• 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.500,000-300,000/250,000 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 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

• 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 stone-tools 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 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…

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?

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…