This presents the findings of a comprehensive pollen analysis conducted on lacustrine sediments from two cores collected from Holocene Lake Faiyum (F1-08 and Howara 1). The Early Holocene sediments are characterized by a rich diversity of aquatic and wetland pollen types, predominantly comprising grasses and bryophytes in the Ricciaceae and Poaceae families. In contrast, the middle Holocene pollen assemblage demonstrates a notable increase in non-indigenous arboreal pollen types, such as Pinaceae and Acanthaceae, relative to indigenous arboreal types. In Late Holocene pollen assemblages, Cyperaceae pollen is found to be abundant, whereas Poaceae and Ricciaceae pollen are comparatively scarce. This observed pattern may indicate a decline in Nile floods and a subsequent reduction in lake levels. As the Faiyum Delta undergoes evolution, a peripheral marshy areas develope due to lowereing lake level.

Lake Faiyum provides a comprehensive Holocene sediment record, offering more insight into Nile flood deposition than fluvial sediments in the Nile Valley. Geochemical analysis of lake sediments reveals changes in climate, productivity, organic matter source and composition, salinity, and redox conditions. We integrated lipid biomarker and elemental data from core F1-08 taken at the southern margin of the lake. Our findings indicate that the Early Holocene (ca. >10-8.2 cal. ka BP) was characterized by a humid climate with high lake-levels. This is supported by low Ti/Al and Zr/Al ratios, low terrestrial/aquatic n-alkane ratios (TARs), and a significant contribution of freshwater algal homologues (low TOC/TN ratio). Salinity was low, indicated by low Sr/Ba and S/TOC ratios. Nutrient-rich Nile discharge fostered productivity and oxygen depletion, promoting organic carbon preservation. During the period from ca. 8.2 to 6.2 cal. ka BP (within the Middle Holocene), the lake experienced a slight increase in salinity, which caused a change from freshwater to brackish water conditions accompanied by a slight lake-level drop and delta-like wet land, indicated by increased Sr/Ba and S/TOC ratios. Brackish conditions in the lake coincide with the appearance and sharp increase of various botryococcenes, caused by elevated algal productivity including Botryococcus braunii and typified by low TOC/TN ratios. The Middle to Late Holocene (ca. 6.2 cal. ka BP to present) witnessed gradual aridification and declining lake-levels, organic productivity, and preservation. Evidence includes high Ti/Al and Zr/Al ratios, low TOC contents, and reduced contribution of freshwater algal homologues (higher TOC/TN) and a sharp decrease of botryococcenes. Salinity gradually increased, reflected by higher Sr/Ba and S/TOC ratios. An increase in Mo enrichment since ca. 4.2 cal. ka BP, without a corresponding rise in TOC contents, may be due to human-induced hydrological changes or transport to the lake through wind and limited rainfall. Elevated Ti levels at that time may be linked to increased aridity in the Ethiopian Highlands, potentially impacting Nile floods ca. 4.2 cal. ka BP and contributing to the decline of the Old Kingdom in Egypt.

