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Following two centuries of research at Karnak, our understanding of the origins and development of this famous ancient Egyptian temple complex remains limited. Recent archaeological excavation in the Ptah temple, however, has reached its earliest levels, providing a first, securely dated stratigraphic sequence. Despite flood risks, the development of the religious complex c. 2200-2000 BC was made possible by the retreating Nile riverbank. Thus, the river and the expanding Karnak temple complex played major roles in the takeover of Egypt by the Eleventh Dynasty rulers and the growth of the new capital at Thebes, a potent combination of forces-fluvial, religious and secular--encountered among other early state powers. Keywords: First Intermediate Period, Thebes, Amun temple, settlement, landscape evolution, Introduction Geoarchaeological research conducted on cities situated on alluvial plains has long demonstrated the significant impact of river movement on urban development and landscape change though time (e.g. Mackay 1945; [...]

Within the Egyptian Western Desert, the Kharga Oasis was a particularly favourable and highly frequented area during the Holocene thanks to a permanent ground water supply. The high concentration and accessibility of archaeological sites here allows the cultural and economic changes to be documented at a local scale, when northeastern Africa was experiencing strong climatic variations and the transition to a food production economy. An expansive program led by the Institut français d'archéologie orientale (IFAO) which included systematic survey, sampling collections, tests and stratigraphic excavations has dramatically increased the amount of data available concerning the prehistory of the Kharga Oasis. Typo-technological analyses focusing on the lithic industries, and other aspects of material culture, plus a series of 14C dates have led to the definition of four main successive cultural phases: Kharga A, B, C and D. This paper describes this proposal of a new archaeological sequence for human occupation in the Kharga Oasis and discusses its integration in the wider frame of Egypt and the Eastern Sahara. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]