Mons Porphyrites

In five seasons, between 1994-1998 the Departments of Archaeology at the Universities of Southampton and Exeter surveyed and excavated at the quarry complex of Mons Porphrites. Mons Porphrites was the source of purple Imperial Porphyry, much sought after in the Roman and Byzantine worlds and which has continued to exercise symbolic influence in western society. The quarries lie in the Gebel Dokhan, or 'smoky mountain', itelf situated in the Red Sea mountains of eastern Egypt. The purple Imperial Porphyry is found nowhere else in the world, except in these mountains (together with other types of Porphyry) and the Romans went to extraordinary lengths to acquire substantial amounts of it.

Porphyry bath

The Gebel Dokhan massif consists of a number of peaks generally around 1200m high, ranging up to 1626m above sea level. It is however only 40 km from the sea, separated by a plain of low rolling hills. The rocks within the range are dominated by the Pre-Cambrian 'Dokhan volcanics'. The Imperial Porphyry, a quartz andeite ignimbrite lithified to form a dense, hard rock wih a well-developed system of joints is only found over a small area (c. 6km2). In 1994 a new quarry for black Porphyry was discovered by the team and named after Nick Bradford who discovered it.

The logistics of extracting the Porphyry are incredible. The Porphyry can only be extracted in workable blocks from the tops of 4 mountains, and the quarries are named Lycabettos, Rammius, Lepsius and North-west. The first three were named originally by the Nineteenth century explorer Schweinfurth. The difficulty of the terrain meant that the workers were accommodated in separate villages from the quarries, generally reasonably close. The two main areas of settlement below the quarries are a fort in the Wadi Abu Ma'amel and another on the southern flank of the Gebel Dokhan, named Badia. The whole complex was linked by a system of footpaths and slipways down which the Porphyry would be brought to the Wadi bed.

Cairned slipway and footpath

The footpaths zig-zag up the hills, often revetted over difficult areas and generally narrow. The slipways in contrast have a smooth gradient and are wider but still survive from the tops of the mountain to the wadi bed or loading villages. The path of the slipways is often marked by cairns, circular structures made of dry stone walling. The slipways are particularly impressive for both their extent and completeness. On reaching the wadi bed the evidence continues in the form of a cistern and animal lines at Umm sidri and then a great loading ramp 8km futher on, where it is believed the the stone would be loaded on to carts for the journey to the Nile, 150km away, going via Badia on a road again delineated by cairns that are still visible today.

The environment is harsh with no readily available water, except for a number of shady rock pools which may preserve water for some time. The local vegetation is sparce although Wadi Umm Sidri has a number of Zizyphus Spina-Christi trees which may indicate the presence of ground water. Other water is conserved in underground pockets in the wadi system, which at Badia is a few metres deep but over 15m below the surface at Umm Sidri. Two wells were dug to supply the workers and a supply chain was set up to bring water from the Nile. Modern rainfall is infrequent and is usually in deluges between October and December. These occurred three times during the length of the project and resulted in considerable movement of the boulders on the wadi bed.

Fort at Badia

The problem of supplying food is little different to that of water. There is no local source of food to support the workforce which could in antiquity have amounted to several hundred men and the wildlife of any size is rare in the present day environment. The climate can reach temperatures of 114 degrees F (45.6 degrees C) in the summer.

Surveys of the pottery, faunal remains, botanical evidence, epigraphic evidence, textiles and small finds have all been undertaken and the first volume of the final report will be published in 2001. The evidence shows that the complex was used throughout the Roman period but that its focus changed through time, possibly commencing with the North-west quarries. There is evidence of the people that lived, worked and visited the sites included many military personnel but also women and children. The epigraphic evidence gives insights into their private lives but also the bureaucracy that surrounded an Imperial undertaking of this size.