1,721,012 research outputs found
RESEARCHES OF THE SAPIENZA UNIVERSITY OF ROME IN THE SITE OF MAADI (LOWER EGYPT): TOPOGRAPHY AND ARTEFACTS IN A CHRONOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
No full textBetween 1977 and 1986 an Italian expedition from the Sapienza University of Rome carried out six diggings campaigns in the well-known predynastic site of Maadi (IV mill. B.C.). The investigation, conducted by the Italian Expedition for the Researches in Egypt and Sudan under the direction of S. M. Puglisi and A. Palmieri, covered an area of around 450sqm. The excavation was located in the eastern part of the ancient settlement, diametrically opposite to the more recent diggings executed by the German Archaeological Institute. The study of the documentation, still unpublished except for some preliminary papers, has been resumed by the authors.
This material represents the occasion to complete the information contained in the past monographs about the first excavations done at Maadi, deepening the stratigraphic aspect which is fundamental for the understanding of the dynamics of formation and development of the site and in general of the Lower Egypt Predynastic culture, and to reconsider this site in the light of the latest researches made in the Nile Delta.
The present paper delivers preliminary results from the ongoing study and it is especially focused on the characteristics of the archaeological stratigraphy and on pottery and lithic assemblages.Between 1977 and 1986 an Italian expedition from the Sapienza University of Rome carried out six diggings campaigns in the well-known predynastic site of Maadi (IV mill. B.C.). The investigation, conducted by the Italian Expedition for the Researches in Egypt and Sudan under the direction of S. M. Puglisi and A. Palmieri, covered an area of around 450sqm. The excavation was located in the eastern part of the ancient settlement, diametrically opposite to the more recent diggings executed by the German Archaeological Institute. The study of the documentation, still unpublished except for some preliminary papers, has been resumed by the authors.
This material represents the occasion to complete the information contained in the past monographs about the first excavations done at Maadi, deepening the stratigraphic aspect which is fundamental for the understanding of the dynamics of formation and development of the site and in general of the Lower Egypt Predynastic culture, and to reconsider this site in the light of the latest researches made in the Nile Delta.
The present paper delivers preliminary results from the ongoing study and it is especially focused on the characteristics of the archaeological stratigraphy and on pottery and lithic assemblages
Il Delta orientale del Nilo, un territorio di frontiera tra il II e il I millennio a.C.
No full textL’area geografica oggetto di questo contributo è quella del Delta orientale e del Sinai settentrionale.
Il Delta orientale ospitò invariabilmente nel tempo il confine dell’Egitto1, aldilà
delle conquiste effettuate dai faraoni e delle invasioni subite; il Sinai settentrionale, percepito
dagli Egiziani come “terra straniera”2, ebbe la funzione di regione cuscinetto fra due paesi
urbanizzati quali l’Egitto e la Palestina. La frontiera nord-orientale dell’Egitto sfruttava una
serie di barriere naturali che, in mancanza di rilievi, erano costituite dalle lagune, dai laghi e dal
ramo pelusico del Nilo che, a partire dalle immediate vicinanze della costa, si estendevano su
tutto il margine orientale del Delta, fra le terre fertili e il deserto. Questa regione subì notevoli
variazioni nel tempo, tra cui le più rilevanti furono lo spostamento della linea di costa e la migrazione
del distributario più orientale del grande fiume.
All’analisi critica dell’edito si vuole qui affiancare una base cartografica omogenea costruita
mediante digitalizzazione e rielaborazione in ambiente CAD di carte geomorfologiche3
e delle planimetrie archeologiche contenute negli articoli e rapporti di scavo e ricognizione di
superficie effettuate nella regione. La digitalizzazione di tutta questa documentazione ha permesso
di realizzare elaborazioni a seconda delle esigenze di resa grafica oltre a nuove immagini
esplicative di ipotesi ricostruttive (ad esempio i modelli tridimensionali del terreno).
Nell’analisi topografica parziale qui proposta ci si è soffermati in particolare sull’area
della paleolaguna, nel margine nord-orientale del Delta, dove era situata la frontiera del paese, sulla sua conformazione geografica e sullo stretto rapporto fra questa e le strutture costruite a
difesa della zona.The geographical area covered by this study, the eastern Delta and northern Sinai, has always been the
place of the north-eastern border of Egypt, both physically and ideologically. Through a topographical
approach, the present work is focused on the connection between the frontier system and the territory
in order to investigate the changes occurred over time and to get the different aspects of historical, social
and geographical dynamics. The width of the time span considered, from the II to the I millennium B.C.,
has allowed us to appreciate the slow evolution of the setting and organization of the border.