Element concentrations and isotopic compositions of sediments are important for studying the evolution and changes in erosional processes, surface environments, and climate, as well as understanding how these processes are interconnected. The Ti isotopic composition (delta Ti-49) of fine-grained sediments was utilized to determine the lithological composition of their source rocks due to the contrasting signature of felsic rocks (delta Ti-49 > 0.3 parts per thousand) compared to mafic rocks (delta Ti-49 similar to 0.0 parts per thousand). Data from Eastern Mediterranean Sea sediments have been used to argue that hydrodynamic mineral sorting in the Nile Delta biases their delta Ti-49 signature, questioning the reliability of Ti isotopes as a provenance tracer. We present Sr, Nd, and Ti isotope data from Nile sediments at Lake Qarun, along with Ti isotopic compositions from Nile Delta samples collected in Wadi Natrun. The Ti isotopic compositions of all sediments analysed range from +0.11 parts per thousand to +0.20 parts per thousand and average at +0.149 +/- 0.015 parts per thousand (2SE, n = 14). The Sr-87/Sr-86 ratios and epsilon Nd-CHUR values of Lake Qarun sediments exhibit small variations and average at 0.70754 +/- 0.00035 (2SE, n = 9) and -2.5 +/- 0.6 (2SE, n = 9), respectively. These radiogenic isotope signatures are characteristic for Nile sediments and plot in between those from the Nile in Sudan and the Nile Delta. Furthermore, the heavy Ti isotopic compositions of Lake Qarun samples match those of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea sediments. Therefore, Nile sediments carry a heavy delta Ti-49 signature already before entering the delta, proofing that hydrodynamic mineral sorting within it is not responsible for the Ti isotope values of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea sediments. Instead, we show with trace element modelling that the proportion of felsic material transported in Nile sediments increases from the Atbara (3 %) to the Blue Nile (22 %) and reaches between 44 % and 68 % in the Nile Delta. These estimated proportions of felsic lithologies correlate favourably with Sr and Nd isotopes, suggesting that the observed variations in these isotopes along the Nile are primarily driven by the addition of felsic source rocks to the sediment load. The heavy Ti isotopic composition of Nile sediments entering the delta can be plausibly explained by a contribution of approximately 45 % felsic rock material, derived from the felsic lithologies of the Ethiopian Traps as well as from basement rocks and their sedimentary covers within the Nile catchment. Furthermore, the fact that the measured delta Ti-49 values of Nile sediments align with those of Eastern Mediterranean Sea sediments, without the need to invoke hydrodynamic mineral sorting effects on Ti isotopes in the Nile Delta, suggests that such sorting has only a minor impact on the delta Ti-49 signature in the global shale record. This supports the use of Ti isotopes as a reliable tool for reconstructing the lithological composition of a sediments source regions.

We report the geochemical composition of a 13 m deep core (Core SAQA 22) drilled in the Saqqara-Memphis floodplain, as well as the isotopic ratios (S13C and S18O) of freshwater Corbicula shells. Core SAQA 22 consists mainly of Middle-Late Holocene floodplain sediments (units II-VI) that unconformably overly Late Pleistocene sand and gravel (Unit 1). The findings show variations in S18O and S13C values, suggesting intermittent periods of high evaporation/precipitation ratios and moister environments during the Middle Holocene. Due to the prevalence of dry conditions than what exists today, the S18O enrichment and mild S13C depletion in the upper part of the core point to less productive paleoenvironments during the Late Holocene. The consecutive climatic variations experienced in ancient Egypt, as deduced from the Saqqara-Memphis floodplain, are outlined as follows: (1) the Predynastic period (7-5.2 kyr cal BP) is generally wet; (2) the Old Kingdom (5.2-4.2 kyr cal BP) had dry local climate conditions for the first half of its existence, which later became wetter during the Late Old Kingdom; (3) the Old Kingdom ended with a brief period of aridity; (4) the Middle Kingdom (4-3.7 kyr cal BP) had a local climate that was both moist and wet, with a brief dry phase at the end; (5) the New Kingdom ended with dry conditions; (6) the local climate turned arid after the Late Period (3-2.3 kyr cal BP); (7) an arid climate was established in the Nile Basin after 2.7 kyr cal BP, with notable drought periods at 1.2 and 0.6 kyr cal BP.

Although trionychians have a rich fossil record, much of their fossil diversity is known from the Cretaceous and Paleogene, and little is known about their evolutionary history in the Neogene. We here describe cranial and shell material of trionychians from the Early Miocene Moghra Formation of Egypt that we attribute to a new carettochelyid taxon, Allaeochelys meylani sp. nov., and to the Trionyx lineage. Allaeochelys meylani sp. nov. fills a temporal gap between previously described taxa and exhibits a series of unique features, including greatly thickened cranial bones, a broad bony wall posterior to the orbit, a large fossa formed by the maxilla and premaxilla at the anterior third of the triturating surface, and a medial process on peripheral II. Allaeochelys meylani sp. nov. also documents the oldest occurrence of Carettochelyidae on the Afro-Arabian continent, while the Trionyx material reported herein provides unambiguous evidence for the presence of this lineage on the Afro-Arabian continent no later than the Early Miocene.

