The Prehistory of Egypt From the First Egyptians to the First Pharaohs

by Midant-Reynes, Beatrix

• ISBN13: 9780631217879
• ISBN10: 0631217878
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-02-21
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This books covers the history of the Nile Valley from Nubia to the Mediterranean, during the period from the earliest hominid settlement, around 700,000 BC to the beginnings of dynastic Egypt at the end of the fourth millennium BC.

Author Biography

The author, Béatrix Midant-Reynes, is Head of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Toulouse (Centre d’Anthropologie, Université Paul Sabatier). She is also editor of Archéonil (a journal dedicated to the study of prehistoric Egypt and Nubia) and Director of the excavations at the Predynastic site of Adaïma (on behalf of IFAO). In 1986 she was Humbolt Stipendiatin in Staatliche Sammlung Ágyptischer Kunst’ in Munich.

The translator, Ian Shaw, is lecturer in Egyptian archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. He is the author of Ancient Egyptian Warfare and Weapons (1991), co-author of The British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt (with Nicholson, 1995) and co-editor of The Dictionary of Archaeology (with Jameson: Blackwell, 1998) and Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology (with Nicholson, 1999). He also translated Nicolas Grimal’s A History of Ancient Egypt (Blackwell, 1992).

Table of Contents

Illustrations	viii
Preface	xi
Acknowledgements	xiv
Translator's Note	xv
Introduction	1	(12)
Part I The Land of Egypt	13	(10)
Between the River and the Desert	15	(8)
The Nile Valley: from the Rift Valley to the Terraces	15	(5)
The Eastern Desert: high mountains and `miraculous rains'	20	(1)
The Western Desert: the flat land of the oases	21	(2)
Part II The Palaeolithic Period	23	(44)
The earliest evidence for humans in the Nile valley	25	(7)
The beginnings of cultural diversity	32	(12)
Diversity or Nilotic adaptation	44	(23)
Part III The Neolithic Period	67	(100)
The process of `Neolithicization'	69	(31)
The great Holocene wet phase (c. 12000--8000 BP)	69	(21)
The central Sahara	69	(3)
The Western Desert	72	(5)
The Nile valley	77	(6)
The Near East	83	(7)
The mid-Holocene arid phase (c. 8000/7500--7000/6500 BP)	90	(10)
The Western Desert	90	(1)
The Nile valley	91	(1)
The Khartoum Mesolithic	91	(8)
The Eastern Desert	99	(1)
The Neolithic period (fifth millennium BC)	100	(67)
The Faiyum Neolithic	100	(8)
Merimda Beni Salama	108	(10)
El-Omari	118	(6)
El-Tarif	124	(2)
The Khartoum Neolithic	126	(16)
Shaheinab	126	(3)
El-Qoz	129	(1)
Umm Direiwa	129	(1)
Kadero	129	(2)
Zakiab	131	(1)
Geili	132	(2)
El-Ghaba	134	(1)
Shaqadud	135	(7)
The earliest pottery in Nubia	142	(4)
The Khartoum Variant	142	(2)
The post-Shamarkian	144	(1)
The Abkan	145	(1)
The Sahara Neolithic	146	(6)
The Badarian culture	152	(15)
Part IV The Approach to the Pharaonic Period (fourth millennium BC)	167	(84)
The Predynastic period (c. 4000--3000 BC)	169	(62)
Upper Egypt: Naqada I/Amratian and Naqada II/Gerzean	169	(41)
The Amratian	169	(18)
The Gerzean	187	(23)
Lower Egypt: Maadi and Wadi Digla, Heliopolis, Buto and other Maadian sites	210	(10)
Maadi and Wadi Digla	210	(6)
Heliopolis	216	(2)
Buto	218	(1)
Other Maadian sites	219	(1)
Lower Nubia: the A Group	220	(5)
The late Neolithic of Khartoum and the surrounding area (including el-Kadada)	225	(6)
The first pharaohs and the unification of the Two Lands	231	(20)
Conclusion	251	(6)
Appendix 1: Relative chronology and the traditional dating systems	257	(3)
Appendix 2: `Absolute dates'	260	(2)
Charts and Maps	262	(8)
Glossary	270	(4)
Abbreviations	274	(2)
Bibliography	276	(23)
Index	299