became more “female” as the emphasis shift ed from hunting,
the preserve of males, to social and family relationships com-
bined with sedentary gardening and crop raising. New roles
developed as people took the lead as heads of clans, as story-
tellers and historians, as healers and diviners, and the like.
Meanwhile, nomadic herders developed their own settlement
patterns. While they did not stay in one place, they had to
return regularly to places where they could provide shelter
and pasturage for their herds. As people produced surpluses
of food and other goods, commerce and exchange became
more common, with people settling along trade routes and
providing services to traders and their caravans. Finally, as
communities formed and competed with other populations
for resources, confl ict and ways of managing it developed.
Th e result of this confl ict was oft en warfare.EGYPT
BY WOLFRAM GRAJETZKI
In order to understand the location of Egyptian towns and
villages, knowledge of the special landscape of Egypt is im-
portant. As was true in ancient times, Egypt is dominated
by the Nile River and the desert. Th e Nile, fl owing from
south to north, was the only regular water source. Fertile
land, only a narrow strip along the river, was less than 2
miles wide. Th ere were some oases in the western desert,
and in the north the Nile divided into several branches,
forming the Nile delta, a broad and highly fertile region. In
the west there was also Lake Moeris, connected to the Nile
via a branch of the river. Th e Faiyûm Depression, a region
area around this lake, was low and marshy and needed hu-
man intervention to convert it into arable land. It was only
in the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2040–ca. 1640 b.c.e.) and in
the Ptolemaic and Roman periods (304 b.c.e.–395 c.e.) that
there were substantial towns and villages in this part of the
country. In late summer the Nile rose and fl ooded most of
the fertile land, making transport here only possible by boat.
An important point, at least for bigger towns, was the con-
nection to the Nile, either directly or via a canal. In ancient
times transport over land was very expensive while water
freight was easier to handle.
All settlement types in Egypt adapted to this special
environment and the Nile fl ood. Th e settlements had to be
placed close to the Nile to secure a regular drinking water
supply and proper transport, and they had to be built on a
place that remained dry throughout the year and was not
fl ooded by the Nile. In general, these are natural “islands” of
higher ground within the fl ood plain. (Th ese hills in the Nile
delta are oft en called aft er their general appearance “turtle-
backs.”) Th e mounds are sometimes not very big, and thus
the space for settlements was restricted. If a town grew larger,
people might move to another island. In the Nile delta there
arose several double cities where the population lived on two
or even more of these hills, which were treated in inscriptions
as separate towns but were indeed single-population centers.Desert areas were settled more oft en in the Greek and
Roman periods, when towns and villages were built into
the desert around Lake Moeris. Other settlements built at
the desert edge oft en had specifi c functions, such as work-
men villages for quarries or building projects like the tombs
in the Valley of the Kings in Th ebes. When these building
projects were fi nished, the settlements were abandoned. Th e
biggest building projects in Egypt were the pyramids in the
Old Kingdom (ca. 2575–ca. 2134 b.c.e.). For these projects
special towns for the workmen and the administration of
the building project were erected. While the workmen’s
places were no longer used aft er the pyramids were fi nished,
other parts of the settlements could develop into regular
tow ns. Here t he cu lt for t he dead k ing buried in t he py ra mid
was performed, and from this starting point these places be-
came local centers. Th is is most clearly seen at El-Lahun, the
pyramid town of Sesostris II (r. 1897–1878 b.c.e.). El-Lahun
fl ourished as an administrative center for the whole region
for the next two centuries. Th e mortuary temple of Ramses
III (12th century b.c.e.), called today Medinet Habu, also
became a center that functioned as an important town for
1,500 years. Th e temple had strong walls, and aft er the death
of the king the local population moved there, perhaps for
security reasons.
It is hard to identif y t he pattern of sett lement t y pes in t he
Nile Valley and the Nile delta, as only a few have been sur-
veyed and a small percentage of the sites have been excavated.
In addition, the excavated examples are oft en exceptional
rather than the norm. One such place is the well-researched
island of Elephantine. Th e southernmost settlement of Egypt,
Elephantine had special signifi cance as a trading post for Af-
rica and also functioned as a frontier and fortress town.
In Middle Egypt near the modern villages of Qau and El
Badâri, a chain of cemeteries was excavated. Th ese cemeteries
were placed close to the ancient settlements, and at least for
this region it is possible to gain a picture of the distribution of
settlements in pharaonic times. Th e center of this region was
the town called in ancient times Tjebu (modern-day Qau el-
Qebir). Here was found the biggest cemetery of the region, in-
cluding the monumental tombs of the local rulers. Tjebu was
the center of the local governor with the palace of the local
government. It was also the location of an important temple.
Th e temple was closely connected with the administration of
local government. Here the taxes of the province were stored
and given back to the people when needed.
From ancient texts we know that each province had a
main town with a temple of the most important deity of the
province. Th ese temples in the local centers not only func-
tioned as religious capitals of a region but were also the con-
tact place between the royal capital of the country and local(opposite page) Most settlements in ancient Egypt were placed close to
the Nile. A high proportion of the population of towns probably lived
from agricultural work, taking advantage of the yearly rise and fall of
the Nile that left deposits of rich black silt along the riverbanks.964 settlement patterns: Egypt0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i964 964 10/10/07 2:30:35 PM