North Africa is a key region hosting ca. 230 million people that are dependent on climate to maintain their subsistence through agriculture. Because of the current global changes, understanding the mechanisms behind the climate variations that occurred in this region is extremely important. To contribute to a more accurate modelling projection, we reconstructed the paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental variations from the Meghalayan (-1,500 ka) to recent using palynological and geochemical data from a sediment core from El-Beida Lake (Wadi El-Natrun area, north Western Desert of Egypt). North Africa underwent significant shifts in climatic conditions forced by different drivers since the Roman Warm Period (RWP) until recent. Our sediment core record indicates that this region experienced a persistent dry and warm climate during the RWP until the first half of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA). The positive North Atlantic Oscillation was the main driver for controlling the precipitation pattern and pushing the precipitation towards central and north Europe and favoring the dry climate in North Africa during the RWP. The dry and slightly cold conditions in the study area during the Dark Age Cold Period (DACP) can be ascribed to the coupling between the more southward position of the Azores Front and the weak Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Northern Africa showed variable climatic conditions during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) due to the complicated thermohaline circulation of the Mediterranean Sea. During this time, the Eastern Mediterranean experienced a cold or partially cold MCA that may be extended to the present study area. An abrupt change to humid and cold climatic conditions occurred in northern Africa during the Little Ice Age (LIA) due to large-scale processes like the ENSO and NAO. The SST warming of the North Tropical Atlantic (NTA), significantly influenced by ENSO, causes the position of the Atlantic ITCZ to be shifted northward affecting precipitation in Africa.

A synthesis of field geological and archaeological surveying, as well as near-surface stratigraphy, provides new insights into the late Quaternary history of this region. We find a long series of alluvial, colluvial, playa, and aeolian deposits that show a complicated history of changes in the late Quaternary climate and environment. In the current study, we summarize the results of a geoarchaeological study that focused on the entire range of landscapes and associated landforms along the fringe of the Libyan Plateau at Umm Dabadib, Kharga Oasis, in the Western Desert of Egypt. We also determined the distribution of the cultural materials of prehistoric sites in different geomorphic settings, including playas, wadis, and dune fields.

The geochemical and mineralogical investigations conducted on a core retrieved from a paleolake in Faiyum Depression, Egypt, reveal a variation in two precipitation patterns; these are the Ethiopian African Monsoon (EAM) at the Nile Headwaters and the Mediterranean winter rains. The heavy mineral assemblage, and the geochemical characteristics, exhibit significant shifts in clastic input to the paleolake. These variations suggest shifting in the sources of sediment, with an East African origin during the African Humid Period (AHP) and in the Late Holocene, and a White Nile source during the Late Pleistocene and Middle Holocene. Geochemical data is additionally utilized in the determination of variations in the properties of the paleo-water (paleo-salinity and paleo-productivity). The paleo-water of Faiyum Lake exhibited characteristics of a substantial freshwater body during the Early to Mid-Holocene. During the subsequent period, there was a sudden drop in the lake level, accompanied by a subsequent rise in salinity due to hydrological modifications.

The Faiyum Depression basin was fed by the Nile River during high-flow seasons in the Holocene. A large freshwater lake persisted in the basin during most of the Holocene. The geological setting and geomorphological characteristics of this basin has made it a topic in North African hydrology, climate, and environment, especially in Egypt. The ancient shore sediments today are fragmentary, discontinuous, and suffer from extensive erosion but substantial records of the ancient lake remain. Continuous sediment records from drill cores provided a near complete record of the Holocene history of Faiyum Lake. The recovered sedimentary sequence of one core F3-08 consists of predominantly siliciclastic lacustrine facies divisible into six informal units. Petrographic analysis provides high resolution evidence of major hydrological changes affecting the lake system. In the early-middle Holocene this lake persisted but with a lower water level and thicker sediment layers. The middle Holocene Lake experienced repetitive variations in lake level as the amount of Nile water entering the depression fluctuated. During the late Holocene, the lake level dramatically lowered in part due to the construction of earthen dams during the late Holocene and to changes in the Nile headwaters.

