oi.uchicago.

edu

MOST ANCIENT EGYPT

oi.uchicago.edu
 oi.uchicago.edu

Internet publication of this work was made possible with the

generous support of Misty and Lewis Gruber

MOST ANCIE NT
EGYPT

William C. Hayes
EDITED BY KEITH C. SEELE

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

CHICAGO & LONDON
 oi.uchicago.edu

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 65-17294

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO & LONDON
The University of Toronto Press, Toronto 5, Canada
© 1964, 1965 by The University of Chicago. All rights
reserved. Published 1965. Printed in the United States of
America
 oi.uchicago.edu

WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER HAYES

1903-1963
oi.uchicago.edu
 oi.uchicago.edu

INTRODUCTION

WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER HAYES was on the day of his premature death

on July 10, 1963 the unrivaled chief of American Egyptologists. Though
only sixty years of age, he had published eight books and two book-length
articles, four chapters of the new revised edition of the Cambridge Ancient
History, thirty-six other articles, and numerous book reviews. He had also
served for nine years in Egypt on expeditions of the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, the institution to which he devoted his entire career, and more than
four years in the United States Navy in World War II, during which he
was wounded in action-both periods when scientific writing fell into the
background of his activity. He was presented by the President of the United
States with the bronze star medal and cited "for meritorious achievement
as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. VIGILANCE ... in the efficient and
expeditious sweeping of several hostile mine fields.., and contributing
materially to the successful clearing of approaches to Okinawa for our in-
vasion forces."
Hayes' original intention was to work in the field of medieval arche-
ology. His first field experience, however, was with the University of Michi-
gan expedition digging the ruins of ancient Carthage. Thus archeology and
art engaged his attention early in life, and he had won an M.A. and an
M.F.A. at Princeton before he even dreamed of becoming an Egyptologist.
Already a member of the Metropolitan Museum's Egyptian expedition
at Deir el Bahri in 1927, Hayes found his place quickly and developed
rapidly. He began his hieroglyphic studies with the private study of Alan H.
Gardiner's epoch-making Egyptian Grammar (Oxford, 1927). This kindly
giant of Egyptology was his inspiration, and the veteran found in his young
disciple a kindred spirit, gave him personal instruction for several summers
in England, and held him in close friendship to the end. Ultimately the
older man was to outlive the younger by less than six months.
Hayes was endowed with a beautiful mind. The perfection of his work-
vii
 oi.uchicago.edu

INTRODUCTION

and he was ever a perfectionist-was well exemplified even in his first

book, Royal Sarcophagi of the XVIII Dynasty (Princeton, 1935), which
in every respect was a model publication and one of the most useful Egypto-
logical Ph.D. dissertations ever printed. Its preparation took him into the
eerie darkness of those ancient labyrinths in the Valley of the Tombs of
the Kings where, surrounded by painted gods, snakes, headless spirits, and
wailing ghosts of the departed, he copied hieroglyphs and studied the de-
veloping form and decorative style of the quartzite coffins, the resting places
of the Pharaohs. Thus he was able, in the tombs of the kings, to establish
their chronological order, long disputed by the philologists and historians,
by the style of their sarcophagi. Most of these wonderful monuments still
lie in the tombs because of the sheer impossibility-lacking a Belzoni-of
removing the gigantic monoliths from the depths to which they were lowered
at the royal funerals so long ago. But Hayes was strong and adroit and
determined. He was already as adept at handling stone fragments weighing
a ton as at piecing together with his tweezers the faience fragments of
broken tiles from the palace of Ramesses II. He did this in his second book,
Glazed Tiles from a Palace of Rameses II at Kan~tr (New York, 1937);
several of his articles record the assembly of mighty statues and sphinxes
of Queen Hatshepsut and the shattered sarcophagus of her favorite, the
Chief Steward Senmut. The ambitious Senmut possessed not one tomb but
two in the Theban necropolis. One of these was discovered by the Metro-
politan Museum expedition. The other was cleared by the expedition, and
from some of the humblest and least glamorous objects which could possibly
be found in such an operation Hayes produced his remarkable book, Ostraka
and Name Stones from the Tomb of Sen-mut (No. 71) at Thebes (New York,
1942). A portion of this book was devoted to the pictures and inscriptions
often rather crudely sketched or written on limestone fragments (ostraka),
yet significant and interesting because the author was able to demonstrate
that they were preliminary drafts of scenes and texts which were to be
executed on the walls of the tomb. Since the tomb is now a sadly demolished
wreck, some of the sketches provide the only surviving evidence of the
nature of that noble funerary monument of ancient Thebes.
A second section of Ostraka and Name Stones is a penetrating analysis
of some obscure words pertaining to building, masonry, etc., found in the
work records written on ostraka from the tomb. Here Hayes appears as the
lexicographer, and every student of hieroglyphic can transfer welcome new
meanings to his copy of the Egyptian Dictionary.
But Hayes' philological studies were by no means confined to a nar-
row segment of the Egyptian language. At Lisht the Metropolitan Mu-
seum had conducted extensive excavations, and he had a good volume to
show for his work there in The Texts in the Matabeh of Se'n-Wosret-ankh
viii
 oi.uchicago.edu

INTRODUCTION

at Lisht (New York, 1937). It was a publication of some Twelfth Dynasty

copies of the ancient Pyramid Texts. Among them he discovered a hitherto
unknown pyramid text, and he was likewise able to demonstrate that the
Middle Kingdom copies were derived from early originals though not actu-
ally copied from the examples still preserved in the pyramids of the Fifth
and Sixth Dynasties.
On his return from Egypt in 1936 Hayes had become Assistant Cura-
tor of Egyptian Art. Henceforth he was to devote most of his energy to
the study of the Egyptian collections of the Metropolitan Museum. They are
the finest and most extensive in the western hemisphere. With the instinct
of a born educator he set out to interpret them to the public and to reveal
their role in the development of civilization. He had already made a note-
worthy contribution in this direction in one of his longest articles, his pop-
ular "Daily Life in Ancient Egypt," illustrated in part with thirty-two
extraordinary paintings done under his direction by H. M. Herget. This
remarkable work, published in 1941 in the National Geographic Magazine
(and still available in book form), combined the intimate knowledge of
Egyptian art, crafts, industries, recreation, religion, and customs, which
Hayes had by this time thoroughly mastered, with the artistic talents of
Mr. Herget. A vast audience of National Geographic readers was thus given
by far the best picture of Egyptian life ever achieved by modern scholar-
ship, with each interpreted detail based on precise archeological evidence.
It must be supposed that Hayes' mind was deeply preoccupied with the
desire to interpret Egyptian culture to his contemporaries and to utilize
for that purpose the rich collections of the great museum to which he was
devoting his life. For within a year after his release from the United States
Navy at the end of the war he had completed the manuscript of the first
half of what was to be his greatest achievement, which he modestly entitled
The Scepter of Egypt, a Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, though publication of the work was
delayed for several years until 1953. The subtitles of the two volumes reveal
their actual historical character: Part I covered the period in Egypt From
the Earliest Times to the End of the Middle Kingdom, while the second volume
(Part II) carried the story through The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom
(New York, 1959). In these two rich volumes, sumptuously printed with a
multitude of carefully chosen photographs, Hayes traced the history of
Egypt from the prehistoric beginnings to the end of the New Kingdom as
the story was illustrated by actual objects in the collections. While guides
and other handbooks to museum collections had been produced before-
and some of them very good indeed-none was quite so ambitious as The
Scepter of Egypt and none so fully and successfully enlightening to the user.
In a total of more than nine hundred pages of text and with over five hundred
ix
 oi.uchicago.edu

INTRODUCTION

photographic reproductions, the Egyptian objects in the Metropolitan Mu-

seum tell their story to the visitor in a manner unparalleled in the world.
But William C. Hayes' mind operated not only within the circle of his
own museum. His developing historical interest led him to delve wherever
he saw an opportunity to interpret the culture of ancient Egypt. Thus, be-
tween the two parts of The Scepter of Egypt he produced a work of pure
scholarly research which probably ranks as his best scientific publication.
The Brooklyn Museum possessed a tattered papyrus manuscript acquired
more than fifty years previously by Charles Edwin Wilbour. It consisted of
five to six hundred torn fragments, many of them exceedingly small, and
these were mingled in exasperating confusion with similar scraps of other
papyri written in a virtually indistinguishable hand. Hayes undertook to
solve the hopeless puzzle and succeeded with the assistance of Mr. Anthony
Giambalvo-able preparator of the Brooklyn Museum-in piecing together
the multitude of hieratic fragments. Though his modesty led him to state
"that any final commentary on it must necessarily be written by .. . spe-
cialists . . . in the social, economic, legal, and political aspects of ancient
civilizations," there is little doubt that his study of the "seven odd feet of
ancient writing paper" has produced its definitive interpretation. He found
in it "the criminal register of the late XIIth and early XIIIth Dynasties
and a series of mid-XIIIth Dynasty entries" which was intended "to estab-
lish the right of a woman named Senebtisy to the ownership of ninety-five
household servants." Hayes proceeds to an enlightening discussion of classes
of labor in the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, the administrative and judiciary
organization of the country, "the extent to which the activities and spheres
of influence of the various departments of the government overlapped one
upon the other and the efficient and apparently frictionless manner in
which, for example, the Departments of Agriculture, Labor, and Justice
co6perated with one another and with the officials of the provincial admin-
istration in the handling of problems and conditions germane to them all."
Finally, from his study of the names of the "ninety-five household servants,"
he is able to conclude that, in the early Second Intermediate Period of
Egyptian history, before the conquest of the Hyksos, "the Asiatic inhabit-
ants of the country. . . must have been many times more numerous than
has previously been supposed." He believes that a "brisk trade" in Asiatic
slaves was carried on by the Asiatics themselves, with Egypt as the prin-
cipal market for the trade, much as described in Genesis 37:28, 36 in the
account of the sale of Joseph to the Ishmaelites.
The foregoing account of Hayes' Papyrus of the Late Middle Kingdom
in the Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn, 1955) makes no pretense at an evalua-
tion of his achievement; it is but an illustration of what a devoted scholar
X
 oi.uchicago.edu

INTRODUCTION

can recover from a body of seemingly hopeless material by the application

of patience and unflagging industry.
Hayes had been Assistant Curator and Associate Curator of his de-
partment at the Museum. The full curatorship came to him in 1952.
There followed a period of hard work and disappointment. His work was
curtailed to some degree by a heart attack. Nevertheless, he accepted an
assignment to prepare some of the chapters for the proposed revision of
the Cambridge Ancient History. He contributed four of these, one on Egyp-
tian chronology, the others dealing with the history of the Middle and
New Kingdoms. Already published in pamphlet form, they are the best
treatment of the topics in English.
By this time it was inevitable that Hayes' developing interest in Egyp-
tian history should summon him to the logical goal of a complete "His-
tory of Egypt." All his scientific work had been leading toward it. He
had amassed voluminous notes and bibliographical records. Much of the
preliminary labor had been performed in the preparation of the Scepter.
The "History" was in his files; he must fill in the gaps and carry it on to
the end. He envisaged a work in four volumes and thought that it might
be issued by the Oxford Clarendon Press.
Probably the most difficult section of the "History" would be the be-
ginning. It would be necessary to set forth what is known about the
geology and geography of Northeast Africa, relate it with other regions of
the surrounding world, and trace early man into the ancient Valley of the
Nile. This was largely foreign territory to Hayes, but he undertook the task
with his usual thoroughgoing ardor. He discovered at once that the pre-
historians and geologists held widely divergent views, often quite unrecon-
cilable, and furthermore that the literature was increasing with such rapidity
and to such proportions as to require constant revision and reconsideration
of his results. In The Scepter of Egypt he had covered prehistoric and pre-
dynastic Egypt-from the earliest times to the beginning of the First Dy-
nasty-in approximately seventeen pages of text. As he proceeded with the
new work he was to require, in text and notes, more than a hundred and
fifty. One chapter sufficed for the Scepter; he was well into the fourth chapter
of the projected first volume, without reaching the end of the predynastic
period, when he had to lay down his task forever.
Long before embarking upon the actual writing of his new "History,"
Hayes had explored with this editor the feasibility of publishing at least a
selection of the chapters in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, doubtless
at a stage of his thinking prior to his realization of the magnitude of the
work. The plan was later abandoned in favor of direct publication in book
form. At the time of his death a draft of the first three chapters, with their
notes, and even of the incomplete fourth chapter, were in the hands of the
xi
 oi.uchicago.edu

INTRODUCTION

Clarendon Press. They were generously released by the editors, and the
original plan of publication, so sadly altered by circumstances, was resumed.
Thus they have appeared first of all in JNES, XXIII (1964), 73-114, 145-
92, and 217-74; however, the title selected for the fragment of Hayes' great
unfinished work, Most Ancient Egypt, is not his choice but merely the briefest
possible clue to his distinguished legacy.
It has already been stated that William C. Hayes was a perfectionist.
That very quality may have led to occasional defects in these chapters of
Most Ancient Egypt. Yet it must be made perfectly clear that, if such be
discovered by the reader, they are to be attributed not to the author but
to the editor. In his struggle for perfection, Hayes was engaged, near to
the time of his death, in a detailed revision of the form of the notes to the
chapters. He had originally cast the references in normal bibliographical
style, including name of author, title of work, facts of publication, and
page numbers. In the interest of brevity, however, he had decided to adopt
a condensed style by citing only the author and date of his work-details
would be given in full in the exhaustive bibliography at the end of the work,
where each article or book cited would appear but once. This editor found
the notes to chapter 1 in both forms, with a few additions in the brief style;
those to chapter 2 were in normal form; and the notes to chapter 3 were
prepared in the brief style alone. Obviously, all the notes must be published
uniformly in individually comprehensible form, since there would now be
no general bibliography. Owing to the editor's absence in Nubia as director
of the Oriental Institute Nubian Expedition, the conversion of all notes to
uniformity was confronted with some difficulty. While every attempt was
made to achieve the fullest accuracy, it is too much to hope that there has
been complete success. It is hoped that the reader will exercise a measure
of indulgence when he fails to locate a given reference or detects a wrong
one, realizing that the late author would have revised his manuscript for
publication better than any editor.
It will undoubtedly be universally recognized that William C. Hayes'
Most Ancient Egypt is the best discussion of the beginning of civilization in
the Nile Valley. It is right and proper that the book, even though but a
fragment of the author's great plan, should be made available beyond the
circle of JNES readers. The editor is pleased to feel that in this final form
the volume may be regarded as another garland laid beside the monument
of his enduring fame.
KEITH C. SEELE
The Oriental Institute

xii
 oi.uchicago.edu

BIBLIOGRAPHY
OF WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER HAYES

Review: DE PROROK, B. K., Diggingfor Lost African Gods, (1926), in The Amer-
ican Journal of Archaeology, 2d Series, XXX (1926), 199-200.
Review: CONTENAU, G., La civilisation phenicienne, (1926), in The American
Journal of Archaeology, 2d Series, XXXI (1927), 137-39.
"An Engraved Glass Bowl in the Museo Cristiano of the Vatican Library,"
The American Journal of Archaeology, 2d Series, XXXII (1928), 23-32.
Review: PENDLEBURY, J. D. S., Aegyptiaca, a Catalogue of Egyptian Objects in
the Aegean Area, (1930), in The American Journal of Archaeology, 2d Series, XXXV
(1931), 239-41.
"A Statue of the Herald Yamu-nedjeh in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, and
Some Biographical Notes on Its Owner," Annales du Service des Antiquits de
l'Egypte, XXXIII (1933), 6-16.
"The Texts in the Burial Chamber of Se'n-Wosret-cankh," Bulletin of the Met-
ropolitan Museum of Art, XXVIII (November 1933), Section II, 26-38.
"The Entrance Chapel of the Pyramid of Se'n-Wosret I," Bulletin of the Metro-
politan Museum of Art, XXIX (November 1934), Section II, 9-26.
Royal Sarcophagi of the XVIII Dynasty ("Princeton Monographs in Art and
Archaeology": Quarto Series, Vol. XIX). Princeton, 1935.
"The Tomb of Nefer-Khewet and His Family," Bulletin of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, XXX (November 1935), Section II, 17-36.
Review: EDGERTON, WILLIAM F., and JOHN A. WILSON, Historical Records of
Ramses III, in The American Journal of Archaeology, XL (1936), 558-59.
(With Ambrose Lansing) "The Museum's Excavations at Thebes," Bulletin of
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, XXXII (January 1937), Section II, 4-39. Hayes'
authorship applies to "The Tomb of Rac-mos and Ijat-nifer," pp. 12-39.
"An Egyptian Scribe's Palette," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
XXXII (June 1937), 157-58.
(With Ambrose Lansing) "Exploring an Egyptian Tomb," Science Digest, I
(May 1937), 66-70.
Review: WEILL, RAYMOND, Le Champ des Roseaux et le Champ des Offrandes dans
xiii
 oi.uchicago.edu

BIBLIOGRAPHY

la religion fundraire et la religion genrale (1936), in The American Journal of

Archaeology, XLI (1937), 643.
Glazed Tiles from a Palace of Rameses II at Kantir (The Metropolitan Museum
of Art, "Papers," No. 3). New York, 1937.
The Texts in the Magtabeh of Se'n-Wosret-cankh at Lisht ("Publications of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian Expedition," Vol. XII). New York, 1937.
(With Ambrose Lansing) "Ra-mose and Hat-nufer," Scientific American, CLVII-
CLVIII (November 1937), 266-68; (December 1937), 332-34; (January 1938),
14-16.
"Two Egyptian Statuettes," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, XXXIII
(April 1938), 107-8.
"The Egyptian God of the Lotus: A Bronze Statuette," Bulletin of the Metro-
politan Museum of Art, XXXIII (August 1938), 182-84.
"A Writing-Palette of the Chief Steward Amenlotpe and Some Notes on Its
Owner," Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, XXIV (1938), 9-24.
"A Fragment of a Prehistoric Egyptian Victory Monument," Bulletin of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, XXXIV (February 1939), 48-49.
The Burial Chamberof the TreasurerSobk-most from er Rizeikdt (The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, "Papers," No. 9). New York, 1939.
Review: CALVERLEY, AMICE M., The Temple of King Sethos I at Abydos, Vol.
III, The American Journal of Archaeology, XLIII (1939), 347-48.
Review: WAINWRIGHT, G. A., The Sky Religion in Egypt, in The American Journal
of Archaeology, XLIII (1939), 522-23.
"Minor Art of the Egyptian New Kingdom. A Perfume Jar and a Pair of Cos-
metic Boxes," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, XXXV (April 1940),
81-82.
"The Lady on the Papyrus. A Late Egyptian Bronze," Bulletin of the Metro.
politan Museum of Art, XXXV (September 1940), 176-78.
Review: ENOBERO, ROBERT M., The Hyksos Reconsidered, in Classical Weekly,
XXXIII (1940), 159.
"Daily Life in Ancient Egypt," The National Geographic Magazine, LXXX
(1941), 419-515. Reprinted in Everyday Life in Ancient Times. Highlights of the
Beginnings of Western Civilization in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Na-
tional Geographic Society, Washington, D.C., 1951.
Review: LANGTON, N. and B., The Cat in Ancient Egypt (1940), in The American
Journalof Archaeology, XLV (1941), 118.
Ostraka and Name Stones from the Tomb of Sen-mit (No. 71) at Thebes ("Publi-
cations of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian Expedition," Vol. XV).
New York, 1942.
"An Archaic Egyptian Statue," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
2d Series, IV (December 1945), 113-16.
"Portrait of King Amen-botpe I," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
2d Series, IV (January 1946), 140-42.
"Egyptian Tomb Reliefs of the Old Kingdom," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Mu-
aeum of Art, 2d Series, IV (March 1946), 170-78.
xivy
 oi.uchicago.edu

BIBLIOGRAPHY

"A Painted Wooden Pectoral of King Rameses III," Bulletin of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 2d Series, V (October 1946), 67-69.
"Royal Portraits of the Twelfth Dynasty," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, 2d Series, V (December 1946), 119-24.
"Royal Decrees from the Temple of Min at Coptus," The Journal of Egyptian
Archaeology, XXXII (1946), 3-23.
Review: REISNER, GEORGE A., A History of the Giza Necropolis, Vol. I (1942),
in The American Journal of Archaeology, L (1946), 422-23.
Review: SMITH, WILLIAM S., A History of Egyptian Sculpture and Painting in
the Old Kingdom (1946), in The American Journal of Archaeology, L (1946), 492-93.
"A Canopic Jar of King Nesu-Ba-neb-Dedet of Tanis," Bulletin of the Metropoli-
tan Museum of Art, 2d Series, V (June 1947), 261-63.
"Manche en ivoire grav6, predynastique au Metropolitan Museum," Chronique
d'Egypte, XXII, No. 48 (1947), 220-22.
"Egyptian Sculpture: A Statue of the Lady Senewy," Art in America, XXXV
(1947), 256-63.
"Horemkhacuef of Nekhen and His Trip to It-towe," The Journal of Egyptian
Archaeology, XXXIII (1947), 3-11.
"A Much-copied Letter of the Early Middle Kingdom," Journal of Near East-
ern Studies, VII (1948), 1-10.
"Minor Art and Family History in the Reign of Amun-Iiotpe III," Bulletin of
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2d Series, VI (June 1948), 272-79.
"Recent Additions to the Egyptian Collection," Bulletin of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 2d Series, VII (October 1948), 60-63.
"Writing Palette of the High Priest of Amin, Smendes," The Journalof Egyptian
Archaeology, XXXIV (1948), 47-50.
"A Foundation Plaque of Ptolemy IV," Brief Communication, The Journal of
Egyptian Archaeology, XXXIV (1948), 114-15.
"King Wadjkare c of Dynasty VIII," The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology,
XXXIV (1948), 115-16.
"La 37e et la 38e ann6e de regne d'Amnophis III," Chronique d'4gypte, XXIV,
No. 47 (1949), p. 96, Fig. 9. Corrigendum, p. 287; in consequence of a misprint
that could not be controlled by the author, the title originally read "La 36e et la
37e anne ... ."
"Career of the Great Steward IUenenu under Nebbepetr c Mentul otpe," The
Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, XXXV (1949), 43-49.
Review: WERBROUCK, M., Le temple de Hatshepsout d Deir el Bahari (1949), in
Chronique d'Egypte, XXV, No. 49 (1950), 76-79.
Review: DAVIES, NORMAN DE G., Seven Private Tombs at Kurnah, in The American
Journalof Archaeology, LIV (1950), 82-83.
"The Sarcophagus of Sennemit," The Journalof Egyptian Archaeology, XXXVI
(1950), 19-23.
"Inscriptions from the Palace of Amenhotep III," Journal of Near Eastern
Studies, X (1951), 35-56, 82-111, 156-83, 231-42.
Review: ALLEN, T. GEORGE, Occurrences of Pyramid Texts with Cross Indexes of
xv
 oi.uchicago.edu

BIBLIOGRAPHY
These and Other Egyptian Mortuary Texts (1950), in The American Journal of
Archaeology, LV (1951), 272-73.
Review: PARKER, R. A., The Calendars of Ancient Egypt (1950), in The American
Journal of Archaeology, LVI (1952), 83-84.
Review: DE BUCK, A., The Egyptian Cofin Texts IV: Texts of Spells 268-854
(1951), in The American Journal of Archaeology, LVI (1952), 215-16.
Review: ELGOOD, P. G., The Later Dynasties of Egypt (1951), in The American
Journalof Archaeology, LVI (1952), 216-17.
The Scepter of Egypt, A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Part I: From the Earliest Times to the End of the
Middle Kingdom. New York (Harper and Brothers in co-operation with the Metro-
politan Museum of Art), 1953.
"Notes on the Government of Egypt in the Late Middle Kingdom," Journal of
Near Eastern Studies, XII, No. 1 (1953), 31-39.
Review: CATON-THOMPSON, G., Kharga Oasis in Prehistory (1952), in The Amer-
ican Journal of Archaeology, LVII (1953), 117-19.
Review: KOEFOED-PETERSEN, OTTo, Catalogue des sarcophages et cercueils egyp-
tiens (1951), in The American Journal of Archaeology, LVII (1953), 119.
Review: SMITH, WILLIAM S., Ancient Egypt as Represented in the Museum of
Fine Arts, Third edition (1952), in The American Journal of Archaeology, LVIII
(1954), 159.
Review: CHAPMAN, SUZANNE E., and Dows DUNHAM, Decorated Chapels of the
Meroitic Pyramids at Meroe and Barkal (1952), in The American Journal of Archae
ology, LVIII (1954), 159-60.
A Papyrusof the Late Middle Kingdom in the Brooklyn Museum [Papyrus Brooklyn
35. 1446]. Edited with Translation and Commentary. The Brooklyn Museum, 1955.
Review: VANDIER, J., Manuel d'archeologie egyptienne: Tome I: Les poques de
formation (1952), in The American Journal of Archaeology, LIX (1955), 186-87.
Review: DE BUCK, A., The Egyptian Coffin Texts V: Texts of Spells 355-471
(1954), in The American Journal of Archaeology, LX (1956), 289.
"Varia from the Time of Hatshepsut," Mitteilungen des deutschen archaologischen
Institute Abteilung Kairo, XV (1957), 78-90.
Review: DE BUCK, A., The Egyptian Coffin Texts VI: Texts of Spells 472-786
(1956), in The American Journal of Archaeology, LXI (1957), 292.
Review: BRUNNER-TRAUT, EMMA, Die altagyptischen Scherbenbilder (Bildostraka)
der deutschen Museen und Sammlungen (1956), in The American Journal of Archae-
ology, LXI (1957), 291-92.
"Egyptian Art," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, XVII (1958-59),
45-47.
The Scepter of Egypt, A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Part II: The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom
(1675-1080 B.C.). Cambridge, Massachusetts (Published for the Metropolitan Mu-
seum of Art by Harvard University Press), 1959.
Review: Medinet Habu, Vol. V. The Temple Proper. Part I: The Portico, the
Treasury, and Chapels Adjoining the First Hypostyle Hall with Marginal Material
xvi
 oi.uchicago.edu

BIBLIOGRAPHY

from the Forecourts, by the EPIGRAPHIC SURVEY (1957), in Journal of Near East-
ern Studies, XVIII (1959), 75-77.
Preface: G. POSENER, S. SAUNERON, J. YOYOTTE, Dictionary of Egyptian Civili-
zation (English edition).
"A Selection of Tuthmoside Ostraca from Der el-Bahri," The Journal of Egyptian
Archaeology, XLVI (1960), 29-52.
The Cambridge Ancient History, Revised Edition of Volumes I and II. Cambridge
University Press. Vol. I, Chapter VI. Chronology: Egypt to End of Twentieth
Dynasty. Cambridge, 1962. Vol. I, Chapter XX. The Middle Kingdom in Egypt:
Internal History from the Rise of the Heracleopolitansto the Death of Ammenemes III.
Cambridge, 1961. Vol. II, Chapter II. Egypt: From the Death of Ammenemes III
to Seqenenre II. Cambridge, 1962. Vol. II, Chapter IX. Egypt: Internal Affairs
from Tuthmosis I to the Death of Amenophis III, Parts I-II. Cambridge, 1962.
Most Ancient Egypt. Being Chaps. I-IV of a projected four-volume "History
of Egypt," in course of preparation at the author's death. Journal of Near Eastern
Studies, XXIII (1964), 73-114, 145-92, 217-74.
Most Ancient Egypt. Edited with an Introduction by Keith C. Seele. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1965.

xvii
oi.uchicago.edu
 oi.uchicago.edu

CONTENTS

I. THE FORMATION OF THE LAND

The Egyptian Tableland : I, 30
The Nile Valley : 2, 31
The Red Sea and the Red Sea Hills : 4, 32
The Pliocene Gulf : 5, 32
The River and Wadi Terraces : 5, 33
"Recent" Developments in the Nile Valley : 8, 33
Lower Egypt and the Delta of the Nile : xo, 35
The Nubian Nile Valley and Its Cataracts : 14, 35
The Fayum Lake Basin : 16, 36
The Oases of the Libyan Desert : 3618,
Climate : zo, 37
Chronology : 24,38
Egypt at the Beginning of Human Prehistory : 27, 40

2. PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

The "Abbevillians" : 43, 76
Growth and Development of the Acheulian Tradition : 49, 78
The Middle Paleolithic Age : 54, 8o
The Cultures of Late Paleolithic Times : 59, 83
The Final Paleolithic, or Mesolithic, Stage : 70, 87

3. THE NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES

OF NORTHERN EGYPT
Near Eastern Origins : 91, 137
The Fayum Settlements : 93, 139
The Oases of Siwa and Kharga : 99, 140
The West Delta Settlement of Merimda Beni Salama : 103, 141
El Omari: Its Settlements and Cemeteries : I16, 143
Maadi, Wadi Digla, Heliopolis, and Qasr Qarun : 122, 144
Character of the Northern Egyptian Communities : 134, 146
xix
 oi.uchicago.edu

CONTENTS

4. THE PREDYNASTIC CULTURES OF UPPER

AND MIDDLE EGYPT
Preliminary Survey : 147*
The Tasians and Badarians
The Naqada Culture: Initial Phases
Transitional Stage of the Naqada Culture: Change and Development
Final Stage of the Naqada Culture: The Juncture with History
The Post-Paleolithic Prehistory of Nubia
* See p. 148, n. I.

XX
 oi.uchicago.edu

1
THE FORMATION OF THE LAND

THE story of human activity in is encountered today all along the Nubian
the land now known as Egypt stretches Nile between the Second Cataract and el-
back some five hundred thousand years to Sebaiya in southern Upper Egypt, in the
an early stage of the present, or so-called oases of the Libyan desert, along the
Quaternary, era in the history of the western slopes of the Red Sea hills, and,
earth's surface. As elsewhere on that sur- as an isolated extrusion, as far north as
face this scarcely conceivable span of time Abu Roash, near Cairo. At the top, above
covers only a minute fraction of the story the sandstone, lay strata of Upper
of the land itself, the more recent chapters Cretaceous limestones, shales, and clays,
of which take us back approximately sixty now much eroded over the limited areas
million years, through a long chain of where they remained exposed, but still to
geological and climatic developments, to be seen in the oases, on the west side of
the initial phases of the preceding Tertiary the Red Sea hills, and in the neighborhood
era. of Esna in Upper Egypt.
On the ancient sea bottom, so con-
1. THE EGYPTIAN TABLELAND
stituted, the waters of the Eocene bay
Early in the Eocene period, the second laid down the massive strata of sedi-
major division of the Tertiary, the mentary rocks-principally limestones-of
Mediterranean Sea extended in a deep bay which the Egyptian tableland is for the
over the northeast corner of the continent most part formed.
of Africa, its warm waters reaching south- Toward the end of the Lower, or early,
ward to at least the twenty-third parallel Eocene forces exerted on the earth's crust
of latitude and westward over the northern began to thrust this tableland upward and
portion of what is now Libya. The bed of clear of the sea, a prolonged process which
the bay and the land masses bordering it continued, with occasional interruptions,
on the east and south were composed alike throughout the bulk of the Eocene and the
of three principal types of rock super- succeeding Oligocene and Miocene periods
imposed one above the other. At the base and which was therefore contemporaneous
lay the metamorphic and igneous rocks and probably associated with the crustal
of Archeozoic and Proterozoic origin- movements responsible in Europe and
schists, gneisses, granites, diorites, and Asia for the creation of such relatively
quartzes-now visible over a wide expanse recent mountain chains as the Alps, the
south of the Second Cataract of the Nile Carpathians, and the Himalayas.
and in small, isolated areas further to the In the course of its elevation the table
north, as at the First Cataract and in the was tilted slightly downward from south
hills bordering the Red Sea. On these to north, its southern portion emerging
rested the great layer of sandstone, of first, its central and northern sections
Upper Mesozoic (Cretaceous) date, which remaining submerged beneath the waters
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND

of the slowly receding bay or becoming re- Cairo southwestward over the Libyan
submerged by occasional transgressions of desert.
the sea long enough to have superimposed By Upper Eocene time the sea had with-
upon them strata of limestone and other drawn to about the latitude of the Fayum
sediments characteristic of the Middle and and the Oligocene period witnessed its
Upper Eocene and subsequent phases of retreat still further to the north. When,
the Tertiary. following a phase of accentuated uplift in
The results of this are discernible to the the late Miocene period, the elevation of
traveler passing from Lower Egypt into the tableland was arrested, the head of the
Upper Egypt and Nubia. At Cairo the ancient bay of the Mediterranean lay near
Lower Eocene strata are buried deep be- the apex of the present Delta or perhaps
neath the marine and estuarine deposits still further to the north.
of later geological periods and do not
appear above the surface until one reaches
2. THE NnE VALLEY
a point halfway between Deirut and
Manfalut in Middle Egypt, whence south- All the while a factor of the utmost
ward they rise in the towering cliffs importance was at work----erosion of the
characteristic of the section between rising tableland by rain water beating
Asyut and Luxor. South of Luxor erosion down upon it and draining in torrents
of the limestone plateau has laid bare the from the neighboring highlands. The
more ancient rocks which once formed the Lower and Middle Tertiary were periods
old sea bed-the shales of Esna, the sand- of moderate to heavy rainfall, and the river
stone of Nubia, and the crystalline rocks or system of rivers which flowed down the
of the cataracts and the region south of sloping plateau to the sea was of gigantic
Wadi Halfa. volume and force. Unlike its relatively
On the return trip from Upper Egypt to puny descendant, the modern Nile, this
Cairo the sequence is reversed, and we can ancestral river system-the Urnil of the
follow the stages of the marine regression German geologists-was fed by numerous
through the Eocene period by the changing tributaries along almost the whole of its
nature of the surface strata along the length, a circumstance which evidently
edges of the Nile Valley. Between Deirut more than compensated for the fact that it
and Manfalut the Lower Eocene lime- seems not as yet to have established a
stones dip beneath those of the Middle connection with the drainage system of the
Eocene, and from Samalut the latter are East African Sudd and lake regions and
replaced by soft clays, the Nile cliffs thence only to a very limited extent, if at all, with
northward giving way to flat, open country that of the Abyssinian highlands.
relieved here and there by small mesas. On The once prevalent belief that in Egypt
the east of the river just south of Cairo the the main stream formerly followed a
limestones reappear in the high scarp of course which lay somewhat to the west of
the Moqattam hills, but in the plains on the present river is no longer generally
the west the Middle Eocene strata have held. Traces of what have been thought to
long since disappeared beneath various be the Upper Eocene estuary of the
Upper Eocene sediments, which after a "Urnil," however, are found to the west
short distance are themselves covered by and north of the Fayum, and the vast tri-
a blanket of Oligocene sands and gravels, angle of sand and gravel which may have
the latter stretching from the region of formed its Oligocene delta can be traced
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND

from Deirut in Middle Egypt northwest to the general elevation of the plateau, was
the oasis of Moghara and, far to the north- completed by the early part of the
east, over the northern end of the Red Sea Pliocene period.
hills and the Gulf of Suez. The "Petrified Whereas, in the main, the Nile Valley
Forests," extending over the Libyan and its tributary gorges are the products
desert from the northern Fayum to the of erosion, volcanic activity and crustal
region east of Cairo, are composed of movements of mid-Tertiary date were
ancient tree trunks and other silicified responsible for many of the striking
wood carried down by the huge stream physiographical features seen both in the
and deposited around its mouth. Mixed in Valley itself and in the surrounding
with the Upper Eocene estuarine deposits plateau surface. It was at this time that
and the Oligocene sands and gravels are the belt of dolerite stretching from the
shells of tropical fresh-water snails and north side of the Fayum toward Cairo,
turtles and bones of river fish, snakes, the "Black Hills" near el-Bahnasa, and
crocodiles, and large land animals in- the prominence of Karat el-Soda, to the
cluding an early form of elephant and the west of Manfalut, were thrust to the sur-
strange extinct beast, Arsinoitherium. face as intrusions of molten rock, pen-
The cutting of the present Egyptian etrating the rock formations of younger
Nile Valley commenced well back in date, up to and including those of Oligo-
Miocene times; but the bulk of its excava- cene origin. The sulphurous springs still
tion was accomplished during the so- found in various parts of Egypt, notably
called Pontic Pluvial period, the intensely at Helwan, were products of the same
rainy interval coming between Suess's igneous eruptions.
Second and Third "Mediterranean" periods More important and far-reaching in their
and spanning the Upper Miocene and effects than these small and isolated
Lower Pliocene ages. The course adopted volcanic spasms were the crustal move-
by the river was either dictated by ments which in the Miocene period affected
recently created undulations in the surface the surface of the plateau and gave rise in
of the plateau or was simply the bed in Egypt to two sets of folds, the first ex-
which the ancestral Nile happened to find tending from north to south, approxi-
itself at the time the now accentuated up- mately parallel to the Nile, the second-
lift of the tableland forced it to cease and perhaps the later-group running
meandering. Once entrenched in the lime- diagonally from northeast to southwest
stone there was no possibility of a major across the course of the river. The first set
alteration in the direction of the river, and of folds produced the Kharga oasis anti-
the great stream followed a generally dcline on the west of the Nile Valley and
northerly course down the continuously that of the Wadi Qena on the east, the
rising tableland to the Mediterranean. So second group being responsible for such
rapid was the rise of the plateau that there notable landmarks as Gebel Abu Roash
was no chance for any but vertical erosion. and the Moqattam hills, Gebel Ataqa, the
The result is a gorge six to nine miles wide Qallala hills, the Wadi Araba, and, far to
and 1300 to 1600 feet deep, down the the south, the hills of the Thebaid. At
center of which the modern Nile, raised Silsila, forty miles north of the First
high on its own alluvium, now flows. The Cataract, transverse faulting left exposed
cutting of this gorge, intensified in Upper across the course of the river a barrier of
Miocene times by a marked increase in hard Nubian sandstone and just south of
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND

this opened the wide tectonic basin en- of the present site of the Great Bitter Lake
closing the Kom Ombo plain. and Gebel Gunaifa. This barrier apparently
remained unbroken until modern times
when the two seas were once more united
3. THE RED SEA AND THE RED SEA
by means of the Suez Canal. It may, how-
HILLS
ever, have been submerged during the
Before following the development of the Pleistocene epoch at moments of maximum
Nile Valley through the end of the Tertiary high sea-level and overland communica-
and into the period of human occupation tion between Asia and Africa thereby
we must not overlook one of the most temporarily severed.
important events in the geohistory of Though of somewhat earlier origin than
Egypt-the coming into being of the Red the Red Sea itself, the rugged chain of
Sea and, with it, the admission of the mountains which rises along its western
waters of the Indian Ocean to the east shoreline and stretches northward into
coast of Egypt and the definitive separa- southern Sinai owes its existence largely to
tion of the continents of Africa and Asia. crustal movements of mid-Tertiary date.
Unlike the Nile Valley, the Red Sea is of This being so, we should expect and do, in
rift origin, the result of a long and compli- fact, find the same strata of Eocene lime-
cated tectonic process, which, starting stone occurring in the Nile Valley in
back in Palaeozoic times and again in Upper Egypt banked against the east side
the Middle Eocene, had accomplished the of the Red Sea hills, sloping down to the
bulk of its task by the end of the Pliocene water's edge beneath layers of younger
period. The process commenced with the deposits, gypsums and ancient coral reefs.
vaulting upward of the region between Along the crests of the hills the sedi-
northeastern Egypt and Sinai in a broad mentary covering has long since dis-
anticline, the crest of which lay in the line appeared, leaving the ancient metamorphic
of the present Gulf of Suez. Following ex- and plutonic formations exposed in a wild
tensive erosion of this ridge, the lateral and jagged skyline which rises northwest
pressure was relieved by an in-folding of its of Safaga (Gebel el-Shayeb) to almost
axial region, and the creation thereby of a 7,200 feet above sea level, and in southern
long, narrow depression, or geo-syncline, Sinai (Gebel Katharina) to more than
between Asia and Africa, into which the 8,600 feet. The slopes of the hills on either
Mediterranean Sea forthwith intruded. In side are scarred by innumerable ancient
the course of succeeding geological periods watercourses, those on the east draining
the rift, thus inaugurated, expanded directly into the Red Sea, those on the
slowly southward and following renewed west running down into the plains east of
orogenetic movements in the Upper Plio- the Nile and expanding there into a
cene, spread at length to form the southern succession of broad valleys along the east-
Red Sea and to open a connection with the ern rim of the main river gorge. One of the
Indian Ocean through the Bab el-Mandeb. largest and most important of these
By Upper Pliocene times, however, the valleys is the Wadi Qena, a "sunken
Gulf of Suez and hence the whole of plain" twelve and a half miles wide and
the Red Sea had become cut off from the one hundred and twenty-five miles long
Mediterranean by an upthrust barrier from north to south, which joins the Upper
about ten miles wide and originally over Egyptian Nile Valley at the apex of the
six hundred feet in height, occupying part bend between Luxor and Nag Hammadi.
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND

4. THE PLIOCENE GULF down from the precipitous side walls of the
gorge. Over and around these the still
In the Middle Pliocene, or Third waters of the gulf proper deposited layers
Mediterranean Period, the Nile Valley, its of soft, clayey sediments, which in the
primary excavation now complete, was northern reaches of the valley are found to
passing into the second principal stage of be rich in marine fossils. Far exceeding in
its development. Owing either to a general volume these fine, deep-water deposits,
subsidence of the land masses bordering however, was the sandy and gravelly
the Mediterranean or to a rise in its waters detritus brought from the south by the
the sea at this time backed up into the Nile main river and swept down off the valley
gorge, filling it to a depth of more than six sides by its torrential tributaries. Although
hundred feet and thus forming a long, it is possible to distinguish definite stages
narrow gulf extending from the headlands in the filling process, separated from one
of Gebel Abu Roash and Gebel el-Ahmar another by intervals of erosion, in most
southward beyond Kom Ombo and per- places the various constituents of the fill
haps as far as Aswan. On the east the are intermingled side by side in no readily
waters of the gulf spread up into the lateral apparent chronological order. In general,
valleys mentioned in the preceding para- the softer deposits occupy the center of the
graph and on the west may possibly have valley, with the coarser material banked
broken through the boundary of the valley against its sides and fanned out in screes
proper and flooded the low-lying ground around the mouths of its tributaries.
draining into the Great Oases of the The lateral portions of the Pliocene gulf
Libyan Desert. The Nile, still a river of deposits, augmented by patches of Pleisto-
formidable volume, flowed into the south- cene gravels, sands, and silts, form Egypt's
ern end of the long bay a few miles north "low desert," that strip of now barren
of its head, and all along its sides in- terrain which in the middle and southern
numerable tributary streams poured into parts of the country separates each edge
it the copious drainage from the well of the Nile's alluvial plain from the rocky
watered plateau. The nature of the sedi- walls or eroded slopes of the high desert
ments laid down by the water of the gulf plateau and which since the Paleolithic
shows that only to about a hundred miles age has provided men with a much
above modern Cairo was it marine and frequented area of habitation.
south of this brackish or fresh, the fresh-
water and estuarine zones progressing ever 5. THE RIVER AND WADI TERRACES
northward with the slow return to fluvia- During the very long interval of transi-
tile conditions at the end of the Pliocene tion from the Pliocene to the Pleistocene
period. period-the so-called Plio-Pleistocene-
In the course of its prolonged Pliocene the sea once more withdrew from Egypt,
submergence the Pontic valley and its the waters of the gulf receded, and the
tributaries were gradually choked with broad and swiftly flowing river streamed
clay, sand, and gravel deposits, which by down to the Mediterranean over the mixed
the beginning of the Pleistocene period deposits which choked its ancient valley.
had filled them to a height of at least 590 On these deposits the Nile and its tribu-
feet above present sea level. The bed of the taries spread sheets of coarse gravels,
valley had already become encumbered by brought from afar: pebbles of Nubian
huge masses of Eocene limestone slipped sandstone, igneous and metamorphic rocks,
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND

and mixed gravels from the Red Sea hills. descending like flights of steps from both
Still missing from its sediments, however, sides of the old valley down to the river's
are those minerals (notably augite) which edge, each pair of terraces being the
would indicate a substantial connection lateral portions of a former Nile bed, left
with the Blue Nile or the Atbara. Though high and dry by a new deepening and
the upper reaches of the main stream may narrowing of the channel. Though ex-
already have been receiving water from tensively eroded by subsequent meander-
the Sobat and the Bahr el-Ghazal it is clear ings of the Nile itself and by the lateral
that the hydrography of the Pliocene and tributaries within the main valley, re-
early Pleistocene Nile must have presented mains of these terraces are still to be seen
a picture quite different from that of.the in Upper and Middle Egypt and in places
present day and that the annual summer on both sides of the Delta. South of
inundation, now so important a factor, as Aswan some of the higher terraces, cut in
yet played no essential role in the life of the native sandstone of the Nubian valley,
the river and its valley. are well preserved. Nowhere, however,
In common with many other of the have more than two or three terraces of a
world's rivers the Nile during the Pleisto- series survived in a single locality and then
cene period eroded its new bed and usually on only one side of the river.
deepened its channel, not in one long, Frequently-especially in Nubia and
continuous operation, but in sharply southern Upper Egypt-all that remain
defined stages separated from one another are eroded rock platforms from which the
by periods of stability, during which new sand and gravel covering has been scoured
and distinctive types of gravel were away. Further north the terrace structures
spread out over the river bed. In northern themselves have often been demolished,
Egypt these stages appear to have been to leaving formless accumulations of sands
a large extent eustatically controlled, that and gravels redeposited at lower levels and
is, governed by and hence directly related in some instances at considerable distances
to, alternate lowerings and raisings of the downstream.
sea level of the Mediterranean. In the As is customary elsewhere, the Nile
southern reaches of the valley, too remote terraces are designated according to their
from the sea to be affected by fluctuations individual heights above the present flood
in its levels, changes in climate with plain of the river in the localities where
accompanying decreases or increases in the they occur. The "100-foot terrace," for
local precipitation and run-off seem to example, comprises those sections of
have been the factors chiefly responsible gravel or rock platforms which are found
for the alternating phases of aggradation to be between 80 and 100 feet (25 to 30
and erosion entered into by the Upper meters) above modern Nile level, regard-
Egyptian Nile and its tributaries. In both less of whether they belong to the pluvial(?)
areas the natural tendency of the river to terrace series of Upper Egypt or to the
meander was to some extent checked by eustatically controlled (and, presumably,
the coarseness of the material along the old not directly related) series of Middle and
valley sides, and in general each new chan- Lower Egypt. Besides the successions of
nel was excavated in the soft and low-lying terraces formed in the main valley there
deposits along the center line of the fill. are similar and corresponding sets in the
The result was a series of gravel-coated lateral valleys, or wadis. These are of im-
river terraces, cut in the gulf deposits and portance because they survive in sections
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND

of the country-notably in southern by its probable association with a datable

Upper Egypt-where the main river Mediterranean sea level (the Tyrrhenian).
terraces have been largely destroyed. The series is continued by terraces at 50
In the region of Saqqara and the Fayum and 30 feet in Upper Egypt and 33-50 feet
depression Plio-Pleistocene river gravels in northern Egypt, in the gravels of which
have been noted to a height of 470 feet occur implements of progressively more
above the Nile and near the apex of the advanced types. The 10-foot terrace, a low
Delta are preserved to a maximum gravel platform visible chiefly in the
present altitude of 765 feet; but the highest lateral wadis of Upper and Middle Egypt,
gravels describable as general features of belongs apparently to a period of aggrada-
the landscape are those at 320 and 255 feet tion which followed by a considerable
(98 and 78 meters), segments of which are interval the cutting of the face of the 30-
preserved along the west side of the Nile foot terrace.
from the southwest edge of the Delta to Soil profiles taken in the Nile terraces
the town of Mallawi in Middle Egypt. In disclose the formation, immediately fol-
Upper Egypt and Nubia the highest lowing the deposition of the gravel
surviving platform is the 300-foot terrace. cappings, of calcareous brown soils evi-
This was succeeded, during the period dently developed during phases of fairly
bridging the Upper Pliocene and Lower heavy local precipitation and cool tem-
Pleistocene by two terraces 200 and 150 peratures. These phases were followed by
feet, respectively, above present river level. unproductive intervals of aridity and then
The 100-foot terrace of Upper Egypt by periods of warm, moist climate during
carries us well down into the Pleistocene which sandy red earth made its appearance
period and-what is of considerably and subtropical steppe conditions may
greater interest-into the period of the have prevailed. The presence of augite in
earliest known human occupation of the sediments of the 100-foot terrace of
Egypt, for incorporated in the gravels of Lower Egypt suggests that the main river
this terrace are found the earliest stone was now being fed by the Blue Nile and
implements which can with assurance be the Atbara, though not to the extent
identified as the handiwork of Man. A current in later Paleolithic times or at
terrace of similar height in Middle and the present day.
Lower Egypt appears to be composed, in With the 100-foot terrace of Upper
part at least, of redeposited sands and Egypt we abandon the broad dating by
gravels of the 100-foot Upper Egyptian geological periods and date this terrace
stage. As exemplified in the estuarine and all subsequent milestones in the geo-
gravel deposits of Abbassiya, near Cairo, history of Egypt in terms of human
and in those of the Rus Channel, near activities and human development. In
the Fayum, it has been found to contain these terms, the 100-foot and 50-foot
"rolled," or travel-worn, specimens of the terraces belong to the Lower Paleolithic,
same early types of implements seen in or Early Old Stone Age of Man's devel-
the south as well as unworn implements of opment (Abbevillian and Acheulian), the
more developed forms. That this terrace, 30-foot terrace to the transition stage
in any case, is appreciably later in date between Lower and Middle Paleolithic
than its Upper Egyptian counterpart is (Acheulio-Levalloisian), the 10-foot terrace
suggested not only by the types or condi- of Upper Egypt and the earliest silts and
tion of the implements found in it, but also fine gravels to the Middle Paleolithic
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND

(Levalloisian), the immediately subsequent Egypt, in the ancient Fayum lake beaches
phases of the river to the Upper, or Late, at elevations of 112 and 92 feet above sea-
Paleolithic (Epi-Levalloisian), and so on. level, and in the silts of the Wadi Tumilat,
on the east of the Delta. Off to the west
6. "RECENT" DEVELOPMENTS IN THE the wadi gravels of the Kharga oasis scarp
NILE VALLEY have been found to contain analogous
The penultimate stage in Nile history industries identified, respectively, as Upper
may be said to have begun in late Middle Levalloisian and "Levalloiso-Khargan."
Paleolithic times with a sharp decrease Fossilized bones found in Sebilian deposits
in the local rainfall and run-off and- near Kom Ombo and in association with
coincidentally-with the establishment, such deposits at Qau and Asyut in Middle
chiefly through the Blue Nile and the Egypt reflect the existence at this period
Atbara, of a full-scale connection with the of a rich and varied fauna, including
drainage system of the Abyssinian high- species of hyena, donkey, horse, hippo-
lands. As a result the annual summer potamus, pig, ox, lion, gazelle, bubalis,
flood became for the first time a dominant ostrich, crocodile, tortoise, two kinds of
factor in the life of the river and the fish, and numerous shellfish. Human
deposition of coarse local sands and remains, believed by their finders to be of
gravels was replaced in Nubia and Upper Paleolithic date, resemble those of the
Egypt by the building up on the valley predynastic Upper Egyptians of a much
bottom of massive layers of finer, alien later period.
sediments-the so-called Sebilian, or basal, In Late Paleolithic times the Nile en-
silts. These silts, brought from the East tered upon a new period of bed erosion, re-
African uplands by the floodwaters of the sinking its channel to a great depth in the
now relatively sluggish stream, reach a silt deposited during the preceding stage
height of 100 feet above the present river and leaving on its margins, in the form
level in the region of the Second Cataract, of fresh spreads of fine gravel, the concen-
tapering down to 20 feet in the latitude of trated coarser elements from the eroded
Luxor in Upper Egypt and dipping be- silt. The fall of river level is marked by
neath the modern alluvium near Nag a descending series of shingle beaches,
Hammadi. Thus, in the south the lower still visible in isolated localities in Nubia
gravel terraces and platforms were over- and Upper Egypt; but even better seen
lapped and partially covered up, and in the descending shorelines of the sub-
with the rise of the river's bed, its waters sidiary lakes and marshes referred to
spread out to form lakes and marshy above, which with the lowering of the river
tracts along its course, as in the broad bay were gradually drained of their water. In
enclosing the Kom Ombo plain. In the the materials forming the ancient surfaces
basal silts of Nubia and Upper Egypt of these lake and river beaches are found
occur implements of Upper Levallois and Late Paleolithic implements of the ad-
early Epi-Levallois types. Further north vanced and diminutive types which
what would appear to be contemporaneous characterize the final stages of the Leval-
industries, also of Levalloisian character, lois tradition in Egypt (Epi-Levallois II
are represented in the 25-foot fine gravels, and III).
or silts-the so-called 8-meter terrace-of Approximately ten thousand years ago,
Lower and northern Middle Egypt, in the in the period of transition between the Old
sub-alluvial "Sebilian" gravels of Middle Stone Age and the Neolithic, or New
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND

Stone Age, the Nile, responding to an early Nile's alluvial plain has been less thor-
postglacial rise in sea-level, began anew to oughly studied than its vertical growth;
aggrade its bed and choke its mouth with but it is evident that since early historic
sediments of Abyssinian origin-first with times, and especially from the Hellenistic
mica-bearing sands, silts, and fine gravel, period onward, considerable lateral ex-
and then, beginning probably in early pansion has taken place at the expense
Neolithic times, with the silts, clays, and of the adjoining low desert, particularly
fine sands which form the present arable in areas where the latter, dissected by
land of Egypt. This fertile, uppermost former wadi activity, slopes gently down-
alluvium, brought from far to the south ward toward the valley floor. With the
by a river which over the last sixteen onset of each annual flood the coarser and
hundred miles of its course is without a heavier sediments (chiefly sands) brought
tributary, has been aptly termed by a down by the river are piled up along its
French geologist "la terre vegetale." banks, forming levees which rise above all
Every year the summer inundation de- but the highest water levels and have thus
posits a new layer of this life-giving soil formed favorable sites for human habita-
in the Egyptian Nile Valley and over the tion. The rest of the flood plain, built up
fiat alluvial plain of the Delta; and little more slowly of the finer and more widely
by little the accumulation has not only distributed elements in the river's load,
choked and buried the earlier channels of falls away gently toward the sides of the
the river, but has crept up around the valley, forming basin lands, in the low-
monuments of ancient man, sparing neither lying outer portions of which the ground-
prehistoric camp sites nor the more recent water remains visible throughout the
structures of historic times. Borings taken greater part of the year in the form of
in three zones between Aswan and Cairo small lakes and marshes. Networks of
have recorded silt at depths of 22, 28, and lateral waterways spilling over at high
32 feet, and from such borings and other water from the elevated river bed into
observations it has been estimated that these basins have cut the levees up into
the rate of silt deposition, before the con- series of hills, or islands, the tops of which
struction of the modern dams and barrages, have been raised still further by the
was 0.0405 inches a year or three and a accumulated deposits of civilization.
half to four inches a century. Unfortu- The annual inundation of the Nile, as
nately for all such estimates, the rate of we have seen, probably became a salient
deposition, controlled by fluctuations in feature in the life of Egypt at the time of
the sea-level of the Mediterranean and in the serious decline in the local rainfall
the volume of the Blue Nile, appears to which occurred during the latter part of
have been far from uniform, varying con- the Middle Paleolithic period. Nowadays
siderably not only from one locality to the yearly flood waters come chiefly from
another, but from one period to another. the late spring and summer rains around
It is, indeed, probable that 60 per cent of the headwaters of the Blue Nile and the
the total upper alluvium was laid down be- Atbara, the former of which joins the
fore the beginning of the Old Kingdom (ca. White Nile at Khartoum, the latter two
2700 B.C.), 20-25 per cent during the last hundred miles to the north. Some con-
2500 years, and, by contrast, almost none ception of the magnitude and force of the
at all between the years 1960 and 900 B.C. flood can be derived from the fact that
The horizontal development of the between the months of June and Sep-
 oi.uchicago.edu

10 FORMATION OF THE LAND

tember the volume of the Blue Nile may During the long and for the most part
increase from a normal 7,000 cubic feet to arid periods discussed in the foregoing
over 350,000 cubic feet per second. At paragraphs it is only natural that a
Khartoum the initial rise of the river is second agency, wind, should have played
usually discernible about the middle of a part in shaping the Egyptian landscape,
May; at the First Cataract, on the south- not only by formidable feats of surface
ern boundary of Egypt proper, early in erosion, but also by the deposition of dry,
June; and at Cairo, at the end of June or sandy material either on or between layers
during the first weeks of July. The time of of Nilotic sediments or in the form of
the river's rise can, however, vary con- marginal dunes along the western fringes
siderably from year to year, the intervals of the valley. Wind-blown sand occurs, for
between floods differing by as much as example, in the basal (Sebilian) silts of
eighty days during a single generation. Upper Egypt and both above and below
Before the end of September the inunda- the later alluvial deposits of sections of
tion has normally reached its height and Middle Egypt. Fields of sand encroach
the swollen river has submerged the whole upon the western margins of the alluvial
of its alluvial plain and spilled over into plain between Gebel Deshasha and Deir el-
low-lying hollows along the desert's edge, Miharraq and constitute locally "a con-
transforming them into marshes or shal- siderable hindrance to cultivation." A
low lagoons. Today part of the flood is study of the marginal dunes suggests that
held in reserve by a series of modern dams they can be divided into two principal
and barrages; but until 1890, when the groups-the Older Dunes, built up be-
first of these was completed, the flood tween 2350 and 500 B.C., and the Younger
waters drained unimpeded into the open Dunes which came into being between
sea, often leaving in their wake con- A.D. 300 and the present day. Unlike the
siderable damage to revetments, dikes, mobile dunes of the desert plateau and
roadways, bridges, modern villages, and those which move across the Pleistocene
ancient ruins. By the end of November gravels west of Beni Mazar, most of
the bulk of the water has receded from the the marginal dunes are more or less an-
land leaving the moist fields, covered with chored in their places by the local vegeta-
a thin layer of fresh silt, exposed and tion.
ready for the annual planting. In Middle
Egypt the average difference between low 7. LowEn EGYPT AND THE DELTA OF
water (May-June) and the height of the THE NILE
inundation (September) is twenty-two
feet; but here again there is a yearly When, in mid-Tertiary times, the Nile
variation depending more or less directly adopted its present course it flowed into
on the volume of the equatorial rains. An the gradually diminishing Mediterranean
inundation four or five feet below the by way of a broad bay or estuary, the
average is a "bad Nile" and in antiquity a head of which lay, as we have seen, in
succession of these usually resulted in the neighborhood of modern Cairo and is
crop failures and famine. On the other marked today by the prominences of
hand, an exceptionally high Nile (30 feet Gebel Abu Roash and Gebel el-Ahmar,
or over) was almost equally disastrous the ancient "gates of the Delta." The geo-
because of the widespread destruction history of Lower Egypt, insofar as it has a
which it wrought. bearing on Man's activities in this most
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND 11

important region, is the story of the build- rhinoceros, a giraffe, a camel, an early form
ing up in this bay of a series of super- of horse, a boar, a hyena, a type of large
imposed deltas, which as time progressed cat, and three cynopithecoid apes.
contracted laterally, but thrust steadily Borings, sunk through the "terre veg6-
northward until by Late Paleolithic times tale" to depths of 267 feet at Cairo, 345
the present coastline, some 110 miles north feet at Zagazig, and 535 feet at Abuqir,
of Cairo, had been reached. have failed to reach solid rock or a
Though much of the prehistory and stratum of the Pliocene age or earlier; but
early history of Lower Egypt lies buried have penetrated three distinct layers of
beneath the silt of the present Delta, loose material-silts, sands, and gravels-
beyond the confines of the latter and in its deposited successively between the Plio-
southern and eastern portions are still Pleistocene interval and the Late Paleo-
preserved large expanses of those far lithic phase of human development.
older deltas formed by the Nile before and Pliocene gulf deposits and Plio-Pleisto-
during the occupancy of earliest Man. cene river gravels are well represented
Ancient deltaic deposits have been identi- from the region of Cairo northwestward
fied as far south as Minya, 130 miles above and northeastward along both sides of
the apex of the modern Delta; and we the modern Delta, the gravels rising to
have already traced the gravel spreads of great heights above the present flood
what well may be the Oligocene delta of plain and descending toward it, as in
the ancestral river system northwest Upper and Middle Egypt, in a series of
across the Libyan Desert as far as Moghara terraces. Especially noteworthy are the
and northeast across the Arabian Desert implementiferous gravels of the 100-foot
beyond Suez. terrace exposed near Cairo in the sand-pits
Miocene deposits, unknown in the Nile of Abbassiya and the successions of
Valley, not only stretch westward from terraces identified near el-Khatatba on the
the oasis of the Wadi el-Natrun, but are west side of the Delta and, on its east side,
also found in abundance in the much just north of the Wadi el-Tumilat. The
faulted region between Suez and the east last-named feature, which appears itself to
side of the Delta. Some of the drainage have been formed during the 100-foot
lines in the area between Cairo and the terrace stage of Lower Egypt, is a former
Gulf of Suez probably date back to Upper Nile arm linking the eastern Delta with
Miocene times. the Isthmus of Suez. It was destined to
Estuarine beds of the Pliocene period become, in later times, one of the principal
preserved in the Wadi el-Natrun are of routes into northern Egypt from the east
special interest because of the rich and and as such, to play an important role in
varied fauna contained in them-a fauna Egyptian history.
comprising both aquatic and land animals As the sea is approached the river
whose bones had been collected and swept gravels give way to submarine deposits of
down by the river, in some cases probably deltaic types, the well defined lines of
from hundreds of miles upstream. Besides change marking the ancient delta coast
fish, turtles, and crocodiles the aquatic lines and enabling us to fix the positions
fauna include a dwarf hippopotamus, of the old delta mouths of the river. We
three species of otter, and a sea cow. can, for example, follow the coast of the
Among the bones of land animals were Plio-Pleistocene delta eastward from the
those of a mastodon, an elephant, a Wadi el-Natrun to a point north of el-
 oi.uchicago.edu

12 FORMATION OF THE LAND

Khatatba at the western edge of the mod- These deposits occur also in the Wadi el-
ern delta and pick it up again on the east Tumilat and in a few places along the
side along the slopes which run from south eastern edge of the Delta. Rising to a
of the Wadi el-Tumilat to the dunes and maximum height of thirty feet above the
marshes of the present coast. The high- present level of the alluvium, they contain
level terraces, bearing off to the east and implements of more recent types than
west along the North African shoreline, those found in the lower terraces of Upper
pass ultimately into ancient Mediterranean Egypt, but similar to those in the Middle
Sea beaches. Remains of eight to ten such Egyptian gravels which rise above fifteen
beaches or marine bars, ranging in height feet and to those occurring in deposits in
from more than 360 feet above sea-level the Fayum basin and in the channel which
down to sea-level, are to be seen to the connects the latter with the Nile.
west of Alexandria to a distance of In the later Paleolithic stage of human
twenty-four miles inland from the present development the Nile, as we have seen,
shoreline of Arabs Gulf and in places else- sank its channel not only deeply into the
where along the coast between Abuqir silts piled up during the preceding stage,
and the Gulf of Sollum. but far below the level of the modern flood
Large remnants of the Pleistocene delta plain. Naturally, no Nilotic deposits of
are still visible in the form of sandy this period are visible on the surface of the
islands, or "turtlebacks," which are distri- Delta, where borings have shown that the
buted over an area of some two thousand younger of the two buried channels lies
square miles in the eastern and southern at least one hundred feet, and probably
portions of the great triangular plain. more, below the surface of the modern
These islands, capped with sands of alluvium. Later Paleolithic and pre-
Middle Paleolithic date, represent the Neolithic implements, however, have been
more compact and resistant portions of the found in surface washes at the east end of
Plio-Pleistocene and Pleistocene deposits, the Wadi el-Tumilat, in the sand dunes
between which the river arms during the near el-Ismailiya, in the sites at Helwan,
late Pleistocene period lowered their beds south of Cairo, and in surface sites on the
with such rapidity that there was little west side of the Delta. Though these
energy left over for lateral erosion. The indicate people living on the slopes border-
silt covering overlapping the gently sloping ing the Delta-a state of affairs which
edges of the visible turtlebacks and con- continued during the Neolithic period-
cealing others completely from view is there can be little doubt that large areas of
thin, and it is clear that even in fairly the Delta itself were at this time habitable
recent historic times these eminently and probably inhabited.
habitable expanses of elevated, dry land Between Cairo and the sea the deposi-
were both more numerous and much tion of the upper alluvium followed a
larger in area than at the present day. somewhat different pattern than in the
In addition to the capping of the turtle- valley to the south. Not only was the area
backs fine gravel and silt deposits of the to be covered far broader, but the ability
Middle Paleolithic aggradation phase of of the river to transport and distribute its
the Pleistocene are found along the load of silts and heavier sediments was
western edge of the Delta, covered with much reduced by its division into many
wind-blown surface sand and overlapping arms and by a marked diminution in its
older delta sands and terrace gravels. gradient and, therefore, in its rate of flow.
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND 13

As a result the river embankments, or sinking appears to have taken place since
levees, tend to be lower and narrower, the Roman times.
basins deeper, and permanent swamps The most striking feature of the
and lakes somewhat more numerous, Mediterranean coastline of Egypt is the
especially in the northernmost portions of series of shallow lakes or lagoons, which
the plain. Nevertheless, with silt deposi- extend from west to east across the sea-
tion even in this area attested to a depth ward side of the Delta from Alexandria to
of more than thirty-six feet and the sea- Port Said and which in their present forms
level about 5000 B.C. more than thirty feet are of relatively recent origin. On the north
below its present position it is clear that in these coastal lakes are bounded by bars of
Neolithic and later prehistoric times much diluvial marine limestone and in places by
of the Delta plain was seasonally dry as reefs, similar to pelagic coral reefs, and on
far north as the brackish coastal lagoons, the south by low-lying marshy tracts,
that is, as far north as the present 10-foot which separate the lagoons from the
(3-meter) isohyp. It has been chiefly during cultivated lands of the Delta. Of the four
the historic period that a gradually rising principal lakes-Maryut, Edku, Burullus,
sea-level has compelled men to concen- and Menzala-only Lake Maryut, at the
trate their settlements on the sandy turtle- extreme northwest corner of the Delta, by
backs of the southern and eastern Delta, Alexandria, is completely landlocked, the
on the silt islands which once formed bars enclosing the other lakes having
parts of the elevated river banks, and on broken through at one or more places.
the fringe areas which now comprise the Between the lagoons, at points where the
low desert. river debouches, or did debouch, into
The present-day Delta is a flat alluvial the sea through its several delta mouths,
plain, roughly triangular in shape, bounded Nilotic silt has overrun the marine
on the northwest by Abuqir, on the north- barriers and formed northward-projecting
east by Lake Menzala, and on the south by spurs, as at Abuqir, Rosetta, and Dam-
Cairo. With an area of over nine thousand ietta. The small tongue of land which
square miles, it represents two-thirds of extends to the east from the Damietta
the total arable land of Egypt. The altitude mouth across the northern side of Lake
of the modern cultivated land at the apex Menzala is composed exclusively of Nile
of the Delta is less than sixty-five feet alluvium, precipitated into the sea and
above sea-level, and the soil in the basin carried to the east by the North African
lands tends to be waterlogged at a shallow coastal current. Still further to the east,
depth below the surface. Owing to some where the coast of Sinai bends northward
subsidence and compaction, but chiefly, it in a striking curve before turning up to-
would seem, to a rise in sea-level of six ward Palestine, another narrow tongue of
and one-half to thirteen feet since classical land encloses the long, narrow coastal lake
times much of the fertile triangle as well of Sirbonis, now called the Sabkhet el-
as the coastal areas to the east and west Bardawil. The Egyptian shoreline to the
are lower now in relation to the sea than west of the Delta and the western part of
they were in the Greco-Roman period. As the Delta coast itself are composed to a
a result Hellenistic structures all along great extent of ridges of soft oSlitic lime-
the coast from Cyrenaica to Lebanon have stone which, in the words of Blanckenhorn,
become partially submerged and in the "run parallel with the coast and to the
region of Alexandria a very marked south climb stepwise to the high ground,
 oi.uchicago.edu

14 FORMATION OF THE LAND

but are separated from one another by periods was accompanied in Nubia by
longitudinal valleys ... " These ridges and general erosion of the southern portion of
the valleys between represent former off- the sedimentary tableland; and it was not
shore marine bars and lagoons formed in until after the sandstone underlying the
the course of the Pleistocene period by at Upper Cretaceous and Eocene strata had
least eight marine transgressions above been laid bare that the Nubian river
modern sea-level. Important Egyptian system converged into a single stream and
harbors, like those of Mirsa Matruh and adopted its present course. The excavation
Alexandria, owe their existence to the of the Nubian Nile Valley was, then, an
breaking down, in comparatively recent event of late Pliocene or post-Pliocene
times; of the outer of these coastal bars. times.
The courses of the Nile through its own Since the Pliocene gulf did not eKtend
delta have been many and various. At the south of Aswan there are no deposits of
present day the river divides into its two this age in the Nubian valley; and the Plio-
principal branches at Batn el-Baqar, ten Pleistocene and Pleistocene river terraces
miles northwest of Cairo. The Rosetta here are rock platforms carved in the sand-
arm winds off toward the northwest and stone which forms the walls of the valley
pours its load of silt into the sea thirty-five and covered with spreads of gravel derived
miles east of Abuqir, between Lake Edku from the sandstone plateau itself and
and Lake Burullus. The Damietta branch brought in for the most part by the lateral
bears away in a northerly and then north- tributaries of the river. The 300- and 200-
easterly direction and flows into the foot terraces are preserved only in places,
Mediterranean close beside the western as at Abu Simbel and near Korosko,
edge of Lake Menzala. Classical writers list where high cliffs rise on either side of the
seven principal Nile mouths, all named river; but the 150-, 100-, and 50-foot
after important Delta towns and called, in terraces are well represented all the way
order from east to west, the Pelusiac, between Wadi Halfa and Aswan, the last
Tanitic, Mendesian, Phatnitic, Sebennytic, two, as in Egypt, containing in their
Bolbitinic, and Canopic mouths. The gravels implements of Lower Paleolithic
Phatnitic and Bolbitinic arms appear to types. No traces of terraces below the 50-
have corresponded respectively with the foot level have been observed, though
still existent Damietta and Rosetta Middle Paleolithic implements of types
branches. Of the other five-all now fallen associated in Egypt with the 30-foot
into disuse-the Pelusiac mouth at the ex- terrace and the 10-foot gravels have been
treme eastern edge of the Delta and the found in surface sites and in the basal
Canopic mouth at its extreme western parts of the later river silt. The advent of
edges were the most important. Middle Paleolithic times appears to have
been accompanied south of Aswan by a
8. THE NUBIAN NILE VALLEY AND ITS
reduction in rainfall-hence, in the volume
CATARACTS of the river and its tributaries-more
The narrow gorge through which the marked than in the north at this period;
Nile flows between the Sudan frontier and and it is probable that in Nubia the
el-Sebaiya in southern Upper Egypt is of 30-foot terrace and the 10-foot gravel
more recent origin than the Egyptian Nile platform were never formed.
Valley. The cutting of the latter during The Middle-Late Paleolithic phase of silt
the Upper Miocene and Lower Pliocene deposition was followed, as in Egypt, by
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND 15

renewed erosion and cutting down of the Atiri, true cataract conditions can no
river bed-the difference being that in longer be said to exist. At Semna itself the
Nubia this process of degradation has con- rock barrier has been cut down some
tinued without interruption from the twenty-six feet during the last four
Late Paleolithic period until the construc- thousand years as indicated by Nile marks
tion of the modern dam at Shellal. Thus, of the late Twelfth Dynasty at that height
while north of Aswan the Nile has since above the present river level. North of the
pre-Neolithic times been building up its Semna rapids the course of the river is
bed, in Nubia it has been slowly cutting it obstructed here and there by small
down, a process particularly noticeable in islands; but it is not until the island of
the so-called cataracts and narrows of the Shargandi, twelve miles upstream from
river. Wadi Halfa, is reached that the cataract
These "cataracts" and narrows occur proper begins. Thence northward for six
along the Nubian Nile at places where miles the Nile swirls and tumbles through
the river while excavating its post- a maze of rocky islets and giant boulders
Pliocene valley, encountered at relatively until near the towering prominence of
shallow depths below the surface of the Abusir it enters its silt-encumbered valley
sandstone outcrops of igneous and meta- in the Nubian sandstone and resumes its
morphic rocks, through which it has sub- normally steady and placid rate of flow.
sequently forced its way only with Were it not for the fact that the con-
considerable difficulty and unaccustomed struction and subsequent heightening of
turbulence. In the region of the Second the Aswan dam have caused most of Nubia
Cataract, south of Wadi Haifa, the from Shellal southward to be flooded, the
ancient rock formations were exposed by First Cataract and its approaches would
general erosion of the thin southern rim exhibit a generally similar pattern of
of the sandstone plateau and are found development. At Kalabsha, forty miles up-
not only along the river but over a river from Aswan, the Nile has opened a
considerable portion of the northern deep though narrow gorge through the
Sudan. A hundred and sixty miles to the southern spur of the igneous and meta-
north they reappear in the form of morphic complex and eroded the granite
isolated spurs extending across the course sill to a point where it no longer constitutes
of the river first at Kalabsha and then for a serious impediment to the river's flow.
a distance of twenty-one miles south of Between Dehmit and Shellal the channel,
Aswan. though hemmed in by hard rock walls, is
The Second Cataract may be said to still relatively free of obstructions. This is
include a succession of rapids extending far from being the case over the six-mile
along the river for a distance of more than stretch occupied by the cataract itself
thirty miles from above the Middle King- between the large island of el-Heisa, south-
dom forts at Semna to a point some five or west of Shellal, and the historically
six miles south of the modern town of Wadi important island of Elephantine, im-
Halfa. The name Batn el-Hagar, "Belly of mediately opposite the town of Aswan.
Stones," is now applied to the whole of the Here the Nile in its early struggles to
ninety-mile stretch of river south of Wadi penetrate the rocky barrier split into
Halfa; but above Semna the Nile has three main channels. Through the western-
lowered its bed and cleared its channel in most of these it still flows below the
the hard rock to an extent where, except at modern dam, whirling and twisting in
 oi.uchicago.edu

