Maadi culture

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Maadi culture, also Maadi-Buto culture, was a prehistoric , Copper Age culture in Lower Egypt with a strong Middle Eastern influence. The eponymous site is the one at Maʿadi  /معادي, a suburb of Cairo .

History and sites

The Maadi culture followed in the southern Nile Delta from around 4000 BC. To the Merimde culture , before about 3500 BC. Was replaced by the Naqada culture , which has been around since 3900 BC. From Upper Egypt . Well-known sites in the Nile Valley are the Maadi settlement , the necropolis of Wadi Digla , the cemeteries of Tura and Heliopolis and individual finds in Giza . In the Nile Delta, remnants of the culture were found in Buto , Tell el-Farcha , Kom el-Chilgan and Tell el-Iswid .

features

The pottery of the Maadi culture is characterized by rounded shapes with a flat base, narrow neck and burnt edges. Some vessels come from the Naqada culture in the south. What is particularly striking, however, are vessels with features typical of southern Palestine and other regions of the Middle East. Hatchets , spatulas and bars made of copper are also found more frequently than in Upper Egypt .

Domesticated animals included cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs, and the earliest records of donkeys are in Egypt. Various types of grain were also grown.

The settlements of the Maadi culture consisted of a few houses, which were probably made of light material such as wood or straw. However, four houses in Maadi were built of adobe and stone and sunk into the ground. These buildings are similar to those of Bronze Age settlements in the Negev . For the first time, the Maadi culture established real cemeteries near settlements. The deceased were buried in a crouched position with few or no grave goods.

Connections with other cultures

The ceramic vessels found served the trade in consumer goods with the neighboring cultures. The copper objects, especially the bars, as well as the cultural similarities are evidence of brisk trade with the cultural and economic centers in the Middle East. There was no comparable trade in Upper Egypt and seems to have come to a standstill with the fall of the Maadi culture. The brick buildings are interpreted by some scientists as the remains of a Levantine colony .

literature

  • Jürgen Seeher : Maadi - a predynastic cultural group between Upper Egypt and Palestine. In: Praehistorische Zeitschrift. 65, 1990, pp. 123-156.
  • Jürgen Seeher: Ma'adi and Wadi Digla. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 455-58.

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f g Yann-Tristant, Béatrix Midant-Reynes: The Predynastic Cultures of the Nile Delta . In: Before the Pyramids. The Origins of Egyptian Civilization . Oriental Institute Museum Publications. tape 33 . The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago 2011, pp. 48 f . ( uchicago.edu [PDF]).
  2. a b c d e Hermann Parzinger: The children of Prometheus. A history of mankind before the invention of writing . Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-406-66657-5 , The fully neolithic Maadi culture - domestic animals, cultivated plants and copper .
  3. a b c Sabine Kubisch: The ancient Egypt. From 4000 BC Until 30 BC Chr. Wiesbaden 2017, ISBN 978-3-7374-1048-9 , Maadi and Badari in Lower Egypt .