The Neolithic in EgyptA far-reaching climatic change from about 10,000 BC, with a general increase in rainfall, led to high (sometimes extremely high) inundations of the Nile Valley, and the rise in precipitation made the bordering desert areas habitable once more. They became savannas well provided with watering holes and oases. There were settlements in the Sahara again, and innovations of great significance are evident here in the eighth and seventh millennia BC. The technological features of the Neolithic period make their appearance in early pottery and polished stone axes. People still lived a semi-nomadic life as hunters, and were not yet cultivating crops, but collecting the seeds of wild grasses. However, these groups seem to have domesticated cattle. The Near East, the Levant and Palestine, on the other hand, saw the building of fortified settlements, the beginnings of farming and the domestication of sheep and goats during the eighth millennium. The technological, economic and social features that, taken as a whole, were to be characteristic of a new era in the history of mankind, emerged and interacted over the entire extended area of northeast Africa and southwest Asia.
The Nile Valley in Egypt seems to have played no part in this process at first. The archaeological evidence is scanty, and a series of very high inundations may have destroyed entire levels of sites. The well-known sites at Elkab, in the Faiyum and at Helwan, however show that the Egyptian way of life that developed at the end of the Paleolithic, in adaptation to conditions in the Nilotic area, continued into the sixth millennium BC. The unusual wealth of the area where they lived allowed the people to maintain a primitive lifestyle, and there was no change in these conditions until another period of drought, in the seventh and sixth millennium BC, forced the inhabitants of the border regions back into the Nile Valley. At this time, the end of the sixth millennium and the fifth millennium BC, the first Neolithic cultural groups appear in Egypt. The quantity of archaeological finds does not yet allow us to trace the merging of the Epipaleolithic traditions of the Nile Valley with the cultures of immigrant groups. However, the originally heterogeneous character of the Egyptian Neolithic can be accounted for only if it arose in this way.
A progressive increase in aridity, leading to the modern climatic situation in the middle of the third millennium BC, made the Nile Valley more clearly a strictly delimited area. In a process of internal colonization and the fusion of cultural factors, an independent form of culture appeared that can now be called genuinely Egyptian. Although it was late in coming by comparison with the cultures of neighboring areas, it developed all the more powerfully in the fourth millennium BC, and at the turn from the fourth to the third millennium it led to the creation of the pharaonic state and the advanced civilization of Egypt.
The Prehistoric Cultures of Lower Egypt
Merimda Beni Salama, probably the oldest truly Neolithic Egyptian site, is situated in Lower Egypt on the western border of the Nile Delta and, at its southern extremity, about 50 km northwest of Cairo. Recent excavations of this extensive site have identified five archaeological phases, the oldest of which probably goes back to the sixth millennium BC, while the later phases cover most of the fifth millennium BC.
The oldest cultural level of Merimda clearly shows independent features. In the excavator’s opinion, the fishbone patterns incised into plates, dishes, and deep bowls of beautiful, fine, polished or burnished pottery indicate contact with the Near East, as do the arrowheads. On the second cultural level, however, there is also evidence of contact with the south, in the shape of bone harpoons and axes of Nubian stone: a warning that the background of the Delta’s prehistoric cultures should not be sought exclusively in the Near East.
In the settlement area, remains of oval huts have been found. Some of them were set a little way into the ground and had reed screens to protect them from the wind. Large baskets sunk into the ground acted as silos to store grain and similar produce. The people kept sheep, goats, and pigs. Most of the later pottery of this period contains a large admixture of straw and chaff. Consequently, it is of coarser appearance, but the process facilitated the making of larger vessels and narrower shapes: pots and bottles as well as dishes and bowls.
The making of stone implements was obviously very important in the Merimda settlement. Plenty of the requisite large flints were available here on the edge of the desert, and since the inhabitants of settlements in the central Delta had no access to this raw material, there was a wide market outlet for early barter transactions. Another particularly interesting feature is the first evidence of artistic activity in small terracotta figures of livestock, and a remarkably impressive head of a human figure.