Barchan dunes of the Kharga Depression, Western Desert, Egypt, have been assessed in terms of their morphometry, grain size, and migration rate using remote sensing and GIS techniques and field and laboratory work. Thirty-seven sites were chosen along the Kharga dune belt and subdivided into northern, central, and southern sectors. At each site, several barchans were subjected to morphometric measurements (length, width, height, length of eastern and western horns, and length of windward and leeward sides). The rate and direction of 160 barchans were also measured for the period between 2002 and 2018. Grain size analysis was carried out on sand samples taken from the crest of these dunes. Statistically, significant relationships have been found between the morphometric parameters, dune migration, and grain size attributes. The analysis of the morphology of the barchan dunes, their movement, and the nature of sedimentary materials provide essential information for assessing and evaluating their environmental hazards.

The Faiyum depression was linked to the Nile River and involved a broad freshwater lake, during most of the Holocene.Grain-size analysis of the lacustrine sediments along 22.7 m long core F3-08 of the Faiyum paleolake has been carried out to expose the mode of transportation, energy, and hydrodynamic conditions, as well as the environmental conditions.The recovered sedimentary sequence consists of predominantly siliciclastic lacustrine facies divided into six informal units.The grain size analysis of the studied sediments shows slight changes in the composition of the sediment mixture between silt and clay with rare occasional sand lenses.The variation in the standard deviation between well-sorted to poorly sorted sediments and from fine skewed to coarse skewed under leptokurtic to platykurtic nature exposes the environmental implications.Bivariate cross plots of grain size parameters, mode of transportation (C-M diagram), and linear discrimination functions (LDF) designate the fluvial nature of sediments and the riverine input.The depositional processes were aquatically controlled through active energy processes of the Nile flood.The graded suspension and suspension with rolling mode (saltation) are both the prime factors for transportation, where the sediments were deposited and reworked by turbidity actions, within a shallow agitated environment.

The current study deals with textural, mineralogical, and geochemical characteristics of the barchan dune sands of Abu Muharak dune belts in the Kharga Depression. Abu Muharak is the longest dune belt in the Western Desert of Egypt. Sand samples from 37 sites were texturally, petrologically, and chemically analyzed. Our goals were to interpret the provenance of the sands in terms of grain size, petrology, and geochemistry and correlate these data with the proposed source such as Nubian sandstone, Pleistocene alluvial, and Holocene lacustrine sediments as well as ancient aeolian deposits exposed at the Kharga Depression. The present study concludes that the Moghra sandstone is the main source of the Abu Muharak dune belt with local contributions from Pleistocene alluvial and dune deposits as well as weathered Nubian sandstone in the Kharga Depression.

Abstract The geomorphological and geological settings of Faiyum Depression make its lake sediments relevant to both the paleoclimate and paleohydrology of North Africa in general and Egypt in particular. Faiyum Depression is an endorheic basin that received fresh water from the Nile River during seasonal high flows throughout most of the late Pleistocene and Holocene. A detailed analysis of the textural and microfacies of lacustrine sediments were carried out. The sediment at the base of core F3-08, represent the last shirking phase of the previously huge late Pleistocene Lake phase with high beaches at c. 45m ASL. This phase represents ended by complete dissociation of the lake and prevailing of desert condition with accumulation of aeolian sand. An early Holocene freshwater mega-lake initially filled almost the whole Faiyum Depression and their beaches are existed at elevation of c. 25m ASL and since that time lake levels have fluctuated markedly leading to the small saline lake (Lake Qarun). During the Early and Middle Holocene, lake level changes were largely influenced by changing Nile floods driven by African monsoons and Westerlies affecting the African Nile headwaters. Detailed examination of sediment structures using high resolution microfacies differentiation in a continuous Holocene sediment core revealed the fine detail of sedimentological complexities. These are primarily attributed to changes in sediment supply, sedimentological conditions and sediment accumulation rates as the lake system responded to environmental modifications caused by both climate and by ancient people.

