Ali, A., Adam, O. (2023). Evaluation Study of The Fustat Excavations Site Between The Past, Present, And Expected Future. Advanced Research in Conservation Science, 4(2), 13-30. doi: 10.21608/arcs.2023.198234.1036
Aalaa Gamal Ali; Omar Adam. "Evaluation Study of The Fustat Excavations Site Between The Past, Present, And Expected Future". Advanced Research in Conservation Science, 4, 2, 2023, 13-30. doi: 10.21608/arcs.2023.198234.1036
Ali, A., Adam, O. (2023). 'Evaluation Study of The Fustat Excavations Site Between The Past, Present, And Expected Future', Advanced Research in Conservation Science, 4(2), pp. 13-30. doi: 10.21608/arcs.2023.198234.1036
Ali, A., Adam, O. Evaluation Study of The Fustat Excavations Site Between The Past, Present, And Expected Future. Advanced Research in Conservation Science, 2023; 4(2): 13-30. doi: 10.21608/arcs.2023.198234.1036
Evaluation Study of The Fustat Excavations Site Between The Past, Present, And Expected Future
1Restoration and conservation department, Faculty of archaeology, Cairo university.
2Restoration and conservation department, faculty of archaeology, Cairo university
Abstract
The city of Fustat which is located in Cairo, Egypt, was the first Islamic city in Africa. The site underwent excavation works that revealed some city and buildings. Excavations stopped in 1975, and from that time the site started to deteriorate. The most important deterioration factors were the urban expansion and the rising of groundwater level, besides lacking any regular restoration or evaluation works. The study aims to monitor the state of preservation of the Fustat excavations site and track
the stages of its deterioration during a specific period (23 years). This helps in monitoring the rate of deterioration during that period, thus predicting the condition of the site during a similar future period of time or more. To achieve these aims, the following methodology was suggested: a. monitoring the current deterioration phenomena and its causes, b. determining the state of archaeological building materials by taking small representative samples from the fired bricks and mortar, and c. standard samples of fired bricks and mortar were used for the comparison with the results of the current samples in order to determine the status of preservation of the archaeological building materials at the site.
Highlights
Fustat excavations site suffers from many problems related to its local environment and its building materials.
By tracking the site in the proposed time period (23 years), the site underwent many changes in terms of wet and dry cycles, growth of plants, disappearance of some ruins, increase of population and buildings' density.
Fired bricks suffer from a weak internal structure, which causes its fragility and easily lost.
The bonding mortar is dry and lacks its suitable percentages of improving materials.