Division of Egyptian prehistory: Lower Palaeolithic – 700,000-250,000 BP

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…

Division of Egyptian prehistory: Lower Palaeolithic – 700,000-250,000 BP