Division of Egyptian prehistory: Lower Palaeolithic – 700,000-250,000 BP Middle Palaeolithic –...
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• Division of Egyptian prehistory:
• Lower Palaeolithic – 700,000-250,000 BP
• Middle Palaeolithic – 250,000-50,000 BP
• Upper & Late Palaeolithic – 50,0000-10,000 BP
• Neolithic - 9,000-4,700 BC (note BP/BC switch!)
• Badarian – 4,400-4,000 BC
• Naqada I – 4,000-3,500 BC
• Naqada II – 3,500-3,200 BC
• Naqada III – 3,200-3,000 BC (Dynasty 0)
• Archaeological complexes and cultures are ways of defining groups of material (e.g. the Naqada culture)
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• Prehistoric (predynastic) Egypt
• Environmental conditions variable
• From hyperarid (today!) to less arid, savannah-like conditions (e.g. 9000-4,700 BC)
• Nile also variable – sometimes hospitable, sometimes very fast flowing (Younger Dryas)
• Obscuring the archaeology –
• Nile sediments covering sites
• Nile eroding away archaeological sites
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H. Erectus.
Must have been first occupant of Egypt
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• Acheulean complex (named after the site in France where first discovered)
• Associated with H. Erectus
• Biface handaxes
• Found in Abydos area, also especially in Nubia
• These dated ca.500,000-300,000/250,000 BP
• Show preparation of foodstuffs (scrapers, cutters)
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• Acheulean sites: Kharga, Dakhla, Bir Sahara, Bir Tarfawi
• Climatic conditions much preferable to now (warmer, wetter)
• We can assume the presence of big game animals (and smaller) on the Saharan savannah
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• The Middle Palaeolithic (250,000-50,000 BP): the Saharan Mousterian Complex
• Tools made by LEVALLOIS FLAKING from blade cores (improvement on Acheulean)
• Usually associated with H. Sapiens (anatomically modern humans)
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• Mousterian sites: again, in Nubia, and the Western Desert
• Climatic conditions similar to Lower Palaeolithic, but perhaps becoming more arid
• Can extrapolate continued food-gathering in the Sahara and in Nubia; use of spears to bring down larger animals?
• Perhaps increasing population? Hard to ascertain in the Nile valley because of Nile erosion/alluviation
• First burial of an Egyptian! Child, ca.55,000 BP at site of Taramsa-1
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• What does this indicate?
• Deliberate disposal of the dead and recognition of the change of state
• Raises issues; correct (normative) behavior; ritual & beliefs?
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• The Upper Palaeolithic (50,000-24,000 BP) curiously absent.
• Period of extreme aridity?
• All settlements in the Nile valley? Covered by sediment?
• The Late Palaeolithic (24,000-10,000 BP)
• Significant cultural developments…
• Great variety in stone-tools across Egypt (bow and arrow!)
• Diversified environments; exploited natural plant resources, fish, animals.
• Sites still seasonal (no sedentism, i.e. permanent villages)
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• First proper cemetery in Egypt, at Gebel Sahaba
• Ca.12,000 BP; 59 skeletons in total
• All lying in the same way; left hand side of body, head to south
•24 showed signs of violent death; EITHER chert points (spears/arrowheads) embedded in vital areas
• OR cut marks to long bones
• What does this tell us?
• Inter-group competition for diminishing resources in the Nile Valley (this is an arid period)? Uniform belief/religion?
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• Another hiatus in Egyptian settlement 11,000-9,000 BP (coincides with the Younger Dryas) – the “Wild Nile”?
• Around 10,000 BP switch to Neolithic (so move to BC/AD! 10,000 BP = 8,000 BC)… this period subdivided:
• Early Neolithic
• Middle Neolithic
• Late Neolithic
• CYCLICAL ENVIRONEMTAL CHANGE: Again, warmer and wetter between 8,000 BC and 4,000 BC
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The Saharan Neolithic: not the Neolithic you were expecting…
NO EVIDENCE FOR CEREAL DOMESTICATION!
BUT; evidence that people in the Sahara ca.8,000-4,000 BC were keeping cattle (domesticated? To what extent?)
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First ceramics!
• Storage?
• Decoration? (n.b. the first red/black polished pots…)
…but also traditional hunting (gazelle, wild sheep etc)
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In the Nile Valley…
• 7,000 BC, communities of hunter-gatherers at el-Kab, but not much else…
• BUT: ca.5,400 BC, the FAIYUM CULTURE and the MERIMDE CULTURE
• Both of these Neolithic; known as early predynastic cultures…
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True Neolithic cultures: Lower Egypt
Faiyum (Kom W)• Cereal and animal domestication (wheat, sheep/goat): 3000yrs behind Levant
• 109 storage pits: these pits grouped
• Sedentism - villages!
• Ceramics. Lithics associated with the Sahara LN lithics – relationship?
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True Neolithic cultures: Lower Egypt
MERIMDE BENI SALAMA• 5,000-4,100 BC
• Agriculture, animals, fishing and hunting
• Oval dwellings with hearths and storage areas
• Burials between houses; no grave goods
• First human representational art! Human head with holes for ‘hair’ – i.e. space for feathers
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True Neolithic cultures: Upper Egypt
BADARIAN
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True Neolithic cultures: Upper Egypt
BADARIAN• Ca. 4,400-4,000 (but could be as early as 5,000)
• Sites at Hammamiya, Mostagedda, Matmar, as far south as Hierakonpolis
• Very fine ceramics; relationship to Nabta Playa red/black wares
• BURIAL EVIDENCE; differential amounts of material interred (beads, combs, greywacke cosmetic palettes)
• Meaning: SOCIAL RANKING (differences in wealth)
• Body ornamentation and display (related to status)
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First evidence of social ranking INESTIMABLY IMPORTANT – shows differential access to goods and status; increasing SOCIAL COMPLEXITY!
Continuity of this, and full realization, in the NAQADA PERIOD!
• Named for site (Naqada) where Petrie discovered the culture
• Divided into I (4,000-3,500), II (3,500-3,200) and III (3,200-3,000)
Extremely important: sees shift from emergent social complexity (4,000 BC) to Egyptian state (3,000 BC)…
NAQADA I
Main changes in burial goods…
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Naqada I ceramics:
• Human depictions
• Animal depictions
• Sexual characteristics emphasized; power
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Naqada I ceramics
• Hunting scenes (again, power)
• Prefigure dynastic imagery
• Humans v nature? Control over the wild
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Naqada I: In general…
• Very little settlement archaeology known
• Increasing disposal of wealth with the deceased
• This wealth a marker of status
• Statuses different – emergence of basic social classes?
• Imagery – making power claims?
Sets the scene for development of Naqada II…