Division of Egyptian prehistory Lower Palaeolithic 700 000

• 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)

• 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

H. Erectus. Must have been first occupant of Egypt

• 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, 000300, 000/250, 000 BP • Show preparation of foodstuffs (scrapers, cutters)

• 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

• 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)

• Mousterian sites: again, in Nubia, and the Western Desert • Climatic conditions similar to Lower Palaeolithic, but perhaps becoming more arid • Can extrapolate continued foodgathering 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

• What does this indicate? • Deliberate disposal of the dead and recognition of the change of state • Raises issues; correct (normative) behavior; ritual & beliefs?

• 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 stonetools across Egypt (bow and arrow!) • Diversified environments; exploited natural plant resources, fish, animals. • Sites still seasonal (no sedentism, i. e. permanent villages)

• 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?

• 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

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? )

First ceramics! • Storage? • Decoration? (n. b. the first red/black polished pots…) …but also traditional hunting (gazelle, wild sheep etc)

In the Nile Valley… • 7, 000 BC, communities of huntergatherers 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…

True Neolithic cultures: Lower Egypt Faiyum (Kom W) • Cereal and animal domestication (wheat, sheep/goat): 3000 yrs behind Levant • 109 storage pits: these pits grouped • Sedentism - villages! • Ceramics. Lithics associated with the Sahara LN lithics – relationship?

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

True Neolithic cultures: Upper Egypt BADARIAN

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)

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…

Naqada I ceramics: • Human depictions • Animal depictions • Sexual characteristics emphasized; power

Naqada I ceramics • Hunting scenes (again, power) • Prefigure dynastic imagery • Humans v nature? Control over the wild

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…