Prehistoric settlement in the Western Delta: A regional and local view from Sais (Sa el-Hagar)

Journal of Egyptian Archaeology

Volumn 92, Issue , 2006, Pages 75-126

  Wilson, Penelope ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 60949688936     PISSN: 03075133     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/030751330609200102     Document Type: Review

References (116)

1. B. van Wesemael, 'The Relation Between Natural Landscape and Distribution of Archaeological Remains in the Northeastern Nile Delta', in E. C. M. van den Brink (ed.), The Archaeology of the Nile Delta: Problems and Priorities (Amsterdam, 1988), 125-39.
2. For summaries see, for example, R. Wenke, 'Egypt: Origins of Complex Societies', Annual Review of Anthropology 18 (1989), 132-43;
3. K. Bard, 'The Egyptian Predynastic: A Review of the Evidence', Journal of Field Archaeology 21 (Autumn, 1993), 265-7;
4. and I. M. Shaw (ed.), The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford, 2000)
5. with summary articles by S. Hendrickx and P. Vermeersch, 'Prehistory from the Palaeolithic to the Badarian Culture', 17-43
6. and B. Midant-Reynes, 'The Naqada Period', 57-60.
7. Summary by B. Midant-Reynes, The Prehistory of Egypt (Oxford, 2000), 84-9;
8. W. Wetterstrom, 'Foraging and Farming in Egypt: the Transition from Hunting and Gathering to Horticulture in the Nile Valley', in T. Shaw et al. (eds), The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns (London, 1993), 165-236
9. and recent research into Levantine connections with the Neolithic Fayum in N. Shirai, 'Walking with Herdsman: In Search of the Material Evidence for the Diffusion of Agriculture from the Levant to Egypt', Neo-Lithics 1/05 (2005), 12-17.
10. F. Hassan, 'The Dynamics of a Riverine Civilization: A Geoarchaeological Perspective on the Nile Valley, Egypt', World Archaeology 29/1.
11. Riverine Archaeology (1997), 51-74
12. K. Butzer, 'Geoarchaeological Implications of Recent Research', in E. C. M. van den Brink and T. Levy (eds), Egypt and the Levant. Interrelations from the 4th through the Early 3rd Millennium B.C.E. (London and New York, 2002), 83-97.
13. W. Andres and J. Wunderlich, 'Environmental Conditions for Early Settlement at Minshat Abu Omar, Eastern Nile Delta, Egypt', in E. C. M. van den Brink (ed.), The Nile Delta in Transition: 4th-3rd Millennium B.C. (Tel Aviv, 1992), 157-66;
14. H. de Wit, 'The Evolution of the Eastern Nile Delta as a Factor in the Development of Human Culture', in L. Krzyżaniak, M. Kobusiewicz and J. Alexander (eds), Environmental Change and Human Culture in the Nile Basin and Northern Africa until the Second Millennium B.C. (Studies in African Archaeology 4; Poznan, 1993), 305-20.
15. P. Wilson, 'Sais (Sa el-Hagar), 2001-02', JEA 88 (2002), 2-4.
16. A preliminary account of the excavation has been published: P. Wilson and G. Gilbert, 'The Prehistoric Period at Sais', Archéo-Nil 13 (2003), 65-72;
17. P. Wilson and G. Gilbert, 'Pigs, Pots and Postholes', Egyptian Archaeology 21 (Autumn, 2002), 12-13. I am most grateful to Gregory Gilbert for his analysis of the pottery, the original drawings of pottery and lithic material and his comments in the preparation of this article. I thank Lauren Woodard for the inked drawings, Salima Ikram for the faunal identifications and Jacqui Cotton for her analysis of the environmental samples.
18. P. Wilson, 'Sais (Sa el-Hagar), 2004-05', JEA 91 (2005), 4-8.
19. I thank for J. R. Dickinson for assistance with the map, after K. Butzer, 'Delta', LÄ I, 1047-8, fig. 2;
20. O. Toussoun, Mémoires sur les anciennes branches du Nil (MIE 4; Cairo, 1922), pl. 12;
21. M. Bietak, Tell el-Dab'a, II (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Denkschriften der Gesamtakademie 4; Vienna, 1975), 59-74 and Abb. 23.
22. Butzer, in van den Brink and Levy (eds), Egypt and the Levant, 85-6;
23. evidence from the Delta edge: W. Hayes (edited by K. Seele), Most Ancient Egypt (Chicago, 1965), 63-4;
24. changing sea levels: D. J. Stanley and A. G. Warne, 'Sea Level and Initiation of Predynastic Culture in the Nile Delta', Nature 363 (1993), 435-8.