16 FORMATION OF THE LAND

countless smaller channels around and be- sandstone. Flooded during the earlier
tween seven good-sized islands and in- phases of its existence not only by the main
numerable glistening black boulders. The river, but by an important group of
dry eastern channel, through which a tributary streams flowing into it from the
railway line now runs, was blocked with east, the Kom Ombo basin in Late Paleo-
sandstones, shales, and compacted silts lithic times still contained an extensive,
(Pliocene?) and finally with gravels and though dwindling lake or swamp, on the
sands of the 100-foot terrace stage and shores of which are the remains of human
was apparently abandoned in Lower habitations.
Paleolithic times, the central channel The river meanwhile, during its Lower-
falling into disuse at a later date, following Middle Paleolithic stages of bed erosion,
the silt-aggradation phase of the middle- had cut two deep channels through the
late Paleolithic period. Coarse-grained red sandstone barrier forming the northern
granite, also called "syenite" from the rim of the basin, one on either side of the
ancient Greek name of Aswan (Syene), is hard massif known today as Gebel el-
the dominant surface rock in the region of Silsila. Owing probably to a westerly shift
the First Cataract, but grano-diorites and in the course of the river the eastern
diorites are also well represented, and the channel silted up and was subsequently
more ancient crystalline schists and gneis- abandoned; and from the end of the Paleo-
ses are found "near the periphery of the lithic period on the Nile has flowed only
outcrop." through the narrow western gorge, be-
Geohistorically the First and Second tween precipitous walls of sandstone
Cataracts and the river narrows associated which over a distance of almost a mile
with them are among the more recent come directly down to the water's edge.
additions to the physiography of the Nile The Silsila gorge, at one time without
Valley. Contact between the ancient river much doubt a true cataract, was at an
and the granitic rock barrier was not, as ancient period in Egypt's history regarded,
we have seen, established until late Plio- reasonably enough, as the gateway to
cene or post-Pliocene times; and most of Nubia and was revered as one of the
the erosion which created the present-day legendary sources of the Nile. It marks, in
gorges and rapids has undoubtedly taken any case, the remains of the last serious
place within the memory of man-much barrier encountered by the river in its
of it, indeed, since the beginning of course to the Mediterranean. At el-
recorded history. Sebaiya, forty miles to the north, the Nile
For a distance of eighty miles below the leaves the sandstone behind and passes
First Cataract the Nile follows a narrow into the softer shales and limestones
channel in the sandstone similar in characteristic of its Egyptian valley.
character to its Nubian valley above
Dehmit and exhibiting only in the vicinity 9. THE FAYUM LAKE BASIN
of Kom Ombo features of special interest Outside of the valley and delta of the
to the student of human history. Here, Nile no part of Egypt has played a more
between Khannak and Kagug, crustal important role in the history and pre-
disturbances of Miocene date opened, as history of the country than the Fayum
we have seen, a wide triangular basin, or basin and its ancient lake.
sunken plain, bounded on the north by a A fertile, oasis-like depression in the
high, east-west fault scarp of hard Nubian Libyan desert sixty miles south of Cairo
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND 17

and only some fifteen miles to the west of Paleolithic (Lower Levalloisian) date. Sec-
the river, the Fayum measures thirty-five tions of gravel platforms extending
miles in width from north to south and through the Hawara Channel show that
almost fifty miles in length from east to the beach of a lake at 112 feet above sea-
west. The lake which once filled it is today level is a continuation inside the Fayum
represented by the Birket Qarun, a of the Nile gravels of the 25-foot aggrada-
relatively small, brackish body of water tion phase, and in this case implements of
occupying the low-lying northwestern late Middle Paleolithic types common to
portion of the depression and at present both the river gravels and the beach
used chiefly as a sump, its surface arti- shingle confirm the association.
ficially stabilized at 147 feet below mean As the Nile in final Middle Paleolithic
sea-level. For its water supply the old lake and Late Paleolithic times lowered its bed
basin has for centuries depended on the from one level to another the Fayum lake
Bahr Yusef, a brook which leaves the Nile fell with it, first to 92 feet and then to 74
far to the south near Asyut, winds north- feet above modern sea-level. Toward the
ward parallel to the river, and enters the end of the Paleolithic period the river had
Fayum through the ancient Hawara sunk so low that its waters no longer
channel, between Gebel Sedment and flowed into the Fayum, and the lake
Gebel Lahun. dropped to 18 feet below sea-level and
Geologists are not in complete agree- appears, indeed, to have dried up al-
ment on the period when the Fayum together. Wind erosion again took charge
depression, as such, came into existence and the dry lake basin was evidently
or on the steps involved in its creation. It deepened considerably at this time, sur-
is, however, the opinion of the majority of passing in all probability its present
observers that, following some preliminary maximum depth of 174 feet below sea-
shaping by tectonic and possibly fluviatile level.
activity, the present basin was largely During the period of transition between
excavated by wind erosion in early the Old and New Stone Ages the Nile, as
Pleistocene times; and that a direct we have seen, entered upon its present
hydrographic connection between the phase of bed aggradation and began once
Fayum and the Nile through the Hawara more to send its overflow through the
Channel had been established by the be- Hawara channel into the Fayum, re.
ginning of the Middle Paleolithic period. establishing the lake and raising its surface
At that time the depression was occupied to 59 feet above sea-level. Soon, however,
by a vast, high-level lake, the surface of the Hawara channel itself began to be
which lay 131-138 feet above modern sea- choked with silt, and this factor alone
level with storm beaches piled up along its appears to have been sufficient to reduce
easterly, or lee, shore to a height of 144 the amount of water received by the
feet. The beach of this lake would seem to Fayum basin below that which it lost
be associated with the 50-foot river each year through seepage and evapora-
terrace of northern Middle Egypt, which tion. In spite, therefore, of some local rain-
at nearby Beni Suef stands at 142 feet fall the lake early in the Neolithic period
above sea-level. Though no implements had apparently already fallen to 43 feet
have been found in Situ in either the and this was followed by a 33-foot lake
terrace gravels or the beach shingle it is and in mid-Neolithic times by a lake only
probable that both are of early Middle 13 feet above sea-level. With the decline
 oi.uchicago.edu

18 FORMATION OF THE LAND

of the so-called Neolithic Wet Phase, or denudation as the anticlinal areas now
Sub-pluvial, and the approach of semi- occupied by the oases rose from beneath
desert conditions the Fayum lake sank the sea"; and it has been suggested that
seven feet below sea-level, remaining at crustal movements of pre-Pliocene times
this general level throughout the balance determined the lines along which the
of Egyptian prehistory and well down into softer strata were exposed to erosion and,
historic times. hence, the positions and the general
From time to time since the early years shapes of the depressions. Mitwally be-
of the second millennium B.C. the level lieves that "the depressions owe their
of the lake has been artificially regulated origin to the action of erosion on areas of
by the government of Egypt for purposes favourable geological structure and upon
of flood control, irrigation, land reclama- strata possessing a differential resistance
tion, or drainage. In general the ancient to its power" and points out that "the posi-
lake, known in the New Kingdom as the tion of all the depressions (Baharia and
Lake of Miwer and in Greco-Roman times Fayum excepted) coincide with the south-
as the Lake of Moeris, occupied a far ern limits of major geological formations"
greater proportion of the Fayum depres- -Kurkur, Kharga, and Farafra with the
sion than it does now, not approaching its edge of the Eocene limestone, Dakhla with
present restricted dimensions until the be- the southern limit of the Cretaceous chalk,
ginning of the Christian Era. In antiquity and Siwa with the southern limit of the
the inhabited portions of the Fayum Miocene formations. Said excludes the pos-
included, besides the old lake beaches and sibility of a tectonic origin for the oases
the marginal areas of fertile lake bottom and is of the opinion that they started as
left exposed by the descending waters, a water-filled minor depressions which be-
fan-shaped expanse of Nile silt extending came dust-bowls and were subsequently
from the inner end of the Hawara channel deflated by wind. According to him the
over most of the southeastern part of the depth of their floors was "governed by
depression. It is near the center of this the ground water level which forms, in a
"delta" that has always stood the Fayum's way, a base level for wind action." A few
principal town: the dynastic Shedet, the geologists still adhere to the belief that
classical Crocodilopolis (Arsinoe), and the fluviatile erosion by Libyan branches of
modern Medinet el-Fayum. the Upper Eocene-Oligocene "Urnil" river
system also played an important part in
10. THE OASES OF THE LIBYAN DESERT the initial formation of the basins of the
Like the Fayum, the other habitable central and southern groups.
depressions of the Libyan desert-the The depressions themselves are for the
Wadi el-Natrun and the oases of Siwa, most part long and narrow, extending
Bahria, Farafra, Kharga, Dakhla, and either in a generally east-west direction,
others-are immense basins scooped out like the Wadi el-Natrun and the oases of
of the softer portions of the plateau surface Siwa and Dakhla, or from north to south,
chiefly by the powerful erosive action of like Bahria and Kharga; and are either
sand-laden winds. This excavatory work, wholly or partially surrounded by steep
the bulk of which appears to have been and often lofty escarpments. Ancient
accomplished between later Tertiary and torrents have furrowed the sides of these
Middle Pleistocene times, may have been scarps in many places, and inside the
preceded by "a vast primary marine depressions hard, resistant masses of rock
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND 19

have been left standing to form hills here the Fayum, most of which is fertile-the
and there on their floors. The lowest arable land in the oases is confined to
portions of the Kharga depression descend relatively small patches immediately sur-
a few feet below sea-level and more than rounding the artesian wells and com-
1300 feet below the surface of the sur- prising in the oasis of Kharga less than
rounding plateau, and, in the north, one percent of the total area of the
depths of seventy to eighty feet below sea- depression. Outside of these fertile patches
level have been recorded in the Wadi the floors of the depressions are often as
el-Natrun and in the oasis of Siwa. So far barren as the surrounding desert plateau
as actual size is concerned, the smallest and in places are heavily drifted over with
and most recently formed of the depres- wind-blown sand. Unlike the Wadi el-
sions under consideration, the Wadi el- Natrun, the vast, uninhabited Qattara
Natrun, has a length of about twenty-five Depression, and other of the more
miles and an average width of about six northerly depressions, the southern oases
miles, while the largest, the oasis of do not ever seem to have contained large
Kharga, measures a hundred and fifteen lakes or extensive marshy tracts, certain
miles from north to south and reaches a deposits in Kharga oasis, once thought to
maximum width of almost fifty miles. have been lacustrine, being no longer
From mid-Pleistocene times, when the accepted as such.
oases appear first to have become habit- A study of the eastern scarp of the
able, they have depended for their water Kharga depression has disclosed the
supply chiefly on natural springs bubbling presence here of two classes of tufa formed
out of the upper strata of sandstone which during periods of relatively high humidity:
form or underlie the floors of the depres- the so-called Plateau Tufa, "unfossili-
sions or (since the Sixth Century B.C.) on ferous, locally pre-human, and possibly
artesian wells sunk hundreds of feet into Plio-Pleistocene" in date; and the Wadi
the lower strata of the same stone. The Tufa, "crammed with the impressions of
subterranean water tapped by these fossil plants and intimately associated
springs and wells is believed to have with Paleolithic man." Like the deposits
travelled through the sandstone for great formed around the ancient springs on
distances, originating either in the Nubian the floor of the depression the fluviatile
Nile or far to the southwest in the rain- gravels underlying the layers of Wadi Tufa
swept highlands of Chad or the Repub- in the passes of the scarp were found to
lic of the Sudan. Almost no active springs contain human artifacts ranging in date
are to be found nowadays in the oases; but from late Lower Paleolithic (Upper Ach-
at Kharga groups of large mounds distri- eulian) down into local Neolithic. Evi-
buted over the floor of the depression mark dences of post-Paleolithic and later
the positions of "fossil springs" once used prehistoric habitations occur in the silt-
by prehistoric man and containing in their pans and chert quarries of the adjoining
deposits implements of final Lower Paleo- Libyan Plateau and in some of the silty
lithic and later types similar to those basins in the depression proper.
found also in the wadi gravels of the A glance at the geographic distribution
depression's eastern scarp. Within the of the Libyan oases will prove helpful in
basins proper human activity appears to understanding their economic and cultural
have been largely concentrated around relationships with one another and with
these springs; and today-in contrast to Egypt, of which in antiquity they were not
 oi.uchicago.edu

20 FORMATION OF THE LAND

regarded as forming a part. This was true for about seventy-five miles and enters
even of the Wadi el-Natrun which lies the oasis by way of a lateral ravine known
only sixty miles north of the Fayum and today as the Abu Sighawal pass. From
less than forty miles from the western edge Asyut the principal caravan route to the
of the Delta and from which the Egyptians Sudan runs almost due south across
at an early period obtained a kind of soda, the desert, passes lengthwise through the
called natron, used extensively by them Kharga depression, and proceeds thence
as a detergent and preservative. Siwa, southward to Darfur via the small Nubian
lying some two hundred and seventy-five oases of Bir el-Natrun and Selima. This
miles due west of the Fayum, near the is the famous Darb el- Arbain, or "Road
boundary of modern Libya, is the most of the Forty (Days)," one of the most
remote and least "Egyptian" of all the ancient and extensively used lines of
fertile depressions, its affiliations until a communication linking Egypt with the
relatively late period in Egyptian history African lands to the south.
having been principally with Libya and Aside from their function as way-
the Saharan and North African regions to stations on the southern and western
the west. In antiquity it appears to have trade routes the oases have since Paleo-
been reached from the Nile Valley by way lithic times supported populations of their
of the oasis of Bahria, which lies a hundred own and have been known for their
and ten miles almost due southwest of the production of wine, olive oil, dates, and
Fayum and less than a hundred miles other commodities. As outposts of the
from the Nile opposite Samalut and ancient Libyans, as havens for political
Minya in Middle Egypt. Bahria, in turn, is refugees, and as places of exile for enemies
linked with the southern group of oases by of the state they have from time to time
the extensive, but historically unimport- played a by no means negligible role in
ant, depression of Farafra, which stretches Egyptian history.
southward to within fifty miles or less of
the western end of the Dakhla scarp, its 11. CLIMATE

principal settlement, Qasr Farafra, falling Variations in Egypt's normally arid

approximately on the latitude of the climate from the beginning of the Tertiary
Upper Egyptian city of Asyut. Dakhla era to the present day are to a great extent
and Kharga form the two arms of a great reflected in the geological and bio-
1]-shaped depression, the whole of which geographical developments outlined in the
was in ancient times referred to as the foregoing pages.
"Southern Oasis" and later as "the Great Every class of evidence-physiograph-
Oasis." Kharga, the north-south arm of ical, floral, and faunal-indicates that in
the 1, stretches from north of the latitude northeastern Africa the Tertiary was
of Luxor to about the latitude of Aswan, characterized in large part by warm
and is reached from the Nile Valley by a temperatures and extended intervals of
dozen different caravan tracks, most of moderate to heavy rainfall, the latter
them converging on one or the other of its reaching a peak toward the end of the
two principal villages, Kharga and Beris. Oligocene period and again in middle and
The shortest and best of these routes late Pliocene times. Though during phases
across the Libyan plateau to the Great of maximum precipitation the climate
Oasis is the one which leaves the Nile apparently achieved a tropical-monsoonal
Valley near Girga, bears west-southwest character, made possible the growth of
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND 21

trees of considerable size, and supported a More recently, however, the same
fauna of sub-equatorial type, the rainfall evidence has been convincingly reinter-
was clearly never sufficient to provide the preted and four pluvial periods separated
Egyptian tableland with a thick covering from one another by three interpluvials
of forest. We think, rather, of grassy have been postulated for the late Lower to
plains fringed here and there by clumps of Upper Pleistocene, probably preceded
trees and deteriorating rapidly into tree- during the earliest Pleistocene by still
less steppe and even desert during the another pluvial and interpluvial. The four
periods of aridity which interrupted moist periods in question have been
the stretches of more favorable climate. tentatively designated as the Mindel
In Egypt, as in other portions of the Pluvial, the Riss Pluvial, the Early Wirm
Saharo-Arabian climatic zone, the Pleisto- Pluvial, and the Main Wirm Pluvial, the
cene epoch is now generally believed to names being borrowed from the well-known
have comprised a succession of "pluvials," Alpine glacial phases with the early stages
or periods of relatively abundant annual of which these north African and south-
rainfall, separated from one another by west Asian pluvials are presumed to be
intervals of aridity, or "interpluvials," associated. In Egypt the Mindel and Riss
with the former decreasing and the latter Pluvials are thought to have produced the
increasing in intensity with the transition gravel cappings of the 100-, 50-, and 30-
to the succeeding Holocene, or recent, foot Nile terraces of the upper valley and,
epoch. Investigations conducted by Pro- in terms of human activity, to have
fessor Karl W. Butzer indicate that the embraced the whole of the Lower Paleo-
Pleistocene pluvials, though associated lithic stage (Abbevillian and Acheulian),
meteorologically and chronologically with including the period of Man's first demon-
the advance of the glaciers in more strable occupation of the oasis of Kharga
northerly latitudes, "are the direct con- (Upper Acheulian) and the period of
sequence of primary changes in the transition to the Middle Paleolithic
general circulation of the atmosphere and (Acheulio-Levalloisian). The 100-foot Nile
are not secondary effects of the presence gravels of northern Egypt (Acheulian) are
of continental glaciation." assigned to the Mindel-Riss Interpluvial
Evidences of erosion and deposition as and the 50-foot gravels and 131-foot
studied both in the Nile Valley and on the Fayum lake (Lower Levalloisian?) to the
eastern scarp of Kharga oasis have led one Riss-Wuirm Interpluvial. The Early Wiirm
group of observers to limit the number of Pluvial would have witnessed the forma-
Pleistocene pluvials to two: a first, and tion of the 10-foot wadi gravels of Upper
major, pluvial extending from late Plio- Egypt (Middle Paleolithic) and the suc-
cene or Plio-Pleistocene times to about the ceeding Interpluvial the commencement
middle of the Pleistocene period and of Abyssinian silt deposition in the south,
witnessing, in the river valley, the earlier the building-up of the 25-foot fine gravels
Lower Paleolithic stages of human pre- and silts in the north, and the decline of
history; and a second and somewhat less the Fayum lake first to 112 and then to
effective pluvial beginning in later Lower 92 feet above sea-level (late Middle
Paleolithic times and reaching two or Paleolithic-Late Paleolithic). It was ap-
three minor peaks of precipitation during parently during the second and minor sub-
the Middle Paleolithic stages of man's maximum of the Wuirm Pluvial ("Main
cultural development. Warm") and during its increasingly arid
 oi.uchicago.edu

22 FORMATION OF THE LAND

final stage ("Late Wiirm") that the Nile in and a fauna which, as in Neolithic times,
Late Paleolithic times degraded its bed to may have included such animals as the
great depths all the way from the Second elephant. the rhinoceros, the giraffe, the
Cataract to the seacoast and that, despite ostrich, the antelope, the gazelle, and
some momentary increases in rainfall, the several kinds of cat.
Fayum lake sank gradually below present Relatively moist conditions seem to
sea-level and may have disappeared have continued into the Middle Paleolithic
altogether. age as attested by the occurrence of
Fossil soil profiles and other data implements of Levalloisian types scattered
derived from the river and wadi terraces far and wide over the surface of the
of Egypt suggest the existence here of two present high desert. The precipitation,
types of Pleistocene pluvials and of two however, was growing slighter and more
types of local climate occasioned by them. spasmodic and the plateau landscape was
The sub-tropical, or Mediterranean, plu- changing gradually from thorn savannah
vials, during which the terrace gravels to dry steppe to semi-desert. In the oasis
were deposited, appear to have been of Kharga animal and plant remains of this
associated with the early, or advance, period are either confined to the vicinity of
stages of the European glaciations. The the ancient springs or are of types which
climate during these relatively brief inter- flourish today in regions of low rainfall,
vals was evidently moist and cool, with an the only tree remains found in the scarp
annual rainfall exceeding eight inches and deposits being those of fig-trees, date-
a landscape of moderate dry steppe or palms, and the like.
etesian steppe type with grasses, shrubs, The onset of aridity in late Pleistocene
succulents, thorny bushes, and acacias times was evidently a gradual process,
growing on the surface of the plateau and desiccation spreading slowly northward
clumps of trees, such as sycamores, from Nubia into Upper and Middle Egypt.
willows, and tamarisks, occurring along the In Nubia the rainfall and surface run-off
banks of the river and its tributaries. had begun to fail in the Middle Paleolithic
There followed during the closing stages period and it is probable that here, as
of each pluvial and the first half of the suc- already remarked, the 30- and 10-foot
ceeding interpluvial an interval of climate gravel platforms were never formed. In
as dry as that of the present day and per- Upper Egypt the mixed gravels of the 10-
haps even drier, when the Nile in Upper foot stage seem to have been laid down by
Egypt lowered its bed, the lateral wadis "sporadic torrents" rather than by "evenly
dried up, tree-life was confined to a few distributed rainfall." By Late Paleolithic
undemanding species (acacias and tama- times the rainfall had failed completely
risks?) growing along the immediate fringes above the First Cataract and was con-
of the river, and human habitation was siderably diminished farther to the north,
possible only in the northernmost, coastal as attested by the presence of blown sand
areas. The third climatic phase, charac- in the basal silts of the first aggradation
teristic of the late interpluvial periods, is phase in Upper Egypt. Sand dunes had
believed to have been as warm as today's already begun their long, slow march
climate, but moister, with sandy red earth southward from the coastal region across
forming and the landscape assuming the the. Libyan plateau, drift sand was be-
nature of a sub-tropical steppe and sup- ginning to accumulate around the springs
porting vegetation of thorn-savannah type in the Kharga depression, and a marked
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND 23

decrease in the already none too vigorous sharply thereafter and again in early
rainfall of the region of the oasis was historic times, but maintaining, neverthe.
permitting silt to be deposited in the wadis less, a general level well above that of the
of the eastern scarp. Though fleeting present day. Though probably confined to
intervals of more favorable climate are occasional thunder showers, the precipita.
attested during the Late Paleolithic period tion was sufficient to form pools of fresh
men and animals tended to confine their water in the hollows of the Libyan plateau,
activities to the vicinity of the river, the to support for a while large herbivorous
grassy wadi bottoms of the eastern plateau, animals like the rhinoceros and the ele-
and the springs and scarp ravines of the phant over broad stretches of the high
oases and to shun the now parched and deserts, and to enable groves of small trees,
uninviting expanses of the open plains, seasonal pastures, and extensive human
over which previously they had wandered settlements to grow up along the fringes of
at will. the Nile Valley in areas which had pre-
Conditions even more severe than that viously been arid and which now comprise
of the present day were reached in Final portions of the low desert. The river valley
Paleolithic times during the first "post- and Delta in Neolithic, predynastic, and
pluvial" period following the end of the early historic times evidently also showed
Wiirm Pluvial. This phase, which is the effects of a somewhat more moist
believed to have extended from about climate, with papyrus and water-lilies
16,000 to 9500 B.c., was one of high growing along the waterways and in the
temperatures, severe wind erosion, and marshy hollows of the basin-lands and
minimum rainfall, the last achieving its aquatic animals and birds inhabiting the
low point in or about the twelfth millen- river and its backwaters in greater pro-
nium B.C. Following a brief respite in the fusion than at the present day.
form of a sub-pluvial of about a millen- Since the end of the third millennium
nium's duration (ca. 9500-8500 B.C.) desert B.C. the climate of Egypt has been
conditions again closed in and held sway generally similar to that of the present day.
until about 6500 B.c. when a rise in pre- Between 2350 B.C. and A.D. 700 the
cipitation reduced the extreme aridity of average temperature seems to have been,
the land to its modern level. if anything, a trifle above and the average
Toward the end of the sixth millennium rainfall a little below the modern levels,
B.C. Egypt and neighboring lands appear but with at least two "quite moist" spells,
to have enjoyed another slight, but one in late Ramesside times and one
effective increase in temperature and about 850 s.c.
precipitation and to have entered upon a Egypt's present climate, so frequently
prolonged sub-pluvial or relatively moist used as a basis of comparison in the fore-
phase, extending from early Neolithic going paragraphs, is notoriously warm,
times until late in the Old Kingdom (ca. dry, and clear. Mean temperatures range
5000-2350 B.C.). This era of actually rather from a January minimum of 50 ° Fahrenheit
varied climate has been equated with the at Alexandria to a July maximum of 107 °
so-called Atlantic phase, or post-glacial at Aswan, the range being far greater on
Climatic Optimum, of northern Europe. In the desert plateau where the mercury
Egypt its rainfall seems to have exceeded soars by day and on winter nights not in-
six inches a yedr, reaching a peak early in frequently drops below the freezing point.
the Chalcolithic period and declining The Delta coast enjoys an average annual
 oi.uchicago.edu

24 FORMATION OF THE LAND

rainfall of about eight inches, most of it bringing stifling temperatures and filling
during the winter months, but Cairo the air with sand and dust.
receives only about an inch a year, and
Upper Egypt perhaps a single shower once 12. CHRONOLOGY
every two or three years. Sporadic cloud- Thanks to the successions of river and
bursts over the Red Sea hills sustain wadi terraces, lake beaches, and silt
patches of green plant life and even layers, each with its incorporated or
clumps of trees in some of the rocky associated fauna and human artifacts, the
valleys of the Eastern Desert; and gazelles, relative dating and approximate durations
hyenas, jackals, foxes, and jerboas inhabit of the successive stages in the Pleistocene
the fringes of the Libyan Desert near the and early post-Pleistocene geohistory and
Nile Valley and in the vicinity of the oases. prehistory of Egypt can be worked out
In dynastic times the presence in these from the local evidence alone. When, how-
areas of a more abundant and diversified ever, we attempt to construct an absolute
animal life-lions, wild cattle, deer, and chronology of these same stages we find
antelopes of many kinds-is evidently to that in Egypt, as in other lands lying in
be attributed to causes other than a con- the middle and lower latitudes of the
sistently more favorable climate, such, for earth's surface, our geochronologers have
example, as a generally less efficient as yet provided us with little or nothing to
harassment of the wild life by human go on. We are therefore forced to fall back
agencies or the maintenance of extensive on the chronological correlations which
reserves artificially stocked with game for are generally presumed to exist between
the diversion of royal or noble huntsmen. our local Egyptian stages and the succes-
With its rain-catching chain of mountains sive phases of the Great Ice Age as
and its deep valleys sheltered from sand- observed in northern and central Europe,
laden winds the Eastern, or Arabian, where prolonged study has produced a
Desert has always been less austere than number of more or less dependable
the open, rolling plains of the Libyan methods of dating these phases in terms
Desert which nowadays alternate between of years before the present day.
bare rock surfaces, vast spreads of gravel, We have already had occasion to refer
and long, slowly moving lines of sand to the meteorological association of
dunes. The prevailing northerly winds Egypt's "pluvials" and "interpluvials"
which sweep across these desert plateaux with the glacial and interglacial periods of
and up the long, narrow river valley have more northerly latitudes. "The con-
done much to shape not only the land itself temporaneity of these lower middle lati-
but also the lives of its inhabitants, tude pluvials with the world-wide
providing a blessed relief from the heat of glaciations," says Butzer, "has been re-
the day and facilitating upstream naviga- peatedly confirmed and accepted in the
tion on the Nile, but often driving early contemporary literature .... Consequently
Man to seek shelter from their blasts we are free to refer to the last phase of
behind the walls of the valley and its glaciation as the 'Last Pluvial' in the Near
lateral wadis or behind primitive shelters East, and we may speak of a 'postpluvial'
of his own devising. In northern Egypt as well as a 'postglacial' period." Further
the winds are more variable than in the investigation by the same authority tends
south, and during the spring the hot to indicate that the pluvial episodes
southerly khamsin blows for days at a time during which the implementiferous terrace
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND 25

gravels of the Nile and its wadis were laid heights (above flood plain) of the succes-
down were periods of relatively short sive gravel terraces formed in the lower
duration and that they coincided chrono- courses of all rivers flowing into the
logically not with the whole of a European Mediterranean Sea or into bodies of water
glacial phase, but only-and more pre- directly connected with it. In the case of
cisely-with its initial stage, before the ice the Nile there seem to be clear corre-
sheet had reached its full-scale expansion. spondences between the 320-foot terrace
This would allow us to correlate the of northern Egypt and the Sicilian high
pluvial 100-foot terrace of southern Egypt sea-level, the 200-foot terrace and the
and its contained implements with the on- Milazzian level, the 100-foot terrace and
set of the Mindel glaciation, the 50-foot ter- the Tyrrhenian level, the 50-foot terrace
race with Riss I, the 30-foot wadi gravels and the Main Monastirian, and the 25-foot
with Riss II, and the 10-foot gravels with gravels and the Late Monastirian. Pre.
Early Wiirm, and to date these stages in suming the correlations to be valid in both
the Pleistocene history of the Upper of the foregoing steps, we may then assign
Egyptian Nile Valley accordingly. the 320-foot Nile terrace to pre-Glacial
For Lower and northern Middle Egypt times, the 200-foot terrace to the Ginz-
the most trustworthy link with the Mindel Interglacial, the 100-foot terrace to
European Ice Ages appears to be the suc- the Mindel-Riss Interglacial, the 50-foot
cession of Plio-Pleistocene and Pleistocene terrace and the 131-foot Fayum lake to
high sea-levels as established by Deperet, the early part of the Riss-Wiirm Inter-
De Lamothe, and others from a study of glacial, and the 25-foot gravels and 112-
the ancient "raised" beaches, or fossil and 92-foot Fayum lakes to the latter part
shorelines, of the Mediterranean Sea, of the same interglacial or, more probably,
including a series of marine bars lying to the Gottweig Interstadial of the Early
inland from Arabs Gulf, a short distance Wiirm glaciation; and may apply to these
to the west of the present Nile Delta. It is stages in Nile prehistory the absolute dates
generally conceded that these high sea- worked out for the corresponding sub-
levels must have been reached during divisions of the European Ice Age.
periods of minimum glaciation in the areas The early stages of the Upper Pleistocene
bordering the sea on the north-thus, at (Late Paleolithic) degradation phase in
approximately the mid-points of the Nile history, including the Fayum lakes
European interglacial phases. The highest, at 74 feet and below, are probably to be
or so-called "Sicilian," level (295-330 feet associated with the Main Wiirm marine
above present sea-level) is usually as- regression (low sea-level); and its later
signed to the period preceding the Early, stages (evolved and Final Paleolithic),
or Giinz, Glaciation; the "Milazzian" level during which the Fayum appears to have
(180-195 feet) to the Antepenultimate, or been re-excavated by subaerial erosion, to
Giinz-Mindel, Interglacial; the "Tyrrhen- the Late Wiirm glacial stage and the final
ian" level (100-115 feet) to the Penulti- retreat of the glaciers in Europe.
mate, or Mindel-Riss, Interglacial; and By making use of the dates for the
the two "Monastirian" levels (50-65 and European glacial and interglacial phases
16-33 feet) to the Last, or Riss-Wiirm, and Mediterranean high sea-levels derived
Interglacial. It is also generally agreed- by Zeuner chiefly from Penck's geological
and here is our link-that these same high estimates and the Milankovitch curves of
sea-levels determined the maxlknum fluctuating solar radiation it is possible to
 oi.uchicago.edu

26 FORMATION OF THE LAND

draw up the following chronological table Present) being thought necessary in the
of the terrace and early post-terrace case of dates of 100,000 years and over.
stages of Egyptian prehistory. In this The dates 90,000 B.c., 50,000 B.C., and
table the dates are given in years B.C. to 20,000 B.c. were obtained by interpolation
conform to the practice followed through- and adjustment of the figures given by
out the rest of the book, no adjustments Zeuner for the three phases of the Last
in Zeuner's round figures "B.P." (Before Glaciation.

TABLE 1

PLIO-PLEISTOCENE AND PLEISTOCENE TERRACES

320-foot terrace of northern Egypt (barren) 660,000 B.c.

200-foot terrace of northern Egypt (barren?) 500,000 B.C.
100-foot pluvial terrace of southern Egypt (earlier Lower Paleolithic) 476,000 B.C.
100-foot terrace of northern Egypt (middle Lower Paleolithic) 270,000 B.C.
50-foot pluvial terrace of southern Egypt (later Lower Paleolithic) 230,000 B.C.
30-foot pluvial terrace of southern Egypt (Lower-Middle Paleolithic) 187,000 B.C.
50-foot Nile gravels of Middle Egypt and 131-foot Fayum beach (early 150,000 B.C.
Middle Paleolithic?)

LATE PLEISTOCENE SILTS AND GRAVELS

Aggradation:
10-15 foot wadi gravels of southern Egypt (Middle Paleolithic) 115,000 B.C.
Aggradation silts of Upper Egypt, 25-foot gravels of northern Egypt, 90,000 B.C.
and 112- and 92.foot Fayum beaches (late Middle Paleolithic-Late
Paleolithic I)

Degradation:
74-foot Fayum beach (Late Paleolithic II) 70,000 B.C.
-18-foot Fayum beach (Late Paleolithic III) 50,000 B.C.
Subaerial erosion of Fayum basin 20,000 B.C.

Unfortunately, there is a notable lack of I-II, or Gottweig, Interstadial, 18,250 B.C.

agreement between the last five dates for the maximum of Worm II, and
given in this table and a series of probably 11,500-10,500 B.C. for the Belling Oscilla-
somewhat more accurate estimates ob- tion of the Gotiglacial Retreat. Adding to
tained from late glacial and post-glacial these radiocarbon dates of 4430 and
organic specimens by means of the radio- 4134 B.C. for the Fayum Neolithic, 3783
carbon, or "Carbon 14," method of age and 3658 s.c. for the early Chalcolithic
determination. These estimates give us (Nagada I), 3616 B.C. for the later Chalco-
dates of around 90,000-72,000 B.P. for a lithic (Nagada II), and the end-date of
point towards the end of the Last, or Riss- 3100 B.C. for the beginning of the first
Worm, Interglacial, 70,000 B.P. for the historic dynasty, and we arrive at a con-
beginning of the Last, or Wirm, Glacia- siderably lower dating for the late glacial
tion, 43,000-29,000 B.P. for the Wiirm and post-glacial prehistory of Egypt:
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND 27

TABLE 2

Early Middle Paleolithic (10-foot Begins 70,000 B.P.

of southern Egypt)
Late Middle Paleolithic (aggrada ,, 43,000 B.P.
silts of Upper Egypt, etc.)
Late Paleolithic (deep Nile degra ,, 30,000 B.P.
Late Paleolithic (Epi-Levallois ,, 16,000 B.C.
Final Paleolithic, or Mesolithic ,, 10,000 B.c.
Present Silt Aggradation Phase ,, 8750-3500 B.C.
Neolithic Period ,, 5000 B.C.
Chalcolithic Period ,, 4000 B.c.
Historic Period ,, 3100 B.C.

13. EGYPT AT THE BEGINNING OF heights on the east. Farther west the grass-
HUMAN PREHISTORY land gives way to poor steppe country
interrupted by a series of huge and at the
By way of a conclusion to the present moment uninhabited depressions-the
chapter and an introduction to those to present-day oases-in the scarp valleys
follow let us try to reconstruct a picture of which intermittent rainfall and run-off
of the land of Egypt as it may have have resulted in the formation of tufa. An
appeared, nearly half a million years ago, altogether similar basin, the Fayum, lies
to its earliest known human inhabitants. not more than eighty miles from the sea-
From the lofty chain of hills bordering coast and less than twenty miles to the
the Red Sea a grassy steppe, dotted here west of the river valley, but the ridge
and there with shrubs and thorny bushes, which separates it from the Nile is ap-
stretches away to the Mediterranean Sea parently not yet broken through and its
on the north and, to the west and south, lake not yet fully formed. Along the edges
beyond the horizon. The Nile gorge of the river and its tributaries, in the deep
winding northward from the neighborhood valleys on the east, and around the pools
of modern Kom Ombo toward the ancient and waterholes of the Libyan plateau the
seacoast, some fifty miles below where the vegetation resembles that of modern
city of Cairo now stands, divides the land Cyrenaica and includes clumps of trees
into two parts. On the east the relatively such as acacias, tamarisks, sycamores, and
narrow strip of plateau is dissected by willows. Here and there the plateau land-
numerous broad valleys down which scape is relieved by such prominences as
occasionally torrential streams pour into the Moqattam Hills and Gebel Abu Roash
the main valley from the western slopes of near Cairo, Gebel Ataqa and the Qallala
the Red Sea hills. On the west the tribu- hills to the east and southeast, the
taries of the river, though equally numer- magnificent hills of the Thebaid in Upper
ous, have neither the length nor the Egypt, and far off to the west and south
volume of those on the east, the watershed the distant mountain peaks of Gilf Kebir
on this side following the line of a low ridge and Uweinat. To the northeast, across the
which in Upper Egypt lies less than sixty Gulf of Suez, the mountains of southern
miles from the Nile and which catches a Sinai tower to impressive heights; and
far less copious rainfall than the towering looking southward from these along the
 oi.uchicago.edu

28 FORMATION OF THE LAND

coast of the Red Sea one notes that also in the lower reaches of the lateral
the ancient beaches are dissected in in- valleys, where the tributaries of the river
numerable places by terraced wadis drain- traverse the gulf deposits on either side of
ing the eastern sides of the adjacent hills. the main stream.
From southern Upper Egypt to the At the moment with which we are con-
apex of the vast sand-and-gravel Delta of cerned the bed of the Nile in Upper Egypt,
the river the valley of the Nile has not having been cut down to perhaps seventy
only long ago been fully scoured out in feet above modern alluvium, is in the pro-
the Eocene limestone, but has sub- cess of being built up to the 100-foot level
sequently become extensively choked by with layers of sands and coarse gravels
mixed deposits of the Pliocene gulf era. brought down by the great stream itself
Southward, however, the Nubian valley is and poured into it by its tributaries,
still in the process of its primary excava- especially by the powerful torrents rolling
tion, the river having only relatively down from the Red Sea hills. Here in the
recently adopted a single course through south the river flows in broad meanders,
the tawny sandstone of the region. Above spreading and leveling its sandy and
Wadi Halfa rapids are forming where the pebbly floor and cutting away portions of
stream has come into contact with hard the next higher terrace which forms its
crystalline rock formations underlying the bank on either side. In summer, thanks to
sandstone, and just above Aswan the river a gradually developing connection with
has split into three channels in its early the Atbara and the Blue Nile, it may
attempts to force its way through a momentarily overflow its banks, sweeping
similar barrier. Forty miles downstream, away such surface debris as the lost or dis-
around Kom Ombo, the valley broadens carded implements of early Man. North-
out into a wide embayment, north of ward the sands and gravels taper off, and
which yet another cataract is forming as below Mallawi in Middle Egypt we find
the river has begun to scour out two the Nile at this period, not aggrading, but
channels through the sandstone scarp at eroding its bed in response to a marine
Silsila. regression, or low sea-level, evidently also
Since the end of the Pliocene period the contemporaneous with the initial stages of
huge and swiftly flowing stream has the Mindel glaciation. Within the confines
repeatedly lowered and narrowed its bed of the river valley, the Delta, and the
in the sandstone of its Nubian valley and lower courses of the lateral tributaries,
in the gulf deposits choking its Egyptian the soil is for the most part sandy and
valley, leaving on either side two series of gravelly, with no traces of silt and little of
gravel-coated terraces at 300, 200, and any other type of fine material. Though
150 feet above the flood plain of the probably supporting a gallery-forest type
present Nile in Upper Egypt and at 320, of vegetation it can hardly have had any
255, 200, and 150 feet above the same local special fertility of its own.
datum in Middle and Lower Egypt. As The climate is a trifle cooler than that
the mouth of the river is approached the of the present day and considerably more
terraces of the latter series swing outward humid, the rainfall, as reflected in the
along each side of the Delta and run evidently violent activity of the lateral
eventually into the ancient shingle beaches wadis, almost certainly exceeding eight
of the Mediterranean Sea. Similar terraces, inches a year. This, combined with the
at corresponding heights, are to be seen presence of the great river, would have
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND 29

been sufficient to attract and support a Europe. From the west the stone-age
fauna of both sub-equatorial and more nomad (or his industries) could travel in
northerly types, including, as elsewhere in easy stages all the way across North
north Africa at this time, such large Africa, coming even from western Europe
animals as the elephant, the rhinoceros, by way of the narrow strait of Gibraltar
the hippopotamus, and the buffalo. Though which, though apparently open at this
Egypt has as yet yielded no animal (or time, would have formed no insurmount-
human) remains of early or middle able obstacle to human passage.
Pleistocene date, we may be sure that its Small wonder that Egypt because of its
fauna and accompanying flora was at this natural endowments, its accessibility, and
period as copious and diversified as in its central position in the ancient world
later Paleolithic and Neolithic times, when was an area much frequented by earliest
conditions in northeast Africa must have Man. Even when, in the millenniums to
been, ecologically speaking, less favorable. come, a failing rainfall deprived the land
Here, then, for the time being was a as a whole of many of the attributes which
portion of the earth's surface affording had first drawn men to it the Nile con-
every advantage to primitive man in his tinued to make its lower valley and delta
early struggles for existence and in his first one of the most desirable regions on the
steps toward the development of a civilized earth's surface-a suitable cradle for one
mode of life-a region endowed with a of the basic civilizations in world history.
warm but not oppressively hot climate,
an adequate but not excessive rainfall,
NOTES
copious and easily obtainable supplies of
water and of food, choice camp sites in CHAPTER I
protected river valleys and lake basins, GENERAL
and all the natural materials needed to
For tabulations of the geological eras and
fashion simple tools and weapons, in- periods with their approximate dates see,
cluding abundant modules of chert and among others, J. Laurence Kulp, "Geologic
other hard stones lying ready to hand in Time Scale: Isotopic age determinations on
rocks of known stratigraphic age define an
the rock formations of the plateau and in absolute time scale for earth history,"
the gravels of the river and its tribu- Science, CXXXIII, No. 3459 (April 14, 1961),
taries. pp. 1105-14; and F. E. Zeuner, Dating the
Past: An Introduction to Geochronology (4th
Here, too, was a land over most of ed. [London, 1958]), Fig. 83 (opp. p. 310).
which men and animals could roam with Much of the material presented in this
almost complete freedom and to which chapter is drawn more or less directly from
Rushdi Said's The Geology of Egypt
they could readily journey from other (Amsterdam-New York, 1962); from K. W.
parts of the Old World, unchecked by wide Butzer's "Die Naturlandschaft Agyptens
expanses of open sea, trackless wastes, or wiahrend der Vorgeschichte und der Dy.
nastischen Zeit," Abhandlungen der Akademie
ice-capped mountains. From the south der Wisenechaften und der Literatur, Math.-
the wandering bands could follow the naturwiss. Klasse, 1959, Nr. 2 (Wiesbaden
banks of the Nile and its tributaries [1959]), pp. 45-122; from J. Ball's Contribu-
tions to the Geography of Egypt (Ministry of
northward from east or central Africa. Finance, Egypt: Survey and Mines Depart.
On the east the Isthmus of Suez linked ment [Cairo, 1941]); from K. S. Sandford
the Delta with western Asia and, ulti- and W. J. Arkell's PrehistoricSurvey of Egypt
and Western Asia, published in four volumes
mately, with the rest of that huge conti- during the years 1929-1939 by the Oriental
nent, as well as with Eurasia and eastern Institute of the University of Chicago
 oi.uchicago.edu

30 FORMATION OF THE LAND

("OIP" X, XVII, XVIII, XLVI); and from logical Magazine (GM [Hertford, 1864 ff.]),
the same authors' "First Report on the the Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Prehistoric Survey Expedition" in "OIC" Institute (JRAI [London, 1871 ff.]), Man
No. 3, 1928. Extensive use was also made of (London, 1901 ff.), Erdkunde: Archiv ffir
M. Blanckenhorn's Aegypten (Handbuch der wissenschaftliche Geographie (Bonn, 1947 ff.),
regionalen Geologie, VII, 9, 23 [Heidelberg the Geologische Rundschau (GR [Leipzig,
1921]) and of W. F. Hume's five-volume 1910 ff.]), and the Zeitschrift der Deutschen
Geology of Egypt (Ministry of Finance, geologischen Gesellschaft (ZDGG [Berlin, 1848
Egypt: Survey of Egypt [Cairo, 1925-1948]). ff.]). Several important monographs have
S. A. Huzayyin's The Place of Egypt in been published in the Mdmoires de l'Institut
Prehistory ("MIE," XLIII [Cairo, 1941]), d'4gypte (MIE [Cairo, 1862 ff.]). The
though devoted chiefly to a study of climates Compte rendu of the Congres Internationalde
and cultures, is rich in material on the geo- Gdographie (Cairo, 1925) (C.-R.CIG, 1925)
history, physiography, and biogeography of and the Proceedings of the Pan-African
Egypt and neighboring lands; contains Congress on Prehistory (PPACP [Nairobi,
summaries and assessments of the often 1947; Algiers, 1952; etc.]) contain a number
conflicting views of geologists and pre- of reports of interest and value.
historians in regard to Egypt; and is provided Among the more useful lists of references
with a seventy-page bibliography of works is E. H. Keldani's A Bibliography of Geology
published prior to 1941. The 1929 English and Related Sciences concerning Egypt up to
edition of Karl Baedeker's handbook, Egypt the End of 1939 (Ministry of Finance, Egypt:
and the Sitddn, offers good, short treatments Department of Survey and Mines [Cairo,
of the geography and geology of Egypt 1941]).
(pp. xlviii ff.), descriptions of individual sites
and physiographical features, and an excellent
1. THE EGYPTIAN TABLELAND
series of maps; and much useful information
is incorporated in the Encyclopaedia Britan- This section is a shortened and simplified
nica's article on "Egypt" (11th ed., IX, version of the accounts of the formation,
21 ff.). For a brief and interestingly written elevation, and physiography of the table-
survey of the geohistory of the ancient world land given by Sandford and Arkell in their
J. L. Myre's "Primitive Man in Geological "First Report," pp. 5-6, and in their Pre-
Time" (The Cambridge Ancient History, historic Survey, I, 5-7; II, 1-5; IV, 1-10, 93;
Vol. I [1924 ed.], Chap. I, pp. 1 ff.) is still to and Sandford Prehistoric Survey, III, 1-2,
be recommended. 121; Ball in his Contributions, pp. 13-28,
In 1910 the Egyptian Government's presents brief and clear descriptions of the
Survey Department issued Geological Maps pre-Tertiary and Tertiary rock formations
of Egypt at scales of 1:2,000,000 and of the Egyptian plateau and their present
1:1,000,000; and, in 1928, an Atlas of Egypt distribution, as does Butzer in his "Die
comprising "A Series of Maps with Descrip- Naturlandschaft Agyptens," pp. 51-55. Much
tive Texts illustrating the Orography, Geo- more detailed descriptions will be found in
logy, Meteorology and Economic Conditions."' Hume's Geology, in Said's Geology, in
Thanks to the same department contoured Blanckenhorn's Aegypten, in K. S. Sand-
maps of the whole or parts of Egypt at scales ford's "Geological Observations on the
ranging from 1:500,000 to 1:1000 are also Northwest Frontiers of the Anglo-Egyptian
now available. Especially useful is the Sudan and the Adjoining Part of the South-
1:100,000 Topographic Series of the Survey ern Libyan Desert," The Quarterly Journal
of Egypt and Department of Survey and Mines, of the Geological Society of London (QJGS),
Cairo (reprinted by the Army Map Service, XCI (1935), 323-81, and in numerous
Washington, D. C.). See also Rushdi Said, articles devoted to individual formations,
The Geology of Egypt, pp. 18 if. such as A. R. Gindy's "The Igneous and
Of many periodicals in the general field Metamorphic Rocks of the Aswin Area,
the three most used by writers on the geology Egypt," BIE, XXXVII, Fasc. 2 (1956),
and prehistory of Egypt are the Bulletin de 83-133; R. A. Higazy and H. M. Wasfy,
l'Institut d'A gypte (BIE [Cairo, 1859 if.]), the "Petrogenesis of Granitic Rocks in the
Bulletin de la Soci t (Royale) de Gdographie Neighborhood of Aswan," Egy. Bull. Inst.
d'tgypte (BS[R]GE [Cairo, 1879 ff.]), and, Desert VI (Egypt 1956) No. 1, pp. 209-48;
more recently, the Bulletin de l'Institut A. Rittmann, "Some Remarks on the Geo-
(Fouad I) du Ddaert d'gypte (BIDE [Cairo, logy of Aswan," BIDE, III, No. 2 (July,
1951 ff.]). Impprtant articles on the same 1953), 35-64; N. M. Shukri and R. Said's
subjects have appeared in The Geographical "Contribution to the Geology of the Nubian
Journal (GJ [London, 1893 ff.)], The Geo- Sandstone," BIE, XXVII (1946), 229-64,
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND 31

451; N. M. Shukri and M. K. El Ayouti, "The 2. THE NILE VALLEY
Mineralogy of the Nubian Sandstone in
Aswan," BIDE, III, No. 2 (1953), 65-88; Ball. (Contributions,pp. 74-84), is inclined
S. E. Nakkady's "The Foraminiferal Fauna to believe that until Upper Paleolithic
of the Esna Shales of Egypt," BIE, XXXI (Lower Sebilian) times the Nile system
(1949), 209-47; G. Andrew's "The Grey- consisted, "not of a single river, but two
wackes of the Eastern Desert," BIE, XXI separate rivers, one coming from Lake
(1939), 153-90; etc. Victoria and ending in a lake to the south of
On Gebel Abu Roash there is a definitive Khartoum, the other having the Atbara for
study by H. J. Beadnell ("The Cretaceous its head-waters and discharging into the sea."
Region of Abu Roash, near the Pyramids of According to G. Andrew (Agriculture and the
Giza") in the Geological Survey Report for Sudan, p. 106) "it seems probable that the
1900, Part II (Cairo, 1902). See also Said, White Nile basin had no outlet north for a
Geology, pp. 197-201. Descriptions of the considerable time in the Pleistocene"; but
Moqattam Hills, where for millenniums the that conditions "around the juncture of the
Egyptians have quarried the fine white lime- Atbara with the Nile" and "in the Khashm
stone of Tura and Masaara, are given by Said el girba area suggest a natural evolution of
(Geology, pp. 97, 136, 317), by Hume (Geo- the Atbara river" by Lower Paleolithic
logy, I, 7), by Blanckenhorn (Aegypten, ("Chellean") times. A. J. Arkell (Sudan
pp. 81 ff.), by Sandford (PrehistoricSurvey, Antiquities Service, Occasional Papers, No. 1,
III, 2, 4; IV, 4), and by many other writers. pp. 47, 48, 51) believes that, while "the Blue
The approximate positions of the Mediter- Nile may be a comparatively recent river,"
ranean shorelines of Egypt during successive which probably came into existence "since
periods of the Tertiary appear in maps the Lower Paleolithic, the drainage of the
prepared by Ball (Contributions, Pl. VIII), Lake Tana area.., originally reached the
Myres (Cambridge Ancient History [1924 ed.], Nile via the Atbara" and that by Acheulian
I, Map 1, opp. p. 16), and Beadnell (Topo- times "there must have been a considerable
graphy and Geology of the Faym Province, White Nile which was running at approxi-
p. 67, fig. 6). On the Middle Miocene shore- mately the present level to the Nile." On
line see also Blanckenhorn, Aegypten, p. 187; the same subject see also Butzer, "Die
and on the shoreline "in the further course Naturlandschaft," pp. 55-56, 59, 62-63;
of the late Tertiary," Butzer, "Die Natur- Blanckenhorn, Aegypten, p. 187; Sandford
landschaft," p. 54. See also, more recently, and Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, I, 7; II,
K. W. Butzer, "On the Pleistocene Shore 23-24, 82.
Lines of Arabs' Gulf, Egypt," The Journalof The expression Urnil, "Primeval Nile,"
Geology (Chicago), LXVIII (1960), 626-37, and the concept of a huge predecessor of
and "Pleistocene Stratigraphy and Pre- the present river flowing through what is
history in Egypt," Quaternaria, VI (Rome, now the Libyan desert were originated by
1962), pp. 451-56. Blanckenhorn in two articles called "Die
In his presentation of the geology of Geschichte der Nilstroms in der Tertiar- und
Egypt, Said divides the land into four Quartairperiode..." published in the Zeit-
geologic provinces: (1) the Arabo-Nubian schrift der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde (Berlin)
massif of igneous and metamorphic rock for 1902 (pp. 694-722, 753-62). T. Arldt in
formations which comprises the Sinai Penin- 1915 ("Aus der Entwicklungsgeschichte der
sula and the area between the Nile and the Landenge von Suez und ihrer Nachbarge-
Red Sea; (2) the Stable Shelf, adjoining biets," Naturen (Bergen), X, 287) and
portions of this massif and characterized by again in 1918 ("Zur Palaographie des
minor faulting and doming, where the Nillandes in Kreide und Tertiir," Geo-
Nubian sandstone and overlying rocks were logische Rundschau, 1918, pp. 47, 104)
laid down in Cretaceous and early Tertiary elaborated upon Blanckenhorn's thesis and
times; (3) the Unstable Shelf, largely within attempted to trace the course of the Urnil
150 miles of the Mediterranean coast, where from the Sudan northward through the line
subsidence and folding led to the accumula- of Libyan oases (cf. also R. Uhden, Geol.
tion of sediments of Carboniferous to Miocene Rundschau, XX [1929], 180-86; M. Pfan-
age up to 14,000 feet in thickness; and (4) nenstiel, Abh. Akad. Wiss. Liter. Math..
the Gulf of Suez Taphrogeosyncline, where, naturw. Kl., 1953, Nr. 7, pp. 369 f.). Belief
in the paraphrasing of Conant, (1963), "exten- in the existence of an ancient Libyan Nile
sive and irregular block faulting" "has per- with a course well to the west of the present
mitted the accumulation of great thicknesses river was subsequently reaffirmed by
of sediments ranging in age from at least Blanckenhorn in 1921 (Aegypten, pp. 186-
the Carboniferous to the present." 87); and has been shared by other geologists
 oi.uchicago.edu

32 FORMATION OF THE LAND

including Beadnell (Topography... of the more recently, Butzer, "Naturlandschaft,"

Fayum Province [1905], p. 67, Fig. 6), and pp. 54-56, 58, 60; Science, CXXXII (1960),
Said (Geology [1962]): but was firmly rejected 1618.
by Ball (The Geographical Journal, LXX The periods, or stages, in the geohistory
[1927], 28-32) and by Sandford and Arkell of the Mediterranean area ("Mediterran-
(PrehistoricSurvey, IV [19391, 17). The word stufe") as drawn up by Edward Suess for
"Urnil," however, has been retained here, the latter half of the Tertiary period are
as elsewhere, as a convenient term for defined by him in the first volume (pp. 363 ff.)
describing the Upper Eocene and Oligocene of his classic work, Das Antlitz der Erde (3d
ancestor of the present Nile. ed. 5 vols. [Leipzig, 1885-1909])-available
A theory that the wood which comprises also in an English translation by H. G. E.
the "Petrified Forests" was silicified before Sollas: The Face of the Earth (5 vols. [Oxford,
being carried downstream by the river is 1904-1909]).
advanced by M. M. Ibrahim, and N. M. The mid-Tertiary crustal movements and
Shukri, in BIE, XXV (1943), 159-82; XXVI the resulting physiographical features in
(1944), 71-75; and XXXIV (1951-52), 317- Egypt are discussed, with ample references,
19. See, however, Said, The Geology of Egypt by Arkell and Sandford in Prehistoric
(1962), p. 220. Survey, IV, 4-10. See also Sandford, Pre-
The animal remains recovered from the historic Survey, III, 3-8. For a description of
Upper Eocene estuarine and Oligocene delta the hot springs at Helwan see Hume,
deposits are discussed by Blanckenhorn in Geology, I, 138 if.
Aegypten, pp. 103-105, 110-11. To the
numerous references cited by Blanckenhorn 3. THE RED SEA AND THE RED SEA HILLS
may be added C. W. Andrews, "Notes on an
Expedition to the Fayim, Egypt, with The material presented in this section is
Description of some New Mammals," The drawn chiefly from Blanckenhorn, Aegypten,
pp. 143 (the Red Sea), 191-94 (the Eastern
Geological Magazine, X (1903), 337-43; Y. S.
Moustafa, "An Interpretation of Arsinoe- Desert and the Red Sea Hills), and 194-96
(Sinai); and from Sandford and Arkell, Pre-
therium," BIE, XXXVI (1955), 111-18;
hi8toric Survey, IV, 7-10 (on the Red Sea,
and "The Fayum Fossil Bone Field," Ibid.,
pp. 119-27. See also Keldani, Bibliography, see especially pp. 8-10), 22-36, 45-46, 60-67,
Nos. 44-72, 713, 760, 1761-65, 1798, 1978-90. 92-96, and 98; and from Said, Geology,
pp. 15-16, 35-36, 107-26, 151 f.). Excellent
Blanckenhorn (Aegypten, pp. 187-90) was
descriptions of Egypt's Eastern Desert and
also one of the principal proponents of the
its chain of mountains will be found in
theory that the present Nile Valley is of
the first volume of Hume's Geology (pp. 5-6,
tectonic, or rift, origin. This theory was 84-87, 108); and for a detailed study of a
contested by Ball and Hume in The Geo.
large part of the region the reader may
logical Magazine for 1910, pp. 71-76, 385-89
(see also Hume, BSRGE, XVII [1929], 1-11); consult T. Barron and W. F. Hume, Topo.
graphy and Geology of the Eastern Desert of
and is rejected by Sandford and Arkell in
the introductory chapters to the four Egypt, Central Portion (Survey Department,
volumes of their PrehistoricSurvey. Though Public Works Ministry: Geological Survey
not subscribing to the rift theory, Huzayyin Report [Cairo, 1902]); Shukri, BIDE III;
No. 2 (1953), and Gindy, BIE, XXXVII,
(Place of Egypt, p. 150) has suggested that
Fasc. 2 (1956).
the erosion of the Lower Nile Valley "might
have worked along some favorable line (or
lines) of structural weakness," and this 4. THE PLIOCENE GULF
appears to be admitted also by Sandford in This subject is thoroughly dealt with by
Prehistoric Survey, III, 2, 4-8. According to Sandford and Arkell in the chapters devoted
Said (The Geology of Egypt [1962], p. 26) to the Pliocene period in the four volumes of
"available evidence shows that the course the Prehistoric Survey. The extent of the
of the river was largely governed by a waters of the gulf to the south, east, and
crustal disturbance," and (p. 87) that "the west and the possibilities of a connection at
Nile was probably eroded on a line of this time between the Nile Valley and the
faulting and rifting." An interesting explana- oasis of Kharga are discussed in Vol. II,
tion of the manner in which the cutting of pp. 6 if. On the Pliocene gulf deposits in
the Egyptian Nile Valley may have been general and the formation of the low desert
inaugurated is given by Sandford and Arkell in particular see also Butzer, "Naturland.
in their "First Report," pp. 6-7, and, in schaft," pp. 55 if.
slightly modified forms, in the successive Among the detached masses of Eocene
volumes of the Prehistoric Survey. See also, limestone slipped down from the valley sides
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND 33

is the great rock of Gebelein, a prominent variations in sea-level"; and McBurney
feature of the river landscape some seventeen (p. 128) summed up the situation as follows:
miles upstream from Luxor. "If the older chronology for Europe and
North-West Africa be adopted, then we are
virtually compelled to reject the Nile
5. THE RIVER AND WADI TERRACES evidence at its face value; either the correla-
Here again the principal reference is tion between the upper and lower reaches is
Sandford and Arkell's Prehistoric Survey, defective, or else that between the lower
the greater part of which is devoted to a reaches and the former sea-levels. On the
study of the Plio-Pleistocene and Pleistocene whole the latter seems to be the more likely
terraces and to the Paleolithic implements alternative."
found in the 100-foot and lower terraces. A The clearest and most convincing solution
short account of the terraces and of the of the problems presented by the Nile
problems connected with them, couched in terraces-and the one adopted here-is that
non-technical language, is given by the same given by K. W. Butzer in his important
authors in their "First Report," pp. 10-17 "Contributions to the Pleistocene Geology
(see also pp. 18-24) and includes on p. 12 of the Nile Valley," in Erdkunde, XIII
(Fig. 7) a diagrammatic cross-section of the (1959), 46-67. See also the same author's
Nile Valley showing the relationship of Quaternary Stratigraphy and Climate in the
the terraces to one another and to the Near East (Bonner Geographieche Abhand-
present alluvial plain (see also Ball, Contribu- lungen, Heft 24 [Bonn, 1958]), pp. 60-64, 75,
tions, pp. 41 ff., fig. 3). An article published 97-98, and "Naturlandschaft Agyptens,"
in 1929 by Sandford in The QuarterlyJournal pp. 56 f.; "Pleistocene Stratigraphy and
of the Geological Society of London (LXXXV, Prehistory in Egypt," Quaternaria, VI
493-548) deals in some detail with "The (1962, Rome), 456-65.
Pliocene and Pleistocene Deposits of Wadi The implementiferous gravels of the
Qena and of the Nile Valley between Luxor ballast-pits of Abbassiya are published by
and Assiut (Qau)"-that is, with the pre- P. Bovier-Lapierre ("Le Paldolithique stratifid
terrace, terrace, and post-terrace develop- des environs du Caire," L'Anthropologie
ments of that particular region. [Paris], XXXV [1925], 37-46; "Les gisements
Since the appearance of these publications, paldolithiques de la plaine de l'Abassieh,"
however, it has become clear that important BIE, n.s. VIII (1926), 257-72) and are dis-
revisions must be made in their over- cussed by numerous writers including Sand-
simplified picture of a single eustatically ford and Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, I, 29;
controlled series of terraces extending from II, 14, 28, 73; III, 42, 55, 110; IV, passim
the Second Cataract to the sea and in their (see especially p. 95); Huzayyin, Place of
correlation of the Paleolithic industries of Egypt, pp. 182-85, 192, Pls. VI-VIII;
Egypt with the successive terraces (Pre- Butzer, Erdkunde, XIII, 49-51, cf. 53,
historic Survey, III, 126) and Mediterranean 55, 65; Butzer, Quaternaria, VI, 465-66;
sea-levels. See, for example, H. Alimen, The Alimen, Prehistory, pp. 80-81, 88-92;
Prehistory of Africa (London, 1957), pp. 80- McBurney, Stone Age, pp. 125-26.
82; C. B. M. McBurney, The Stone Age of The fossil soil profiles of the Pleistocene
Northern Africa (Pelican Books, A 342 terraces are described, with ample references,
[Harmondsworth, 1960]), pp. 127-28; W. B. by Butzer in Erdkunde, XIII, 61-65, and in
Wright, Tools and the Man (London, 1939), his "Naturlandschaft," pp. 61-62; Quater-
pp. 157-58, 213-14; Huzayyin, Place of naria, VI, 460-65 and the occurrence of
Egypt, pp. 153 if. In 1941 Huzayyin (loc. augite in the 100-foot terrace deposits of
cit.) felt that local climatic changes may northern Egypt is noted (again with ref-
have played a more important role in the erences) by the same author on p. 55 of the
formation of the terraces than is conceded first of these three publications.
by Sandford and Arkell; and in 1946
G. Caton-Thompson presented a somewhat 6. "RECENT" DEVELOPMENTS IN
revised picture of the industries and chrono-
THE NILE VALLEY
logy of the 30-foot terrace and the ensuing
phases of Egyptian prehistory ("The Leval- In the last three volumes of their Pre-
loisian Industries of Egypt," Proceedings of historic Survey Sandford and Arkell deal in
the Prehistoric Society [Cambridge], new considerable detail with the "post-terrace"
series, XII, No. 4, 57-120, see especially phases of silt deposition and erosion as these
pp. 68-84). Alimen (loc. cit.) expressed the phases were observed and studied by them
belief that "only the terraces in Lower in successive sections of the lower Nile
Egypt can be reasonably equated with Valley: Nubia and southern Upper Egypt
 oi.uchicago.edu

34 FORMATION OF THE LAND

(Vol. II, Chap. V-VII); Upper and Middle Butzer's well supported contention that the
Egypt, Sandford (Vol. III, Chap. VII, rate of silt deposition was anything but con-
VIII); and Lower Egypt, Sandford and stant over the whole of the period involved
Arkell (Vol. IV, Chap. V, VI). The same invalidates to a great extent the use of this
phases and their chronological, geographical, rate as a time scale, as proposed, for example,
and climatic relationships one to another are by J. H. Breasted in his article on "The
summarized by Sandford in AJSL, XLVIII Origins of Civilization" in The Scientific
(1932), 174-83 (see especially the diagram of Monthly, IX (1919), 306-308 (cf. Ball,
pp. 182-83), by Ball (Contributions, p. 45); Contributions, p. 176). Butzer in "Die
by Huzayyin (Place of Egypt, pp. 152-54, Naturlandschaft," p. 68, n. 1, and Geogr.
157); and more recently and from a sig. Journ., CXXV, 78, n. 6, also casts serious
nificantly fresh point of view by Butzer doubts on the evidence advanced by Huzay-
("Naturlandschaft," pp. 57-58, 60, 62-66; yin (Place of Egypt, pp. 153, n. 2, 158-59,
Erdkunde, XIII, 55, 66; Quaternaria, VI, 322-23. Cf. I. Rizkana, Bull. Inst. Desert,
459 ff.). II, 2 [1952], 117-30) for an interval of high
The contemporaneous storm beaches of aggradation followed by degradation in
the Fayum lake and the scarp deposits of Neolithic and early Chalcolithic times, the
Kharga Oasis have been studied at length by evidence in question being the presence of
G. Caton-Thompson, E. W. Gardner, H. J. Final Paleolithic or Pre-Neolithic implements
L. Beadnell, and others (see below, under beneath a deposit of "Abyssinian silt" rising
the sections devoted to "The Fayum Lake to a height of 50 ft. above present alluvium
Basin" and "The Oases of the Libyan in the neighborhood of Maadi.
Desert"). The expression "terre vegdtale" was coined
The term "Sebilian," used as a con- by R. Fourtau, whose "Contribution &
venient, if somewhat loose, designation of l'6tude des dep6ts nilotiques" (MIE, VIII
the industries, fauna, and deposits of final [1915], 57-94) is outstanding among the
Middle Paleolithic and Late Paleolithic times works devoted to the study of the current
in Egypt, is derived from the name of a silt-deposition stage in Nile history. The
modern settlement (Ezbet el-Sebil) in the chemical composition and other charac-
Kom Ombo basin, near which cultural teristics of the silts are discussed also by
remains regarded as particularly charac- S. Passarge in Die Urlandschaft Agyptens
teristic of this period were found (E. Vignard, (Halle, 1940), pp. 13-15 (87-89), and their
"Une nouvelle industrie lithique, le 'Sdbi- mineralogical content by N. M. Shukri and
lien,' " BIFAO, XXII (1923), 1-104; etc.). N. Azer, "Mineralogy of Pliocene and More
On the late Pleistocene (Sebilian) fauna of Recent Sediments in the Fayum," Bull. Inst.
the Kom Ombo basin and the secondary Desert, II, 1 (1952), 10-53. Chaps. V-VII of
deposits of Qau and Asyut see especially C. Ball's Contributions provide valuable, de-
Gaillard, "Contribution k l'6tude de la faune tailed descriptions and discussions of "The
prdhistorique de l'IEgypte," Arch. Mus. hist. Solid Matter Transported. . . by the Nile"
nat. Lyon, XIV (1934), 1-125 (see pp. 3-58); and "The Alluvial Land of Egypt."
Sandford, Prehistoric Survey, III, 84-87; The early history of the Nile inundation,
Huzayyin, Place of Egypt, p. 81; and Butzer, with special reference to the initial establish-
"Naturlandschaft," pp. 63-64. ment of communication between the lower
Naturally enough, neither aggradation nor Nile and the Abyssinian and equatorial river
degradation were uniform at any one time systems, is discussed by Passarge, Urland-
over the whole stretch of the river from the schaft, pp. 11 (85), 20 (94), 22 (96); by
Second Cataract to the sea, bed erosion con- Butzer, "Naturlandschaft," pp. 55-57, 59,
tinuing in the north long after silt deposition 60, 62-64, 66; Geogr. Journ., CXXV, 77;
had commenced in the south, and vice versa. Erdkunde, XIII, 55; and by Ball, Contribu-
We find, for example, that until the construc- tions, pp. 74-84. Valuable data on the same
tion of the modern dam at Shellal the Nile subject is incorporated in the works of A. J.
was still degrading its channel in Nubia, Arkell and others on the prehistory of the
though north of the First Cataract silt Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (see, for example,
aggradation has been in progress for approxi- Arkell, Sudan Antiquities Service, Occasional
mately ten thousand years. Papers, No. 1 [1949], pp. 47, 48, 51; Andrew,
A lucid and interesting picture of this Agriculture in the Sudan, p. 106; Sandford,
latest aggradation phase is presented by Geological Magazine, LXXXVI [1949], 97 ff.;
Butzer in "Die Naturlandschaft," pp. 65-71, Geogr. Rev., XXVI, 67-76). The present-day
and in The Geographical Journal, CXXV relationships of these systems to the main
(1959), 75-79 ("Some Recent Geological river may be studied in H. G. Lyons' The
Deposits in the Egyptian Nile Valley"). Physiography of the River Nile and its Basin
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND 35

(Survey Department: Finance Ministry, also by the same author, "On the Pleistocene
Egypt [Cairo, 1906]) (see also Passarge, Shorelines of Arabs' Gulf, Egypt," The
Urlandschaft, pp. 8-10 [82-84]). To the same Journal of Geology, Chicago LXVIII (1960),
author we owe a brief, but valuable, account and QuaternariaVI (Rome, 1962) 451-56.
of the inundation contributed to the 1929 Among the classical writers who list and
edition of Baedeker's Egypt and the Suddn discuss the ancient mouths of the Nile are
(pp. lxvi-lxvii). Additional information on Herodotus (II. 17), Diodorus Siculus (I.
the subject will be found in abundance in, for xxxiii. 8-9), Strabo (XVII. i. 4), and Pliny
example, H. E. Hurst, The Nile (London, the Elder (Hist. Nat., V. 10). See J. Ball,
1957) F. R. Cana's article on the "Nile" in Egypt in the Classical Geographers (Cairo,
the 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia 1942), pp. 22-28, 48-49, 57-59, 69-70, 74-76;
Britannica, XIX, 695-96; A. Reim's article,
"Nilschwelle," in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-
0. Toussoun, Mimoire sur les anciennes
branches du Nil (MIE, IV [Cairo, 1922]); and
Encyclopeidie der class. Alterumswissenschaft, Mdmoire sur l'histoire du Nil (MIE, VIII
XVII, 1 (1936), Cols. 571-90; Passarge's [Cairo, 1925]), Chap. VIII.
Urlandschaft, pp. 11-12 (85-86); Breasted's On the vertebrate fauna of the Pliocene
History of Egypt, pp. 7-8; C. E. P. Brooks' beds of the Wadi el-Natrun the basic
Climate throughout the Ages (rev. ed., 1949), reference is E. Stromer, "Mitteilungen fiber
pp. 329-33; and W. Pietsch's Das Abflussge- die Wirbeltierreste aus dem Mittelpliociin
biet des Nils (Dr. Phil. Dissertation. Berlin, des Natrontales," Zeitschrift der Deutschen
1910). Geologischen Gesellschaft, LXV (1913), 350-
On the late and post-Pleistocene aeolian 72; LXVI (1914), 1-33, 420-25.
deposits of the Egyptian Nile Valley our
principal reference is Butzer, The Geo.
8. THE NUBIAN NILE VALLEY
graphical Journal, CXXV (1959), 75-77. AND ITS CATARACTS