In particular, the reconstruction of the paleoenvironment has shown that especially the eastern Delta
region underwent considerable modifications over time. During the New Kingdom the seaboard was
located much more to the south of the present one and the country border was based on a series of
natural barriers such as lagoons and lakes that from the coast extended along the eastern margin of the
Delta, between the fertile land and the desert. The frontier was easily accessible through the pelusiac
branch, the most oriental one of the Nile, which ensured the connection of the borderland with the rest
of Egypt.
The quite rapid accretion of the seashore and the migration to the north of the pelusiac branch caused,
together with historical events, a reorganization of the border and a shift of the settlement pattern of
the eastern Delta and, in a greater extent, of the northern Sinai, where there was the main way that connected
Egypt to the Levant.
The frontier is shown to have been not linear as it started to be considered after, and to have been
constituted by the whole region, as testified also in ancient texts. It came out how, above all during the
New Kingdom, the border town was important to control the transit of people and goods and for an
economical and social development of the area, based on the principle that a frontier densely inhabited
and involved in production activities is more stable and resistant than one occupied only by military
troops.
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X-Rays micro-tomography of 54 Egyptian predynastic ceramic vessels from the MAN (Musée d'Archéologie Nationale-Domaine national du château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France) made in the frame of the project TECHNOPREGYPT 2021/43/P/HS3/03262. STACK DATA
No full text54 complete pots and sherds from the collection of the Musée d’Archéologie Nationale-Domaine national du château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, were scanned with X-Rays microtomography (CT-Scan) to carry out the technological analysis of the samples. The aim was to be able to see the internal structure of the ceramic vessels to reconstruct the manufacturing process. The scans are part of the project TECHNOPREGYPT Ceramic technology and the socio-political environment of Predynastic Egypt 2021/43/P/HS3/03262 directed by dr Jade BAJEOT. TECHNOPREGYPT website Funding This research was led at the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences and was co-funded by the Polish National Science Centre and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 945339. For the purpose of Open Access, the author has applied a CC-BY public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version arising from this submission
Petrographic Analysis of Egyptian Predynastic Pottery from AKAP Excavations in the Aswan Region (TECHNOPREGYPT 2021/43/P/HS3/03262) – Preliminary Report
No full textpreliminary petrographic report made in the frame of the project TECHNOPREGYPT 2021/43/P/HS3/03262This petrographic study has been carried out in the frame of the project TECHNOPREGYPT Ceramic technology and the socio-political environment of Predynastic Egypt (2021/43/P/HS3/03262). The analysis aimed to characterize a variety of pottery fabrics from the 5th and 4th millennium BCE from the sites investigated by the Aswan-Kom Ombo Archaeological project (AKAP) directed by M. C. Gatto and A. Curci in the First Nile Cataract Region. Thirty-three samples were selected by Maria Carmela Gatto and Jade Bajeot, and the thin sections were prepared and analyzed at the Kom Ombo and Aswan storehouses. The sites included in the analysis are: WAL10, two 5th mill. tumuli tombs at Wadi al-Lawi; SN1 a large 5th mill. tumulus tomb at Shaab Nagema; WK15 and WK14, a predynastic settlement and its cemetery at Nag el-Qarmila; NH16, a predynastic funerary complex at Nag el-Hamdulab; WT27, predynastic settlement remains at Wadi el-Tawil; predynastic cemetery SM6 and Pre-Kerma/B-Group camp SM22 at Sheik-Mohamed. Funding This research is part of the project No. 2021/43/P/HS3/03262 (PI Jade Bajeot) co-funded by the Polish National Science Centre and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 945339. For the purpose of Open Access, the author has applied a CC-BY public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version arising from this submission
"Oltre la forma: tradizioni artigianali e società predinastica"
No full textNational audienceUno degli approcci più innovativi e promettenti per lo studio dei reperti ceramici è quello tecnologico, che si propone di ricostruire tutte le fasi della lavorazione dei vasi, con l'obiettivo di indagare l'identità dei ceramisti e di conseguenza l'organizzazione sociale dei gruppi umani. Le tradizioni tecniche vengono infatti tramandate di generazione in generazione e la loro identificazione nel contesto dell’Egitto predinastico permette di approfondire la nostra conoscenza dei gruppi che abitavano il Delta e la Valle del Nilo e di seguirne le evoluzioni e le interazioni nel tempo, fino alla formazione dello Stato faraonico. Nel corso di questa presentazione delineeremo i tratti generali delle società predinastiche e vedremo quali nuove informazioni sono state ottenute grazie allo studio tecnologico, come ad esempio, quelle sulla possibile presenza di gruppi seminomadi presenti ai margini del Delta occidentale e finora mai documentati
