Egypt Prehistory

According to Ask4beauty, the lithic industries associated with faunas found in the ancient river deposits of the Nile Valley have allowed a detailed reconstruction of the cultural and environmental changes that have taken place there. In the lower Paleolithic the most ancient residents of the area occupied sites of considerable size, on the edges of the alluvial plain or on the neighboring hills, while in the middle there are the Mousterian, Aterian and Khormusano cultural complexes (600,000-90,000 BC). The sites, smaller than the previous ones, indicate a cultural continuity of occupations and reoccupations by human groups with subsistence activities based on the hunting of large mammals. The semi-arid climate pushed the populations to settle along the river, where the coastal environment, rich in natural resources, favored the seasonal settlement of groups of hunters. In the final Paleolithic (Epipaleolithic) the environment determined the transformation, typical of the period, from a hunting-gathering economy to a hunting-fishing economy integrated by shellfish gathering. In the Upper Egypt, in the plain of Kom Ombo, the concentration of natural resources was decisive for the coexistence of cultures of different traditions. The most ancient, with a hunting-fishing economy, the Khormusan (20,000-16,000 BC), with burins and denticulate lithic industry, and the halfana (18,000-15,000 BC), microlithic, were almost contemporary, determining a very human development complex of different technologies and economies. Among the best known cultures is the Sebilian (13,000-9000 BC), characterized by industry on a blade, where, alongside hunting and fishing, there is the collection of molluscs and in particular of wild grains, as evidenced by millstones and pestles, also found in the almost contemporary Menchian culture. In the final Paleolithic the oases of the western desert, such as that of el-Kharga and the depression of al-Fayyum, were occupied for a long time by groups of hunter-fishermen-gatherers, driven by the progressive drying up of the surrounding areas.

In the early Holocene (8000-5000 BC) in the Nile Valley there were significant changes in subsistence patterns. It is now accepted hypothesis that these cultural changes were due to the influence of communities coming from South-West Asia, in possession of an established agricultural economy, which found in Egypt, given the wealth of natural resources, a favorable environment to adopt it. In the Lower Egypt the farmers settled in the most fertile areas, near the mouths of the uidians and on the edge of the Delta. The first traces of sedentary life in the village have been found in Merimde (5th millennium BC), where a culture very similar to the contemporary one of Fayyum A developed, and perhaps the result of the same population, dedicated to the cultivation of cereals and the breeding of goats. At the same time, the culture of el-῾Omarī, near Cairo, is characterized by a lithic industry similar to that of Fayyum A and Merimde. Some burials can be attributed to this culture, with bodies in a contracted position and sometimes with grave goods consisting of a single vase. Completely different is the pre-dynastic cultural sequence in the Upper Egypt, where the pottery is always decorated, the cemeteries (always full of grave goods) are separated from the villages, and the settlements rather large. The remains of the Badarian culture (from the locality of el-Badārī) reflect a simple semi-sedentary life, with no obvious traces of housing structures. The sites of the later Naqadian culture (or Amratian from the locality of el-‛Āmrah, near Abydos) are found mainly in the vicinity of the Nile and in key settlements such as Naqāda and Hieraconpolis. Although the subsistence economy does not appear different from that of the Badarian, the funerary objects are much richer and consist of luxury objects in finely crafted double-sided flint, Mesopotamian-type basalt vases, palettes, ivory objects and vases adorned with white crossed lines and scenes of men and animals in a lively and realistic style. In the subsequent Gerzean culture, which closes the Egyptian prehistory, a sudden change takes place, underlined by closer contacts with South-West Asia, by the evolution of the social complex and economic institutions, and by the acquisition of metallurgical techniques (gold and copper) of Palestinian origin: the vase decoration becomes formally more accurate and the flint is used by highly specialized workers for the execution of parade objects and rituals.

Egypt Prehistory