Related
Turquoise mine at Sinai - Public domain vintage map
Summary
Title from negative sleeve.
Photograph taken from Wadi El Maghara in the vicinity of its junction with Wadi Qenaia, showing an ancient Egyptian Turquoise mine. (Source: A. Shams, Sinai Peninsula Research, 2018)
A cluster/network of copper mines and smelting settlements are located at the ancient and contemporary mining region of West-central Sinai, and date back to Chalcolithic/Copper and Early Bronze Age at Wadi Maghara (4,300-3,300 BCE), Gebel Samra (4,300-2,650 BCE), Wadi Kharig (4,300-2,925 BCE), Wadi Umm Graf (4,216-3,985 BCE), Naqb Budra (3,500-2925 BCE) and Wadi Sura (and Wadi Sarbut, BCE?). Ancient Egyptian dynastic mines are located at Wadi Maghara and Gebel A'deidiya 'Hgaga, Yahudia, Shab, Hadid, Umm Hasan & Safrh mines' (turquoise, 1st?-19th dynasties, 2,950-1,213 BCE), Wadi Umm Temeiyim (turquoise, 11th-14th dynasties, 1,945-1,640 BCE), Gebel Serabit El Khadem (turquoise, 11th-20th dynasties, 1,948-1,137 BCE), Wadi Nasib (copper, 12th-18th dynasties, 1,818-1,292 BCE), Wadi Kharig (copper: 2nd? dynasty, 2,775-2,650 BCE; 5th dynasty, 2,400 BCE; 12th-18th dynasties, 1,818-1,292 BCE), Gebel Musabba' Salama (ancient mines?), and Tell El Markha on the Gulf of Suez (copper smelting and sea anchorage, 18th dynasty, 1,479 BCE). Hamada (pre-Islamic), 'Aliqat (14th century CE) and Sawalha (14th century CE) tribes inhabit the mining region. The Bedouin shrine of Sheikh Suleiman Nafai' is located at the junction of Wadi Maghara and Wadi Sieh. Historically, Sinai's Bedouin culture has links to Sufism. The land is dotted with shrines - there are 85 mapped religious shrines across the Peninsula, in addition to many other unmapped ones - used by different Bedouin tribes as annual meeting places. This part of Bedouin culture connects members of the same tribe and different tribes together. (Source: A. Shams, Sinai Peninsula Research, 2018)
Taken either by the American Colony Photo Department or its successor, the Matson Photo Service.
Guide card: Sinai.
Gift; Episcopal Home; 1978.
The G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection is a source of historical images of the Middle East. The majority of the images depict Palestine (present-day Israel and the West Bank) from 1898 to 1946. Most of the Library of Congress collection consists of over 23,000 glass and film photographic negatives and transparencies created by the American Colony Photo Department and its successor firm, the Matson Photo Service. The American Colony Photo Department in Jerusalem was one of several photo services operating in the Middle East before 1900. Catering primarily to the tourist trade, the American Colony and its competitors photographed holy sites, often including costumed actors recreating Biblical scenes. The firm’s photographers were residents of Palestine with knowledge of the land and people that gave them an advantage and made their coverage intimate and comprehensive. They documented Middle East culture, history, and political events from before World War I through the collapse of Ottoman rule, the British Mandate period, World War II, and the emergence of the State of Israel. The Matson Collection also includes images of people and locations in present-day Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Turkey. Additionally, the firm produced photographs from an East African trip. The collection came to the Library of Congress between 1966 and 1981, through a series of gifts made by Eric Matson and his beneficiary, the Home for the Aged of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Los Angeles (now called the Kensington Episcopal Home).
Tags
Date
Location
Source
Copyright info