Technical traditions and social boundaries: the contribution of the technological approach in defining the social landscape of Predynastic Egypt
No full textInternational audienc
The Lower Egyptian Culture and its evolution: new perspectives through the ceramictechnology approach
No full textInternational audienceThis paper aims at presenting the results of the technological study carried out on the pottery of Tell el-Iswid, Tell el-Samara and on a sample collection from Tell el-Fara’in/Buto. The objective was to characterise the pottery tradition of the Lower Egyptian Culture to shed new light on the sociological landscape of the Delta during the 4th millennium BC, and to better understand the nature of the contacts with the Naqadan groups. Research has shown the strong correlation between technological behaviours and social groups. Individuals tend to do things the same way they are done by their group, thus maintaining the specificities of their cultural traits within their social group and making their cultural boundaries visible. Two identical pots can be realised using two different technics (e.g. pinched coils, crushed coils, moulding, etc.) and the adoption of a specific chaîne opératoire and its transmission through the generations is strictly linked to the cultural identity of a group. The strength of the technological approach lays precisely in the possibility of highlighting the potters and their organisation. Furthermore, understanding their contextual society and studying how rooted manufacturing modes are inherited and affected when the socio-political structure gets more centralised. The obtained and partly published results showed the presence of four chaînes opératoires: a local distinctive one of the Delta that predominates during Buto IIab, an Upper Egyptian and a Levantine -both witnessed in these same phases by few imports- and finally the Fibrous Ware. The local tradition was practiced at the domestic level, remained stable over time, and testifies to a common origin and close ties between the communities of the Delta. During Buto IIIa the Naqadan imports increase, and some typical southern forms appear that are characterised by a clay paste practically indistinguishable from the local one but manufactured according to exogenous traditions; therefore, confirming that these forms were imported, and not locally imitated. During Naqada IIIA2-B this phenomenon results not only in the homogenisation of the pottery morphology but also in the adoption of non-local chaînes opératoires. The local tradition is in fact almost completely substituted by the exogenous one, and it only persists in the domestic context for a very limited production, indicating that the transition from the domestic to the workshop production in the eastern Delta was led at least initially by southern potters.Finally, the analysis of the Fibrous Ware highlighted its belonging to yet another technical tradition. The matching of this data with a bibliographical study on its spatial and chronological distribution throughout Egypt led to the conclusion that this ceramic is not typical of the Lower Egyptian communities, or at least not of those of the western Delta.To conclude, the present research permitted to characterise more in-depth the Lower Egyptian culture, to better understand the dynamics of state formation at the local level, and finally to highlight that the social landscape of the Delta and possibly of Egypt was likely more complex, featuring more groups other than the Naqadans and the Lower Egyptians
"Ceramic technology and socio-political environment of Predynastic Egypt"
No full textInternational audienceThis paper aims at presenting the results of the project TECHNOPREGYPT 2021/43/P/HS3/03262, whose purpose is to investigate the modes of pottery production in Predynastic Egypt (4th millennium BCE) to achieve a better understanding of the evolution of the production system during the process of state formation and, consequently, have a better knowledge of the dynamics that led to the birth of the Egyptian state. The chosen method is the technological approach which was applied on pottery from several Egyptian Predynastic sites investigated in the Aswan region by the Aswan-Kom Ombo Archaeological Project, and on the museum collections of the Egyptian Museum, Turin, and of the Museum of National Archaeology, Saint Germain-en-Laye. The analysed material ranges from Naqada IC to Naqada IIIB (c. 3700-3100 BCE) and comes from several domestic and funerary sites of Upper and Middle Egypt.During the presentation the various identified chaînes opératoires will be illustrated and their evolution and interaction will be followed over time.Alongside the traditional method adopted to study the ceramic fragments kept in Egyptian storehouses (naked eye and binocular microscope), it was possible to apply X- rays microtomography to a series of samples from the Museum of National Archaeology, Saint Germain-en-Laye. This non-destructive technique allowing to investigate the inner structure of ceramics to highlight the characteristics of the clay paste and the manufacturing techniques is now necessary in the case of complete pots and material from museum collections. The outcomes and potential of this non-destructive analysis will therefore also be shown
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