papyrus, an ancient scroll from about 1150 BC, contains the oldest known geological map. It accurately shows the local distribution of different rock types in a 15-kilometer stretch of Wadi Hammamat, the 'Valley of Many Baths,' in Egypt's Eastern Desert. Inscriptions on the map describe such features as 'mountains where gold is worked,' and 'houses of the gold-working settlement.' Some experts think the three vertical 'stripes' on the upper left of the map represent iron-stained, gold-bearing quartz veins." The website's exhibition pages contain many fascinating details about gold. For more details about the exhibition see the above page. For details about opening times, ticket sales etc see:
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/gold/info.php
An image and full description of the Turin Papyrus can be seen at:
An image and full description of the Turin Papyrus can be seen at:
http://tinyurl.com/yk8grx (James A Harrell)
For full details of the best known of the Eastern Desert gold mines, Bir Umm Fawakhir, with excellent images and a short bibliography, see the following web pages:
http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/9703/Meyer-9703.html
http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/PROJ/FAW/Fawakhir.html
- Gold Mining In Ancient Egypt
Mining Weekly (Jade Davenport) Via the Petrie Museum Unofficial Facebook page. The history of gold is as old as that of man. There is no doubt that it was one of the first metals known to primitive man, as it exists in nature in an elemental state....
- Exhibition: Coins Bring Great Change
Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref) The Egyptian Museum is holding a temporary exhibition on "Coins Through the Ages". Over the past eight years the museum has hosted a series of temporary exhibitions, the most recent of which focussed on five artefacts...
- Centamin Mines Pharaohs’ Gold
FT.com (William MacNamara) A mine known to the pharaohs has re-entered service as modern Egypt’s only large gold producer. A papyrus map indicates that the Sukari gold deposit, in Egypt’s eastern desert near the Red Sea, was mined during the time...
- Eastern Desert - Renewed Gold Production
Monday Morning This may appear to be slightly off-topic, but it is of interest in terms of the potential damage to the Eastern Desert that the mining might inflict on the archaeology. I've written on my Eastern Desert website both about gold exploitation...
- Pharonic Gold Mine Areas Yield New Possibilities
http://www.sis.gov.eg/online/html12/o300625k.htm The Minister of Oil, Sameh Fahmi has announced that three gold mines have been discovered in al-Ela1qi Valley, South of Eastern desert. "An Australian company discovered the three sites and said that the...