Merimde culture

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The Merimde culture was a Neolithic culture in predynastic Egypt , which developed around the end of the 6th millennium BC. Chr. Emerged and in the late 5th or early 4th millennium BC. BC ended. Its name is derived from the place where it was found Merimde, which is located near the village of Benisalame, about 45 km northwest of present-day Cairo .

Prior to the Merimde culture and related to it because of its Southwest Asian origin, it is a pre-ceramic Neolithic from the Heluan site , a place 25 km southeast of Cairo.

A distinction must be made in Merimde three chronologically consecutive settlement complexes, verifiable in five layers, which are characterized differently by material culture ( ceramics , stone tools , small finds), burial custom and settlement image. The first settlement, the primeval settlement, which can be classified in the beginning of the Egyptian ceramic Neolithic, had Southwest Asian roots due to its finds. These relationships become tangible in the ornamented ceramics ( herringbone pattern ), the occurrence of flat and recessed bottoms of vessels, the design of projectile tips (stemmed arrowheads ) and the use of shells from the Red Sea as pendants .

Josef Eiwanger headed the new excavations of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo between 1977 and 1982 .

The original settlement

The ceramics of the Ursiedlung mostly consist of simple plate, bowl and bowl shapes, which are divided into one that is polished in dark red tones and one that is mostly smoothed in orange-brown tones. It is noticeable that its basic substance is produced without any weight additives. Mostly on closed forms of the polished genus, a herringbone pattern appears as the only form of ornament. The round bottom is predominant in the vessels, the flat bottom only occurs occasionally. The edge of the ceramic usually ends in a pointed shape. Special features of the original settlement ceramics are vessels for cultic use (cylindrical basins with pronounced standing rings, "altars"), miniature vessels and vessels with handles.

The manufacture of stone tools in the Ursiedlung is largely characterized by a blade cutting technique that traditionally is more likely to be derived from epipalaeolithic industries. The resulting blades and tees are retouched differently and processed into different tools. Drills made from chips with a tip are typical. Coarse implements are very numerous, among which one-sided scrapers were most frequently found. Bullet tips and an arrowhead with a handle and side notches indicate the usual reinforcement here. What is striking is the occurrence of coarse rubble, worked on both sides, under which a coarsely worked ax protrudes.

Small finds include a human-made idol, bull sculptures, jewelry in the form of processed freshwater mussels and pendants made from marine mollusks, ostrich egg pearls, bone artifacts with fine eyelets, a pierced cattle tooth, cut artifacts from hard stone, red chalk for body painting, and grinding and grinding stones. The mussels and mollusks in particular indicate far-reaching external relationships (Red Sea), as some species are only found in very specific regions.

The settlement of the middle Merimde culture

After the abandonment of the first settlement of Merimde, it took a longer period of time before the place was inhabited again. This time it is the beginning of the classical Merimde culture, because apart from the cultic area (bull sculptures) there are only a few continuities that indicate a connection to the original settlement.

The differences between the ceramics of the middle Merimde culture and the original settlement are serious, even if similarities can be recognized (ceramic shapes). On the one hand, the ceramic is leaned out of chaff; their stability benefits from this, so that much larger vessels can be produced. The range of shapes is similar to that of the original settlement, bowls and vessels in different sizes and wall courses have been found, their edges have been cut off, round floors and swing floors dominate. Oval vessels have been added as special forms, which have advanced to become the leading form of the middle settlement layer. There has also been a change in the color scheme: in addition to the well-known red polished type, there is also a gray polished type, which, with the smoothed goods, completes the ceramic inventory of the middle Merimde culture. In contrast to the original settlement, the ceramics are not decorated, and there are no cult vessels.

In the manufacture of stone tools, a complete cut can be seen with the middle Merimde culture. This manifests itself in the production of beaten artifacts from cores. For armoring weapons, arrowheads with very long wings, triangular points with a flat scarf notch and polished spearheads in the form of cross-cutters were made. Other stone products are knife blades, hatchet shapes and pointed and blunt-nosed adzes (cross axes, mainly for woodworking). Sickle inserts indicate harvesting equipment. Very long and narrow drills are typical for the middle Merimde settlement.