A number of graves were also found in the Merimda settlement. The dead lay on their sides in shallow pits, in the fetal position. Grave goods are rare, and indicate no social distinctions between the dead. It used to be thought that they had been buried within the settlement, but new excavations show that over the long period during which it was inhabited the settlement zones extended further and further, so that at a later date there were dwellings above the old burial grounds. Finds corresponding chronologically more or less to those of Merimda are known to us from the Faiyum and el-Oman, near Helwan, southeast of Cairo. However, the later phase of the prehistoric culture of Lower Egypt, dating from the first two-thirds of the fourth millennium BC, is represented by the archaeological finds from the settlement of Maadi. The Maadi site also lies southeast of Cairo. An extensive settlement site and two associated burial grounds offer a broad cross section through its culture. The pottery is of a very specific kind here. Most important of all, at this period, copper tools, needles, fishhooks, and axes are represented in great quantity (or their existence can be deduced), and they were beginning to displace similar tools made of bone and stone. Copper ore, probably for use as a dye in cosmetics, has also been found in Maadi.
This material suggests intensive trade relations and contacts with the south of Palestine and the Near East. However, connections with the contemporaneous culture of Upper Egypt can also be traced, for instance in imported Upper Egyptian pottery and local copies of it, and imported slate. Taken as a whole, these items shows that the site was a commercial trading station between the Near East and the Nile Valley, also enabling the early cultures of Upper Egypt to gain access to those areas for the first time. New excavations in Buto, in the northwest of the Delta, have revealed an archaeological level corresponding to the Maadian culture, thus providing evidence that this form had quite wide geographical distribution. Important indications of contact with the Near East have also been found here, for instance terracotta pins resembling the clay studs used to ornament the temple buildings of Mesopotamia in the Uruk Period.
Several cemeteries illustrate the burial customs of the Maadian culture; as at Merimda, they were on a rather modest scale. The dead lay in shallow, oval pits, wrapped in matting and accompanied by a few grave goods such as clay vessels, and sometimes shells of the kind found in the burials of the Merimda culture. Other items, for instance combs or hairpins, are rare. There were great differences between the fourth millennium BC cultures of Lower and Upper Egypt, not only in the equipment they left but also in their customs and therefore, probably, in the social structures reflected in those customs.
Although recent fieldwork has placed our knowledge of the prehistoric cultures of the Nile Delta on a new foundation, the problems are as great as ever. The reason lies in the Delta’s geographical situation. Unlike the sites of the Upper Egyptian valley, with its long bordering desert regions, the Delta sites are within the river’s immediate area of contact, and in many cases they are now buried under thick layers of sediment.
Crucial questions, therefore, remain open. In the later tradition of pharaonic culture, Delta towns like Buto and Sais play an important part beside the great royal cities of Upper Egypt. What prehistoric realities lie behind this phenomenon? Were there rich trading towns in the Delta making contact by sea with the Near East, as one theory suggests? Were the buildings in such towns, their temples or palaces, in fact the predecessors of architectural forms such as the niche facades, undoubtedly inspired by the Near East, that suddenly appeared fully developed in the funerary architecture of the Early Dynastic Period? And what was the social and political organization of the Nile Delta in the fourth millennium BC? Did it consist of city states, or an extensive kingdom? These are all questions of critical import for our understanding of the rise of the pharaonic state.
The Archaeological Cultures of Upper Egypt
The northern part of Central Egypt is also poor in archaeological sites. Sites at both ends of this section of the valley, near the Faiyum and at Deir Tasa, south ofAsiut, indicate that groups whose culture was of the Lower Egyptian tradition originally extended beyond the Delta and far to the south. We are on sure ground, archaeologically speaking, only on coming to the southern part of Central Egypt and the Upper Egyptian Nile Valley, where there is plenty of evidence, based on a wealth of finds, for the settlement of the country in the fourth millennium BC. The development of pharaonic culture rises primarily from this Upper Egyptian cultural tradition, and it also forms the chronological backbone of Egyptian prehistory.
