Dear Lisa,
Ash has been used widely as a insecticide to deter insect storage pests. See the
work of Eva Panagiotakopulu at Edinburgh for work on this and insect pests in
ancient Egypt.
http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/research/globalchange/group5b/QuatEnt/page4.html
In particular the following paper is useful:
Panagiotakopulu, E. Buckland, P. C., Day, P., Sarpaki, A. & Doumas, C. (1995)
Natural Insecticides and Insect Repellents in Antiquity: a Review of the
Evidence. Journal of Archaeological Science, 22, 705-710.
Hope that helps,
Kim
------------------------------
Kim Vickers
Department of Archaeology,
University of Sheffield,
Quoting Lisa Yeomans <[log in to unmask]>:
>
> Hi
> I was wondering if anyone had come across any evidence for the use of ash as
> a vermin deterrent. I'm trying to write-up a Old Kingdom building excavated
> in Egypt where ash had been laid in a large shallow cut below silos that
> where constructed on a thin layer of crushed limestone sealing the ash. A
> similar deposit of fine ash was placed in the gaps between adjacent abutting
> silo walls and the whole construction method appears to have been to surround
> as much of the silos as possible with ash. I found stuff on the internet
> about ash being a vermin deterrent but I am trying to find any other
> archaeological comparisons for this construction technique. Any help would be
> really useful, thanks, Lisa
>
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