Besides Sandford and Arkell's Paleolithic

7. LOWER EGYPT AND THE DELTA OF THE NILE Man and the Nile Valley in Nubia and Upper
Our picture of the geohistory and physio- Egypt (Prehistoric Survey, Vol. II: "OIP,"
graphy of Lower Egypt in late Tertiary, Vol. XVII [Chicago, 1933]) the principal
Pleistocene, and post-Pleistocene times is works consulted in the preparation of this
drawn to a very great extent from Sandford section were J. Ball's The Semna Cataract or
and Arkell's Paleolithic Man and the Nile Rapid of the Nile: A Study in River Erosion
Valley in Lower Egypt-the fourth and last (London, 1903); the same author's A
volume of their Prehistoric Survey (OIP, Description of the First or Aswan Cataract of
vol. XLVI [Chicago, 1939])-; from Said's the Nile (Cairo, 1907); 0. H. Little and M. I.
Geology, pp. 151-225 passim; and from Attia's The Development of Aswan District
Butzer's "Die Naturlandschaft Agyptens," with Notes on South EasternEgypt (Geological
pp. 71-78 (see also pp. 53-58, 61-62, 66; Survey of Egypt [Cairo, 1944-45]); reports
Erdkunde, XIII, 47, 50, 52-55). To these by Ball and H. J. L. Beadnell on the Kalab.
have been added data on Egypt's Mediter- sha and Silsila gorges and the Kom Ombo
ranean coast given by Blanckenhorn in his plain in The Quarterly Journal of the Geo.
Aegypten, pp. 13-14; and information on logical Society, Vols. LIX (p. 75) and LXI
the modern Delta provided by J. Lozach in (pp. 670-71); Said's Geology, pp. 9, 50-54,
Le Delta du Nil, a publication of the Soci6te 88 if., 129 ff.; and Hume's Geology, Vol. II,
Royale de G6ographie d'1gypte (Cairo, 1935). Part II, pp. 589 if., 604 (also I, 8). A good
A theory on the growth of the Delta brief account of the geology of the Aswan
advanced by Ball (Contributions, pp. 51 ff.) region, with a useful bibliography, is incor.
has been challenged by Zeuner (Dating the porated in the Report on the Safeguarding of
Past, p. 233) who, in describing the ancient the Philae Monuments, prepared for UNESCO
marine bars of Arabs Gulf, notes that the by order of the Netherlands Government
positions of these bars "indicate clearly that (November, 1960. See pp. 19-24).
the shoreline has advanced relatively little" A. Rittmann in "Some Remarks on the
and that "the size of the delta, therefore, has Geology of Aswan" (Bull. Inst. Desert, III,
increased but moderately since early Pleisto- No. 2 (July 1953), 35-64) disagrees with
cene times." On the Pleistocene shorelines of previous authorities in contending that the
Egypt's Mediterranean coast see especially coarse-grained granite and the dioritic rocks
Shukri, Philip and Said (1956), Butzer in of the Aswan area are not of plutonic, but of
Quaternary Stratigraphy and Climate in the metamorphic origin; and in this he is joined
Near East (Bonner Geographische Abhand- by A. R. Gindy (BIE, XXVII, Fasc. 2, 83-
lungen, Heft 24. Bonn, 1958); pp. 36-38; 120), N. W. Shukri, and others. See, how.
 oi.uchicago.edu

36 36FORMATION OF THE LAND

ever, more recently, Butzer, "Naturland- Ball, J., Contributions to the Geography of Egypt
schaft," pp. 51-52. (Cairo, 1939), pp. 178-289.
The relatively late period to
which Huzayyin, S. A., The Place of Egypt in Prehistory
Sandford and Arkell (op. cit., pp. 7-8, 23-24, (Cairo, 1941), pp. 82-88.
26, 54-59) assign the cutting of the Nubian
Nile Valley and the river's initial encounter
Caton-Thompson, G., "The Levalloisian In-
dustries of Egypt," Proceedings of the Pre-
historic Society, new series, XII, No. 4 (1946),
with the granite barrier of the First Cataract pp. 75, 83, 90, 97, 100 if.
disposes of the old and frequently expressed Huzayyin, S. A., "Le depression de Fayyoum:
theory that the so-called "rupture" of this un exemple d'erosion eolienne," C.R. Congr.
barrier determined the course of the Egyp- .It. Geogr. (Lisbon, 1949), pp. 731-33.
tian Nile and led to the cutting of its valley Caton-Thompson, G., Kharga Oasis in Prehistory
(see, for example, J. de Morgan, Recherches (London, 1952), pp. 18-19, 33, 143.
sur 1e8 origine8 de l'Agypte, I, 22-23; Pfannenstiel, M., "Die Entstehung der agyp-
tischen Oasendepressionen. Das Quartar der
P. Bovier-Lapierre in Preci8 de l'histoire Levante II," Abh. Akad. Wiss. Liter. Math.-
d'fIgypte, I, 11; I-. Drioton and J. Vandier,
L'Egypte ["Clio," I, II], p. 1).
Naturw. Kl., 1953, Nr. 7, pp. 344-406 passim.
Butzer, K. W., Quaternary Stratigraphy and
Climate in the Near East (Bonner Geographische
9. THE FAYUM LAKE BASIN Abhandlungen, Heft 24. Bonn, 1958), pp. 68-
71, 75, 99.
The observations made and views held Forde-Johnston, J. L., Neolithic Cultures of
during the last seventy years by leading North Africa (Liverpool, 1959), p. 7.
geologists and prehistorians in connection McBurney, C. B. M., The Stone Age of Northern
with the origin and development of the Africa (Harmondsworth, 1960), pp. 78-80,
Fayum and its lake may be studied in the 125, 145-49, 233-40.
following publications, listed here in chrono- Said, R., The Geology of Egypt (Amsterdam-New
logical order: York, 1962), pp. 14, 99-106.
Butzer, K. W., "Pleistocene Stratigraphy and
Brown, R H., The Payim and Lake Moeris Prehistory in Egypt," QuaternariaVI (Rome,
(London, 1892). 1962) 467.
Beadnell, H. J. L., The Topography and Geology
of the Fayum Province of Egypt (Survey of
Egypt) (Cairo, 1905). 10. THE OASES OF THE LIBYAN DESERT
182-83.
Blanckenhorn, M., Aegypten (1921), pp. Among the more comprehensive and
Caton-Thompson, G., and Gardner, E. W., "The valuable general works on the Libyan
Recent Geology and Neolithic Industry of the Desert and its oases is the three-volume
Northern Fayum Desert," Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute, LVI (1926),
report of the Rohlfs Expedition of 1873-74:
pp. 301-32.
G. Rohlfs, P. Ascherson, W. Jordan, and
- "The Recent Geology of the Northern K. A. Zittel, Expedition zur Erforschung der
Fayum Desert," Geological Magazine, LXIV libyschen Wuste (Cassel, 1875-1883. See also
(1927), 386-410. Zittel, "Beitriige zur Geologie und Palaeonto-
-"Recent Work on the Problem of Lake
Moeris," The Geographical Journal, LXXIII
logie der Likyschen Wuiste ...,"
Palaeonto-
graphica, XXX [1883], 1-238). Of more
(1929), 20-60. recent date are E. Stromer's "Geograph-
Sandford, K. S., and Arkell, W. J., Paleolithic ische Beobachtungen in der Wulsten
Man and the Nile-Faiyum Divide (= Pre-
historic Survey, vol. I) (Chicago, 1929). Agyptens," Mitteilungen F. von Richthofen,
Gardner, E. W., "The Origin of the Faiyum 1913 (Berlin, 1914) and his Ergebnisse der
Depression: A Critical Commentary on a New Forschungsreioen Prof. E. Stromers in den
View of its Origin," The GeographicalJournal, Wusten Agyptens (3 parts. Munich, 1914-19);
LXXIV (1929), 371-83. portions of Said's Geology (pp. 11-14, 67-86,
Sandford, K. S., and Arkell, W. J., "The Origin 197--215) and of the first volume of Hume's
of the Faiyum Depression : The Faiyum and
Uganda," The Geographical Journal, LXXIV
Geology (pp. 4, 7, 36, 73-74, 83); J. Ball's
(1929), 578-84. "Problems of the Libyan Desert," The
Caton-Thompson, G., and Gardner, E. W., The Geographical Journal, LXX (1927), 21-38,
Desert Fayum (Royal Anthropological In- 105-28, 209-24; K. S.' Sandford's "Geology
stitute). 2 vols. (London, 1934). and Geomorphology of the Southern Libyan
Little, 0. H., "Recent Geological Work in the Desert," The GeographicalJournal,LXXXII
Faiyukm and in the Adjoining Portion of the (1933), 213-19 (see also pp. 219-22); H.
Nile Valley," BI E, XVIII (1936), 201-40.
Caton-Thompson, G., Gardner, E. W., and
Schmitthenner's "Die Stufenlandschaft am
Nil und in der Libyschen Wicaste," Geogr.
Huzayyin, S. A., "Lake Moeris: Re-investiga-
tions and Some Comments," DIE, XIX Zeitschrift (Leipzig), XXXVII (1931), 526-
40; and M. Pfannenstiel's "Die Entstehung
(1937), 243-303.
Sandford, K. S., and Arkell, W. J., Prehistoric der agyptisehen Oasendepressionen. Das
.aSursyTV;(Chiagon939)%99 Quart~r der Lea-unte II.," Abh. Ak ad. Wiss.
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND 37

Liter. Math.-Naturw. Kl., 1953, Nr. 7, statements by Caton-Thompson concerning

pp. 337-411. The opinions quoted in the first the oasis of Kharga will be found in two
paragraph of the text of this section regard- articles published in 1946 and cited in the
ing the origin of the oases are those of Hume notes to our succeeding section on Climate.
(Geology, I, p. 73). The most recent exponent The topography and geology of the Wadi
of early fluviatile ("Urnil") erosion as an el-Natrun are discussed by Blanckenhorn
important factor in the formation of the (Aegypten, pp. 181-82), Hume (Geology, I,
Fayum, Bahria, and the southern group of 161 ff.), and Sandford and Arkell (Pre.
oases is Pfannenstiel (op. cit. See especially historic Survey, IV, 17, 92, etc.); and those
pp. 361-62, 367-79, 382, 403-405. See also of the oasis of Siwa by R. H. Forbes, "Siwa
R. Uhden, "Der libysche Urnil in Oberigyp- Oasis: Geology, Water Supply, Soils, etc.,"
ten," Geol. Rundschau, XX [1929], 180-86; Cairo Scientific Journal, X (1921), 1-8. See
Blanckenhorn, Aegypten [1921], pp. 186-87; also M. A. Azadian, "L'Oasis de Siouah et ses
Beadnell, Topography . . . of the Fayum sources," BIE, IX (1927), 105-14.
Province [1905], p. 67; and cf. Ball, op. cit., Blanckenhorn's treatment of the oases
p. 32). (Aegypten, pp. 180-82) is colored by his
On five of the individual oases-Kharga, belief that the depressions are primarily the
Dakhla, Farafra, Bahria, and Kukur-there products of faulting-a view not held by
are excellent topographical and geological most of the geologists who have studied
reports drawn up by H. J. L. Beadnell and/or them.
J. Ball and published by the Survey Depart- A series of books and articles on the Wadi
ment of the Public Works Ministry of Egypt el-Natrun and the oases of Siwa, Bahria, and
during the years 1900-1903. Beadnell's well Farafra prepared by A. Fakhry and pub-
known book, An Egyptian Oasis. An Account lished by the Service des Antiquitds de
of the Oasis of Kharga in the Libyan Desert, l'1igypte deal chiefly with the dynastic and
etc. made its appearance a few years later later histories, antiquities, and modern
(London, 1909). H. E. Winlock's Ed Dakhleh aspects of the depressions.
Oasis (New York, 1936), though chiefly
taken up with the journal of a camel trip
made to the oasis in 1908, contains much of 11. CLIMATE
interest to the geographer and prehistorian Since 1900 when Lt.-Col. James A. Grant
(e.g., pp. 53 ff.). ("Grant Bey") published his frequently cited
In 1930-31, 1931-32, and 1932-33 the article, "The Climate of Egypt in Geological,
geography, geology, hydrography, paleonto- Prehistoric, and Ancient Times" (Victoria
logy, and prehistory of Kharga oasis were Institute, Journal of Transactions, XXXII,
re-examined by G. Caton-Thompson and 87-105) a wealth of new evidence on Egypt's
E. W: Gardner, Kharga Oasis in Prehistory climate during the Pleistocene epoch and
(London, 1952, quoted in the fourth para- the periods preceding and following it has
graph of this section) and in a succession of been brought to light, both in the Nile Valley
articles in Antiquity (V [1931], 221-26), The itself and in other portions of the Egyptian
Geographical Journal (LXXX [1932] 396- tableland. The bulk of this material will be
409; LXXXI [1933], 134-39, 528-30), The found collected and discussed in S. A.
Geological Magazine (LXIX [ 1932], 386-421), Huzayyin's The Place of Egypt in Pre-
Man (XXXI [1931], 77-84; XXXII [1932], history: A Correlated Study of Climate and
129-59; XXXIII [1933], 178-80; and The Cultures in the Old World (MIE, Vol. XLIII
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of [Cairo, 1941]); less recently, but in somewhat
London (XCI [1935], 479-518). Differences more concise form in the same author's "The
between the findings of Caton-Thompson Place of the Saharo-Arabian Area in the
and Gardner and those of Beadnell (notably, Palaeolithic Culture-Sequence of the Old
as regards the evidence for the existence or World: A Synoptic Review of Recent Data"
non-existence of a great prehistoric lake or (BIE, XX [1938], ..263-95); in S. Passarge's
lakes inside the depression) drew some Die Urlandschaft Agyptens und die Lokalisie-
"Remarks" by the latter in The Geographical rung der Wiege der altagyptischen Kultur
Journal, LXXXI (1933), 128-34. "Further (Nova Acta Leopoldina: Abhandlungen der
Remarks on the Kharga Oasis" were contri- Kaiserlich Leopolidinisch-Carolinisch Deut-
buted to the same periodical (LXXXI schen Akademie der Naturforscher, neue
[1933], 526-32) by O. H. Little, E. W. Folge, Band 9, No. 58 [Halle, 1940], pp. 75-
Gardner, K. S. Sandford, and J. Ball. The 152 [1-78]); and in G. W. Murray's "The
problems involved in these discussions are Egyptian Climate: an Historical Outline,"
conveniently summarized by Huzayyin, Geogr. Journ., CXVII (1951), 422-34.
Place of Egypt, pp. 89-94. Subsequent Since 1957 past climatic developments in
 oi.uchicago.edu

38 FORMATION OF THE LAND

Egypt, the Saharan region, and the Near intervening periods of erosion, but never
East in general have been re-studied by Karl reaching the amount typical of a Mediter-
W. Butzer and his findings-on which our ranean climate" (see, however, Butzer,
present section is to a great extent based- Bonn. Geogr. Abh., XXIV, p. 73). In the
have been published in a series of important same year (Geogr. Journ., LXXX, 400)
articles and monographs: "Mediterranean Caton-Thompson and Gardner together felt
Pluvials and the General Circulation of the that "in Kharga there were no 'pluvial
Pleistocene," Geograftska Annaler [Stock- periods' except in a strictly limited sense,
holm], XXXIX (1957), 48-53; "The Recent the area remaining throughout prehistoric
Climatic Fluctuations in Lower Latitudes times an arid region varying from full desert
and the General Circulation of the Pleisto- to poor steppe," but with "moist periods at
cene," ibid., pp. 105-13; "Late Glacial and intervals in the Paleolithic." In 1946, how-
Postglacial Climatic Variation in the Near ever, Caton-Thompson (Proc. Preh. Soc.,
East," Erdkunde, XI (1957), 21-35; "Das XII, 58, 60) represented the Pleistocene
okologische Problem der neolithischen Fels- climate of the oasis scarp as embracing a
bilder der ostlichen Sahara," Abh. Akad. first, and major, pluvial and a second
Wise. Liter. Math.-naturw. Kl., 1958, Nr. 1, pluvial, separated from one another by a
pp. 20-49; Quaternary Stratigraphy and period of aridity.
Climate in the Near East (Bonner Geo- Climatic developments in the lower Nile
graphiche Abhandlungen, Heft 24. Bonn, Valley from Pliocene times onward have
1958); "Contributions to the Pleistocene been discussed in some detail by Sandford
Geology of the Nile Valley," Erdkunde, XIII and Arkell, PrehistoricSurvey, I, 72; II, 85-
(1959), 46-67 (see especially pp. 61-66); 86; III, 125-26; IV, 97-98. See also Sand-
"Some Recent Geological Deposits in the ford, AJSL, XLVIII (1932), 178-79; and
Egyptian Nile Valley," The Geographical "Past Climate and Early Man in the Southern
Journal, CXXV (1959), 75-79; "Die Natur- Libyan Desert," The Geographical Journal,
landschaft Agyptens," pp. 56, 57, 59, 61-65, LXXXII (1933), 219-22. It is Sandford and
78-116; "Environment and Human Ecology Arkell who most stoutly refuse to recognize the
in Egypt during Predynastic and Early alternation here of Pleistocene "pluvial" and
Dynastic Times," Bulletin de la Socidtd de "interpluvial" phases. See, for example,
Gdographie d'4gypt, XXXII (1959), 43-87; Sandford's concluding remarks on "Climate"
and "Archaeology and Geology in Ancient in his PrehistoricSurvey, III, 126.
Egypt," Science, CXXXII (1960), 1617-24 Huzayyin (Place of Egypt [1941]), on the
(see especially pp. 1619, 1620, 1624); "Pleisto- other hand, finds evidence in Egypt for the
cene Stratigraphy and Prehistory in Egypt," existence of a First, and major, Pluvial
Quaternaria, VI (1962, Rome) 456-65; "The extending from late Pliocene times to the end
Pleistocene Sequence in Egypt and Its of the Lower Paleolithic stage of human
Implication for Pluvial Glacial Correlation development, an Interpluvial spanning the
in the Sahara," Acts. Fourth Pan African end of the Lower and the beginning of the
Congress on Prehistory (1962). The words Middle Paleolithic periods, and a Second
quoted in our third paragraph are from Pluvial, of Middle Paleolithic date, embracing
QuaternaryStratigraphy, p. 138. two or three sub-maxima and one or two
The development of Egypt's climate as "intrapluvials" (see also Blanckenhorn,
reconstructed by G. Caton-Thompson and Aegypten, pp. 152, 241-42). These phases he
E. W. Gardner from their work in the Fayum regards as sufficiently well established to
and in the oasis of Kharga is discussed by permit an approximate correlation, not only
them in the works cited in the notes to the with the pluvials and interpluvials observed
two preceding sections of this chapter and is in other parts of Africa and in western Asia,
referred to again by Miss Caton-Thompson but also with the glacial and interglacial
in her article on "The Aterian Industry: Its periods of the Great Ice Age in Europe.
Place and Significance in the Palaeolithic Thus, he is inclined to extend his Egyptian
World," The Journal of the Royal Anthropo- First Pluvial over both the Alpine Mindel
logical Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, and Riss glaciations including the Mindel-
LXXVI (1946), 87-130 (see especially Riss Interglacial, to correlate the Interpluvial
pp. 103 ff.). See also Caton-Thompson, Kharga in Egypt and Palestine with the Riss-Wirm
Oasis in Prehistory, pp. 14-21. Interglacial, and to distribute the successive
The Pleistocene rainfall on the Kharga sub-phases of the Second Pluvial over the
scarp was believed by Gardner in 1932 (Geol. last glaciation (Wirm) and the early stages
Mag., LXIX, 405) to have been "small in of the Late Glacial period (Achen, Bikhl, etc.).
amount and seasonal in type during the The post-pluvial dry phase would then fall
periods of tufa formation, increasing in the in the latter part of the Late Glacial period
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE IAND 39

and the Neolithic Wet Phase of the Saharo- p. 60); "On the Pleistocene Shore Lines of
Arabian belt would correspond to the post- Arabs' Gulf, Egypt," The Journal of Geology
Glacial warm phase of Europe. (Chicago) LXVIII (1960); "Pleistocene
In the fourth edition of his Dating the Past Stratigraphy and Prehistory in Egypt,"
(1958) F. E. Zeuner felt (p. 232) that the Quaternaria, VI (Rome, 1960) while the
Pleistocene chronology of Egypt is "still not absolute dates are in part those of Zeuner
clear" and (p. 229) that: "Among the (see especially Dating the Past,4 "Table of
countries bordering the Mediterranean on Dates," p. 145) and in part those of Butzer
the south, Palestine stands out as the only (see Quaternary Stratigraphy, pp. 14-18;
one where, up to the present, thorough work "Naturlandschaft," p. 60), emended on the
has established a sequence of pluvial phases basis of a recent article by H. L. Movius in
with which the succession of prehistoric Current Anthropology, I (1960), 355 ff. (see
industries can be correlated." below).
Interesting discussions of the climatic The astronomical method of dating the
developments in other portions of North phases of the Ice Age is based on periodical
Africa and in the Saharan belt as a whole perturbations in the orbit of the earth as
will be found in Zeuner, op. cit., pp. 246 if., reflected in fluctuations "in the amount of
423; L. Balout, Prdhistoire de l'Afrique du radiation received by the earth from the
Nord (Arts et Matiers Graphiques [Paris, sun." As formulated by M. Milankovitch
1955]), pp. 37 ff., 76-82, 185; Alimen, Prd. and his predecessors its value has been
histoire de l'Afrique (Paris, 1955), pp. 63, questioned by M. Schwarzbach (1950),
105 ff.,112, 203-205, etc.; J. L. Forde- P. Woldstedt (1954), and others (see Butzer,
Johnston, Neolithic Cultures of North Africa op. cit., pp. 14, 138); but has been reaffirmed
(Liverpool, 1959), pp. 7-12; O. Davies, by Zeuner in the most recent edition (1958)
"African Pleistocene Pluvials," Man, LIX of his Dating the Past (pp. 412-15).
(1959), 100-101; and McBurney, The Stone Although Huzayyin's correlation of his
Age of Northern Africa (1960), pp. 16, 21, 24, Egyptian "pluvials" and "interpluvials"
47-48, 57, 76, 165. with the European glacial phases has not
A useful general treatment of ancient been accepted by Zeuner, Butzer, and other
climate the world over is given by C. E. P. students of Pleistocene geochronology, the
Brooks in the revised edition of his Climate dating of the 50-foot and earlier terraces
through the Ages. A Study of the Climatic obtainable from Huzayyin's reconstruction
Factors and their Variations (New York and (Place of Egypt, pp. 156 if. See also pp. 186-
Toronto, 1949). For Butzer's unfavorable 89) does not differ materially from that
comment on the 1926 edition of this work derived from Zeuner's tables (Dating the
see Erdkunde, XI (1957), 21. Past, pp. 145 and 235). It is with the 30-foot
terrace, which Zeuner assigns to the Last
Interglacial and Huzayyin to the First Stage
12. CHRONOLOGY of the Last Glaciation, that the differences of
dating between the two systems begin to
The general conclusions and much of the become striking.
material presented in this section are taken Other, often widely divergent, views of
from the works of K. W. Butzer cited in the alternation of Mediterranean high and
the notes to the preceding section on Climate low sea-levels, the alternation of African
and from the fourth edition of F. E. Zeuner's pluvials and interpluvials, and their relation-
Dating the Past. An Introduction to Geo- ships to the glacials and interglacials of
chronology (London, 1958)--see especially Europe and to the various Paleolithic human
pp. 128 (fig. 46), 133 (fig. 47), 134-45, 229, industries are given by Blanckenhorn,
232-35, 246-48, 292, 341-46, 410 if., 421-22, Aegypten (1921), pp. 152, 241-42; by R.
423, 425, and the Bibliographies, pp. 433-90. Neuville and A. Ruhlmann, "La place du
Some additional details will be found in the Paldolithique ancien dans le Quaternaire
first edition of the latter work, published in marocain," Coll. He8peris (Inst. des Hautes
April 1946, and in Zeuner's The Pleistocene Itudes marocains), No. VIII (1941), p. 124
Period. Its Climate, Chronology, and Faunal (marine transgression = glacial period; ma-
Successions (London, 1945). See also Brooks, rine regression = interglacial! See, however,
Climate through the Ages, pp. 95, 263-65, Butzer, Geografiska Annaler, XXXIX [1957],
269-71, 273, 276-77. 110); by L. Balout, Prdhistoire de l'Afrique
Our correlation of Egyptian and European du Nord (1955), pp. 30 if., 35-37, 76-82, 178,
phases follows Butzer (see especially Quater- 486; and by O. Menghin in his Weltgeschichte
nary Stratigraph , pp. 36-38, 41, 52 if., der Steinzeit (Vienna, 1931), pp. 21 if. (see
Tables IV, VIII, and IX; "Naturlandschaft," especially p. 24); and an interesting discus.
 oi.uchicago.edu

40 FORMATION OF THE LAND

sion of the absolute chronology of the C. B. M. McBurney, "Radio-carbon Readings

Paleolithic and succeeding periods will be and the Spread of the Upper Palaeolithic in
found on pp. 42 if. of the last-named volume. Europe and the Mediterranean Basin," Pro.
Also of interest are the chronologies of the I. N. Qu. A. (Madrid, 1957); The Stone Age
Ice Age and early post-glacial times drawn of Northern Africa (1960), pp. 51-52, 168,
up by R. Turner, The Great Cultural Tradi- 203-204, 234; F. Johnson, "Radiocarbon
tions, vol. I (New York and London, 1941), Dating," American Antiquity, XVII, Part II
opp. p. 44; and by B. A. Proosdij, "Kennen (July, 1951), 1-63; R. J. Braidwood, "tber
en Erkennen onze houding tegenover de die Anwendung der Radio-Karbon-Chrono.
..
Praehistorie," Jaarbericht . "Ex Oriente logie fiir das Verstandnis der ersten
Lux," No. 13 (1953-1954), pp. 271-72. Dorfkultur-Gemeinschaften in Sildwest-
Besides its treatment by Zeuner in Dating Asien," Anzeiger der Osterr. Akademie d.
the Past, the important subject of the Wissenschaften, 1958, Nr. 19; H. Junker,
relationship of the Nile terraces to the "Die Geisteshaltung der Agypter in der
Mediterranean high sea-levels of Plio- Friihzeit," Sitzungsberichte der Osterr. Aka-
Pleistocene and Pleistocene date is discussed demie der Wissenschaften, 237. Band, 1.
at some length by Ball in his Contributionsto Abhandlung (Vienna, 1961), pp. 1-148 (see
the Geography of Egypt, pp. 46 if., fig. 16; by pp. 55-60); E. L. Kohler, and E. K. Ralph,
Sandford in PrehistoricSurvey, III, 43, 51-52 "C-14 Dates for Sites in the Mediterranean
(fig. 13), 57; and Sandford and Arkell, Pre- Area," AJA, LXV (1961), 357-67. See also
historic Survey, I, 26-27, 31; IV, 39 (fig. 9), A. J. Arkell, Shaheinab (London, 1953),
46-47, 53, 59-60; and by Huzayyin, Place p. 107; Bibliotheca Orientalis, XIII (1956),
of Egypt, pp. 48 ff., 55-56. For our present 123, 126; R. Pittioni, "Der Beitrag der
understanding of the extent of this relation- Radiokarbon Methode zur absoluten Datie-
ship see Butzer, Erdkunde, XIII (1959), rung Urzeitlichen Quellen", Forschungen
pp. 52-53; The Journal of Geology (Chicago, and Fortschritte, XXXI (1957), 357-64.
1960); Quaternaria, VI (Rome, 1962) and J. Leclant, Kush, V (1957), 95. For the limita-
"The Pleistocene Sequence in Egypt and Its tions and shortcomings of the method see
Implication for Pluvial Glacial Correlation especially W. S. Broecker and J. L. Kulp-
in the Sahara," Acts Fourth Pan African "The Radiocarbon Method of Age Deter,
Congress of Prehistory (1962). mination," American Antiquity, XXII (1956),
The late Pleistocene chronology of Egypt 1-11; and E. K. Ralph, "Double Trouble,"
has been carefully studied by G. Caton- Expedition (Bulletin of the University Museum
Thompson in her article on "The Levalloisian of the University of Pennsylvania), I (1959),
Industries of Egypt," Proceedings of the Pre- No. 3, 24-25, and for an examination of its
historic Society, new series, vol. XII (1946), accuracy see W. F. Libby, Science, CXXXX
57-120 (see especially pp. 68-84 and the (1963) 278.
table on p. 97). See also Journ. Roy. Anthr. The date 3100 B.c. for the beginning of
Inst., LXXVI (1946), 104, 107, 116; Butzer, the historic period is based largely on
Quaternaria,VI, 459, 462. documentary evidence of historic time and
The radiocarbon method of age determina- can be explained to greater advantage in a
tion is based on the slow disintegration in later chapter.
organic matter of a radioactive carbon of
atomic weight 14 (C1 4 ) and a known half-life
of about 5700 (5568 or 5800) years. The 13. EGYPT AT THE BEGINNING
method is described and lists of radiocarbon OF HUMAN PREHISTORY
dates are given by W. F. Libby, Radio-
carbon Dating (2d ed [Chicago, 1959]); The reconstruction attempted here is
"Radiocarbon Dates," Science, vols. CXIII drawn in large part from the studies of
(1951)-CXX (1955); "Radiocarbon Dating," S. Passarge (Die UrlandschaftAgyptens [ 1940])
ibid., CXXXIII (1961), 621-29; and F. E. and, above all, from those of K. W. Butzer
Zeuner, Dating the Past (4th ed., 1958), ("Die Naturlandschaft Agyptens" [1959),
pp. 341-46, 426-27. Of the many other works see especially pp. 47, 56-65; Erdkunde, XIII
on the subject the following are of special [1959], 47-67, see especially pp. 61-66, etc.
interest: H. L. Movius, "Radiocarbon Dates [see the references listed above under
and Upper Palaeolithic Archaeology in "Climate"]). Also consulted were the works
Central and Western Europe," Current of Sandford, Caton-Thompson, Ball, and
Anthropology, I (1960), 355-91; H. Godwin, Huzayyin cited in the notes to the preceding
R. P. Suggate, and E. H. Willis, "Radio. sections. To these may be added J. Bar-
carbon Dating of the Eustatic Rise in Ocean thoux's "Palboglographie de l'Egypte," a
Level," Nature, CLXXXI (1958), 1518-19; paper read in Cairo in 1925 at the Congres
 oi.uchicago.edu

FORMATION OF THE LAND 41

International de G6ographie and published College, XXVI (1928), No. 5; V. G. Childe,

in the Compte rendu of the congress, Vol. III,
pp. 68-100.
New Light on the Moat Ancient East, pp. 24ff.;
McBurney, The Stone Age of Northern Africa
The levels of precipitation required by (1960), pp. 16, 20, 73, 82, 88-94, 275 if.
"four indicative species" of vertebrate fauna On pp. 172-74 of his Place of Egypt
are listed by Butzer in Abh. Akad. Wins. Huzayyin discusses the question of Pleisto-
Liter. Math.-naturw. KI., 1958, Nr. 1, pp. 20, cene land-bridges between Africa and Europe,
34-35. On the Pleistocene fauna of northern with special reference on p. 174 to the Strait
Africa and adjoining areas in general see of Gibraltar (see also Ball, Contributions,

73, 72-
Huzayyin, Place of Egypt, pp. 62, 64 if.,
99-102, and the references cited there.
pp. 39-40, 62-64; Leakey, Stone Age Africa,
p. 5); and on pp. 201-12 presents a case in
See also L. S. B. Leakey, Stone Age Africa, favor of the Saharo-Arabian area, including
pp. 22-25; A. S. Romer, "Pleistocene Mam- Egypt, having been the principal "kernel.
mals of Algeria," Bulletin of the Beloit zone" of Lower Paleolithic culture.
oi.uchicago.edu
 oi.uchicago.edu

2
PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

1. THE "ABBEVILLIANS" practice to designate the earliest Egyptian

core-tools as Abbevillian or Chellean and
the accompanying flake-tools as Clactonian
THE rather sudden appearance of and to extend the use of these names, in a
tool-making man in the region of the lower very broad and loose sense, to the group
Nile at a period believed to have coincided or groups of hominids responsible for their
with the beginning of the second, or production and use. Essentially the same
Mindel, glaciation is attested by the primitive types of implements are found
presence in the lower sands and gravels of at this or a slightly earlier period (Giinz-
the 100-foot wadi and river terraces of Mindel Interglacial) in many other parts
Upper Egypt and Nubia of an impressive of Africa and western Asia, notably, along
series of primitive hand-axes, flake-tools, the Lebanese littoral, near Oran in Algeria
and "cores" resembling in their typology and Casablanca in Morocco, in the Nilotic
and technology those of the well-known gravels of the Republic of the Sudan, and
Lower Paleolithic river gravels of Abbeville in Bed II of the famous Olduvai Gorge
and Chelles in northern France and of deposits in northern Tanganyika, where,
Clacton-on-Sea in Essex. Without imply- as on a number of other African sites, they
ing a derivation from or other direct are preceded by even more primitive
association with their French and English "pebble-tool" industries, the so-called
counterparts it has become the general Kafuan and Oldowan.

43
 oi.uchicago.edu

44 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

In Egypt, as elsewhere, the lithic tool- their lenticular mates and no reason for
kit and armory of Abbevillian Man applying to them the name Chalossian,
consisted in the main of a single multiple- derived from a doubtfully dated group of
purpose implement variously known today implements found at La Chalosse in south-
as a hand-axe, a fist-wedge, a cleaver, a western France. "Marked recesses" in the
coup-de-poing, a core-biface, and a edges of a few of the early hand-axes have
Boucher, the last in honour of the Nine- suggested the possibility of their having
teenth Century French prehistorian, been lashed to a wooden haft, but as a
Boucher de Perthes, who himself called it general rule there is no evidence of hafting.
a "hache diluvienne." As First encountered On the contrary, a major advantage of the
in the lower levels of the 100-foot Nile implement is that it can be held in the hand
gravels it is a thick triangular or ellipsoidal in several different ways and so made to
implement, lenticular or triangular in perform a variety of different tasks. Its
cross-section and some five to ten inches uses, in any case, were evidently many
in length, provided around the greater and various-cleaving, chopping, digging,
part of its perimeter with a serviceable, if scraping, sawing, skinning, crushing, and
somewhat wavy, working edge and ending stabbing-and it is not surprising that in
in a more or less pronounced point-more, Egypt it remained throughout the whole
in fact, like an edged pick than what we of the Lower Paleolithic period Man's
should normally describe as an axe. favorite tool and weapon.
Basically the tool is a natural nodule or It was not, however, his only stone tool
chunk of flint, chert, quartzite, or other, nor was the technique which produced it
usually siliceous, stone, worked to shape the only one employed by the earliest
on both faces by the removal from its Egyptian tool-makers. Not only were the
margins-evidently by direct blows from flakes sheared off in the process of pro-
a hammerstone-of a few short, massive ducing the hand-axes themselves used as
flakes, the marginal flake-scars on one side implements, but similar flakes were pro-
falling between those on the other side so duced for their own sakes from cores
as to produce the characteristic zigzag which were subsequently either discarded
working edge already referred to. Often on or retained as reserves of raw material. In
these early hand-axes the butt-end of the the early, "block-on-block," or Clactonian
nodule is left unworked to provide a method of flake-tool production the flakes
comfortable, rounded grip for the user's were simply struck from the margins of
hand. The shaping of the implements natural, unworked cores, probably by
depended almost entirely on simple, but striking the latter against the edge of a
skillful, primary flaking, and there are large anvil-stone, the flake-scars left on
only rarely any signs of secondary working, one side of the core serving as the "striking-
or retouching, of the points or edges. Their platforms" for the flakes removed from
exact forms were determined primarily by the opposite side. The resulting, for the
the shapes of the nodules or chunks of most part unretouched, tools, though
stone selected, some being long trihedrons capable of performing tasks for which the
with prominent rounded butts, others bi- massive hand-axe was unsuited, are
facial and more pear-shaped or oval in usually clumsy and irregularly shaped
outline. There appears to be little basis for and the Clactonian technique in general is
the belief that the trihedral hand-axes are primitive and wasteful of raw material.
an earlier and more primitive form than Less copiously represented in the 100-foot
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 45

Nile gravels than the hand-axes with to beyond Khartoum have produced a
which they occur, the flake-tools represent fine series of Clacto-Abbevillian (Pre-
at this time a subsidiary, though by Chellean and Chellean) implements, no-
no means negligible, Lower Paleolithic tably in the stratified gravels of the Khor
industry. Abu Anga, an ancient tributary which
From the cultural point of view the joins the main river a short distance
most significant aspect of both the hand- below the confluence of the Blue and White
axes and the flake-tools is that they were Niles. Also reported are "rough flake
predetermined forms made in accordance artifacts in situ" in the 150-foot terrace
with set traditions which we have no near Wadi Halfa "with pebble tools of
difficulty in identifying and relating to Pre-Chelles-Acheul type on the surface"
those followed in other parts of the ancient and "a little above present high river"
world. As such they reflect a definite and near the mouth of the Atbara. From north
widely recognized step forward in Man's of Mallawi in Middle Egypt to the tip of
early struggles toward developing a civil- the Delta Abbevillian hand-axes and
ized mode of existence. This is not the case Clactonian flakes and cores occur in
with the so-called eoliths, or "dawn- heavily rolled condition in redeposited
stones," alleged predecessors of the sands and gravels of the 100-foot Upper
Paleolithic implements, which in the Nile Egyptian stage which in the Rus Channel,
Valley, as elsewhere, appear for the most beside the Fayum, have been built up
part to have been produced by purely eustatically to a level of 70-85 feet above
natural agencies, such as "thermal flaking modern alluvium and in the plain of
or abrasion against their neighbors." Abbassiya, east of Cairo, to a maximum
Even if it were possible to substantiate height of 104 feet. Since, however, these
the claims that these "haphazardly flaked implements and the deposits containing
stones" were used by an ancestor of them appear to have been carried down
Paleolithic Man, the infinite and aimless by the river at a later time and from
variety of their forms and their presence considerable distances upstream they are
in deposits of almost every conceivable not in themselves evidence that Abbevil-
date make them of little value as docu- lian Man ever reached northern Egypt.
ments in the story of human progress. That he did is indicated by numerous
The expansion of the makers of the surface finds of Abbevillian and Clactonian
Clacto-Abbevillian implements throughout implements, usually mixed with those of
the Egyptian area is to some extent later date, in both the Libyan and Eastern
reflected by the geographic distribution of Deserts in the region of Cairo. Such finds,
their artifacts. From Tumas in middle often described as "stations," occur on the
Nubia to Beni Adi, near Asyut, the latter slopes of the Gebel el-Ahmar, in the Wadi
have been found in situ in the 100-foot Lablab, on the crest of the Gebel Moqat-
Nile and wadi gravels and in rolled condi- tam, and in the Wadi el-Tih, east of Tura,
tion in the 50-foot terrace. At Ashkeit, on and, on the west side of the Nile, between
the east side of the river, just north of Saqqara and Abu Roash, including a
Wadi Halfa, 50-foot wadi gravels contain stretch of desert surface north of the
numerous well rolled Abbevillian hand.- pyramids of Giza. Collections of flint
axes, presumably derived originally from a implements picked up on the desert
higher level. The fluviatile deposits of the fringes along the east and west sides
Republic of the Sudan from Wadi Halfa of the Delta by members of the Deutsches
 oi.uchicago.edu

46 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

Institut fuir iigyptische Altertumskunde in stone implements are found over a vast
Cairo include hand-axes of "Chellean" area extending from the sand-masses
and "Chalossian" type. In Upper Egypt beyond the western confines of the most
Abbevillian and later Lower Paleolithic distant oases to the barren shores of
implements, often deeply patinated by the Red Sea."
long exposure to the elements, litter the Much of our story of the earliest
surfaces of the valley sides and the heights recognizable human inhabitants of the
above. They are particularly numerous in Egyptian tableland and its river valley
western Thebes, where Arcelin, Schwein- must at present be based on what we
furth, Seton-Karr, Currelly, and others know of their contemporaries in other por-
have identified a number of "stations"- tions of the Old World, for until Late
some perhaps halting places of early Paleolithic times all that has survived of
Paleolithic Man, others undoubtedly these ancient sojourners on the Lower Nile
dumps of implements abandoned by are their stone implements. Even the
modern peasant flint-collectors. Several latter, as we have just seen, have been
Lower Paleolithic surface groups have found only in geological deposits or
been recorded by Vignard near Nag scattered over the surfaces of the river
Hammadi, including, on the slopes of the terraces and the high desert without
eastern cliffs opposite Khoderat, what he culturally significant groupings or con-
calls a "Chelleo-Acheulean encampment." texts which would permit them to be
Bovier-Lapierre describes a Clactonian spoken of as "assemblages" or "in-
"atelier" and both he and Schweinfurth dustries."
have noted several stations with crude Lacking skeletal remains, graves, habita-
hand-axes of quartz and quartzite to the tion sites, works of art, and all tools and
south and east of Aswan. Among the weapons save only those made of flint and
numerous finds of Lower Paleolithic other hard stones, the task of drawing a
implements in the Eastern Desert mention significant and trustworthy picture of
may be made of groups of Chellean hand- the Nilotic peoples of the early Old Stone
axes discovered not many years ago on Age would seem to be well nigh hopeless.
the heights around the wells of Laqeita. The stone implements themselves, how-
The spread of Abbevillian Man over what ever, tell us much of the men who made
is now the Libyan Desert is attested by and used them. Furthermore, the simi-
finds of his implements and those of his larity of these implements in type and
successors not only scattered throughout technique of manufacture to those of early
the broad area between the Nile and the Paleolithic sites in other parts of Africa, in
Great Oases, but also in the wadis leading western Europe, and southwestern and
from the river to the Nubian oasis of south central Asia suggests that in all
Kurkur, in the Wadi Abu el-Agag, north these areas we are dealing with men
of Aswan, around the springs of Dalla, endowed with similar mental capacity and
west of the oasis of Farafra, between similar manual dexterity, standing at
the northern oases of Bahria and Siwa, much the same level of cultural develop-
and westward all the way to Gebel ment, and adhering to the same general
Uweinat. Huzayyin's map showing the habits of life. Add to these clues the in-
distribution of the early hand-axe in- dications which we possess concerning the
dustries over the present-day deserts natural conditions amid which the pri-
confirms Hume's statement that "Worked maeval "Egyptian" lived-the type of
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 47

country, the climate, the probable fauna characterized by a receding chin and
and flora-and we find that we have still enormous teeth, Rabat Man has also been
another means of reconstructing with some linked with the Sinanthropus-Pithecanthro-
degree of accuracy the nature of his pus group and with the slightly later
existence. Atlanthropus mauritanicusof Morocco and
Though there is no local evidence, there Algeria.
is some probability that the Lower Paleo- In common with their contemporaries
lithic inhabitants of northeastern Africa- the world over these earliest tool-making
the creatures whose stone artifacts are inhabitants of Egypt and Nubia un-
found imbedded in the gravels of the questionably possessed the power of ex-
100-foot Nile terrace-closely resembled, changing ideas through some form of
if, indeed, they were not identical with, speech and perhaps the ability to control,
the so-called "Chellean Man" of northern if not actually to produce, fire. Otherwise
Tanganyika, a sub-human contemporary they appear to have lived in a state of
of Java Man (Pithecanthropuserectus) and savagery not far above that of some of the
Pekin Man (Sinanthropuspekinensis), but other species of animals. Like all Paleo-
with a larger head and somewhat less lithic peoples they were certainly incapable
ape-like appearance than these early far of producing their own food supply and
eastern hominids. The upper part of a were-to borrow Professor Childe's ex-
skull of this predecessor of Homo sapiens, pression-merely "food-gatherers." This
found in Bed II of the Olduvai Gorge means that they depended for their
deposits in association with implements of sustenance entirely upon what they could
Chellean (Abbevillian) type, shows him to find and collect among the wild plant and
have had a "wide forehead," an "im. animal life about them; and that when for
mense" brow ridge, and a "relatively any reason these sources failed or were
straight" face without the projecting exhausted in the locality which they
muzzle characteristic of the so-called happened to be occupying it was necessary
ape-men. A thick neck and massive jaw for them to move on to another part of the
are suggested "by the formation of the country or even to another part of the
skull at the points of attachment" for world. Other causes aside from imminent
the jaw and neck muscles, and two starvation could also have prompted their
gigantic milk teeth belonging to a child of wanderings, such as influxes of large
the same species show that he "must have numbers of dangerous, predatory animals
had permanent dentition of huge dimen- against which their primitive weapons
sions." Rabat Man, another near- would have afforded them little or no
contemporary and likely relative of our protection.
Egypto-Abbevillian tool-maker, is repre- Within the pluvial periods which wit-
sented by a mandible and a fragmentary nessed the formation of the Pleistocene
maxilla found near Rabat in the coastal river terraces of Upper Egypt the varia-
area of Morocco in a geological deposit tions in the generally warm and pleasant
datable to the period of the Post-Sicilian climate of northeastern Africa would
(Mindel) Regression. Though in this case probably have been insufficient to occasion
there was no directly associated industry, wholesale emigrations of men and animals
implements of Chelleo-Acheulian and from the area; and the population of this
Tayacian types were discovered at the part of the world during the early stages
same general level. An archaic type of the European glaciations, though
 oi.uchicago.edu

48 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

nomadic, was presumably fairly constant. caught and relatively defenseless types of
There is every probability that, as else- animals or of young, aged, or sick in-
where in these early times, it was also dividuals of the more formidable or
extremely sparse. The hunter and food- elusive species. In the case of a big
gatherer requires a large foraging area in carnivorous beast like the lion it is prob-
which to live, and a few relatively small able that Man was not infrequently the
groups of such people can, and un- quarry rather than the hunter. Thus,
doubtedly did, occupy a very considerable though meat may have been the Paleolithic
amount of territory. Though thousands of Egyptian's favorite food, it would seem
Abbevillian and Clactonian stone imple- that a substantial part of his diet must
ments have been found in Egypt and have consisted of fruits, nuts, and berries
Nubia, these may well represent an average which he---or, more likely, his womenfolk
output by each inhabitant of as many as -gathered from trees and shrubs, tubers
three or four implements a week over a and grubs dug out of the ground, eggs
period of some sixty thousand years. stolen from birds' nests, shell-fish, and
The equipment of the earlier Old Stone perhaps other types of fish caught in the
Age people of Egypt almost certainly shallows of the river and its subsidiary
comprised, besides their stone tools, streams and lakes. Happily for him he had
weapons and implements made of wood found a region which for the time being
and of the bones of antelopes and other appears to have been richly endowed with
large animals. These would have included natural foods of many different kinds, and
the pointed wooden throwing-spear, a was, like his modern descendants, practi-
most effective weapon in the hands of an cally omnivorous.
expert, and formidable clubs made of the Blessed during Pleistocene times with a
shoulderblades and thigh bones of some warm and never excessively rainy climate
of the bigger animals, as well as smaller it is unlikely that the Paleolithic in-
and more delicate implements of the same habitants of northern Africa ever felt the
materials. By "mid-Chellean" times the need for clothing or for covered shelters
people of Olduvai in northern Tanganyika in which to live, but went about "in a state
seem to have developed the bola, a missile of nature" and camped for the most part
weapon used to entangle the legs of fast- under the open sky. Though natural caves
moving animals and comprising rough are fairly numerous in the cliffs bordering
stone balls tied together in groups of two the Nile, in the Red Sea hills, and in other
or three by lengths of sinew or hide. parts of Egypt and Nubia none of these
Provided with such an armory and has as yet yielded any evidence of pre-
with a cunning and ability to plan and historic human occupancy. To escape the
organize superior to those of other animals, strong winds of the plateau and to have
it is probable that the Clacto-Abbevillians ready access to supplies of water the early
were fairly successful as hunters, capable camps were probably more often than not
on occasion of laying low even such beasts pitched in the lee of the rocky scarps
as the huge and dangerous elephant and which fringe the valley of the Nile and
the fleet and wary antelope. Operating on those of its ancient tributaries, on sheltered
foot without long-range missile weapons lake or sea beaches, or in the rain-pans
we may suppose, however, that their daily and larger depressions which dotted the
bag was for the most part small and un- surface of the tableland. It is, in any case,
certain and consisted chiefly of easily along the river valley and its lateral
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 49

wadis and, later, around the Fayum and able that northeastern Africa, except for
other ancient lake basins and in the the coastal area, was uninhabited and
vicinity of the fossil springs in the oases that tool-making Man first entered the
that the greater number of Paleolithic region in early Mindel times bringing with
stone implements have been found. The him already standardized methods of pro-
presence of Abbevillian hand-axes and ducing implements and weapons of hard
Clactonian flakes and cores in what were stone. Whence he came is of course un-
then the subaqueous bottom gravels of the certain, but investigations of recent years
Nile and its tributaries indicates a popula- point more and more clearly to East
tion living immediately along the banks Africa (Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika)
of the river and the lateral streams, well as the "kernel zone" and dispersal point
within the confines of their sheltering of the hand-axe industry and of one group,
valleys, and evidently venturing fre- at least, of its earliest users. From the
quently into their shallows. Similar arti- great lakes in the center of this area
facts scattered far and wide over open the Albert and White Niles must have
and featureless terrain show, however, provided, even in those remote times, an
that during the earlier Paleolithic phases almost unbroken thoroughfare to the
of his existence Man did not confine his north, along which men and animals could
activities to specific localities, but with have traveled with relative ease. In Egypt
the changing seasons ranged as freely over the apparently greater concentration of
the grassy uplands as the herds of wild Abbevillian and Clactonian implements in
game which he hunted. the southern portions of the country may
For protection and for greater success also be indicative of the direction from
in hunting and other pursuits calling for which their originators came, though here
co-operation and concerted action Paleo- allowances must be made for the con-
lithic Man in this part of the world, as tinued denudation and less extensive
elsewhere, undoubtedly lived and traveled exploration of early Paleolithic sites in the
in groups which have been variously north. It is significant, in any case, that
described as tribes, clans, hordes, packs, the earliest stone implements found in situ
and even herds. Whatever the exact in the Egypto-Nubian area occur in the
nature of these primitive social units it is gravels of the 150-foot terrace near Wadi
generally believed that by Lower Paleo- Halfa, at the extreme southern limit of
lithic times they were already larger and that area.
more complicated than the simple family;
and were probably composed of a number 2. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF
THE ACHEULIAN TRADITION
of families related by blood or drawn to-
gether by mutual interests or mutual In the course of the Mindel Pluvial, a
fears. We know nothing of the internal period involving tens of thousands of
organization of these units or of their years, Paleolithic Man in the Nile Valley
group or tribal customs and beliefs. It is, followed a pattern of development dis-
for example, entirely uncertain whether cernible in many other parts of the Old
Lower Paleolithic Man buried his dead or, World and passed very gradually from
like most other animals, left them to be the initial Abbevillian level into a slightly
disposed of by nature's scavengers. more advanced cultural stage. For us this
During the period of aridity preceding advance is evidenced chiefly by improve-
the onset of the Mindel Pluvial it is prob- ments and refinements in the form of his
 oi.uchicago.edu

50 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

principal stone tool, the hand-axe, which, of the core-tool concept," and a number of
thanks to a growing sense of design and an those found in the Nile terraces have been
increased use of secondary flaking, or re- described by Sandford and Arkell as of
touching, became more symmetrical in "beautiful workmanship and symmetry,"
shape, straighter edged, and somewhat showing "a real mastery" of the craft and
thinner in cross-section-in general a "complete mastery of the material," or as
handsomer and more efficient implement. "beautiful example(s) of Acheulean skill,"
As the Nile and its tributaries in Upper recalling "some of the more highly
Egypt and Nubia slowly aggraded their developed forms of Europe." Clearly the
beds to the 100-foot level, this develop- Paleolithic tool-maker had reached the
ment of the hand-axe can be followed stage where he was interested not only in
through transitional stages which pre- the functional efficiency of his implements,
historians classify as evolved Abbevillian, but also in their appearance-had, indeed,
or Chellean, Chelleo-Acheulian, and, achieved an aesthetic approach to his
finally, early, or Lower, Acheulian. product which allows us to see in the crea-
Named for the type-site of St. Acheul tion of these superb artifacts the begin-
on the Somme near Amiens, the Acheulian nings of world art. Writers on prehistory
tradition was destined to cover "by far do not hesitate to refer to some of the
the longest time span of any of the various Acheulian core-tools and even to some of
Paleolithic subdivisions," surviving in their evolved Abbevillian predecessors as
Egypt for approximately 300,000 years, "works of art," and to this the majority
from the latter part of the Mindel Pluvial of their readers will probably not take
until the final stage of the Riss Pluvial and exception.
being represented in the 100-, 50-, and 30- By no means all Lower Paleolithic bi-
foot terraces of Upper Egypt, the 100-foot faces were made from pebbles, nodules, or
gravels of the north, the Wadi el-Natrun, nuclei of flint. Where these were not avail-
the Fayum lake basin, the spring, and able tabular chert was used (Kharga) or
scarp deposits of Kharga Oasis, and simply rough chunks of stone broken
numerous surface finds in both the eastern away from the standing rock and-
and western deserts. It is characterized in especially in Upper Acheulian times-
general by the use of two additional there was a tendency to fashion the small,
techniques in the finishing of core-tools, thin hand-axes out of large flakes. Besides
namely, the flaking of the edges of the flint and chert the materials used in
roughed-out tool "in order to build up various parts of the Egyptian area include
preliminary striking platforms set at the quartz (near el-Kab), quartzite (Gebel
correct angle to the face to be flaked" and el-Ahmar, Aswan), and ferricrete sand-
the use of a baton of hard wood, bone, or stone, or ironstone (Republic of the Su-
horn, which, being of softer material than dan), the last being an exceedingly
stone, could be "struck directly against difficult stone to work.
the edge of the nodule without crushing The Chelleo-Acheulian and earliest
it." The flakes detached in this manner are Acheulian implements of the 100-foot wadi
long and shallow and the resulting and river terraces of Upper Egypt consist
implement is straight-edged, thin in cross- chiefly of plano-convex hand-axes, still
section, and evenly tapered. "Some of the rather coarse in appearance, but showing
later Acheulian bifaces," says Jacques definite efforts to straighten the edges,
Bordaz, "are the most perfect expressions develop the point, and achieve bilateral
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 51

symmetry of shape by secondary flaking probably in early Riss times, that the
of Acheulian type. With these were found Acheulian tradition in Egypt reached its
somewhat more advanced almond-shaped, full expression. In the gravels of this
ovate, and semi-ovate (chopper) forms terrace from Ashkeit on the Sudan
with lenticular cross-sections and one frontier to Beni Adi, north of Asyut, occurs
extraordinary three-sided "pick" which a rich variety of developed Acheulian bi-
has been compared with the so-called facial implements-ovates, limandes, disks,
"anvils" of the upper gravels of Abbas- waisted points, and miniature hand-axes-
siya. Occasionally the heels, or butts, of exhibiting the remarkably thin sections,
the hand-axes are left unworked, a carry- the sharp, straight edges, the complete
over from Abbevillian times. This stage is bilateral symmetry, the fine "fish-scale"
best represented in the gravels of the Wadi flaking, and the meticulous retouching
Qena, at Bir Arras, between Abydos and characteristic of good "evolved" Acheulean
Sohag, and at Beni Adi, near Manfalut. work the world over.
The capping of the 100-foot terrace in The Upper Acheulian industry is best
Upper Egypt was followed, as we have represented and best recorded in Kharga
seen, by a prolonged interpluvial, or arid Oasis and constitutes there the earliest
period, during which the Nile eroded its evidence of human occupation of the great
bed in the south and, under the influence depression. An "assemblage" of Upper
of the Mindel-Riss, or Tyrrhenian, high Acheulian implements in the deposits of a
sea-level, redeposited the same imple- fossil mound-spring on the floor of the
mentiferous gravels in the north to levels depression comprises a great variety of
of 70 feet and more above modern al- forms, among which lanceolate and pear-
luvium, notably in the Rus Channel and shaped bifaces predominate, followed in
at Abbassiya. Above these ancient gravels order of frequency by limandes, "V-shape
with their heavily rolled Abbevillian, butted" tools, and triangular hand-axes.
Chelleo-Acheulian, and early Acheulian The mound-spring referred to (KO 10)
artifacts lie wadi and river deposits of probably represents a "home site, to
more recent (Mindel-Riss) origin con- which the large majority of the hand-axes
taining fresh or only slightly rolled were brought ready-made," but the Acheu-
implements of typical Lower and even lian finds around the other mound-springs
Middle Acheulian forms. These forms, and in the gravel-silt-tufa deposits of the
which indicate an Acheulian date for the passes of the eastern scarp consist chiefly
70-100-foot terrace of northern Egypt, of flaking sites with cores and "waste
include symmetrically pointed ovates with parings" forming a high percentage of the
slightly sinuous edges and thin, evenly material and finished implements being
tapered cross-sections, which are described relatively few in number. Here, as in the
by their finders as "rare examples of earlier stages of the Acheulian in Egypt,
beautiful Acheulean work" bringing "us the hand-axes and other bifacial tools are
to a fairly advanced stage of Acheulean accompanied by small and rather thick
culture." To the same stage probably also flake-tools (scrapers, piercers, notched
belongs a somewhat elongated hand-axe blades) still produced by the old block-on-
with a reverse S-twist from the floor of the block, or Clactonian, method, but showing
Wadi el-Natrun near Bir Hooker. occasionally extensive re-woirking of the
It was during the formation of the 50- points and edges. In this Upper Acheulian
foot terrace of Upper Egypt and Nubia, horizon we also encounter a few specimens
 oi.uchicago.edu

52 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

with traces of incipient Levallois, or discoid cores, flakes with faceted butts,
"faceted platform," technique, an ad- and flake-blades of rudimentary but
vanced method of flake-tool production distinct Levalloisian character. Much the
which, as we shall see, dominates the same industry is found in the 30-foot Nile
industries of the Middle and Late Paleo- terrace, which is preserved today chiefly
lithic phases of Egyptian prehistory. between Luxor and Asyut and which
The Upper Acheulian of Kharga has appears to have been formed during the
been compared with that of Tabun in second stage of the penultimate glaciation
Palestine; but Miss Caton-Thompson, who (Riss II). The gravels of this terrace con-
makes the comparison, also insists that tain not only small triangular hand-axes
"Egypt's palaeolithic sequence is an auto- of advanced Acheulian type, but also
chthonous, auto-generic development, par- characteristic Levalloisian tortoise-core
taking of certain generalised African flakes and flake-blades. Here, then, we
characteristics in its earlier stages, but take leave of Lower Paleolithic man and
becoming increasingly Nilotic in a specific pass gradually into the milieu of his
sense later on; untroubled by rival dis- Middle Paleolithic successor.
coveries and inventions by eastern neigh- To judge from the surface finds on
bours . .. " Huzayyin, on the other hand, either side of the Nile Valley the Acheulian
has this to say: "A comparative study of tool-maker seems to have covered much
this industry and the Up. Acheulean of the same area and used in general the same
Palestine (especially that of the Umm stopping places and flaking sites as his
Qatafa Cave) reveals a remarkable degree Abbevillian predecessor. Their implements
of similarity between the two. Apart from are found together at Gebel el-Ahmar,
ordinary similarities in the technique, the Gebel Moqattam, the cliffs at Thebes, and
most characteristic (new) feature of the the quarry of Abu el-Nur, near Nag
two industries is the coup de burin on some Hammadi. In the Eastern Desert the
of the coups-de-poing. So far as is known Acheulian is encountered alone near
this is the earliest occurrence of the burin Aswan, above Gebel Silsila, at Mahamid,
technique, and in all probability it near el-Kab, and at Rabah and Wassif, in
corresponded to some technological con- the vicinity of the Red Sea; and, in the
nection between Egypt and Palestine." Libyan Desert, north and west of Abydos
The Micoquian, a Final Acheulian and between the Nile Valley and Gebel
industry named after the site of La Uweinat.
Micoque in the Dordogne section of A survey of the Republic of the Sudan
France, is not clearly represented in Egypt, has disclosed the presence of the Acheulian
but handsome hand-axes of Micoque type industry in one or more of its stages at
have been found at Kharga "in Upper many different points along the river
Acheulian typological contexts" and on or valley, all the way from the region of the
just below the surface in the plain of Second Cataract to Wadi Afu on the White
Abbassiya. Nile, fifty miles upstream from Omdurman,
At Kharga the Upper Acheulian stage is and also at a number of sites on the lower
followed by a mixed and evidently transi- reaches of the Atbara. Paleolithic imple-
tional industry described as "Acheulio.- ments have not been recorded south of
Levalloisian," in which Acheulian Wadi Afu as far as the Uganda border or
hand-axes "showing less directional re- anywhere west of the Nile in Kordofan or
touch than formerly" occur together with Darfur; and, further north, Lower Paleo-
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 53

lithic industries are lacking between the is seen to develop gradually out of the pre-
Second Cataract and Abri and between ceding Abbevillian and over most of its
the mouth of the Atbara and the Sixth long history to exhibit recognizable local
Cataract; but in the Ennedi region of characteristics it would seem to be un-
northern Chad, six hundred and fifty miles necessary to look for a source of this
west of Dongola, ancient stream and lake tradition and its practitioners outside of
beds have yielded spreads of hand-axes the Egyptian area itself. During the
and an occasional cleaver of developed Acheulian period, however, it is practi-
Acheulian type as well as "small hand- cally certain that Egypt's food-gathering
axes intermediate between Acheulean and human population was not constant, but
Aterian." came and went, retreating to more
Egypt has as yet produced no human hospitable climatic zones during the long,
remains of either Abbevillian or Acheulian dry Mindel-Riss Interpluvial and the Riss
date; but off to the west, in Algeria, Lower Interstadial and returning in force at the
Acheulian Man, in the person of Atlanthro- beginnings of the Riss pluvial phases,
pus mauritanicus, is represented by three bringing with them-perhaps from great
mandibles and a parietal bone found at distances-new methods of making stone
Ternifine, near Palikao. Possessed of tools. There would appear, then, to be
"teeth of great size" and being in general some justification for attributing the
"nearer the condition of the apes than marked typological and technological ad-
either modern man or the Neander- vances in the manufacture of bifacial
thaloids," this ancient tool-maker has implements to outside influences or to
been linked "very closely indeed to the intrusions of new groups of tool-making
Sinanthropus-Pithecanthropusgroup of the hominids. If we choose to do so we should
Far East" and is described as belonging to probably once again look southward to
a "widespread evolutionary stage in the great center of the hand-axe industries
the emergence of man." In 1955 the in East Africa, where the Acheulian tradi-
mandible of a more evolved specimen "of tion, like its forerunners, is represented in
the same generic type" was found near all its stages by a concentration of material
Casablanca, in Morocco, "associated with unparalleled in any other part of the
numerous bifaces or hand-axes of classical world. A southern source for the Egyptian
Mid-Acheulian type." At Swanscombe in Acheulian is further suggested by the
Kent, tools of Upper Acheulian type are extraordinary richness and wide distribu-
linked with what has been thought to be tion of this industry in the Republic of the
an early form of Homo sapiens, or modern Sudan. In Upper Acheulian times "star-
man. In view, however, of the Ternifine tling resemblances" are seen to exist
remains McBurney, for one, regards it as between the Sudanese implement forms
doubtful if the makers of the hand-axe in- and those of Kharga Oasis, both areas
dustries were "precocious Homo sapiens." having yielded the rare ovate celtiform
Serious doubts, in any case, have been tools and "choppers of... Oldowan tech-
raised regarding the dating of the Homo nique." Less significance is probably to be
sapiens remains of Kanam and Kanjera in attached to the already-mentioned re-
Kenya which were once associated with, semblances between the Upper Acheulian
respectively, the Kafuan and Acheulian of Kharga and that of Palestine, where
industries of that part of Africa. the hand-axe industries seem never to
Since in Egypt the Acheulian tradition have been very firmly established and the
 oi.uchicago.edu

54 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

Acheulian tradition occurs only in its (which Cole thinks "must have tasted very
evolved stage. nasty"), a large "and probably very
It is an enlightening commentary on the tough" horse, and an enormous pig about
tempo of early cultural development that the size of a rhinoceros; and at Torralba in
during a period sixty times as long as all Spain his quarry included the rhinoceros,
recorded history Acheulian man adhered the wild ox, the stag, the horse, and the
with little change to the food-gathering elephant. These he apparently ate raw,
economy and nomadic existence of his splitting the bones to extract the marrow
Abbevillian forbears. Our picture of him and smashing the skulls to remove the
may well be distorted by our lack of brains. In Egypt the teeth of a wild ox
knowledge; but it would appear that, and an equine animal, probably a zebra,
despite his more varied and more efficient have been found in deposits of Acheulian
tool-kit and an awakening aesthetic sense and early post-Acheulian date.
reflected in the symmetry and beauty of
some of his implements, he remained at a 3. THE MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC AGE
cultural level generally classified as "the The advent of the Middle Paleolithic
lower savagery." He was, however, evi- stage of Egyptian pre-history is charac-
dently a more accomplished and successful terized, as elsewhere, by the gradual
trapper and hunter than his predecessors, disappearance of the hand-axe and other
and this may be attributed in part to a bifacial core-tools from man's lithic equip-
slowly increasing ability to plan and ment and the widespread use of the
organize his projects and in part to his "faceted platform," or Levalloisian, tech-
development of important additions to his nique of flake-tool production. The latter,
hunting armory. Evolved Acheulian lan- named for the Parisian suburb of Levallois,
ceolates and other elongated points with consists of preparing the convex dorsal
waisted sides or tapered butts, found at surface of each flake and adjusting the
Kharga and near Nag Hammadi, for angle and shape of its striking platform
example, were almost certainly designed by minute faceting before it is detached,
to be provided with hafts of wood, bone, or by a single blow, from its core. The
horn which would have added immeasur- resulting flake is large and characteristi-
ably to their range and effectiveness. cally oval or circular (polygonal) in out-
Faceted stone balls of Acheulian date line, though triangular and elongated
occur on a number of sites in Europe and forms also occur; and the resulting core,
Africa-including an example in quartzite being typically oval and plano-convex, is
from Kharga-and their presence in groups called a "tortoise-core." In western Europe
of three at Olorgesaillie in Kenya has Levalloisian flakes and tortoise-cores have
suggested their use in bolas. This missile been found "in direct and indisputable
weapon, attested at Olduvai in mid- association with Early-Middle Acheulian
Chellean times, enjoyed apparently a materials," and Movius has been led to ask
greatly expanded use in the hands of the whether there the "concept of a Leval-
Acheulian hunters. Large animals were loisian tradition as an entity separate and
probably captured in drop-traps, or game- distinct from an Acheulian tradition" has
pits, or by being driven into swamps "any real validity."
"where they could easily be despatched." In Egypt a "latent Levalloisian tech-
At Olorgesaillie the Acheulian hunter's nique," represented by a single "triangular
favourite food-animals were a giant baboon tortoise-core and two thin flakes with
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 55

faceted butts," crops up first during the The 10-15-foot pluvial terrace of Upper
early stage of the Riss Glaciation (Riss I) Egypt is assigned to the early phase of the
in the Upper Acheulian deposits of Last Glaciation (Wiirm I) and its con-
Kharga oasis. Definite early Levalloisian tained industry is identified as Late
forms, as we have seen, occur in late Riss Lower Levalloisian. Here, as McBurney
times (Riss II) in the 30-foot wadi gravels of points out, "the Levalloisian flaking
Upper Egypt and in the Refuf Pass of the technique has reached a mature stage of
Kharga scarp in association with hand- development" in "a varied assemblage of
axes of very late Acheulian type. In this light and effective flake tools," including
"Acheulio-Levalloisian" horizon, which we now the elongated flake-blade, a significant
have already had occasion to discuss, the Middle Paleolithic innovation destined to
adoption of the new method of producing survive far down into historic times.
flake-tools is accented by the complete Movius summarizes this industry, which
absence of Clactonesque flakes and cores. he prefers to call Middle Levalloisian, as
The Lower Levalloisian industry of one "in which a reduction in size and an
Kharga is described by Miss Caton- increase in the delicacy of the flakes may
Thompson as "of normal Egyptian charac- be noted." Among the abundant imple-
ter, with a large proportion of tortoise- ments found in the 10-foot terrace
cores of skilled technique, and a Sandford draws special attention to "thin,
contradictory poverty in the range and leaf-shaped flakes of great beauty" and
retouch of flake implements." No hand- the cores from which they were produced;
axes or other bifacial tools were found in and goes on to say, "In these flakes and
association with it and, as represented at cores artistic skill seems to find by simple
Locus IV in the Refuf Pass, the industry form-lines as high an expression as it does
is seen to have "freed itself from the last in Acheulian technique." Some of the cores
vestiges of Acheulian influence." The were prepared on both sides and their
earlier Lower Levalloisian has not yet points subsequently used for boring or
been recorded in situ in the Nile Valley, chipping, while others may have served as
but the physiographical features in which scrapers. It is evident, then, that in
we should expect to find it are the 50-foot certain instances the cores as well as the
terrace of northern Middle Egypt and the flakes are to be regarded as implements.
beach of the 131-foot Fayum lake, both of In Nubia, where the 10-15-foot gravels
which appear to have been formed during either were never formed or are now
the Last, or Riss-Wirm, Interglacial hidden beneath the later silts, Leval-
period. In view of their date it is, in any loisian implements typical of this stage are
case, unlikely that these two features found in the base of the silts and in flaking
belong, as has been thought, to the Upper sites on the surfaces of the higher terraces
Acheulian or "evolved hand-axe" stage of and the slopes of the adjoining hills,
Egyptian industrial development; and the notably in the neighborhood of Abu
presence in the Fayum of some low-level Simbel, Faras, and Ashkeit. At Kharga
Levalloisian surface finds would not seem the "Earlier" (Late Lower) Levalloisian
to warrant the invention of a 40-foot is characterized, as in the Nile Valley,
lake of Lower Levalloisian date to fill an by triangular and sub-triangular cores,
assumed cultural gap between the 131-foot narrow flake-blades, broad pointed, sub-
beach and its 112-foot Upper Levalloisian rectangular, and sub-discoidal flakes,
successor. and end-scrapers, all except the last
 oi.uchicago.edu

56 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

distinguished by a general absence of favor of the more accurate "Levalloisian."

retouch. One of the more significant characteristics
By Upper Levalloisian times (Wirm of Egypt's Upper, or Late, Levalloisian
Interstadial?) conditions in the Nile Valley industry is the now marked tendency
both climatically and physiographically towards a reduction in the average size of
had begun to approximate those of the the implements-a tendency which heralds
present day (see Chapter I). Fine gravels the approach of the so-called "diminutive
and silts brought down by the annual Levalloisian," or Epi-Levalloisian, indus-
summer floods from the Abyssinian high- tries of Late Paleolithic times.
lands were beginning to cover the valley The wide distribution of Levalloisian
bottom in Nubia and Upper Egypt and flaking sites and other surface finds over
downstream, north of Sedment, were areas which are now absolute desert
building up into a terrace-like feature 25- confirms the physiographical evidence
30 feet above modern alluvium. The latter that in northeast Africa portions of the
can be traced through the Hawara immensely long span of time which we
Channel into the Fayum, where the corre- call the Middle Paleolithic period were
sponding level is represented by the beach substantially moister than the present
of a lake 112 feet above sea-level. In all of day. In the vicinity of the Nile Valley
these deposits and in the passes of the important groups of Levallosian or
Kharga scarp are found implements of "Levalloiso-Mousterian" implements have
highly evolved Levallois type and distinct been recorded by Bovier-Lapierre in
local Egyptian character. Oval and discoid "ateliers" at Abbassiya, Gebel el-Ahmar,
cores of relatively small size now tend to and Wadi el-Tih, by members of the
replace the triangular forms and among German Institute along the eastern fringe
the flakes the more interesting shapes of the Delta, by Vignard at Abu el-Nur
include thin, sharp points with constricted (west of Nag Hammadi) and Gebel Silsila,
butts, evidently designed as missile or and by Seligman and others in the neigh-
lance heads. A bifacial lanceolate from the borhood of Thebes. Middle Paleolithic
112-foot Fayum beach resembles the work work- or camp-sites in the Eastern Desert
of the so-called Aterian industry of north- have been observed northeast of Aswan,
western Africa (see below) without, how- near an outcrop of quartz at the mouth of
ever, any suggestion of "formal corre- the Wadi Abu Agag, in the vicinity
spondence." "Sporadic examples" of of Gebel el-Silsila and Naga ed-Deir, and
"Mousterian typology and technique" at Rabah and Wassif, near the coast of
occur in the Upper Levalloisian of Kharga the Red Sea. In the Libyan Desert evidence
and the Fayum, notably in a series of of the Levalloisian tool-maker's presence
"neatly made cutting or scraping tools" is found to the west of el-Sebaiya, Esna,
showing a well-developed secondary re- Sohag, and Abydos, on the heights of
touch and inviting comparison with the western Thebes, north of the Fayum and
so-called Levalloisian-Mousterian of Pales- north of the Giza pyramids, off to the west
tine and Cyrenaica. On the whole, however, in the oasis of Siwa and between Siwa and
the term Mousterian, derived from the Bahria, near wells to the north and south
French village of Le Moustier and formerly of the oasis of Farafra, a few miles east of
applied somewhat indiscriminately to the the village of Kharga, and along the rail-
Middle Paleolithic industries of Egypt has way line extending between the Nile
in recent years been generally abandoned in Valley and the oasis of Kharga.
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT5 57

