and animal remains). Th e more distant the sites are from the
fl oodplain and agricultural villages, the more likely that they
are those of pastoral nomads. Sites that date to the dawn of
the pharaonic era and are probably the remains of nomads
are found in peripheral Upper Egypt south of Aswān. One
is the Kiseiba Plateau in the Western Desert, which contains
a number of seasonal sites. Th e presence of Red Sea shells in
the Nile Valley points to trade with groups operating in the
Arabian Desert, presumably as pastoralists.
With the advent of writing in Egypt, the presence of
pastoral groups gains concreteness. Th e best known of these
groups is the Medjay. Th ey may have originally come Lower
Nubia. Precisely how they became displaced and settled in
the Arabian Desert is not clear. Th e Semna Dispatches of the
Tw e l ft h Dynasty (ca. 2000 b.c.e.), a collection of military re-
ports from an Arabian Desert outpost, mentions the Medjay.
Th ey were compelled by drought to sneak into the Nile Val-
ley, a survival mechanism common to nomads throughout
Egyptian history. Tomb paintings from the Twelft h Dynasty
represent Medjay herding cattle. Nomads appear in tomb
paintings as lean, with short hair and beards. Th ey carry
long sticks with a roll of matting attached, which they used
for bedding as well as for shade. Th ey also are depicted with
bundles of pots and food.
Th e presence of the Medjay in Egyptian society is under-
scored by their use during the Second Intermediate Period as
mercenaries, especially by Kamose against the Hyksos (ca.
1550 b.c.e.). Eventually the term Medjay came to denote a
corps within the Egyptian army. Aft er Ahmose I’s ousting of
the Hyksos, the Medjay were the primary component of the
police force of the Nineteenth Dynasty (1307–1196 b.c.e.). In
the Merneptah stela (ca. 1209 b.c.e.) the Medjay are depicted
as being at rest thanks to the warring prowess of the pharaoh,
who has pacifi ed Palestine. Curiously, a few lines below this is
a reference to pastoralists, demonstrating that there has been
a shift in what the audience understands as the prime occupa-
tion of the Medjay. During the New Kingdom (ca. 1550–1070
b.c.e.) the Medjay probably served as a source of labor for the
Egyptians in Arabian Desert gold mines. Given that there are
references to the military operations against the Medjay in
monuments of Akhenaton and Th utmose IV of the Eighteenth
Dynasty, it seems the Medjay had returned to life beyond the
fringe of Egyptian control, probably again as pastoralists.
Increasingly, fi elds belonged to large-estate owners, who
employed herdsmen to take care of their fl ocks and herds.
Th ese herdsmen specialized in particular animals. Nomads
typically herded several species. Th is diversity cut the eco-
nomic risk of disease and broadened their economic op-
tions with regard to trade. Evidence provided by roadside
forts skirting the Western Desert points to the need to po-
lice nomads to allow for overland trade. As Roman infl uence
waned in Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia, with forts being
abandoned, the political and economic voids left were fi lled
by nomadic groups. Th ese groups took over gold mining and
overland trade.
THE MIDDLE EAST
BY JEN PIRO
Th e term pastoralism in its most basic sense means the herd-
ing of domestic animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, or (in
the Near East) camels as a main, or even the only, source of
livelihood for a given group of people. However, that defi ni-
tion covers a very broad range of activities. Anthropologists
generally further categorize pastoralist societies according to
two criteria: how settled (or how mobile) the society is, and
how much (or how little) it engages in agriculture in addition
to herding. Th e result is a spectrum of pastoralist societies.
At one end of this spectrum are sedentary pastoralists,
who live in permanent settlements (typically villages) and
feed their herds year-round on pastures relatively nearby.
If, as oft en happens, these people also engage in agriculture,
they may be classed as agropastoralists. At the other end of
the spectrum is nomadic pastoralism. In a purely nomadic
pastoralist society all or almost all of the population moves
with the herds from place to place and from one elevation to
another in search of pasture throughout the cycle of seasons,
living in temporary encampments and oft en traveling hun-
dreds or even thousands of miles over the course of a year.
Because of their continual movement, pure nomadic
pastoralists have little opportunity to practice agriculture.
However, another form of pastoralism, transhumant pasto-
ralism, off ers that opportunity. In transhumant pastoralist
societies some of the people range with the herds as nomads,
while most remain in a permanent “home” settlement as ag-
riculturists. It is important to note that both groups regard
themselves as part of the same society; they merely perform
diff erent tasks. Obviously no clear lines separate the various
kinds of pastoralism. Th ey blend together at the edges as more
or fewer people live in permanent settlements, engage in ag-
riculture, and so on. Moreover, a given society may adopt dif-
ferent forms of pastoralism over time.
In Near Eastern prehistory the emergence of nomadic
pastoralism, centered on herding sheep and goats, was a piv-
otal development. It played an integral role in transforming
the economy and society of the region and infl uencing the
course of ancient Near Eastern civilization. But while schol-
ars agree that the rise of nomadic pastoralism was a critical
turning point, they disagree on exactly when it took place.
Some archaeologists claim that nomadic pastoralism could
have emerged as early as the seventh millennium b.c.e. Oth-
ers suggest that the mid-fourth or third millennium b.c.e. is
a better estimate. Still others argue that although diff erent
forms of pastoralism existed before the second millennium
b.c.e., pure nomadic pastoralism arose only in historical
times on the borders of ancient empires. Part of the prob-
lem is that early forms of pastoralism are not always clearly
identifi able in the archaeological record. Also, nomadic pas-
toralism appeared in diff erent parts of the Near East at dif-
ferent times and under diff erent environmental, social, and
economic conditions.nomadic and pastoral societies: The Middle East 789