Books by Pierre Vermeersch
Beyin, A., Wright, D.K., Wilkins, J., Olszewski, D.I. (eds) Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa
fieldwork has resumed in this area of the Eastern Desert through a cooperation between the univer... more fieldwork has resumed in this area of the Eastern Desert through a cooperation between the universities of Cologne and Leuven under the aegis of the CRC 806 "Our Way to Europe." Sodmein Cave (26.24° N, 33.97° E) is located about 40 km north-northwest of the seaport of Quseir in an isolated Tertiary limestone complex (Djebel Umm Hammad/Djebel Duwi) of the Red Sea Mountains of the Egyptian Eastern Desert (Figs. 1 and 2). This elongated Eocene limestone ridge, rich in flint, runs almost parallel to the Red Sea graben structure and is surrounded as well as underlain by the basement rocks of the Red Sea Mountains. The cave is situated on the northern flank of the breakthrough of Wadi Sodmein through Djebel Duwi, c. 20 m above
Beyin, A., Wright, D.K., Wilkins, J., Olszewski, D.I. (eds) Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa
On the left bank of the Nile, south of the town of Qena in Upper Egypt, several chert extraction ... more On the left bank of the Nile, south of the town of Qena in Upper Egypt, several chert extraction sites in the desert near the village of Taramsa have been the focus of archaeological explorations since the 1980s (Vermeersch et al., 1995). The site of Taramsa-1 is one of them. It was discovered in 1985 during a survey by the Belgian Middle Egypt Prehistoric Project of Leuven University (Vermeersch et al., 1987). It was registered as site E85/2. Excavations were carried out by the team in 1989, 1991, and 1994. In 2001, S. Stokes and R. Bailey from the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art at Oxford (UK) performed sediment sampling and gamma spectrometry for optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating. A final report was published by the team in 2010 (Van Peer et al., 2010). Taramsa 1, c. 2.5 km southeast of the Dendera temple, is an isolated hill surrounded by wadis (Fig. 1). It lies at 26.12 N, 32.68 E and reaches a height of 115 m above sea level (masl) and is c. 15 m above the surrounding wadi surface. It is capped by a desert pavement consisting of mainly chert cobbles. A black desert varnish on the cobbles of the pavement is responsible for the peculiar aspect of the Taramsa hill, which appears as a black hill in a yellow desert.
Chert Quarrying, Lithic Technology and a Modern Human burial at the Palaeolithic Site of Taramsa 1, Upper Egypt, 2010
This monograph (Chert Quarrying, Lithic Technology and a Modern Human burial at the Palaeolithic ... more This monograph (Chert Quarrying, Lithic Technology and a Modern Human burial at the Palaeolithic Site of Taramsa 1, Upper Egypt) is the final report on the excavations at the chert-quarrying site of Taramsa, located on the west bank of the Nile near Qena in Upper Egypt. The analysis of the lithic assemblages recovered at the site forms an integral and important part of this report, next to a presentation of the primary field data and the spatial analyses of some sectors. Taramsa 1 represents a unique record of lithic technological change over the entire span of the MSA in this part of Africa, until and even beyond the transition to the Upper Palaeolithic. The field evidence pertaining to a MSA child burial is reported upon here. The site is a key reference for the entire region of North and East Africa, and for Southwest Asia.
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Books by Pierre Vermeersch