Tel Habua, Sinai - and lava from ancient Greek volcano

The excavations at the Pharaonic site of Tel Habuwa, northeast of Qantara on the Suez Canal, have revealed some pumice that has led to speculation about how it got there, covered at a number of websites (see below). A quick mention for the Pharaonic fort too, which is being largely lost from view in the excitement about the pumice: the excavation has revealed the remains of an 18th Dynasty fort which had four rectangular towers built of mud brick, and was thought to have been used as one of a series of eastern forts as part of a defensive campaign against the Hyksos, who established a significant foothold in Egypt from about 1500 B.C. to about 1000 B.C.. For more about Tel Habuwa and the importance of the eastern forts, see this report on the Al Ahram Weekly website dating back to mid 2004:
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/688/eg10.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2007-04-02-sinai-pumice_N.htm
"Egyptian archaeologists showed off white pumice Monday that they theorize was swept onto the northern Sinai desert by a tsunami triggered by the ancient volcanic eruption on Santorini island 530 miles away.
Traces of the solidified lava foam from the eruption have been found on the island of Crete and in southwestern Turkey, but the archaeological team now believes it also reached the Sinai site where they were digging at an ancient fort 4 miles from the Mediterranean coast."
See the above page for brief details, and a photograph of a grave from the excavation that has produced the above theories. Click on the thumbnail image to see it more clearly.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/02/africa/ME-GEN-Egypt-Ancient-Eruption.php

"Egyptian archaeologists on Monday presented white stones of pumice that they believe a tsunami in ancient times carried 850 kilometers (530 miles) across the Mediterranean to north Sinai. The pumice was discharged by a volcanic eruption in the ancient Greek island of Santorini in the 17th century B.C. Traces of this solidified lava foam that floats have been found in Crete and southwestern Turkey, but Egypt's archaeologists believe it also reached this site in the Sinai desert, about 7 kilometers (4 miles) south of the coast. The Santorini explosion was devastating. It sunk most of the island and killed over 35,000 people of a thriving Minoan community.
The head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, hailed the discovery as opening a 'new field' of study in Egyptology."

See the above page for further details.

http://tinyurl.com/2ga7wh (smh.com.au)
"A volcanologist at Greece's Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration, Georges Vougioukalakis, is sceptical that the pumice could have travelled so far. But 'thin strata of ash' - carried by the wind from Santorini - have already been found in the Nile Delta, he told The Associated Press.
'The tsunami could have carried pumice a bit higher than the coastal area. But it would have been carried there by currents,' Vougiokalakis said in Athens.
Some believe that Santorini could even be the elusive Atlantis, the mythical land described by Plato that disappeared without a trace.
But the myth of Atlantis was not on the mind of the archeologists when they excavated this desert site northeast of Qantara, a town on the Suez Canal about 150 kms northeast of Cairo.
They were searching for Pharaonic forts that played a major role in protecting ancient Egypt's gateway to the Nile Delta from foreign invasion."

See the above page for more details.

Also covered at:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2007-04-02-sinai-pumice_N.htm

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