The World's Oldest Surviving Geological Map: The 1150 B.C. Turin Papyrus from Egypt

Abstract

A papyrus map discovered around 1820 and now in the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy, illustrates the topography and geology of Wadi Hammamat in the mountains of the central Eastern Desert of Egypt. It accurately depicts the areal distribution of sedimentary and igneous/metamorphic rocks, which are shown as black and pink hills, respectively. The ancient map also shows the gold-working settlement at Bir Umm Fawakhir, the gold-bearing quartz veins on the adjacent mountain, the famous "bekhen-stone" quarry, the lithologically diverse wadi gravels, and various cultural features. Hieratic texts on the map comment on the occurrence of gold in the area and the quarrying of bekhen-stone (grayish-green chloritic sandstones and siltstones). This papyrus is the oldest surviving geological map in the world, and it predates by 29 centuries the next oldest known geological map. The map was drawn during the reign of Ramesses IV (1151-1145 B.C.) as an aid to or a record of one of this king's bekhen-stone quarrying expeditions to Wadi Hammamat.