The identification of some of the groups Middle Paleolithic man found it both
of Levallois surface finds as flaking sites, possible and profitable to seek his liveli-
where implements were actually manu- hood on the present-day desert plateaux
factured, rests on more substantial evi- may be correlated with the late Kanjeran
dence than is the case with many of the and early Gamblian Pluvials of East Africa
so-called "stations" of Lower Paleolithic and assigned to late Riss and early Worm
times. On the surface at Abbassiya times, the industrial stages embraced
Bovier-Lapierre found not only as yet within these periods being, respectively,
unretouched flakes, but also the cores the Acheulio-Levalloisian and the Middle
from which they had been detached and Levalloisian. During the dry Riss-Wiirm
the hammerstones used in their produc- Interpluvial and the Wirm I--II Inter-
tion, the latter showing numerous evi- stadial (Lower and Upper Levalloisian,
dences of use. Middle Paleolithic flaking respectively) it is unlikely that men and
sites on the surfaces of the higher-level animals could have survived for any length
terraces in western Thebes contained dis- of time away from the river, the shores of
carded flakes which, according to Sandford the Fayum lake, or the springs and scarp
and Arkell, "may sometimes be fitted valleys of the oases.
together round the core from which they The absence of securely dated human
were struck off" and which undeniably remains, the fallacy of tying a particular
"have lain undisturbed since the day they type of stone industry to any one species
were made." In general the Levalloisian of early man, and the fact that both
working floors both in and near the Nile Acheulian and early Levalloisian imple-
Valley and at Kharga are characterized, ments appear to have been produced and
as would be expected, by a sparsity of used by the same groups of people should
finished flakes and an abundance of cores warn us against being too positive in
and broken pieces of cortex. identifying the makers of the Egypto-
A similarly broad expansion of the Levalloisian artifacts or in differentiating
practitioners of the "faceted-platform between them and their Lower Paleolithic
technique" has been noted in the Repub- predecessors. There are, however, not
lic of the Sudan. Here, besides Ashkeit, entirely negligible reasons for supposing
Tangasi, and other sites in the river valley, them to have belonged to the most
areas far from the Nile in what is now "100 prominent and most widely-distributed
per cent desert" have produced implements stock of Middle Paleolithic hominids, the
of Levalloisian types, notably the Neanderthaloids. In Europe Neanderthal
region between Nuri and Dongola and Man, a thickset, large-brained predecessor
the neighborhood of the Abu Tabari well, of Homo sapiens named for the Neander
the latter lying a good three hundred and valley in western Germany, is firmly
sixty miles out in the Libyan Desert. That associated with flake-tools of Mousterian
none have been found further to the west, technique and "the early neanderthaloids
in the well-explored vicinity of Ennedi, of Steinheim and Ehringsdorf were ac-
suggests that conditions there were less companied by 'Levalloisian' industries."
favorable than in the late Lower Paleolithic In both Palestine and Cyrenaica a taller,
period, which is represented in that area, hybrid or transitional form of the same
as we have seen, by hand-axes and other human species is linked with a Levalloiso-
artifacts of developed Acheulian type. Mousterian industry, which McBurney
The relatively moist periods when believes to have been "a tradition of
 oi.uchicago.edu

58 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

African ancestry," "superimposed by a generalized implements of Lower Paleo-

process of migration on a belated hand-axe lithic times. Under a chapter heading,
culture in Palestine." Since such a migra- "Man Begins to Specialize," Cole notes
tion could only have taken place by way that in Upper Pleistocene times "Chisels,
of Egypt the presence in this area of both gouges, and awls were invented; knife
the industry and its Neanderthaloid pro- blades undoubtedly had as many uses
ducers seems assured. Moreover, in the then as they have today; hollow-scrapers
spring of 1958 Dr. Andrej Wiercinski of were used as spoke-shaves, while end- and
the University of Warsaw announced the side-scrapers were more finely finished for
discovery in a wadi near Maadi, a suburb dressing leather for bags or clothing."
of Cairo, of "three fossilized skulls of very Equipped with the hafted dagger and the
primitive nature," the "general features" stone-tipped lance, as well as with bolas
of which "resemble those of Neanderthal and perhaps other missile weapons, the
man." Elsewhere in Africa human remains Neanderthaloid hunter did not hesitate to
of Neanderthal or Neanderthaloid type, tackle the most formidable of animals,
usually in association with a Levalloisian including on the icy slopes of western
or Levalloiso-Mousterian industry, have Europe the mammoth and the huge and
been found not only in Cyrenaica, but also fierce cave-bear with which he successfully
near Tangier in Morocco, near Lake Eyasi disputed the possession of the caves them-
in Tanganyika, and at Broken Hill in selves. On Egypt's western plateau his
Northern Rhodesia. The Neanderthaloid quarry is known to have comprised a fleet
jawbone of Cyrenaica comes from the horse-like animal, perhaps a zebra, and
stratified cave deposits of Haua Fteah, either a wild ox or a large antelope with
less than 500 miles west of Alexandria, bovine characteristics. The ample brain
where it was found together with Lower which devised the Levallois and Mous-
Levalloiso-Mousterian stone implements terian techniques of tool manufacture and
and some charcoal which has been dated designed the many implements produced
by radiocarbon tests to approximately by these methods led its owner forward in
43,000 B.c. As McBurney points out, other and diverse ways along the long,
the Haua Fteah mandible is "the first slow road toward civilization. In Europe
human fossil securely associated with the and Asia Neanderthal men "made regular
Middle Paleolithic in Northern Africa, use of fire" to keep themselves warm and
and the only human fossil at the time perhaps even to cook their food, and may
of writing" (1960) "to be dated in have worn simple clothing made of animal
years." skins. They buried their dead in the caves
Occupying the long and loosely defined in which they lived, ceremonially pre-
zone of human development transitional served and stacked the skulls and limb-
between the lower and upper savagery bones of the great beasts which they had
Middle Paleolithic man's most notable killed, practiced simple surgery, and cared
advance over his predecessors was his for the aged and infirm members of their
new-found ability to produce, by a communities. These evidences of solicitude
complicated and sophisticated technical for the welfare of both the living and the
method, a wide variety of specialized tools dead, of a belief in the efficacy of ritual
and weapons, each designed and produced and magic, and of anxiety and speculation
for an individual purpose and therefore regarding the future denote, as Coon has
infinitely more efficient than the few repeatedly pointed out, beings already far
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 59

removed from the "insensate brutes" of cultural stage, as represented at Helwan
the popular Neanderthal image. and elsewhere, comprising a microlithic
Far from lagging behind their European industry of very late glacial (post-pluvial)
and Asiatic contemporaries in the climb age and Mesolithic type. Thanks to a series
to this new cultural plateau, the peoples of of radiocarbon readings from associated
Africa in general and of northern Africa areas the "Late Paleolithic" period in
in particular seem, to judge from the Egypt can be dated in terms of years from
quality and originality of their stone in- approximately 30,000 (before 23,000) to
dustries, to have been among its leaders. approximately 10,000 B.C.
"It is probably true," says McBurney, The so-called Sebilian cultures are,
"that nowhere in the Palaeolithic world as properly speaking, confined to southern
at present known did this 'Middle Palaeo- Upper Egypt and Nubia, the type site
lithic' evolution of flake-tool traditions lying, as we have had occasion to remark,
reach a higher state of development than near the Ezbet el-Sebil in the Kom Ombo
in North Africa. This is perhaps the one basin, some thirty miles downstream from
stage at which this area was the scene of the First Cataract. Here in 1920 Edmond
cultural innovations in advance of similarly Vignard found the chipping floors and
derived traditions elsewhere." camp sites of groups of Late Paleolithic
people who occupied the area toward the
4. THE CULTURES OF LATE PALEOLITHIC TIMEs end of the late Pleistocene silt aggradation
phase and during the ensuing stages of
In Egypt the industrial and artistic riverbed degradation and whose activities,
achievements of the great Upper Paleo- owing to an increasingly arid climate, seem
lithic cultures of Europe-the Perigordian, to have been restricted to the immediate
the Aurignacian, the Solutrean, and the vicinity of the Nile and its subsidiary
Magdalenian-are for the most part streams, lakes, and marshes. The first
lacking, and we find, instead, a number of group of "Sebilians" lived apparently on
indigenous local industries, sharing, in the margins of the great reed swamp which
common a Levalloisian ancestry and at that time filled a large part of the basin,
retaining throughout a Levalloisian and their implements are found in the
character, but exhibiting with time pro- uppermost levels of the aggradation silts,
nounced and clearly differentiated regional separated by a great thickness of sterile
developments. McBurney deals with these silt-and an evidently considerable inter-
"Epi-Levalloisian" industries in his chap- val of time-from the Upper Levalloisian
ter on "The Middle Palaeolithic" and Miss implements at the base of the same
Caton-Thompson includes them in her deposits. Their stone industry, generally
monograph on "The Levalloisian In- designated as Lower Sebilian or Sebilian I,
dustries of Egypt." The period during differs from the parent Levalloisian in
which they flourished, however, corre- several respects. These include the use of a
sponded approximately with that of the steep secondary retouch along the lateral
Upper Paleolithic elsewhere, extending edge of the normal Upper Levalloisian
from the Wiirm I-II Interpluvial (Gott- flake to produce a triangular or trapezoidal
weig Interstadial) to Late Wurm times "backed" tool or other geometric form, a
and covering, therefore, the closing phases tendency to shorten the striking platform
of both the glacial epoch and the Old and to trim, or truncate, the bases of the
Stone Age, the immediately succeeding flakes, and a notable increase in the
 oi.uchicago.edu

60 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

production of flake-points and elongated deposited in thousands by the waters of

flake-blades. Breuil is inclined to derive the annual inundation, on fish caught in
this industry from the Mousterian, but the river and its backwaters, on river
McBurney and others have pointed out animals and on plains animals which came
that "the secondary work appears to be down from the now parched plateaux to
more abrupt and discontinuous" than that drink. Their camp sites are marked by
of either the Mousterian of Europe or the quantities of burned clay hearths, by
Levalloiso-Mousterian of Palestine. Des- sandstone mills with grinding stones for
pite a further marked reduction in the grinding apparently not only coloring
average size of the tools and cores, as matter (ochre, limonite) but also wild-
compared with those of the Upper growing cereal grains, and by mounds of
Levalloisian, Sebilian I remains an in- refuse, or kitchen middens, several yards
dustry of fairly large implements and can in height, composed of mollusk shells, fish
in no wise be described as microlithic. bones, broken and sometimes burnt animal
Disks occur and on the high-level sites bones, human bones, ashes, flint chips, and
Vignard also found a number of hammer- fragments of hard stone and Red Sea
stones, a sandstone anvil, some animal coral, but no pottery-in short, the typi-
bones, and fragments of burnt clay which cal living debris of a pre-Neolithic riverside
he took to be portions of cooking hearths. population of hunters and fishermen. The
The materials used by the Lower Sebilian Middle Sebilian, or Sebilian II, stone-tool
tool-maker are confined, in rather striking industry which has been associated with
fashion, to quartzite, quartz, and diorite. this level is made up in general of smaller
Outside of the Kom Ombo basin his and more varied implements than those of
handiwork occurs in the high silts at Sebilian I. The true Levalloisian flake has
several places between Luxor and the disappeared and in its place we find the
Second Cataract, notably, near Wadi now very common flake-point and various
Halfa in the northern Sudan and Toshka sub-geometric forms "steeply retouched
in Nubia and near Edfu and el-Kab in on one or more margins." Triangles,
southern Upper Egypt. The northward trapezoids, and semicircular or crescentic
expansion of the earlier Sebilian culture shapes were produced by suppression, or
seems to have ended in the vicinity of el- truncation, of both the bases and the tops
Kab and the use of the name to designate of the flakes and a number of flakes and
the more or less contemporaneous, but flake-blades were evidently deliberately
otherwise distinct, Epi-Levalloisian in- broken to shorten them. Of the new forms
dustries of Middle and northern Egypt is the lunate backed implements are perhaps
inaccurate. the most striking. Double-ended flake-
As the Nile in response to the Main blade cores and multiple cores worked on
Wiirm marine regression lowered its bed both sides are found, but true blades are
in the recently aggraded silts men followed rare until late Middle Sebilian times.
the declining waters far out into the great Implements identified by Alimen as burins,
Kom Ombo marsh and by Middle Sebilian or small graving chisels, have been com-
times had established their camps "around pared by her with those of the Tardenoisian
channels and swampy lakes and ponds" at industry of Mesolithic Europe, but Vignard
a general level somewhat below that doubts that the flakes in question are in
occupied by the earliest Sebilians. Here fact real burins. McBurney is inclined to
they subsisted on fresh-water mollusks regard many of the geometric forms of
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 61

both Sebilian I and II, classified and Fayum lake and the springs and scarp
illustrated by Vignard, as "dubious," valleys of the Great Oasis. Near Sebil the
"arbitrary," and of "fortuitous," or un- stieams from the east which had for so
intentional, origin. Flint is now the long fed the great marsh had dried up and
favorite material, being evidently readily to find water men were forced still further
available locally and having gradually down into the Kom Ombo plain where
taken the place of the harder stones what McBurney cautiously refers to as
employed by the earliest Sebilians. Though "surface concentrations more or less sug-
Caton-Thompson in 1946 limited the ex- gestive of individual camping sites" are
pansion of the Middle Sebilians to the area found grouped around a series of small,
between Wadi Halfa and Esna their low-lying basins. The work and habitation
implements have in fact been found in sites of the Sebilian III people are generally
wadi deposits as far north as Qurna in similar to those of Sebilian II, comprising,
western Thebes. At Dibeira West in Nubia besides the flaking floors themselves, large
they occur at a level of 68-73 feet above hearths ringed with lumps of ochreous clay
modern alluvium and in the district of and containing red or black ash depending
Edfu a Middle Sebilian flaking site has on whether the fuel used was grass or
been identified at an elevation of 45 feet. wood, and kitchen middens built up
The so-called Middle Sebilian implements largely of broken and charred bones, the
found by Sandford at el-Sheikh Timai in opened shells of freshwater mollusks, bits
Middle Egypt and at el-Hibah, south of the of flint, sandstone, and various hard
entrance to the Fayum, are considered by stones, and ashes. Mixed in with the latter
Caton-Thompson as "not characteristic" were sandstone mills and grinding stones,
or, at best, doubtful; and it would appear pebbles stained red, shells pierced with
that this culture, like its predecessor, was holes for suspension as ornaments (?), a
confined to southern Upper Egypt and slab of schist also drilled with a hole which
Nubia. In the Eastern Desert near Laqeita, Vandier has taken to be a cosmetic palette,
Debono has found small groups of Epi- fragments of red ochre coloring matter,
Levalloisian implements which he com- what Vignard describes as small vases and
pares with those of Levels I and II of cups of sandstone, and quantities of
Kom Ombo. smoothed but undecorated bone points,
By Upper Sebilian, or Late Glacial, perhaps the tips of javelins or arrows,
times (16,000-10,000 B.C.) the Nile in perhaps implements used in the pressure
Upper Egypt had lowered its bed to more flaking of stone tools. There are still no
than 100 feet below its present level and traces of pottery vessels or of ground or
desert conditions in northeastern Africa polished stone implements. The kitchen
had reached a degree of severity as great, middens are neither as large nor as
if not greater, than at the present day. numerous as those of the Sebilian II en-
The region had long since ceased to attract campments, and this suggests that the
immigrants from other parts of Africa and sojourn in this area of the Upper Sebilian
from western Asia, and the dwindling hunters and fishermen-though estimated,
native population, more or less cut off as we have seen, at six thousand years-
from the rest of the world, clung pre- was not as long as that of their pre-
cariously to the much reduced habitable decessors.
areas along the Mediterranean coastline, The stone implements of this lowest and
on the banks of the river, and around the latest level, made exclusively of flint or
 oi.uchicago.edu

62 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

chalcedony and designated generally as so-called "micro-burins" on which (to

Sebilian III, are such a disparate lot that quote Huzayyin) "Vignard bases his
McBurney feels that "in the absence of assumption that the Kom Ombo Basin
stratigraphical proof or of circumstantial was the centre of dispersal for the whole
details, photographs, etc., of individual of the Final Palaeolithic (Mesolithic)
sites," "the true association of these cultures of the Old World" are identified
diverse elements may well be doubted." by Caton-Thompson as by-products, or
Caton-Thompson, on the other hand, debitage, of the triangular and trapezoidal
accepts them as a single "backed blade implements; and it is the opinion of the
and trapeze industry" of "microlithic English prehistorian that from beginning
character," "derived from Sebilian II," to end the Sebilian culture "is valid only
and Huzayyin sees in them "essentially a for Upper Egypt and Nubia" and that "to
continuation and perfection of the industry regard it as the vehicle of transmission of
of Level II." There are miniature cores of Asiatic blade and burin culture to north-
Levalloisian type, others from which small west Africa is both fantastic and repre-
flake-blades were evidently produced, and hensible." McBurney also casts doubt on
still others designed for the production of Vignard's belief that there is evidence
elongated blades and bladelets. True here of "an actual transition from a flake-
blades occur and both these and the flakes industry to a blade industry" of true
are in many cases of such small size as to Upper Paleolithic type, since such a
be justifiably described as "submicro- transition would on the geological evidence
lithic." Many have been converted into a be "actually later than the earliest Upper
variety of geometric forms by the same Palaeolithic of Europe." At the same time
steep marginal retouch and the same he points out that "in Europe, Asia, and
mutilation (truncation) of the bases and elsewhere in Northern Africa" the micro-
tops noted in the preceding Sebilian stage. lithic elements of the so-called Sebilian III
The types include notched blades, tanged assemblage "only make their appearance
blades, lunates, end-scrapers, and augers, at the very end of the blade succession, in
some of the fine, specialized small tools the post-glacial epoch"; and Huzayyin
being quite evidently intended for working remarks that the preparation of the
in ivory, bone, or wood. Small rectangular striking platforms of some of the Sebilian
blades with one serrated edge may have III cores by means of a single blow
been set into primitive wooden sickles for ("plane transversal facet") "is a Final
reaping the wild cereal grains which Palaeolithic (Mesolithic) rather than a
apparently formed part of the Upper true Up. Palaeolithic feature." All in all,
Sebilian's diet and small points and spurs it seems wisest to regard the implements
of flint are believed by Vignard to have of Vignard's Level III as representing, in
been imbedded in lumps of gum or clay to part, the terminal phase of a local Late
form composite arrow heads. Notched or Paleolithic industry of Levalloisian ante-
tanged arrow heads of both unilateral and cedents and, in part, groups of "intrusive"
bilateral type suggest, in any case, that microliths and other artifacts of possibly
the Sebilians-thanks perhaps to the Mesolithic or pre-Neolithic date.
recent Aterian invasion of the Libyan In the Fayum and in the stretches of the
oases (see below)-were by now in posses- Nile Valley adjoining it we find another
sion of that most revolutionary of all Late Paleolithic culture developing in a
ancient weapons, the bow and arrow. The more conservative and quite different
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 63

fashion towards a microlithic and/or hollow-based arrowheads and the large
pre-Neolithic culmination. Geologically axes, tranchets, adzes, and other bifacial
and chronologically the 92- and 74-foot tools of the Fayum Neolithic, and in them
Fayum lake beaches, some wadi terraces he is inclined to see a local evolution from
in the northern rim of the depression, and the Upper Paleolithic into the Neolithic
the corresponding Hawara Channel and without an intermediate microlithic-i.e.,
Nile gravels and silts belong to the Lower Final Paleolithic, or Mesolithic-phase.
and Middle Sebilian periods, but typo- With the fall of its lake to eighteen feet or
logically the industry found in these more below present sea-level the Paleo-
deposits and designated by G. Caton- lithic history of the Fayum is. "lost to
Thompson as Fayum Epi-Levalloisian, view" and with it the final stage of the
exhibits clear differences from the Sebilian. local industry, Miss Caton-Thompson's
Small double-ended oval cores of Leval- largely hypothetical "Epi-Levalloisian
loisian type, pointed, triangular, and ovoid III."
flakes, and narrow "flake-blade-like forms" Other local facies of essentially the same
show none of the special features-the Late Paleolithic industry of northern
reduced butts and other mutilations, the Egypt have been exposed in wadi deposits
backed lateral edges, and the steep retouch and surface washes on the eastern fringes
-which characterize the Sebilian. Indeed, of the Delta, the sites including Abu
retouch of any type is rare in these Suwair, on the northern rim of the Wadi
implements. The prevalence of double- Tumilat, Shibeem el Qanatir, near the
ended cores might be taken as a link with Ismailia canal, and Heliopolis and Abbas-
the earlier Sebilian, but even here there is siya, northeast of Cairo. Here, too, we find
no exact correspondence. Miss Caton- what would appear to be two lines of
Thompson finds a monotonous lack of development, one a diminutive or "pro-
variety in the implement types and is longed" Levalloisian flake tradition
prone to regard the industry as "a stage characterized by small but broad flakes
of attested development from the Late with faceted butts and tending in its
Levalloisian of the 34 m. [112 ft.] lake latest phase towards the microlithic, the
level" with "no innovations whatsoever." other a reversion to a bifacial core-tool
The "Epi-Levalloisian II" industry of the tradition featuring ancestral forms of the
74-foot Fayum beach and associated "axes and similar implements of the Neo-
Nilotic deposits is seen as a direct descend- lithic and later cultures." Among the four
ant of that of the 92-foot level with the thousand artifacts found in 1940 at Abu
diminution in the average size of the imple- Suwair are cores with microlithic features,
ments having now become more marked, such as the single-faceted striking plat-
but without having as yet attained a true form, others showing axe or chopper-tool
microlithic character. tendencies, and still others prepared in
Huzayyin, on the other hand, notes a such a way as to suggest possible use as
pronounced tendency in this industry, sling-stones. The industry is relatively
which he proposes to call the "Qarounian," poor in flakes and among the latter the
toward the production of core tools, bi- proportion of narrow blades is somewhat
facially flaked and including triangular higher than it is, for example, at Sebil in
core-points, choppers, and primitive forms southern Egypt. Burins are almost
of axes and adzes. These he believes may completely lacking. At Heliopolis and
be the precursors of the triangular and Abbassiya cores and core-tools are less
 oi.uchicago.edu

64 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

predominant and microlithic tendencies tion, steep marginal trimming, improvisa-

less clear than at Abu Suwair. Bifacial tion of forms, and an addiction to snapping
axes, reminiscent of typologically similar larger flakes and multilating them."
tools of Neolithic and later times, occur, Though it is conceded that many of the
as do also "re-edging flakes," struck off diminutive implements may be merely
transversally from the working edges of the results of prolonged use and that on
such axes. the whole they are typologically unrelated
Collections of implements made by to true blade-microliths, it is suggested
Junker and Menghin in the vicinity of Abu that they may have given rise to some of
Ghalib, on the western edge of the Delta, the thick, backed microliths produced in
and variously described as Sebilian, Cap- Egypt at a later period. The implements
sian, or Neolithic, have, upon further designated as Levalloiso-Khargan were
study, proved to be either Upper Leval- found in situ in the gravels of Kharga's
loisian or, in the case of a microlithic eastern scarp valleys, below the Aterian
industry, of protodynastic, early Old level, and can be dated to the latest period
Kingdom, or even Middle Kingdom date. of stream activity in these wadis. Those
Debono has reported the discovery of Epi- classed as Khargan, however, are surface
Levalloisian implements in eastern Sinai, finds, picked up in and around solution
180 miles from the Nile Valley, but, so pans and water-sheds of the scarp valleys,
far as is known, has not yet published his as well as near Qara in the Nile Valley,
finds. and cannot be positively dated, even their
In general, it is felt that, despite some chronological relationship to the intrusive
local differences, the Delta industries and Aterian industry being a matter of un-
those of the Fayum can be grouped to- certainty. Miss Caton-Thompson feels sure
gether and regarded as jointly representa- "that both Aterian and Khargan lay at or
tive of the last surviving stages of the near the end of the Paleolithic succession
Paleolithic in northern Egypt. in the scarp" and suggests the possibility
The third principal sub-area of Late that the Khargan is "that final degenera-
Paleolithic regional specialization centers tion of the local Levalloisian sequence"
around the oasis of Kharga and the which "gave way before the higher
adjoining portions of the Nile Valley in intrusion," i.e.,the Aterian. Because of its
southern Middle Egypt. Here there existed "progressive" character and the nature of
in Sebilian times a diminutive Levalloisian its "secondary work" both Miss Caton-
industry to which Miss Caton-Thompson Thompson and Huzayyin are inclined to
has given the name "Khargan" and which associate the Khargan with the Sebilian
she describes as being made up for the most and to bracket the two industries together
part of "very thick, short flakes, reduced as a "southern group," distinct from the
by steep or even vertical retouch of their more conservative, or backward, cultures
edges to a variety of usually asymmetric of northern Egypt. McBurney, on the
forms." Besides normal Levalloisian flakes, other hand, points out that the distinctive
cores, and discs and some well-developed secondary "work" of the "Khargan"
end- and side-scrapers the "Khargan" and implements "wears a singularly haphazard
a preceding, transitional stage, the so- appearance," exhibits a multiple patina-
called "Levalloiso-Khargan," are repre- tion, and could, as in the case of other
sented as including "diminutive types, surface finds, have been produced by
characterized by bulb reduction or trunca- accidental or natural agencies over ex-
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 65

tended periods of time. He is therefore reminiscent of the highest achievements
inclined to place both the Khargan and of the Levalloiso-Mousterian of Palestine
the Levalloiso-Khargan "in a suspense or the Mousterian of Europe. Using for
account," conceding only "the survival the most part tabular chert the Aterian of
into the final stage of major activity in Kharga shaped his thin, flat cores with
the wadis of a well-characterized Leval- great precision and from them produced
loisian of small dimensions." his famous tanged and laurel-leaf points,
It was apparently during this phase of large and expertly retouched end-scrapers,
Kharga's prehistory that the oasis was and magnificent bifacial spear-blades up
invaded by a colony of desert dwellers to nine inches in length. The last, which
who had migrated eastward from their are of elongated foliate form, were finished
homeland around the Atlas Mountains not only by shallow percussion scaling but
bringing with them the bow and arrow also by fine marginal "pressure flaking," a
and a highly developed stone industry recently developed technique in which
of Levalloiso-Mousterian type generally small, carefully controlled flakes were
known as the Aterian after the type-site detached from the edges of an implement
of Bir el Ater in southern Tunisia. Having simply by pressing against them the end or
passed through Cyrenaica, the Oasis of edge of a flaking tool of stone or, more
Siwa, and the Oasis of Dakhla, the frequently, of wood, bone, or horn. The
intruders entered the Kharga depression great spearheads and the tanged javelin
near its extreme northwest corner, leaving points, designed for efficient hafting to
examples of their remarkable tanged shafts of wood or reed, are accompanied,
points on the surface near Ain el Amur, in the words of Miss Caton-Thompson,
an uninviting region, avoided by other "by unmistakable arrow-heads of more
Paleolithic peoples less well versed than than one sort," some provided with stem
the Aterians in the art of desert living. barbs or wings, "the certain criterion of a
Elsewhere the intrusive industry is widely stone arrow-head." With the Gravettians
distributed over the oasis, occurring in situ and Upper Solutreans of Europe the
on the floor of the depression, at mound- Aterians may, then, lay claim to the dis-
spring KO 6E, and on the eastern scarp, covery and earliest use of the bow and
at Site A of the Bulaq Pass, where, as we arrow, a weapon of far greater range and
have seen, it overlies the local "Levalloiso- accuracy than the slings and bolas of the
Khargan" industry. The eastward expan- earlier Paleolithic peoples and one which
sion of this relatively late phase of the endowed its inventors with an over-
Aterian culture does not seem to have whelming superiority both in warfare and
extended much beyond the region of in hunting over their less ingenious
Kharga, Aterian implements being ex- contemporaries. There can, in any case,
ceedingly rare in the Nile Valley, though be little doubt that the Aterians were
a few have been picked up at scattered responsible for introducing this formidable
sites between Thebes and Asyut and near arm into northeastern Africa, where it
the Laqeita Wells, to the east of Qus. was to remain throughout the rest of pre-
The industry in general is characterized history and most of recorded history the
not only by highly evolved methods of principal weapon of the Egyptian warrior
core preparation in the best Levalloisian and huntsman. Moreover, in the Aterian
tradition, but also by extraordinarily foliates Miss Caton-Thompson is "tempted
skillful secondary work, or trimming, to see the origins of the Egyptian Neolithic
 oi.uchicago.edu

66 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

and early Predynastic (Badarian) bifacial handle, are the prevailing forms, the last-
tools." Though they do not seem to have named degenerating with time into the
reached the Nile Valley itself in any minute sections of blade known as micro-
numbers, it is clear that this vigorous and liths. Among the leading blade cultures of
obviously highly intelligent people exerted Upper Paleolithic times we may cite the
a not inconsiderable influence on the future Aurignacian of Europe and western Asia,
course of Egyptian civilization. the Capsian of southern Tunisia and
At Kharga their arrival brought to a Algeria, and the Oranian, or Ibero-
premature end the development of the Maurusian, of the North African coastal
local diminutive Levalloisian tradition, region from the Maghreb to Cyrenaica.
the adherents of which appear to have Despite the assertions of a number of
emigrated or been driven from the oasis writers on Egyptian prehistory neither
before their industry reached a microlithic the Aurignacian nor the Capsian, sensu
or sub-microlithic stage. Moundspring stricto, have yet been found in north-
KO 5B, in the Bellaida area, has produced eastern Africa. The industry of the Champ
a puzzling mixed industry of very small de Bagasse, near Nag Hammadi, identified
flakes and flake-blades, backed-blade trans- by Vignard as Aurignacian, is probably
verse arrow-heads, and large tubular arti- Neolithic or Predynastic, the absence of
facts, which seems to be not directly pottery notwithstanding. Though the
related to either the "Khargan" or the Capsian may at one time have crossed
Sebilian, but which, in theory, is what is northernmost Egypt en route between
needed "to bridge the transition from Cyrenaica and the Levant, true Capsian
epi-Levalloisian to Microlithic culture tool types and techniques are not present
groups." The next recorded industry in in the existing Late or Final Paleolithic
the Kharga succession, the so-called industries of the lower Nile Valley and the
Bedouin Microlithic, belongs well down in immediately adjoining desert areas. Mc-
post-Paleolithic times, having flourished in Burney believes that the Earlier Oranian
all probability during the interval of spread "eastward along the coast as far as
slightly increased rainfall known as the ..
Cyrenaica, . ultimately, perhaps, colo-
Neolithic Wet Phase. nizing Lower Egypt"; but he points out,
Though blades, as we have seen, occur at the same time, that "no significant
with some frequency among the flake-tools finds of blade-industry have yet been
which are the dominant elements of recorded" between Cyrenaica and the Nile
Egypt's Late Paleolithic, or Epi- Delta and notes in general "the absence of
Levalloisian, industries, there is at present adequate surface collections from the
no positive evidence for the existence in coastal regions east and west of" the Delta.
the Egyptian area of a true blade industry What we find, then, in Late Paleolithic
before Final Paleolithic, or "Mesolithic," Egypt are chiefly Epi-Levalloisian flake
times. In such an industry the elongated industries "with restricted blade element,"
flakes, or blades, are produced, usually some of which, in northern Egypt, tend
from conical or cylindrical cores, with the gradually to revert to a bifacial core-tool
aid of a wood or bone tool called a flaking tradition of "pre-Neolithic" type. All (in
punch, which is either struck with a the words of H. L. Movius) "developed
mallet or operated by pressure. The end- along indigenous lines almost completely
scraper, the burin, and the blade, often undisturbed by contemporary develop-
"backed" for mounting in a wooden ments from outside the area except for the
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 67

appearance of the Aterian in the Kharga remains, which comprise "portions of
oasis," and because, according to G. human skulls, jaws and other bones,"
Caton-Thompson, "increasingly Nilotic in have, upon examination by a number of
a specific sense..., untroubled by rival eminent anatomists, proved to be "more
discoveries and inventions by eastern akin to the predynastic Egyptian than to
neighbours.. ." From their latest, or any other race of which we have full
sub-microlithic, phases some of these knowledge"--a fact striking not only
industries, like the more or less contem- because of the great span of time sep-
poraneous Capsian and Oranian, seem arating the Late Paleolithic from the
to have passed gradually, and without a earliest Predynastic, but also because it
discernible gap, into the microlithic stage implies the existence at this early period
which in Egypt characterizes the so-called of identifiable racial types, in this case a
Final Paleolithic, or Mesolithic, cultures of Hamitic or semi-Hamitic branch of the so-
late Glacial and post-Glacial times, the called Mediterranean Race. Elsewhere in
latter, in turn, continuing until "the onset North and East Africa more completely
of the Neolithic, or Late Stone Age, and preserved skeletal remains attest the
the so-called 'rise of civilisation."'" Others, presence of tall, dolicocephalic men of non-
in the north, appear to have graded negroid type, related to the Cro-Magnon
directly into the large bifacial tool tradi- people of Upper Paleolithic Europe and,
tion of the pre-Neolithic and Neolithic like them, "often interred in a flexed
without passing through a Mesolithic position and sprinkled with red ochre."
stage. To Miss Caton-Thompson the At both Kom Ombo and Qau the bones
regional differences in Egypt's Late Paleo- of Homo sapiens were accompanied by
lithic industries reflect the disintegration those of the animals which he hunted
of the country at this time into "district and among which he lived. This in-
tribal groups," and in the existence of a terestingly varied fauna of both river-
southern and a northern group of cultures valley and marginal desert types included
she discerns "the origins of Predynastic the cave hyena (Hyaena crocuta), the lion
dyarchy and the beginnings of the strongly (Felis leo), the donkey (Equus asinus), the
local flavour of the tribal and religious horse (Equus caballus), great quantities of
systems of pre-Menic civilisation." hippopotami (Hippopotamus amphibius),
By Late Paleolithic times Homo sapiens, the pig (Sus sp.), an early type of ox, now
or "Modern Man," moving into the area extinct (Bos primigenius), the long-horned
from western Asia and southwestern African ox (Bos Africanus), the short-
Europe, had ousted and replaced his horned ox (Bos brachyceros), and another
Neanderthaloid predecessor throughout breed (Bos cf. Laini), two extinct species
the greater part of northern and eastern of buffalo (Bubalus nov. sp.* and Bubalus
Africa. In Cyrenaica, where he is associated vignardi), a variety of hartebeest (Bubalie
with Upper Paleolithic blade industries, buselaphus) and a similar large antelope
his advent can be dated to between 29,000 (Bubalis sp.), the Isabella gazelle (Gazellas
and 26,000 B.c. In Egypt his fossilized isabella), the ostrich (Struthio sp.), the Nile
and waterworn remains have been found crocodile (Crocodilus niloticus) and a
in the Sebilian silts of the Kom Ombo second species (Crocodilusnov. sp.), turtles
plain and, in association with gravel (Testudo sp.), and several kinds of fish,
deposits of apparently similar date, near including Synodontis schall, Clariasanguil-
Qau el Kebir, in Middle Egypt. These laris, and Clariaslazera. The list as drawn
 oi.uchicago.edu

68 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

up by LAonce Joleaud comprises also the -- the Late Paleolithic inhabitants of

camel (Camelus sp.), the deer (Cervu8 sp.), Egypt, like their European contempor-
and a number of small rodents, and con- aries, the Aurignacians and the Mag-
tains such variants as Hippopotamus dalenians, formed a less nomadic, more
(Hexaprotodon) cf. 8ivalen8is, Equus8ival- settled population than had the far-
ensi8, Crocodilus (cf. indicus), Sus cf. ranging hunting bands of the Lower and
hysudricus, Bos (Bibos), and Emys cf. Middle Old Stone Age. Their habitation
sivalensi. Near el Sheikh Timai, between sites in the Kom Ombo basin, with their
Asyut and Samalut, the blackened, min- large clay-walled hearths, heavy stone
eralized, and water-worn bones of hippo- mills, and towering mounds of food refuse
potami, crocodiles, oxen (Bos sp.), and give evidence of prolonged and continuous
siluroid fish were found in gravels of occupation by sizeable communities of
Lower or Middle Sebilian date, accom- people and constitute logical forerunners
panied by water-worn stone implements of of the permanent settlements of Neolithic
Epi-Levalloisian types; and near Edfu times. On these sites the growth and
the silt fifteen feet above the Middle development of new industries is attested
Paleolithic level yielded the remains of by the number and variety of new and
Hippopotamus, Equus sp., Bos sp., siluroid highly specialized types of small tools,
fish, and the dermal plates of a crocodile. including, perhaps, in the pointed bone
Fauna from silt deposits southwest of implements of the Upper Sebilian level,
Wadi Halfa includes "Equus sp., a gigantic tools for making tools. Unlike the more or
hippopotamus, a deer, and an antelope." less contemporaneous cave dwellings of
The Nubian and Upper Egyptian silts and France, Spain, and Italy, however, the
the Sebilian kitchen middens also con- open camps of Egypt's Late Paleolithic
tained, as we have seen, innumerable people have preserved no paintings or
shells of edible, fresh-water mollusks: reliefs nor any of the small works of
Unio willcocksi, Unio (Caelatura)nilotica, sculpture and decorative art carved of
Nodularia (caelatura) nilotica, Viviparus bone, tusk, or antler for which the Upper
unicolor, Corbicula consobrina artini, Cleo- Paleolithic cultures of Europe are de-
patra bulimoides, and the so-called Nile servedly famous. Their failure to develop
"oyster," Aetheria elliptica. At Qau the an effective graving tool, or burin, suggests
only shell found was that of Aetheria that they did not, in fact, work in bone,
elliptica. Butzer characterizes this fauna ivory, or horn to any notable extent. It is
as of "gallery-woodland" or "levee- possible that the mere struggle for
woodland" type-"forest and marsh ani- existence of these hunting and food-
mals with some species which are more gathering communities in a land where a
likely to be encountered on the edge of the deteriorating climate was making the wild
desert"-and Professor D. M. S. Watson fauna and flora increasingly sparse left
describes some of the mammals from Qau them little or no leisure for the develop-
as "northern forms of southern and ment of the arts or any but the simplest
central African types." of the crafts. The fact that they were able
Confined by similar climatic conditions to survive at all is attributable in part to
to those areas where water is still found marked advances in their hunting tech-
today-the banks of the river and its niques and hunting weapons, which in-
backwaters, the shores of the Fayum lake, cluded by Upper Epi-Levalloisian times
the springs and scarp ravines of the oases the bow and the stone-tipped arrow, and
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 69

in part to other improvements in methods fish in the Sebilian refuse heaps suggests
of food-gathering and food preparation, that cannibalism was among their less
such as the use of the stone-edged sickle attractive and less progressive institutions.
for harvesting wild-growing cereal grasses Since the neanthropic colonizers of
or other edible plants and of sandstone northeastern Africa did not bring with
mills for converting the grain into flour. them from their homeland in western Asia
That such mills were used also for grinding one of the characteristically Upper Paleo-
red ochre and other mineral pigments lithic blade industries, but simply adopted
suggests that, like other Upper Paleolithic and maintained, with some alterations and
peoples, the Egyptians of this time were in additions, a local Middle Paleolithic tradi-
the habit of painting their bodies and tion of tool making, it would appear that
perhaps their faces either for adornment their immigration into the Egyptian area
or, more likely, to indicate their tribe, must have taken place before Upper
affiliation, sex, or social status. In the Paleolithic times. In this connection it is
colored pebbles and pierced shells of the interesting to note the discovery at Singa
Upper Sebilian kitchen middens we may on the Blue Nile of a "primitive sapiens-
perhaps recognize a primitive form of like skull apparently associated with
jewelry and in the presence in these mid- Levalloisoid industrial material." Follow-
dens of bits of Red Sea coral the beginnings ing their establishment in the Nile Valley
of trade with adjoining areas. Unfortu- and the oases the newcomers evidently
nately, none of the many rock drawings lost touch with neighboring areas of the
which flank the desert trails to the east Near East and remained largely unaffected
and west of the Nile Valley can with any by the significant cultural developments
assurance be assigned to this period, few if which were taking place in these areas.
any of them being pre-Neolithic in date. Until Final Paleolithic times their own
No burials have been preserved and, as cultural evolution, as we have seen, was to
we have already noted, there are no traces a great extent independent, indigenous,
on any of the Egyptian sites of this time and determined, not by foreign influences,
of pottery vessels or ground and polished but by changing natural conditions within
stone implements. Food production the boundaries of the land itself, such as
through agriculture and the domestication the steady encroachment of the desert on
and breeding of animals was apparently the already narrow strips of habitable
as yet undreamed of. As elsewhere, the land, the gradual decline in the vegetation,
Late Paleolithic inhabitants of the Kom and the decrease in the quantity, character,
Ombo basin, the Libyan oases, the Fayum, and size of the wild fauna. To Miss Caton-
and the fringes of the Delta lived in a Thompson Egypt at this period provides
state which has been described as "the "instances of the capacity of a specific
higher savagery," a stage transitional Stone Age industry to transform itself"
between the nomadic "lower savagery" of without outside human influence "into
earlier Paleolithic times and the sedentary something totally different." To Vaufrey,
"barbarism" of the Neolithic period. Lest on the other hand, "the cultures of
it be felt that "savagery" is too strong a the Egyptian Upper Paleolithic are, like
word to apply to groups of people at this those of the Maghreb, delayed cultures
stage of development, it should be pointed displaying the characteristics of long
out that the presence of human bones lasting survivals"; and to Grahame Clark
among the remains of game animals and Upper Paleolithic Africa as a whole
 oi.uchicago.edu

70 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

appears as "something of a backwater, the edges of the river and other remaining
where cultures of Middle Paleolithic origin bodies of water. Like his European con-
continued to develop, throwing off variants temporaries he had probably reverted to a
like the Aterian and Sebilian, ... inspired, migratory existence, moving frequently
it may be, to a greater or lesser degree by from one place to another in search of
neoanthropic influences." The most strik- food. He was fortunate, however, in
ing of the Late Paleolithic trends in Egypt possessing the bow and arrow and probably
-and on this there is no disagreement- by this time that most expert of hunting
was the emergence of clearly differentiated companions, the dog, the domestication or
regional cultures associated with geo- semi-domestication of which is well at-
graphically definable division of the tested on Mesolithic sites elsewhere in the
country: Upper Egypt and Nubia, the world.
Fayum and northern Egypt, and Middle The type and size of quarry hunted by
Egypt and the Libyan oases; for herein lie, the Egyptian of late glacial and early post-
without doubt, the origins of the local glacial times, his other sources of liveli-
cultural, religious, and, eventually, politi- hood, his nomadic habits, and, indeed, the
cal units which throughout most of her whole mode and pattern of his life are
subsequent history so deeply influenced reflected in his stone implements, the more
the course of Egypt's development. typical of which are microliths evidently
used as points, cutting edges, or barbs in
5. THE FINAL PALEOLITHIC, OR composite tools and weapons made chiefly
MESOLITHIC, STAGE
of wood, bone, or horn. As in the Upper
In Egypt the stage of cultural develop- Capsian and Oranian of northern and
ment which corresponded in a general way northwestern Africa these miniature points
to the so-called Mesolithic, or Middle and blades are likely to be mingled, on the
Stone Age, of other portions of the ancient same sites, with larger implements of
world began about 10,000 B.c.-toward Neolithic form and technique.
the end of the glacial period-and ex- This is the case with the best known of
tended, in some localities, well down into Egypt's mesolithic industries, that of
Neolithic and even post-Neolithic times. Helwan, on the east side of the Nile some
As in Europe, it witnessed a dwindling sixteen miles south of Cairo. Here, in the
population of "terminal food-gatherers" plain between the river and the town of
struggling to sustain itself in a natural Helwan, Dr. Wilhelm Reil in 1871 dis-
environment no longer suited to this covered the first of a series of surface
fundamentally parasitic mode of existence. stations, or camps, containing for the most
Despite an interval of slightly increased part minute blades of both irregular and
rainfall extending from about 9500 to sub-geometric forms, some showing little
about 8500 B.c. and corresponding to the or no retouch, others with deliberately
final re-advance of the disappearing Wirm blunted backs or ends. Among the more
glaciers, northeast Africa was now largely characteristic geometrical shapes, which
desert, abandoned by the larger plains include trapezes and triangles, are slender
animals; and the hapless Nilot was lunates, or segments of circles, their
reduced to subsisting chiefly on small curved backs blunted for mounting (as
game, wildfowl, fish, mollusks, and the arrow barbs?), their cutting edges straight
scanty plant life which still survived in and sharp. Sickle blades with serrated
the much reduced habitable areas along edges occur in some quantity as do also
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 71

minute implements made from the "waste" Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic camp sites
(dichets de taille) of the geometric forms near Helwan are marked by kitchen mid.
and identified by Debono as microburins, dens, or refuse heaps, made up chiefly of
or miniature graving tools, a typical meso- ashes, flint implements, and animal bones,
lithic form which, however, happens to be among which have been recognized those
extremely rare on most of the Egyptian of a pig and of a horse-like quadruped. No
sites so far explored. Some of these micro- pottery vessels were found, but in their
liths show affiliations with the terminal stead these pre-Neolithic hunters and
Upper Paleolithic, or Epi-Levallosian, of fishermen used as containers and cookpots
the region. Associated with them on a the shells of ostrich eggs, many of which
station now covered by the rapidly ex- were charred from the heat of the cooking
panding town of Helwan was found a fires. Like their Natufian contemporaries
distinctive type of elongated bifacial the Helwan people wore jewelry made up
arrowhead of decidedly Neolithic aspect, of strings of marine shells, pierced or trim-
provided near the base with a pair of deep, med for the purpose, the favorite type being
skillfully formed lateral notches, evidently the tubular Dentalium, or tooth-shell.
for the lashing by means of which the Similar camps with comparable stone
long, graceful point was attached to its industries of apparently both Upper
shaft. Since this type of point has not been Paleolithic and Mesolithic age have been
found on other Egyptian sites it has come noted by Debono in the neighborhood of
to be known as "the Helwan arrowhead." the Laqeita Wells, in the desert to the east
It occurs, however, in the Mesolithic of of Qus in Upper Egypt. Here the imple-
nearby Palestine, the so-called Natufian, ment types included, according to their
together with bifacially trimmed micro- discoverer, both burins and microburins,
liths and other forms which seem to link sickle flints, tanged arrowheads of seem-
the two industries and which in both ingly Aterian ancestry, plain and re-
areas survived into Neolithic times. J. de touched blades and bladelets of various
Morgan and D. A. E. Garrod are inclined geometric forms, and the cores from which
to attribute the Helwan industry to they were struck. Hearths were found and,
immigrants from Palestine. S. A. Huzayyin near them, beads and receptacles of
concedes the resemblance between the two ostrich eggshell, the last, as at Helwan,
industries, but points out that the Natufian often blackened by fire. Groups of micro-
of Palestine "was somewhat more spe- liths from the vicinity of Aswan and from
cialized" and tends to favor "a spreading the depression of Ain Dalla in the Libyan
from Egypt into Palestine." Since, how- Desert, where they were associated with
ever, it is difficult to derive the industry small hearths and fragments of ostrich
of Helwan directly from the Diminutive eggshell, are said by P. Bovier-Lapierre to
Levalloisian of northern Egypt and since resemble closely those of Helwan.
it differs in a number of important respects Microlithic implements from a site im-
from the Capsian of North Africa and the mediately north of Helwan-now usually
Sebilian of southern Upper Egypt, we called "el-Omari" in honor of its dis-
would seem to be left with no choice but coverer-from the Wadi Angabiya, on
to regard it, with Garrod, de Morgan, the Suez Road, sixteen miles east-north-
McBurney, and others, as-in part at least east of Cairo, and from the Fayum lake
-- an importation from southwestern Asia. basin show similarities with those of
As in the Kom Ombo plain some of the Helwan and, being in all instances surface
 oi.uchicago.edu

72 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

finds, are similarly difficult to date. Like out of the local Epi-Levalloisian flake
the Helwan sub-facies these other northern tradition. At Kharga this tradition was
industries persisted into the late Neolithic cut short by the Aterian invasion, and the
or post-Neolithic cultural phase without, somewhat belated microlithic industries of
in the words of Huzayyin, becoming the area, though evidently also of Leval-
"overwhelmed by the contemporary and loisian ancestry, are distinct in many
more advanced culture." They are charac- details from their counterpart in the Kom
terized by small blades, either simple or Ombo basin. In the north affiliations with
"backed," and by the absence of burins, the Egypto-Levalloisian flake-tool tradi-
microburins, and true geometric forms of tion can still be recognized, but the
Capsian type. In the Wadi Angabiya the closest association of the partly microlithic
shapes include lunates and elongated tri- and partly pre-Neolithic cultures of the
angles and, in the Fayum, single-backed region was, as we have seen, with the Meso-
shanked, or tanged, blades and blade- lithic of Palestine, whence, indeed, at least
points, and slender little trihedral rods, one of the interrelated industries, that of
pointed at both ends. Far off to the west, Helwan, may have been brought into the
near the border of Libya, the oasis of Siwa country by "a final wave of hunters from
has yielded microlithic, or semi-microlithic, the Levant."
implements of comparable type and date, The Mesolithic population of Egypt
among which long backed blades and seems, then, to have comprised a number
elongated triangles tend to predominate. of different groups or tribes of semi-
Of the more or less contemporaneous nomadic fisher-folk and hunters, each of
cultures of the northeastern African region which tended to confine its activities to an
in general the most remarkable and most individual section of the land and did not
completely preserved is the Mesolithic of under normal circumstances come into
Khartoum in the Republic of the Sudan. prolonged or frequent contact with the
Here were found the riverside settlements other groups. Within the general confines
of a negroid fishing people whose industries of their own territories, however, all
included the production of multi-barbed the groups seem to have moved about
bone harpoons and decorated pottery freely in search of game and other sources
vessels and among whose microlithic stone of food, everything which has survived of
implements are chisel-shaped arrowheads their material equipment, from their light,
of a type favored by the Egyptians of composite tools to their ostrich-egg con-
Neolithic and later times. tainers and cooking vessels, being of either
A comparison of the groups of imple- a disposable or readily portable nature.
ments from northern Egypt with the Despite the hardships and precariousness
already discussed microlithic and, in part of their existence these relics of the Old
at least, Mesolithic industries of the Kom Stone Age survived the stretch of extreme
Ombo basin ("Sebilian III"), the oasis of aridity which marked the post-pluvial
Kharga, and the adjacent portions of the stages of Egypt's climatic history and
Upper Egyptian Nile Valley discloses, if were still present in the Egyptian area
anything, an even more pronounced long after the advent of the so-called
"regionalism" than was apparent during Neolithic Wet Phase, or Subpluvial, had
the preceding stages of the Late Paleolithic brought into the land a new and sedentary
era. At Sebil the microlithic facies appears population of herdsmen and farmers. By
to have developed more or less directly 5000 B.C., however, it has been estimated
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 73

that the total population of the Egyptian incised with a pointed tool, on the surfaces
Nile Valley and Delta had dropped to one of the desert rocks, have been recorded at
thousand; and it is believed that when several places in the Eastern Desert in
Neolithic man first reached the newly re- the vicinity of the Laqeita Wells, at five
established Fayum lake he found its sites on the west side of the Nile between
shores uninhabited. While it serves to Hosh and Aswan, in the Libyan Desert
bridge the chronological "gap between sixteen miles west of Naqada, and at three
the end of the Palaeolithic and the rise points along the desert track between the
of civilisation," in no sense does the Meso- Libyan oases of Kharga and Dakhla. The
lithic phase in Egypt or elsewhere con- naked hunters portrayed in these drawings
stitute a stage of transition from the Old are equipped with large, C-shaped bows
to the New Stone Age; but, rather, the and elaborately fletched arrows with
prolongation of an essentially Paleolithic broad, probably poisoned points, which,
mode of life and industrial tradition into a for lack of quivers, they sometimes carry
new cultural milieu of quite a different stuck into their evidently long, thick hair.
nature and origin. The co-existence of the For capturing and killing the giraffe use
two traditions, however, was not without was also made of the lasso and a mace
its lasting effect, for, as Butzer has pointed with a heavy circular head. Some of the
out, the Egyptian civilisation was the figures wear feathers in their hair and the
"product of a fruitful contact between an heads of others are surmounted by
endemic Final Palaeolithic hunting and curious horizontal wavy lines. Occasionally
fishing folk on the one hand, and new the huntsmen are accompanied by large
cultural and ethnic groups originating dogs, in one instance held on a leash. In
from the area of the Fertile Crescent on the spasmodically rainswept hills to the
the other." Furthermore, though the use east of the Nile the favorite quarry is
of microliths "tended to become more ex- the African elephant, while on the more
tensive during the Final Palaeolithic (or barren plains to the west the giraffe, less
Mesolithic) stage," they are by no means demanding in its need for food and water,
confined to this era, recurring frequently is the animal most frequently represented.
in Egypt from Upper Paleolithic times Other beasts encountered in these draw-
well down into the New Kingdom, when ings are the antelope, the gazelle, the ibex,
we find them still being employed as the the barbary sheep, the ostrich, a wolf-like
points and barbs of hunting arrows. animal, a lizard, a snake, a bird with four
It is tempting to identify the late claws, and the crocodile, the prevalence
survivors of the Mesolithic hunting bands and evident importance of the last-named
with the authors of the oldest series of indicating a people of riverain origin and
rock drawings preserved to us on the cliffs affinities. Large rectangular objects have
edging the Nile Valley and along the desert been thought to be game-nets and heart-
trails of southern Upper Egypt and Lower shaped enclosures may well be fish-traps.
Nubia. The people in question, Winkler's A belief in magic as a means of achieving
"Earliest Hunters," Caton-Thompson's success in hunting is reflected in the fre-
"Bedouin Microlithic" folk, lived ap- quent representation of the tracks of
parently during the Neolithic or early animals and of their entrails, or "spirits,"
Predynastic ("Amratian") stage of Egyp- in the form of spirals issuing from their
tian prehistory. Their crude pictures, mouths, such pictures presumably giving
usually hammered out, but sometimes also the hunters "control" over their prey in
 oi.uchicago.edu

74 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

accordance with a familiar primitive tenet. (Chicago, 1929-1939). Here the treatment is
Parts of animals, such as the bushy tails regional, starting with the Nile-Faiyum
of giraffes, depicted in exaggerated detail, Divide ("OIP," Vol. X) and proceeding
may have been used as amulets or orna- thence to Nubia and Upper Egypt ("OIP,"
Vol. XVII), Upper and Middle Egypt
ments. A group of eight men surrounding
("OIP," Vol. XVIII), and Lower Egypt
a larger man apparently wearing an
("OIP," Vol. XLVI). Brief but valuable
animal mask has been interpreted as a
discussions of the subject, with important
magical dance, the central masked figure, re-assessessments and re-interpretations of the
in any case, recalling the well-known material, have more recently appeared in
Magdalenian "sorcerer" of a painted S. A. Huzayyin's The Place of Egypt in Pre-
engraving in the cave of the Trois Freres history (Cairo, 1941). See pp. 151 if., 164-65,
at Aridge in France. The adoption by the 181-94, 221-23, 225-26, 251-64) and in such
Earliest Hunters of a pregnant female general books on African prehistory as L. S.
deity (?) found chiefly in the drawings of B. Leakey's Stone Age Africa (London,
Winkler's "Early Oasis Dwellers" (Caton- 1936), pp. 114-20; H. Alimen's The Pre-
Thompson's "Peasant Neolithic" people) history of Africa (London, 1957), pp. 77-103;
and C. B. M. McBurney's The Stone Age of
may reflect the type of religious tolerance
Northern Africa (Harmondsworth, 1960),
and hospitality toward "foreign" divinities
pp. 121-28, 135-62. Useful compilations
which characterizes the Egyptians of later
of the material, with particular accent on
times and, with other bits of evidence, the work of the French prehistorians in
speaks for the existence of a close and Egypt, are provided by P. Bovier-Lapierre,
friendly relationship between the nomadic "L'Egypte prdhistorique" (Precis de l'hist-
hunting folk and the more settled peasant oire d',gypte, I [Cairo, 1932], pp. 6 ff.;
population of this formative period. R. Cottevieille-Giraudet, "L'lgypte avant
Regrettably, not much can be said for the l'histoire. Paldolithique-Ndolithique-Ages du
former's artistic achievements. Unlike Cuivre," BIFAO, XXXIII (1933), 16-36,
some of the spirited, naturalistic, and 42, 46; 0. Menghin, "The Stone Ages of
admirably executed engravings and paint- North Africa with Special Reference to
Egypt," Bull. Soc. roy. Gdogr. d'1Egypte,
ings of the western and southern fringes of
XVIII (1934), 9-15; E. Massoulard, Pr.-
the Sahara, these earliest Egyptian draw-
histoire et protohistoire d']gypte (Travaux
ings are coarse, crudely schematized, and et rnmoires de l'Institut d'ethnologie [Uni-
lacking in detail. In the words of Winkler, versitd de Paris], LIII [Paris, 1949]),
they seem to have been produced by a pp. 1-27; and J. Vandier, Manuel d'archd-
people "devoid of any artistic sense"; ologie egyptienne, I (Paris, 1952), 25-61. See
while McBurney finds them "suggestive of also A. Scharff, GrundziLge der aegyptischen
an impoverished marginal tradition far Vorgeschichte (Morgenland, Heft 12 [Leipzig,
removed from the main centre of 1927]), pp. 10-15; Die Altertimer der Vor-
development." und Fruhzeit Agyptens (Staatliche Museen zu
Berlin, Mitteilungen aus der agypti8chen
NOTES Sammlung, IV, 1 [Berlin, 1931]), pp. 1-7,
CHAPTER II P1. 1.
Among the more significant of the earlier
GENERAL works on the Paleolithic period in Egypt are
At present the most extensive and detailed those of such pioneers in the field of Egyp-
accounts of Paleolithic Man in the Nile tian prehistory as Godefroy Arcelin (1869),
Valley are those provided by K. S. Sandford Ernest Hamy and Francois Lenormant
and W. J. Arkell in the four volumes of their (1869) (See Keldani, Bibliography, Nos. 98-
Prehistoric Survey of Egypt and Western Asia 101, 1182-87); Augustus Pitt-Rivers ("On
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 7

75

the Discovery of Chert Implements in 1924), Vol. I; W. J. Sollas, Ancient Hunters

Stratified Gravel in the Nile Valley, near and their Modern Representatives (3d ed.
Thebes," Journal of the Royal Anthropological [London, 1924]); 0. Menghin, Weltgeschichte
Institute, XII [1882], 382-400); Haynes. der Steinzeit (Vienna, 1931), pp. 87-135; M.
"Jiscovery of Palaeolithic Flint imple- C. Burkitt, The Old Stone Age. A Study of
inents in Upper Egypt,"Alemoires of the Palaeolithic Times (Cambridge, 1933), pp. 7-
American Academy of Arts and Sciences 113 passim; V. G. Childe, Man Makes Him-
(Cambridge, Mass.). I Part 2 (1882), pp. self (Library of Science and Culture, No. 5
357-61; Jacques de Morgan (Recherches sur [London, 1936]), pp. 9-72; What Happened in
les ortgines de l'Egypte, 1 [1896],47-66); History (Pelican Books, A 108 [Harmonds-
Georg Schweinfurth ("Kiesel-Artefacte in worth, 1942]), pp. 23-47;
W. B. Wright,
der diluvialen Schotter-Terrasse und auf den Tools and thc Man (London, 1939), pp. 8-195
Plateau-Hohen von Theben," Zeitschrift fi r passim; R. Turner, The Great Cultural
Ethnologie, XXXIV [1902], 293-310; "Stein- Traditions. The Foundationsof Civilization, I
zeitliche Forsehungen in Obergypten," (New York and London, 1941), 22-26; G.
ibid., XXXV [1903], 799-822; XXXVI Clark, From Savagery to Civilization (London,
[1904], 766-830 [devoted chiefly to the so- 1946), pp. 26-68; R.
J. Braidwood, Pre-
called "eoliths"]; XLIV [1912], 627-58); historic Men (Chicago Natural History Mu-
Max Blanckenhorn ("Die Geschichte des seum, PopularSeries, No. 37. 2(1 ed. [Chicago,
Nil-Stroms . . . sowie des paldolithischen 1951]), pp. 19-61; H. Shapiro (ed.), Man,
Menschen in Agypten," Zeitschrift der Gesell- Culture, and Society (New York, 1956),
schaft fir Erdkunde zu Berlin, XXXVII Chaps. I-III, VII; C. S. Coon, The Jaces
[1902], 694-722, 753-62; Die Steinzeit of Europe (New York, 1939), pp. 16-55;
Palastina-Syriensund Nordafrikas. [Land d. The Story of Man (New York, 1958),
Bible, III Leipzig, 1921]); Charles Currelly pp. 9-113 passim; M. Ebert (ed.), Real-
(Stone Implements [CC, Nos. 63001-64906] lexikon der Vorgeschichte (15 vols. [1924-
Cairo, 1913); and Charles Seligman ("The 1932]).
Older Palaeolithic Age in Egypt," Journal Also consulted was a series of articles of
of the Royal Anthropological Institute, LI more general scope which appeared in the
[1921], 115-53). Scientific American for September 1960,
The materials and techniques employed under the title "The Human Species" and
by the Paleolithic toolmakers are described
in detail by Jacques Bordaz, "First Tools of
which include E.
S. 1)eevey, Jr.'s "The
Human Population"; C. 1). Hockett's "The
Mankind," Natural History Magazine (New Origin of Speech"; M. D. Sahlin's "The Origin
York), January, 1959, pp. 36-51; by K. P. of Society"; and S. L. Washburn's "Tools
Oakley, Man the Tool-.Maker (London, and Human Evolution."
1950), pp. 5-49; by H. L. Movius, "The Old To the bibliographies of E. H. Keldani
Stone Age" (in H. Shapiro, Man, Culture, and S. A. Huzayyin cited in the notes to
and Society [New York, 1956], pp. 49-93), Chapter I may now be added: H. L. Movius,
pp. 52 if.; and by C. B. M. McBurney, The Recent Publications, Mainly in Old World
Stone Age of Northern Africa, pp. 26-30, Paleolithic Archaeology and Paleo-Anthropo-
130-32. See also A. J. Arkell, "The Sudan. logy (American School of PrehistoricResearch,
Archaeology and Excavation," The Archaeo- Old World Bibliography), 1948-1956 (mimeo-
logical News Letter, Vol. II, No. 8 (January, graphed); and C. Bachatly, Bibliographie de
1950), pp. 124 if. la prehistoire egyptienne (1869-1938) (Pub.
Out of the rich general literature on the lications de la ,Societe royale de Geographie),
Old Stone Age and succeeding periods of Cairo, 1942. Recent publications, chiefly in
world prehistory the following books were the field of anthropology and related subjects,
consulted in the preparation of this chapter: are listed two or three times a year in the
 oi.uchicago.edu

76 76
PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

in recent years by W. Gieseler andIE. and of. pp. 12, 35; Leakey, Stone Age Africa,
Breitinger and published in Stuttgart, pp. 22, 26, 41ff., 47, 100ff., 104, 115ff.,
Germany. 121 ff., 181 ff.; H. Fleisch, "Depots pre-
historiques do la cote libanaise et lear place
1. THE "ABBEvILLIANS" dans la chronologie baste sur le Quaternaire
The European type-sites of Abbeville, mann," Qvaternaria, III (1956), 101-32;
Chelles, and Clacton-on-Sea are situated, and K.
W. Butzer, Quaternary Stratigraphy
respectively, on the lower Somne, the Marne ... in the Near East, p. 97 and Table II. The
near Paris, and the Thames estuary. The Kafuan and Oldowan industries (named for
sites themselves and the classes of imple- the Kafu valley in Uganda and the Olduvai
ments found on them have been studied and [Oldoway gorge in northern Tanganyika)
discussed by Boucher do Perthes in his epoch- are discussed and their distribution indicated
making Antiquite'8 celtiques et antidiluviennes by Alimen, Prehistory of Africa, pp. 210 if.,
(Paris, 1847), and the Abbe (H.) Breuil in a 433, 436, and by Cole, Prehistory of East
series of important articles, including "be Africa, pp. 125 if., 131 if., 298, 300. See also
vrai nivoau de l'industrie abbevillionne de la Siave-Soderbrgh, "Preliminary Report of
Porte du Bois (Abbeville)," L'Anthropologie, the Scandinavian Joint Expedition: Archaeo-
XLIX (1939), 13-34; "be gisement do logical Survey between Faras and Gamai,
Chelles; see phenornenes, sos industries," ~January-March, 1961," Kush X 1962),

it
Quartar,II (1939), 1-21; and "Les industries
eclats du paleolithiqiio ancien. I. be
Clactonien," Pre'histoire, I (1932), 125-90.
84-85.
Descriptions, drawings, and photographs
of the Abbevillian and Clactonian implements
See also Zeunor, Dating the Past, pp. 166 ff.; of the 100-toot Nile gravels will be found in
Movius, "The Old Stone Age" (Shapiro, Sandford and Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, I,
Man, Culture, and Society, Chap. III), 29-31, figs. 8-9; II, 26, 29-31, 72-75, 86,
pp. 55-59; Wright, Tools and the Man, Plates XIII-XIX; III, 110-12, 126, Plates
pp. 8-9, 38-45, 87if.; H. Obermaier, Der XV-XIX; IV,pp. 89
-91, Plates XVII, XVIII;
Mensch der Vorzeit (Der Mensek alter Zeit, in Huzayyin, Place of Egypt, pp. 181-94,
I. Berlin-Munich [1912]), pp. 113-22, 149; PlatesVI-VIII; in Massoulard, Prehistoire
Sollas, Ancient Hunters, pp. 68 if.; MBBurney, .. . d'gypte, pp. 1-10; and in Alimen,
Stone Age of Northern Africa, pp. 27-30; Prehistory of Africa, pp. 88-90, fig. 35. On
Huzayyin, Place of Egypt. pp. 166 if.; etc. the re-deposited lower gravels of the Rus
On the numerous sites in Africa and Channel and the rolled Abbevillian imple-
southwestern Asia which have yielded in- ments contained in them see Sandford
dustries of Abbevillian ("Pre-Chellean" and and Arkell, PrehistoricSurvey, I, 28-3 1, and
"Chellean") and Clactonian type see es- Butzer, Erdkunde, XIII (1959), 52-53; and
pecially: A. J. Arkell, The Old Stone Age in on those of the ballast-pits of the plain of
the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (Sudan Antiquities Abbassiya: P. Bovier-Lapierre, "be Paleo-
Service, Occasional Papers,No. 1), Khartoum, lithique stratifie des environs du Caire,"
1949; "The Sudan. Archaeology and Excava- L'Anthropologie, XXXV (1925), 37-46; "Les
tion," The Archaeological News Letter, Vol. II, gisements paleolithiques de la plaine de
No. 8 (Jan., 1950), pp. 124-28; L. Balout, l'Abassieh," BIE, n.s. VIII (1926), 257-72;
Prihistoire de l'Afrique du Nord, Part II, Sandford and Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, I,
Chap. VI (pp. 159-268); McBurney, Stone 29; II, 14, 28, 73; III, 42, 55, 110; IV,
Age of Northern Africa. pp. 88-128 passim; passirn (especially p. 95): Huzayyin, Place of
S. Cole, The Prehistory of East Africa Egypt, pp. 182-85, 192; Butzer, Erdkunde,
(Pelican Books, A 316 [Harmondsworth, X.III, 49-51; Alimen, Prehistory, pp. 80-81;
1954] ), pp. 121-48; Alimen, Prehistory of MoBurney, Stone Age, pp. 125-26.
Africa, see Index (p. 431) under "Chellean," The distribution and nature of the surface
 oi.uchicago.edu

7
PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 77

in the Egyptian area are recorded in the The largest group of Egyptian "eoliths" is
"earlier works" cited above, in the General published by G. Schweinfurth, "Steinzeitliche
notes, and by P. Bovier-Lapierre, "Stations Forschungen in Oberihgypten," Zeitschrift
prehistoriques des environs du Caire," fiir Ethnologie, XXXVI (1904), 766-825.
Congres International de Glographie, Cornpte The problem of the eoliths has been discussed
rendu, IV (Cairo, 1926), 298-308 (see 301- by many writers, including Sandford and
308); "Industries prehistoriques dans l'ile Arkell, PrehistoricSurvey, II, 15-16; Bovier-
d' lephantine et aux environs d'Assouan," Lapierre, L'A nthropologie, XXXV (1925),
BIE, XVI (1934), 115-31; "Les explorations 39; BIE, VIII (1926), 265;
Braidwood, Pre-
de S. A. S. le Prince Kemal el Din Hussein: historic Men, pp. 37-38; Burkitt, The Old
Contribution k la prehistoire du desert Stone Age, pp. 99-109; MacCurdy, Human
libyque," BIE, X (1929), 33-44 (see pp. 38- Origins, I, 25, 86-102; Menghin, Welt-
39); "Recentes explorations do S. A. S. le geschichte der Steinzeit, pp. 88-89; Movius,
Prince Kemal el-Din Hussein dans le desert "The 01(1 Stone Age," p. 51; Oakley, Man
libyque: Contribution h la prehistoire," the Tool-maker, pp. 5-10; Obermaier, Der
BIE, XII (1930), 121-28 (see p. 125); Mensch der Vorzeit, pp. 383-84; Sollas,
"L'1 gypte prdhistorique" (Prici8de l'histoire Ancient Hunters, pp. 68-106 passim; Huzay.
d'1gypte, I, 1-50), pp. 22-25; S. Schott, E. yin, Place of Egypt, pp. 164-65; C. H. Read,
Neuffer, K. Bittel, "Bericht uber die zweite in The Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th ed.),
... nach Ostdelta-Rand und in das Wadi II, 344-45. See also Ebert, Reallexikon,
Tumilat unternommene Erkundungsfahrt," III, 99-107.
MDJK, II (1931), 39-73 (see pp. 45 if.); E. The so-called "Chellean Man" of the
Vignard, "Stations pakeolithiques do la Olduvai gorge deposits of Tanganyika has
carrire d'Abou el-Nour pre's do Nag. been the subject of a preliminary report by
Hamadi (Haute gypte)," BIFAO, XX L. S. B. Leakey in The Illustrated London
(1922), 89-109 (see pp. 92 if.); Sandford and News for March 4, 1961 (No. 6344, Vol. 238),
Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, II, 30; IV, 90; pp. 335, 347-48 ("New Links in the Chain of
F. Dobono, "Expedition archeologique roy. Human Evolution:
Three Major IDiscoveries
ale au desert oriental (Keft-Kosseir)," ASAE, from the Olduvai (orge, Tanganyika"). See
LI (1951), 59-110 (see 60-61); R. Cottevicille- also Leakey in ILN for June 28, 1958; and
Giraudet, "L'egypte avant l'histoire," the National GeographicMagazine for October
BIFAO, XXXIII (1933), 1-168 (see figs. 26 1961, pp. 576 if. Also Leakey in Nature
and 29); J. Vandier, Manuel d'archeologie CLXXXIX, 649 (1961); National Geographic
igyptienne, I,27-33; Massoulard, Prehistoire CXXIII. 132 (1963) and The Progress and
. .. d' gypte, p. 9; MacCurdy, Human Evolution of Man in Africa (Oxford Univer-
Origin, I, 124-29; Ebert, Reallexikon, I, 48. sity Press [1962]); G. H. Curtis and J. F.
The possibility of some of the early hand. Everden, Nature CLXXXXIV, 610 (1962);
axes having been hafted is discussed by R. L. Hay, "Stratigraphy of Beds I through
Sandford and Arkell, PrehistoricSurvey, III, IV, Olduvai Gorge, Tanganyika," Science,
111; and the techniques which produced the CXXXIX, No. 3557 (1963), pp. 829-33.
Abbevillian and Clactonian implements are The skull of this man, which Leakey com-
described by the same authors, op. cit., pares
not only with that of Java Man and
Vol. II, pp. 72--75; III, 110-12; IV, 89-91; Peking Man, but also with the Steinheim
by J. Bordaz, Natural Hietory (Magazine), skull and the Broken Hill skull of Rhodesia,
January, 1959, pp. 38-42;by Oakley, Man was found at "Site LLK II" in Chellean
the Tool-maker, pp. 23 if., 40 if., 48 if.; Stage 3 of Bed II. The Chelleo-Acheulian
Burkitt, The Old Stone Age, pp. 33 if., 110- man of Rabat in Morocco is discussed by
329-30
13; McBurney, Stone Age of Northern Africa, Alimen, Prehistory of Africa, pp.
pp. 26-27, 30, 130-32; and Arkell, Archaeo- (see also the bibliography, p. 350, under
"ogcalNewT Lt..ter, No.8, p.124.1
1, Mariais J., _adVai7_11 .); by M.urney
 oi.uchicago.edu

