Piecing together the details of life in antiquity has always posed problems for archeologists. Human activities like cooking and farming leave little visible trace over time, making it difficult to determine how domestic life was organized—where people cooked, ate, slept and interacted.

A research team from the University of Warsaw’s Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology has been analyzing trace elements of chemicals left behind from the 17-century lives of the people of Old Dongola, the one-time capital city of Makuria, on the east bank of the Nile.

The archeologists aim to establish how the living space in homes of the era was organized. They said in a paper that this is “crucial for reconstructing the daily lives of household members.”

By analyzing trace elements in the floor space of ancient homes, the team has identified so-called “activity zones” within the dwellings where different activities took place.

“Determining activity zones based on the concentration of elements is important for determining the relationships that occur within the house, including the division of work between representatives of different genders,” Dr. Maciej Wyżgoł of the Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology told Polish state news agency PAP.

The team has also analyzed the changes in living patterns over time. Old Dongola was once an important center of Christian culture but transformed into a Muslim metropolis between the 14th and 19th centuries.

As this transformation process often left no visible evidence, the use of geochemical research methods has helped create a more accurate picture of the process.