The Agricultural Environment's Effect on the Deterioration of the Archaeological Sites Applied on Atfiyah's Sarabium Archaeological Site – Egypt

Abstract

Abstract:The Agricultural Environment has a severe effect on the deterioration of the archaeological sites, it causes many deterioration phenomena to these sites, most of them are biodeterioration and the others are physio -chemical deterioration. Sarabium archaeological site located in Atfiyah's center -Egypt, it belonged to 26 th dynasty, the site suffers from the agricultural environment's effect because it is very near from the fields in the area (100 meter approx. far only). The most effective factor of deterioration is the groundwater which affects badly on the deterioration of the building materials there, many microorganisms grow on lime stone carved coffins and ruins, they secret organic compounds which react with lime stone and turn it to soluble salts, the groundwater comes from the fields and contains many salts which dissolve in it and rise with the capillary system to the building materials not only this effect, but also the intensive growth of weeds in the site. This research aims to study the agricultural environment's effect on the deterioration of the archaeological sites with an application on Atfiyah's Sarabium archaeological site -Giza -Egypt.