78 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

Stone Age of Northern Africa, p. 118; and by species of hominids, but, on the other hand,
Balout, Prdhistoire de l'Afrique du Nord, it certainly does not militate against the
pp. 202-208. supposition that this was the case.
The life and activities of Lower Paleolithic The occurrence of Pre-Chellean pebble-
Man have been convincingly reconstructed tools and other early implements in the 150-
for us by a number of prehistorians, among foot river terrace in the Egyptian-Sudanese
whom may be cited H. Obermaier, Der border area is reported by A. J. Arkell,
Mensch der Vorzeit (1912), pp. 418 ff.; W. J. Archaeological News Letter, II, No. 8, p. 124;
Sollas, Ancient Hunters (1924), pp. 107-39; The Old Stone Age in the Anglo-Egyptian
M. C. Burkitt, The Old Stone Age (1933), Sudan, pp. 2-3, 45.
pp. 7 ff., 33, 54; R. Turner, The Great
Cultural Traditions, I (1941), 22-26; G. 2. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF
Clark, From Savagery to Civilization (1946), THE ACHEULIAN TRADITION
pp. 26-39; S. Piggott, Prehistoric India to Brief general treatments of the Acheulian
1000 B.C. (Pelican Books, A 205 [Harmonds- stage of Egyptian prehistory are provided
worth, 1950]), pp. 23-24, 33-34; V. G. Childe, by Pt. Massoulard in his Prdhistoire et
What Happened in History (Pelican Books, protohistoired']gypte (Paris, 1949), pp. 10-12
A 108 [Harmondsworth, 1952]), pp. 27-33; (with a useful listing of the sites on which
Man Makes Himself (A Mentor Book. 7th the industry occurs), and by S. A. Huzayyin,
printing [New York, 1960]), pp. 45-49; C. S. The Place of Egypt, pp. 188-91. Selected
Coon, The Story of Man (New York, 1958), implements and the geological settings in
pp. 43-69. An interesting account of the which they were found are dealt with in
bone tools and weapons used by the earliest some detail in the four volumes of Sandford
man-like inhabitants of South Africa was and Arkell's Prehistoric Survey (I, 28, 29,
contributed by R. A. Dart to the Illustrated 31, 36, 71; II, 25, 30, 32, 34, 37, 44, 74-77,
London News for May 9, 1959, pp. 798-801 83, 85, 86; III, 59, 61, 63, 64, 66, 69, 74, 76,
("The Ape-Men Tool-Makers of a Million 110-14, 123; IV, 50-53, 59, 89, 90, 95, 98);
Years Ago: South African Australopithecus but, as we have seen, the dating of the 100-,
-His Life, Habits, and Skills"). On the use 50-, and 30-foot terraces by these authors
of the bola by Chellean man at Olduvai see and their identification of the industry of
Leakey, National Geographic, CXX, No. 4 the 30-foot terrace require revision (Butzer,
(October 1961), 579, 583-84. Erdkunde, XIII, 52-53; "Naturlandschaft,"
The probability that the "kernel zone" of p. 57; Caton-Thompson, Proc. Preh. Soc.,
the hand-axe industry lay within Africa XII, 80). For discussions of the Acheulian
itself is discussed by Huzayyin, Place of tradition as a whole and the techniques
Egypt, pp. 205-12. See also McBurney, Stone which characterize it we may turn to some
Age of Northern Africa, pp. 53-54. On p. 128 of the general works cited in the preceding
of the latter work MeBurney expresses the sections, notably, Movius, "The Old Stone
opinion now generally held by prehistorians Age," pp. 59-60; Bordaz, "First Tools of
when he says: "Although the case cannot Mankind," pp. 39-43; Oakley, Man the Tool-
perhaps be regarded as yet absolutely maker, pp. 43-46; MacCurdy, Human Origins,
proved, it will probably be admitted by I, 116-29; Burkitt, The Old Stone Age, pp.
most readers that the evidence in favour of 110-12. See also Vignard, BIFAO, XX,
a centre of dispersal of hand-axe industries 93 if., fig. 2. On the duration of the Acheu-
somewhere in Central Africa is certainly very lian phase in Egypt see especially Butzer,
strong." The presence of the same types of QuaternaryStratigraphy, pp. 64, 75, 100-102
implements in Cerntral and Northeastern (Tables IV, VIII, and IX); and on its
Africa at approximately the same time does duration in general, Zeuner, .Dating the
not necessarily imply the presence in these Past4 , pp. 285-92.
two widely separated areas of the same An Acheulian hand-axe from the floor of
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 79

the Wadi el-Natrun is published by Sand- Egypt, pp. 190-91, 193), McBurney (Stone
ford and Arkell, PrehistoricSurvey, IV, 50, Age, pp. 135-38, 153-55, figs. 9, 14), Butzer
Plate XXII, 7; and the few scattered ex- (Erdkunde, XIII, 55, 66), and others.
amples from the Fayum are referred to by For the Acheulian finds in the Republic
O. H. Little, BIE, XVIII (1936), 207-208; of the Sudan and in the vicinity of
by Caton-Thompson and others, BIE, XIX, Ennedi the principal references are A. J.
249, 287; and by Caton-Thompson, Proc. Arkell, The Old Stone Age in the Anglo.
Preh. Soc., XII, 92, n. 6. To the references Egyptian Sudan (1949), passim; The Archaeo-
on the Lower Paleolithic surface finds in logical News Letter, vol. II, No. 8 (1950),
the Eastern Desert given in the preceding pp. 124 ff.; A History of the Sudan from the
section may now be added F. H. Sterns, Earliest Times to 1821 (London, 1955),
"The Paleoliths of the Eastern Desert," pp. 8-9; "Preliminary Report on the
Harvard African Studies, I (1917), 48-82, Archaeological Results of the British Ennedi
which deals in particular with implements Expedition, 1957," Kush, VII (1959), 15-26
from the sites at Hammamat, Wassif, and (see pp. 16-19, 21, 23).
Rabah. Massoulard discusses Sandford's The hominid remains from Ternifine in
three-sided Acheulian pick and the anvils of Algeria and the Sidi Abderrahman quarry,
Abbassiya on p. 12 of his Prdhistoire... near Casablanca, are discussed, with ref-
d'4gypte. erences, by Alimen, Prehistory, pp. 330-31
The Upper Acheulian industry of Kharga (see the Bibliography, p. 349, under "Aram-
is described in detail and fully illustrated by bourg, C."); Balout, Prdhistoire, pp. 123-24,
G. Caton-Thompson in her Kharga Oasis in 262; and McBurney, Stone Age, pp. 99-101,
Prehistory (London, 1952), pp. 22-26, 54-73, 118 (see the Bibliography, p. 275, under
95-98, Plates X-LVI. See also McBurney, "Arambourg, C."). On the Kanam mandible
Stone Age of Northern Africa, pp. 59 f.; and the Kanjera skull fragments see Cole,
Alimen, Prehistory of Africa, pp. 90-92. The Prehistory of East Africa, pp. 82-88;
The opinions of Miss Caton-Thompson and Leakey, Stone Age Africa, pp. 165-66; and,
S. A. Huzayyin quoted in the seventh on the question of their dating, P. 0. H.
paragraph of this section are from Proc. Boswell, "Human Remains from Kanam
Preh. Soc., XII (1946), 58, and Place of Egypt and Kanjera, Kenya Colony," Nature,
in Prehistory, p. 190, respectively. March 9, 1935. See also Alimen, Prehistory,
The existence in Egypt of a well-defined pp. 331-32.
Micoquian industry (Bovier-Lapierre, BIE, The fluctuations in Egypt's climate re-
VIII, 268; Vandier, Manuel d'archdologie ferred to in relation to the comings and
dgyptienne, I, 37) has been questioned by goings of Acheulian man have been outlined
Sandford and Arkell (PrehistoricSurvey, II, in Chapter I, above (see especially the text
75), by Caton-Thompson (Kharga Oasis, pp. and notes of the sections on Climate and
19-20), and by Massoulard (Prdhistoire... Chronology). On the important hand-axe
d'Egypte, p. 12). See also Huzayyin, Place of industries of East Africa we may consult
Egypt, p. 188, n. 4; Alimen, Prehistory,p. 92. Alimen, Prehistory, pp. 201-202, 212-14;
The industry of the 30-foot Nile terrace, Leakey, Stone Age Africa, pp. 41-47; Cole,
described by Sandford and Arkell (Pre- Prehistory, pp. 117-49; Huzayyin, Place of
historic Survey, III, 114, 126) as Early Egypt, pp. 196-97, 206-209; and, on that of
Mousterian or Levalloisian, has been re- the Republic of the Sudan, the works of A.
identified by Miss Caton-Thompson as J. Arkell cited above. The quotations
Acheulio-Levalloisian and compared to the regarding the points of resemblance between
similar industry of Kharga (Proc. Preh. Soc., the Upper Acheulian of Kharga and that of
XII [1946], 61, 69-81; Kharga Oasis, pp. viii, the Sudan are taken from Caton-Thompson,
20, 26-28, 92-94, 99-103). Her conclusions Kharga Oasis, pp. 26, n. 2, 67, 72, n. 2. The
have been accepted by Huzayyin (Place of Lower Paleolithic of Syria and Palestine is
 oi.uchicago.edu

80 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

conveniently summarized by Huzayyin, PrehistoricSociety, XII (1946), No. 4, pp. 57-

Place of Egypt, pp. 191-92. See also the 120 (see pp. 57-98); and the same author's
references cited in an earlier paragraph in Kharga Oasis in Prehistory, pp. 26-29, 54,
connection with the Upper Acheulian of 57, 58, 73-80, 108-16, 139-44, 148, Plates
Kharga. 57-72. See also Huzayyin, Place of Egypt
Under the heading, "the Lower Savagery," pp. 212-29, Plates IX, X. Chapter IV
Grahame Clark (From Savagery to Civiliza- (pp. 129-89) of McBurney's Stone Age of
tion, pp. 26-43) groups all the pre-Upper Northern Africa contains a valuable discus-
Paleolithic stages of man's development, sion of the Middle Paleolithic of this area
including the Acheulian and the succeeding with sections devoted to "Egypt" (pp. 135-
Mousterian or Levalloisian. On the hafting 49) and "The Egyptian Oases" (pp. 149-62),
of certain types of Acheulian implements or preceded on pp. 31-34 by a survey of the
weapons the clearest statements are those Levalloisian and Mousterian industries in
of Caton-Thompson, Kharga Oasis, p. 62 general. Massoulard deals with "Le Pal6o-
("It is impossible to avoid the conclusion lithique moyen" on pp. 13-15 and 25-26 of
that these forms were for hafting") and his Prdhistoire et protohistoire d',gypte
Vignard, BIFAO, XX, 94-98. The use of the (Pls. II-III); as does Vandier on pp. 37-43
bolas by Acheulian hunters is discussed by of his Manuel d'archdologie gyptienne, Vol. I
Cole, Prehistory of East Africa, pp. 142-43, (figs. 18-24). Among the more important
and by Oakley, Man the Tool-maker, pp. 43- works on individual sites with Middle
45. See also Balout, Prdhistoire, p. 166 (cf. Paleolithic material are Vignard, "Stations
pp. 164-72; Alimen, Prehistory, pp. 28-29, paleolithiques de la carrire d'Abou el.
33, 213; Arkell, Old Stone Age in the... Nour," BIFAO, XX (1922), 96-105, figs. 4-
Sudan, p. 10). The Upper Acheulian deposits 12, Plates X-XIX; Seligman, "The Older
around mound-spring KO 10 at Kharga Palaeolithic in Egypt," Journal of the Royal
yielded a quartzite ball, 2J-3 in. in diameter Anthropological Institute, LI (1921), 115-43;
-perhaps a bola or a sling-stone (Caton- and the reports of Bovier-Lapierre on the
Thompson, Kharga Oasis, p. 71). On Acheu- plain of Abbassiya (BIE, VIII [1926], 268-
lian man's methods of hunting, his probable 70, 274, 275; L'Anthropologie, XXXV [1925],
use of drop-traps, or game-pits, and the 43 ff.; etc.).
formidable animals which in Kenya and in The views of H. L. Movius, cited in the
Spain formed part of his diet see Cole, Pre- first and third paragraphs of our text and
history, p. 144; Oakley, Man the Tool-maker, based in part on the indices obtained by F.
pp. 43-46; and Clark, From Savagery ... , Bordes on Paleolithic techniques in Europe,
p. 38; and on the animal remains found in are drawn from his chapters on "Old World
Paleolithic deposits at Kharga, Caton- Prehistory: Paleolithic" (in Anthropology
Thompson, Kharga Oasis, pp. 72, 79, Today, an Encyclopedic Inventory, ed. by A.
146, n. 1. L. Kroeber [Chicago, 1953], pp. 163-92),
p. 164, and "The Old Stone Age" (in Man,
3. THE MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC AGE Culture, and Society, ed. by H. L. Shapiro
Our three principal sources of material on [New York, 1956], pp. 49-93), pp. 60 if. To
the Middle Paleolithic age in the lower Nile be noted is the fact that Movius groups the
Valley and adjoining areas are Sandford and Levalloisian tradition under "Lower Paleo-
Arkell's PrehistoricSurvey (I, 28, 34-52, 71, lithic." See also Cole, Prehistory of East
figs. 12-19; II, 16, 17, 25, 35-46, 57, 59, Africa, p. 156. Other good general treat-
76-78, 84, 86, Plates XXIX-XL; III, 64, ments of the Levalloisian technique and in-
66-80, 114-18, 126, Plates XXXI-XXXVII; dustries will be found in Oakley, Man the
IV, 54-68, 89-91, 98, Plates XXII-XXX); Tool-maker, pp. 49-52; Bordaz, Natural
Caton-Thompson, "The Levalloisian In- History Magazine for February 1959, pp. 43-
4
dustries of Egypt," Proceedings of the 46; Zeuner, Dating the Past , pp. 288 ft.;
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 81

Cole, op. cit., pp. 154 ff.; and McBurney, No. 3482 (Sept. 22, 1961), pp. 803-810.
Stone Age of Northern Africa, pp. 132 if. Alimen (Prehistory of Africa, p. 92) remarks
On the probability of a Lower Levalloisian that in Egypt "generally speaking, real
(Riss-Wiirm) date for the 50-foot terrace of Mousterian artifacts with fine secondary re-
northern Middle Egypt and the 131-foot touching are not to be found"; Caton-
Fayum beach see above, Chapter I, pp. 90, Thompson (Proc. Prehist. Soc., XII, 58)
94, 98, 106; and cf. Butzer, Quaternary states that "'Mousterian' typology and
Stratigraphy, Table IV (p. 75), Egyptian technique" are "on the whole absent in
Stage 7, and Table VIII (p. 100), "Riss/ Egyptian groups"; and, according to Huzay-
Wiirm" (= "Lower Levallois") and "Riss yin (Place of Egypt, pp. 221-22), "The
II" (= "Upper Acheulian" = Egyptian Mousterian technique sensu stricto appears to
Stages 8 and 9 of Tables IV and IX). Miss be very little represented (if at all) in
Caton-Thompson's sequence of Fayum lakes, Egypt" and "Among the various finds from
including her hypothetical 40-foot (10-metre) Egypt, hardly any (or only very rare) flakes
Lower Levalloisian lake, is presented in some exhibit the typical surface retouch of the
detail in Proc. Prehist. Soc., XII (1946), 90- Mousterian proper." Prior, however, to
97 (see also Huzayyin, Place of Egypt, pp. 1930, when the Abb6 H. Breuil (L'Afrique
84 ff.). It has been accepted by, among prehistorique [Cahiers d'Art. Paris, 1930,
others, McBurney, Stone Age of Northern 1931], p. 71) suggested the terms Levalloisian
Africa, p. 146; Alimen, Prehistory of Africa, and Levalloiso-Mousterian as the appropriate
p. 82 (for "40-metre beach" read "10-metre designations of Egypt's Middle Paleolithic
[or 40-foot] beach"); and Ball, Contributions industries, the latter were generally referred
to the Geography of Egypt, pp. 192-94. Cf., to as Mousterian and are so described in the
however, Sandford and Arkell, Prehistoric works of Bovier-Lapierre, Vignard, Selig-
Survey, I, 73; Butzer, op. cit., pp. 68, 71. man, and Sandford cited above (see, however,
The quotations in the fourth paragraph Sandford and Arkell, PrehistoricSurvey, IV,
of our text come, respectively, from Mc. 89). The expression is still retained by
Burney, op. cit., p. 139; Movius, "Old World Massoulard for reasons set forth in his Prd-
Prehistory: Paleolithic" (in Anthropology histoire et protohistoire d'Agypte, p. 13, and-
Today), p. 176; and Sandford and Arkell, perhaps inadvertently-by Vandier in his
PrehistoricSurvey, II, 77; and those in the Manuel d'archdologieegyptienne, I, 37 if.
fifth paragraph from Caton-Thompson, op. Between them the two last-named works
cit., pp. 58, 84; and McBurney, op. cit., pretty well cover the distribution of Middle
p. 155. Paleolithic implements (especially surface
The Mousterian, or "discoidal nucleus," finds) in the Egyptian area, the references
technique of flake-tool production has "very cited being in the main those listed above,
little in common" with the Levalloisian in the notes to our section on the "Abbevil-
technique and at least "in its developed form lians" (p. 178). To these may be added
represents a distinctly different process" Sandford and Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, II,
(Movius, "The Old Stone Age," pp. 62-63; 16, 17, 35, 37; III, 64, 66; IV, 90, 91;
McBurney, Stone Age of Northern Africa, Vignard, "Le Levalloisien du Gu6bel-
pp. 133-34). It is described in some detail by Silsild ... ," Bull. Soc. prdh. frang., LII
Bordaz, NaturalHistory Magazine, February (1955), 214-18; Alimen, Prehistory, p. 92;
1959, pp. 43-46; by Movius, loc. cit.; and by MeBurney, Stone Age, p. 161; Butzer,
McBurney, loc. cit.; and the differences "Naturlandschaft," p. 62; Caton-Thompson,
between it and the generally earlier and to Man, XXXI (1931), 77-84; Huzayyin,
some extent ancestral Levallois method are Place of Egypt, Plate II.
clearly pointed out by these authors. See Details of the Levalloisian flaking sites, or
also, more recently, F. Bordes, "Mousterian working floors, at Abbassiya, Abu el.Nur,
Cultures in France," Science, Vol. CXXXIV, Thebes, and Kharga are provided by Bovier-
 oi.uchicago.edu

82 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

Lapierre, BIE, VIII, 274-75; Vignard, of Africa, pp. 88, 206-207, 216, 424-25.
BIFAO, XX, 96 ff.; Sandford and Arkell, Among the many articles on Neanderthal
Prehistoric Survey, II, 29 (see also I, 45); man which make up the Neanderthal
McBurney, op. cit., p. 125; and Caton- Centenary 1856-1956 volume (Wenner Gren
Thompson, Kharga Oasis in Prehistory, Foundation, Kemink en Zoon. Utrecht,
pp. 76-78, 96-97, 104, 109 ff., 142. 1956) is one by C. B. M. MeBurney (pp. 253-
On the character and distribution of the 64) on "Evidence for the Distribution in
Middle Paleolithic industries of the Repub- Space and Time of Neanderthaloids and
lic of the Sudan we may refer to A. J. Allied Strains in Northern Africa." Here and
Arkell, The Old Stone Age in the Anglo. in his Stone Age of Northern Africa (pp. 168,
Egyptian Sudan, pp. 2-3 (map and table), 171, 187) McBurney discusses the association
37, 45; The Archaeological News Letter, Vol. of the Levalloiso-Mousterian industries of
II, No. 8, p. 124; Cole, Prehistory of East Cyrenaica and Palestine with the Neander-
Africa, pp. 37, 45, 160. Arkell's "Preliminary thaloid remains of Haua Fteah and Mount
Report on... the British Ennedi Expedi- Carmel, and speaks of "biological intercourse
tion, 1957" was published in Kush, VII across now formidable deserts, particularly
(1959), 15-26. Here no Levalloisian finds are those separating the Nile Delta on the east
recorded, but only implements described on from the hills of Judea," arriving at the con-
pp. 19, 21, and 23 as "early Aterian" or as clusion that: "In a word, everything points
"intermediate between the Acheulean and to a close community between the human
the Aterian." Incidentally, it should be populations of the Gebel Akhdar and western
noted that at the First Pan-African Congress Asia at this time" (Neanderthal Centenary,
on Prehistory, held at Nairobi in 1947, "it pp. 260-61. Cf. Arkell, History of the Sudan,
was decided... to use the term 'faceted p.. 9). Dr. Wiercinski's preliminary announce-
platform"' to describe what we have been ment of the three Neanderthaloid skulls
calling the Levalloisian technique (Cole, op. from Maadi is reported by Edward Wente in
cit., p. 154) and that this is the expression "Newsletter Number Twenty-nine" of the
employed by Arkell in the works just cited. American Research Center in Egypt (May,
Cole, however, retains the more convenient 1958, p. 2). A search through the biblio-
term "Levalloisian" (op. cit., pp. 155 ff.). graphical lists of the Anthropologischer
For our purposes the related Middle and Anzeiger for 1958-1961 has failed to disclose
post-Middle Paleolithic industries of Central, any additional publication of these skulls by
East, and South Africa-the so-called Proto- Dr. Wiercinski. Besides the works of Mc-
Stillbay, Stillbay, Fauresmith, and Sangoan Burney, just referred to, the Neanderthaloids
(Tumbian)-are adequately dealt with by of Africa are described and discussed by
Cole in the sixth chapter of her Prehistory of Alimen, Prehistoryof Africa, pp. 333-37; by
East Africa, pp. 152-82). Cole, Prehistory of East Africa, pp. 74-76, 82,
The relationship of the activities of Middle 89-94; and by Leakey, Stone Age Africa,
Paleolithic man-i.e., the successive stages pp. 169-70, 194, 195. See also P. Oakley,
of the Levalloisian and Levalloiso-Mousterian "The Dating of Broken Hill (Rhodesian
industries-to the pluvial and interpluvial Man)," Neanderthal Centenary, pp. 265-66.
periods of Egypt and of East Africa and to In this article Oakley concludes that the
the glacial and interglacial periods of alpine Broken Hill remains are of Upper Pleisto-
Europe are summarized by Butzer, Quater. cene, post-Acheulian date. The quotation
nary Stratigraphy, pp. 64-71, 98, 102, regarding the Steinheim and Ehringsdorf
Tables IV, VIII, and IX; and by Cole, Neanderthaloids is from Cole, op. cit., p. 156;
Prehistory of East Africa, pp. 152 ff. (on and that concerning the dating of the Haua
the naming, characteristics, and dating of Fteah mandible from McBurney, Stone Age
the Kanjeran and Gamblian Pluvials see of Northern Africa, p. 168.
pp. 29, 47-52). See also Alimen, Prehistory Cole's remarks on Upper Pleistocene
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 83

man's tendency toward specialization in 4. THE CULTURES OF LATE
the forms of his implements is from her PALEOLITHIC TIMES
Prehistory of East Africa, p. 151. The The last nineteen pages of G. Caton.
physical characteristics of Neanderthal man Thompson's much-cited article in the
and his relationship to Homo sapiens are Proceedings of the PrehistoricSociety for 1946
discussed by H. L. Shapiro in Man, Culture, (Vol. XII, No. 4, pp. 57-120. See pp. 100-
and Society (New York, 1956), pp. 14-15, 118) are devoted to a detailed discussion of
and by C. S. Coon in The Races of Europe "The Epi-Levalloisian Industries of Upper
(New York, 1939), pp. 14, 17, 23, 25-28. The and Lower Egypt." Earlier in the same
material on his cultural level, living habits, article (p. 59) she refers to the Epi-
and hunting prowess is drawn from G. Levalloisian as "those varied regional in-
Clark, From Savagery to Civilization, pp. 39- dustries of Levalloisian technique and
43; C. S. Coon, The History of Man (London, descent which anachronistically occupy the
1955), pp. 60ff.; The Story of Man (New Upper Palaeolithic period, and are physio-
York, 1958), pp. 57-69; "There are Neander- graphically linked with the silt r6gime in
thals among Us," New York Times Magazine, the Nile Valley which succeeded the gravel
March 12, 1961, pp. 32, 84, 86; V. G. Childe, regime." C. B. M. McBurney's brief, but
Man Makes Himself (2d impression [London, interestingly critical, treatment of the same
1937]), pp. 56-60; Braidwood, Prehistoric industries occupies pp. 139-49 and 155 if. of
Men (2d ed. [Chicago, 1951]), pp. 25, 26, his Stone Age of Northern Africa; and S. A.
32-36; Turner, The Great Cultural Traditions, Huzayyin's thoughtful assessment of them,
I, 26-29; K. P. Oakley, Man the Tool- pp. 251-63 of his Place of Egypt in Prehistory
maker, pp. 49-56; and from other publica- (Pls. X-XII). The great wealth of material
tions, including the Neanderthal Centenary collected in Egypt and Nubia by Sandford
volume cited above. The equine and bovine and Arkell and classified by them as "Late
teeth discovered in Upper Acheulian and Paleolithic" (the term adopted here) or, less
Levalloisian contexts at Kharga are reported accurately, as "Sebilian" (without due
by Caton-Thompson in Kharga Oasis in regard for regional differentiation) is pub-
Prehistory, pp. 72, 79, 146, n. 1. lished in their PrehistoricSurvey, I, 52, 54-56,
According to Oakley ("Use of Fire by 58-66, 71, 72, figs. 22-25; II, 38-52, 79-80,
Neanderthal Man and his Precursors," 86-87, Plates XL-XLII; III, 81-96, 116-20,
Neanderthal Centenary, pp. 267-69) Paleo. 124-26, Plates XXXVIII, XXXIX; IV, 70,
lithic man used fire as a weapon of defense 72-74, 89, 97, 98. Useful descriptions of
against dangerous carnivores, for driving Egypt's Late Paleolithic cultures, which,
game into pitfalls or corrals, for fire-hardening however, must to some extent be emended
wooden spear tips, and in Middle Paleolithic in the light of the studies cited above, are
times probably for cooking his food (contra provided by 1. Massoulard, Prdhistoire et
Coon, History of Man, p. 62). On the same protohistoire d']gypte, pp. 16-23, 26-27; R.
subject see also Oakley, "Fire as a Palaeo. Cottevieille-Giraudet, "L'Egypte avant
lithic Tool and Weapon," Proc. Prehist.Soc., l'histoire" (BIFAO, XXXIII [1933], 1-168),
N.S., XXI (1955), 36-48; and L. C. Eiseley, pp. 19-46; J. Vandier, Manuel d'archiologie
"Man the Fire.Maker," Scientific American, 9gyptienne, I, 43-61; A. Scharff, Grundztige
CXCI, 52-57. der aegyptischen Vorgeschichte (Morgenland,
The words of McBurney cited in the last Heft 12 [Leipzig, 1927]), pp. 12-15; Die
paragraph of this section will be found on Altertumer der Vor. und Frihzeit Agyptens
p. 129 of his Stone Age of Northern Africa. (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Mitteilungen
With this statement may be compared those aus der agyptischen Sammlung, Band IV
of Caton-Thompson in the opening para- [Berlin, 1931]), pp. 4-7; H. Obermaier,
graphs of her "The Levalloisian Industries of "Agypten. A. Paliaolithikum, 52" (in M.
Egypt" (Proc. Prehist. Soc., XII, 57-58). Ebert [ed.] ReleIkon der Vorgeschichte, I
 oi.uchicago.edu

84 84PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

[Berlin, 1924]), 49-50. Also to be consulted "Expedition archeologique royale au desert
are Movius, "Old World Prehistory: Paleo- oriental ... ," ASAE, LI (1951), 59-91 (see
lithic" (in Anthropology Today), 175-76; pp. 61-64, 87-88, fig. 1). In 1956 Vignard
"The Old Stone Age" (in Man, Culture, and published his discovery in the plain northeast
Society), pp. 86-87; Leakey, Stone Age Africa, of Kom Ombo of flaking sites of a post-
pp. 114, 119, 177-78, 193; Butzer, "Natur- Levalloisian ("Upper Paleolithic") industry
landschaft," pp. 57, 58, 62-65. made up to a great extent of "large blades"
Our dating of the Late Paleolithic period (l. Vignard, "Les stations de taille de la
is derived from Butzer, Quaternary Strati- plaine nord-est de Kom Ombo [Haute
graphy (1958), pp. 15, 17, 41, 64-71, 75, 98- 1 gypte]," Bull. Soc. Preh. franc., LIII
101, 103, 127, 128, 142; Geografiska Annaler, [1956], 588-98). So far as is known, the
XXXIX (1957), 49; Erdkunde, XI (1957), position of this industry in the Late Paleo-
25; "Naturlandschaft," (1959), pp. 57, 60, lithic prehistory of Upper Egypt-if that,
62, 63; Caton-Thompson, Proc. Prehi8t. indeed, is where it belongs-hasnot been
Soc., XII, 117, 118; McBurney, "Radio- established.
carbon Readings and the Spread of the On the Late Paleolithic industries and
Upper Palaeolithic in Europe and the sites of northern Egypt there are, besides
Mediterranean Basin," Pro. I. N. Qu. A. the important general works cited in the first
(Madrid), 1957; Neanderthal Centenary, p. paragraph of these notes, a number of
263; Stone Age of Northern Africa, pp. 42 n. 1, reports on and discussions of individual
51, 52, 203, 204; McBurney and Hey (R. W.), localities and groups of implements. See
Prehistory and Plei8tocene Geology in Cyren- especially S. A. Huzayyin, "New Light on
aican Libya (Cambridge, 1955), pp. 218, n. 1; the Upper Palaeolithic of Egypt," Pro-
234, 235. Cf. Zeuner, Dating the Past4 , ceedings of the Fan-African Congress on
pp. 229-48, 286-87, 291-97, 421-23; and Prehistory, 1947 (Oxford, 1952), pp. 202-204;
see the references to radiocarbon dates "Recent Studies on the Technological Evolu-
cited above in the notes of Chapter I tion of the Upper Palaeolithic of Egypt,"
("Chronology"). Congres International des Sciences Pre-
On the Sebilian cultures of the Kom Ombo histortqueset Protohistoriques,Actes de la lI
basin the source publications are P. Vignard, Session, Zurich 1950 (Zurich, 1953), pp. 174-
"Une nouvelle industrie lithique: le 'Sbi- 76; R. Vaufrey, "Vari tSs. Section II.
lien,"' BIFAO, XXII (1923). 1-76, Cartes Paldolithique et Mesolithique," L'Anthropo-
Nos. 1, 2, Plates I-XXIV; "Une nouvelle logie, LV (1951), 288-90 (see p. 290); Alimen,
industrie lithique: le 'S6bilien,"' Bulletin de Prehistory, p. 95; A. M. Montet, "Les
ka Societe~ pr~historique francaise, XXV industries levalloisiennes d'Heliopolis et
(1928), 200-220, Plates I-XX; "Le Pal6o- d'Abu Suwair (egypte)," Bulletin de la
lithique en egypte," MIFAO, LXVI (1935- Soci~i Prehistoriquef ranf~aise, LIV (1957),
1938 =Afllangee Maspero, I), pp.
(see pp. 170-75); "Les mnicroburins Tarde-
165-75 329-39. The microliths collected by H.
Junker at Abu Ghalib are published by him
noisiens du Sebilien: fabrication; emplois; in Bertcht caber die von der Akademie der
origine du microburin," Extrait du CongrAis Wissenschaften in Wien mach dem Westdelta
prihistorique de France, Xe session (1934), enisendete Expedition (20. Dezember 1927 bis
pp. 66--106. The presence of Middle Sebilian 25. Februar 1928), (Vienna and Leipzig,
implements in wadi deposits near the village 1928), pp. 5-14, Pls. I, II, XI-XIII;
of Qurnain western Thebes was reported hy and their dating is discussed by Caton-
Butzer in 1959 (Erdkunde, XIII, 55 f.; Thompson, Proc. Preh. Soc., XII (1946),
"Naturlandschaft," p. 63); and the "Sebil- 116-17; H. Larsen, "Vorbericht uiber die
ian" surface stations of the region of Laqeita, schwedischen Grabungen in Abu Ghalib
some twenty-five miles east of the modern 1932--1934," MDIK, VI (1935), 41-87 (see
village of Qu a,a r iscussed by1 F. Deono pp. 44-50)
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 885

The Late Paleolithic cultures of Kharga BIFAO, XVIII [1921], 1-20; "Station
Oasis, including the Aterian, are discussed aurignacienne de Champ de Bagasse b
and illustrated by G. Caton-Thompson in Nag-Hamadi [Haute Egypte]," Bull. Soc.
her Kharga Oasis in Prehistory (London, Prdhist. franc., XXVI [1929], 199-306; J.
1952), pp. 11, 29-32, 106-107, 116-39, Vandier, Manuel d'archdologie dgyptienne, I,
Pls. 73-93. Of basic importance is the same 54-57, 59 ff.) see especially Huzayyin, Place
author's lecture on "The Aterian Industry: of Egypt, pp. 236-37; Alimen, Prehistory of
Its Place and Significance in the Palaeolithic Africa, p. 101; and Massoulard, Prdhistoire et
World (The Huxley Memorial Lecture for protohistoire d'lAgypte, pp. 16-17.
1946)," published in The Journalof the Royal The application of the term "Capsian"
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and (from a site near Gafsa, Roman Capsa, in
Ireland, LXXVI (1946), 87-130. Valuable southern Tunisia) to one or more of the Late
and often divergent assessments of the same Paleolithic industries of Egypt is, un-
material are provided by C. B. M. McBurney fortunately, fairly widespread in books and
in The Stone Age of Northern Africa articles on Egyptian prehistory (e.g., Scharff,
(Harmondsworth, 1960), pp. 155-61, 177- Grundziige der aegyptischen Vorgeschichte,
89, 223. Some points of evolved Aterian type pp. 14-15; Die Altertimer der Vor- und
found in the vicinity of Laqeita in the Frihzeit Agyptens, pp. 4-7; Cottevieille-
Eastern Desert are illustrated by F. Debono, Giraudet, BIFAO, XXXIII, 19-38; Junker,
ASAE, LI (1951), 64-65, 88, Pls. IIb and Westdelta, pp. 8-14; Vandier, Manuel, I,
IIIb. Miss Caton-Thompson (Kharga Oasis, 53-61). According, however, to Huzayyin
pp. 32-36, 159-64, Pls. 94-100) favors a ("Recent Studies," p. 174; Place of Egypt,
pre-Neolithic date for the Bedouin Micro- pp. 247, 259, 267) ". .. the Upper Palaeo-
lithic, which, however, must be one of the lithic of Egypt has no affinities with the
cultures assigned by McBurney (op. cit., Aurgnacian or the Capsian..."; "... it is
p. 161) to a time not "earlier than the third certain that the Capsian sensu stricto has not
or fourth millennia B.c., during a widely so far been recorded in N. Libya or Egypt
attested period of slight recovery of the (or Palestine)"; the small narrow blades
rainfall." which occur at Abu Suwair "are different
Excellent and, for our purpose, wholly from the blades of either the Aurignacian or
adequate accounts of the Upper Paleolithic the Capsian, ... "; and the Capsian does not
blade-industries of Europe, Africa, and "seem to have spread, to any appreciable
Western Asia are provided by Movius extent, along the Mediterranean Belt in the
("The Old Stone Age," pp. 64-74, 86 ff.), direction of N.E. Africa or Palestine, The Up.
Balout, Prdhistoire de l'Afrique du Nord, and Final Palaeolithic cultures of these latter
pp. 339-448; McBurney (Stone Age of regions (especially N.E. Africa) had a
Northern Africa, pp. 34-44, 48-52, 56-60, different technique." McBurney (Stone Age of
190-228. The words quoted in our text are Northern Africa, pp. 223-28 passim) notes
from p. 226), Cole (Prehistory of East Africa, that the small-scale backed-blade-industries
pp. 182 ff.), Alimen (Prehistory of Africa, of the Fayum and Kharga are "totally
pp. 50-64, 157-60, 188-91, 214-16, 301 ff.), lacking in the evolved geometrical forms of
and Huzayyin (Place of Egypt, pp. 243-51, the Typical Capsian and Upper Capsian . . .";
263-68). The techniques of blade-tool pro- that the Sirtican microlithic culture "pro-
duction are described in some detail by vides the most easterly versions" of the
Bordaz, Natural History Magazine for Upper Capsian trapeze "among hunting
January 1959, pp. 46-51. peoples north of the Sahara"; that while a
On the so-called "Upper Aurignacian" of very late (Mesolithic) hunting culture near
the Champ de Bagasse (E. Vignard, "Une Khartoum "does offer some of the forms of
station aurignacienne a Nag-Hamadi [Haute the Latest Capsian and its Neolithic deriva-
gypte]: Station du Champ de Bagasse," tives" and the Capsian may possibly have
 oi.uchicago.edu

86 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

passed "undetected" along the Delta coast history of Africa, p. 425), for example, says:
en route from the Levant to the Gebel "The Palaeolithic-Mesolithic gap, so marked
Akhdar "no trace of such an event has yet in western Europe, does not exist in Africa.
been detected in the desert near Cairo, In varying ways, but, all the same, almost
further south, or in the region between the everywhere, there is an insensible transition
Delta and Suez"; and that "during the final to microlithism, whether it be from Capsian,
hunting period the cleavage lies, in essence, Levalloiso-Khargan, Sebilian, Magosian,
between the predominantly Upper Capsian Smithfield or Lupemban." Butzer (Quater-
province in the west" and "the Cyrenaican nary Stratigraphy, p. 99), referring to the
traditions dominated by burins, end-scrapers, "Diminutive Levalloisian" of Egypt, says:
and non-geometric microliths most clearly "This graded into a microlithic stage that
pointing to the Levant." On the so-called can be observed until the onset of the Neo-
Capsian sites near Aswan and Luxor, the lithic." Caton-Thompson (Proc. Preh. Soc.,
Gebel Uweinat, and the oases of Baharia XII, 117, 118) speaks of the "earlier micro.
and Farafra (Vandier, Manuel, I, 57-58) lithic industries of Egypt which directly
Alimen (Prehistory of Africa, p. 101 [for succeed Epi-Levalloisian II," and notes that
"Aterian" read "Capsian" (see Prdhi8toire the Sebilian industry develops "through the
de l'Afrique, p. 127)]) has this to say: "The medium of steep marginal retouch, into one
industries from these sites are characterized of a backed-blade, microlithic character,"
by backed blades and microburins and by a adding that this "probably happened else-
general tendency towards microlithism where too," the "regional microlithic groups"
which, perhaps, do not constitute a real resulting from the "needs for new tools
Capsian." It may also be noted, in passing, common throughout Egypt."
that according to D. A. E. Garrod and D. M. The appearance and earliest examples of
A. Bate (The Stone Age of Mount Carmel Homo sapiens in North and East Africa are
[Oxford, 1937], p. 119) there is no true discussed, with references, by McBurney,
Capsian in Palestine. Stone Age of Northern Africa, pp. 35-37, 46,
The conclusions of Movius and Caton. 48, 186-87; Cole, Prehistory of East Africa,
Thompson on the Late Paleolithic industries pp. 74, 80-82, 101, 157; and Alimen, Pre-
of Egypt are taken, respectively, from the history of Africa, pp. 337-40, 348. The
former's "Old World Prehistory: Palaeo- human remains from Kom Ombo in Upper
lithic" (Anthropology Today), p. 176, and Egypt and Qau in Middle Egypt were
from the latter's "Levalloisian Industries" examined by Dr. Douglas E. Derry of Cairo,
(Proc. Preh. Soc., XII), pp. 57, 100, and Sir Arthur Keith of the Royal College of
Kharga Oasis, p. 30. Huzayyin's important Surgeons, London, and Sir Elliot Smith.
reassessment of the Late Paleolithic in- They have not been adequately published,
dustries of northern Egypt is contained in but are referred to in varying degrees of
his already cited "Recent Studies on... the detail by K. S. Sandford, PrehistoricSurvey,
Upper Palaeolithic of Egypt" (Congr. In- III, 85, 86; "The Fossil Bones found at
ternat. Sciences Prdh. et Protohist., Acte8 de Qau .. .," The Quarterly Journal of the
la IIIH Session Zurich 1950, pp. 174-76). GeologicalSociety of London, LXXXV (1929),
The same author (Place of Egypt, p. 260, n. 3) 536; F. Petrie, "Early Man in Egypt," Man,
speaks of "an unknown gap in technological XXV (1925), 130; S. A. Huzayyin, Place of
evolution between the late Diminutive Egypt, pp. 272, 273; and Massoulard, Prd.
Levallois" and the "industry of Hilwan," histoire et protohistoire d'fgypte, pp. 391-92,
and A. J. Arkell (Archaeological News 417.
Letter, II, No. 8, p. 124) of the "gap between On the associated fauna our principal
the end of the Palaeolithic and the rise of references are: C. Gaillard, "Contribution &
Civilisation"; but to some prehistorians this l'6tude de la faune prdhistorique del
hiatus is not discernible. Alimen (Pre. l'fgypte," Archive du Mued-m d'Histoire
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 8

87

Nat urelle de Lyon, XIV (1934), M6moire III, Wadi ol Arab in Nubia. Alimen (Prehistory
pp. 13-56; L. Joleaud, "Progres recents de of Africa, p. 372), however, has this to say
nos connaissances sur la geologie du Quater- on the subject: "Various authorities (such as
naire et sur La Prehistoire do 1'lgypte," G. B. M. Flamand and H. Kuhn) have
Revue generaledesSciences pures et appliquees, assigned the most ancient engravings to the
XLIV (1933), 601-608 (see pp. 602-606); late Paleolithic. However, the tendency,
K. S. Sandford, "The Pliocene and Pleisto- nowadays, is to follow the lead of the late
cene Deposits of Wadi Qena and of the Nile H. Obermaier and of R. Vaufrey and to
Valley between Luxor and Assiut (Qau). consider the earliest of the rock-engravings
VIII. The Fossil Bones found at Qau, and as Neolithic." See also McBurney, Stone Age
Beds proved in Borings," The Quarterly of Northern Africa, pp. 258-74 (especially
Journal of the Geological Society of Lowdon, pp. 272-74); Huzayyin (1939), Bull. Soc.
LXXXV (1929), 536-41; Prehistoric Survey, Roy. Giog. d'tgypte, XX, 213-15.
III, 84-88, 125; K. S. Sandford and W. J. The term "(higher) savagery" and "(Neo.
Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, II, 38 (n. 5), 46, lithic) barbarism" to describe, respectively,
52; Huzayyin, Place of Egypt, pp. 81-82; the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic levels of
Vignard, BIFAO, XXII (1923), 12, 27, 64- human existence are used by, among others,
65; Bull. Soc. Prehist. franc., XXV (1928), G. Clark, Fron Savagery to Civilization
203, 207, 216; Butzer, "Naturlandschaft," (London, 1946), pp. 43ff., 69ff.; and G.
pp. 63-64. On the secondary deposits of Childe, What Happened in History (Har-
animal bones at Qau see also G. Brunton, mondsworth, 1952), pp. 36 ff., 48 ff.
Qau and Badari III (British School of On the practice of cannibalism among
Archaeology in Egypt, 1926), p. 20; Massou- Upper Paleolithic peoples see, for example,
lard, Prehistoire..., pp. 391-92. Clark, op. cit., pp. 60--6.
The probability of a western Asiatic The quotations in the final paragraph of
origin for the Homo sapiens population of our text are from Caton-Thompson, Proc.
Me-
G.

northeastern Africa is discussed by Preh. Soc., XII (1946), 59; Alimen, Pre-
Burney, Neanderthal Centenary, p. 263; hiatory of Africa, p. 103; and Clark, op.
Stone Age of Northern Africa, pp. 46, 48. See cit., p. 44.
also Oakley, Man the Tool-maker, pp. 56-
57, 74. 5. THE FINAL PALEOLITHIC, OR
The pro- or proto-Bushman skull found at MESOLITHIC, STAGE
Singa has been published by A. S. Woodward, Approximate absolute dates for the Meso-
"A Fossil Skull of an Ancestral Bushman,"~ lithic phase of human prehistory in the Near
Antiquity, XII (1938), 190-95; and has been East are supplied by K. W. Butzer, Quater-
discussed by A. J. Arkell, The Old Stone Age nary Stratigraphy (1958), pp. 99-103 (see
in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, pp. 45, 47; also pp. 17, 128). These agree well with the
Cole, Prehistory of East Africa, pp. 95-96; more recent findings of H. L. Movius,
Alimen, Prehistory of Africa, pp. 342-43. CurrentAnthropology, I (1960), 374 (1 and in),
The remarks on this skull cited in our text though, as the latter points out, Carbon-14
are those of McBurney (Neanderthal Cent- dates are still lacking for the early Mesolithic.
enary, p. 262). Movius in his "Old Stone Age" (pp. 75 ff.)
H. Breuil ("Les gravures rupestres du gives a brief but clear picture of the Meso-
Djebel Ouenat," Revue Scientifique, LXVI lithic stage in general, which may be ampli-
[1928], 106) would attribute some early rock fied by referring to such works as Bordaz,
drawings of giraffes and ostriches found by Natural History Magazine, Feb. 1959, pp.
Hassanein Bey at Uweinat to Upper Paleo- 93 ff.; Coon, The Races of Europe, pp. 56-77;
lithic hunters, and Sandford and Arkell Clark, From Savagery to Civilization, pp.
(Prehistoric Survey, II, 70-7 1) favor an 62 ff.; Burkitt, The Old Stone Age, pp. 240-
42.4 6;Mttakley, Ma__
n/ the. Tol-maer,..
 oi.uchicago.edu

88 88PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

pp. 68, 84; MacCurdy, Human Origins, II, d'Assouan"), and in BIE, XII (1930), 126
3-20; Turner, The Great Cultural Traditions, ("Recentes explorations de S. A. S. le Prince
I, 51 if., 58; and Cole, Prehistory of East Kemal el-Din Hussein dans le Desert
Africa, pp. 195-214. Libyque"). See also Vandier, Manuel
A good bibliography on the much ex- d'arch*5ologie egyptienne, I, 57. 58.
plored and much published Mesolithic The microlithic industry of the site now
stations at Helwan is provided by Massoulard generally known as el-Oman, a mile and
in his Prghistoire et protohistoire d'gypte, three-quarters to the north of Heiwan, at
pp. 29-30, 52, nn. 3 if. To the references the mouth of the Wadi el-Hof, is referred to
given there may now be added Huzayyin, by Bovier-Lapierre in the Compte rendu of
BSRGE, XX (1939), 210, 211, 224-26; the Congrs International de G#ographie, Le
Place of Egypt, pp. 260, 263, 289-90, 294; Caire, Avril, 1925, Vol. IV (Cairo, 1926),
Alimen, Prehistory of Africa, pp. 101-103; p. 306; "L'Egypte prehistorique" (in Prcis
Cottevieille-Giraudet, BIFAO, XXXIII de l'histoire d'Agypte, I), 34; by Cottevieille-
(1933), 38-40; Vandier, Manuel d'archeologie Giraudet, BIFAO, XXXIII (1933), 40; and
egyptienne, I, 57 if.; and Movius, "Old World by Butzer, BSGE, XXXII (1959), 49. On
Prehistory: Paleolithic," p. 176. In 1936 the the naming of the site see Bovier-Lapierre,
site was re-explored by Fernand Debono .,
Compte rendu.. pp. 268-270. The industry
and the interesting results of his investiga- of the Wadi Angabiya has not been published
tions are incorporated in his report, "Le in extenso, but is briefly described and
Paleolithique final et le M6solithique l illustrated by Huzayyin in BSRGE, XX
Helouan," ASAE, XLVIII (1948), 629-37. (1939), 210, 211, P1. II, Nos. 25-32 ("Some
The possibility of the Heiwan industry's New Light on the Beginnings of Egyptian
having been an importation from Palestine Civilisation .. ."); and in The Place of Egypt,
is discussed by J. de Morgan, La prlhistoire pp. 257 n. 2, 260, 297, 430, P1. XII, Nos. 33-
orientate, II (1926), 69; D. A. E. Garrod,
New Mesolithic Industry, the Natufian of
"A 37. See also Caton-Thompson, Proc. Preh.
Soc., XII (1946), 116. The Fayum microliths
Palestine," JRAI, LXXII (1932), 268; D. A. are published by G. Caton-Thompson and
E. Garrod and D. M. A. Bate, The Stone Age E. X. Gardner, The Desert Fayum, pp. 30,
of Mount Carmel (1937), pp. 30-37; Massou- 55, 58, 59, 67, 68, Pls. XLVIII, XLIX; and
lard, Pr#histoire et protohistoire d'Egypte, are discussed by Caton-Thompson, Proc.
p. 30; McBurney, Stone Age of Northern Preh. Soc., XII (1946), 117-18; Sandford
Africa, p. 226; and Debono, ASAE, XLVIII, and Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, I, 60-61,
66;
636. Huzayyin's somewhat divergent views Huzayyin, BSRGE, XX, 210, 226, 232-34;
on the subject are expressed in BSRGE, XX, Place of Egypt, pp. 290, 296-98; and Mc-
224-26; and Place of Egypt, pp. 260, 263, Burney, Stone Age of Northern Africa, p. 223.
289-90, 294. On the Egyptian Mesolithic in Though apparently contemporaneous with
general see also Butzer, BSGE, XXXII the "Fayum A" and "Fayum B" cultures
(1959), 49--50, 79-82. of late Neolithic and post-Neolithic times
To Debono we owe a report on the Upper they are described by Huzayyin (Place of
Paleolithic and Mesolithic of the Laqeita Egypt, p. 290) as "of definite Final Palaeo-
area in the Eastern Desert in ASAE, LI lithic descent." On the surface finds of
(1951), 64-66 ("Expedition archeologique microliths at Siwa see especially Huzayyin,
royale au Desert Oriental [Keft.Kosseir] ... BSRGE, XX, 234; Place of Egypt, p. 298;
3. Paleolithique sup rieur et M6solithique" ); McBurney, Stone Age of Northern Africa,
and to P. Bovier-Lapierre similar reports on pp. 224-25; McBurney, Prehistory and
the microlithic industries and associated Pleistocene Geology in Cyreniaican Libya
finds at Aswan and Ain Dalla in BI E, (Cambridge, 1955), pp. 251-62.
XVI (1934), 128 ("Industries prdhistoriques The Mesolithic culture of Khartoum is
dans l'1e_d1'1_lephant eaxenirn pubisedbyA. .ArkelEalyKrt1m
 oi.uchicago.edu

PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT8 89

An Account of the Excavation of an Early stages and developments in the Near East
Occupation Site carried out by the Sudan in some detail in his QuaternaryStratigraphy,
Government Antiquities Service in 1944-5 pp. 101, 127-28; and it is he who suggests a
(Oxford, 1949); and is discussed in varying population of 1000 for the Nile Valley and
degrees of detail by C. B. M. McBurney, Proc. Delta about 5000 B.c. (BSGE, XXXII
Preh. Soc., XV (1949), 197-99; Stone Age of [1959], 50). Butzer's assertion that "die
Northern Africa, pp. 59 n. 1, 242-44; Cole, einladenden Ufer des Fayumsees waren
Prehistory of East Africa, pp. 104, 211-14; R. anscheinend ur 5000 v. Chr. zuerst noch
Vaufrey, L'Anthropologie, LIV (1950), 478- unbesiedelt" ("Naturlandschaft," p. 65) is
81; and others (see J. M. A. Janssen, Annual derived from Caton-Thompson and Gardner,
Egyptological Bibliography, Indexes 1947- The Desert Fayum (see especially pp. 1 and
1956 [Leiden, 1960], p. 20). See also Myers, 88). The phrase "gap between the end of
Kush, VIII (1960); Cesnola, Kush, VIII the Palaeolithic and the rise of civilisation"
(1960); Save-Soderbergh, Kush, X (1962). is used by A. J. Arkell in Archaeological
Because of the continuity which exists News Letter, vol. II, No. 8, p. 124. The co-
between the Late and Final Paleolithic existence of Mesolithic and Neolithic cultures
(sub-microlithic and microlithic) industries in Egypt is discussed by Huzayyin, BSRGE,
of Sebil and Kharga the latter have been XX (1939), 211,212, 216, 218, 219, 226, 232-
discussed and documented in the text and 35, 258; "Recent Studies.. .," pp. 175-76;
notes of our preceding section. The in- Caton-Thompson and Gardner, The Desert
tensification of regional differences in Final Fayum, p. 30. The relationship of the Meso-
Paleolithic times is referred to by Huzayyin, lithic in general to the preceding Paleolithic
Place of Egypt, pp. 263, 269-70; "Recent and the succeeding Neolithic is clearly
Studies ... ," p. 211; and by Caton- defined by Movius, "The Old Stone Age" (in
Thompson, Proc. Preh. Soc., XII (1946), Shapiro, Man, Culture, and Society), p. 75.
117. In the first reference Huzayyin remarks Butzer's cited comment on the effect of the
that the cultural isolation of the various contact between the Final Paleolithic and
sections of Egypt maintained itself although early Neolithic peoples of Egypt will be
"the Nile continued to facilitate migrations." found in BSGE, XXXII (1959), 44.
At Sebil the derivation of Sebilian III from On the recurrence of microlithic industries
Sebilian II is noted by Caton-Thompson, in Egypt in later prehistoric and historic
Proc. Preh. Soc., XII (1946), 117; and times see especially Huzayyin, Place of
Huzayyin, Place of Egypt, p. 253. Huzayyin Egypt, pp. 270-71; Caton-Thompson, Proc.
(op. cit., p. 260) suggests that "it was perhaps Preh.Soc., XII, 116-17; and Larsen, MDIK,
from" the "Diminutive Levalloisian" of VI (1935), 44-50; and on the use of tiny
northern Egypt "that the microlithic (partly blades and barbs of quartz and flint on
Final Palaeolithic? and certainly later) facies hunting arrows of the Eighteenth Dynasty
discovered on the surface (and so of rather see, for example, H. Bonnet, Die Waffen der
uncertain date) at Hilwan and Wadi cAnga- Volker des alten Orients (Leipzig, 1926),
biya (Pl. XII, 33-45) was evolved (though p. 161; W. Wolf, Die Bewaffnung des alt.
only indirectly)." See also Butzer, Quaternary tgyptischen Heere8 (Leipzig, 1926), p. 85; G.
Stratigraphy, p. 99. The quotation at the end Daressy, Fouilles de la Vallde des Rois
of our antepenultimate paragraph is from (COG, Nos. 24001-24990), Nos. 24083,
McBurney (Stone Age of Northern Africa, 24085, Pl. XII; A. Lansing and W. C. Hayes,
p. 226), who says: "A final wave of hunters BMMA, XXXII (1937), January, Sect. II,
from the Levant brought the Natufian p. 12, fig. 21.
culture as far as the eastern Delta, but did The rock-engravings of the so-called
not apparently penetrate further west." Earliest Hunters are published by H. A.
K. W. Butzer studies the "Postpluvial"- Winkler, Rock Drawings of Southern Upper
i.e., Final Paleolithic to Neolithic---climatic Egypt (Sir Robert Mond Desert Expedition.
 oi.uchicago.edu

90 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

2 vols. London, 1938, 1939), I, 28-29, 31-32, the "cultural impetus of rock drawings from
49, Pis. XXVI-XXXII; H, 31--35, Pis. Mesolithic Spain."
LI-LXI. See also Winkler, Valker und Groups of large flint implements from the
Volkerbewegungen im vorgeschichtlichen Ober- Wadi el-Sheikh, in Middle Egypt, have been
agypten im Lichte neuer Feisbilderfunde compared to those of the Mesolithic culture
(Stuttgart, 1937); J. H. Dunbar, The Rock- of Campigny in northern France (Seton-
Picture8 of Lower Nubia (Service des Anti- Karr, JRAI, XXVII [1898], 90 if.; Scharif,
quits de l'1Egypte [Cairo, 1941]); Sandford Altertiimer der Vor- und Frizhzeit Agyptens,
and Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, II, 63-71; pp. 7-8), but the resemblance seems to be
Caton-Thompson, Kharga Oasis in Pre- superficial and without immediate cultural
history, pp. vi-vii; Alimen, Prehistory of or chronological significance (Caton-
Africa, pp. 371-74; McBurney, Stone Age of Thompson, Kharga Oasis in Prehistory, pp.
Northern Africa, pp. 271--72. The association 187-96; Huzayyin, Place of Egypt, p. 307,
of these drawings with a "Mesolithic rather n. 2. See also Vandier, Manuel d'archiologie
than a Neolithic culture" is discussed by egyptienne, I, 62-63). The implements in
Butzer, BSGE, XXXII (1959), 81-82. In question apparently range in date from the
his discussion Butzer points out that there Predynastic Period to the Middle Kingdom
is no evidence that these people "kept (Baumgartel and Brotzen, Prah. Zeitschrift,
domestic animals" and draws attention to XVIII, 100 ff.).
 oi.uchicago.edu

3
THE NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COM-
MUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

1. NEAR EASTERN ORIGINS the use of both flaking and grinding (or
polishing) in the preparation of stone tools
and weapons, by the inauguration of food
IT will have become apparent that production through stock breeding and
such terms as "Paleolithic" and "Mesolith- agriculture, and by the adoption, thanks
ic" do not imply "absolute periods of to this new economy, of an increasingly
time," but are simply designations of broad sedentary type of existence in more or
and often overlapping stages of cultural less permanent dwellings grouped together
development as observed at various times to form settlements ranging in size from
in various individual localities. This is small farming villages to good-sized towns.
true also, and to an equal degree, of the It is also characterized, thanks in part to
so-called Neolithic, or New Stone Age, a the security and the leisure provided by
phase in man's cultural evolution which the new form of livelihood, by notable
in the Near East extended roughly from increases in the population and by marked
7500 to 3000 B.C., in Britain from 2500 to developments in the fields of religion,
1800 B.C., and in some of the world's more politics, commerce, science, craftsmanship,
secluded backwaters down into modemrn and art-the components of what we are
times. The stage itself is characterized by accustomed to call "civilization."

91
 oi.uchicago.edu

92 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

In the Near East the earliest evidences of hand, well made pottery appears to have
man's transition from the nomadic life been present from the very beginning of
of the hunter to the more settled existence Neolithic times.
of the farmer are found in southwestern Jericho lies a scant two hundred miles
Asia, in the long arc of grassy uplands to the east of the Nile Delta, and it would
which form the outer flanks of Breasted's seem inevitable that a Neolithic, food-
"Fertile Crescent," curving around from producing, village culture of the type
the Iranian plateau, through northern Iraq attested there before 7000 B.C. should have
and southern Armenia, and down into reached northern Egypt from this immedi-
Syria and Palestine. Here the goat and the ately adjacent southwest Asian area in the
sheep, the first food animals to be domesti- course of the seventh or, at the latest, the
cated by man, occur in profusion in a wild sixth millennium B.C. This assumption is
state, and at Qalat Jarmo in Iraq a form supported by a radiocarbon date from the
intermediate between the wild bezoar and Haua Fteah cave in Cyrenaica which
the later domestic species of goat has been indicates that by 4850 B.C. immigrants
found in an early Neolithic context. Here from the east bringing with them a
also grow the wild ancestors of wheat and primitive Neolithic culture had already
barley, the Neolithic farmer's basic crops, traversed the Delta and settled further
the cultivation of which probably origi- to the west in the coastal region of Libya.
nated in Palestine and is attested in Iraq The earliest settlement remains so far
by 6000 B.C., early forms of cultivated discovered in Egypt-on the northern
wheat and two-row barley having been fringe of the Fayum and at the west Delta
found in the pre-pottery Neolithic village site of Merimda Beni Salama-seem to
at Jarmo. Encampments partaking of the date, however, from the fifth millennium
nature of villages, with sunken, plaster- B.C. and, though primitive in some respects,
lined shelters and storage bins, are already contain numerous pottery vessels and
known in the Mesolithic (Natufian) of other elements of fairly well developed
Jordan and in the contemporaneous types. Butzer is inclined to push the
Karim Shahir culture of Iraqi Kurdistan. Fayum "A" Neolithic back to about 5500
At Tell el - Sultan (Jericho) in southern B.C., and Larsen has suggested a date
Palestine a fortified proto-Neolithic village of 5040 B.C. for the lowest level of
of mud-brick houses has been dated by the Merimda settlement, disregarding or
radiocarbon tests to before 6800 B.c., at emending the evidently somewhat low
Ras Shamra (Ugarit) in northern Syria radiocarbon readings of 4440 and 4145
similar houses solidly constructed on B.C. obtained for the former and 4130 B.C.
foundations of large stones are assigned to for the latter. Dr. Baumgartel, on the
the seventh millennium B.C., and at Jarmo other hand, repudiates the use of the term
rectangular houses of packed mud or pis6 Neolithic in connection with either of these
construction range back in time into the sites and would see in the Fayum and west
latter part of the same millennium. On Delta settlements retarded, marginal
these sites the earlier settlement levels cultures of Chalcolithic times, contempo-
have produced no trace of pottery vessels raneous, respectively, with the so-called
and the cultures which they represent are Predynastic (Naqada I and II) cultures of
accordingly designated as pre-pottery, or Upper Egypt. With this it is difficult to
preceramic, Neolithic. In southern Anatolia agree, especially in view of the Carbon 14
and the mainland of Greece, on the other results so far obtained, which tend to place
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 93

the Predynastic finds five hundred to a sandrock "buttes" which ring the north
thousand years later in absolute time than shore of the lake, usually near an inlet or
the metal-free and generally more primitive other indentation in the shoreline, where
assemblages of the Fayum and Merimda. the fishing would have been good, and
never very far from the level stretches of
2. THE FAYUM SETTLEMENTS old lake bed upon which they grew their
modest crops of wheat and barley. Of their
It was apparently during the eighth flimsy huts or shelters, built probably
millennium B.C. that the lower Nile, in against the protective masses of sandrock,
response to the rise in sea level known as nothing now remains; but the village sites
the Flandrian Transgression, began to are marked by sunken hearths, or fire-
aggrade its bed and send its waters once holes, ranging in number up to between
again through the Hawara Channel into two and three hundred for a single
the Fayum, reflooding the depression and settlement (Kom W) and having occasion-
creating a new, post-Paleolithic lake which ally coarse pottery cooking vessels, con-
in the course of time reached an elevation taining the bones of fish and animals, still
of 59 feet (18 meters) above present sea in position in them. It is clear that fishing
level. Two of the small Neolithic encamp- and hunting in and along the shores of the
ments strung out along the northern rim lake itself provided an important part of
of the depression from Dimai to a point the settler's food supply, the wild game
north of Kom Aushim may have been available locally including hippopotamus,
established on the shore of this high-level elephant, crocodile, pig, Bubalis, and
lake; but most of the settlements of the several carnivores. There is no evidence
so-called Fayum "A" culture, to which that domestic animals "played much, if
these two camps ("M" and "Zl") also any part in this lake-side economy"; and
belong, date from a slightly later period the scanty remains of sheep or goat found
when, owing to the silting up of the may belong to wild species, such as the
Hawara Channel, the lake had sunk to Ammotragus, the same being true of the
33 feet (10 metres) above sea level, leaving remains of cattle. Groups of grain storage
along its margins expanses of rich lacustrine pits, or silos, sunk in the high ground
silt, suitable for hoe cultivation of the adjoining the settlements and often lined
primitive type practiced by the first with coiled straw matting, indicate, how-
Neolithic settlers in the region. The long ever, not only that food production by
period of equilibrium maintained by the agriculture was well advanced, but that,
lake at this level is undoubtedly to be locally at least, it was organized on a
associated with the increase in rainfall community basis; and the fact that grains
and general betterment of climatic condi- of emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum) and
tions which, toward the end of the sixth six-row barley (Hordeum hexastichum)
millennium B.c., ushered in the so-called found in the silos are practically identical
Neolithic Sub-pluvial, or Moist Interval, with those grown in Egypt today suggests
facilitated agriculture and stock farming, that a very long time had already elapsed
and led to "the resumption of widespread since the cultivation of the wild ancestors
cultural contacts and intercommunica- of these grains was first undertaken-in
tions" throughout the Near East. short, that agriculture had been practiced
For their settlements the Fayum-A in the Near East for millenniums before its
people selected sites in the lee of the low introduction into the Fayum. Well made
 oi.uchicago.edu

94 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

grass-coil baskets found in the granaries long wings sweeping back on either side
were probably used for sowing grain, of the point of attachment of the shaft.
several silos yielded what look like These the lake-dwellers apparently used
threshers' flails, and two contained sickles against even such formidable beasts as the
composed of straight, tapered shafts of African elephant and the hippopotamus,
tamarisk wood, in one case with three two such arrowheads having been actually
serrated flint blades imbedded in resin in found in the carcasses of an elephant and
a groove in its cutting edge. For milling a hippo. This type of arrowhead, known
grain there were saddle querns of lime- also from the Badarian sites of Middle and
stone with gritstone grinders, which, Upper Egypt, is thought by some to have
however, could also have been used for evolved locally from the Late Paleolithic
grinding red ochre used as a pigment. core-point and the triangular arrowhead, by
Chipping, pressure-flaking, and grinding, others to be a deyelopment of the Aterian
or polishing, with an abrasive were tanged arrowhead borrowed by the Nilotic
employed singly or conjointly in the peoples from their Saharan neighbors.
production of the Fayum-A people's Kom W, the largest of the A-group
extensive repertory of stone implements settlement sites, also produced adzes of
and weapons, nearly all of which were flint and banded volcanic ash, a few
worked bifacially in accordance with a triangular arrowheads, ground points of
tradition now believed to have been translucent chert and leaf-shaped points
revived in northern Egypt-perhaps with used as daggers, javelins, and spears,
some stimulus from the Aterian-in knives of tabular chert worked by pressure-
Final Paleolithic and pre-Neolithic times. flaking, a small number of pebble-butted
Most characteristic are the axes of chert, and pebble-backed tools, a twisted bifacial
limestone, dolerite, and volcanic ash blade, and an elaborate halberd-like point,
which comprise over forty percent of all perhaps a forerunner of the Predynastic
the tools found. They are for the most part "fish-tail." In the same area, but not in
pounded or flaked to an elongated tri- situ and probably belonging to the later
angular, conoid, or trapezoidal form with B-group, were found chipped axes, planes,
a narrow butt and a straight cutting edge, and gouges, leaf-shaped arrowheads, and
the latter sharpened by grinding following a curious type of concavo-convex flake-
the initial flaking, but not apparently tool detached from its core by a blow
re-flaked after grinding except to repair a delivered on the side of the latter. The
damage or in a later re-use of the axe. presence in Kom W of a small number of
Next in frequency are the sickle blades, blade-tools, including plain blades and
thirty-one of which were recovered from microlithic backed blades and cores,
the settlement of Kom W alone. They are suggests a partial intrusion by one of the
serrated on one edge only and are usually surviving North African or Palestinian
pointed at one end, only three of the blade cultures of Final Paleolithic ante-
examples found being square at both ends. cedents. Hammerstones of flint, quartz,
In nearly every case the edge of the blade fossil wood, grit, and limestone were
has acquired a "silica-polish," or gloss, found in large quantities as were also
from cutting the stalks of wheat or barley. smooth waterworn pebbles of flint and
Easily the most striking of the Neolithic volcanic ash used as burnishers, and
Fayumis' hunting weapons are the superbly pebbles apparently collected by the settlers
worked hollow-based arrowheads with because of their odd forms.
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 95

A pierced discoid object of limestone which may have served as a paint-
and another of diorite have been identified, container, a needle-case, or the foreshaft
perhaps correctly, as maceheads, though of a beveled bone point or harpoon. Fresh-
the possibility that they are weights for water mussels were gathered from the lake
loaded digging sticks of the kind used by as food and their shells, especially those of
primitive agriculturists today should not Spatha cailliaudi, were used as scoops, or
be overlooked. ladles, being frequently found stacked
Similar objects, but smaller and more together, either in pottery vessels or in
spherical in shape, made of limestone and, hearthside rubbish with sherds, fish bones,
in one case, of dolerite, are almost certainly and splintered animal bones. Similar shells
spindle whorls, employed in the spinning with nicked or serrated rims may have
of thread, which we know from a piece of been employed for scaling or skinning fish.
coarse linen cloth found near one of the Ochre, presumably destined for use as a
A-group silos the Neolithic Fayumis were pigment or cosmetic, was ground on oval
not only able to produce, but were also or irregularly rounded palettes of banded
able to weave into fabrics on simple looms limestone and Nubian diorite with bevelled
of, presumably, the primitive horizontal edges and plano-convex or concavo-convex
type. The fibre used in the manufacture of cross sections, a smooth pebble being used
this cloth is quite definitely flax, though as the grinder. Among the strikingly few
not necessarily Linum usitatissima, seeds items of personal adornment recovered
of the latter having been found, however, from the settlements are marine shells
in two adjoining silos. The weave of the acquired, apparently through trade, from
cloth is fairly even, the thread "lightly the Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts and
spun," and the fibre evidently retted, usually pierced for suspension or stringing,
beaten, scraped, and combed before the varieties of shell so employed including
spinning. Other spindle whorls recovered Pectunculus, Cardium edule, two species of
from the settlements are simply perforated cowries, Nerita, Conus, Turritella, and
disks of pottery of the type common in Columbella, as well as 08initu8 turbinatus
Predynastic times. and Helix desertorum, the last obtained
For catching fish in the clear, shallow locally. A shell bracelet, evidently made
waters of the lake the Fayum people seem to be worn by an infant, measures only
not to have used fish-hooks but to have 1.7 inches in its inside diameter. A few
relied chiefly on fish-spears and harpoons primitive stone beads and pendants of
tipped with heads of fish-bone (Lates banded volcanic ash, limestone, and
niloticus) which are beveled at their butts microcline felspar, or green amazonite-
to fit into the wood or reed shafts and are the last material probably imported from
either barbed or grooved to receive small the Eastern Desert or from the Libyan
barbed points, now missing. Being, as we massifs north of Tibesti-range in form
have seen, expert basket makers, they from rough perforated pebbles to discoid
probably also fashioned fish-traps of and barrel-shaped beads and drop-shaped
basketwork and may have used knotted pendants. Despite their crudity, the
cord fish-nets weighted with grooved shaping and drilling of these minute stone
limestone sinkers of which a considerable ornaments reflect the notable advances in
number have been found. technical ability achieved by the Neolithic
The settlement of Kom W yielded bone craftsmen of northern Egypt. Turquoise
pins and awls and a tubular length of bone nuggets, presumably for use as beads, may
 oi.uchicago.edu

96 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

have been brought from the western vessels. In the case of one pot and a
massifs or possibly from as far away as number of sherds of brown ware a smooth
Sinai, the locale of the principal turquoise but not polished surface was achieved by
mines of the dynastic Egyptians. Beads of the application of a slip or by wet hand-
a type peculiar to the Fayum settlements smoothing, or "creaming," of the damp
consist of discs of ostrich eggshell, half clay. The fragments of nine pots show
an inch in diameter, pierced with a hole small holes drilled from the outside of the
through the center. Miniature axes of vessels and intended either for their
volcanic ash and fossil shark teeth were suspension or repair. "No traces of
worn as amuletic pendants and show in incised, combed or painted pottery was
several cases incomplete perforations for found," the only decorated pieces being a
stringing. Garments, bags, vessels, and the solitary sherd with a row of studs below
like were apparently made of dressed the rim and another with a single large
animal skins, a "dark glutinous substance" boss on its surface. The primitive character
found in one of the granaries having been and poor development of the Fayum-A
identified as the remains of a piece of hide pottery may be attributed in part to its
or leather. relatively early date and in part to the
The numerous pottery vessels found in "high perfection" attained by the con-
the Fayum-A settlements are for the most temporaneous basketwork.
part of simple forms, without handles, Stone vessels appear not to have been
necks, mouldings, or projecting rims, and manufactured in any quantity, the only
are made in the majority of cases of a examples recovered being an oval, boat-
coarse, ill-fired clay containing a binder of shaped mortar of nummilitic limestone
chopped straw. They are entirely hand- and a fragment of diorite which may have
made and are often asymmetrical in been part of a bowl.
shape. Among the larger cooking and The complete lack of any articles carved
storage pots deep round-bottomed bowls of ivory is not only striking, but puzzling,
and wide-mouthed bulbous jars of rough- since both the elephant and the hippo-
faced brown ware predominate. A few potamus were common in the area and
fiat-bottomed pedestaled cups and one were hunted by the Fayum people, as
small cup resting on three knobbed feet attested, among other indications, by a
are surprisingly sophisticated forms. number of decayed hippo tusks found in a
Particularly characteristic of the Fayum pot and in one of the middens of Kom W.
Neolithic A culture are rectangular basins Except for a few lumps of red ochre no
of polished red ware with the rims pressed trace of metal or any metalliferous ore has
up at the corners to form pronounced peaks. been found in an A-group context, even
The surfaces of these platters, which do malachite, so common in prehistoric and
not occur again in Egypt until much later later times as a pigment and cosmetic
Pan-grave times, preserve "patches of a being entirely lacking.
thin ferruginous slip of purply-red colour Whatever artistic tendencies the Neo-
applied in horizontal smears below the lithic Fayumis may have possessed seem
rim." Vessels of polished black ware are to have been confined to their superbly
exceedingly rare, and in several of the fashioned and often beautiful stone tools
examples found the black is probably and weapons. Decoration of any sort is
accidental, the result of improper firing of exceedingly rare on any of the other
what were to have been red-polished classes of objects found, being confined to
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 97

the two boss-studded potsherds referred technique of the Fayum and the Nile
to above, an engraved line on a diorite Valley in general from the Aterian; and
palette fragment, and groups of incised Arkell feels that "the neolithic features of
rings around some of the bone points. the Fayum Neolithic were brought to the
The total absence of burials in the Fayum" from "a dispersal area well to the
low-lying, lakeside settlements, though west of the Nile Valley" ("perhaps
understandable, has deprived us of any Tibesti)." McBurney, on the other hand,
information not only on the physical and draws attention to the near-identity of
ethnic character of the Neolithic inhabi- the Fayum A and Natufian sickle forms
tants of the Fayum, but also on their and to the marked similarity which exists
funerary customs and beliefs. Unless they between the burnished pottery of the
were otherwise disposed of, it is probable Fayum and that of the coastal areas of the
that the dead were buried in cemeteries in Levant, and thinks that "there is a very
the higher ground some distance from the strong prima facie case for an ultimate
villages, but to date no graves have been Levantine derivation of the [Fayum A]
found which can with confidence be culture"; while Childe, after discussing the
assigned to this period. possibilities of a western or southern
Though the initial impetus toward a origin, concludes by pointing out the many
semi-agricultural village life of the type "northern or Asiatic elements in the
seen here is almost certainly to be sought neolithic cultures at least of Lower
for in southwestern Asia, there is no general Egypt"; and Butzer, as we have seen,
agreement among modern authorities on describes the Neolithic immigrants as
the origin of the earliest Neolithic settlers "new cultural and ethnic groups originating
in the Fayum or on the principal source of from the area of the Fertile Crescent ... "
the cultural tradition reflected in their The occurrence in the middens of the
villages and granary areas. Huzayyin, as A-group people of a few small blade-tools
we have seen in Chapter II, would recog- and cores of Final Paleolithic or Mesolithic
nize the prototypes of the more charac- type (see above) would seem to indicate
teristic tool-forms of the Fayum Neolithic the survival in the area of bands of semi-
(axes, tranchets, adzes, hollow-based nomadic hunters and fishermen at a far less
arrowheads) in a local Upper Paleolithic advanced stage of economic and cultural
industry, for which he has suggested the development than the contemporaneous
name "Fayyoumian," or "Qarounian," inhabitants of the recently established
and which he describes as a unique agricultural communities. As the Fayum
development starting in the Levalloisian, lake continued its downward trend, first
but "specializing more in the core than to 13 feet (four metres) above sea-level and
in the flake and reviving the truly bifacial then to seven feet (two metres) below sea-
technique." Having in 1934 favored "the level, this somewhat backward element
possibility of an autochthonous Delta evidently became a more and more
origin" for the Fayum Neolithic, Miss dominant factor in the local population,
Caton-Thompson in 1952 was "tempted to to the detriment of the once flourishing
see the origins of the Egyptian Neolithic Neolithic settlements and their culture.
and early Predynastic bifaced tools" "in Degenerate forms of some of the A-group
the Aterian foliates." Forde-Johnston also stone implements, however, continued to
is inclined to derive the hollow-based be produced and are found, together with
arrowhead and the Neolithic bifacial increasingly large numbers of microlithic
 oi.uchicago.edu