The oldest truly Neolithic cultural group of Upper Egypt is represented by a series of settlement sites and cemeteries on the east bank of the Nile, near the village of Badari, south of Asiut. Chronologically, the early stages of this culture overlap the end of the Merimda culture in the north, about 4400 BC, and it coincides with the beginning of the Naqada culture in the early fourth millennium, around 3800 BC.
The settlement sites provide evidence of a series of small villages in the strips of flat desert bordering on the fertile country. Remains of huts, silos sunk in the ground, and vessels to hold provisions, as well as strata containing refuse from the settlements, show that the economic activities of these people covered a broad spectrum, including farming, the rearing of livestock, hunting, and fishing. Early forms of farming here did not involve too much hard labor. The river itself had created a system of natural dams and basins in the valley plain, and the principle of irrigation from a reservoir that was to be the basis of Egyptian agriculture, later perfected by the addition of artificial dikes and canals, was already provided naturally.
The dead were buried in small burial grounds on the outskirts of the villages, most of them lying on their left sides in the fetal position, eyes turned to the west. As a rule they were wrapped in matting and were often accompanied by a wealth of grave goods. While large clay vessels of coarse ware predominate in the settlement area itse1f fine ceramics of great beauty are often found in the graves. Plates, bowls, and dishes were usually made of red or brown polished clay. The blackened rim produced by a special firing technique is characteristic. The surface of the vessel was often “combed” before polishing, giving an attractive ribbed effect.
The graves also contained a broad range of items chiefly relating to cosmetics and the adornment of the body. The carvings on bone and ivory are particularly striking. These utensils are often decorated with figures. They include stone cosmetic palettes, carved spoons for ointments, hairpins, decorative combs and bracelets of bone and ebony, and necklaces of turquoise beads, glazed steatite (soapstone), shells, and various stones. Copper is also occasionally found, made into pins and beads.
These finds in the Badarian cemeteries are the first manifestation on Egyptian soil of the highly developed funerary cult that was to have so much influence on ancient Egyptian culture in the future. Since the dead were buried with their most personal possessions and in their own clothes, the funerary cult also provided a medium for social display and the expression of social distinctions.
Features of the items found indicate the origin and external
contacts of the Badarian culture. The technique of its pottery points to Nubia, while the use of glazed beads, turquoise, and copper is of Near Eastern origin, like the domestication of certain species of animals.
The Nile Valley in Egypt seems to have played no part in this process at first. The archaeological evidence is scanty, and a series of very high inundations may have destroyed entire levels of sites. The well-known sites at Elkab, in the Faiyum and at Helwan, however show that the Egyptian way of life that developed at the end of the Paleolithic, in adaptation to conditions in the Nilotic area, continued into the sixth millennium BC. The unusual wealth of the area where they lived allowed the people to maintain a primitive lifestyle, and there was no change in these conditions until another period of drought, in the seventh and sixth millennium BC, forced the inhabitants of the border regions back into the Nile Valley. At this time, the end of the sixth millennium and the fifth millennium BC, the first Neolithic cultural groups appear in Egypt. The quantity of archaeological finds does not yet allow us to trace the merging of the Epipaleolithic traditions of the Nile Valley with the cultures of immigrant groups. However, the originally heterogeneous character of the Egyptian Neolithic can be accounted for only if it arose in this way.
A progressive increase in aridity, leading to the modern climatic situation in the middle of the third millennium BC, made the Nile Valley more clearly a strictly delimited area. In a process of internal colonization and the fusion of cultural factors, an independent form of culture appeared that can now be called genuinely Egyptian. Although it was late in coming by comparison with the cultures of neighboring areas, it developed all the more powerfully in the fourth millennium BC, and at the turn from the fourth to the third millennium it led to the creation of the pharaonic state and the advanced civilization of Egypt.
