|
The
Ecological Context of Ancient Egyptian Predynastic Settlements
The
fact that these sites were short-lived suggests lively
inter-action between ecological and social influences.
The floodplain narrows here and this would have stinted
the development of large individual settlement. This would
have coupled with the stochastic fluctuations small populations
are subjected to - the inhabitants of a community joining
that of another community when their settlement population
numbers decline.
Hierakonpolis
The settlements at Hierakonpolis differ from the usual
Predynastic communities, settled mostly on the low desert
escarpments paralleling the floodplain, by extending both
parallel and perpendicular to the river banks.
Hierakonpolis contains the entire Nagada I - III cultural
sequence (c. 4000 - 3100 BC), stretching back to the end
of the Badarian. Excavations by Hoffman have led him to
conclude that the initial settlement at Hierakonpolis
was by colonists from more northern unspecified sectors
of Upper Egypt. Hoffman also hypothesizes that there was
a "population explosion" between 3800 and 3400
BC, with the central sector of the settlement supporting
between 5000 - 10 000 inhabitants. The growth he attributes
to the region's ecological diversity and incredible agricultural
potential. This Nagada Ic - IIa period was also one of
regional expansion, with clustered rectangular house settlements
and Hierakonpolis becoming a centre for pottery production.
The Neolithic Subpluvial (resulting from the southward
shift of the Mediterranean rainbelts) lasted from c. 7000
- 3000 BC, the rainfall estimates for the Hierakonpolis
region ranging from 5cm to 25cm per year. Even 5cm of
rainfall would have resulted in a regular seasonal runoff
from the surrounding highlands for the Great Wadi at Hierakonpolis,
enriching the surrounding environment enabling plant and
animal life to prosper in this semi-desert.
The rainfall would have been between January and February,
meaning that the inhabitants of the district of Hierakonpolis
practiced two different agricultural regimes: "dry"
farming in the Wadi and basin irrigation on the floodplain.As
the floodplain and the Wadi are separated by a substantial
distance, and taking into account that each regime requires
its own special cultivation technique as well as the cultivation
taking place in both places at the same time (late March
and early April being the harvesting period),
|
|
the local predynastic society was most likely divided into
two units - one living in the desert borderlands of the Wadi
by a combination of farming, hunting and herding, and the
other existing either on or nearby the floodplain in areas
like the Nagada II town practicing basin irrigation agriculture
(which began during this period) as well as fishing and plying
their trade along the Nile.
The decline in rainfall at the end of the Neolithic Subpluvial
signified the end of the wadi-based constituent of the Hierakonpolis
regional subsistence economy between c. 3300 - 3100 BC. This
increasing desiccation led to a settlement shift of the desert
regional inhabitants that boosted the floodplain population
density and thus the numbers of the available labour force
and the base through which local big-men could increase in
importance (similar to Carneiro's state-formation model previously
mentioned). This increase in hierarchical power could have
been achieved by a number of different variants, likely acting
in tandem with one another - providing Nile transportation
for trade goods; as intermediaries for local and regional
trade exchanges; acting as judges in cases involving land,
water and dower disputes; able military leadership; and resources
for religious and elite secular building constructions.
Apart from the socio-economic consequences, resulting in the
quickening emergence of an elite, the Saharan pastures were
effectively eliminated to a great extent with the desiccation
which rendered the remainder of the Nile floodplain and the
Delta attractive inducements for military expeditions, conquest
and thereby the expansion of the city-state of Hierakonpolis
- during a time of low Nile floods - into one of the world's
first nation-states, Ancient Egypt.
Conclusion
The currently known distributions of Predynastic settlements
are determined by geological rather than by cultural factors.
The ecology of the Nile Valley and Delta also determined the
placement of sites within a particular region, like Merimda
on a terrace or the divided Hierakonpolis society in its formative
stages. Yet the unparalleled transport navigability of the
Nile, with each settlement located within a few kilometres
of one another, also provides an explanation for most of Ancient
Egypt's political and religious Dynastic unity.
However, it is in this lead-up to the unification of the Nile
city-states under Hierakonpolis that the environment plays
one of its most important roles. The end of the Neolithic
Subpluvial (thus ruling out expansion into the desert) and
the pressure brought to bear by the decreased Nile floods
(thereby putting strain on agricultural production), in tandem
with the increased population, made the rest of the Valley
and the Delta look increasingly attractive for various means
of expansion.
|
|
Ecology of Ancient Egyptian Settlements 