25. Andres and Wunderlich, in van den Brink (ed.), The Nile Delta in Transition, 164.
26. 'New Data on the Late Prehistoric Settlement at Minshat Abu Omar, Eastern Nile Delta,' in Krzyżaniak, Kobusiewicz and Alexander (eds), Environmental Change, 321-5.
27. E. C. M. van den Brink, 'A Geo-Archaeological Survey in the North-Eastern Nile Delta, Egypt; the First Two Seasons, a Preliminary Report', MDAIK 43 (1987), 7-31;
28. E. C. M. van den Brink, 'Settlement Patterns in the Northeastern Nile Delta during the Fourth-Second Millennium B.C.', in Krzyżaniak, Kobusiewicz and Alexander (eds), Environmental Change, 279-304.
29. L. Krzyżaniak, 'Again on the Earliest Settlement at Minshat Abu Omar', in van den Brink (ed.), The Nile Delta in Transition, 151-5.
30. Andres and Wunderlich calculated a rate of 1.5 mm per year at Minshat Abu Omar (in van den Brink (ed.), The Nile Delta in Transition, 159).
31. Ball had suggested a rate of between 9 cm and 13.2 cm per century (that is, 0.9 mm to 1.32 mm a year) (J. Ball, Contributions to the Geology of Egypt (Cairo, 1939), 173-6).
32. Chen and Stanley suggested sedimentation rates of 5.9 mm a year between c. 5,400 and 3,700 BC, but 1.9 mm after that in the northern Delta plain (Z. Y. Chen and D. J. Stanley, 'Alluvial Stiff Muds (Late Pleistocene) Underlying the Lower Nile Delta Plain, Egypt - Petrology, Stratigraphy and Origin', Journal of Coastal Research 9/2 (1993), fig. 14). It is accepted that there are many variables affecting sedimentation and that it varies considerably in different places and at different times.
33. K. Kroeper and D. Wildung, Minshat Abu Omar. Ein vor- und frühgeschichtlicher Friedhof im Nildelta, I-II (Mainz, 1994 and 2000).
34. R. Said, The River Nile (Oxford, 1993), 131-3 suggested that there was an 800 year period of low Niles from around 3,900 to 3,000 BC, when the connection between the Nile and Fayum was severed.
35. Krzyżaniak, in Krzyżaniak, Kobusiewicz and Alexander (eds), Environmental Change, 324
36. based on the discussion of F. Hassan, 'Historical Nile Floods and Their Implications for Climatic Change', Science 212 (1981), 1142-5.
37. J. Wunderlich, T. von der Way and K. Schmidt, 'Neue Fundstellen der Buto-Maadi-Kultur bei Ezbet el-Qerdahi', MDAIK 45 (1989), 309-18.
38. Most recently discussed by D. A. Faltings, 'The Chronological Frame and Social Structure of Buto', in van den Brink and Levy (eds), Egypt and the Levant, 168.
39. The range of the calibrated dates is 3,883-3,812 and 4,340-3,900 BC (T. von der Way, Tell el-Fara'in. Buto, I (Mainz, 1997), 82, sample KN 4015).
40. Faltings, in van den Brink and Levy (eds), Egypt and the Levant, 165-70.
41. T. von der Way, Untersuchungen zur Spätvor- und Frühgeschichte Unterägyptens (Heidelberg, 1993), 34.
42. Von der Way, Untersuchungen, 67-91;
43. C. Commenge and D. Alon, 'Competitive Involution and Expanded Horizons: Exploring the Nature of Interaction between Northern Negev and Lower Egypt (c. 4500-3600 BCE)', in van den Brink and Levy (eds), Egypt and the Levant, 139-53.
44. The mobility of Neolithic hunter-gatherers against the sedentarism of farmers is discussed by P. Bellwood, First Farmers. The Origins of Agricultural Societies (Oxford, 2005), 31-43
45. and the change to agriculture in Egypt is discussed in W. Wetterstrom, 'La chasse-cueillette et l'agriculture en Égypte: la transition de la chasse et de la cueillette à l'horticulture dans la vallée du Nil', Archéo-Nil 6 (1996), 50-75.
46. Sais has been described as the chief city at the time of the unification of Egypt by W. B. Emery, Archaic Egypt (Harmondsworth, 1961), 42
47. and as a 'significant' centre by T. A. H. Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt (London and New York, 2001), 325.