The Prehistoric Cultures of Lower Egypt
Merimda Beni Salama, probably the oldest truly Neolithic Egyptian site, is situated in Lower Egypt on the western border of the Nile Delta and, at its southern extremity, about 50 km northwest of Cairo. Recent excavations of this extensive site have identified five archaeological phases, the oldest of which probably goes back to the sixth millennium BC, while the later phases cover most of the fifth millennium BC.
The oldest cultural level of Merimda clearly shows independent features. In the excavator’s opinion, the fishbone patterns incised into plates, dishes, and deep bowls of beautiful, fine, polished or burnished pottery indicate contact with the Near East, as do the arrowheads. On the second cultural level, however, there is also evidence of contact with the south, in the shape of bone harpoons and axes of Nubian stone: a warning that the background of the Delta’s prehistoric cultures should not be sought exclusively in the Near East.
In the settlement area, remains of oval huts have been found. Some of them were set a little way into the ground and had reed screens to protect them from the wind. Large baskets sunk into the ground acted as silos to store grain and similar produce. The people kept sheep, goats, and pigs. Most of the later pottery of this period contains a large admixture of straw and chaff. Consequently, it is of coarser appearance, but the process facilitated the making of larger vessels and narrower shapes: pots and bottles as well as dishes and bowls.
The making of stone implements was obviously very important in the Merimda settlement. Plenty of the requisite large flints were available here on the edge of the desert, and since the inhabitants of settlements in the central Delta had no access to this raw material, there was a wide market outlet for early barter transactions. Another particularly interesting feature is the first evidence of artistic activity in small terracotta figures of livestock, and a remarkably impressive head of a human figure.
A number of graves were also found in the Merimda settlement. The dead lay on their sides in shallow pits, in the fetal position. Grave goods are rare, and indicate no social distinctions between the dead. It used to be thought that they had been buried within the settlement, but new excavations show that over the long period during which it was inhabited the settlement zones extended further and further, so that at a later date there were dwellings above the old burial grounds. Finds corresponding chronologically more or less to those of Merimda are known to us from the Faiyum and el-Oman, near Helwan, southeast of Cairo. However, the later phase of the prehistoric culture of Lower Egypt, dating from the first two-thirds of the fourth millennium BC, is represented by the archaeological finds from the settlement of Maadi. The Maadi site also lies southeast of Cairo. An extensive settlement site and two associated burial grounds offer a broad cross section through its culture. The pottery is of a very specific kind here. Most important of all, at this period, copper tools, needles, fishhooks, and axes are represented in great quantity (or their existence can be deduced), and they were beginning to displace similar tools made of bone and stone. Copper ore, probably for use as a dye in cosmetics, has also been found in Maadi.
This material suggests intensive trade relations and contacts with the south of Palestine and the Near East. However, connections with the contemporaneous culture of Upper Egypt can also be traced, for instance in imported Upper Egyptian pottery and local copies of it, and imported slate. Taken as a whole, these items shows that the site was a commercial trading station between the Near East and the Nile Valley, also enabling the early cultures of Upper Egypt to gain access to those areas for the first time. New excavations in Buto, in the northwest of the Delta, have revealed an archaeological level corresponding to the Maadian culture, thus providing evidence that this form had quite wide geographical distribution. Important indications of contact with the Near East have also been found here, for instance terracotta pins resembling the clay studs used to ornament the temple buildings of Mesopotamia in the Uruk Period.
Several cemeteries illustrate the burial customs of the Maadian culture; as at Merimda, they were on a rather modest scale. The dead lay in shallow, oval pits, wrapped in matting and accompanied by a few grave goods such as clay vessels, and sometimes shells of the kind found in the burials of the Merimda culture. Other items, for instance combs or hairpins, are rare. There were great differences between the fourth millennium BC cultures of Lower and Upper Egypt, not only in the equipment they left but also in their customs and therefore, probably, in the social structures reflected in those customs.