98 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

blades and points, on the surfaces of the B-group context. A flaked adze or plane
village middens and at a series of evidently of piano-convex cross section, evidently
temporary camp and chipping sites along intended for woodworking, is of a form not
the northern rim of the ancient lake basin, found in situ in the A-group mounds,
both above and below the level occupied but is known in the Predynastic middens
by the Neolithic villagers. The resulting of the Nile Valley, in the oasis of Siwa, and
mixed and essentially retrogressive culture, in the so-called Peasant Neolithic of
now generally known as the Fayum "B" Kharga oasis. The microliths found either
phase, is seen to have extended in time in association with these A-group survivals
from the interval between the formation or in separate patches, or "swarms,"
of the 33- and 13-foot lake beaches to the constitute a "monotonous little repertory"
earliest stage of the - 7-foot shoreline, that of single-backed straight blades, double-
is, from the period of decline of the Fayum backed blades, partially backed or shanked
A-culture to the establishment in the forms, trihedral rods, and small conical,
Fayum area (notably near Qasr Qarun) rectangular, or amorphous cores. Having
of outposts of a developed Predynastic comprised only a minute percentage of
(chalcolithic) culture of Nile Valley origin. the implements present in the earlier
Since it seems locally to have been generally Neolithic village sites, they now form a
earlier than the latter culture and since it majority of all the tools found, while
exhibits no trace of metal tools or the number of Fayum A implements has
metalliferous substances of any kind it is decreased to such a striking degree as
usually classed as "Later Neolithic," the to suggest "a drastic reduction in the
term, however, being in this case a con- neolithic population as between A and B
venient rather than a wholly accurate group times."
description of the material involved. The later phase of the Fayum B culture
In its earlier stage the Fayum B culture is associated with a well-defined beach at
is characterized by a marked diminution seven feet below modern sea-level, a
in the types of A-group implements still height apparently maintained by the lake
produced and by the substitution of throughout the rest of Egyptian pre-
variant or new forms for those abandoned. history and down into the time of the Old
The temporary encampments of the Kingdom. Little change is apparent in the
B-group people at the 13-foot lake level typology of the stone implements, but the
yielded pebble-butted and pebble-backed degeneration of the Neolithic forms has
knives and scrapers of A-group types, five progressed still further and the proportion
abnormally small bifacial sickle-flints, of microliths to larger tools has increased.
and the tip of a concavo-convex scraper, The now complete absence of sickle-flints,
or "side-blow flake." Polished axes, so granaries, and millstones suggests that
numerous in the A-group settlements and agriculture had been temporarily aban-
granaries, no longer occur, their place doned as a means of livelihood and that
having been more or less taken by chipped the inhabitants of the Fayum had reverted
celtiform tools, including ovate and hoe- for the time being to an outmoded food-
shaped forms. Tanged and winged arrow- gathering economy; and the absence of
heads of a type attested elsewhere in the pottery, cosmetic palettes, and beads
Egyptian area have largely replaced the bespeaks the poverty of the B-group
concave-base type, only one example of encampments and the low level of the
which has been recovered in an early culture represented by them. A few
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 99

beveled bone points were still being made miles to the north, show much the same
and the majority of the grooved pebbles mixture of microlithic and developed
used as net-weights are probably to be Neolithic forms which characterizes the
assigned to this phase. At a late camp site Fayum B culture and include a number
called by its excavators Moeris I and at of the more distinctive types of tools and
"Site H, some two miles west of Dimai," weapons associated with that culture.
"Fayum neolithic" types and a large We find, for example, among the
number of Fayum micro-blades and other Siwa collections now in Cambridge and
wind-worn microliths were found together Alexandria the concavo-convex scraper,
with larger, coarse unifacial blades which or side-blow flake, known elsewhere only
seem to be related both chronologically in the Fayum and at Kharga, the plano-
and typologically, as well as in the convex adze or "plane," small pressure-
technique of their manufacture, to the fine flaked tanged, leaf-shaped, and elongated
unifacial blades of the Predynastic settle- arrowheads, all of which can be matched
ment near Qasr Qarun. in Fayum B and at Kharga, trihedral
rod-shaped "drills," miscellaneous pressure
3. THE OASES OF SIwA AND KHAROA flaked tools including planes, small leaf-
Whereas the Neolithic settlements at shaped knives, and points, the "general
Merimda Beni Salama, on the western effect" of which is "closely similar" to
fringe of the Delta, and at Shaheinab in pieces from the Fayum, oval or slightly
the Sudan show marked parallelisms with pointed bifacial tools "not unknown in the
the Fayum Neolithic A, in the Libyan Neolithic of the Fayum," "though less
Desert areas to the west of the Nile Valley conspicuous" there than further west,
the affinities are chiefly with the later, B straw-polished bifacial sickle-blades like
culture. For this reason it seems desirable those of the Fayum and other Egyptian
to discuss the Neolithic remains in these sites, and spherical calcite maceheads or
areas while the picture of the latter culture spindle whorls known also among the
is still fresh in our minds, though much Fayum surface finds. As in the B culture
of the material involved is of relatively single-backed, double-backed, and shanked
late date, being partly, if not wholly, blades predominate among the Siwa
contemporaneous with the Predynastic microliths. "Virtually all the charac-
cultures of Upper Egypt. teristics of Stage 'B,"'" says McBurney, "are
The oasis of Siwa, a depression some represented, but none of those which are
fifty miles in length from east to west and the exclusive property of 'A."'" The same
twenty miles in width, lies approximately writer also notes the absence of "specimens
two hundred and seventy-five miles due displaying traits peculiar to the later
west of the Fayum, near the modern Pre-dynastic or early Dynastic flint
boundary line between Egypt and Libya, working traditions."
and roughly one hundred and seventy Aside from its many links with the
miles south of the Mediterranean coast. Fayum B-group the stone industry of
Surface collections of stone implements Siwa exhibits one or two "western traits,"
from small farming(?) settlements on the such as the Sirtican round-based arrow-
slopes and terraces of the depression's head with micro-burin finish and the oval
northern escarpment and from hunting biface which, though known in Egypt, is
camps grouped around small pond-like far more abundant in nearby Cyrenaica
basins on the desert plateau, nineteen and, further to the west, in the Maghreb.
 oi.uchicago.edu

100 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

Heavy stone querns were found at hunting culture to which Miss Caton-
several of the chipping sites on the Thompson has given the name Bedouin
northern escarpment of the oasis. They Microlithic and of a settled agricultural
range in size up to a foot in diameter and population whom she describes as Peasant
are provided with flat circular pebble Neolithic. The two groups have further
rubbers or grinders. They could have been been identified with the authors of the
used, as in the Maghreb, for grinding ochre, rock-drawings assigned by Winkler, re-
but are more likely to have been mills for spectively, to his so-called Earliest Hunters
grain. Their presence together with that and to his Early Oasis Dwellers (see above,
of the well-worn sickle blades suggests p. 73). Though widely divergent in their
that catch-crops of wheat and barley mode of life and cultural level they are
may have been grown by the Neolithic found occasionally in the same localities
Siwans on the terraces of the escarpment and appear to have been, partially at least,
and their weight implies settlements of a contemporaneous with one another and
somewhat more permanent nature than with the earlier Predynastic (Naqada I)
the hunting camps of the northern plateau culture of Upper Egypt.
surface. Pottery is represented by a The Bedouin Microlithic folk are seen
fragment of a thick-walled hand-made as a roving people still in an essentially
vessel with bands of impressed ornamenta- "Mesolithic" stage of existence. Their
tion on the exterior and by a piece of a small-scale stone industry is comprised
heavy round-based pot of somewhat entirely of narrow blades and backed
indefinite, though probably prehistoric, bladelets suitable for composite mounting,
date. A cobble of speckled green crystalline small leather borers, and a multiplicity of
rock, from which a few flakes have been arrow tips, including transverse, shanked-
removed, must have been imported from blade, lozenge, foliate, winged, and tanged
some distance away, since the stone is not forms. Burins, microburins, and trapezes
local to Siwa or its vicinity. are lacking and geometric forms of any
Following a reference to "the pastoral type are exceedingly rare. Aside from their
and primitive agricultural economy" which stone implements and weapons the halting
had been implanted in the eastern Libyan places of these hunting tribes around some
area at this time McBurney concludes by of the silty basins of the Kharga depression
remarking that "as far as Siwa is concerned and the silt pans of the adjoining Libyan
its close affinity with Kharga and the Plateau yielded only a few small discoid
Fayum is probably sufficiently explained hand-mills of sandstone, intended perhaps
by the fairly uniform nature of the oasis for grinding colocynth seeds and light
and plateau environment which... forms enough to be readily portable, and some
a not ill-defined geographical unit whose bits of ostrich eggshell including pierced
westerly extremity lies at Jaghbub." disks of shell apparently strung and worn
At Kharga, four hundred miles to the as beads. A Cardium shell found on one of
southeast of Siwa and only eighty to the Bedouin Microlithic camp sites may
ninety miles from the Nile Valley in have come from the Fayum with which,
southern Upper Egypt, the microlithic according to McBurney, the culture in
and Neolithic elements are not mingled as general offers "a remarkably consistent
in the Fayum B and Siwan assemblages, typological picture," showing, on the
but form two separate industries, the other hand, few points of contact with
products, respectively, of a nomadic either the Typical or Upper Capsian or
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 101

with the Sebil III culture of nearby gravers, and a variety of arrowheads,
southern Upper Egypt. Small groups of including a kind of concave-based point,
much the same hunting people were not dissimilar from those of the Fayum A
spread out over wide areas of what is now and Badarian cultures, but with angled
the Libyan Desert, occupying mud- instead of rounded or pointed extremities.
bottomed depressions along the route Hand-mills of diorite and sandstone,
from Kharga and Dakhla to Gilf Kebir, fragments of undecorated reddish brown
on the track between Uweinat and Selima, pottery vessels with plain rims, the
and, to the north, in an area to the west of imprint of a woven straw or grass platter,
Abu Mungar. Their crude but highly and a rough bead of green microcline
informative rock-drawings have been dis- felspar serve to round out our picture of
cussed in some detail at the end of Chapter the material culture and "home life" of
II, above. the Neolithic Khargans, and the remains
In contrast to these lightly equipped of hyenas, two kinds of gazelle, and the
and wide-ranging nomads the Peasant fish Lates niloticus tell us something of the
Neolithic population of Kharga made their fauna and climatic conditions amid which
habitations on the floor of the depression they lived.
in the immediate vicinity of the moribund At the chert workings on the high
Pleistocene mound-springs, some of which plateau between the Refuf and Abu
they re-opened by digging, and confined Sighawal passes the same people have left
their activities to the areas around these us massive mauls, choppers, and hoes (or
springs and to a seam of tabular chert coarse adzes), gigantic oval or discoidal
on the Eastern Scarp edge of the Libyan plaque scrapers, a few light picks or
Plateau where they mined the material punches, and many of the distinctive
for their often massive stone implements. concavo-convex side-blow flakes-for the
In both areas are found the remains of most part unfinished. That some of these
their big circular hearths or fire-pits, implements were stone-masons' or quarry-
lined with heavy slabs of a bluish lime- men's tools seems not unlikely, though
stone brought from the scarp and once there is little area of agreement between
surrounded, to judge from the presence of the Kharga series and the equally massive
tamarisk roots, by circles of scrubby but generally later (Predynastic and
vegetation. There are no traces of houses Dynastic) implements from the well known
in the settlement areas, but the craters of flint mines of the Wadi el Sheikh in Middle
already dried-up mound-springs were Egypt.
apparently used as shelters. Here, in situ In the Peasant Neolithic folk of Kharga
in the sandrock cappings of the spring we see, then, more or less sedentary
mounds or on the surface round about, are communities of cultivators possessed of a
found flaked chert axes with transverse highly developed "heavy industry" of
edging, axes of nummilitic limestone, and stone tools and of sufficient imagination
lugged scutiform axes of chert, chisels, and initiative to attempt, by sinking
planes, and scrapers, including the concavo- shallow, funnel-shaped shafts into the
convex, or side-blow, type of scraper, nearly defunct mound-springs, to resurrect
massive bifacial and unifacial knives, and control a failing water supply and in so
serrated sickle-blades and other saw- doing to take what may well be one of the
toothed tools, light picks or punches, earliest recorded steps in "the age-long
retouched bulbar flakes, a few burins, or development of hydraulic engineering."
 oi.uchicago.edu

102 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

If, as seems likely, the Peasant Neolithic and the appearance of the Oasis Dwellers'
cultivators of Kharga and the "Early pregnant "goddess" in the drawings of the
Oasis Dwellers" of a group of rock drawings latter indicates that the two peoples-the
observed by Winkler and others in an settled cultivators and the roving bands
ancient depression to the east of the oasis of hunters-lived amicably side by side
of Dakhla are one and the same people, and exchanged ideas one with the other.
we know something of their magico- The distinctive zigzag treatment of the
religious beliefs and of their association body of an elephant in a drawing of the
with the more or less contemporaneous Earliest Hunters points to the at least
hunting tribes of the area. The drawings partial contemporaneity of both them
in question, carved in a primitive form of and their associates, the Early Oasis
sunk relief on and around a series of small Dwellers (= Peasant Neolithic people)
sandstone hills, portray almost without with the "Amratian," or Naqada I,
exception crude mud(?) statuettes of a culture of the Nile Valley.
pregnant female with exaggeratedly large Associations of the Khargan Peasant
hips and buttocks, thought by Winkler Neolithic with the Fayum (B-culture),
to have been a fertility goddess and Siwa, and, above all, the Predynastic
bringer of rain. Unlike her naked devotees, settlement at Armant in the Nile Valley
the "goddess" is clad in a skirt adorned immediately opposite "the Great Oasis,"
with woven patterns and occasionally are readily apparent, the agreement of the
wears patterned sandals, a necklace(?), stone implements in the last instance
and a high cap or radiate headdress above being sufficiently close to permit us to date
her long plaited hair, her costume reflecting the Khargan settlements to Early-Middle
a high degree of skill in the weaving of Predynastic times and to suggest a
cloth and production of other garments migration of the same groups of people
among the prehistoric inhabitants of the either from the Nile Valley westward to
oasis. In one scene cattle are being the oasis or from the oasis to the riverine
presented to the deity either as sacrifices zone.
or for her blessing; but are otherwise very In marshaling the evidence for the
rarely represented in these drawings and existence of a Neolithic subpluvial, or
evidently played no important role in the relatively moist interval, extending from
economy of their authors. Other animals about 5000 to approximately 2350 B.C.,
known and depicted by the Early Oasis Karl Butzer refers to the "innumerable
Dwellers are the giraffe, the antelope, the Neolithic... sites... still preserved along
ibex, the ostrich, and the dog. Hand-mills the desert margins of the Valley from
for grinding grain are found in the vicinity Merimde to Upper Nubia" and of "the
of the drawings, and the desert surface wealth of New Stone Age artifacts
round about is strewn with Neolithic stone seemingly scattered over the desert surfaces
implements described by Winkler as of the greater part of Egypt," which "do
"typical of the Faiyim" and assumed by not only occur at oases such as the Gilf
Miss Caton-Thompson to be Peasant Kebir and Kharga but along the routes
Neolithic. The style of the drawings is a across the Libyan Desert." Among such
combination of that of the cattle-breeding surface concentrations of Neolithic
"Autochthonous Mountain Dwellers of implements may be mentioned the ones
Uweinat" and that of the "Earliest found by Georges Legrain in 1897 some
Hunters" (= Bedouin Microlithic folk?), forty to forty-nine hours by camel along
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 103

the desert track leading from Rizeiqat in Nile Delta indicate that about 5000 B.C.
southern Upper Egypt to the Oasis of large areas of relatively high ground in
Kharga and the similar groups observed and around the southern half of the broad
by Miss Caton-Thompson at three or four and fertile triangle were not only habitable
points along the light railway line con- but were in all probability dotted with
necting Abydos with the oasis. Stone- village farming communities similar to
lined hearths, hand-mills of sandstone, those of the Fayum and of the adjoining
and quantities of "very finely worked" areas of southwestern Asia. Most of these
implements strongly reminiscent of those villages appear either to have been sub-
of the Fayum were seen by the expedition merged in relatively recent times beneath
of Prince Kemal el-Din Hussein on the the rising silts of the Nile's alluvial plain
plateau surface between Ain Dalla and or to have remained unexplored. A notable
Alam el- Ghard, to the northwest of the exception is a great settlement at a site
oases of Farafra and Baharia. In or near called Merimda ("Place of Ashes") on the
the Nile Valley surface finds of Neolithic southwestern fringe of the Delta one and
flints have been recorded at Aswan, a third miles south of the modern village
Qurna, and Medamud in southern Upper of Beni Salama and an equal distance
Egypt, at the flint mines of the Wadi el from the Rosetta arm of the Nile, which
Sheikh, and near Maasara in the Eastern probably at one time flowed close beside
Desert ten miles south of Cairo. the ancient town. The ground on which
Like the Fayum, Siwa, Kharga, and the latter was founded, now part of the
the other Libyan Desert sites now under so-called Low Desert, is composed of
consideration belong to the eastern of the Middle Paleolithic silts rising some ten
two culture provinces into which McBurney feet above the level of the modern
divides the Neolithic of North Africa, a alluvium and banked against bluffs of
province wherein "a remarkably constant Lower Pleistocene (pre-Paleolithic?) sandy
culture pattern of incipient food-producing gravels. With an area of over 215,000
type seems to have been established square yards, an average depth of seven
starting as early as the late fifth millennium feet of cultural debris, and a lifetime of
B.C." This can be ascribed, the same author some six centuries, the town, if fully
goes on to say, "to culture contact between occupied at any one time, would have
the indigenous microlith using hunters, supported a population of 16,000 and
and intrusive food-producing groups would, thus, have been one of the largest
ultimately deriving from South West Asia. prehistoric settlements in Egypt, rivaled
The special character of this province, only by the big Predynastic town at
already noticeable in the later hunting Hierakonpolis. Three layers or stages in
cultures, seems to have been maintained the settlement of the site have been
locally well into historical times, to judge distinguished, the lowest and earliest
from the uniformity and consistency of the layer dated by radiocarbon tests to 4130
archaeological material." B.C., the uppermost layer to 3530 B.C.
These dates, according to Hjalmar Larsen,
who is followed in his conclusions by
4. THE WEST DELTA SETTLEMENT
Hermann Junker, the excavator of the
OF MERIMDA BENI SALAMA
site, are much too low and are to be raised,
Reconstructions by Passarge and by analogy with later, obviously low
Butzer of the ancient landscape of the Carbon-14 readings from Egypt, to 5040
 oi.uchicago.edu

104 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

(or 5290) B.C. and to 4350 (or 4570) B.C., are such sophisticated forms as footed
respectively. vases, carinated vases, pottery ring-stands
The firstcomers to the site of Merimda for jars, and pottery ladles. In general,
settled on a gentle sandy rise near the there is a predilection at this stage for
river's edge in the midst of what were hard red ware, sometimes with a slight
then probably seasonal pasturelands and admixture of chopped straw; but bowls
not far removed, we may be sure, from of greyish yellow ware are also found, as
arable stretches of Nile silt. Their flimsily well as the large, coarse basins or pans,
constructed and evidently sparsely which are common to all three layers.
scattered shelters and windbreaks have Noteworthy is the absence in the first
been engulfed or swept away by sand- level of the fine polished black ware and
storms and by sheetflooding during the decorative knobs or bosses charac-
intervals of "appreciable rainfall," the teristic of the pottery of the upper strata.
latter having left a "thin but fairly Rows of post-holes and fragments of
continuous" spread of gravel over the the wooden posts themselves show that
whole of "the lowest settlement stratum." the villagers of Layer II lived in oval
A few of their hearths, however, still huts of wood-frame and wickerwork
survive, showing black in the midst of construction, perhaps covered.with hides,
the yellowish soil, and, in the same and in horseshoe-shaped shelters of similar
habitation area, fifteen shallow oval construction with the open end normally
graves filled with grey earth and contain- toward the southeast, away from the
ing in each case a human skeleton, usually strong westerly winds which prevail in
that of a young child or a woman, lying this region. In some instances the roof of
on its side in more or less contracted the hut had been supported by a stout
position and normally not provided with wooden column at the centre of the
any kind of personal adornment or food dwelling and in one case a partition,
offering. There are as yet no traces of marked by a row of post-holes, had divided
granaries, but one of the hearths yielded the house into two rooms of unequal size,
grains of cultivated emmer wheat (Triticum reminiscent of the entranceway and main
dicoccumrn) altogether similar to that found chamber of modern African huts. The
in the basketry silos of the layers above. hearths which are prominent features of
The implements of the earliest settlers these dwellings exhibit several different
differ in no essential respect from those of forms, including the simple round or oval
their descendants, comprising, among fire-pit, smeared inside with mud, the
other forms, bone awls and harpoons, fire-tray of Nile-mud clods with a smooth,
flint knives, and cylindrical axeheads of flat surface for heating cakes, the grooved
flint and other hard stones. Their pottery, hearth with a hollow in the middle for a
on the other hand, exhibits certain forms cookpot, and pairs of conical mud fire-
and wares which are either rare or lacking dogs or "andirons," designed to raise the
in the upper levels of the settlement. cooking vessel above the level of the mud
Particularly characteristic are bowls of or beaten earth floors. Smaller holes in the
fine hard polished red ware, having below floors served as supports for the round-
the rim a mat band adorned with an bottomed household vessels. Besides these
incised horizontal herringbone pattern, some of the dwellings contained pottery
usually without a midrib. Also present in water-jars sunk in the floors, heavy mud-
the first stage of the Merimda settlement lined mortars for crushing fruit or the like,
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 105

and large circular or oval baskets woven settlers; but among the pottery vessels
of rush (arundo donax) or wheat straw the fine polished red ware bowls with
and evidently used for storing grain. In herringbone patterns, so characteristic of
the upper sub-strata of this layer are Layer I, have all but disappeared and have
found for the first time traces of similar been largely replaced by vessels of polished
large baskets coated on the outside with black pottery and of various coarse wares,
clay and sunk into pits in the earth to not infrequently provided with knobs or
form silos of much the same type as those bosses below the rim to serve as handles
already seen in the Fayum. At Merimda, and elsewhere purely as decoration. High-
however, the granaries are not normally footed vases and chalice-shaped vessels
segregated in groups off by them- are among the new forms which begin to
selves away from the village, but are put in an appearance in the second phase
scattered through it and are associated of the settlement's evidently extended
with the individual dwelling places. A occupation.
number of them preserved portions of The uppermost layer at Merimda is a
their woven matwork covers and, below dark grey mass of settlement debris far
and between these, a few blackened deeper and denser than the earlier strata.
grains of Triticum dicoccum, or emmer, Here we are confronted by the remains of
and of a globular grain which has been a large closed village of mud buildings,
identified as a small-leafed fodder-vetch huts, and work places, which, though not
(Vicia sativa augustifolia). Larger but apparently surrounded by a wall or
shallower circular cavities up to thirteen embankment, was, like the Egyptian
feet in diameter, their sides revetted with village of today, protected against the
spiral matting, may have been threshing intrusion of wind-blown sand by the
floors, especially since grain was found in number and close juxtaposition of its
them and in receptacles nearby. Also houses. The latter, laid out in ragged rows
scattered among the houses and granaries on either side of what appear to have been
of this level are contracted burials of the winding streets, are for the most part oval
same simple type seen in Layer I and chambers, five to ten and a half feet across,
presently to be encountered in Layer III, sunk a foot and a half into the ground and
normally unprovided with offerings except continued above ground by walls more
for a few wheat grains placed near the than three feet high built up of super-
mouth or strewn over the body. Despite imposed rings of Nile mud or constructed
the improvements in house construction of rough blocks or clods of the same
and grain storage achieved during the material containing a binder of chopped
second stage of its history the town straw and, like the interiors and floors of
remained throughout this stage an open the houses, covered with a coating of mud
settlement of sparsely scattered dwelling- plaster. There may have been upper walls
groups, or little "farmsteads," not yet and roofs of rush or reed matting; pairs of
sufficiently closely grouped to prevent the post-holes at the ends of some of the ovals
infiltration into every substratum of the suggest that the roof in these cases may
settlement area of massive quantities of have been double pitched. Access to the
wind-blown sand. No very striking changes house was gained by means of a crude step
have taken place in the household, consisting of the leg-bone (tibia) of a
farming, and hunting implements of the hippopotamus or a short wooden post set
people since the time of the original upright against the inside surface of the
 oi.uchicago.edu

106 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

mud wall. A pottery jar embedded either let into the ground and resembling great
in the floor or against the wall was bowls and in huge flat-bottomed cordiform
evidently intended to hold a supply of pottery jars, or pithoi, over three feet high
drinking water rather than to serve as a and two feet in diameter at the shoulder,
drain, as was once thought. Such houses also buried in the ground up to the level
would have provided ample protection of their evidently narrow mouths. The
against the rain, cold, and winds of the earlier examples of these pithoi are
northern Egyptian winter; and it is clear ineptly made of a coarse red ware and tend
from the presence in them of hearths, to be irregular and asymmetrical in shape,
ring-stands for platters, and bits of animal suggesting that a mastery of the technique
bones that meals were sometimes eaten of their manufacture had not yet been
in their interiors. Since the prehistoric attained; but those of the uppermost sub-
Egyptian, like his more recent descendants, strata of the layer, a reddish light brown
normally slept in curled-up, or contracted, in color, are thin-walled and regular in
position the larger houses at Merimda form. The other pottery of Layer III is
could have accommodated entire families. characterized by the extensive use, for
Their oval form is undoubtedly reflected the finer pieces, of a soft black polished
in that of the contemporaneous and later ware and by the complete disappearance
prehistoric graves-shallow oval pits of the fine red-ware vessels with incised
wherein the dead also lie on one side, in herringbone ornament, found in the
contracted position, as if in sleep. Though earliest levels. The decoration now consists
primitive in many respects, these houses of groups of simple incised lines, rows of
are solidly and painstakingly built and small circular hollows, applied bosses, and
were evidently designed to last a long small rib-like ornaments, as well as
time, suggesting in their construction and vertical, horizontal, and horseshoe-shaped
arrangement an urban community of a rolls, the last serving as hand-grips for
permanent nature rather than a desert- lifting the vessels.
fringe encampment of semi-nomadic tribes- In general, the pottery of Merimda,
men. Their alignment in rows to form though comparable to that of the Fayum
streets almost certainly reflects the "A" settlements, differs from the latter in
existence of some form of local govern- a number of significant details and seems,
ment, headed probably by a town or on the whole, to be more evolved. It tends,
district chieftain. for example, less to the simple bag-like
Oval huts and horseshoe-shaped shelters forms seen in the Fayum and more
of light construction still continued to be to flat-bottomed and concave-bottomed
built for use by day and in warm weather dishes, bowls, and jars, and comprises a
as temporary residences, kitchens, work- number of quite elaborate footed and
shops, and the like. A more or less complete multi-legged forms, including bowls and
fence made of long bunches of reeds bound jars standing on human feet modeled of
together by cross-bundles of the same clay, vessels with tapered tubular spouts
material resembles the present-day bus- or open spouts, carinated vases, double
fence, or zeriba, used as an enclosure for vases, conical beakers, chalices, oval and
small cattle and grain. Besides the now boat-shaped bowls, ring-stands for round-
numerous sunken basketry granaries, grain, bottomed jars, and well developed if
fruit, and other commodities were stored somewhat coarse terra cotta ladles, spoons,
in hemispherical, mud-lined storage bins and scoops, the last occurring also on
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 107

early Chalcolithic sites in Palestine. Besides hollow interiors small pebbles. They were
the fragments of vessels with the horseshoe- perhaps children's toys, though larger
shaped grips below the rim there are others examples found in the same part of the
with thumb-sockets, projecting knob- settlement have been thought to be cult
handles and conical handles and at least implements used in some form of religious
one example with a stirrup handle. Holes ceremonial. The mid-section of a human
for suspension cords occur near the rims figure modeled of Nile clay and lightly
of a number of potsherds from Merimda, fired probably represents a woman or
while others show similar holes used for goddess, a pair of protuberances rather
lashing together the pieces of vessels which low on the figure being taken as breasts
had been broken. Miniature jars and and a loop of incised dots above and
bowls found during the season of 1931-1932 between them as a bead necklace. The
have been thought to be children's toys clay of which the figure is made contains
("doll's dishes"), but are more likely to a binder of chopped straw and tiny
have been containers for cosmetics or glittering particles, possibly mica. Like
perhaps even votive vessels like the model the ivory figures of Badari in Upper Egypt
vases found in tomb-chapels and founda- it would appear to have been an idol of
tion deposits of the dynastic period. Many some sort rather than a doll. A bull's head,
of the larger narrow-mouthed jars were also modeled of dried Nile mud, has also
provided with lids composed of potsherds been identified as a cult object, rather
or, more rarely, thin slabs of stone trimmed than a toy, and has been compared with
to form flat disks and in one case grooved other prehistoric and Early Dynastic
on the under side for a cord lifting device. heads of animal divinities. On the other
At Merimda the wares, polished, hand- hand, a Nile mud model of a boat, pointed
smoothed, and coarse, include red, black, at both ends and having a low freeboard,
red-black speckled, reddish and yellowish since it was found, not in a grave, but
grey, and light or grey brown with a red loose in the settlement debris, some five
slip, or wash. With the exception of the feet below the surface, can hardly have
finest polished red and black wares most had the funerary significance later attached
of the pottery contains a binder of chopped to such models and may indeed have been
straw. There is, as has been suggested, a a child's plaything. Its importance lies in
general similarity to the pottery of the the fact that it offers definite evidence
Fayum, where, however, the black wares that the Merimdians of this early period
played a far less important role than here possessed serviceable boats and would
in the western Delta. The great quantity therefore have been able with relative
of pottery vessels produced by the ease to cross marshes, Nile arms, and
Neolithic inhabitants of Merimda is probably even larger bodies of water in
attested by the recovery from a small any hypothetical journey from an eastern
portion of the site during the seasons of point of origin to the western fringe of the
1928 to 1932 of over 60,000 sherds and 41 Delta. Finally, there are some curious
complete vessels. fragments of Nile mud found in 1928
Exceptional interest attaches to a lying on the surface of the site and some-
miscellany of objects, other than vessels, what imaginatively interpreted as parts of
made of pottery, clay, and dried Nile mud. headrests, an article of furniture which is
Small barrel-shaped rattles of red polished not otherwise attested in Egypt before
pottery flecked with black contain in their dynastic times. Since both the true nature
 oi.uchicago.edu

108 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

of these rather amorphous bits of mud the stalks of grain. A coarse-toothed saw
and their association, if any, with the of unusual type has a concave end, like
settlement layers below are matters of the an arrowhead, evidently for mounting on
utmost uncertainty, it would seem hardly a handle of some sort. Besides the elongated
justifiable-as has been done-to regard triangular saws, retouched on both sides,
them as indications of an Early Dynastic there are also fine-toothed unifacial saws
date for the uppermost level of the made from blades and having, as in later
settlement, especially since the latter has prehistoric and early historic times,
been dated by radiocarbon tests to the smooth, unworked undersides.
early fourth (or late fifth) millennium B.C. The Merimdian hollow-based arrowhead
As in the Fayum A-group settlements often differs from those of the Fayum and
the most characteristic and by far the the Upper Egyptian site of Badari in
most common type of stone implement having straight sides and rounded or
made and used by the villagers of Merimda beveled-not pointed-wing tips. As in
was the bifacial axehead, usually of flint the Fayum "A" settlements it is the
but also produced in other fine hard prevailing type, the triangular arrowhead
stones such as quartzite, granite, chlo- being less common and the tanged arrow-
melanite, nephrite, basalt, red jasper, head exceedingly sparse, but including
chalcedony(?), and quartzite schist and, several specimens with toothed or barbed
in a very few instances, in limestone. The edges and long tangs of a type known also
numerous examples in flint are usually in the Fayum, in North Africa, and in
chipped to shape from an appropriately western Europe. Among the hollow-based
formed nodule and their edges ground to heads is a show-piece, described by its
an often knife-like sharpness, the rest of finders as the "most beautiful known
the tool being sometimes left untouched, Neolithic arrowhead." Three and a half
with the cortex intact, when the nodule inches long and very thin, it was polished
chosen already had the form desired. on both sides and then skillfully retouched
Those made of other stones are of two along the edges. Several handsome polished
general forms: the elongated "cylindrical" lanceheads of elongated foliate or triangular
axehead with more or less rounded cross- form, in one case with lateral barbs near
section and the smaller and more trape- the point of attachment, range in length
zoidal head with a wider edge in proportion up to six and a quarter inches.
to its length and usually with a fine over- A thick, ground and retouched point of
all polish. The latter, evidently for the unusual nature is believed to have been
most part "show pieces," include two mounted at right angles to its shaft and,
superb examples of haematite, the polished if so, must have constituted a formidable
surfaces of which have a lustrous metallic weapon of the type called in German a
sheen. "Dolchstab" or "Dolchbeil." The point
At Merimda saw-toothed sickle flints, in question "has two close relatives in the
closely similar to those from the Fayum, Fayum culture" which, according to Miss
occur in matched and close-fitting sets of Caton-Thompson, "do more to strengthen
three, a rectangular element flanked by the essential unity of the two groups than
two pointed ones to form a continuous, a host of minor differences due to local
double-ended cutting edge. The serrated environment, independent development,
edges of these copiously represented or the caprices of discovery can do to
implements are usually glossy from cutting weaken it."
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 109

The knife blades of Merimda show a possibly serpentine or greywacke, and a

variety of forms, among the more common black and white stone, probably some type
of which are broad, sharply curved with of diorite.
rounded or pointed tips, sometimes tanged Interesting is the identification of a
and sometimes with a finely serrated large number of small roundish flints,
cutting edge. A long dagger blade with ground to a conical point on one side, as
slightly convex edges is waisted near the sling-stones, since the sling, though popular
butt end for attachment to its haft; a in western Asia and, later, in Libya, was
curious tanged implement has a broad not a weapon much used by the Egyptians
chisel-like cutting edge at right angles to of any age.
its long axis; and a flat halberd-like blade Besides a number of true Paleolithic
is reminiscent of several found in the stone implements, derived mainly from
Fayum. Small stone awls and scrapers of gravel slopes to the west and southwest
various types, the latter often showing of the site, the settlement yielded a
a steep secondary retouch, are fairly considerable quantity of implements of
numerous in the settlement but are not Paleolithic character and appearance, but
among its more distinctive implement of Neolithic or later origin, their presence
forms. reflecting a tendency noted elsewhere in
The stone-headed mace, a favored the Egyptian Neolithic and post-Neolithic
battle and hunting weapon of the pre- industries to reproduce certain primitive
historic peoples of the eastern Medi- forms-hand-axes, coarse cleavers, crude
terranean world, is well represented at boring tools, and flat scrapers-originated
Merimda, where the heads, like those of in or reminiscent of the Old Stone Age.
Palestine and Anatolia, are invariably The dating of these implements, believed
pear-shaped or, less frequently, spheroid. by Junker and Menghin to have been
This form is not found in Upper Egypt contemporaneous with the settlement
until Naqada II times and is somewhat itself, presents something of a problem,
doubtfully represented in the Fayum, the so-called "hand-axes of pronounced
two so-called maceheads found there Chalossian type" being, in Caton-
having the discoid form popular in the Thompson's opinion, identical with the
earlier Predynastic culture of southern "pebble hand-picks" of Old Kingdom age
Egypt (Naqada I), while a number of found in the gypsum quarries along the
rather small spheroid objects of limestone northern rim of the Fayum depression.
and dolerite would appear to have been For shaping and polishing his stone
spindle whorls rather than weapons. For implements and weapons the Neolithic
attachment to their shafts the hard stone Merimdian used hammerstones of flint,
heads are drilled longitudinally from white quartzite, and other hard rocks in
either end, the elongated conical holes various shapes and sizes, including flat
meeting in centers of the heads. An wheel-shaped specimens with indentations
unfinished specimen, only half drilled for the users' fingers and slender examples
through, indicates that manufacture was with small striking surfaces for more
carried out on the site of Merimda itself, delicate work; slipstones and polishing
though some of the materials used were stones, chiefly of petrified wood, also in a
certainly imported from considerable dis- variety of sizes, most of them worn
tances away. The latter include basalt, concave on both working surfaces; and
granite, volcanic rock, a grey-green stone, pointed or edged stone retouching tools of
 oi.uchicago.edu

110 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

many forms. The purpose for which a fourth at a depth of less than twenty
great quantity of smooth round white inches below the surface. Of the complete
pebbles, all of about the same size, was vessels a deep, flat-footed little bowl of
collected and stored in a circular pit near diorite, now in Stockholm, measures only
one of the village's dwelling houses "is four inches in height and has borrowed
not evident." its form from pottery bowls of the same
Numerous oval and irregularly shaped uppermost level. A tiny beaker, two and
hand-mills and grinding stones of sand- three-quarters inches high, made of basalt,
stone, basalt, and granite were found calls to mind the pottery beakers of
strewn over the whole of the settlement Badari in Upper Egypt. The minute size,
area. They were evidently household irregularity of profile, and heaviness of
objects, used both for milling the wheat these vessels indicate clearly that, locally
and other cereal grains which are assumed at least, the art of making them was still
to have supplied an important part of the in its infancy.
villagers' diet and for grinding the ruddle, Two or three hundred implements of
or red ochre, used to adorn their owners' bone, ivory, and horn were recovered
bodies. Small, flat palettes of "alabaster" from the ruins of the settlement at
(i.e., calcite), granite, and a dark basaltic Merimda. Most of these, it would seem,
stone were perhaps designed for grinding were used in the dressing and stitching
the smaller amounts of pigment used as together of animal skins for the production
face and eye cosmetics. Characteristic of of leather garments, bags and other
these cosmetic palettes is a complete containers, the coverings of shelters, and
example in black basalt found together the like. The dominant types, in any case,
with a small brown grinding pebble some are knife-like implements provided
five and a half feet below the surface of the occasionally with holes for suspension,
site, not far from the burial of an adult of flat triangular or round-topped scrapers
unrecorded sex. It is shield-shaped with a resembling modern leather dressers'
small notch in its straight top edge a fleshing-knives, punches, or coarse awls,
short distance in from each corner. The fine awls, sewing needles, in some cases
type is unknown in either Upper Egypt or with eyes, larger, blunt-ended needles,
the Fayum, but is paralleled by an example used perhaps in the making of fish nets,
in the museum in Jerusalem and by a slate and a variety of spatulae including an
palette of much later date from one of the awl and spatula combined in a single tool.
sun-temples at Abusir. An ivory plaque A rib-bone with a rounded end is believed
from the lowermost level of the settle- to have served for smoothing either a
ment is of the same form, but in view of seam in leather or the surface of an object
its material, can hardly be regarded as a of bone or wood. Flat, pointed instruments
grinding surface. Possibly, however, it was of bone were probably employed in the
for mixing cosmetic colors or other pressure flaking of small flints, such as
pigments. arrowheads. The bone harpoons of Merimda
A few very small, thick-walled stone have one or more barbs, like those of the
vases, of basalt and mottled diorite, were Fayum; but the fish hook, of which, as we
produced by the inhabitants of the latest, have seen, none was found in the Fayum,
or uppermost, level of the Merimda is without a barb and, though made of
settlement, three examples having been horn, resembles in this and in other
found on the surface of the site and a respects the shell and ivory fish hooks of
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGY IIPT

111

Tasa, Badari, and Shaheinab as well as where in the eastern Mediterranean area,
the earliest copper fish hooks found in notably in the Fayum and in the earliest
Egypt. Sections of hollow bone were made Neolithic level at Jericho, and the boar's
to serve as pipes, as tubular containers, tusk, an example of which was found in
and as handles for other implements, position on the breast of a skeleton and
being in the last instances sometimes which may reflect the important role
grooved or rebated at one end or provided played by the pig in the economy, if not
with a series of incised parallel rings. in the magico-religious beliefs, of the
A miscellany of objects in various Merimdians (see below). A pear-shaped
materials, though numerically unimpres- pendant is carved from the tusk of a
sive, throws considerable additional light hippopotamus, while others consist simply
on the industries and other activities of of small bivalve shells notched around the
the townspeople of Merimda. Small egg- edges and pierced in each case with a hole
shaped weights of limestone are grooved for suspension. A more elaborate pendant
longitudinally, almost certainly for attach- amulet has the form of a small plano-
ment, as sinkers, to the edges of fishing convex cosmetic palette with a suspension
nets. An oval spindle whorl of unfired clay hole near the center of its top edge and a
has the form seen in the later hieroglyph semicircular notch in either of its sides
for "spindle." Together with several near the top. Roughly tubular, spherical,
discoid whorls made of potsherds it lenticular, and disk-shaped beads occur
attests a local knowledge, as in the Fayum, in a variety of materials, including black
of the spinning of linen thread and, and green stone, alabaster, ivory, bone,
presumably, the weaving of cloth. Spatha and clay fired black and polished, and
shells were used as scoops or ladles in the small rings of bone and of alabaster seem
kitchens of the settlement and are to have formed links in chainlike necklaces.
occasionally serrated around the edges for Other narrow sections of tubular bones
use as fish scalers in much the same fashion have been identified as finger rings, but
as they were in the Fayum. A fragmentary seem in most cases too small for the
sieve or strainer in an undesignated purpose, unless the wearers were infant
material is referred to by the excavators children. Fragments of several plain,
of the site as "the first and only example" ring-shaped bangles of ivory were found,
of its kind. in one instance near a burial, as well as a
Jewelry and other items of personal wide bracelet of clay, fired black and
adornment, though not as rare as in the engraved on the exterior with a series of
Fayum settlements, are still scarce, and parallel curved lines. A carved piece of
it is clear that, with the exception of an bone has been identified, perhaps correctly,
occasional primitive pendant or a few as the top of a hairpin. The curious
roughly shaped beads, jewelry was not absence of combs, which are so common
generally worn by the people of Merimda. in the prehistoric cemeteries of Upper
Twenty bodies found buried in the settle- Egypt, may be attributable to the
ment during the first season's excavations extreme fragility of this class of object, to
yielded, between them, only one ivory the ravages which the site has undergone
bead and one stone pendant. The pendants, at the hands of man and of nature, and
evidently worn as amulets, include the to the fact that only a small percentage of
miniature axehead of highly polished dark its total area has yet been excavated.
green or black stone, which occurs else- The bones and horns of numerous
 oi.uchicago.edu

112 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

domestic animals found in the hearths, the settlement, for the 125 graves found
potholes, storage areas, and general rubbish during the seven seasons of excavation
of the settlement show that stock farming can hardly represent the total mortality
played a far more important role in the during the prolonged occupation of the
life and economy of the Merimdians than huge site or even that which occurred
it did with the lakeside population of the within the relatively restricted areas
Fayum. Bones of pigs are particularly explored. It has been suggested that the
numerous, and it is clear that, like other men of the town, the bodies of only a few
prehistoric peoples of northern Egypt (and of whom have been found at Merimda
western Asia), the Neolithic villagers of itself, more often than not died or were
Merimda were great pork eaters, an killed on campaigns, hunting trips, and
apparently regional or even racial charac- other expeditions which took them away
teristic, since traces of pig are relatively from home and were normally buried
scarce in the settlements and cemeteries where they died, a perfectly understandable
of Upper Egypt, Nubia, and the Sudan. procedure for a primitive people possessed
The remains of longhorned cattle, sheep, of very limited transport facilities and no
and perhaps also goats occur in some artificial means of preserving a dead body.
quantity and the dog is attested at least Undoubtedly, too, the mortality among
three times in the village area. Of wild newborn infants and women in child-
animals hunted for their meat the most birth was in Neolithic times very much
important was the hippopotamus, the higher than among any other segment of
bones and tusks of which recur again an the population. We must consider, finally,
again throughout the village. The long the probability that the severe denudation
bones and spinal vertebrae of this massive of the site by wind and water has destroyed
beast and also the articulated vertebrae of many of the graves which at one time
a smaller animal, perhaps a steer, are existed within its limits. In any event,
found sometimes bound with sinew and the existing evidence together with the
cloth and stuck upright in the ground like absence of traces of anything resembling a
columns, evidently as offerings to some cemetery or isolated burial ground in the
divinity or guiding spirit of the chase who vicinity of the ancient town strongly
seems to have been similarly propitiated suggest that here, as in the Natufian and
in the later prehistoric settlement at earlier Neolithic settlements of Palestine
Maadi. Other quarry successfully pursued and on the Upper Capsian habitation
by the hunters and fishermen of Merimda sites of northern Africa the primitive
were the crocodile, the polecat, or fitchew, custom of settlement-burial or house-
a kind of antelope, numerous turtles burial prevailed. It is, on the other hand,
(Testudo sp.), and various species of Nile difficult to agree with the proposition
fish. Shell fish gathered from the river advanced by Junker that this type of
included Spatha cailliaudiand other types burial in itself is an earmark of a settled
of large bivalve mussels. community, while burial in cemeteries
At Merimda, as we have seen, it was away from the habitations, as apparently
apparently the custom to bury the dead in the Fayum and in Predynastic Upper
amid the habitations of the living. The Egypt, is a trait of a nomadic or semi-
practice may have been confined to those nomadic population.
persons-chiefly women and infant The shallow oval graves of the Merim-
children-who died within the confines of dians, occasionally lined with coarse
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 113

matting, are scattered, either singly or in food. It is possible that at mealtimes food
groups, throughout every level of the was set aside for the dead or was even
settlement, the method of burial having placed on the grave, such a practice
evidently remained unchanged from the foreshadowing the funerary banquets and
earliest occupation of the site until its periodic feasts held in the cemeteries and
abandonment some five or six centuries tomb-chapels of subsequent eras. The
later. Within the grave the body usually close and continuing contacts maintained
lies on its right side, with knees drawn up, at Merimda between the living and the
in the position of sleep. More often than dead shows, in any case, that even at this
not the head is to the south and the face early period piety and devotion, rather
toward the northeast, the north, or the than fear, characterized the former's
east. From this it might be supposed that attitude to the latter and governed the
the intent was to direct the gaze of the fiunerary service as a whole.
deceased either toward the Nile, the A slender, dolicocephalic people, small
principal local source of life, or, as later by modern standards, the Merimdians,
in Egyptian history, toward the rising nevertheless, are seen from their skeletal
sun. There are, however, so many varia- remains to have been distinctly taller,
tions in the positions and orientation of more sturdily built, and endowed with
the bodies that there is at least equal larger, better formed, and more capacious
reason to believe that the focus of the skulls than the Natufians of Palestine and
dead person's gaze was in most cases not the earliest Predynastic population of
a distant point outside the settlement, Upper and Middle Egypt. The differences
but simply the hearth in the dwelling are sufficient to suggest that they, together
house in or near which he or she was with other prehistoric and early historic
buried. Here lay the center of the house- peoples of northern Egypt, belonged to a
hold of which the deceased had been and different and generally less primitive race
was evidently still regarded as a member than the Upper Egyptians. The men of
and the principal source of the food Merimda, to judge from the few skeletons
conceived of as shared at mealtime by the recovered, averaged five feet five and one-
living and the dead members of the family half inches in height, the women, five feet
alike. Such a concept would obviate the two inches. The crania are higher in
need, so universal in the cemetery type of relation to their breadth than the skulls
burial, of providing the grave with supplies of the Naqada people of Upper Egypt and
of food, drink, and other equipment and broader, with smoother and more evenly
would explain the bareness of the Merimda contoured cranial vault, than those found
graves as compared with those of later in the Badarian cemeteries of southern
prehistoric times in both Upper and Lower Middle Egypt. The teeth are small and
Egypt. Occasionally, to be sure, a body often show abscess cavities at the roots,
is adorned with a single crude pendant or "due to exposure of the pulp cavity by
bead, is accompanied by one or two flint excessive friction," a condition common
implements, and holds to its mouth or in Egypt at all periods. "Certain Armenoid
has scattered over it a few grains of characteristics" shared by the Merimdians
emmer, the last perhaps more the symbol with the people of El-Omari have suggested
of a hoped-for resurrection and immor- the association of these early northern
tality, like the germinating "Osiris beds" Egyptians (and of two or three of the so-
of later times, than an actual offering of called "Tasian" skulls from Upper Egypt)
 oi.uchicago.edu

114 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

with a race which, fanning out from a The most obvious link lies in the fine
hypothetical homeland in the region of Merimdian stone industry with its
Turkestan, has been credited with bringing bifacially worked hollow-based, triangular,
Neolithic culture to Europe and to north- and tanged arrowheads of types unknown
eastern Africa. in western Asia, but without much doubt
However that may be, the cultural ties of Saharan origin and probably of Aterian
which exist between the settlement at ancestry. Arkell has suggested that the
Merimda and the Mesolithic, Neolithic, flaked axehead with only the edge ground
and early Chalcolothic sites of south- "may have been invented in the Saharan
western Asia-Eynan, Jericho, Tell el - Neolithic"; and Larsen would see in
Ghassul, Byblos, Ras Shamra, Hassuna, Merimda "a spur of a widely expanded
Eridu, Mersin, Hacilar, etc.-are sub- Saharan culture." Menghin has pointed
stantial. They include, as we have seen, out that the cylindrical axes of Merimda
the practice of burying the dead, or, at are similar to those of northwestern Africa
least, certain classes of dead, in and among and western Europe, and believes that the
the houses of the living, the use of rounded, Merimdian culture "is to be designated as
mud-plastered pits as granaries and at proto-Libyan." Kaiser notes that the
Eynan and Merimda as dwellings, the stone implements of both Merimda and
breeding and eating of pigs, the production the Fayum A settlements seem to be
of large numbers of flaked axes and adzes related to finds in the distant Hoggar, Air,
with ground edges and a predilection for and Tibesti region; and a number of
the globular or pear-shaped macehead, the prehistorians have drawn attention to the
use of the sling, a typically Asiatic weapon fact that burial of the dead within the
rarely found in Egypt, the wearing of habitation area is known from the Upper
pierced animal teeth and 'miniature axe- Capsian rammadyat, or shell-heaps, of the
heads of hard green or black stone as Maghreb. For Baumgartel the material
amulets, the prevalence in the Pottery "nearest" to that found at Merimda comes
Neolithic B of Jericho and the earlier from the "A-Group," or Early Dynastic,
levels of Merimda of pottery vessels cemeteries in Nubia, which, following Oric
coated with a smooth red slip and adorned Bates, she proposes to identify as
with bands of incised herringbone patterns, "Libyan." It has been repeatedly stated
the occurrence of footed vases and long- that the cultures of Merimda, the Fayum,
handled clay ladles, and the modeling of and El-Omari are "African," derive from
small female and animal figures of clay, a common "African substratum," or have
reflecting perhaps a magico-religious belief their roots in "the North African mother-
in the efficacy of such idols in stimulating soil." They have even been described as
the procreative powers and increasing "African-Hamite," though the expression
the fertility of the people, their flocks, and "Hamite" is normally reserved for associa-
their fields. tions of a linguistic nature, of which at
At the same time, we should expect and this period, of course, we know nothing.
do in fact find in this west Delta culture The agreement is not complete in the
elements which link it to the adjoining case of either southwestern Asia or northern
Saharo-Libyan area, to more remote Africa, typological and chronological dis-
African regions to the west and southwest, crepancies being in both instances too
and, through these, to some aspects, at great to derive the Merimdian culture
least, of the Neolithic of western Europe. in its entirety from one of these areas
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOIX)LITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 115

alone. Rather, we must recognize in this discovered or created in its vicinity or

large northern Egyptian settlement a that some method of crop rotation or
composite culture which, like the Fayum fallowing had been developed, for without
A-group villages, owed its food-producing, such measures the fields adjacent to a
semi-urban character, much of its material Neolithic farming community were rapidly
equipment and magico-religious beliefs, exhausted and the life of the community
and perhaps the salient physical charac- was necessarily brief. The fact that the
teristics of its people to immigrants from houses of the uppermost level of the town
the north and east, but which, at the same appear to have been lined up along
time, exchanged ideas, customs, and winding but nonetheless recognizable
implement types with its Libyan and streets bespeaks an orderly community
Saharan neighbors on the west and was by life and implies, as we have remarked, the
no means wholly out of place in its north presence of some sort of local governmental
African setting. Again, as in many authority or administration, centered per-
another Neolithic community, we find here haps in a mayor or town council. The
the merging of a settled village-farmer religious beliefs of the townspeople are
strain of ultimately western Asiatic origin reflected, on the one hand, in the hunters'
with a warlike, semi-nomadic hunting offerings which they set up to some spirit
element of local Paleolithic antecedents. or spirits of the chase and, on the other
The culture and mode of existence which hand, in the crude clay figure of the
resulted from the fusion at Merimda of farmers' characteristic fertility or "mother-
these ingredients seems, in any case, to earth" goddess, that bringer of rain, rich
have persisted during the entire occupation harvests, and increased herds revered also
of the site, the differences noted between at Jericho and in other village-farming
the earliest and latest habitation layers communities of western Asia. The head of
reflecting developments of and within the a bull or aurochs (Bos primigenius)
culture itself rather than the results of modeled of clay may indicate the existence
changes introduced by intrusive foreign in this early settlement of a fetishistic
elements. Throughout we find a settled, animal cult and is significant in view of
semi-urban population dependent for their the persistence and widespread popularity
livelihood to approximately equal degrees of bull-gods in the religion of the dynastic
on agriculture, stock-breeding, hunting, Egyptians, especially the northern
and fishing. Though the community as a Egyptians. The sistrums or rattles used
whole may have participated in a primitive extensively in the religious rites of historic
form of land irrigation-this being known Egypt may also have had their fore-
in some parts of the world to have runners in the crude pottery rattles of the
antedated agriculture itself-the crops of Merimdians. The concept of protective
emmer and other food-plants were magic inherent in two of the amulets
evidently neither the products nor the worn by the people of Merimda is direct
property of the community, as was and uncomplicated, the amulets in question
apparently the case in the Fayum, but having, quite simply, the forms of natural
were raised by the individual villagers and or artificial weapons of defense, in one
stored in private granaries adjoining their case the boar's tusk, in another the
respective houses. The long occupation of miniature axehead. The notions behind
the site suggests either that new plots of the pear- and palette-shaped pendants
arable land were from time to time were apparently more complex. Like
 oi.uchicago.edu

116 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

other ancient peoples among whom the from a common ancestor or combination
practice of settlement burial prevailed the of ancestors. Of the two the big settlement
Merimdians "lived in the closest associa- at Merimda seems the more advanced, its
tion with their dead," shared their meals pottery more evolved, its dependence on
with them, and evidently regarded them agriculture and stock farming more pro-
as still maintaining their old ties with their nounced, and its social organization of a
homes and families. They clearly believed higher order. The radiocarbon dates so far
in a life after death and naively pictured obtained for the two sites (pp. 92 and
that life as similar to man's earthly 102 suggest that it is also somewhat
existence. Like the houses of the living later in date than the Fayum A villages,
the graves of the dead are oval cavities with perhaps only its earliest stage
scooped out in the ground and like the reaching back into the period when these
living the dead were occasionally provided lakeside settlements were still flourishing.
with trinkets to wear, implements to use, At the same time, it shows no relationship
and with grains of wheat, the latter to whatsoever with the later B-group
serve either as food or as a symbolic culture of the Fayum and east Libyan
means of inducing the deceased's resurrec- areas. The important fact which emerges
tion. Within the settlement the potters from a study of the Fayum A and Merimda
and stone-knappers, the carvers of wood, settlements is that, despite the differences
bone, horn, and ivory, the jewelers and which exist between them, they are clearly
lapidaries, the leatherworkers and basket- parts of a single cultural complex charac-
makers, and the spinners and weavers of teristic of and local to northern Egypt
cloth, supported now by the excess of and distinct from the earliest groups of
food and other commodities produced by post-Paleolithic cultures of Upper Egypt,
the farmers, the hunters, and the fishermen, the distinction extending apparently to the
practiced their crafts with ever growing races and physical characteristics of the
skill, some of the materials which they populations of the two parts of the country
used -Red Sea shells and crystalline as well as to their material culture.
stones from the Eastern Desert and the
Libyan massifs-having been acquired, 5. EL-OMARI: ITS SETTLEMENTS
AND CEMETERIES
probably through trade, from sometimes
fairly remote regions. The relatively Two subsequent stages of the same
advanced stage of civilization attained by general northern Egyptian cultural
these west Delta villagers is further development belong a series of prehistoric
attested by their elaborate and systematic villages and cemeteries clustered in and
arrangements for the storage of their around the mouth of the Wadi Hof, some
household provisions, which, according to two miles north of Helwan and four and a
their types and natures, were consigned, half miles to the east of the Nile, opposite
respectively, to baskets, subterranean Abusir. The site, now part of the low
granaries, mud-lined storage bins, and desert at the foot of the Gebel Tura, on
large pottery pithoi. the eastern edge of the Nile Valley, is
The many analogies already noted generally known as El-Omari, in memory of
between the Merimdian and the Fayum Amin el Omari, a young Egyptian
A cultures leave little room for doubt that mineralogist who in the spring of 1924
they are closely related one to another conducted investigations there with the
and are without much question descended aid and advice of the veteran prehistorian,
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 117

Pere Bovier-Lapierre. During the winter there are also the remains of little walls of
of 1925, following the death of his protege, dried earth. The hearths or fire holes,
excavations were undertaken at El-Omari usually in the centres of the huts, are small
by Bovier-Lapierre himself on behalf of rounded depressions blackened by fire and
the Egyptian Service des Antiquits, and usually containing or surrounded by
were resumed in 1943-1944, 1948, and pottery vessels, potsherds, stone imple-
1952 under the direction of Fernand ments, mills, and grinders, broken and
Debono. By and large, however, the charred animal bones, eggshells, mollusk
prehistoric remains of El-Omari have not shells, and other household litter. A
been as thoroughly explored nor as difference in the lower and upper fill of the
extensively published as those of the dwelling and storage pits-the former a
Fayum and Merimda, and there is much yellowish detritus, the latter a blackish
about the site which still remains obscure, fill-points to two successive periods of
especially as regards the dating and occupation, separated by an interval
interrelationships of the various settle- when the momentarily abandoned huts
ments. and silos were used as dumps before being
What would appear to be the earliest recut and re-occupied. Since, however,
of these-its beginnings perhaps con- no change is discernible in the stone
temporaneous with the final stage of the implements of the two layers, they
Merimdian culture-occupies a gravel probably reflect some purely internal
terrace which slopes downward from the upheaval or development through which
south to join the southwest corner of the the settlement passed during its evidently
estuary of the Wadi Hof near the' rocky long period of occupation.
spur known as the Ras el-Hof. Here, over The implements in question, made
a "very large" area, are scattered the chiefly of flint, include many of the
sunken bottoms of more than a hundred bifacially worked forms with which we
circular huts as well as the remains of have become familiar in the Fayum A and
numerous oval dwellings constructed of Merimda settlements-the flaked axe-
posts and wickerwork on the surface of the head with ground cutting edge, the fully
ground. The circular hut-bottoms not polished axehead (including an example
infrequently cut into one another, the in serpentine), the serrated sickle flint,
shallower examples sometimes providing the concave-based and triangular arrow-
access to deeper ones. They are lined with head and lancehead, and a few ex-
thick, clay-covered matting reinforced on amples of the rare tanged arrowhead.
the inside with cords and occasionally On the other hand, the production of
plastered against the remains of the wooden flake and blade tools-knives of a new
posts which supported the superstructures form with curved and blunted backs and
of the huts. Similar, but smaller pits, also well developed tangs, saws, unifacial
lined with matting or containing, as at sickle flints, piercers, scrapers, and re-
Metimda and in the Fayum, clay-daubed touched blades of miscellaneous types-is
baskets, were used as granaries or far more extensive than at Merimda and
magazines for provisions. Some of these foreshadows the stone industry of the
were cut not in the yellow pebbly surface still later settlement at Maadi, a few miles
of the terrace but in the adjoining rock. to the north, where the blade element
Larger spaces were inclosed with reed almost entirely replaced the old bifacial
fences, like the present-day zeribas, and technique. The presence of cores, flakes,
 oi.uchicago.edu

118 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

hammerstones, and polishers in the debris "evolved character" in monochrome red,

from the hut circles indicates that the brown, or black ware, both fine and coarse,
manufacture of stone implements was with surface finishes ranging from coarse
carried out in the dwellings themselves. through smoothed and polished to lustrous.
The principal stone-knappers' atelier The red pottery seems to have been the
seems, however, to have been located on preferred ware and the favorite forms
the outskirts of the settlement, where were the straight-sided "flower-pot" with
Bovier-Lapierre found large quantities of everted rim and the globular flask; but
globular, discoid, and elongated hammer- Debono records at least seventeen different
stones of flint and fossil wood together types of vessels, including narrow-mouthed
with "innumerable" flint flakes and cores. vases, ovoid vases, goblets, cylindrical
The hand mills or saddle querns found in containers, pans with flaring or concave
the settlement are mostly of quartzite sides, conical vases, bowls and vases
(from the subsequently famous quarries supported on two or three feet, pots with
at Gebel el-Ahmar?), the grinders which lug handles, large pithoi or storage jars,
accompany them usually of petrified and coarse vessels of a variety of shapes.
wood, which is abundant in this region of As evidence for a relatively low dating
the old Oligocene delta of the Nile. "Nodule- Baumgartel has drawn attention to parallel
picks" of Merimdian type, made of striations which occur on the interiors of
indurated limestone, were probably used some of the pots and which suggest that
for excavating the hut-bottoms, and they were turned, or rotated, in the process
longitudinally grooved ovoid weights of of manufacture, though not necessarily on
the same material and of a by now familiar a potter's wheel. Despite some rather
form were evidently sinkers for fishing marked differences the pottery of El-
nets. In bone there are piercers, punches, Omari bears a general resemblance in its
awls, knife-like blades, and needles with wares and in some of its forms-notably,
eyes; and in shell and horn a number of the coarse pithoi, the cook-pots with lug
finely made fishhooks. handles, and the footed vases and bowls-
The spinning and weaving of cloth is to that of Merimda and to that of the later
attested to not only by a number of stone prehistoric settlement at Maadi. On the
spindle whorls, but also by the presence in other hand, it exhibits no relationship
the settlement of actual pieces of linen whatsoever with the pottery of Tasa,
cloth up to a foot in length, of both coarse Badari, Naqada, and the other Pre-
and fine weave. Finely worked baskets of dynastic sites of Upper Egypt, being
a type and quality comparable to those clearly, and in spite of its somewhat
of the pharaonic era were produced at El- disconcerting individuality, a product of
Omari as were also cords and strings the northern zone of Egyptian culture.
exceeding five feet in length and mats of Notable is the complete absence of
various kinds, used for lining hut and silo decorated pottery.
walls and for wrapping the bodies of the Besides their pottery vessels the people
dead. Evidence for leatherworking includes of El - Omari used ostrich eggshells as
bits of animal skins found in the graves containers and even as cook-pots, and
and a complete skin two and half feet long mollusk shells, especially those of Unio
recovered from the bottom of a hut. and Spatha, as scoops and receptacles.
Dwellings and graves alike yielded Stone vessels are represented by the
pottery vessels of good quality and fragment of a single basalt vase, thought
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 119

to have been imported from elsewhere, Fruits eaten by the inhabitants of the
and a few fragments of calcite of uncertain town included sycamore figs and dates
date. (Phoenix dactylifera L.), and flowers placed
In contrast to the inhabitants of in one of the graves have been identified
Merimda and the Fayum the Omarians by Vivi Tiackholm and Elhamy Greiss as
were well provided with primitive jewelry Pulicaria undulata Kostel. A pod of flax
and other items of personal adornment. (Linum usitatissimum L.) suggests a
Pendants and necklace elements were positive identification of the fibres used
made of gastropod shells, imported from locally in the spinning and weaving of
the Red Sea coast and pierced for stringing, cloth. Stalks of a type of wild sugar cane
of ostrich eggshell, animal bone, and the (Saccharum spontaneum L.) appear to be
spines of fish, and of mother-of-pearl and the earliest examples of this plant recorded
various hard, ornamental stones, some of in Egypt. The specimens of wood found
the last-named evidently brought from are chiefly tamarisk (Tamarix sp.).
afar. Fossil nummulites were sometimes Among the animals hunted or kept by
perforated and worn as pendants. Bits of the inhabitants of El-Omari were the pig,
ochre found in and among the huts had hippopotamus, crocodile, snail, ostrich,
apparently been used for cosmetic purposes duck(?), antelope, goat, and a type of
as well as for coloring the red and brown bovide, the last two probably domesticated.
pottery vases. Also recognized were the bones of a
Aside from their sickle flints, mills, and canide or dog-like animal. Fish bones are
grinders the agricultural activities of the abund include those of the claria
people of El- Omari and the important and the synodont, or lizard-fish.
role played by cereal grains in their daily Of the ties which exist between the
diet is reflected by the presence in the earliest culture of El=Omari and that of
dwellings, granaries, and other areas of Merimda none is more significant or more
the settlement not only of copious amounts striking than the custom common to
of grains and ears of wheat and barley, both-and to no other Egyptian group
but also of a cake made of crushed wheat now known-of burying the dead within
grains and bits of wheat and barley bread. the confines of the settlement itself. At
The wheat here is emmer (Triticum the Omarian village below the Ras el-Hof
dicoccum), as on most other Egyptian sites the burials were made in the huts or near
including Merimda and the Fayum, but them, in some instances in adjoining silos
Club wheat (Triticum compactum or one or magazines. Graves belonging to the
of its varieties), hitherto unrecorded in earlier of the two successive periods of
the Near East before the mid-second occupation were sometimes cut into by
millennium s.c. and in Egypt before subsequently excavated provision cellars
Greco-Roman times, also occurs. The or pierced by the posts of huts built on
common, lax-eared barley of El- Omari the surface above. Most of the graves are
(Hordeum vulgare L.) is of a different and simple rounded cavities in the ground,
more evolved form than that found in the but one grave, discovered in 1948, had its
silos of the Fayum A settlements, which, walls revetted with rough blocks of stone.
as we have seen, is of the six-rowed type In burial, the body, wrapped in a mat, an
(Hordeumhexastichum). Grains of a fodder- animal's skin, or a coarse fabric or pro-
vetch (Vicia sativa L.) similar to that tected by a mat spread above it on tree
known at Merimda occur at El -Omari. branches, was regularly placed on its left
 oi.uchicago.edu

120 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

side in contracted position with the head brain capacity far above the average of
in almost every case to the south and the the prehistoric Egyptian."
face directed to the west. This rule, which Although no trace of copper or other
was not followed at Merimda, is, metallic substance has been found in the
interestingly enough, generally adhered settlement near the Ras el-Hof there is
to in the Predynastic cemeteries of Upper every probability that this town was
Egypt and may reflect the intrusion at partly contemporaneous with and certainly
this time into northern Egypt of influences not earlier than the Naqada I cemeteries
from the south. Almost every grave and settlements of Upper Egypt, where,
contained a single pottery jar of common in addition to a highly developed stone-
household type placed before the deceased tool industry, small implements and
and in one case the bouquet of flowers ornaments of copper were being fashioned
referred to above had been laid on the from hammered sheets of the native metal.
breast of the dead person, while in another Possibly because in the southern portions
a small clay box had been placed behind of the Eastern Desert deposits of native
the head of its late owner. copper lay nearer to hand than in the
The skeleton of what has been thought north the material culture of Upper
to be a local ruler was found holding in its Egypt was, then, already in what is
hand a well made wooden staff or scepter, generally called the Chalcolithic or Copper-
some fourteen inches long, carved at both and-Stone Age; and it is to this period
ends, one of the latter being pointed, the that the earliest culture of El-Omari must
other flat. This so-called "baton of be assigned, even though the village itself
command" has been compared with the might still reasonably be classed as
ames-staff carried by Egyptian kings and Neolithic. A radiocarbon date of 3305 + 230
gods from early historic times and perhaps B.c., derived from a sample of charcoal
of prehistoric ancestry and has suggested found on a hut floor in the Ras el -Hof
to Childe the rather far-fetched notion settlement, would appear, from the com-
that one of the line of Omarian chieftains parative archeological evidence available,
may have become King of Lower Egypt. to be several centuries too low.
On the evidence of their skeletons the On the northern side of the entrance of
people of El-Omari belonged to a relatively the Wadi el-Hof, more than three hundred
tall, sturdily built, mesocephalic race, feet up, on one of the highest terraces of
related on the one hand to the Merimdians the Gebel Hof, lie the remains of a second
and on the other hand to the so-called early Omarian village, evidently roughly
Lower Egyptian, or "Giza," type of contemporaneous with the larger settle-
Dynastic times, of which, indeed, they, ment to the south and quite clearly
together with "other primeval inhabitants forming part of the same cultural ensemble.
of the Delta," appear to have been the Here also, even on this lofty plateau, the
ancestors. One of their skulls, which could dead are buried in the village itself, their
be accurately measured, has a length of bones being frequently found washed out
190 millimetres, a breadth of 145 milli- of the soil by mountain torrents. As in the
metres, a height of 138.5 millimetres, and first settlement the stone industry exhibits
a cephalic index of 76.3, surpassing in its not only such bifacially worked forms as
measurements most of the Giza skulls of the polished axehead, the hollow-based
the Fourth Dynasty and pointing, and triangular arrowhead, the larger lance
according to Dr. Douglas Derry, "to a or javelin head, and the toothed sickle-
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 121

flint or saw, but also blade-tools (knives, complex at Maadi. The pottery, on the
unifacial sickle blades, saws, and narrow other hand, seems related to and is perhaps
blades) and implements fashioned out of descended from that of the Ras el-Hof and
irregularly shaped flakes. Cores and Gebel Hof settlements.
hammerstones abound in the atelier areas, The cemeteries associated with this
and millstones with grinders as well as village lie to the west and south of the
samples of the cereal grains milled on them settlement proper. They are characterized
occur among the rubbish in the dwellings. by graves surmounted by roughly circular
Pottery of at least two of the types known tumuli of stones under which the dead
in the larger settlement are found, and lie buried in shallow pits in crouched
Nerita shells from the Red Sea, perforated position with the hands before the face
for stringing in necklaces, bracelets, or, but without, apparently, any standard
as at Shaheinab in the Sudan, in girdles. orientation as regards the points of the
Despite its strange location the existence compass. The bodies, which include those
in the Gebel Hof village of what appear to of both adults and children (sometimes
have been graves suggests a fairly long buried together in the same graves) seem
period of habitation, facilitated, pre- to have been wrapped in cloth or in plaited
sumably, by the presence in the immediate straw mats and are at times accompanied
vicinity of two natural cisterns, or rain- by a pottery jar and, more rarely, by
catching basins, one to the west, in the snail or mussel shells, small flint blades,
Wadi Rayan, the other on the east, in the necklace beads of agate, and bits of
Wadi Rahana. Thanks to occasional charcoal and a "brown organic matter."
winter rains, which must have been more The skulls of the people buried in one
frequent in prehistoric times, the latter cemetery have been described as dolico-
still contains water throughout the greater cephalic, while those in another "seemed
part of the year. brachycephalic"; but since none was in a
Distinct from and apparently later in condition to permit of accurate measure-
date than the two settlements just ment, such observations are of relatively
described are a small village and one or little value. Hearths and small circles of
more adjoining, but separate, cemeteries stones ("miniature cromlechs") scattered
discovered by Bovier-Lapierre in a branch among the grave tumuli were undoubtedly
of the estuary of the Wadi el-Hof. Of the associated with meals or offerings shared
village little now remains except traces by the living with the dead and with
of huts in the form of small round post- or ceremonies performed in the latter's
pot-holes and some larger cavities taken behalf.
to be magazines for provisions, filled in Thus, during the late Neolithic and
both cases with a blackish deposit con- Chalcolithic phases of Egyptian prehistory
taining flint flakes, a few potsherds, bits we find the gravel terraces in and around
of cords or mats, and carbonated grains of the mouth of the Wadi Hof occupied by
wheat and barley. The stone industry two distinct and probably successive
here is comprised exclusively of small groups of settlers, both of whom raised
blade-tools-knives, flat and rounded wheat and barley, lived in circular huts of
scrapers, and chisel-shaped arrowheads- light construction, and continued to make
which differ markedly not only from those their tools and weapons exclusively of
of the earlier Omarian settlements, but stone, wood, bone, and shell, ignoring ap-
also from those of the later prehistoric parently the contemporaneous production
 oi.uchicago.edu

