Prehistoric Egypt

From 1924–1928, Gertrude Caton-Thompson and Elinor Gardner surveyed and excavated Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic sites across the Fayum north shore in Egypt, publishing a volume entitled The Desert Fayum (1934). Since then, a number of researchers have worked in the Fayum (e.g. Wendorf & Schild 1976; Hassan 1986; Wenke et al. 1988; Kozłowski & Ginter 1989), and most recently the UCLA/RUG/UOA Fayum Project. The long history of research in the area means that the Fayum is a testament to changing archaeological approaches, particularly regarding the Neolithic. Caton-Thompson and Gardner's study is recognised as one of the most progressive works on Egyptian prehistory, and their research provided the foundation for many subsequent studies in the region (e.g. Wendrich & Cappers 2005; Holdaway et al. 2010, 2016; Shirai 2010, 2013, 2015, 2016a; Emmitt 2011; Emmitt et al. 2017; Holdaway & Wendrich 2017). A recent article in Antiquity, however, uses Caton-Thompson and Gardner's prelim...

Transitions in the lithic archaeological record are subject to diverse questions. These include whether this record is characterized by gradualism or by punctuated changes; how different terminologies, for example, the Middle Stone Age and the Middle Paleolithic, affect interpretations; at what point a lithic assemblage is classified as Upper rather than Middle Paleolithic; and if the lithic transitions from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic for both modern humans and Neandertals are similar or different.

In the Middle East, there are several instances of lithic transitions from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic—the best known are Ksar ‘Akil (Lebanon) and Boker Tachtit (Negev Desert). Less well known is the transition in the Zagros, where the Zagros Aurignacian facies emerges from the Zagros Middle Paleolithic, with subsequent changes in this Early Upper Paleolithic industry to one that shares similarities to the Evolved Aurignacian of Western Europe.
In contrast to the Middle East is the lithic record of the Egyptian Paleolithic. Formal tools here are quite scarce in both Middle and Early Upper Paleolithic assemblages. Various researchers have used either Middle Stone Age or Middle Paleolithic terminology, dependent in part on their view of the relationship of Egyptian industries to those of subSaharan Africa. Finally, the rarity of Early Upper Paleolithic sites, and thus few available data, limits understanding of the transition in Egypt.

In the early twentieth century, Guy Brunton located a small number of turquoise beads and pendants in Badarian graves in the Qau-Matmar region in Middle Egypt. Recently, however, the use of turquoise during the Badarian period has been disputed. It is claimed that Brunton misidentified turquoise for glazed steatite, and that turquoise was not used in Egypt until the later Naqada IIC period. The current paper explores the verity of this statement by presenting the results of a preliminary investigation into the production techniques of Badarian glazed steatite beads. These support the notion that turquoise beads are misidentifications for glazed steatite beads. Conversely, they advocate in favour of the existence of turquoise pendants during the Badarian period, and thus against the notion that turquoise only began to be used from the Naqada IIC period onwards.

Nabta Playa is an internally-drained basin located in the most arid part of the Sahara Desert. The oldest crude handaxes discovered in the region were assigned to the Middle Acheulean industry (1,400,000 to 200,000 ya). The northward shift of the summer monsoons (c.12ka) enabled the region to be habitable for more than six thousand years. After the abandonment of sites, due to increasing aridity, the returning settlers of the Late (6200-5800 ya) and Final Neolithic (5400-4800 ya) enjoyed more social complexity and an unprecedented degree of organization. During the Late/Final Neolithic, Nabta Playa became a regional ceremonial center enclosing complex structures. Ceramic evidence shows that Nabta Playa served as a contact point between the pastoralists of the Eastern Sahara and the agriculturalists of the Nile Valley during the two periods. Thus, Nabta Playa is an appropriate location to study social complexity shortly before the rise of the ancient Egyptian civilization/state.
This paper juxtaposes adaptation to climatic fluctuations and available resources and their influence on both the lithic-artifact-production and the cultural development of the region since its earliest occupation. It begins with a summary of the lithc tools, cores, and debitage known to mark different time periods in the region. This subtopic also traces the climatic pattern, which affected the Sahara Desert. This section is meant to facilitate the analysis of stone-artifacts dating to multiple periods retrieved from the archaeological site in question. I then perform artifact-analysis on the lithics assemblage from Site E-00-1 in Nabta Playa, a multiple component site with a robust Final Neolithic settlement. The Late Neolithic component is not well-represented as compared to the Final Neolithic. However, the increase in the degree of social complexity is apparent at the beginning of the first, and during the latter there is an evident trend toward producing artifacts similar to those marking the ancient Egyptian civilization.

The case study presented in this article takes a compositional approach to the reconstruction of an ivory label fragment (Ashmolean E.1262) discovered over a century ago by Flinders Petrie and his team at the Abydos tomb complex ascribed to Qa’a, the last ruler of the First Dynasty. Previous methods applied to the study of labels and other early inscribed objects and the modes used for their reproduction in printed media are discussed and critically assessed. I argue that the pitfalls presented by anachronistic and de-contextualising approaches can be avoided by anchoring analysis in the artefact in tandem with detailed comparative study of contemporary graphical culture. Previous reproductions and reconstructions are thus reviewed and an adjusted reconstruction of the label fragment is proposed from this grounded perspective.