48. Wilson, JEA 91 (2005), 4-8.
49. P. Wilson, The Survey of Sais (Sa el-Hagar), 1997-2002 (EES Excavation Memoir 77; London, 2006), 197 and 204. This also seems to have happened at Buto, which Butzer takes as an indication that particular parts of the site were not occupied between Early Dynastic and Saite times. As at Sais, this is not necessarily the case.
50. P. Wilson, 'The Survey of Sais (Sa el-Hagar), 2000-01', JEA 87 (2001), 4-5 Excavation 2.
51. Personal communication from Ulrich Hartung. It is similar to the Hierakonpolis closed vessel Type 2a and fabric 22: fine, untempered: B. Adams, Excavation in the Locality 6 Cemetery at Hierakonpolis, 1979-1985 (BAR International Series 903; Oxford, 2000), 12.
52. The larger Excavation 8 was undertaken in 2005 as part of the 'Sais and its Hinterland' AHRC funded project; see the field report Wilson, JEA 91, 4-8.
53. The ground level height is on the 5 m contour line, according to Survey of Egypt maps of the area and the base of the 'Great Pit' lies below this level. The area was surveyed by the EES Mission in 1997; see Wilson, The Survey of Sais, 118-48.
54. A. el-Shahat, H. Ghazala, P. Wilson and Z. Belal, 'Lithofacies of the Upper Quaternary Sequence of Sa el-Hagar Area, Gharbiya Governorate, Nile Delta - Egypt', Journal of Geology and Geophysics, Mansoura University 32/1 (2005), 82.
55. J. D. Collinson, 'Alluvial Sediments', in H. G. Reading (ed.), Sedimentary Environments: Processes, Facies and Stratigraphy (Oxford, 2004), 56.
56. Adams, Excavation in the Locality 6 Cemetery, 11, fabric 22 and type 1d.
57. J. Eiwanger, Merimde-Benisalâme, III. Die Funde der jüngeren Merimdekultur (Mainz, 1992), 127-8, pls. 89-90, no. III.168.
58. K. Schmidt, 'Tell el-Farain/Buto and el-Tell el-Iswid (South): The Lithic Industries from the Chalcolithic to the Early Old Kingdom', in van den Brink (ed.), The Nile Delta in Transition, 32.
59. J. Cotton, Plant Macrofossil Assessment, Sais 2002, (unpublished report for the EES, Archaeological Services University of Durham, 2002), 4.22, table 7.
60. Cotton, Plant Macrofossil Assessment, 4.23, table 8.
61. F. Debono and B. Mortensen, El Omari (Mainz, 1990), 37.
62. As shown in Eiwanger, Merimde III, 55 fig. 15.
63. J. Eiwanger, Merimde-Benisalâme, I. Die Funde der Ursicht (Mainz, 1984), nos. I.330-421, pls. 18-21
64. J. Eiwanger, Merimde-Benisalâme, II. Die Funde der mittleren Merimdekultur (Mainz, 1988), 15-17.
65. For example, Eiwanger, Merimde I, I.427-31, pl. 21.
66. R. Wenke and M. Casini, 'The Epipaleolithic-Neolithic Transition in Egypt's Fayum Depression', in L. Krzyżaniak and M. Kobusiewicz (eds), Late Prehistory of the Nile Basin and the Sahara (Studies in African Archaeology 2; Poznan, 1989), 152.
67. There is little evidence from pharaonic Egypt for fat rendering: M. Serpico and R. White, 'Oil, Fat and Wax', in P. Nicholson and I. M. Shaw (eds), Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology (Cambridge, 2000), 390-429.
68. Testing for traces of lard or tallow on pottery may enable the functions of the vessels from settlement sites to be better understood. The identification of uses of jars for milk/cheese, beer and bread has been achieved so far by the position of vessels in tombs or representational evidence; see S. Hendrickx et al., 'Milk, Beer and Bread Technology during the Early Dynastic Period', MDAIK 58 (2002), 277-304.
69. W. van Neer, E. Paulissen and P. M. Vermeersch, 'Chronology, Subsistence and Environment at the Late Palaeolithic Fishing Sites of Makhadma 2 and 4', in P. M. Vermeersch (ed.), Palaeolithic Living Sites in Upper and Middle Egypt (Egyptian Prehistory Monographs 2; Leuven, 2000), 281-6;
70. W. Van Neer, 'Fishing along the Prehistoric Nile', in Krzyżaniak and Kobusiewicz (eds), Late Prehistory of the Nile Basin, 49-56;
71. cf. comments of S. Ikram, 'Meat Processing', in Nicholson and Shaw (eds), Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, 659-68.