122 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYT

in Upper Egypt of implements of beaten a not inconsiderable role in the life of this
copper. Though both groups display mark- most easterly of all the prehistoric sites of
edly individual, local characteristics, what northern Egypt.
appears to have been the earlier of the
two shows also certain clear relation- 6. MAADI, WADI DIGLA, HELIOPOLIS,
AND QASR QARUN
ships with the West Delta culture of
Merimda, the most cogent of which is the Four miles northwest of El-Omari, six
practice, common in Egypt to these two miles south of Cairo, and a few hundred
sites alone, of burying the dead in or yards east of the modern suburban
among the dwellings of the living. By community of Maadi lies a low desert
contrast, the people of the second Omarian ridge, about a mile in length from west to
group, or what is sometimes called the east and one hundred and thirty yards in
Omari (or Helwan) B culture, follow the width from north to south, which extends
custom, current already in the Fayum and eastward into the mouth of the Wadi el-
throughout Upper Egypt, of burial in Tih and separates the latter from its
cemeteries separated by some distance smaller southern subsidiary, the Wadi
from the areas of habitation. The period Tura. Here have been found the remains of
during which this people flourished is a a sprawling town of oval huts, rectangular
matter of extreme uncertainty; but if, as houses, and subterranean shelters and
seems likely, they did indeed supersede magazines, which appears to have been
the Omari A settlers, their occupation of founded in late Predynastic (Naqada
the site would date, at the earliest, from II-III) times but which evidently con-
the end of the Naqada I or the beginning tinued to flourish well into the proto-
of the Naqada II phase in Upper Egypt historic, or Early Dynastic, period. The
(ca. 3600 B.c.). The many points of position of the town, at the mouth of the
difference between their culture and that principal wadi leading eastward to the
of the late prehistoric and protohistoric rich copper deposits of Gebel Ataqa and
settlement at Maadi, only a few miles to Sinai and the large amounts of worked
the northwest, suggests a terminus ad and unworked copper found within its
quem for them well before the rise of the confines has suggested to Dr. Baumgartel
first historic dynasty (3100 B.C.). that "a budding copper industry caused
Though, with Kaiser and others, we by the first exploitation of the Sinai mines
may recognize the cultures of El-Omari, could well have been the reason for Madi's
together with those of Merimda and the existence." Be that as it may, it is clear
Fayum, as basically "African" in origin that the population of this great settlement
and character, the position of the site on included farmers and stockbreeders as well
the edge of the Eastern Desert not two as metal workers and that the cultivation
hundred miles from the Palestinian border of wheat and barley and the raising of pigs,
is a factor not entirely to be overlooked. beef-cattle, sheep, and goats were among
The predilection for blade-tools, the burial its essential activities. Hunting and fishing
of the dead among the dwellings of the seem, on the other hand, to have been
living, and perhaps also the presence of relatively unimportant and to have contri-
grains of Club wheat, otherwise first known buted less to the livelihood of the ancient
in the Near East in Anatolia, Syria, and Maadians than was the case with Egypt's
Palestine, suggest, in any case, that earlier prehistoric peoples. Arrowheads,
influences from the north and east played fishhooks, and net-weights are extremely
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 123

rare, and the scanty remains of wild game length from north to south and ten feet
recovered in the area of the town are wide, was provided, near the south end of
confined to the ibex and to such purely its long eastern side, with a doorway,
riverain species as the hippopotamus, the protected from the prevailing northerly
beaver(?), turtles, fish, and freshwater winds by a wind-screen. Its walls, springing
mollusks. from shallow, mud-filled trenches, appear
The houses and shelters of Maadi are to have been of reeds and straw supported
concentrated chiefly in the central section on wooden posts. The structure contained
of the 45-acre site, with the silos, provision no hearth but had a cruciform partition
cellars, and huge, buried store-jars distri- just inside the doorway, a circular pit
buted for the most part around its two feet deep near the east wall, and a
periphery, the arrangement calling to rectangular pit outside the entrance.
mind the segregated granary areas Another rectangular building, of which
associated with the Fayum A-group little more than one corner was preserved,
settlements (§2). Of the dwellings the most seems to have been built of logs, laid
prevalent type is the oval hut or horseshoe- horizontally, and to have been partitioned
shaped windbreak constructed of stout on the interior. Several large cave-like
tamarisk posts driven deep into the virgin subterranean chambers, dug in the compact
soil and supporting walls made of inter- sandy soil to depths of between six and
woven tree branches plastered over with eight feet, are roughly circular, oval, or
Nile clay. The bottoms of the posts had rectangular in plan with their walls,
been neatly pointed, evidently with a either vertical or sloping inward toward a
metal axe or adze, but most of them still domed(?) roof, covered with matting or,
retain their bark and the projecting stubs in one case, revetted with boulders and
of untrimmed branches. The hearths, large blocks of mud. They were entered
usually placed near the centers of the by means of steps, cut in the soil and
shelters or just inside their entranceways, sometimes faced with flat stones, and
are shallow circular or rectangular cavities contained fire-pits or hearths, and holes
in the ground, frequently surrounded by for the posts which in some cases supported
stones and sometimes lined with fired or the roofs. Such subterranean dwellings are
unfired clay, one hearth, in fact, consisting unknown elsewhere in Egypt but are well
of the bottom of a large pottery jar attested in Palestine, notably at Bir Abu
embedded in the earth. Big store-jars Matar, Bir el- Safadi, and other sites near
buried in the ground up to their mouths, Beersheba. Fragments of rectangular sun-
small storage-pits, and clay-lined pot-holes dried mud bricks could not be associated
and "mortars" were occasionally found with any of the structures described above.
inside or closely associated with the huts. The remains of stout post fences, or
The oval house or shelter evidently con- palisades, and of long narrow ditches may
tinued to be constructed during the entire have formed part of the town's primitive
long occupation of the site, the remains defenses against enemy attack--defenses
of several being found in the upper- which apparently proved futile, for layers
most levels of the six-foot-deep town of ashes, scattered human bones, and the
debris and one example having been built scarcity on the site of copper tools and
over the ruins of a rectangular structure- weapons and other articles of value suggest
house or courtyard-of more advanced that the town was sacked and burned at
type. The latter, some seventeen feet in least once in the course of its history.
 oi.uchicago.edu

124 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOIX)LITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

A very large circular fireplace has been are of coarse brick-red, reddish brown,
identified by the excavators of the site as grey, or black, or solid black ware, with
a pottery kiln and some long rectangular surfaces carefully burnished or covered
pits are supposed to have been provided with a dull red or whitish wash, the larger
for vertical looms, a device, however, examples being made up of superimposed
which appears not to have been introduced cylinders of clay joined together. One such
into Egypt until the New Kingdom. Small jar has a drawing of a crocodile scratched
holes with clay-lined walls and bottoms on its shoulder and a round hole in its
consolidated by pebbles and potsherds may bottom. On this rather slender evidence,
well have been mortars for crushing fruit it has been identified as an offering or
and other foodstuffs, while similar holes, libation vase used in the cult of a local
not so reinforced, were evidently for crocodile god. A nearly cylindrical barrel-
supporting pots with rounded or pointed shaped pithos has a moulded rim and,
bottoms. The storage cellars, concentrated around its shoulder below the rim, a row
in the southern sector of the site, are of rounded lug-handles pierced to receive
circular pits, three to six feet deep, with a stout cord or rope. Coated with a shiny
sloping or vertical sides, sometimes lined red slip, it is unique at Maadi, but finds a
with mud or showing traces of basketwork. faint parallel in the Early Dynastic
Their bottoms are not infrequently pro- cemetery of nearby Tura. The contents of
vided with one or more pot-holes and their these great jars was generally similar to
rims are occasionally rebated to take a lid that of the cellar-holes, including, besides
or cover of some sort. Some of the cellars large quantities of grain (emmer and
are connected with one another in series. barley), the bones of animals and fish,
Their contents included black soil, shells, cooked mutton, masses of a brownish
carbonized grain, animal and fish bones, resinous substance, flint implements,
flint implements, spindle whorls, potsherds, spindle whorls, small vases, and jar-
and groups of as many as six to twelve stoppers of Nile mud, pottery, and wood.
complete pottery jars. In one deep cellar- Among the last-named are a pottery disk
hole, sunk in the virgin soil and covered pierced with holes near its edges and a
with a stone slab, were found seven well carefully made domical cover of wood,
made basalt vases, an alabaster vase, a hollowed and rebated on its underside and
jar of grey limestone, and twenty-two provided with holes for lashing it in place.
beads of carnelian and "a whitish Besides the big store-jars pottery vessels
material." Another storage pit contained and potsherds were recovered in vast
some twenty large lumps of asphalt, or numbers from the cellars, huts, and
bitumen, of a type known chiefly from general debris of the settlement at Maadi.
Syria and Palestine. As elsewhere in Lower Egypt at this early
A second storage area, in this case given period the pottery is for the most part
over chiefly to rows of huge pottery monochrome. Most characteristic are a
store-jars or pithoi, buried up to their smooth red ware, a polished black ware,
mouths in the sandy soil, occupied the and a mixed red-and-black pottery which
northern fringe of the settlement. The resulted apparently from the uneven
jars, three to four feet in height and two firing of the black ware. In the first of
to three feet in diameter, are usually these wares there are slender ovoid jars
cordiform with broad shoulders and with moulded rims and "ring-bases" of a
bottoms tapering to rounded points. They type which survived at Tura and elsewhere
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 125

into Early Dynastic times, ovate pots of of incised ornament-gouges, slashes, dots,
various proportions with flat, rounded, triangular imprints, cross-hatching, and
pointed, and "knobbed" bases, deep and branch and herringbone patterns. Painted
wide-mouthed bowls, and conical cups decoration in light or dull brownish red on
with moulded rims, thought at Tura to a pinkish yellow or whitish slip occurs on
have been jarlids, but often containing, numerous sherds and one or two nearly
at Maadi, a cosmetic composed of pigment complete vessels from Maadi. The designs,
mixed with a fatty substance. Some of elementary in concept and crudely
these forms occur also in the polished executed, consist largely of rough net or
black pottery together with globular pots scale patterns, palm-leaf patterns, dots,
and bottles, broad ovate vases with crosses, curved strokes, straight lines, and
pointed bottoms, cylindrical situlae, and parts of what have been thought-some-
conical bowls. We find, in addition, a what imaginatively-to be human figures.
highly polished fine red ware, the use of The frequently suggested association of
which was confined to little globular pots this pottery with the so-called "decorated"
with bands of incised decoration at the ware of the Naqada II culture of Upper
base of the neck, middle-sized wide- Egypt is, in fact, somewhat vague, though
mouthed bowls with narrow bases, small it may represent a late, debased, and much
double vases, and high ring-stands. Vases simplified form of that ware. Menghin and
of Syro-Palestinian types, including broad Vandier have compared it with the Thinite
"wavy-handled" jars, known also in the (Early Dynastic) vases called by Petrie
Gerzean (Naqada II) of Upper Egypt, Aegean and by Hall Syrian, Bonnet
ledge- and lug-handled jars, loop-handled believes it to have been "made in Egypt
cups, barrel-shaped pots, and squat, by a foreign tribe," and Childe notes that
flat-bottomed vases with imprinted decora- the painted sherds from Maadi "are as like
tion around the neck were imported Early Palestinian wares as Gerzean
into Maadi (as containers of oil, etc.) or Decorated vases."
produced there under western Asiatic For jar-lids the Maadians, like the
influence in a distinctive white or pink Merimdians before them, used potsherds,
clay, often with a whitish surface wash or trimmed to form rough disks, and some-
slip. Among a number of special and times the broken and inverted bases of
relatively rare types may be mentioned small pots. Pottery disks with a central
wide basins of coarse pottery resting on hole were probably spindle whorls and
high cylindrical feet, handled jars of deeply scored ringbases of ovoid jars were
yellowish pottery, spouted vases and apparently used as scrubbers or burnishers
bowls, squat carinated cosmetic pots in the manufacture of limestone vases.
containing powdered ochre, very small Crude sculpture in pottery is represented
ovoid and conical vases which may have by the heads of animals in red-on-white
been toys or models, vases made in the painted ware, perhaps broken away from
form of birds with the wings and tail vases and variously identified as camels,
clearly indicated, not unlike those found in donkeys, and birds, and by rough T-shaped
the Naqada II culture of the south, sherds figures of burnt clay which may have been
of black-topped red and brown vessels intended as bulls' heads or possibly as
which also suggest a contact with the female idols. Also found were a fragment
predynastic culture of Upper Egypt, and of a boat model in red pottery and the
sherds and complete vessels with a variety head of a human statuette of the same
 oi.uchicago.edu

126 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

material, described by its discoverer as and limestone, but rare elsewhere in Egypt,
"showing a racial type not uncommon, is known at Arpakhiya in Assyria and at
even in our own days, in the countries Erech in Sumer, where it has been assigned
lying north east of the Delta." to the Late Uruk-Jemdet Nasr phase. A
Stone vessels are more numerous at massive limestone goblet is less carefully
Maadi than on the earlier northern finished on the outside than its basalt
Egyptian sites and it is probable that their mates but is decorated on its exterior
number was at one time swelled by many surface with an incised vertical zigzag
other examples which, because of their pattern. It is solid except for a very shallow
durability and value, were either buried cavity in its top and was perhaps a ritual or
in the graves of their owners or were taken cult vessel used for pouring libations. Other
away by plunderers when the town was coarse limestone vessels, obviously manu-
sacked. The surviving vessels are chiefly factured at Maadi itself, include deep and
of basalt or limestone, with an occasional shallow circular bowls and dishes, a few
example or fragment in alabaster, granite, small cups, an oval dish, a boat-shaped
or diorite. They show considerable varia- vessel, and several heavy elliptical lime-
tion in their shapes, sizes, and workman- stone bowls, blackened with soot on the in-
ship. Finest are the polished basalt vessels, teriors and clearly to be identified as lamps,
which are thought not to have been the shape, according to Menghin, having
produced locally, but in the neighborhood been traditional since Upper Paleolithic
of the Fayum where outcrops of the hard times. Carinated cups, cylindrical cups,
light grey to black stone are found. with or without projecting rims, and a
Slender cylindrical and ovoid vases with number of very small conical vases are
flat rims, small ear-like handles, and made of a fine, translucent "limestone"
rounded, flat, or spreading conical bases, (or calcite?), their surfaces carefully
flat hemispherical bowls or goblets, also smoothed but not usually polished. A vase
with splayed conical feet, conical vases of grey limestone has the form of a pottery
with a broad flat rim, and small conical jar and was even tinted red to enhance the
cups ar
areamong the more common forms. illusion. Fragments of several large lime-
Childe and others have remarked that the stone mortars show that these massive
slender footed vases and the squat vessels were smoothed on the interior but
chalices go back, in Upper Egypt, to left rough on the outside. In a brief report
Naqada I, or "Amratian," times; but on the fifth season of excavations at
Baumgartel, while conceding a fairly Maadi (1935) mention is made of a
early origin for the vases, points out that "marvelous" vessel of "Libyan" type
they continued to be produced in Egypt made of gneiss with rose and dark green
during the early historic period and even crystals. Several vases show in their
down into the reign of King Menkaure interiors the marks left by a rotary boring
(Mycerinus) of the Fourth Dynasty. The tool, while the asymmetry and crudeness
conical cup and the wide-brimmed conical of others testify to the ineptitude of the
vase, in both cases, according to Baum- early stoneworkers.
gartel, of protodynastic date, have been In contrast to the stone-tool industries
found, respectively at Badari in Middle of the earlier northern Egyptian settle-
Egypt and at Mersa Matruh, west of ments, where bifacially worked implements
Alexandria; the squat chalice, or "egg- predominate, that of Maadi is primarily
cup," occurring at Maadi in both basalt a flake and blade industry related to
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 127

those of western Asia, the few bifacial of cores suggests that the principal atelier
tools found on the site-tanged arrow- was elsewhere. Aside from the pebbles of
heads, "fishtail" and other lanceheads, Nile-gravel flint and the slabs of mined
saws, sickle flints, and one polished stone tabular flint the materials used by the
axehead-being perhaps imports from Maadian implement makers included, on
the south or west. Despite the Maadians' rare occasions, quartzite and rock crystal.
evident familiarity with the smelting and Stone axeheads, with the single exception
working of copper their flint implements noted above, are unknown at Maadi, this
number well up into the thousands, but implement now being made almost
show, as we should expect in so late a exclusively of copper. Only two maceheads
stone industry, relatively little variety in have been recovered from the site, one
their types and techniques. Oval and piano-convex in form and made of granite,
fan-shaped scrapers made of thin slabs the other a conical head of dolerite.
of tabular grey flint with the cortex left Though the beautifully worked fish-tail
on and closely resembling those found at lanceheads, the fine twisted blades, and
Teleilat Ghassul in Transjordania and some of the other forms which crop up
Byblos (II) on the Syrian coast are among occasionally at Maadi go back in Upper
the more characteristic forms, which Egypt to early Naqada times the industry
include also scrapers of other types as a whole has a late and somewhat
(convex, keel-shaped, ribbed, double, decadent character, its traditions, as Miss
etc.), knives with retouched edges, and Caton-Thompson, Dr. Baumgartel, and
fine and coarse awls and punches. A others have pointed out, being more
peculiarity of the Maadian flake tools is closely allied to those of the Early Dynastic,
that the bulb of precussion-that is, or Protodynastic, period than to those of
the point from which the flake was struck the earlier Fayum and West Delta cultures.
off-is regularly at the thin, narrow end The stone mills or querns of Maadi differ
of the tool, making the achievement of a in no essential respect from those met
good point difficult. The characteristic with on the other prehistoric and early
sickle flint is a unifacial sharp-edged blade historic sites of northern Egypt and
without teeth. True burins, microburins, adjoining areas. They are heavy oval slabs
trihedral "rods," and what Petrie has of sandstone or quartzite with slightly
called "three-faced twisted blades" are concave, or hollowed-out, upper surfaces
also represented. Coarse wedges, choppers, on which were ground the cereal grains
scrapers, and borers bearing a superficial which formed a staple item of the towns-
resemblance to the rough tools of Lower people's diet. Some of the smaller examples
Paleolithic times occur in some quantity were evidently used for pulverizing the
in the layers of the settlement debris and ochre from which was produced the much-
show the same patination as the other admired red pigments and cosmetics, the
Maadian stone implements, with which latter employed, as we have seen, for
they are clearly contemporaneous. Natural magical as well as decorative purposes.
flint pebbles, much battered and evidently Cosmetic palettes of yellow limestone
employed as hammerstones, and slender with beveled edges and burnished upper
retouching tools of flint with round or surfaces are usually square, rectangular,
polygonal cross-sections indicate that a or irregular in outline. They carry traces
certain amount of stone-knapping was not only of red, but also of green and
done in the town itself; but the scarcity black pigments and the surfaces of some
 oi.uchicago.edu

128 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

are worn and hollowed from prolonged blades of oxen or other large animals, and
use. Thin ovoid slabs of grey flint with smaller, tongue-shaped palettes used per-
finely chipped edges have been classed by haps as pigment rubbers or spatulae. An
some modern writers as palettes but are elongated bone point of somewhat irregular
probably large scrapers of the Maadian- form has been tentatively identified as an
Ghassulian type referred to in the preced- arrowhead, and a small conical object with
ing paragraph. The presence in the town a cylindrical base as a playing piece for a
ruins at Maadi of fragments of a number game. Sections of small tubular bones,
of elongated rectangular and rhomboidal either left cylindrical or cut to prismatic
cosmetic palettes of slate characteristic of forms and carefully polished, were strung
the Naqada cultures (Amratian and together and worn as beads.
Gerzean) of Upper Egypt forms, with the In wood there are, besides a number of
fish-tail lanceheads and the black-topped handles for bone and copper punches and
pottery fragments, yet another tie with the the domical jar-cover mentioned above,
southern predynastic group. Spherical and a crude, short-handled spoon or ladle, a
hemispherical polishers of red and white fragmentary bent club or throwstick, a
quartzite and limestone were evidently hardwood point thought to be an awl but
used for burnishing the rounded and flat identical in form with an Early Dynastic
surfaces of vessels, boxes, and other manu- arrowhead from Abydos, part of a carefully
factured articles, and grooved sandstone carved or beaded staff, some wooden
hones for sharpening and polishing bone plates "of fine workmanship," wooden
implements. Small pierced discs and balls beads, and several short rods of an aro-
of limestone have been identified as matic cedar-like wood, charred at one end
spindle whorls or net-weights; and burnt, and perhaps used as incense.
fiat stones found in or near the hearths as A single comb, carved of ox-horn, is
pot-boilers or fire-dogs. Mention must also unfortunately so badly preserved that the
be made of a rather amorphous piece of length of its teeth must remain uncertain.
gypsum or baryte which has been thought The shells of river mussels trimmed around
to be the leg of a roughly sculptured stone the edges to serve as ladles or scoops are
statuette. among the rare examples, aside from
Implements and other objects made of jewelry, of the use of this material in the
bone, wood, and horn are less numerous at Maadi settlement.
Maadi than in the earlier settlements. Though, for any number of reasons-
Fine and coarse awls and punches, not pillage, evacuation, melting down for
unlike those found at Merimda, were still re-use, disintegration-tools and weapons
produced in some quantity from sections of copper have not survived in large
of split hollow bones, with the trochlea or numbers at Maadi the site has yielded
rounded joint-end of the bone often left in copious evidence that copper ore was
place to serve as a handle. One bone awl is imported and worked in some bulk and
provided with a wooden handle, evidently that locally a knowledge of smelting,
shaped with a metal cutting tool and bound casting, and other metallurgical processes
with strips of bast fibre. Another consists had advanced sufficiently for the produc-
of a wide, flat piece of bone with a thin, tion of a variety of metal implements, some
needle-like point projecting from one of its fairly large and complex in form. These
ends. There are also fragments of large included heavy rectangular and trape-
oval(?) bone palettes, made of the shoulder zoidal axeheads of copper with fine
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 129

cutting edges, chisels with rectangular important in their magico-religious beliefs

cross-sections, copper punches and awls as it was in their economy. Their dwelling
(one of the latter provided with a bone areas have also yielded fossil sharks'
handle), a copper fish-hook "of excellent teeth pierced for suspension and a few
workmanship," another type of hook, drop-shaped, wedge-shaped, and discoid
several needles and pins, and some sections pendants of limestone, translucent gypsum,
of copper wire. Aside from the more or less and a dark stone, some of the examples
well preserved tools and weapons patches being scarcely more than natural pebbles
of green oxide, the traces of copper objects drilled for stringing. Disk-, ring-, barrel-,
long since disintegrated, occurred with and ball-beads occur in various stones,
some frequency in the settlement debris. including gypsum, banded calcite, lime-
A copper axehead spoiled in casting and a stone, azurite, baryte, quartz, rock crystal,
number of copper ingots and masses of black stone, and carnelian, and there are
copper ore found on the site indicate that also beads of wood, tubular beads of bone
the metal was processed and the tools and limestone, and small, pierced disks of
manufactured in Maadi itself, and a piece ostrich eggshell. Among the river and sea
of pyrolusite or natural ore of manganese, shells perforated and worn as beads or
found with the copper ore, suggests that pendants by the Maadians are the spiral
western Sinai or its vicinity was the source Conus, the small scallop, Pectunculus, the
from which the ores were obtained. Here, spiny Murex, and several common mussel,
then, as Baumgartel points out, we have conch, and snail shells, chiefly of local
in all probability "the earliest evidence of origin. During the third season of excava-
interest in the Sinai Peninsula and its tions were found fragments of two bracelets
copper and turquoise mines." In view, or armbands, one carved of mussel shell,
however, of the scale on which metal tools the other of "red marble." The list sounds
and weapons were now being produced and impressive, but, with the exception of
used and the relatively high degree of true twenty-one carnelian and white stone
metallurgical knowledge implicit in their beads found together in a cache of valuable
production, a date for this particular objects, the types are represented by only
Maadian activity not earlier than the end one or two examples each, found during
of the Naqada II phase of Upper Egypt and twelve seasons of work widely scattered
more probably in very late Predynastic and over an extensive area. Red ochre for use
Early Dynastic times seems indicated. In as a cosmetic occurs throughout the site
this connection it is interesting to note, in lumps, in the form of a crayon or pencil,
with Baumgartel, that the flint axehead, as powder contained in a small pottery jar,
already replaced at Maadi by its copper as the pigment in a fatty cosmetic sub-
successor, is known to have survived on stance kept in little conical pottery cups,
other Egyptian sites well into the Dynastic and as smears or traces on the surfaces of
Period. cosmetic palettes and grinders. The lump of
Either through poverty or personal taste manganese ore referred to above may have
the people of Maadi seem to have con- served as a black eye cosmetic.
cerned themselves little with jewelry or That the people of Maadi were well
other forms of personal adornment. Like acquainted with the spinning and weaving
their predecessors at Merimda they wore as of textile fabrics is attested by the presence
amuletic pendants the tusks of the male in the settlement debris of pieces of linen
pig or boar, an animal apparently as cloth as well as spindle whorls of several
 oi.uchicago.edu

130 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

different types, including, besides the formed an important part of the towns-
already mentioned spherical and discoid people's diet. The cereal grains stored in
examples in limestone and pottery, thick, large quantities in the pithoi and provision
perforated disks of clay with rounded tops cellars and scattered liberally throughout
and slightly concave undersides. Strips of the settlement debris are without excep-
a bast fibre were used, as we have seen, to tion those of emmer wheat (Triticum
bind the handle of a bone awl and similar dicoccum) and six-row barley (Hordeum
strips of fibre were found tied together vulgare hexastichum). Seeds of the castor-
in a knot. A section of stout cord or oil plant (Ricinus communis), known
rope was made up of twisted strands of also to the Badarians of Upper Egypt, the
esparto or halfa grass (Stipa tenacissima remains of a seed- or fodder-vetch (Vicia
or Desmostachya). sativa L.) similar to that found at Merimda
Animal and plant remains recovered and of a bird-vetch, or field weed (Vicia
from the dwelling and storage areas of the cracca), not previously known in Egypt but
ancient town throw abundant light on its now found mixed with grains of emmer and
food supply and on the activities of its barley, complete the floral specimens from
inhabitants as stock farmers and agricul- Maadi which have so far been identified.
turists. Numerous bones of domestic Though burial in the settlement itself
animals show that beef-cattle, sheep, was not a normal practice with the people
goats, and, above all, swine were bred and of Maadi exceptions were made in the
eaten by the people of Maadi and that the cases of premature and newly born infants,
donkey, Egypt's most ancient and most which, as in Central Africa, Nubia, and a
common beast of burden, was known to few Egyptian villages of the present day,
them. A mass of black organic matter were buried under or near the dwellings of
found in a large pottery jar turned out, their parents, perhaps as a magical means
upon analysis, to be cooked animal flesh, of warding off future miscarriages and
probably mutton to judge from the nature stillbirths. The younger foetuses, aged
of the fatty portion. Of the local wild fauna five to six months (intra-uterine), were
the hippopotamus seems to have been the buried in pottery jars averaging about a
Maadian hunters' favorite quarry, and, as foot in height and usually of the familiar
at Merimda, the leg bones of this massive ovoid ring-base type made of smooth red
animal, evidently with the meat still on ware. A cordiform jar containing the
them, were set up in vertical position, skeleton of a foetus is interesting in having
braced by pairs of stones, at several places near its inverted base a pair of eye-holes
inside the town, where one can only suppose through which the deceased's gaze could
them to have been intended as trophies, be directed outwards-in this case toward
fetishes, or offerings to some deity or spirit the north, that being the direction toward
of the hunt. Also hunted, as we have had which the jar was turned. There can be
occasion to note, were the ibex and a little doubt that these small circular
large aquatic rodent, probably a beaver. openings form a true parallel to the so-
Turtles and fish were caught in the Nile, called "soul-holes" in prehistoric burials
the latter in great numbers, several and a predecessor of the pairs of great eyes
storejars containing literally hundreds of painted or carved on the sides of Egyptian
fish bones, including the fin-bones of the coffins and sarcophagi of the dynastic era.
sheat-fish. As in nearly every prehistoric The more developed foetuses, eight to
Egyptian settlement fresh-water shellfish nine months old from the time of concep-
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 131

tion, and the newborn babies, usually Our knowledge of the ancient town at
under a month old, were buried simply in Maadi suffers from erratic and inadequate
small pits or hollows in the virgin soil publication of the work conducted there,
below the town debris. By the third season including a lack of even preliminary reports
of work (1933) nineteen foetus burials had on the last six seasons of excavation. The
been found within the habitation area at same is true to an even greater degree of
Maadi and this number was evidently the associated cemeteries. There seem to
added to during the succeeding years. have been three of these in the general
In the course of the fifth season of excava- vicinity of the settlement.
tions (1935), in the western sector of the The first to be recorded was discovered in
settlement, the skeleton of a five-year-old 1925 by the R. P. Paul Bovier-Lapierre on
child, apparently a girl, was discovered a low plateau in the mouth of the Wadi el
squeezed into a pottery jar, surrounded by Tih, some two miles to the northeast of
smaller, provision jars and buried beneath the settlement, near the foot of the Gebel
the ruins of a rectangular structure, Moqattam. The graves here are shallow
presumably a house. circular or oval pits containing skeletons
An adult woman, perhaps the mother of in contracted position and occasionally a
one of the foetuses who died with it, was single pottery jar. Many are surmounted
also buried among the habitations of the by rectangular or cubical structures of
town. Her body was found lying in con- rough limestone slabs or blocks which have
tracted position in a hollow in the ground been described as "dolmens" and advanced
and covered by a huge inverted pottery as evidence of an early date for the cem-
bowl. The head of the deceased lay to the etery, but which Dr. Baumgartel compares
south with the face to the west. The body with the rough limestone-block super-
was accompanied by two pots, a limestone structures of the Early Dynastic middle-
cosmetic palette, and other grave furnish- class cemetery at Saqqara and the stone
ings. Described as larger, wider, "fuller," constructions found in the Early Dynastic
and more pentagonoid in form than those tombs at Ezbet el-Walda, near Helwan.
of the typical prehistoric inhabitants of The larger, rectangular tomb super-
Upper Egypt the woman's skull, like those structures at Wadi el- Tih are usually
of the child and two of the foetuses oriented east-west with the open end facing
mentioned above, is said to mark her as west, toward the Nile. One of them,
belonging to the so-called "Delta-people," perhaps marking the grave of a ruler or
or "northern race." chieftain, was surrounded by a circle of
The fragmentary skull bones-chiefly the smaller, cubical superstructures. A
mandibles-of some ten other adults, number of more modest graves were
found scattered in the settlement area, marked simply by lines of stones laid fiat
come possibly from graves in the area on the ground. The cemetery, which-
itself, but are more likely to have been possibly owing to faulty recording-is
dragged thither by jackals or other wild said to be poor in grave equipment, has
animals (one jaw-bone has been extensively been dated by its explorers to Middle
mauled), collected and worn by the Predynastic (Naqada II, or Gerzean)
Maadians as amulets (a known custom), times, but is probably, as Baumgartel has
or may be simply the remains of persons suggested, considerably later, perhaps of
killed in the fighting when the town early historic date.
was captured by an enemy. A second cemetery in the same general
 oi.uchicago.edu

132 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

area ("Maadi North"), but apparently to Lines of limestone blocks mark the eastern
the southwest of the town, "on the slope boundary of the cemetery and rim the
to the flood plain," is described as lying edges of some of the richer graves, and
"at the foot of the same terrace" on which burnt hearth-stones, brought presumably
the settlement was founded. It was ex- from the settlement, were placed under the
plored during the years 1942 and 1947 by heads of the deceased to serve as headrests.
members of the Egyptian University's The equipment buried with the dead in the
expedition and is referred to briefly by Wadi Digla is far richer than in the Maadi-
Ibrahim Rizkana and Mustafa Amer in North cemeteries, comprising not only
reports written, respectively, in 1952, and numerous pottery vessels of a variety of
in 1947 and 1953, and by Childe in the different types, but also an alabaster vase,
fourth edition of his New Light on the limestone, basalt, and slate cosmetic
Most Ancient East. Like those of the palettes, flint tools and weapons, Nile
Wadi el-Tih necropolis its graves, includ- shells (used for mixing pigments), combs,
ing that of a dog, are reported to be "very shell bracelets and necklaces, beads of
poor" in furnishings, only a few containing carnelian, "coloured stone," and bone, and
as much as a single pottery jar for food traces of malachite and manganese evi-
and drink. Rizkana implies, though he dently employed as pigments. It is inter-
does not actually state, that some of the esting and possibly significant that the
pots were of the tall ovoid base-ring type, cemetery yielded not a single object made
which, as we have seen, have been found of copper.
in Early Dynastic contexts at Tura and else- As in the settlement the pottery is
where. The "Maadi-North" graves, too, monochrome-smooth red and polished
have been dated by their finders to the Mid- black-the forms including the by-now
dle Predynastic period, but, again, there is familiar slender ovoid jars with ring-bases,
doubt that they were really that early. squat and elongated ovate vases with
Another cemetery, often referred to as rounded or flat bottoms, bottle-shaped
"Maadi South," lies on somewhat lower vessels with very narrow necks, globular
ground little more than half a mile to the jars with ear-handles (rare), very small
southeast of the settlement, on "a little cosmetic(?) vases, and an ovoid jar with
eminence" in the estuary of the Wadi two lines of imprinted decoration around
Digla. It was discovered in October 1951, the neck and three knobs between the
and was excavated for two seasons (1952 lines. A few of the vessels bear indecipher-
and 1953) by Amer and Rizkana on behalf able pot-marks, all different, and some
of the Egyptian University. Here over an were stoppered with conical cups or with
area of more than an acre were found four discoid lids of stone or pottery. Several
hundred and sixty-eight human graves pots found lying on the surface of the
and those of fourteen animals-thirteen ground, outside of the graves, may have
gazelles and a dog. The typical grave is a been brought thither as offerings by the
circular or oval hollow scooped out in the families of the deceased on the occasions
virgin soil in which, in the case of the of periodical "funerary banquets."
human burials, the dead, wrapped in a The stone implements of Maadi South
papyrus mat or an animal's skin, was are without exception flakes and blades
placed in contracted or semi-contracted showing the same technique and many of
posture with the head more often than not the same forms seen in the settlement.
to the south and the face to the east. Blades, knives, and scrapers of tabular
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COi MUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 133

flint predominate and there are also a few The last-named cemetery, discovered in
flakes with serrated edges. The slate 1950 and excavated from March 20th
cosmetic palettes are either trapezoidal onward of that year by Fernand Debono
with beveled edges or of the rhomboidal and others, lies near Cairo's well-known
type which we associate with the Naqada northeastern suburb, not far from the
cultures of Upper Egypt. racetrack of the Heliopolis Racing Club,
The skeletons of the men, women, and but at some distance from the site of the
infant children buried in this cemetery ancient city and cult center of On-
are in many cases well preserved, but no Heliopolis (modern Matariya), with which,
anthropological report concerning them is indeed, it may not have been associated.
as yet available. They are described in a The fifty graves excavated here occur in
brief resume on the site as being taller, three layers of gravel brought down by
more heavily built, and more prognathous ancient freshets from the Gebel el-Ahmar,
(more negroid?) than the people of Maadi and it would appear from this fact that the
North, sharing these characteristics with cemetery covered a considerable period of
the occupants of a cemetery near Helio- time. In almost every respect-types of
polis, to which we shall presently turn our graves and burials, physical characteristics
attention. of the people buried, pottery wares and
In the western sector of the Wadi Digla shapes, stone vessels, animal burials (four
cemetery lie the more poorly equipped of gazelles, five dogs)-it is so similar to the
the human burials and the fourteen animal cemetery of Maadi South (Wadi Digla)
burials referred to above. The latter were that la detailed description of the graves
provided with graves of their own and and their contents would be little more
half of them, including the dog and six of than a repetition of the contents of the
the gazelles, with food or drink contained immediately preceding paragraphs. We
in pottery jars. One at least of the gazelles, may note, however, the presence of a
however, had had its throat cut prior to number of new pottery types-ovoid,
burial, and it is probable that we have to globular, and drop-shaped jars with low
do here with household pets which the or high cylindrical necks- of an exception-
deceased wished to take with them into ally fine basalt vase with two small
the afterlife rather than, as has been handles, of a shell bracelet found in posi-
suggested, with sacred animals, in which tion on the wrist of a skeleton, and of a
dwelt the spirits of divinities. According Nile mollusk shell placed over the mouth
to a zo5logist, Dr. Shawki Moustafa, the of one of the deceased. It may be remarked
gazelles "belong to the Artiodactyl group of also that, whereas the dog burials were
Gazellinae, Coues, as suggested by the unaccompanied by offerings of any sort,
nature of the horn cores and the flattened the graves of the gazelles were "filled with
roof of the skull" and are probably of "the vases" and the animals themselves were
Asian and African Genus Gazella, Blain- oriented in death in the same manner as
ville." The remains of the dog have been their human companions, facing east with
identified by the same authority as "those their heads to the south. This orientation,
of the domesticated dog Canis Familiaris, in the direction of the rising sun, has been
specimens of which were discovered.., in thought to reflect the existence at Helio-
the Predynastic cemetery of Maadi [North] polis, in Late Predynastic times, of the
in 1947, as well as in the Predynastic solar religion of which the town was
cemetery of Heliopolis in 1950." shortly to emerge as one of the great
 oi.uchicago.edu

134 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

centers. It must, however, again be palaeolithic gravels" close to the shoreline

pointed out that the distance of the of the Neolithic lake, "covered an area of
cemetery from the site of the ancient city 120 by 100 ft." and consisted of a shallow
makes their association with one another at deposit "of black powdery sabakh," devoid
least dubious and that the same orienta- of any structural elements, but containing
tion of the bodies of the deceased is found a few potsherds, some fifty flint implements,
in the graves of the Wadi Digla, south of a small pierced discoidal object (spindle
Maadi. whorl?) of limestone, a limestone saddle-
There seems to be little reason to doubt quern, a few fragments of ostrich eggshell,
that the cemeteries of Wadi Digla and a Spatha shell, and the burnt bones of
Heliopolis were contemporaneous with one beef cattle, sheep, and fish. The pottery,
another and, in part at least, with the of rough brown ware, includes two of the
settlement at Maadi, and that the former slender ovate jars with flat bases and
was one of the necropolises used by the everted rims so familiar to us at Maadi
townspeople of the settlement. The curious itself and the related sites but scarcely
absence of copper in both cemeteries, in known in this ware in Upper Egypt. Miss
contrast to the frequency with which it Caton-Thompson describes the stone im-
occurs in the town, is perhaps to be attrib- plements, which are chiefly unifacial but
uted to a natural hesitancy to bury useful include a few bifacial tools and weapons,
objects in so valuable and so perishable a as "a typical middle-predynastic series."
material with the dead. The belief, shared She goes on to say, however, that "com-
by several students of the period, that the parison of the Fayum settlement flints
cursively recorded and practically un- with those of Maadi shows the similar
published cemeteries of Maadi North are tradition of both." Among the implements
earlier in date than those of Wadi Digla occurring at both Maadi and Qasr Qarun
and Heliopolis appears to have no basis in are the discoidal scraper of tabular flint,
fact, the poverty of the burials being the upper surface of which still retains its
inconclusive in this respect and the type of cortex, the unifacial sickle flint, the "three-
tomb superstructure in the Wadi el-Tih faced twisted blade," the narrow, pointed
pointing, if anything, to a slightly later knife, and the forked or fish-tail lancehead.
period. Together the five sites-the settle- Scrapers of other types, narrow blades,
ment and the four cemeteries-seem to trimmed flakes, sickle-shaped and handled
represent the known remains of a north- knives of bifacial workmanship, and a
eastern Egyptian sub-culture of late single tanged arrowhead complete the
prehistoric and early historic times, to Qasr Qarun series, which is interesting if
which, for want of a better name, we may for no other reason than that it establishes
tentatively apply the designation a bridge between the stone industry of the
"Maadian." Maadian sites and that of the middle and
Though classed on the basis of its flint late Predynastic of Upper Egypt.
implements as Predynastic, a small settle-
ment four miles southeast of Qasr Qarun, 7. CHARACTER OF THE NORTHERN
EGYPTIAN COMMUNITIES
at the western end of the Fayum, shows
sufficiently strong affinities with the Despite a relatively late date and a
Maadian group to warrant its inclusion in pronounced individual character the people
the present survey. The remains of the and the culture of Maadi and the associated
settlement, "situated on a spur of middle cemeteries exhibit certain traits which we
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 135

recognize as characteristic of the pre- covered an area and had an estimated

historic inhabitants and civilization of population less than one-third the size of
northern Egypt as a whole-traits which those of either Merimda or Maadi. This
from Neolithic to protohistoric times tend may be attributable, in part at least, to a
to give the population of this region a closer association with western Asia,
degree of racial and cultural homogeneity where the urban tradition and the city
and to set it apart from those of neigh- state appear to have originated and were
boring areas in general and from the more at this time strongly developed. It would
or less contemporaneous Predynastic people not, in any case, seem to be, in itself,
and civilization of Upper Egypt in sufficient reason for assuming the existence
particular. of a generally more advanced and "exalted
The early northern Egyptian, wherever culture" in the North than in the South
we encounter him-Merimda, El -Omari, nor of a more typically "Egyptian"
Maadi North, Maadi South, and Heliopolis civilization, since, as we shall see, the
-appears to have been somewhat taller truly urban community did not bulk large
and more sturdily built than his Upper in the life of dynastic Egypt.
Egyptian contemporary and to have been Indeed in some fields-notably in the
endowed with a broader and better formed arts-the northern Egyptian showed little
skull and a generally greater cranial or none of the flair exhibited by his
capacity. The prognathism observed in the southern contemporaries. His pottery,
skulls from Maadi South and Heliopolis though frequently well made and carefully
may or may not indicate the infiltration of finished, is almost uniformly monochrome
a negroid strain into the northern region (red, black, or brown), its plainness only
and, on the other hand, a few broad, occasionally relieved by a few primitive
square-jawed skulls found in a cemetery decorative motifs incised into or applied in
near Deir Tasa may point to the existence relief to the surfaces of the vessels. Only
of an outpost of the "Northern Race" in in the relatively late settlement at Maadi
Middle Egypt. Generally speaking, how- do we encounter pottery with painted
ever, the prehistoric northerner seems to decoration and even here the examples are
represent a type distinct in race and few in number, crude in concept and
physique as well as in culture from the execution, and quite possibly imported
people of the south. In him, rather than (from Palestine?) rather than produced
in some intrusive group of outlanders, we locally. "Sculpture" is represented by an oc-
may perhaps recognize, with Junker, the casional female figure ("fertility goddess"?)
ancestor of the so-called Dynastic Race, or or animal head modeled in pottery or Nile
Giza type, of Early Dynastic and Old clay but usually so crude as to be scarcely
Kingdom times. recognizable, and, at Maadi, by bird-
To judge from his surviving settlements shaped vases, probably of Gerzean origin
on the fringes of the eastern and western or inspiration. Applied decoration on
deserts, the northern Egyptian lived in objects other than pottery is confined to
towns of far greater size and of more one or more incised lines on the surface of
developed urban character than those a palette or around the neck of a bone
presently known to us in Upper Egypt, point. The same austerity or lack of
where even the relatively late Predynastic imagination extended also to personal
settlement at Hierakonpolis, the most adornment. Jewelry is extremely scarce on
extensive yet recorded in this region, all the northern sites, with the exception
 oi.uchicago.edu

136 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

of El Omari, and when present at all and perhaps also in the physical and
comprises only a few sea or river shells racial characteristics of their inhabitants.
pierced for stringing, an occasional boar's Of equal importance to an understanding
tusk or shark's tooth worn as a pendant, of the early settlements and cemeteries in
and a few isolated pendants and beads of the north of Egypt are the ties which quite
stone. evidently existed between them and other
Distinctive practices and customs found African groups and communities, particu-
among the prehistoric inhabitants of larly those generally described as Saharo-
northern Egypt, which are attested on Libyan and including the peoples and
two or more of the sites explored and which, cultures of the western oases, of the Gilf
so far as can be determined, are not preva- Kebir and Uweinat hills, of the more
lent south of the Fayum, include the large- remote Hoggar-Air-Tibesti region, and of
scale breeding of pigs and a belief in the those stretches of the Nile Valley in Nubia
amuletic powers of a boar's tusk when and the northern Sudan which came most
worn on the person, the ceremonial setting- strongly under "Libyan" influence from
up of the leg of a hippopotamus or other the west. These ties are most readily
animal to serve either as a fetish or as an discernible in the bifacially worked stone
offering to some divine or semidivine implements of the earlier settlements
spirit of the chase, the burial of premature which derive their forms and techniques
and infant children and, at Merimda and in part from local Paleolithic antecedents
Ras el- Hof (El-Omari), of adult women and, and in part from traditions brought from
occasionally, men in and among the the west by the Aterians and other no-
dwellings of the living, and the use in the madic groups. They are apparent again,
settlements of clay-lined bins for storage in late Neolithic times, in the striking
and of trimmed potsherds as jar-covers. coincidences which exist between the
From the earliest post-Paleolithic times implement types of the settlements of the
relations between northern Egypt and Fayum B-culture and those of the Libyan
western Asia, including perhaps occasional oases of Siwa and Kharga. Settlement
migrations of groups of people, are readily burial and the cult of a fertility goddess,
demonstrable. The initial impulse toward both attested in northern Egypt and
the domestication of food-animals and the western Asia, occur also in the Libyan
cultivation of food-plants, such as wheat area and further to the west, the former,
and barley, and toward the settled mode of as we have seen, in the Upper Capsian
existence which goes hand in hand with middens of the Maghreb, the latter among
food production apparently came to Egypt, the Early Oasis Dwellers, or Peasant
as we have already remarked, from the Neolithic folk, of the Kharga-Dakhla
region of the Fertile Crescent. Since region. Arkell has noted significant paral-
that moment Egypt's northern settle- lels between a Neolithic settlement near
ments seem to have maintained more or Khartoum in the Sudan and the Fayum
less continuous contacts, through trade Neolithic "A" culture, and Baumgartel
and other activities, with similar but more reports that some material from a proto-
advanced urban centers in Palestine and historic, or "A-group," cemetery in Nubia
Syria, the effects of these contacts being "is the nearest" she has "seen so far to
discernible not only in their material Merimda." That at least desultory trade
culture, but also, it would appear, in relations existed between the northern
their religious beliefs and burial customs Egyptian settlements and the Predynastic
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 137

people of Upper Egypt is indicated by the that the image of the political, social,
presence at Merimda and Maadi of such economic, and religious development of
typical Naqada-culture products as black- prehistoric northern Egypt reflected in the
topped pottery, forked lanceheads, and archeological material is confirmed and
rhomboidal cosmetic palettes of slate. clarified by traditions and records of events
Despite the facts that they almost preserved to us in the writings and other
certainly overlapped each other in time, documents of the historic, or dynastic,
were not widely separated geographically, period. Before turning to these, however,
and belonged to a recognizably "northern it is of the greatest interest and importance
Egyptian" culture circle, the settlements to acquaint ourselves with the more or less
of the Fayum, Merimda, El-Omari, and contemporaneous developments in Middle
Maadi display in every case pronounced and Upper Egypt, that is, in the long
individual characteristics which distinguish stretch of river valley extending south-
them sharply from one another and lead ward from the Fayum to the great bend of
inevitably to the conclusion that each was the Nile at Qena and thence upriver
politically, economically, and to a great through the Thebaid and past the First
extent culturally and religiously indepen- Cataract into Nubia.
dent of its neighbors. There is, in other
words, archeological evidence that Lower
Egypt consisted at this time of a series of
independent townships, each comprising NOTES
the town or village proper surrounded by CHAPTER III
the fields, pasture-lands, and other rural
1. NEAR EASTERN ORIGINs
areas on which it depended for its support
and each possessing its own local govern- Of the general works cited in the fourth
ment, customs, and religious beliefs and paragraph of the first section of the notes to
cults. The existence of local governments, Chapter II, above, the following contain
more or less detailed surveys of the New
probably centered in each case around a
Stone Age and its salient characteristics as
town or district ruler, is suggested at
observed in various parts of the Old World,
Merimda by the laying-out of the settle- including the Near East: MacCurday, Human
ment in streets, at El-Omari by the finding Origin, II (1926), 21-132; Menghin, Weltge-
in a grave of a body holding in its hand a schichte (1931), pp. 273-477; Childe, Man
sceptre or staff of authority, and at Maadi Makes Him8elf (2d impr.; London, 1937),
North by a circle of relatively modest pp. 59-86; What Happened in History (1942),
graves surrounding an obviously much more pp. 48-68; Childe, "The New Stone Age", in
important grave with a massive dolmen- Man, Culture, and Society, ed. by Harry L.
like superstructure. The contrasting rich- Shapiro (New York, 1956), pp. 94-110;
ness and poverty of the graves in the Turner, Great Cultural Traditions, I (1941),
51-67, 68-122 passim; Clark, From Savagery
eastern and western sectors of the cemetery
to Civilization (1946), pp. 69-87 ("Primitive
of the Wadi Digla indicate, too, that
Barbarism"); Braidwood, Prehistoric Men,
different social or, at least, economic "Chicago Natural History Museum Popular
classes existed within a single settlement. Series, Anthropology," No. 37 (1957), pp.
We shall find, in a subsequent chapter,' 90-104; Coon, Races of Europe (1939),
pp. 78-130; Story of Man (1958), pp. 114-80;
1 This topic, planned by the author for Chap. V,
was unfrtunately never developed into publishable
and Ebert, Reallexikon (1924-1932), under
forrn.-The Editor. "Neolithikum" and other appropriate entries.
 oi.uchicago.edu

138 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

To these may be added such-for the most On food production and the early food-
part recent-general books, articles, and producing communities of southwestern
discussions as Cole, The Neolithic Revolution Asia we may consult Helbaek, Science,
(British Museum [Natural History], London, CXXX (1959) 365-72; Archaeology, XII
1961. Bibliography on pp. 57-58); Braidwood (1959), 183-89; Queen Ichetis's Wheat; A
The Near East and the Foundations for Contribution to the Study of Early Dynastic
Civilization (Eugene, Oregon, 1952); Childe, Emmer in Egypt (Copenhagen, 1953); "Stud-
"Old World Prehistory: Neolithic" (1953); ying the diet of Ancient Man," Archaeology,
New Light on the Most Ancient East (1957), X IV (1961) 95-101; Sauer, Agricultural Ori-
pp. 14-49, 102 ff.; Forde-Johnston, Neolithic gins and Dispersals (1952); Wissler, The
Cultures of North Africa (1959); Balout, Cereals and Civilization (American Museum
Prdhistoire de l'Afrique du Nord (1955), see of Natural History [New York 1946]);
especially pp. 449-84; McBurney, Stone Age Zeuner, History of Technology, I, 327-52;
of Northern Africa (1960), pp. 229-74; Cole, ibid., pp. 353-75; Reed, "Animal Domestica-
Prehistory of North Africa (1954), see Index tion in the Prehistoric Near East," Science,
(p. 435) under "Neolithic"; Huzayyin, Place CXXX (1959), 1629-39; Isaac, "On the
of Egypt (1941), pp. 275-304. A good general Domestication of Cattle," Science, CXXXVII
survey of the technology and typology of (1962), 195-204; Braidwood and Reed, "The
Neolithic tools and weapons, especially those Achievement and Early Consequences of
made of stone, is provided by Bordaz, Food-production, A Consideration of the
"First Tools of Mankind" (1959), pp. 92-106. Archeological and Natural-historical Evi-
See also De Morgan, "L'industrie ndolithique dence" (1957); Braidwood, "Reflections on
et le proche Orient," Syria, IV (1923), 23-37. the Origin of the Village-farming Commu-
Divergent opinions on the use and mean- nity," in Weinberg, The Aegean and the Near
ing of the term "Neolithic" are advanced by East (1956); Braidwood, Science, CXXVII
Arkell, Kush, VII (1959), 238: "Ground (1958); Braidwood and Braidwood, "The
stone is the main criterion, and it occurs at Earliest Village Communities of Southwestern
Shaheinab, which is therefore 'neolithic,' Asia," in Cahiers d'histoiremondiale, I, No. 2
while it has not yet appeared at Early (October 1953), 228-310; Frankfort, Birth
Khartoum, which is therefore 'mesolithic'"; of Civilization in the Near East (1951),
by Balout, op. cit., pp. 450-51: "On pourra pp. 35 ff.; Adams, "Agriculture and Urban
done parler de Neolithique, m~me lorsque Life in Early Southwestern Iran," Science,
les pierres polies manquent dans un gisement; CXXXVI (1962), 109-22; Kraeling and
mais on se refusera h employer ce terme si Adams, City Invincible (1960); Cole, The
aucun des aspects de la civilisation ndoli- Neolithic Revolution (London, 1961), pp. 5-28,
thique n'est attest6: Polissage de haches et 57-88; Kenyon, Archaeology in the Holy Land
d'herminettes-Pointes de fliches de taille (London, 1960), pp. 20-57; Digging up
bifaciale-Cdramique modelde, gdndralement Jericho, (1957), pp. 51-76; Schaeffer, Syria,
ornde-Domesticationetllevage-Agriculture"; XXXVIII (1961 [see pp. 8-13]); Mellaart,
by Cole, Prehistory of East Africa, p. 215: "The Beginning of Village and Urban Life,"
"The change from a hunting economy to one in Piggot, ed., The Dawn of Civilization:
of food production is the essential difference The First World Survey of Human Cultures
between Palaeolithic and Mesolithic stages in Early Times (New York, Toronto, London,
and the Neolithic"; and by Braidwood, 1961), pp. 41-64; Barnett, "The Growth of
Kush, VII (1959), p. 236: ". . . the word Society," in The Epic of Man (by the editors
'Neolithic' has such a hopeless hodge-podge of Life magazine [New York, 1961]), Chap.
of meanings that we should quickly cast it 3, pp. 47-65; Garasinin, "The Neolithic in
into oblivion.., we might best name our Anatolia and the Balkans," Antiquity, XXV
archaeological materials in terms of the (1961), 276-80; Mellink, AJA, LXVI (1962),
subsistence levels .... 71-85; Junker, "Geisteshaltung der Aegypt-
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 139

er," Sitzungsb. der O8terr. Akad. der Wissen- Egypt is followed by Forde-Johnston,
sch., 237, 1 (Wien, 1961), 58 if.,70 if.Arkell, Neolithic Culture of North Africa (1959), pp.
Kush, V (1957), 9, points out that ". . . the 25, 72, 125. See, however, Arkell, Bibliotheca
domestication of plants and animals. .. are Orientalis, XIII (1956), especially pp. 125 ff.
two very different things, and did not neces- See also Massoulard, Prdhistoire et proto-
sarily originate together, or even at the histoire d'Egypte (Paris, 1949), pp. 30-54;
same time or in the same place." He Cottevieille-Giraudet, BIFAO, XXXIII
agrees that wheat and barley were probably (1933), 53-70; Vandier, Manuel d'arch.
first cultivated in Asia; but remarks (p. 10) dgypt., I (Paris, 1952), 62-188, especially
that "hungry wild animals must have sold pp. 181 ff.; Huzayyin, Place of Egypt (1941),
themselves over and over again into slavery pp. 294-305; Alimen, op. cit., pp. 103-110;
to man in return for a supply of food, and Leakey, Stone Age Africa (1936), p. 120;
there must have been numberless places McBurney, Stone Age of Northern Africa,
where the domestication of animals has so pp. 233-47; McBurney and Hey, Prehistory
originated." and Pleistocene Geology in Cyrenaican Libya
The radiocarbon and estimated dates (Cambridge, 1955), pp. 247-51; Menghin,
cited in the last two paragraphs of Section 1 "The Stone Ages of North Africa with Special
and the chronological picture of the Neolithic Reference to Egypt," BSRGE, XVIII (1932),
phase in the Near East reflected there were 17-21; Bovier-Lapierre, "L'ligypte prd-
derived from Braidwood, AOA W, No. 19 historique," Pricis de l'histoire d'tgypte par
(1958), Pittioni, Forschungen und Fort- divers historien8 et archeologues,I (Cairo, 1932),
8chritte, XXXI (1957); Junker, "Geisteshal- 40-43; Scharff, Die Altertimer der Vor. und
tung," pp. 55-60; McBurney, "Radio Carbon FrilhzeitAgyptens (Berlin, 1929-1931),I, 8-16;
Readings and the Spread of the Upper Kaiser, "Stand und Probleme der agyptischen
Palaeolithic in Europe and the Mediter- Vorgeschichtsforschung," ZAS, LXXXI
ranean Basin," (Madrid, 1957); Butzer, (1956), especially pp. 98-100; and the vast
QuaternaryStratigraphy(Bonn, 1958), pp. 56, majority of the works cited in the preceding
90-104, 109-12, 128; Kenyon, Archeology in paragraphs.
the Holy Land,pp. 35-44,56,59,60; Schaeffer, A convenient listing (with references) of
Syria, XXXVIII (1961), 11; Alimen, Pre- the Carbon 14 dates for the Merimda, Fayum,
history of Africa (1957), pp. 105, 426; Naqada I, and Naqada II cultures, respect-
Larsen, Orientalia Suecana, VII (1958), ively, is given by Junker, "Geisteshaltung,"
48-51, 53; Arkell, Shaheinab (London, 1953), pp. 56, 57.
pp. 105-107; Kush, V (1957), 11-12; Cole,
2. THE FAYUM SETTLEMENTS
The Neolithic Revolution, pp. 2, 9, 11, 40, 47,
48, 55, 56; Mellaart, "Beginning of Village On the Neolithic and early post-Neolithic
and Urban Life," pp. 53-60 passim; Kohler cultures of the Fayum lake basin the basic
and Ralph, "C-14 Dates for Sites in the work is Caton.Thompson and Gardner, The
Mediterranean Area," AJA, LXV (1961), Desert Fayum (London, 1934). A series of
see especially pp. 359, 360. preliminary reports by the same authors
Baumgartel (Cultures of Prehistoric Egypt, include Caton-Thompson, Man, XXV (1925);
I [rev. ed.; London 1955], pp. 14 if., 49, 120, Man, XXVIII (1928); Ancient Egypt (Sep-
121; II [Oxford, 1960], 26 if.,objects to the tember 1928); and Caton-Thompson and
use of the expression "Neolithic" in connec- Gardner, Royal Anthropological Institute
tion with any of the cultures discovered to Journal, LVI (1926); Geological Magazine,
date in Egypt. See also De Morgan, La LXIV (1927). Also to be consulted isCaton-
prdhistoire orientale (Paris, 1925-1927), II, Thompson, Gardner, and Huzayyin, "Lake
103 if. Dr. Baumgartel's dating of the Fayum Moeris: Re-investigations and Some Com-
and Merimda settlements later in time than ments," BIE, XIX (1937), in which they
the Tasian-Badarian culture of Upper reaffirm their belief in a falling Neolithic and
 oi.uchicago.edu

140 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

post-Neolithic Fayum lake, with an initial 4, 28, 31, 40, 55, 57, 79, 102-105, 107;
level of 59 feet (18 meters) above sea-level Bibliotheca Orientalis,
XIII (1956), 125 if.;
and storm beaches piled up to a maximum Baumgartel, Cultures of Prehistoric Egypt,
height of 72-79 feet (22-24 meters)-this I (rev. ed.), 15-16;
II, 27, 29, 32, 33.
last contribution being in part a reply to The opinions cited regarding the origin of
Little, "Recent Geological Work in the the Fayum Neolithic A-culture will be found
Faiyirm and in the Adjoining Portion of the in Huzayyin, "Recent Studies on the
Nile Valley," BIE, XVIII (1936). Technological Evolution of the Upper
The association of the post-Paleolithic Palacolithic of Egypt," Congres International
reflooding of the Fayum basin and the crea- des Sciences prihistoriques et protohistoriques,
tion of the high-level early Neolithic
lake Actes de la IIIe Session, Zurich, 1950
with the so-called Flandrian Transgression of (Zurich, 1953), p. 175 (see above, Chap. II,
the Mediterranean Sea is proposed by Sec. 4, notes); Caton-Thompson and Gardner,
Pfannenstiel, "Entstehung der agyptisehen Desert Fayum, p. 94; Caton-Thompson, The
Oasendepressionen," (1953), p. 406, and by Kharga Oasis in Prehistory (1952), p. 31;
Butzer, Quaternary Stratigraphy, p. 109. Forde-Johnston, Neolithic Cultures, pp. 73,
On the Neolithic Moist Interval, or Sub- 77, cf. pp. 68, 70, 71; Arkell, Shaheinab, p.
pluvial II Phase, and its effects in Egypt see 105; see also History of the Sudan from the
especially Butzer, Erdkunde, XI (1957),
27; Earliest Times to 1821 (London, 1955),
WL pp. 345-46; Kush, V (1957), 8, 12; Kush, VII
AA
schaft Agyptens," AA WVL
.Mainz (1958), p. 39; "Naturland-
Mainz (1959),
No. 2, p. 86; BSIGE, XXXII (1959),
(1959), 15-26; MeBurney, Stone Age of
Northern Africa, p. 234 (see also p. 245);
63 if., and on the successive
levels of the Childe, New Light, pp. 47-49; and Butzer,
post-Paleolithic Fayum lake, Ball, Contribu- BSRGE, XXXII (1959), 44.
tions to the
Geography of Egypt (1939), pp. Earlier finds of Neolithic implements and
197 if. other remains in the Fayum are described
More recent discussions of the Fayum and illustrated by Schweinfurth, Bulletin
Neolithic settlements and cultures, derived Inst it ut gyptien (Cairo, 1886); Beadnell,
for the most part from the reports of the Geological- Magazine (London, 1903); Seton-
Misses Caton-Thompson and Gardner, but Karr, Annales du Service, V (1904); VI
often incorporating new ideas and interpre- (1905) ; Currelly, Stone Implements (Cairo,
tations of the material, will be found in: "Catalogue Generale" [1913]), pp. 68-203
Massoulard, Prehistoireetprotoh istoire,pp. 39- (Nos. 63421-64426); De Morgan, La pre-
44; Cottevicille-Giraudet, BIFAO, XXXIII, histoire orientate, II, 54-68.
54-58; Vandier, Manuel, I, 62-94, 184-87; On the animal and plant remains found in
Huzayyin, Place of Egypt, pp. 294-98; association with the Fayum A culture settle-
Forde-Johnston, Neolithic Cultures, pp. 7, 17, ments see especially Caton-Thompson and
18, 69, 72 f., 108, 109; McBurney and Hey, Gardner, Desert Fayum, pp. 22, 34, 43,
Prehi story and Pleistocene Geology in.. 46-49, 72, 84; Andrews, "Notes on an
Libya, pp. 242-51; McBurney, Stone Age of Expedition to the Fayfim, Egypt," Geologwcal
Northern Africa, pp. 233-38; Childe, New Magazine, X
(1903); Butzer, "Naturland-
Light on the Most Ancient East, pp. 35 ff. ; schaft Agyptens," p. 78.
Butzer, QuaternaryStratigraphy, pp. 111-12;
Larsen, Orientalia Suecana Uppsala, VII
3. THE OASES OF SIWA AND KHARGA

(1958), 39-41; IX (1960), 49-51; Junker, The largest and best-documented collec-
Anzeiger der Akad. der Wissenech. in Wien, tions of stone implements from Siwa were
Phil.-Hist. Klasse, 1929, Nos. XVI-XVIII, assembled in 1918 by Dr. C. Willett-Cun-
pp. 180-84; "Geisteshaltung," pp. 56, 62; ningham from surface sites on the slopes and
Scharff, Altertumer der V'or- und Friihzeit terraces of the northern escarpment of
Ay T'ens+IV,1-14;A.rel hhiap.1, then oascis Wadon the ih esert plateau to th
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 141

north of the depression. They are now in the illustrated, and referred to by a number of
Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in writers, among whom may be cited Butzer,
Cambridge (Reg. Nos. 24.1113 and 24.1114) BSRGE, XXXII (1959), 81 (quoted in our
and in the Alexandria Museum (Inv. No. text); De Morgan, Rdcherches sur les origines
21664) together with a small series of imple- de l'Fgypte (Paris, 1897), pp. 46 if., figs.
ments collected in the region of Siwa by 29-45; Caton-Thompson, Kharga Oasis, p.
H. W. Seton-Karr (registered as "Seton- ix, P1. 126; Caton-Thompson and Gardner,
Karr"). The best discussion of the Siwan GeographicalJournal,LXXX (London, 1932),
Neolithic and its relationships with the more or 371, 403, Map No. 1; Bovier-Lapierre,
less contemporaneous cultures of the Fayum Bulletin Institut d',gypte, XII (Cairo, 1930),
and other areas is provided by C. B. M. 126-27; "Stations pr6historiques des environs
McBurney in McBurney and Hey, Pre- du Caire," Comp. rend., Congrds International
history and Pleistocene Geology, pp. 251-62, de Gdographie (Cairo, 1925), IV (1926), 306;
Figs. 35, 36. See also McBurney, Stone Age Cottevieille-Giraudet, BIFAO, XXXIII
of Northern Africa, pp. 237-38; Huzayyin, (1933), 58, 63-64, figs. 42, 44; Massoulard,
Place of Egypt, pp. 282, n. 1, 298 and n. 2; Prhistoire et protohistoire d'lgypte, p. 31,
Caton-Thompson and Gardner, DesertFayum nn. 10-13; Vandier, Manuel, I, 64. See also
p. 94; Fakhry, Siwa Oasis, its History and Andrew and Delaney, "A Neolithic Site in
Antiquities (Cairo, 1944), p. 22. the Sabalaka Gorge," Sudan Notes and
The so-called Peasant Neolithic of Kharga Records, XXXIII (1952), 167; Save-Soder-
is described in detail and extensively illu- bergh, Kush, X (1962), 76-105.
strated in Caton-Thompson, Kharga Oasis in The remarks on the culture provinces of
Prehistory (London, 1952), pp. vi-vii, 35-40, North Africa quoted in the last paragraph of
165-96, Pls. 100-19. Further discussions of our section are from McBurney and Hey,
its nature, its relationships with the Fayum Prehistory and Pleistocene Geology in Cyren-
B culture and the Predynastic of Armant in aican Libya, pp. 272-73.
Upper Egypt, and the probable identity of
4. THE WEST DELTA SETTLEMENT
its people with the authors of the rock-
OF.MERIMDA BENI SALAMA
drawings ascribed by H. A. Winkler to the
so-called "Early Oasis Dwellers" will be The site of the Neolithic settlement at
found in Caton-Thompson and Gardner, Merimda Beni Salama, lying six miles to the
Journalof the Royal Anthropological Institute, northwest of Merimda Abu Ghalib and
LVI (1926), 319; Desert Fayum, pp. 24, 26, thirty-seven miles northwest of Cairo,
34, 55, 91, 94; Forde-Johnston, Neolithic measures some 660 yards from east to west
Cultures of North Africa, pp. 23, 24, 70, 71; and 440 yards from north to south. It was
Huzayyin in Mond and Myers, Cemeteries of explored and excavated during the years
Armant (London, 1937), pp. 2, 196, 210, 215; 1928 to 1939 by an expedition of the Akademie
Huzayyin, Place of Egypt, pp. 309, 317, 438; der Wissenschaften in Vienna under the
McBurney, Stone Age of Northern Africa, direction of Professor Hermann Junker,
pp. 236-37; McBurney and Hey, Prehistory assisted during the seasons of 1931-1932 and
and Pleistocene Geology, pp. 256, 260-62, 1933 by members of the staff of the Medel-
272-73. havsmuseet (then called the "Egyptiska
On the rock-drawings of the Early Oasis Museet") in Stockholm. The first season's
Dwellers our principal reference is Winkler, work was published by Junker, "Bericht
Rock-drawings of Southern Upper Egypt fiber die von der Akadamie der Wissen-
(London, 1939), pp. 27-30, 33-36, Pls. schaften in Wien nach dem Westdelta
XXXIX-L. See also Caton-Thompson, entsendete Expedition (20. Dezember 1927
Kharga Oasis in Prehistory, pp. vi-vii. bis 25. Februar 1928)," Denkschr. Akad. d.
Surface finds of Neolithic stone imple- Wis8en8ch. Wien, Phil.-hist. Klasse, Band
ments in the Egyptian area are described. LXVIII, Abh. No. 3 (1928), pp. 14-24 (also
 oi.uchicago.edu

142 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

pp. 25.33), Pis. II-VI and XIV-XXV.The physical type and "northern" racial charac-
results of the ensuing seven seasons (1929, teristics of the Merimda people, are contri-
1930, 1931-1932, 1933, 1934, 1937, and buted by Dr. Douglas E. Derry to Junker,
1939) were described and discussed by the Anzeiger... Wien, 1930, pp. 53-59, and
same author and by Professor Oswald ibid., 1932, pp. 60-61.See also Junker, ibid.,
Menghin in a series of preliminary reports: LXXXVI (1949), No. 21, pp. 485-93, and
Junker, Anzeiger der Akad. der Wi8sensch. in Coon, Races of Europe (New York, 1939),
Wien, Phil.-Hist. Kiasse, Nos. XVI-XVIII pp. 93, 94, 99, 105.
(1929), pp. 156-250; Nos. V XIII (1930), Among the general works on Egyptian,
pp. 21-83; Nos. I IV (1932), pp. 36-97; North African, and Near Eastern prehistory

(1934), pp. 118-32; Nos. IV(1940),pp.3-25.