Correction: On plate II, the object height should be: "2.75+ cm".

ABSTRACT: Athena, Ancient Egypt Uncovered, disk 2, episode 3: Secrets of the Sands:  Covering Prehistory (Nabta Playa), savannah type environment across North Africa, cattle domestication, cattle burials, a potential astronomical installation, seasonal occupation, and Faruq el-Baz's theory for the Western Desert's potential inspiration to later Old Kingdom pyramids and sphinx via natural conical hills and mud lions (yardangs), with counter arguments by Fekhri Hasan and Mark Lehner. See a Discovery Channel video, Chaos and Kings (online via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vedycfT3-S8 [51 minutes]).  These sequential questions aim to maximize both student attention to various pertinent points made throughout the documentary and greater retention of the materials covered by the documentary.  In addition, the documentary has been vetted for overall content accuracy (albeit updated and/or corrected in-class), and selected to provide supplementary visual aids (e.g., images of regions, sites, finds, and other materials; re-enactments), and other data to aid in student comprehension of the course lectures and readings from the textbooks. Updated Jan. 2023.

The production of textile in Ancient Egypt is attested to before 5000 BC but around 3400 BC, or the start of Naqada II, a change in technique made it possible to produce stronger yarn and consequently a better quality textile faster. At the same time, textile became a material that replaced animal skins as wrapping for the dead. This increased use of textile also necessitated an increased need for flax, the raw material for linen. At Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt, where linen is used in all the burials in the workers cemetery HK43, the combination of a population of c. 5000 persons with a location on a narrow part of the Nile prompts the question: Did they grow all the flax themselves? At the start of Naqada II, another change takes place: An influx of Upper Egypt material, Naqada material, in Lower Egypt while very few artefacts from Lower Egypt are found in Upper Egypt. This has been explained by trading of grain from Lower Egypt to Upper Egypt, a material that is not clearly visible in the archaeological record. However, how can archaeology begin to unravel the question of whether Lower Egypt also traded flax to Upper Egypt?

The Egyptian archaeology is littered with animal mummies, wrapped tightly in linen bandages, excavated by the thousands from the pharaonic period. However, even in prehistory, animals were buried in cemeteries of humans, and in one case, the elite cemetery of Hierakonpolis, over 100 different animals, from domesticated animals such as dogs, cats and cattle to wild animals such as a crocodile, a hippopotamus, a leopard, an aurochs and even two adult African elephants were buried. This took place during a relatively short period around c. 3500 BC. While some of the animals were simply buried, some were enveloped in linen shrouds – notably the most dangerous of the wild animals such as the crocodile, the aurochs and the elephants. Especially the burial of one of the elephants, from tomb 24, provides textile researchers with well-preserved material and evidence of a complete envelopment to research the time and manpower spent on production, while the corpus of animals buried in linen shrouds may provide a clearer picture of the development of rituals that became the standard for the 3000 years of the pharaonic Egypt.

The spread of domesticated cereals and animals out of the Levant to both Europe and Africa has been a subject of much debate. In Egypt the earliest evidence of farming practices are at present found in the Faiyum and Merimde Beni Salame ca. 7,000 cal BP  (5,000 BC), some 3,000 years after the beginning of agricultural practices in the Levantine PPNB. Recent research has shown that there was a time delay in mixed economy farming receahing the Southern Levant. Whereas in the Negev and Sinai rather than taking up mixed economy farming, the Timnian herder-gatherer tradition based on goat herding supplemented by hunting developed just before 7,950 cal BP (6,000 BC). It appears that it was this group that transmitted goat herding practices to Egypt at 7,850 cal BP (5,800 BC), whereas the full farming package was transmitted to Egypt ca. 5,350 BC by Late Neolithic Levantine migrants. The people of this Timnian culture acted as the middlemen in an interaction zone that connected the Levant with Egypt, and were the conduit for various products and ideas between the two regions. The uptake of farming practices by communities in the Nile Valley only occurred because they already had a predilection to manage wild animals, manipulate wild grasses and had a technology that was ready for the process of Neolithisation. In Nubia and the southern part of the Western Desert pottery had begun to be produced at 8,600 BC by semi-sedentary hunter-fisher-gatherers, and by 7,000 BC indigenously domesticated cattle were not only present at Nabta Playa, but in Upper Nubia. The choices taken and adaptations made to the new environment and different ecological zones that developed after the Last Glacial Maximum laid the foundations for the distinctly different cultures of Egypt and the Sudan to those of the Levant. These heterogeneous regions took separate paths to food production, and it was the path that was chosen by the communities in the Nile Valley that formed the basis of many of their cultural and religious traits even after farming practices had been introduced from the Fertile Crescent. Documenting the changing socioeconomic processes in the Early to Mid-Holocene in the various regions is essential in understanding the beginnings of the Predynastic and rise of the first nation state in Egypt. Egypt was both a gift of the Nile and a result of climatically induced migrations from the Western Desert and the Levant. Within 500 years of the end of the Neolithic, a relatively short timespan, the agrarian communities of Egypt had formed into proto-states and by 3,060 BC had formed one of the first pristine states, while the societies of the Southern Levant remained much less centralised, partially due to ecological constraints.