Although recent fieldwork has placed our knowledge of the prehistoric cultures of the Nile Delta on a new foundation, the problems are as great as ever. The reason lies in the Delta’s geographical situation. Unlike the sites of the Upper Egyptian valley, with its long bordering desert regions, the Delta sites are within the river’s immediate area of contact, and in many cases they are now buried under thick layers of sediment.
Crucial questions, therefore, remain open. In the later tradition of pharaonic culture, Delta towns like Buto and Sais play an important part beside the great royal cities of Upper Egypt. What prehistoric realities lie behind this phenomenon? Were there rich trading towns in the Delta making contact by sea with the Near East, as one theory suggests? Were the buildings in such towns, their temples or palaces, in fact the predecessors of architectural forms such as the niche facades, undoubtedly inspired by the Near East, that suddenly appeared fully developed in the funerary architecture of the Early Dynastic Period? And what was the social and political organization of the Nile Delta in the fourth millennium BC? Did it consist of city states, or an extensive kingdom? These are all questions of critical import for our understanding of the rise of the pharaonic state.
The Archaeological Cultures of Upper Egypt
The northern part of Central Egypt is also poor in archaeological sites. Sites at both ends of this section of the valley, near the Faiyum and at Deir Tasa, south ofAsiut, indicate that groups whose culture was of the Lower Egyptian tradition originally extended beyond the Delta and far to the south. We are on sure ground, archaeologically speaking, only on coming to the southern part of Central Egypt and the Upper Egyptian Nile Valley, where there is plenty of evidence, based on a wealth of finds, for the settlement of the country in the fourth millennium BC. The development of pharaonic culture rises primarily from this Upper Egyptian cultural tradition, and it also forms the chronological backbone of Egyptian prehistory.
The oldest truly Neolithic cultural group of Upper Egypt is represented by a series of settlement sites and cemeteries on the east bank of the Nile, near the village of Badari, south of Asiut. Chronologically, the early stages of this culture overlap the end of the Merimda culture in the north, about 4400 BC, and it coincides with the beginning of the Naqada culture in the early fourth millennium, around 3800 BC.
The settlement sites provide evidence of a series of small villages in the strips of flat desert bordering on the fertile country. Remains of huts, silos sunk in the ground, and vessels to hold provisions, as well as strata containing refuse from the settlements, show that the economic activities of these people covered a broad spectrum, including farming, the rearing of livestock, hunting, and fishing. Early forms of farming here did not involve too much hard labor. The river itself had created a system of natural dams and basins in the valley plain, and the principle of irrigation from a reservoir that was to be the basis of Egyptian agriculture, later perfected by the addition of artificial dikes and canals, was already provided naturally.
The dead were buried in small burial grounds on the outskirts of the villages, most of them lying on their left sides in the fetal position, eyes turned to the west. As a rule they were wrapped in matting and were often accompanied by a wealth of grave goods. While large clay vessels of coarse ware predominate in the settlement area itse1f fine ceramics of great beauty are often found in the graves. Plates, bowls, and dishes were usually made of red or brown polished clay. The blackened rim produced by a special firing technique is characteristic. The surface of the vessel was often “combed” before polishing, giving an attractive ribbed effect.
The graves also contained a broad range of items chiefly relating to cosmetics and the adornment of the body. The carvings on bone and ivory are particularly striking. These utensils are often decorated with figures. They include stone cosmetic palettes, carved spoons for ointments, hairpins, decorative combs and bracelets of bone and ebony, and necklaces of turquoise beads, glazed steatite (soapstone), shells, and various stones. Copper is also occasionally found, made into pins and beads.
These finds in the Badarian cemeteries are the first manifestation on Egyptian soil of the highly developed funerary cult that was to have so much influence on ancient Egyptian culture in the future. Since the dead were buried with their most personal possessions and in their own clothes, the funerary cult also provided a medium for social display and the expression of social distinctions.
Features of the items found indicate the origin and external
contacts of the Badarian culture. The technique of its pottery points to Nubia, while the use of glazed beads, turquoise, and copper is of Near Eastern origin, like the domestication of certain species of animals.
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