Nos. XVI-XXVII (1933), pp. 54-97; No. X

On the Neolithic landscape and population

in which the settlement at Merimda is
discussed and evaluated may be
Massoulard, Prehistoire et protohistoire
cited:
of the Delta see especially Butzer, "Die d''gypte, pp. 33-39;
Vandier, Manuel, I,
Naturlandschaft Agyptens," pp. 71-78; 95-153, 181-88; Huzayyin, Place of Egypt,
BSRGE, XXXII, 50-52, 59 if.,and on the pp. 296-322 passim; Scharff, Altertilmer der
geological setting of the settlement at Vor- und Frihzeit Agyptens, IV, 9-12 (see
Merimda, Butzer, Science, CXXXII, No. also pp. 13-14); Kaiser, ZAS, LXXXI
3440, pp. 1618-19, Fig. 3. (1956), 87-109 (see also pp. 97-102, 105);
The stratification of the settlement site MeBurney, Stone Age of Northern Africa, p.
and the Carbon-14 dates obtained from itare 235; McBurney and Hey, Prehistory and
discussed by Junker, Anzeiger d. Akad. d. Pleistocene Geology, pp. 244, 246, 249, 250;
Wissen8ch. Wien, Nos. 1-V (1940), pp. Forde-Johnston, Neolithic Cultures of North
4-16; "Geisteshaltung(er Agypter," pp. Africa, pp. 17, 18, 24, 72; Alimen, Prehistory
55, 56, and by Larsen, Orientalia Suecana, of Africa, pp. 103 ff.;Childe, New Light,
VII (1958), 48-51. See also Childe, New pp. 36-40; Menghin, Weltgeschichte der
Light (1957), p. 38 and Save-Sdderbergh, Steinzeit (Vienna, 1931), pp. 358 (P1. XLI)-
Egypti8k egenart (1962), p. 18. 361; Menghin, "El origen del pueblo del
Detailed comparisons between the antiguo Egipto,"Ampurias, IV (1941), 25-41;
Merimda and Fayum A cultures are drawn Kantor, JNES, I (1942), 174-77, 199,
by Caton-Thompson and Gardner. Desert 202-203.
Fayumn, pp. 29, 32-34, 39, 45, 48, 70, 72, 87, For the vast majority of the prehistorians
89-94, and by Junker, Anzeier ... Wien and other writers cited in the foregoing
(1929), pp. 180-84. paragraphs the settlement at Merimda is a
Larsen, Orientalia Suecana, VI (1957), Neolithic town of considerable importance
VII (1958), VIII (1959), IX (1960) has de- closely associated in its earlier stages with
voted four articles to the study, respectively, the Fayum A culture and, like it, generally
of the decorated pottery, the stone vases, and more primitive in character and earlier in
the bone implements from Merimda in the date than the Naqada I and II cultures of
Medelhavsmnuseet in Stockholm. Badawy, Uipper Egypt. The principal dissenting opin-
History of Egyptian Architecture (Cairo, ion, as already noted, is that of Baumgartel,
1954) has provided a section on the "Dom- Cultures of Prehistoric Egypt, I (rev. ed.,
estic Architecture" of Merimda; and Scharf, 1955) and II (1960)-see especially I, 14-18,
"Das Grab als Wohnhaus in der agyptischen 120 f., and other writings, who would see in
Friizeit," Sitzungsber. Bay. Akad. d. Wis- the settlement a "rural community" "on the
senech., Phil.-hist. Kla.,se, Jahrgang 1944/46, outskirts of Libya," representing "a belated
Heft 6, pp. 13 ff., discourses on the settlement-
burials at Merimda and El Omani.
civilization," its earliest phase (Layer I)
contemporaneous with Naqada II, its "upper
Preliminary reports on the human remains strata"with "Early Dynastic times." Though
from Meimda, with special reference to the some of Dr. Baumgzartel's points are well
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 143

taken and her views in general must be given No. 41 (1946), pp. 50-54; Annalee duService,
the most serious consideration, they have XLVIII (1948), 561-69; BIE, XXXVII
not-with only one or two exceptions (e.g., (1956), 329-39. In 1949 Hermann Junker
Forde-Johnston, Neolithic Cultures of North included the measurements and other charac-
Africa, pp. 17, 18, 24, 72)-been accepted by teristics of a skull from E1-Omari in Anzeiger
subsequent writers on the settlement (among ... Wien, LXXXVI (1949); and in 1955 a
whom must be counted such competent report was published by Elhamy A. M.
prehistorians as Alimen, Arkell, Butzer, Greiss, BIE, XXXVI (1955), on the "Ana-
McBurney, Kaiser, Kantor, and Larsen) and tomical Identifications of Plant Remains and
have been convincingly criticized by Arkell, Other Materials from (1) E1-Omari .. " On
Bibliotheca Orientalis, XIII (1956), by the cereal grains from the site (and the false
Kantor, AJA, LIII (1949), 76-77, by Larsen, identification of the wheat as einkorn
OrientaliaSuecana, VII (1958), 42 if., and by [Triticum monococcum]) see Helbaek, Pro-
Vandier, Manuel, I, 81-88. The already- ceedings of the PrehistoricSociety, Cambridge,
discussed radiocarbon dates obtained for N. S., XXI (1955), 93-95.
the Merimdian and the Naqada I and II El-Omari is briefly discussed in most of the
cultures also militate against Dr. Baumgar- general works on Egyptian and North
tel's theories, which seem, to a great extent, African prehistory and in a number of articles
to spring from the unwarranted assumption and monographs devoted to special aspects
that in prehistoric times the Delta proper of the subject. Some of these were written
was uninhabitable and that, therefore, the before the existence on the site of several
home of the earliest Egyptian cultures must distinct cultural groups and periods had been
be sought for exclusively in the south. generally recognized (Debono, BIE, XXXVII
The reference in the next-to-last paragraph [1956], 330), and present, therefore, a some-
of this section to the pre-agricultural use of what confusing over-all picture of the en-
artificial irrigation "by people who do not semble. Others tend to confine themselves
cultivate but collect wild-growing plants" solely to the early village near the Ras el-
is based on Frankfort, Birth of Civilization Hof. Nearly all, however, are of value for
in the Near East, pp. 36-37, who, in turn, their independent and sometimes divergent
refers to Forde, Habitat, Economy and Society interpretations of the evidence as a whole and
(London, 1934), p. 35. The quotation re- of the typological and technological details
garding the close association of the Merim- which go to make up that evidence. The list
dians with their dead is taken from Otto, of works is for the most part already familiar
Agypten der Weg des Pharaonenreiches to the reader. Included are: Massoulard,
(Stuttgart, 1953), p. 21. Prdhistoire et protohistoire, pp. 32-33; Van-
dier, Manuel, I, 154-66, 183, 188; Huzayyin,
5. EL OMARI: ITS SETTLEMENTS AND Place of Egypt, pp. 300-301; Baumgartel,
CEMETERIES
Cultures of Prehistoric Egypt, I, 121; Cotte-
vieille-Giraudet, BIFAO, XXXIII, 58-62;
In April 1925 Pere Paul Bovier-Lapierre, Scharff, Altertumer, IV, 13; "Das Grab als
"Une nouvelle station n6olithique (El Omari) Wohnhaus," pp. 15-17; Junker, Die Agypter
au nord d'H6louan (lIgypte)," (Compte rendu, (Volker des antiken Orients, III [Freiburg,
Congrds International de Gdographie, 1925, IV 1933]), pp. 7, 9, 18; Wien Anzeiger, LXXXVI
[Cairo, 1926])--see also "Stations pr6histor- (1949), 486-87, 492; "Geisteshaltung," p. 65;
iques des environs du Cairo," ibid., pp. Rizkana, Bull. Inst. Desert, II, 2 (1952),
298-308--reported the discovery, naming, 119, 121, 130; Larsen, Orientalia Suecana,
and initial exploration of the prehistoric site VII, 41-42, 52; ibid., IX (1960), 51-52;
(or sites) of El -Omari. Fernand Debono's Kaiser, ZAS, LXXXI, 98-100, 105; apud
three seasons of work on the site are described Leclant, Orientalia, XXVIII (1959), 371;
and discussed by him in Chronique d'gype, Otto, Agypten der Weg des Pharaonenreiches.
 oi.uchicago.edu

144 NEZOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

pp. 19, 21; Kees, Ancient Egypt, A Geo- 6. MAADI, WADI DIGLA, HELIoPoLIs,
graphical History of the Nile (Chicago, 1961), AND QASR QARUN
pp. 23, 148, 149; Wolf, Kulturgeschichte des
alten Agyptens (Stuttgart, 1962), p. 26; Modern surface exploration of the ancient
F'orde-Johnston, Neolithic Cultures of North settlement site east of Maadi dates from 1925
Africa, p. 17; Alimen, Irehistoryof Africa, p. when Mrs. F. W. Hume, the wife of the well-
104; Childe, New Light, pp. 40, 41, 48, 73, 74, known geologist, and her associate, Mrs.
93, 99; Badawy, History of Egyptian Archi- Lamb, picked up a number of flint imple-
tecture, p. 15. ments in the area. In the same year R. P.
A considerable range of (ates has been Paul Bovier-Lapierre explored both the
ascribed to the Ras el-Hof settlement group settlement area and the cemetery some two
or, as it is sometimes callel, the "Oman A" miles to the northeast, in the mouth of the
or "Helwan (Neolithic) A" culture. Several Wadi el Tih, and briefly reported his finds
writers, including Alimen, Prehistory of there of pottery, stone, and copper objects,
Africa, pp. 105, 128, and Rizkana, Bull. animal and human bones (Bovier-Lapierre,
Inst. Desert, 11, 2, p. 130, would make it CRCIG 1925, IV[Cairo, 1926], 306; see also
earlier than Merimda anl would assign to it Chron. d'Agypte. VII. [1932]. 57-64). In
a (late in the neighborhood of 6000 B.C. 1929 the site was visited by Johannes Lukas,
Kaiser, ZAS, LXXXI, 99, 100, sees it as whose investigations are described in Lukas,
contemporaneous with the late Merimdian Mitteilungen Anthropologische Gesellschaft in
and believes both of these cultures, as well Wien, LXI (1931), 203-208.
as the Fayum A, to be earlier than Early Excavation of the settlement was inau-
Naqada in Upper Egypt. To Debono, BIE, gurated on December 14, 1930, under the
XXXVII, 339, the settlement (ates from auspices of the Faculty of Arts of the
the beginning of Naqada I and extends into Egyptian University in Cairo and the direc-
the secondl part of that cultural phase. tion of Oswald Menghin and Mustafa Amer,
l3atumgartel (loc. cit.) does not seem convinced and was carried on thereafter for twelve
that El-hnari is predynastic at all and would seasons of one and a half to three months
appear to favor a date in early historic times. each. The results of the first three seasons
The radiocarbon date of 3305 + 230 B.C. (December 14, 1930, to January 31, 1931;
(5256 + 230 B.P. in 1951) for a sample of February 15 to April 8, 1932; and February
charcoal "from point 'A--15' of the house 1 to April 4, 1933) were reported on by
floors (fonds de cabanes)" of the Ras el-Hof Menghin, "Die Grabung der Universitat
settlement was first published by Arnold Kairo bei Maadi," M DIA KII (1931), 143-
and Libby, Science, CXLII (1951), p. 111 47; M1DIAK, III (1932), 150-54; MDIAK,
(No. 463); and is discussed by Braidwood, V (1934), 111-18; by Menghin and Amer,
AO WA W (1958), Nr. 19, p. 257, by Kantor, Exrcavation of the Egyptian University in the
Relative Chronologies in Old World Archeology Neolithic Site at Maadi. First Preliminary
(Chicago, 1954), pp. 2-3, and by Alimen, Report (Season of 1930--31) (Cairo, 1932), ibid.,
Prehistory of Africa, p. 106. Junker, "Geist- Second Preliminary Report (Season of 1932)
eshaltung der Agypter," p. 57, points out Cairo, 1936) ; and by Amer, Bulletin, Faculty
that this date is not compatible with the ar- of Arts, Egyptian University, I (Cairo, 1933),
cheological evidence as advanced by Debono, 322-24; those of the fourth season (January 27
bc. cit., and believes that "a substantially to April 16, 1934) by Amer, ibid., II, Part II
earlier period must be assumed." (Cairo, 1935), pp. 176-78; and those of the
On the identification by Hickmann, fifth season (February 1 to April 29, 1935) in
Anynales du Serf.ice, XLIX (1949), 428-31, of LaBourse A'gyptienne for August 8, 1935,
the perforated Nerita shells from El-Omani as and Chron. d'eLgypte, XI, No. 21 (January
whistles see Arkell, Ansales du
Sernice, L 1936), pp. 54-57. See also Amen, Cahiers
(195i 0),M5a66
 oi.uchicago.edu

NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 145

Fasc. 5-6 (Cairo, 1952), p. 238, reprinted as The remarks of Petrie and Hall on the
Amer, Chron. d'fgypte, XXVIII, No. 56 painted pottery of Abydos and of Bonnet and
(1953), p. 280. Amer and Huzayyin, "Some Childe on that of Maadi are cited with
Physiographic Problems Related to the references by Vandier, Manuel, I, 481, nn. 1
Pre-dynastic Site at Macadi," Proceedingsof and 2, 791, nn. 1 and 2.
the First Pan-African Congress on Prehistory, The cemetery of the Wadi el-Tih, north-
Nairobi, 1947 (Oxford, 1952), discuss the east of Maadi, is briefly described by Bovier-
recent geology and stratigraphy of the site, Lapierre, CRCIG 1925, IV, 306-308; and
including an alleged but probably non- Chron. d'1gypte, VII, 60 and is commented
existent succession of high aggradation and on by Baumgartel, Cultures, I, 122, 131,
renewed degradation in Neolithic and early Massoulard, Prdhistoire et protohistoire, p.
Chalcolithic times (cf. Butzer, "Naturland- 261; and Alimen, op. cit., p. 404.
schaft Agyptens," pp. 26-27, 68, n. 1; That of Maadi North, as indicated in the
GeographicalJournal, CXXV [1959], 78, n. 6; text, is accorded only passing reference by
BSRGE, XXXII [1959], 55-56). Rizkana, Bull. Inst. Desert, II, 2, pp. 121,
Highly valuable-and often highly critical 122; Amer, Cahiers d'histoire Agyptienne,
-discussions of the date and significance of Hdliopolis, Serie IV, Fasc. 5-6 (Cairo, 1952),
the settlement at Maadi and of the asso- p. 238; Amer and Rizkana, Bulletin of the
ciated cemeteries occur in such general works Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, XV (1953),
as Baumgartel, Cultures of PrehistoricEgypt, 98, 203; Baumgartel, Cultures, I (1960), 122;
I (1955), 14, 29, n. 1, 42, 44-46, 51, 105, 109, and Childe, New Light, pp. 73, 75.
110, 121, 122; II (1960), 13, 23, 30, 131-33, Short accounts of their two seasons of
137-39, 154 (cited several times in the text of work in the cemetery of the Wadi Digla
this section); Huzayyin, Place of Egypt, pp. (Maadi South) were published by Amer and
301-304, 306, 315; Massoulard, Prihistoireet Rizkana, BFAC, XV (1953), 97-100, 201-
protohistoire,pp. 259-68; Vandier, Manuel, I, 205. See also Rizkana, Bull. Inst. Desert, II,
466-96, 508-18, 529-32; Alimen, Prehistory I, pp. 121- 23, Leclant, Orientalia, XXI, 2
of Africa, pp. 111, 112, 123-26, 128; Childe, (Rome, 1952), p. 244; XXII, 1, pp. 97-98;
New Light, pp. 73-76, 99, 224, 229, 233, 237; XXIII, 1, pp. 73-74.
Kees, Ancient Egypt (Chicago, 1961), pp. 40, On the early cemetery near Heliopolis
42, 148, 149, 189; Scharff, Die Frihkulturen there are brief reports by Debono, Chron.
Agyptens und Mesopotamiens, ("Der Alte d'lgypt, XXV (1950), No. 50, pp. 625-52,
Orient," Band 41 [Leipzig, 1941]), pp. 12-15; Rizkana, Bull. Inst. Desert, II, 2, 121-23,
Debono, BIE,XXXVII (1956), 339. Pls. III, IV-VII (B), VIII (A), and Leclant,
Two additional references, which should Orientalia, XIX, 4 (1950), pp. 493-94, and
however be used with caution, are Leclercq, comments by Baumgartel, op. cit., I, 121-22,
Chron. d'lgypte, VIII, No. 15 (1933), pp. Childe, New Light, p. 75, and Vandier,
227-33, and Rizkana, Bull. Inst. Desert, II, Manuel, I, 496, n. 4. One of the dogs buried
1 (1952), pp. 121 if. in this cemetery is the subject of an article
The shelters, huts, and magazines of by Moustafa, Bull. Inst. Desert, II (1952),
Maadi are discussed and illustrated by 102-104, who reports that the animal's
Badawy, History of Egyptian Architecture, I, skeleton and teeth are very similar to those
17-19, 23, figs. 6-8; and some of the cultural of a modern dog.
contacts of the site with Palestine-especially The Predynastic finds in the Fayum,
as regards the flints and pottery-by including the settlement near Qasr Qarun
Kantor, JNES, I (1942), 177, 180-85, 191, and its relationship to Maadi, are described,
192, 199; and Childe, New Light, pp. 224, discussed, and illustrated by Gertrude Caton-
229, 237. On present.day foetus burials in Thompson, in Caton-Thompson and Gardner,
Egyptian villages see Blackman, The Fella- Desert Fayum, pp. 69-71, Pls. LII, LIII.
hi of Upper Egypt (London, 1927), p. 67. There can be little doubt that the immense
 oi.uchicago.edu

146 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

settlement at Maadi and the associated very far into the historic period is indicated
cemeteries covered a long period of time, the by the complete absence from them of true
former, as Huzayyin, loc. cit., has suggested, mud -brick construction, of any inscribed
exhibiting perhaps "some kind of 'later' or object whatsoever, and of most of the charac-
'horizontal' stratification." Such items as the teristic Early Dynastic types of pottery,
cylindrical vases of basalt, the black-topped stoneware, ivory carvings, and the like. An
potsherds, the rhomboidal slate palettes, the assumed lifetime for the so-called "Maadian
forked lanceheads, and some of the other Culture" ranging from somewhere around
stone implement types would seem to imply a mid-Naqada II (ca. 3300 B.c.) to about the
contemporaneity or partial contemporaneity third or fourth decade of the First Dynasty
with the Middle Predynastic culture of (ca. 3070-3060 B.c.) would probably not be
Upper Egypt. On the other hand, the fan- far wide of the mark.
shaped scrapers, many of the pottery forms,
7. CHARACTER OF THE NORTHERN
the absence of stone axeheads, the extensive
EGYPTIAN COMMUNITIES
use of copper for tools and weapons, and the
presence of rough stone superstructures over The material for this summary was drawn
some of the graves point certainly to very in its entirety from the preceding sections of
late Predynastic and Early Dynastic ("Early the present chapter and from the references-
Bronze Age") times. That, however, neither especially the more general works-cited in
the settlement nor the cemeteries survived the notes accompanying these sections.
 oi.uchicago.edu

4
THE PREDYNASTIC CULTURES OF
UPPER AND MIDDLE EGYPT

1. PRELIMINARY SURVEY includes the neighboring sites of Deir

Tasa, Nazlet el Mostagedda, and Matmar
on the north and El- Hemamieh and
SURFACE finds of Neolithic stone Qau el- Kebir on the south. Closely asso-
implements at numerous points along the ciated through their combed and burnished
fringes of the Upper Egyptian Nile Valley pottery with Nubia and the northern
and of habitation sites in the adjoining Sudan the settlements and cemeteries of
desert areas as well as in Nubia and the the Badarians do not reach north of the
northern Sudan show clearly that this area just described, but typical Badarian
part of the land was not, as has been pottery and other products have been
suggested, unoccupied by man between found at several places in southern Upper
the Final Paleolithic and the Chalcolithic Egypt, notably at Armant and in the basin
phases of Egyptian prehistory. To date, of the Wadi Hammamat. In all some one
however, no Neolithic settlements or thousand Badarian graves have been
cemeteries comparable to those of northern cleared to date and to these may be added
Egypt have been identified in or near the forty-odd burials of the so-called "Tasian
river valley between the latitude of the culture," evidently an early phase of the
Fayum and the First Cataract. Though Badarian found in the same general area,
this need not mean that Upper and Middle that is, in the vicinity of Deir Tasa and the
Egypt had at that time no settled popula- adjoining sites. Small Badarian settlements
tion the fact remains that the earliest are also known in sufficient quantity to be
post-Paleolithic habitation and burial sites described by Werner Kaiser as "numerous."
in this area belong to two partly contem- Unhappily, the only existing radiocarbon
poraneous and related cultures, the Badar- date derived from a Badarian sample
ian and the Naqadian, both of which (3150 + 160 B.c.) is so obviously low as
from the outset produced small imple- to be useless. Since, however, the Badarian
ments and ornaments of hammered copper appears to have been contemporaneous
and are therefore classed as Chalcolithic with the earliest phases of the Naqada
or, to use a more general and familiar culture (dated by the Carbon 14 method to
designation, as "Predynastic." 3790 + 300 B.C.) it may be assigned with
In Egypt the "core area" of the Badar- some assurance to the first century or two
ian centers around the type-site of Badari, of the fourth millennium.
on the east side of the Nile some twenty- The kernel zone of the Naqada culture
two miles south of the city of Asyut, and is the area inclosed by the great eastward

147
 oi.uchicago.edu

148 PREDYNASTIC CULTURES OF UPPER AND MIDDLE EGYPT

loop of the Nile between Gebelein and drawings, those of Winkler's "Eastern
Abydos. Here, where a number of desert Invaders" and those of his "Early Nile
tracks from the Red Sea on the east and Dwellers." Traces of the Naqada culture
from the Great Oases on the west converge in the oases and other areas of the Libyan
on the Nile Valley, lay a region much Desert are slight, but an association of the
frequented by ancient man from the Predynastic people of Armant and the
Middle Paleolithic period onward and Peasant Neolithic folk of Kharga is appa-
destined in the course of Egypt's dynastic rent, as has already been remarked (Chap.
and subsequent history to retain much of III, § 3), from the close agreement of their
its old geo-political importance. In Pre- stone implements. All told it occurs at more
dynastic times the focal point of the area than fifty sites, including ten with the re-
lay to the north of the present village of mains of settlements, and its cemeteries
Naqada, in the important prehistoric number at least fifteen thousand graves.
town of Nubt (later Ombos) and in the As time progressed influences both from
vast cemeteries of Naqada and Ballas within and without brought about basic
which together have yielded more than changes in the character of the culture and
three thousand graves. Settlements and its products, the changes taking place in
cemeteries belonging to the earlier (and more or less recognizable stages to which
subsequent) stages of the culture abound in modern investigators have applied a variety
the same general area-at Hu and of designations. Having, in 1901, devised
Abadiyeh ("Diospolis Parva"), El-Amrah, a system of relative dating, or "Sequence
Abydos, El-Mahasna, Naga el- Deir, and Dates," which is no longer regarded by
Mesaeed, to the north of Naqada, and at prehistorians as reliable, Sir Flinders
Khozam, Armant, Gebelein, and Hiera- Petrie subsequently divided the Naqadian
konpolis to the south. With time the culture into three principal phases, named, with
spread northward, first into the Badarian reference to the sites of El-Amrah, Gerzeh,
zone (Qau el- Kebir, Hemamieh, Badari, and Semaineh, the "Amratian," the
Mostagedda, and Matmar) and thence, "Gerzean," and the "Semainean" and
during its later stages, into Middle Egypt otherwise known as Naqada I, Naqada II,
(Deir Bisra, Sawada, Zawiyet el-Meitin) and Naqada III. In 1944 Helene Kantor
and the region of the Fayum (Harageh, challenged the existence of a Semainean
Abusir el:Meleq, Gerzeh, Wadfa), reaching or Naqada III stage and pointed out that
the Memphite area (Tarkhan, Giza) not the culture of the First Dynasty arose
long before the beginning of the historic immediately out of the late Gerzean. In
period. Southward it spread beyond the 1956-57 Werner Kaiser, chiefly on the
bounds of Egypt proper into Nubia, where basis of a detailed study of a well-recorded
in its middle and final phases it has been Predynastic cemetery at Armant, attemp-
found at many sites between the First and ted a new chronological articulation of the
Second Cataracts (Bahan, Debod, Dehmit, Naqada culture, dividing it into three
Gerf Hussein, Dakka, Amada, Aniba, Abu stages ("Stufe I," "II," and "III"), each
Simbel, Faras, Gemnai, etc.). In the subdivided into three to four sub-stages
Eastern Desert it is represented by a ("I a," "II c," etc.) which in turn were
settlement and graves in the vicinity of sometimes further subdivided ("II d I,"
the oasis of Laqeita and by graves in the "II d 2," "III a 1," etc.). x
Wadi Hammamat and near the Red Sea 1 This fragment of Chap. IV concludes the com-
coast, as well as by two series of rock pleted portion of Mr. Hayes' proposed work.
 oi.uchicago.edu

INDEX OF NAMES
The indexes to this volume were prepared by Miriam P. Arnett.
Adams, Robert McC., 138 n. 1 Beadnell, H. J., 31 n. 1, 32 n. 2, 34 n. 6,
Alimen, H., 33 n. 5, 39 n. 11, 74, 76n. 1, 35 n. 8, 36 n. 9, 37 n. 10, 140 n. 2
77 n. 1, 79 n. 2, 80 n. 2,81 n. 3, 82 n. 3, Bittel, K., 77 n. 1
84 n. 4, 85 n. 4, 86 n. 4, 87 n. 4, 88 n. 5, Blackman, Winifred S., 145 n. 6
90 n. 5, 139 n. 1, 142n. 4, 143n. 4, Blanekenhorn, M., 13, 30 n., 30 n. 1, 31 n. 1,
144 n. 5, 145 n. 6 31 n. 2, 32 n. 2, 32 n. 3, 35 n. 7, 36 n. 9,
Amer, Mustafa, 132, 144 n. 6,145 n. 6 37n. 10, 38n. 11, 39n. 12,75
Andrew, G., 31 n. 1,31 n. 2, 34 n. 6,141 n. 3 Bonnet, H., 89 n. 5, 125, 145 n. 6
Andrews, C. W., 32 n. 2,140 n. 2 Bordaz, Jacques, 50, 75, 77 n. 1, 78 n. 2,
Arcelin, Godefroy, 45, 74 80 n. 3, 81 n. 3, 85 n. 4, 87 n. 5,138 n. 1
Arkell, A. J., 76 n. 1, 78 n. 1, 79 n. 2, 80 n. 2, Bordes, F., 80n. 3, 81n.3
82 n. 3, 86 n. 4, 87n.4, 88-89n. 5
Boswell, P. G. H., 79 n. 2
Arkell, W. J., 29 n., 30 n., 30 n. 1, 31 n. 2, Bovier-Lapierre, Pre Paul, 33 n. 5, 36 n. 8,
32 n. 2, 32 n. 3, 32 n. 4,33 n. 5,33 n. 6, 46, 56-57, 71, 74, 76n. 1, 77n. 1,
34 n. 6, 35 n. 7, 35 n. 8,36 n. 8,36 n. 9,
37 n. 10, 38 n. 11, 40n. 12, 50, 57, 74- 79 n.2,80 n.3,81 n. 3,88 n. 5,117-18,
131, 139n. 1, 141n. 3, 143n. 5,
75, 77 n. 1, 78 n. 2, 79n. 2, 80n. 3, 144 n. 6, 145 n. 6
81 n. 3, 82 n. 3, 83 n.4,87 n.4,88 n.5,
90 n. 5, 97, 114, 136,138 n.1,139 n.1, Braidwood, R. J.,40n. 12, 75, 77n. 1,
140 n.2, 143 n.4, 144n.5 83n. 3, 137n. 1,138 n. 1,139 n. 1,
Arldt, T., 31 n. 2 144 n. 5
Arnold, J. R., 144 n. 5 Breasted, James Henry, 34 n. 6, 35 n. 6
Aseherson, P., 36 n.10 Breitinger, E., 75-76
Attia, M. I., 35 n. 8 Breuil, Abbe H., 60, 76 n. 1, 81 n. 3, 87 n. 4
Azadian, M. A., 37 n. 10 Broecker, W. S., 40 n. 12
Azer, N., 34 n. 6 Brooks, C. E. P., 35n. 6, 39n. 11, 39n. 12
Brotzen, F., 90 n. 5
Bachatly, C., 75 Brown, R. H., 36 n. 8
Badawy, Alexander, 142 n. 4, 144 n. 5, Brunton, G., 87 n. 4
145 n. 6
Baedeker, Karl, 30 n. Burkitt, M. C., 77 n. 1, 78 n. 1, 78 n. 2,
87n.5
Ball, J., 29 n., 30 n. 1, 31 . 1, 31 . 2, Butzer, Karl W., 21, 24, 29 n., 30 n. 1,
32 n. 2, 33 n. 5, 34 n. 6, 35 n. 7, 35 n. 8,
36 n. 9, 36 n. 10, 37 n. 10, 40 n. 12, 31 n. 1, 31n. 2, 32 n. 2, 32 n. 4, 33 n. 5,
40 n. 13, 41 n. 13, 81 n. 3, 140 n. 2 34 a. 6, 35 n. 6, 35 n. 7, 36 n. 8, 36 n. 9,
38 n. 11, 39 n. 11, 39 n. 12, 40 n. 12,
Balout, L., 39 n. 11, 39 n. 12, 76, 78 n. 1, 40 n. 13, 41 n. 13, 68, 72, 76 n. 1,
79 n. 2, 80 n. 2, 85 n. 4, 138 n. 1 78 n. 2, 79 n. 2, 81 n. 3, 82 n. 3, 84 n. 4,
Barnett, Lincoln, 138 n. 1 86 n. 4, 87 a. 4, 88 n. 5, 89.n. 5, 90 n. 5,
Barron, T., 32 n. 3 92, 97, 102-3, 139 n. 1, 140 n. 2,
Barthoux, J., 40 n. 13 141 n. 3, 142 n. 4, 143 n. 4, 145 n. 6
Bate, D. M. A., 86 n. 4, 88 n. 5
Bates, Onec, 114 Cana, F. R., 35 n. 6
Baumgartel, Elise J., 90 n. 5, 92, 114, 118, Caton-Thompson, Gertrude, 33 n. 5,34 n. 6,
122, 126-27, 129, 131, 136, 139 n. 1, 36 n. 9, 37 n. 10, 38 n. 11, 40 n. 12,
140 n. 2, 142 n. 4, 143 n. 4, 143 n. 5, 40 n. 13, 52, 55, 59, 61-67, 69, 74,
144 n. 5, 145 n. 6 78 n. 2, 79 n. 2, 80 n. 2, 80 a. 3, 81 a. 3,
149
 oi.uchicago.edu

150 INDEX

150IDE
82 n. 3, 83 n. 3, 83 n. 4,841.4,85 n. 4, Gindy, A. R., 30 n. 1, 32 n. 3
86 n. 4, 87 n. 4, 88 n. 5,891n.5,9011.5, Godwin, H., 40 n. 12
97, 102-3, 108-9, 127, 134, 139n. 2, Grant, James A., 37 n. 11
140 n. 2, 141 n. 3, 142n. 4, 145n. 6
Greiss, Elhamy A. M., 143 n. 5
Cesnola, Arturo Palma di, 89n. 5
Childe, V. Gordon, 41 1. 13, 47, 75, 78 n.1, Hall, A. R., 125, 145 n. 6
83 1. 3, 87 n.4, 97, 120, 125-26, 132, Hamy, Ernest, 74
137 n. 1, 138 n. 1, 140n. 2, 142n. 4,
144 n. 5, 145 n. 6 Hay, R. L., 77 n.
Clark, Grahame, 69-70, 75, 78 1. 1, 80 n.2, Hayes, W. C., 89 n. 5
83 n. 3, 87 n. 4, 87 n. 5,137 n.1 Haynes, John H., 75
Cole, S., 58, 76 n. 1, 79 n.2, 8011. 2, 8011. 3, Helbaek, Hans, 138 n. 1,143 n. 5
82 n. 3, 85 n. 4, 86 n. 4,871.4,8811.5, Herodotus, 35 n. 7
89 n. 5, 138 n. 1, 139n. 1 Hey, R. W., 84 n. 4, 139n. 1, 140n. 2,
Coon, C. S., 58-59, 75, 7811. 1, 83 n. 3, 141 n. 3, 142n. 4
87 n. 5, 137 n. 1, 142n.4 Hickmann, Hans, 144 n. 5
Cottevieille-Giraudet, R., 74, 77 1. 1, Higazy, R. A., 30 n. 1
83n. 4, 85n. 4, 88n. 5, 139n. 1,
140 1. 2, 141 1. 3,143 1. 5 Hockett, C. D., 75
Currelly, Charles, 75, 14011. 2 Hume, W. F., 30 n., 31 n. 1, 32 n. 2, 32 n. 3,
35n. 8, 36n. 10, 37n. 10, 46, 144n. 6
Curtis, G. H., 77 n. 1
Hurst, H. E., 35n. 6
Daressy, G., 89 n. 5 Huzayyin, S. A., 30 n., 32 n. 2, 33 n. 5,
Dart, R. A., 78 n. 1 34n. 6, 36n. 9, 37n. 10, 37n. 11,
38n. 11, 39n. 12, 40n. 12, 40n. 13,
Davies, 0., 39 n. 11 41 n. 13, 46, 52, 62-64, 71-72, 74-76,
Debono, Fernand, 61, 64, 71, 77n. 1, 77 n. 1, 78 n. 2, 79 n. 2, 80 n. 2, 80 n. 3,
84 n. 4, 85 n. 4, 88n. 5,117-18, 133, 81 n. 3, 83 n. 4, 84 n. 4, 85 n. 4, 86 n. 4,
143 n. 5, 144 n.5, 145n.6 87n. 4, 88n. 5, 89n. 5, 90n. 5, 97,
Deevey, E. S., Jr., 75 138n. 1, 139n. 1, 139n. 2, 140n. 2,
Derry, Douglas E., 120, 14211. 4 141 n. 3,142 n. 4, 143 n. 5,145 n. 6,
146n.6
Diodorus Siculus, 35 n. 7
Drioton, E., 36 n. 8 Ibrahim, M. M., 32 n. 2
Dunbar, J. H., 90 n. 5 Isaac, Erich, 138 n. 1
Ebert, M., 75, 77 1. 1,137 n.1 Janssen, J. M. A., 89 n. 5
Eiseley, L. C., 83 n. 3 Johnson, F., 40 n. 12
El Ayouti, M. K., 3011. 1 Joleaud, .once, 67-68, 86 n. 4
Everdeen, J. F., 7711. 1 Jordan, W., 36 n. 10
Junker, Hermann, 4011. 12, 64, 84 n. 4,
Fakhry, A., 37 n. 10, 141 n. 3 85 n. 4, 103, 109, 112, 135, 138 n. 1,
Fleisch, H., 76 11. 1 139 n. 1, 140 n. 2, 141 n. 4, 142 n. 4,
Forbes, R. H., 3711. 10 143 n. 5, 144n. 5
Forde-Johnston, J. L., 36 n. 9, 39 n. 11, 97,
138 n. 1, 139 11. 1, 14011. 2, 141 11. 3, Kaiser, Werner, 114, 122, 139 n. 1, 142 n. 4,
142 n. 4, 143 n. 4, 144 n. 5 143 n. 4, 143 n. 5, 144 n. 5, 147, 148
Fourtau, R., 3411. 6 Kantor, Helene, 14211. 4, 143 n. 4, 144 n. 5,
145 n. 6, 148
Frankfort, Henri, 138 n. 1, 143 11. 4
Kees, Herman, 144 11. 5, 145 11. 6
Gaillard, C., 3411. 6, 8611. 4 Keldani, E. H., 3011., 32 n. 2, 75
Gara~inin, M. V., 138 n. 1 Kemal el-Din Hussein, 77 n. 1, 8811. 5, 103
Gardner, E. W., 3411. 6, 3611. 9, 3711. 10, Kenyon, Kathleen M., 138 n. 1, 13911. 1
38 n. 11, 88 n. 5, 89 n. 5, 139 n. 2, Kohler, E. L., 4011. 12, 13911. 1
140 n. 2, 141 n. 3, 142 n. 4, 145 n. 6 Kraeling, Carl H., 13811. 1
Garrod, D.A. E., 71, 8611. 4, 8811. 5 Kroeber, A. L., 801. 3
 oi.uchicago.edu

INDEX 151

Lamb, Mrs., 144 n. 6 INDEX

Obermaier, H., 76 n. 1, 77 1. 1, 78 1. 151,
Lansing, A., 89 n. 5 83n.4, 87n.4
Larsen, Hjalmar, 84 n. 4, 89 n. 5, 92, 103, Otto, Eberhard, 143 11. 4,143 n. 5
114, 139n. 1, 140n. 2, 142n. 4,
143 n. 4, 143 n. 5 Passarge, S., 34 n. 6, 35 n. 6, 37 n. 11,
Leakey, L. S. B., 41n. 13, 74, 76n.1, 40 n. 13, 103
77 n. 1, 78 n. 1, 79n. 2, 82n. 3, 84n.4, Perthes, Boucher de, 44, 76 n. 1
139 n. 1
Petrie, Flinders, 125, 127, 14511. 6,148
Leclant, J., 40 n. 12, 143 1. 5,145 n. 6
Pfannenstiel, M., 31 n. 2, 36 11. 9, 3611. 10,
Legrain, Georges, 102 37 n. 10, 140 n.
Lenormant, Francois, 74 Pietsch, W., 35 n.6
Libby, W. F.. 40 n. 12, 144n. 5 Piggott, S., 78 n. 1,138 n. 1
Little, 0. H., 35 n. 8, 36 n. 9, 37 n. 10, Pitt-Rivers, Augustus, 75
79 1. 2, 140 n. 2
Pittioni, Richard, 139 n. 1
Lozach, J., 35 n. 7
Pliny the Elder, 35 n. 7
Lukas, Johannes, 144 n. 6
Proosdij, B. A., 40 n. 12
Lyons, H. G., 34 n. 6
McBurney, C. B. M., 33 1. 5, 36 n. 9, Ralph, E.K., 40n. 12, 139n. 1
39 n. 11, 40 n. 12, 41 n. 13, 53, 55, 57- Read, C. H., 77 n.1
59, 60-62, 64, 66, 71, 74-76, 77n. 1, Reed, Charles A., 138 n.1
79 1. 2, 80 n. 3, 81 1. 3,82 1. 3,83 n. 4, Reil, Wilhelm, 70
84 1. 4, 85 n. 4, 86 n. 4, 87 1. 4,88 n. 5, Reim, A., 35n.6
89 n. 5, 90 n. 5, 97-98,99-100,138 n. 1,
139 1. 1, 140 n. 2, 141 n. 3, 142 n. 4, Rittman, A., 30 n. 4, 35 n.8
143 n. 4 Rizkana, Ibrahim, 34 n. 6, 132, 143 n. 5,
MacCurdy, G. G., 75, 77 1. 1, 78 n. 2, 144n. 5, 145 n. 6
88 n. 5, 137 n. 1 Rohlfs, G., 36 n. 10
Marais, J., 77 Romer, A. 5.,41 n. 13
Massoulard, P., 74, 76, 77n. 1,78n. 2, Ruhlmann, A., 39 n. 12
79 n. 2, 80n. 3,81 n.3,83n.4, 85n.4,
86n. 4, 87n. 4, 88n. 5, 139n. 1, Save-Soderbergh, T., 76 n. 1, 89 n. 5,
140 n. 2, 141 n. 3, 142n. 4,143n. 5, 141 1. 3
145 n. 6
Sahlin, M. D., 75
Mellink, Machteld J., 138 1. 1
Said, Rushdi, 29 n., 30 n., 30 n. 1, 3211. 2,
Menghin, Oswald, 39 11. 12, 64, 74-75, 321. 3,35 n. 7, 351. 8,36 n. 9, 3611.10
77 n. 1, 109, 114, 125, 137 n. 1,
139 n. 1, 142 n.4, 144 n.6 Sandford, K. S., 29 n., 30 n. 1, 31 . 1,
311. 2,321. 2,321. 3,321. 4,3311. 5,
Montet, A. M., 84 11. 4 331. 6,341. 6, 351. 7,351.8,36 n. 8,
Morgan, J. de, 36 n. 8, 71, 75, 88 n. 5,
138 n. 1, 139 n. 1, 140 n. 2, 141 n. 3
36 n. 9, 36 n. 10, 37 n. 10, 38n. 11,
40 n. 12, 40 n. 13, 50, 55, 57, 61, 74,
Moustafa, Y. Shawki, 32 n. 2, 133, 145 11. 6 76-77 n. 1, 78 n. 2, 7911. 2, 80 n. 3,
Movius, H. L., 39 n. 12, 40 n. 12, 54-55, 66, 811. 3,821. 3, 831.4,8611. 4,8711. 4,
88 n. 5, 90 n. 5
75-76, 77 n. 1, 78 n. 2, 80 n. 3, 81 n. 3,
84 n. 4, 85 n. 4, 86 n. 4, 87 11. 5, 88 n. 5, Scharff, A., 74, 83 n. 4, 85 n. 4, 90 n. 5,
89 n. 5 139 n. 1, 140 n. 2, 142 n. 4, 143 n. 5,
Murray, G. W., 3711. 11 145 n. 6
Myers, 0. H., 89 n. 5 Schmitthenner, H., 3611. 10
Myre, J. L., 3011. Schott, 5., 77 11. 1
Schwarzbach, M., 3911. 12
Nakkady, S. E., 31 n. 1
Schweinfurth, Georg, 75, 77 11. 1, 140 n. 2
Neuffer, E., 77 n. 1
Seligman, Charles, 56, 75, 81 11. 3
Neuville, R., 39 n. 12
Seton-Karr, H. W., 90 n. 5, 140 n. 2,
Oakley, K. P., 75, 77 n. 1, 7811. 2, 8011. 2, 141 11. 3
 oi.uchicago.edu

152 INDEX
Shukri, N. M., 30 n. 1, 31 n. 1, 32 n. 1, Vignard, Edmond, 34 n. 6, 46, 56, 59, 60-
32 n. 3, 34 n. 6, 35 n. 7, 35 n. 8 62, 66, 77 n. 1, 78n. 2,80 n.2, 80 n.3,
Sollas, H. G. E., 32 n. 2 81 n. 3,82 n. 3,84 n. 4,85 n. 4, 87 n. 4
Sollas, W. J., 75, 76 n. 1, 77 n. 1, 78 n. 1
Wasfy, H. M., 30 n. 1
Sterns, F. H., 79 n. 2
Washburn, S. L., 75
Strabo, 35 n. 7
Watson, D. M. S., 68
Stromer, E., 35 n. 7, 36 n. 10
Suess, Edward, 3, 32 n. 2
Wiercinski, Andrej, 58, 82 n. 3
Willett-Cunningham, C., 140 n. 3
Suggate, R. P., 40 n. 12
Willis, E. H., 40 n. 12
Toussoun, 0., 35 n. 7 Winkler, 73-74, 89 n. 5, 90 n. 5,100,102,
141 n. 3,148
Turner, R., 40 n. 12, 75, 78n. 1, 83n. 3, Winlock, H. E., 37 n. 10
88 n. 5, 137 n. 1
Woldstedt, P., 39 n. 12
Uhden, R., 31 n. 2, 37 n. 10 Wolf, W., 89 n. 5, 144 n. 5
Woodward, A. S., 87 n. 4
Vallois, H., 77 Wright, W. B., 33 n. 5, 75, 76 n. 1
Vandier, J., 36 n. 8, 61, 74, 77 n. 1, 79 n. 2,
80 n. 3, 81 n. 3, 83 n. 4, 85 n. 4, 88 n. 5, Zeuner, F. E., 25-26, 35 n. 7, 39 n. 11,
90 n. 5, 125, 139 n. 1, 140 n. 2, 141 n. 3, 39 n. 12, 40 n. 12, 76 n. 1, 78 n. 2,
142 n. 4, 143 n. 4, 145 n. 6 80 n.3, 84 n.4, 138 n. 1
Vaufrey, R., 69, 84 n. 4, 87 n. 4, 89 n. 5 Zittel, K. A., 36 n. 10
 oi.uchicago.edu

SUBJECT INDEX
The indexes to this volume were prepared by Miriam P. Arnett.
Abbassiya, 7, 11, 33 n. 5, 45, 50, 52, 56, 57, Araba, Wadi, 3
63, 76 n. 1, 79 n. 2, S0n. 3, 81-82n. 3 Arable land, 13
Abbevillian stage (derived from Abbeville, Arabs Gulf, 12, 25, 31 a. 1, 35 n. 7, 39 n. 2
France), 21 43, 44, 45, 48, 49, 53-54, Archeozoic era, 1
76 n. 1, 77 n. 1, 81 n. 3
Arrowheads; see Bow and arrow
Abu el-Agag, Wadi, 46, 56
Arsinoe, 18
Abu Roash, Gebel, 1, 3, 5,10, 27, 31 n. 1, 45
Arsinoitherium, 3, 32 a. 2
Abu Simbel, 14, 55
Abu Suwair, 63, 64
Art, 135; see alsoDrawings, rock
Assemblages; see Industries
Abuqir, 11-14
Astronomical dating method, 39 n. 12
Abusir, 15
Aswan, 5-6, 14-15, 20, 28, 30 n. 1, 35 n. 8,
Abyssinia, 2, 8-9, 21, 56 46, 52, 56, 71, 86 n. 4, 88 n. 5
Accessibility, 29 Asyut, 2, 8, 20, 34 n. 6, 45, 51, 65, 68, 147
Acheulian Man, Lower (Atlanthropus mau- Ataqa, Gebel, 3, 27, 122
ritanicus, Ternifine, Algeria), 47, 53
Atbara River, 6-9, 28, 31 a. 2, 45
Acheulian stage (derived from St. Acheul,
Amiens, France), 19, 21, 31 n. 2, 49-54, Aterian (derived from Bir el Ater, Tunisia);
.56, 78n. 2, 79n. 2, 80n. 2, 82n. see Industries
3, 83 n. Micoquian (after Micoque, Atiri, 15
France)-final stage, 79 n. 2 Atlantic phase (Climatic Optimum), 23
Acheulio-Levalloisian stage, 7, 21, 52, 55, Augite (indication of the Blue Nile), 6, 7,
57, 79n. 2 33n. 5
Afu, Wadi, 52 Aurignacian culture (blade culture), 59, 66,
Aggradation, 6, 9, 12, 16-17, 22, 26-27, 68, 85n. 4
34 n. 6, 50, 59, 93, 145n. 6; see also Australopithecus, 78 n. 1
Silt levels Axehead, 108, 117, 120
Agriculture, 91-93, 95, 103, 112, 122, 130, copper, 127
136, 138 n. 1, 139n. 1 Axes; see Hand-axe
pre- 69-70, 72
stock-farming, 112, 122, 130 Bab el-Mandeb, 4
Ahmar, Gebel el-, 5, 10, 45, 50, 52, 56, 118, Badarian; see Predynastic period
133
Bahnasa, el-, 3
Akhdar, Gebel, 87
Bahr el-Ghazal, 6
Alexandria, 12-14, 58, 99, 126
Bahr Yusef, 17
Alluvium, 9, 12, 13, 28, 45
alluvial plain, 9, 10, 13 Bahria Oasis, 18, 20, 37 n. 10, 46, 56, 86 n.
4, 103
Amulets; see Magic
Barley; see Grain, domestication of
Angabiya, Wadi, 71, 72
Bars, marine, 12-14, 25, 35 n. 7
Animals, domestication of, 92-93 Basal silt; see Sebilian (basal) silts
cattle, 112, 122, 130
dog, 70, 73, 112 Basins, 27; see also Alluvium; Kom Ombo;
donkey, 130 Levees
goat, 92, 112, 122, 130 Baskets; see Straw
pig, 111-12, 122, 130 Batn el-Baqar, 14
sheep, 92, 112, 122, 130 Batn el-Hagar ("Belly of Stones"), 15
Animals, wild ; see Fauna Beaches, lake, 8, 17, 25, 34 a. 6
Anticline, 4, 18 river (see Shingle beaches)
Kharga Oaisis, 3 sea, 12
153
 oi.uchicago.edu

154 INDEX

Beads, 95-96, 100-101, 111, 128-29, 136 Chalossian stage (derived from La Chalosse,
Bedouin Microlithic industry; see Kharga France), 44, 45
Oasis Chellean stage (derived from Chelles,
Beni Mazar, 10 France), 31 n. 2, 45, 46, 76 n. 1
"Black Hills," 3 Man (Tanganyika), 47, 77
Blade industries, 66, 69, 70, 71, 72, 81 n. 3, Chello-Acheulian stage, 50
84 n. 4, 85 n. 4, 94, 97-100, 126, 132- Chert, 29, 44, 50, 65, 101
33; see also Flake tools; Industries Chipping floors, 98
Blue Nile, 6-9, 28, 31 n. 2, 45, 69 Chronology, 39n. 12, 61, 70, 103, 122,
Boats, 107, 125 144 n. 5; see also Astronomical dating;
Bola, 48, 80 n. 2 Carbon-14 method
absolute, 24-27, 29 n., 40 n. 12, 58-59,
Borrowing, cultural, 52-53, 62, 64-65, 71, 87 n. 5, 92, 103-4, 108, 144 n. 5, 147
73-74, 93-94, 103, 114-15,118-19, 122, correlations, 24-26, 59, 67, 81 n. 3, 102,
125, 128, 135-36 129, 146 n. 6
Bow and arrow, 62, 65, 68, 73, 94, 98-101, City state, 135
108, 117
Civilization, 91, 116
Bread, 119
Clacto-Abbevillian stage, 45, 48, 76 n. 1
Burial practices, 58, 67, 69, 96, 104-5, 111-
14, 116, 119-21, 130-32, 146 n. 6 Clactonian stage (derived from Clacton-
cemeteries, 121-22, 131-33, 146 n. 6, 148 on-Sea in Essex, England)
stone superstructures, 131, 146 n. 6 "block-on-block," 44, 51
disuse, 55
Burin (graving tool), 68, 71; see also Hand- method of flake-tool production, 43, 46,
axe 48-49, 76-77
micro- 70, 71
Clays, 1, 2
Burullus, Lake, 13, 14
Climatic changes, 6, 8, 14, 18, 20-24, 28,
Bushman skull, 87 n. 4 30 n., 33 n. 5, 37-38 n. 11, 47, 56, 59,
61-62, 79 n. 2, 93
Cairo, 1-3, 7, 10, 12-13, 24, 27 Cloth, 95, 102, 118, 129
Cambridge, 99 cords and strings, 118, 130
Camp sites, 59, 61, 70, 98 flax (linen), 95, 118-19
Cannibalism, 69, 87 n. 4 spinning, 95, 99, 109, 128-29
Capsian (derived from Roman Capsa in weaving, 95
Tunisia) blade culture, 64, 66, 70, 72, Coastline (shoreline), Mediterranean, 11,
86 n. 4, 112, 114; see also Sebilian 13, 25, 31 n. 1, 35 n. 7
period; Aurignacian culture Combs, 111, 128
Caravan routes, 20 absence of, 111
Carbon-14 method, 26, 40 n. 12, 58, 59, Composite tools; see Implements, stone
84 n. 4, 87 n. 5, 92, 103-4, 108, 116, Continents, separation of, 4
120, 139 n. 1,143 n. 4, 144 n. 5, 147 land bridges, 41 n. 13
Carboniferous period, 31 n. 1 Copper, 120, 122, 127, 147
Casablanca, Morocco, 43, 53 absence of, 132
Cataract, First, 1, 10, 15-16, 22, 34 n. 6, implements, 129
35 n. 8, 36 n. 8 metallurgy, 128
beginning of, 28 Coral reefs, ancient, 4, 13
Cataract, Second, 8, 15-16, 22, 52 Cores; see Flake tools; Hand-axes
beginning of, 28 Cretaceous period, 1, 18, 31 n. 1
Caves, not used, 48, 68 Upper, 1, 14
Cellars, storage, 124 Cro-Magnon people, 67
Cemeteries; see Burial practices Crocodilopolis, 18
Chad, 19, 53 Crustal movements, 1, 3-4, 18, 32 n. 2
Chalcolithic stage, 23, 26-27, 34 n. 6, 92, Cultural level, 54, 58-59, 60-61, 73, 83 n.
120; see also Predynastic period 3, 91, 98, 115, 121-22, 136; see also
Naqada I, 26, 102 Regional cultures
Naqada II, 26 regression, 98
Chalk, 18 survivals, 129
 oi.uchicago.edu

INDEX 155

Cyrenaica, 13, 27, 56-58, 65-67, 82 n. 3, Extinct forms, 3, 11, 67; see also Arsinoi-
86 n. 4, 88 n. 5, 92, 99 therium

Dakhla Oasis, 18, 20, 37 n. 10, 65, 102 Farafra Oasis, 18, 20, 37 n. 10, 46, 56, 86 n.
Damietta, 13, 14 4, 103
Darb el Arbain ("Road of the Forty Farmers; see Agriculture
Days"), 20 Faulting, geologic, 3, 11, 16, 31 n. 1, 32 n. 2
Dating, geological; see also Chronology Fauna, 3, 8, 11, 21-24, 29, 32 n. 2, 34 n. 6,
abandoned, 7 35 n. 7, 39 n. 12, 41 n. 13, 46, 54, 58,
Degradation (erosion process), 15, 22, 25- 60, 67-69, 73, 80 n. 2, 86 n. 4, 93-95,
27, 34 n. 6, 59, 145 n. 6 101-2, 112, 119, 123, 129-30
Deir el-Miharraq, 10 Fayum, 2-3, 7-8, 12, 16-20, 22, 26, 32 n. 2,
Deirut, 2-3 36 n. 9, 37 n. 10, 38 n. 11, 45, 49-50,
56-59, 62, 64, 69-74, 79 n. 2, 88 n. 5,
Delta, Nile, 2, 6, 8-14, 23-25, 56, 64, 69, 89n. 5, 92-93, 102-3, 105-6, 108,
86 n. 4, 92 140 n. 2, 148
classical times, 10 Fayum A culture, 93-98
"gates of," 14 Fayum B culture, 98
Desert; see also Libyan desert Fayum, lake beach levels
Arabian or Eastern, 24, 45, 52, 73, 148 - 18-foot, 63
high, 5, 19, 21-23, 27, 57 - 7-foot, 97
low, 5, 12, 32 n. 4, 103 13-foot, 17, 97
Deshasha, Gebel, 10 33-foot, 17, 93
Digla, Wadi, 122, 132-34, 137, 144 59-foot, 17, 93, 140 n. 2
74-foot, 8, 17, 25, 63, 140 n. 2
Diorites, 1, 16, 60 92-foot, 8, 17, 21, 25, 63
Dog, domestication of, 70, 73, 102 112-foot, 17, 21, 25, 56, 63
Dolerite, 3 131-foot, 21, 25, 55, 81 n. 3
Domestication; see Animals; Grain, domes- 144-foot, 11
tication of Fences, 106, 117, 123
Drawings, rock, 68-69, 73, 87 n. 4, 101, 148 Filling process, geologic, 5-6
Dunes, 10, 22 Fire, 58, 83 n. 3
Dynastic period Fishing implements, 95; see also Imple-
early (proto-historic), 122 ments, stone
First Dynasty, 146 n. 6 fish-hook, 110-11, 118
Twelfth, 15 fish-nets, 95, 111, 118
fish-spears, 95
fish-traps (basketry), 95
Edku, Lake, 13-14 harpoons, 95, 110
Elephanite, island of, 15 scaling shells, 95, 111
Eocene epoch, 1-2, 4-5, 14, 18, 32 n. 4 Flails, for threshing grain, 94
Lower (early), 1, 2 Flake tools, 43-45, 52, 54-56, 59, 63, 66,
Middle, 2, 4 94, 101, 117, 126-27, 132-33; see also
Upper (late), 2-3, 18, 32 n. 2 Clactonian stage; Industries (Leval-
Eoliths (dawn-stones), 45, 75, 77 loisian)
faceted platform, 4
Epi-Levalloisian stage, 8, 27, 56, 59, 60-64, flake-blades, 62, 64; see also Sebilian
66, 68, 71-72, 83 n. 3, 86 n. 4 period (Sebilian III); Kharga Oasis
Fayum (Qarounian), 63 flake-point, 60; see also Sebilian period
Erosion, 1-2, 4-6, 10, 14, 16-18, 23, 38 n. 11 (Sebilian II)
deposits, 10, 105 pressure flaking, 65, 94, 99, 110
Erosion, stages of Nile, 3, 6, 8, 14-16, 26, Flandrian Transgression; see Mediterra-
28, 33 n. 6, 34 n. 6, 35 n. 8; see also nean periods
Aggradation; Degradation Flint, 44, 50, 61
Esna, 1-2 mines, 103; see also Quarries
Estuarine zones, 2-3, 5, 7, 10 Flood, annual; see Inundation, annual sum-
bones in, 3 mer
Eustatic controls, 6, 33 n. 5, 40 n. 12, 45 Flood plain; see Alluvium
 oi.uchicago.edu

156 INDEX
Flora, 27-29, 47, 69 Historic period, 27
Folds, geologic, 3-4 beginning, 40 n. 12
Food gatherers; see Agriculture Hof, Gebel, 120
Food production; see Agriculture Hof, Wadi, 116, 117, 120, 121
Holocene, 21
Gebelein, rock of, 33 n. 4, 148 Homo sapiens, 67, 87 n. 4
Geo-syncline, 4 Houses, 104-5, 123
Geologic provinces (R. Said), 31 n. 1 absence of, 101
Gilf Kebir, 27 absence of brick, 146 n. 6
Giza, Pyramids of, 45, 56 mud, 92, 105
subterranean, 123
Glacial phases, Alpine, 21-22, 24-26, 28, threshhold (entrance), 105
38 n. 11, 43, 47, 49, 55, 57, 67, 70 wickerwork, 104, 117
Gneisses, 1, 16 wood-frame, 104, 117, 123
Gorge, Nile, 3, 5, 14-16, 27; see also Gebel Human occupation, earliest, 7, 8, 11, 16, 19,
Silsila 22, 24, 27, 29, 43, 46-49
Government, 106, 115, 137 Huts; see Houses
Gradient, river, 12-13
Grain, domestication of, 92, 93-94, 98, 100, Ibero-Maurusian culture; see Oranian cul-
104-6, 119, 130, 143 n. 5 ture
barley, 92, 130 Ice Age; see Glacial phases
club wheat, 119, 122 Idol; see Religion
storage, 124, 136 Igneous rock, 1, 15, 30 n. 1
wheat, 92, 104, 130
Implements, stone, 7, 8, 12, 14, 19, 24-25,
Granites, 1, 15-16, 30 n. 1 33 n. 5, 34 n. 6, 43-46, 48, 69; see also
Gravel levels, river, 7, 11, 12; levees, 9, 13 Clacto-Abbevillian stage; Flake tools;
Gravels, wadi; see Terraces Hand-axe; Industries; "Rolled" stone
Graves; see Burial practices implements; Sebilian period; Taya-
cian stage
Gravettians, 65 composite tools, 70, 72
Great Bitter Lake, 4 grinding (or polishing), 91
Greco-Roman period, 13, 18 Indian Ocean, 4
Grinders; see Mills, grain Industries, 43, 46, 53, 56
Grinding (polishing), 94, 98, 108-9, 117, 128 Aterian, 38 n. 11, 56, 62, 64-66, 70-72
Gunaifa, Gebel, 4 82 n. 3, 85 n. 4, 86 n. 4, 94, 97, 114,
136
Halfa, Wadi, 2, 14-15, 28, 45, 49, 60, 61, 68 Aurignacian, 66, 85 n. 4
Hamitic (racial) type, 67, 114 Capsian, 66, 72, 85 n. 4
Fauresmith, 82 n. 3
Hammamat, 147, 148 Kafuan (pebble tool), 43, 76 n. 1
Hammerstones; see Tool-making tools Khargan, 64-65; see also Kharga Oasis
Hand-axe (fist-wedge, cleaver, coup-de- Levalloisian, 40 n. 12
poing, core-biface, Boucher, hache di- Levalloiso-Khargan, 64-65
luvienne), 44-46, 50-53, 55, 57, 63-64, Microlithic, 59, 63-64, 66, 70-73, 84 n. 4,
66, 79 n. 2, 94, 101 94, 97-99
burin technique, 52, 60, 63 Oldowan, 43, 53, 76 n. 1
disuse, 54 Oranian, 66-67, 70
kernel zone, 78 n. 1 Qarounian (Fayyoumian), 97
micro-burins, 62, 84 n. 4, 86 n. 4 Sangoan (Tumbian), 82 n. 3
Hawara Channel, 17, 56, 63, 93 Sirtician, 35 n. 4
Hearth, 68, 93, 101-2, 104, 117, 122 Stilbay and Proto-, 82 n. 3
submicrolithic, 62
Heliopolis, 63, 133-34, 145 n. 6 Tardenoisian, 60, 84 n. 4
Hellenistic period, 9, 13 Interpluvials, 21-22, 24, 38 n. 11, 39 n. 12,
Helwan, 3, 12, 32 n. 2, 59, 70-72, 88 n. 5 57, 59
arrowhead, 71 Intrusions; see Borrowing, cultural
Herdsmen; see Agriculture Inundation, annual summer, 6, 8-10, 34,
Hieraconpolis, 103, 135 35n. 6, 60
 oi.uchicago.edu

INDEX 157
Ironstone (ferricrete sandstone), 50 Libyan desert, 2-3, 16, 38 n. 11, 45-46, 57,
Ismailiya, el-, 12 69-70; see also Plateau oases, 1, 5, 18-
Isohyp, 10-foot, 13 20, 31 n. 2, 34 n. 6, 62, 69, 73
Ivory, 110, 111, 146 n. 6 Limestone, 1-5, 13, 16, 28, 32 n. 4
absence of, 96 Lower Egypt, 2, 6-8, 11, 25, 34 n. 6, 74
Luxor, 2, 4, 8, 20, 86 n. 4
Java Man (Pithecanthropus erectus), 47,
77 n. 1 Mace, stone-headed, 109, 114, 127
Jericho; see Palestine Magdalenian culture, 59, 68, 74
Jewelry, 111, 119, 135-36 Magic (ritual), 58, 73-74, 102, 112
amulets, 74, 96, 111, 115, 129, 131
Kafuan industry; see Industries votive offerings, 107, 130
Kalabsha Gorge, 15, 35 n. 8 Mallawi, 7, 28, 45
Karat el-Soda, 3 Manfalut, 2-3, 51
Katharina, Gebel, 4 Marine regression; see Mediterranean peri-
Kena, Wadi, 51 ods
Kenya, 49, 54 Maryut, Lake, 13
Kharga Oasis, 18-22, 32 n. 4, 34 n. 6, 37 n. Mason, stone-, 101
10, 38 n. 11, 50-56, 64-66, 72, 79 n. 2, Matting; see Straw, matting
80 n. 2, 80 n. 3, 82 n. 3, 83 n. 3, 85 n. 4, Medinet el-Fayum, 18
86 n. 4, 89 n. 5. 90n. 5,100-103 Mediterranean periods (sea levels), 3, 7,
Bedouin Microlithic, , 73, 85 n. 4,100, 9, 13-14, 28, 33 n. 5, 39 n. 12, 40 n. 12,
102 51, 60, 93, 140 n. 2
Moundspring KO 5B, 66
Moundspring KO 10, 80 n. 2 Menzala, Lake, 13-14
Peasant Neolithic, 98, 100, 101-2 Merimda, 92-93, 99, 102-16
Khargan industry; see Industries Mesolithic, 27, 59, 62-63, 67, 70-72
Khartoum, 9-10, 31 n. 2, 45, 72, 88-89 n. 5 Mesozoic, Upper, layer of sandstone, 1
Khatatba, el-, 11, 12 Metal, 120
Kitchen middens, 71 absence of, 96
Knives, 109, 117 Metamorphic rock, 1,4, 15, 30 n. 1, 35 n. 8
Kom Ombo plain (basin), 4-5, 8, 16, 27-28, Micoquian industry; see Acheulian stage
34 n. 6, 35 n. 8, 59-62, 67, 69, 71-72, Micro-burins; see Hand-axe
84 n. 4, 86 n. 4 Microlithic industry; see Industries
Korosko, 14 Middle Egypt, 2-3, 6-8, 10-12, 17, 20, 22,
Kukur Oasis, 37 n. 10 25, 28, 34 n. 6, 70
Middle Kingdom, 15, 64, 74
Lablab, Wadi, 45 Milankovitch curves, 25, 39 n. 12
Lagoons, 13-14 Milazzian sea level; see Mediterranean
Lahun, Gebel, 17 periods
Lamps, 126 Mills, grain, 69, 94, 98, 100, 102-3, 118, 127
Lasso, 73 Mines, flint; see Quarries
Leather, 96, 110, 118 Minya, 11, 20
Miocene epoch, 1,3, 11, 16, 18, 31 n. 1
Lebanon, 13, 43 Middle, 31 n. 1
Levalloisian stage (faceted platform), 7-8, Upper (late), 2, 3, 14
17, 21-22, 27, 33 n. 5, 52-60, 62-65, 69, Missa Matruh, 14
72, 79 n. 2, 80 n. 2, 80 n. 3, 81 n. 3,
82 n. 3, 83 n. 3, 84 n. 4, 86 n. 4; see also Miwev, Lake of, 18 (see also Fayum, lake
Industries beach levels)
diminutive, 71 Moeris, Lake of, 18 (see also Fayum, lake
Khargan, 64 beach levels)
Levalloiso-Khargan stage; see Industries Moghara, 3, 11
Levalloiso-Mousterian industries, 56-58, Monastirian sea level; see Mediterranean
60, 81 n. 3, 82 n. 3 periods
 oi.uchicago.edu

158 INDEX
Moqattam, Gebel, 45, 52, 131 Lower (early), 7, 14, 16, 19, 21, 26, 31 n.
Moqattam Hills, 2-3, 27, 31 n. 1 2, 59
Mousterian stage (derived from Le Mous- Middle, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21-22,
tier, France), 56-58, 60, 65, 79 n. 2, 26-27
80 n. 2, 80 n. 3, 81 n. 3 Upper (late), 8, 12,14-17, 22-23, 25-27,
abandoned term, 56 31 n. 2, 34 n. 6
discoidal nucleus, 81 n. 3 Palestine, 13, 39 n. 11, 52, 56-57, 79-80 n.
Mud houses; see Houses 2, 82n.3, 85n.4, 86n.4, 92
Jericho (Tell el Sultan), 92, 111
Nag Hammadi, 4, 8, 46, 52, 54, 56, 66, Palettes, 110, 127, 129, 146 n. 6
77 n. 1, 85 n. 4 Peasant Neolithic; see Kharga Oasis
Naqada I and II; see Dynastic period; Pebble tool; see Industries, Kafuan
Chalcolithic stage
Pekin Man (Sinanthropus pekinensis), 47,
Natron (kind of soda), 20 53, 77n. 1
Natrun, Wadi el-, 11, 18-20, 35 n. 7, 37 n.
10, 50-51, 79 n. 3 Perigordian culture, 59
Natufian stage (Palestine), 71, 88 n. 5, 89 n. Permanent settlements, 68
5, 92, 97, 112-13; see also Palestine beginning of, 68
Neanderthaloids (derived from Neander Petrified Forests, 3, 32 n. 2
Valley, Germany), 57-59, 67, 82 n. 3 Physical traits, 67, 113-14, 116, 120, 135
Ehringsdorf, 82 n. 3 Pig; see Animals
Steinheim, 82 n. 3
Pithoi; see Pottery
Neolithic period (new Stone Age), 8-9, 12-
13, 19, 22-23, 27, 34 n. 6, 39 n. 11, 63- Plateau; see Desert, high
64, 67, 91 Platforms, gravel; see Terraces, lateral
Fayum, 26, 63 valleys
pre-, 12, 17, 19, 34 n. 6 Pleistocene epoch, 4-5, 10, 12, 14, 21-22,
New Kingdom, 73 25-26, 31 n. 1, 31 n. 2, 33 n. 5, 35 n. 7,
New Stone Age; see Neolithic period 37 n. 11, 38 n. 11, 40 n. 12
Nile; see Blue Nile; Cataract, First; Cata- Lower (early), 12, 27, 103
ract, Second; Delta, Nile; Erosion, Middle, 18, 21, 29
stages of Nile; Gorge, Nile; Inunda- Upper (late), 5-6,17, 21, 25, 26, 34 n. 6
tion, annual summer; Kalabsha Gorge; Plio-Pleistocene formations, 5, 7, 11-12, 14,
Nubian Nile; Terraces, Nile; White 19, 21, 25, 26, 33 n. 5
Nile Pliocene epoch, 5-6, 11, 14, 16, 26, 28, 32 n.
Nomadism, end of, 68 4, 33 n. 5, 35 n. 7, 38 n. 11
Nubia, 2, 6, 8, 14-15, 19-20, 22, 33 n. 6, 45, Lower (early), 3, 14, 26
60, 74 Middle, 5, 20, 26
Nubian Nile, 1, 28, 36 n. 8, 55, 61 Upper (late), 4-5, 14, 16, 20, 26
Nubt (later Ombos), 148 Plutonic formations, 4
Pluvials, 21-24, 38 n. 11, 39 n. 12, 47, 49,
Oases; see Libyan desert 50, 57, 82 n. 3, 89 n. 5, 93, 102, 140 n. 2
Old Kingdom, 9, 23, 64 Polished tools; see Grinding
Old Stone Age; see Paleolithic period
Pontic Pluvial period, 3
Oldowan; see Industries
Population statistics, 72-73, 89 n. 5, 98
Olduvai Gorge, Tanganyika, 43, 47-48,
77 n. 1 Pottery, 69, 71-72, 92-93, 96, 100, 104-6,
Oligocene epoch, 1-3, 11, 18, 20, 32 n. 2 116, 118,121,124-26, 129, 132, 134-35,
146 n. 6, 147
Omari, El, 71, 116-22 kiln, 124
named for Amin el Omari, 116
Predynastic period, 23, 98-99, 147
Oran, Algeria, 43 Amratian, 73, 128
Oranian culture (blade culture), 66, 70 Badarian, 66-67, 94, 147
Orogenetic movements, 4 Gerzean, 128
Naqada I and II, 26, 92, 100, 102, 109,
Palaeozoic era, 4 120, 122, 125-26, 128, 131, 142 n. 4,
Paleolithic period (Old Stone Age), 5, 7, 143 n. 4, 146 n. 6, 147
19, 20, 33 n. 5, 34 n. 6, 37 n. 11, 38 n. 11 Tasian, 147
 oi.uchicago.edu

INDEX 159

Profiles; see Soil profiles Sebilian period (derived from Ezbet-el-Sebil

Proterozoic era, 1 in Kom Ombo basin), 33 n. 6, 59, 63,
64, 66, 70-71, 83 n. 4, 84 n. 4, 86 n. 4,
Pyramids; see Giza, pyramids of 89 n. 5
Capsian, 64, 66, 85 n. 4, 100
Qallala hills, 3, 27 Lower (Sebilian I), 31 n. 2, 59, 60-61, 63,
Qarounian; see Epi-Levalloisian (Fayum) 68
Qattara Depression, 19 Middle (Sebilian II), 60-61, 65, 68, 89
n. 5
Qau, 8, 34 n. 6, 67-68, 86 n. 4, 87 n. 4 Upper (Sebilian III), 61-62, 68, 72, 87 n.
Qena, 3-4, 33 n. 5, 51, 87 n. 4 4, 89 n. 5
Quarries, 101, 103, 109 Sebilian (basal) silts, 8, 10, 67
Quartzes, 1, 44, 50, 60 Sedment, Gebel, 17
Quaternary period, 1, 38 n. 11 Semna, 15, 35 n. 8
Querns; see Mills, grain Settlements, 91
Shales, 1-2, 16
Rabat Man, 47
Shargandi, island of, 15
Racial types; see Physical traits
Shayeb, Gebel el-, 4
Radiocarbon method; see Carbon-14 meth-
Shedet, 18
od
Sheikh, Wadi el-, 90, 101, 103
Rahana, Wadi, 121
Shellal (modern dam), 15, 34 n. 6
Rainfall, heavy, 2, 3, 5, 7, 20-22, 28, 41 n.
13, 66, 70, 104 Shingle beaches (Nile), 8, 28
Rattles; see Religion Sicilian sea level; see Mediterranean periods
Reefs; see Coral reefs, ancient Sickles, wooden, 62, 94, 98, 101, 108, 117
stone-edged, 69, 70, 71
Refuf Pass, 55
Sill, granite, 15
Regional cultures, 70, 72
Silsila, Gebel el-, 3,16, 28, 35 n. 8, 52, 56
Regression; see Cultural level
Silt levels, 8-10, 12-13, 16, 22, 33 n. 6, 34 n.
Religion, 115, 130, 133 6; see also Sebilian (basal) silts; Allu-
cult instruments, 107, 115, 126 vium rate of deposit, 9
idol, 107, 114
Sinai, 4, 13, 27, 31 n. 1, 64, 129
Rhodesia, 77 n. 1
Broken Hill skull, 82 n. 3 Sites, 51
Steinheim skull, 82 n. 3 camp, 59, 61, 70, 98
chipping, 98
Rift, geologic, 4, 32 n. 2 flaking, 51-52, 55-57, 59, 61, 81 n. 3, 82,
Ritual; see Magic 84n. 4
Rock drawings, 68-69, 73, 87 n. 4, 101,148 Siwa Oasis, 18-20, 46, 56, 65, 72, 88 n. 5,
"Rolled" (travel-worn) stone implements, 99-103
7, 45 Slings, 109, 114
Rosetta, 13-14, 103 Sobat, 6
Rus Channel, 7, 45, 51, 76 n. 1 Social organization, Paleolithic, 49
Soil profiles, 7, 22, 33 n. 5
Sabchet el-Bardawil (Lake Sirbonis), 13 Solutrean culture, 59, 65
Safaga, 4 Spindle whorl; see Cloth (spinning)
Sahara desert, 39 n. 12, 40 n. 12 Springs, natural, 19
Said, Port, 13, 32 n. 2 "fossil springs," 19
Samalut, 2, 20, 68 Spurs, 13, 15
Sand; see Erosion Stations, 46, 70; see also Sites
Sandstone, 1-3, 6, 14-16, 19, 28 Steppe conditions, 7, 21-22, 27
Saqqara, 7, 45 Stock-farming; see Agriculture
Saws, 109, 117 Stone Age- see Neolithic period; Paleolithic
Schists, 1, 16 period
Sea levels; see Mediterranean periods Stone tools; see Implements, stone
Sebaiya, el-, 1, 14, 16 Stratigraphy, 38 n. 11
 oi.uchicago.edu

160 INDEX

Straw, matting, 93, 105, 113, 117 Threshhold; see Houses

baskets, 94, 96, 101, 105 Tih, Wadi el-, 45, 56, 122, 131, 132, 134
Sub-pluvial; see Pluvials Tool-making tools, 68, 109, 117-18, 127
Submicrolithic industry; see Industries Tools, composite, 70; see also Implements,
Sudan, 14, 15, 19-20, 31 n. 2, 34 n. 6, 50, stone
52-53, 57 Towns, 135
Sudd, East African, 2 Trade, 95, 100, 116, 118, 121, 124, 129, 136
Suez, Gulf of, 3-4, 27, 31 n. 1 beginnings, 69
shells, personal adornment, 95-96
Suez, Isthmus of, 11, 36 n. 4
Tributaries, 3, 5-6, 9, 14, 16, 27-28, 45, 48
Sugar cane, 119
Tufa, Wadi, 19
Sulphurous springs, 3
Tufa Plateau, 19, 27, 38 n. 11
Syria, 79-80 n. 2
Tumilat, Wadi, 8, 11-12, 63
Tableland, Egyptian, elevation of, 1-3 Tura
Gebel, 116
Tana, Lake, 31 n. 2 Wadi, 122
Tanganyika, 49, 77 n. 1; see also Olduvai Turtlebacks, 12
Gorge, Tanganyika
Tyrrhennian sea level; see Mediterranean
Tardenoisian industry; see Industries periods
Tayacian stage, 47
Tectonic formation, 4, 18, 32 n. 2 Uganda, 49
Terraces, 6, 17, 28, 45, 55 Upper Egypt, 1, 6-8, 10-12, 14, 20, 22-23,
high level, 12 25, 27-28, 33 n. 6, 70, 72, 74
Upper Egypt survivals, 6-7 Urban tradition; see City state
Terraces, Nile, 6, 24-26, 28, 33 n. 5, 39 n. 12, Urnil, 2, 18, 31 n. 2, 32 n. 2, 37 n. 10
40 n. 12, 47 author usage, 32 n. 2
eustatically controlled (Middle and Low- Blanckenhorn theory, 31 n. 2
er Egypt), 6 Uweinat, Gebel, 27, 46, 52
pluvial (Upper Egypt), 6, 14
10-foot, 7, 14, 21-22, 25, 55
15-foot, 12 Valleys, 4-5, 28
25-foot, 8, 17, 21, 25 Pontic, 5
30-foot, 7, 12, 14, 21-22, 25, 50, 78 n. 2, Vases, stone, 110, 118, 124, 126, 132, 135,
79n. 2 146n. 6
50-foot, 7, 14, 17, 21, 25, 39 n. 12, 50-51, Vaulting, geologic, 4
55, 78 n. 2, 81 n. 3 Vegetation, 27-29, 47, 69
100-foot (Lower Egypt-Delta), 11, 16, 21, Victoria, Lake, 31 n. 2
25, 50
100-foot (Middle & Lower Egypt-later), Villages, 103, 121
7 Volcanic activity, 3
100-foot (Upper Egypt), 6, 7, 14, 43-45, Votive vessels; see Magic
50
150-foot, 7, 14, 28, 45, 49, 78 n. 1 Wells, 101
250-foot, 7,14, 25. 28 Wheat; see Grain, domestication of
255-foot, 28
300-foot, 7, 14, 28 White Nile, 9, 31 n. 2, 45, 52
320-foot, 25, 28 Whorls, spinning; see Cloth
"Terre v6getale, la," 9, 11 Winds, 24
Tertiary period, 1-2, 4, 10, 18, 20, 30 n. 1, Wooden objects, 128
31 n. 1, 32 n. 2
Thebaid, 3, 27 Zagazig, 11