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Encyclopedia of society and culture in the ancient world ( PDFDrive ) 1059

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964 settlement patterns: Egypt became more “female” as the emphasis shifted from hunting, the preserve of males, to social and family relationships combined with sedentary gardening and crop raising New roles developed as people took the lead as heads of clans, as storytellers and historians, as healers and diviners, and the like Meanwhile, nomadic herders developed their own settlement patterns While they did not stay in one place, they had to return regularly to places where they could provide shelter and pasturage for their herds As people produced surpluses of food and other goods, commerce and exchange became more common, with people settling along trade routes and providing services to traders and their caravans Finally, as communities formed and competed with other populations for resources, conflict and ways of managing it developed The result of this conflict was often warfare EGYPT BY WOLFRAM GRAJETZKI In order to understand the location of Egyptian towns and villages, knowledge of the special landscape of Egypt is important As was true in ancient times, Egypt is dominated by the Nile River and the desert The Nile, flowing from south to north, was the only regular water source Fertile land, only a narrow strip along the river, was less than miles wide There were some oases in the western desert, and in the north the Nile divided into several branches, forming the Nile delta, a broad and highly fertile region In the west there was also Lake Moeris, connected to the Nile via a branch of the river The Faiyûm Depression, a region area around this lake, was low and marshy and needed human intervention to convert it into arable land It was only in the Middle Kingdom (ca 2040–ca 1640 b.c.e.) and in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods (304 b.c.e.–395 c.e.) that there were substantial towns and villages in this part of the country In late summer the Nile rose and flooded most of the fertile land, making transport here only possible by boat An important point, at least for bigger towns, was the connection to the Nile, either directly or via a canal In ancient times transport over land was very expensive while water freight was easier to handle All settlement types in Egypt adapted to this special environment and the Nile flood The settlements had to be placed close to the Nile to secure a regular drinking water supply and proper transport, and they had to be built on a place that remained dry throughout the year and was not flooded by the Nile In general, these are natural “islands” of higher ground within the flood plain (These hills in the Nile delta are often called after their general appearance “turtlebacks.”) The mounds are sometimes not very big, and thus the space for settlements was restricted If a town grew larger, people might move to another island In the Nile delta there arose several double cities where the population lived on two or even more of these hills, which were treated in inscriptions as separate towns but were indeed single-population centers Desert areas were settled more often in the Greek and Roman periods, when towns and villages were built into the desert around Lake Moeris Other settlements built at the desert edge often had specific functions, such as workmen villages for quarries or building projects like the tombs in the Valley of the Kings in Thebes When these building projects were fi nished, the settlements were abandoned The biggest building projects in Egypt were the pyramids in the Old Kingdom (ca 2575–ca 2134 b.c.e.) For these projects special towns for the workmen and the administration of the building project were erected While the workmen’s places were no longer used after the pyramids were fi nished, other parts of the settlements could develop into regular towns Here the cult for the dead king buried in the pyramid was performed, and from this starting point these places became local centers Th is is most clearly seen at El-Lahun, the pyramid town of Sesostris II (r 1897–1878 b.c.e.) El-Lahun flourished as an administrative center for the whole region for the next two centuries The mortuary temple of Ramses III (12th century b.c.e.), called today Medinet Habu, also became a center that functioned as an important town for 1,500 years The temple had strong walls, and after the death of the king the local population moved there, perhaps for security reasons It is hard to identify the pattern of settlement types in the Nile Valley and the Nile delta, as only a few have been surveyed and a small percentage of the sites have been excavated In addition, the excavated examples are often exceptional rather than the norm One such place is the well-researched island of Elephantine The southernmost settlement of Egypt, Elephantine had special significance as a trading post for Africa and also functioned as a frontier and fortress town In Middle Egypt near the modern villages of Qau and El Badâri, a chain of cemeteries was excavated These cemeteries were placed close to the ancient settlements, and at least for this region it is possible to gain a picture of the distribution of settlements in pharaonic times The center of this region was the town called in ancient times Tjebu (modern-day Qau elQebir) Here was found the biggest cemetery of the region, including the monumental tombs of the local rulers Tjebu was the center of the local governor with the palace of the local government It was also the location of an important temple The temple was closely connected with the administration of local government Here the taxes of the province were stored and given back to the people when needed From ancient texts we know that each province had a main town with a temple of the most important deity of the province These temples in the local centers not only functioned as religious capitals of a region but were also the contact place between the royal capital of the country and local (opposite page) Most settlements in ancient Egypt were placed close to the Nile A high proportion of the population of towns probably lived from agricultural work, taking advantage of the yearly rise and fall of the Nile that left deposits of rich black silt along the riverbanks

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