72. I. Rizkana and J. Seeher, Maadi, I. The Pottery of the Predynastic Settlement (Mainz, 1987), 24-5.
73. The pottery typologies have not been harmonised for Prehistoric Lower Egypt, so the basic forms developed by Renée Friedman and then employed by Barbara Adams were used as a guide: Adams, Excavations in the Locality 6 Cemetery, 7-17.
74. Separate form lists have been published by C. Köhler, Tell el-Farain-Buto, III (Mainz, 1998), 86-90;
75. and Debono and Mortensen, El Omari, 37.
76. F. Hassan, 'Radiocarbon Chronology of Neolithic and Predynastic Sites in Upper Egypt and the Delta', The African Archaeological Review 3 (1985), 104-5;
77. most recently discussed by S. Hendrickx, 'La chronologie de la préhistoire tardive et des débuts de l'histoire de l'Egypte', Archéo-Nil 9 (1999), 13-81.
78. An example from Munhata is discussed by O. Bar-Yosef, 'The Neolithic Period', in A. Ben-Tor (ed.), The Archaeology of Ancient Israel (Open University of Israel, 1992), 36, fig. 2.12.
79. H. Larsen, 'Vierzierte Tongefaß-Scherben aus Merimde- Benisalâme in der ägyptischen Abteilung des Mittelmeermuseums in Stockholm', Orientalia 7 (1959), 3-23.
80. Cited by H. Larsen, 'Die Merimdekeramik im Mittelmeermuseum Stockholms', Orientalia Suecana 11 (1962), 4-89, Jericho comparanda 69-70.
81. Hendrickx and Vermeersch, in Shaw (ed.), Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, 36.
82. For a summary of the broader picture see Bellwood, The First Farmers, 99-103;
83. Shirai, Neo-Lithics 1/05, 12-17.
84. Prehistory of Egypt, 108-11.
85. Hassan, The African Archaeological Review 3, 98. The calibrations in table 2 were carried out using the most recent iteration of the OxCal calibration curve (2004). I am grateful to Andrew Millard, Department of Archaeology, Durham University, for his advice and assistance.
86. Eiwanger dated Level I to the second half of the sixth millennium BC (c. 5,500 BC), Level II to between 5,500 and 4,500 BC and Level V corresponding to Fayum A to c. 4,600 and 4,000 BC, summarised by Hendrickx, Archéo-Nil 9, 18-19.
87. M. A. Geyh, P. Munro and R. Germer, 'Zur absoluten Chronologie des Alten Reiches und der 1. Zwischenzeit nach konventionellen und kalibrierten 14C-Daten', SAK 16 (1989), 65-81;
88. F. Pazdur and D. J. Micczynska, 'Probabilistic Calibration of Radiocarbon Dates with Specific Examples from Northeastern Africa', in Krzyżaniak, Kobusiewicz and Alexander (eds), Environmental Change, 473-83.
89. The bone samples were in bad condition with little carbon left in them and other materials also seemed to have suffered after such long burial. The problems with radiocarbon dating in Egypt are noted by Geyh et al., SAK 16, 65-81.
90. The test results of a water sample from the 'Great Pit' for June 2002 are as follows: HCO3- 58.2%, Na+ 48.2% and Mg++ 40% are the highest concentrations of ions; the pH is 8.2 and 992 Total Dissolved Salts (ppm) - courtesy of Zeinab Lotfi Belal, Sedimentological and Geophysical Studies on the Late Quaternary Sequence of Sa el Hagar Area Gharbiya Governorate, Nile Delta-Egypt (unpublished MSc dissertation, Mansoura University, 2004), 44-61.
91. All of the dates come from charcoal samples: I. Caneva, M. Frangipane and A. Palmieri, 'Excavations at Maadi', in Krzyżaniak and Kobusiewicz (eds), Late Prehistory of the Nile, 289-90 (with calibrations).
92. J. K. Kozlowski and B. Ginter, 'The Fayum Neolithic in the Light of New Discoveries', in Krzyżaniak and Kobusiewicz (eds), Late Prehistory of the Nile Basin, 157-79.
93. Noticed by B. Mortensen, 'Carbon-14 Dates from El Omari', in R. Friedman and B. Adams (eds), The Followers of Horus. Studies Dedicated to Michael Allen Hoffman (Oxbow Monograph Series 20; Oxford, 1992), 173-4.
