Human occupation of the Nile Delta during pre- and early dynastic times. A View from Kom el-Khilgan

Research in the Nile Delta over the past twenty years has confirmed interest in the study of the northern part of Egypt. At the crossroads of Saharan Africa, the Nile Valley and Levant, this area saw original cultures borrowing their principal features from various sources. Their development announces the rise of Pharaonic civilisation and the birth of the state in Egypt. Work carried out in this area, which is considered to be the part of Egypt the most threatened by urbanism and agricultural pressure, gives rise to new ideas about human occupation during the 4'h millennium BC. The aim of this paper is to present the interest in geoarchaeology in the context of the Nile Delta in order to the study of the relationships between man and his environment. From the example of Kom el-Khilgan, to which several geoarchaeological techniques have been applied (geological profiling, classical hand augering, geo-electrical profiling and sounding) this study makes possible a better understanding of the original morphology of the landscape during the course of its history.