In this article, we discuss the geological, mineralogical, and geochemical characteristics of the proposed sources of pigments used in the Wadi Sura rock art, southwestern Egypt. Colors used in the paintings include white, yellow, and several reddish hues ranging from pale red to dark reddish brown, rare black, and greenish hues. The results of Raman spectroscopy and pXRF techniques on both raw coloring materials and archaeological pigments show that the ancient artists made extensive use of inorganic clay-based pigment (e.g., kaolinite) associated with anhydrite and gypsum. White raw coloring materials were recorded in the field as thin laminated beds and lenses within the Silurian sandstone bedrock and are also present in paleosol layers and reworked fragments mixed with ocher. Raw materials for red and yellow colors are represented by clay-based mixtures of aluminosilicate with iron oxide, hematite, goethite or magnetite, and gypsum. The amorphous carbon and romanechite, as well as goethite and magnetite, could have been the components of the dark brownish pigments widely used in the rock art of the study area. Surprisingly, lazurite was also recognized among the raw materials, although this blue pigment does not seem to have been used in the Wadi Sura rock art panels (however, bluish and greenish traces as violet reddish hues, along with bluish-greenish yellow colors, are reported in the paintings). Lazurite is not well known in the geology of Egypt and has been detected in this study for the first time. The results of our work indicate that access to the Silurian sandstones, mainly located on the northwestern slope of the plateau, may have been one of the factors for choosing this area of the Gilf Kebir for producing rock art images.

Some undescribed suoid specimens from early and middle Miocene deposits at Moghara, Egypt, and Gebel Zelten, Libya, are of interest for biochronology. The fossils comprise maxillae and mandibles with incomplete dentitions, which are described and illustrated in detail. Three species of suids and one sanithere occur at Moghara. A huge edentulous suid mandible was collected at Gebel Zelten in 1997 during the Spanish-Libyan Palaeontology Expedition. In January, 2020, additional sanithere fossils were collected from Moghara by a team from Cairo University and the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris. A suid mandible with four teeth collected from Moghara in 1994, and now curated at the Cairo Geological Museum, confirms the presence of the species Libycochoerus massai at the site, previously represented by an isolated upper molar and two canines. A talus previously thought to be from Moghara is now known to have been collected at Wadi Natrun (late Miocene) and thus probably represents a tetraconodont rather than a kubanochoere. The age of the Moghara deposits is estimated to span the period ca. 19.5–16.5 Ma (late early Miocene, Faunal Sets PII–PIIIa) and the Zelten sequence is most likely to span the period ca. 17–14.5 Ma (late early Miocene to basal middle Miocene, Faunal Sets PIIIa–PIIIb).

During most of the Holocene, the Faiyum Depression in Middle Egypt was connected to the Nile River and contained an extensive freshwater lake. Geochemical analysis of a lacustrine sediment core (Qaru-9) from the depression provides evidence of changes in Nile sediment discharge related to changes in Ethiopian African Monsoon (EAM) precipitation, and allows us to reconstruct changes in Nile River runoff, vegetation and erosion in both the near and far catchment. Major and trace elements reveal significant changes in clastic sediment provenance, with sources oscillating between (i) a Blue/Atbara Nile fluvial contribution during the African Humid Period (AHP) and in the late Holocene (i.e. c. 10–7.5 & c.4–0 ka cal BP, respectively), (ii) a White Nile contribution between c. 7.5–4 ka cal BP with aeolian contributions and carbonate deposits occurring during local arid and wetter conditions, respectively. We also use geochemical data to assign variations in the paleowater properties of the Faiyum Lake (i.e. redox condition, paleosalinity and paleoproductivity) throughout the Holocene. Changes in pollen and algal remains in early to mid Holocene sediments confirm a deep freshwater lake prior to c. 10–8 ka cal BP but diminishing water levels after this period. The Faiyum Lake was a deep freshwater lake between 10 & 6 ka cal BP with fluctuating lake levels between 6–4 ka cal BP and during the late Holocene. In the later period, an abrupt drop in lake level occurred followed by increasing salinity as hydrological modifications occurred.

Lizard and snake remains from the early Miocene (Burdigalian) of the Moghra Formation, Egypt, are described herein. This material comprises the first fossil remains of squamates recovered from the otherwise rich and well known vertebrate assemblage of Moghra. The material pertains to two different genera, the varanid lizard Varanus and the pythonid snake Python and adds to the so far rather poorly known squamate fossil record from Africa. On the basis of the new remains, Moghra marks the oldest so far described co-occurrence of Varanus and Python in the African continent. The close sympatry of these two genera in the African fossil record is thoroughly analyzed and discussed, a co-existence, which is still widespread in the extant herpetofauna of the continent. Situated rather close to the so called “Levantine Corridor” and dated at the Burdigalian, practically when Afro-Arabia collided with Eurasia, the Moghra squamate assemblage offers the potential of important insights in the biogeography and dispersal events of vertebrate groups during the early Miocene.