94. For a summary see Midant-Reynes, Prehistory of Egypt, 264 Chart 4, although this is predicated upon Merimde culture beginning in the early sixth millennium;
95. based upon W. Kaiser, 'Zur Sudausdehnung der vorgeschichtlichen Deltakulturen und zur frühen Entwicklung Oberägyptens', MDAIK 41 (1985), 61-87.
96. F. Hassan, 'Toward a Model of Agricultural Developments in Predynastic Egypt', in L. Krzyżaniak and M. Kobusiewicz (eds), Origin and Early Development of Food-Producing Cultures in North-Eastern Africa (Studies in African Archaeology 1; Poznan, 1984), 222.
97. The deep drill work at Sais was undertaken by a team from University of Mansoura, begun by the late Prof. Mahmoud Gamili and continued by Prof. Adam el-Shahat and Dr Hosni Ghazala, with analyses of sediments and interpretations by Zeinab Lotfi Belal. I am grateful for their contribution to the work and for their assistance in interpreting the data. The geoarchaeological implications have been published in preliminary form - H. Ghazala, A. el-Shahat, R. Adel, P. Wilson and Z. Belal, 'Geoelectrical Investigations around Sa el-Hagar Archaeological Site, Gharbiya Governorate, Nile Delta, Egypt', The Journal of Geology and Geophysics, Mansoura University 32/1 (2005), 121-37.
98. A. el-Shahat et al., Journal of Geology and Geophysics, Mansoura University 32/1, 79-119.
99. D. J. Stanley, J. McRea and J. C. Waldron, 'Nile Delta Drill Core and Sample Database for 1985-1994: Mediterranean Basin (MEDIBA) Program', Smithsonian Contributions to the Marine Sciences 36 (1996), 198-200.
100. Collinson, in Reading (ed.), Sedimentary Environments, 53.
101. Collinson, in Reading (ed.), Sedimentary Environments, 50. The Nile branches are meandering (i.e. move their position) and so may act in this manner, with the meander cutting into levees on the outside of the bend and depositing fine sand as a point-bar deposit on the inside. The sediments accrete upon the point bar in an inclined gradient.
102. D. Brewer, 'A Model for Resource Exploitation in the Prehistoric Fayum', in Krzyżaniak and Kobusiewicz (eds), Late Prehistory of the Nile Basin, 127-37.
103. For map of nineteenth century perennial irrigation system, see W. Willcocks, The Nile in 1904 (London, 1904), pl. xix.
104. Excavations in Kom Rebwa have found evidence for Old Kingdom and New Kingdom material (Wilson, JEA 87, 2-4;
105. JEA 88, 3-6;
106. 'Sais (Sa el-Hagar), 2003-04', JEA 90 (2004), 2-6)
107. and drill cores to the south of Sa el-Hagar contained Old Kingdom pottery sherds (Wilson, JEA 90, 8).
108. Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt, 342;
109. R. J. Wenke and D. J. Brewer, 'The Archaic-Old Kingdom Delta: the Evidence from Mendes and Kom El-Hisn', in M. Bietak (ed.), House and Palace in Ancient Egypt (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Denkschriften der Gesamtakademie 14; Vienna, 1996), 270;
110. W. Andres and J. Wunderlich, 'Untersuchungen zur Palaeogeographie des Westlichen Nildeltas im Holczan', Marburger Geographische Schriften 100 (1986), 126;
111. Former river distributaries were also identified at Buto, of which one may have been the northern extent of the 'Saitic' branch: Wunderlich, in van den Brink (ed.), The Archaeology of the Nile Delta, 252 and 253 fig. 2.
112. K. Butzer, Early Hydraulic Civilization in Egypt (Chicago, 1976), 24 fig. 4
113. and id. 'Delta', LÄ I, 1047-8.
114. Van den Brink, in Krzyżaniak, Kobusiewicz and Alexander (eds), Environmental Change, 279-304.
115. R. J. Wenke and D. J. Brewer, 'The Neolithic-Predynastic Transition in the Fayum Depression', in Friedman and Adams (eds), The Followers of Horus, 175-84.
116. Butzer (in van den Brink (ed.), The Nile Delta in Transition, 95-6) has cautioned against reading too much into geoarchaeological coincidences and neat generalisations, but suggests that individual places should be considered in the light of multiple factors including time, ecology, social and economic issues.