Omari culture
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The Omari culture is the modern name of a Neolithic culture in Lower Egypt that lasted from around 4600 to 4400 BC. . AD was.
Locations
The culture is mainly known from a number of sites near Cairo , although it has been documented by isolated finds in other places. The Omari culture was discovered near Cairo in 1924 by Amin El-Omari ; The culture and the place of discovery are named after him. Bovier-La pierre excavated the site in 1925. Later there were further excavations in this area.
Finds
Little was left of the actual settlements. Usually only pits and post holes were found in the houses. Most of the objects were found in these pits. There were also numerous burials within the settlement, with the dead mostly buried with their heads facing south. There were only a few additions. A single pot is the norm. The graves hardly differ in terms of equipment and size and suggest that there is little social differentiation .
Conclusions
The ceramics of the Omari culture are simple, undecorated and made from local clay. Tools were made of stone. Metal was not yet known. There were remains of linen, which was already known.
The Omari people were probably farmers. Emmer and wheat were grown. Pigs , cattle , sheep and goats have been kept. Hippopotamus bones suggest that these animals were hunted and eaten. Fish were also eaten.
literature
- Fernand Debono, Bodil Mortensen: El Omari. A Neolithic settlement and other sites in the vicinity of Wadi Hof, Helwan. With appendixes on geology by HA Hamroush. (= Archaeological Publications. Vol. 82) von Zabern, Mainz 1990, ISBN 3-8053-1119-2 .
- Bodil Mortensen: el-Omari. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 592-94.