In contrast to the first, the number of small finds in the central Merimde settlement is high. Bull sculptures and ostrich egg pearls were found again, pearls of various shapes, small clay spheroids and fishhooks made from mussel shells are new. Numerous devices made of bones were used by the Merimde residents: for example awls, flat spatulas, bullet-point-like devices, artifacts, pearls, finger rings, harpoons and dexels . Pendants made of canid teeth and bangles made of ivory served as jewelry . An animal figure carved out of bones is striking. It probably represents a hippopotamus . Small finds made of stone are also quite numerous: stone vessels made of alabaster , club heads , net countersinks and grinding and rubbing stones. The red chalk that was also found here was used by people for decorative purposes.

The settlements of the younger Merimde culture

While the remains of the original, second and third layers of Merimde can still be assumed to be small, river-based settlements, the fourth and fifth layers show greater settlement dimensions and density.

The most significant changes are found in the ceramic finds of the younger Merimde settlements compared to those of the middle Merimde culture. From layer III on, the well-known red and gray polished goods are joined by a black polished product. What is new is that the polishes form different patterns (horizontal - vertical - horizontal, oblique - vertical - oblique etc.) on the respective vessel. From layer IV onwards, various kinds of decorations appear: in the smoothed genre, vases decorated with plastic and incised and impressed decorations. You can also find pastose painted ceramics from time to time. The development of ceramic forms in the younger Merimde settlements is rather persistent and conservative. In addition to the vessels known from the earlier settlements, such as curved upward bowls and spherical pots, straight-walled, conical bowls, pots with a conical shoulder zone and double cones are increasingly found. The edges flow into soft curves.

More sophisticated shapes appear: Vessels with an S-shaped profile at the mouth (occasionally even in the middle Merimde culture) and spherical bottles with a vertical neck zone and a sweeping rim. Double-chamber vessels appear for the first time in the younger layers of Merimde as special forms; These also include base plates and base rings as floor forms, which can be found increasingly in later settlements. Overall, it can be assumed with great caution that approaches to a differentiation into a traditional smooth ceramic and a polished fine ceramic that is open to innovations are becoming visible.

The quality standard of the production of stone goods in the younger settlements of Merimde is occasionally very high. Furthermore, stone tools are made from cores, only a few tools are made from blades, such as small denticulated saws. The typologically difficult to categorize coarse devices, which are still very common in the Ursiedlung, are constantly decreasing. The bullet tips develop in layer IV to the classic merimde point with short beveled wings, in layer V to pointed wing bullets with a strongly convex cutting path. These arrowheads then also appear in the Fayum-A culture . In addition, various forms of cutting devices and different hatchet shapes have been found, the adzes are subject to ongoing developments. Various forms of sickles appear, their dimensions increase. Drills also appear again, as in the previous settlements, with the special feature, however, that they have several drill tips on one device.

In comparison to ceramics and stone utensils, the occurrence of small finds is low. Human and animal-like clay figurines are also documented in layers IV and V. Imprint-decorated bracelets are new. The bone artifacts form the largest group of small finds. They alternate in their functionality with the stone tools. Novel finds from the younger settlements are artefacts with eyelets and bone sockets to accommodate stone tools. As in the previous settlements, there are also small axes, pallet-shaped artifacts, club heads, net countersinks, and rubbing and grinding stones.

Animal breeding, hunting and fishing

The people of Merimde kept pets on the one hand and supplemented their diet with hunting and fishing on the other. From the beginning, the proportion of cattle dominated and even increased in the younger settlements. Pigs were more or less present in all settlement phases. However, the number of sheep decreased steadily from the beginning of the settlement. Fishing becomes very important from the middle settlement and contributes to the nutrition at a high level up to the younger settlements. Together with the hunt for hippos, crocodiles and turtles and the consumption of river mussels, fishing shows an orientation of the population towards the waters of the Nile. The hunt for wild game in the desert, on the other hand, is minimal, while the hunt for wild ruminants is expanding. Smaller land animals and birds are more likely to be prey by chance. Only in the original settlement are desert snails clearly detectable as food.