More than 100 years of continuing research into the Quaternary of Egypt has produced numerous publications. In the last twenty years, Quaternary studies have witnessed great advances in both theories and methodologies, and the pace of archaeological research has accelerated as a new generation of researchers joined in expounding the different dimensions of the Quaternary period of Egypt. We aim in this contribution to provide an up-to-date synthesis of recent research on high-resolution and well-dated paleo-environmental archives of proxy data to understand the emerging picture of the impact of climate change on sediments, paleoenvironments and landscapes in Egypt as a whole.

There are relatively few Holocene lake sediment core sequences available for north-east Africa. This study examines the developmental history of Faiyum Lake (Egypt) by detailed lithostratigraphic description together with microfossils and geochemistry, of two adjacent lake sediment cores. The recovered sedimentary sequence consists of predominantly lacustrine facies divisible into five sedimentary units. Early Holocene sediments (Unit II; c. 9.9-8 ka cal BP), overlying late Pleistocene aeolian sands (Unit I), comprise sub-mm laminations (non-glacial varves) of white diatomite and calcite inter-bedded with yellowish-green mineralogenic layers indicating a deep freshwater lake phase. Early middle Holocene sediments (Unit III, c. 8 to 6 ka cal BP) consists by pockets of non-glacial varved laminae intercalated with turbidites and increasing thick silty clay layers, indicating a shallow freshwater lake phase with increasing nutrients. The late middle Holocene lake phase, Unit IV (c. 6 to 4 ka cal BP) is grey massive mud with occasional thick (>1 cm) diatomite-carbonate layers and thin gypsum and iron-hydroxides layers indicative of a lake shrinking phase but with a large level fluctuation sand evaporation phases when freshwater inflow diminished. The late Holocene lake phase (unit V, c. 4 ka cal BP-present) reveals bioturbation and increasing fine sand with artifacts corresponding to further lake level declines and fluctuations as water management intensifies during and after Middle Kingdom and Ptolemaic times. Together with geochemical and microfossil evidence, sedimentology of the studied cores indicate a series of major environment changes affecting the whole lake system throughout the Holocene. (C) 2020 International Association for Great Lakes Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We describe two large amphicyonid (Amphicyonidae, Carnivora) mandibles from Moghra, Early Miocene, Egypt. One of these represents a new species of Cynelos Jourdan, 1862, which is in the same size range as C. macrodon (Savage, 1965) and C. ginsburgi n. comb., but exhibits a relatively longer m1 paraconid blade. The other is allocated to Amphicyon giganteus (Schinz, 1825). Based on this new material the differences between Cynelos, Amphicyon Lartet in Michelin, 1836, and Afrocyon Arambourg, 1961 are clarified. We also reassign three (P4, M1, M2) of four isolated and unassociated amphicyonid teeth from Moghra, previously attributed to "Cynelos sp. nov." to Amphicyon giganteus. These teeth represent the first record of the upper dentition of A. giganteus from Africa. Enhanced diagnoses of Cynelos and Amphicyon also permit the reallocation of some other previously described specimens to these taxa. These include: assignment of "Amphicyon sp." and an isolated m2 previously identified as "Afrocyon burolleti Arambourg, 1961" from Gebel Zelten, Libya, to the new species of Cynelos; allocation of "Ysengrinia" ginsburgi from Arrisdrift, South Africa, to Cynelos ginsburgi n. comb.; and attribution of a giant undescribed additional species from Buluk, Kenya to Cynelos sp. Other specific specimens from Gebel Zelten and Kenya, currently assigned to Afrocyon, are also transferred to either Cynelos or Amphicyon. Results from this study, combined with previous work on the Moghra carnivores, suggests that at least three and perhaps as many as four very large carnivorous genera co-existed at Moghra: Cynelos, Amphicyon, Hyainailouros Stehlin, 1907 and possibly Megistotherium Savage, 1973. These giants represent the top predators of the Early Miocene of Africa, with Cynelos being more carnivorous, and Amphicyon, Hyainailouros and Megistotherium having more developed bone-crushing capabilities.