@article{THESIS,
      recid = {12678},
      author = {El-Behaedi, Raghda},
      title = {A Story of Resilience: Using Remote Sensing, GIS, and  Geophysical Techniques to Reconstruct Paleolake and  Settlement Development in the Egyptian Fayum Depression},
      publisher = {University of Chicago},
      school = {Ph.D.},
      address = {2024-08},
      number = {THESIS},
      abstract = {The Fayum, a naturally formed depression, is encircled by  the Sahara Desert except for in the east, where a carrier  canal from the Nile River (Bahr el-Yusuf) once fed its  extensive freshwater lake, Lake Moeris. Due to the presence  of a stable water source for basic subsistence needs, the  region emerged as a locus for human habitation beginning in  the Neolithic period (ca. 5500 BCE). For millennia,  anthropic activity in the form of settlements, religious  centers, harbors, and quarry sites continued in the Fayum,  along the very shores of Lake Moeris. However, with the  changing environmental and climatic conditions starting in  the Holocene epoch, fluctuations of floodwaters from the  Nile caused drastic instabilities in the lake’s water  level. As the water height oscillated, the Fayum  inhabitants had to adapt to the constantly changing water  supply. The water level oscillations of Lake Moeris and the  dating of such fluctuations have been a significant source  of debate for many scholars in the field, with much of the  research being rather ambiguous and contradictory in  nature. For this reason, this dissertation has sought to  identify, map, reconstruct, and (relatively) date the  ancient extent of the Fayum lake, leading to a more nuanced  understanding of lake development over millennia. Three  main research questions are posed by this dissertation: (1)  How did Lake Moeris transform from the Neolithic to  Ptolemaic Period? (2) When was there evident water advance  and retreat and why? (3) How did human activity in the  Fayum change as a result of this changing hydraulic  landscape? Through the identification and dating of the  various paleo-shorelines of the lake via novel remote  sensing techniques, including the use of synthetic-aperture  radar and optical satellite imagery, several phases of the  lake, including the Neolithic, Middle Kingdom, and  Ptolemaic have been successfully reconstructed. These  reconstructed lake stages were then confirmed through  on-the-ground visual verification and geophysical  surveying. By integrating the remote sensing and geophysics  results with archaeological and textual evidence, this  dissertation reveals that as the water level of the lake  fluctuated due to both climatic changes and human  intervention, the ancient Fayum inhabitants adjusted their  settlement locations accordingly. They often established  their towns along the newly formed lake shores or  reconfigured their hydraulic infrastructure to link former  settlements with the lake.},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/12678},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.6082/uchicago.12678},
}