The position of the Merimde cultures to one another and to other cultures and influences

Certain continuities of the first two settlement phases can be seen in the ceramic forms and in the occurrence of bull sculptures and ostrich egg pearls. In contrast to the original settlement, however, the cultural reference area has changed in the middle Merimde culture. Southwest Asia no longer plays a role, but the African region. This can be seen in harpoons, dechs, clam hooks and hatchets. This cultural change is associated with an arid phase in Palestine in the period between the middle of the 6th and the middle of the 5th millennium BC. BC, from which no settlements can be proven for the area south of Lebanon. The resulting cultural vacuum is then compensated for by Saharan Sudanese influences.

The younger Merimde settlements, on the other hand, have a completely different cultural profile. In the meantime they have developed into a down-to-earth Neolithic culture in Lower Egypt, whose influences on the Fayum-A culture (pointed-winged projectile points, s-shaped profiled vessels, extended base plates, ceramics decorated with hump, basket storage pits) and the late prehistoric delta cultures such as the Buto-Maadi Culture (s-shaped profiled and bottle-like vessels) can be read from the remains.

The Tasa culture shows similar ceramics as the middle or late Merimde culture and the Fayum-A culture.

literature

  • Excavations finds researches . von Zabern, Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-8053-0758-6 , pp. 182 - 183 (initial orientation about the site).
  • Fathi Afifi Badawi: The excavation of the Egyptian antiquities administration in Merimde-Benisalame in October / November 1976. In: MDAIK 34, 1978 , pp. 43–51.
  • Angela von den Driesch , Joachim Boessneck: The animal bone finds from the Neolithic settlement of Merimde-Benisalame on the western Nile delta . Munich 1985 (on questions of animal breeding, hunting and fishing).
  • Josef Eiwanger : First preliminary report on the resumption of excavations in the Neolithic settlement Merimde-Benisalame. In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. (MDAIK) Vol. 34, 1978, pp. 33-42.
  • Josef Eiwanger: Second preliminary report on the resumption of excavations in the Neolithic settlement Merimde-Benisalame. In: MDAIK 35, 1979 , pp. 23-57.
  • Josef Eiwanger: Third preliminary report on the resumption of excavations in the Neolithic settlement Merimde-Benisalame. In: MDAIK 36, 1980 , pp. 61-76.
  • Josef Eiwanger: The Neolithic Settlement of Merimde-Benisalame: Fourth Report. In: MDAIK 38, 1982 , pp. 67 - 82, (all 5 articles on the individual excavation campaigns in Merimde).
  • Josef Eiwanger: Merimde-Benisalame I. The finds of the primeval layer . von Zabern, Mainz 1984, ISBN 3-8053-0602-4 .
  • Josef Eiwanger: Merimde-Benisalame II. The finds of the middle Merimde culture . von Zabern, Mainz 1988, ISBN 3-8053-0606-7 .
  • Josef Eiwanger: Merimde-Benisalame III. The finds of the younger Merimde culture . von Zabern, Mainz 1992, ISBN 3-8053-0614-8 (all 3 volumes basic summary of the results of the excavations).
  • Josef Eiwanger: Merimde Beni-salame. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 501-505.
  • Thomas Hikade: flint arrowheads in Egypt. In: MDAIK 57, 2001 , pp. 109 - 125 (typological classification of the arrowheads from Merimde).
  • Stefan Klug: On the position of the Neolithic population of Merimde-Benisalame. In: Sylvia Schoske , Hartwig Altenmüller , Dietrich Wildung (ed.): Methods and history of Egyptology: computer science, ceramology, anthropology. Buske, Hamburg 1988, ISBN 3-87118-901-4 , pp. 273-282 (on the population of Merimde from an anthropological point of view).
  • Klaus Schmidt: Paleolithic finds from Merimde-Benisalame. In: MDAIK 36, 1980 , pp. 411-435.

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