Merimde culture

The Merimde culture (also Merimde Beni-Salame or Benisalam) (Arabic: مرمدة بني سلامة) was a Neolithic culture in the West Nile Delta in Lower Egypt, which corresponds in its later phase to the Faiyum A culture and the Badari culture in Predynastic Egypt. It is estimated that the culture evolved between 4800 and 4300 BC.[1] Merimde also refers to the archaeological site of the same name.

Merimde culture
Merimde clay head, Predynastic Period, Maadi Era, 4th millennium BCE. This is one of the earliest known representations of a human head in Egypt.
Geographical rangeEgypt
PeriodNeolithic
Datesc. 4,800 BC — 4,300 BC
CharacteristicsContemporary with Tasian culture, Badari culture
Preceded byFaiyum A culture
Followed byAmratian culture

Archaeological work

The culture was concentrated around Merimde Beni Salama, the main settlement site, located in the West delta of the Nile in Lower Egypt 45 km northwest of Cairo. The site was discovered by German archaeologist Hermann Junker, who excavated 6,400 m2 of the site during his West Nile Delta expedition in 1928.[2]

Early on, the settlement had been considered to be ca. 25 hectares, but recent research expanded this to at least 40 hectares.[3]

Later excavations in the 1970s performed by the Egyptian Antiquities Organization and the German Institute of Archaeology led to the establishment of the stratigraphical sequence.[4]

Characteristics

Merimde shows a sequence of occupations which lasted almost a millennium according to some estimates. While Junker identified three sequences, others such as Joseph Eiwanger established in 1977 that there are five with significantly different levels of development. Artifacts such as ceramics were quite primitive during phase I – a phase characterized by a light occupation. Eiwanger documented that storage areas appeared during phase II when the intensity of the occupation increased.[5]

Economy
Bifacial sickle insert, 4500-4000 BCE, Merimda Beni Salama. The sharp edges were used for the cutting of grain stalks.[6]

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Merimde economy was dominated by agriculture although some fishing and hunting were practiced to a lesser degree. The settlement consisted of small huts made of wattle and reed with a round or elliptical ground plan. Merimde pottery lacked "rippled marks".[7]

Burials

Burials had unique characteristics, different from those practiced in Upper Egyptian Predynastic Egypt and later Dynastic Egypt. There were no separate areas for cemeteries and the dead were buried within the settlement in a flexed position in oval pits without grave goods and offerings.[8]

In the time of the Maadi culture, the place was used as a cemetery.

Excavations of Merimde burials have yielded a number of skeletons, chiefly those of females. The fossils are generally taller and more robust than later predynastic Egyptian specimens. In this regard, the Merimde skeletons are most similar to those associated with the Tasian culture. Furthermore, although the Merimde crania are dolichocephalic (long-headed) like many of the other predynastic skulls, they have a large and wide vault like the Tasian crania. Skulls excavated from Badarian, Amratian sites tend instead to be smaller and narrow.[9][10]

  • Grain from Merimde, MET
    Grain from Merimde, MET
  • Hand ax, Neolithic Period, Buto–Merimde–Maadi, c. 4500–4000 BC. Western Delta, Egypt
    Hand ax, Neolithic Period, Buto–Merimde–Maadi, c. 4500–4000 BC. Western Delta, Egypt
  • Pounder, Neolithic Period, Buto–Merimda–Maadi, circa 4500 –4000 BC. Western Delta, Egypt.
    Pounder, Neolithic Period, Buto–Merimda–Maadi, circa 4500 –4000 BC. Western Delta, Egypt.

Relative chronology

See also
Periods and dynasties of ancient Egypt
All years are BC
Early
Pre-dynastic period
First Dynasty I c. 3150–2890
Second Dynasty II 2890–2686
Old Kingdom
Third Dynasty III 2686–2613
Fourth Dynasty IV 2613–2498
Fifth Dynasty V 2498–2345
Sixth Dynasty VI 2345–2181
First Intermediate
Seventh Dynasty VII spurious
Eighth Dynasty VIII 2181–2160
Ninth Dynasty IX 2160–2130
Tenth Dynasty X 2130–2040
Early Eleventh Dynasty XI 2134–2061
Middle Kingdom
Late Eleventh Dynasty XI 2061–1991
Twelfth Dynasty XII 1991–1803
Thirteenth Dynasty XIII 1803–1649
Second Intermediate
Fourteenth Dynasty XIV 1705–1690
Fifteenth Dynasty (Hyksos) XV 1674–1535
Sixteenth Dynasty XVI 1660–1600
Abydos Dynasty 1650–1600
Seventeenth Dynasty XVII 1580–1549
New Kingdom
Eighteenth Dynasty XVIII 1549–1292
Nineteenth Dynasty XIX 1292–1189
Twentieth Dynasty XX 1189–1077
Third Intermediate
Twenty-first Dynasty XXI 1069–945
Twenty-second Dynasty XXII 945–720
Twenty-third Dynasty XXIII 837–728
Twenty-fourth Dynasty XXIV 732–720
Twenty-fifth Dynasty (Nubian) XXV 732–653
Late Period
Twenty-sixth Dynasty XXVI 672–525
XXVII 525–404
Twenty-eighth Dynasty XXVIII 404–398
Twenty-ninth Dynasty XXIX 398–380
Thirtieth Dynasty XXX 380–343
XXXI 343–332
Hellenistic Egypt
Thirty-second Dynasty XXXII 332–305
Thirty-third Dynasty XXXIII 305–30
Roman Egypt
XXXIV 30–313 AD
See also: List of pharaohs by period and dynasty
Periodization of ancient Egypt

References and notes
  1. Bogucki, Peter I. (1999). The origins of human society. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 355. ISBN 1-57718-112-3.
  2. Hoffman, Michael A. (1980). Egypt before the pharaohs. Taylor & Francis. p. 168. ISBN 0-7100-0495-8.
  3. Joanne M. Rowland (2021), New Perspectives and Methods Applied to the ‘Known’ Settlement of Merimde Beni Salama, Western Nile Delta. in Joanne M. Rowland, Giulio Lucarini (eds.), Geoffrey J. Tassie | Revolutions. The Neolithisation of the Mediterranean Basin: the Transition to Food Producing Economies in North Africa, Southern Europe and the Levant | Berlin Studies of the Ancient World
  4. Bard, Kathryn; Steven Blake Shubert (1999). Encyclopedia of the archaeology of ancient Egypt. Routledge. p. 501. ISBN 0-415-18589-0.
  5. Shaw, Thurstan (1995). The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns. Routledge. p. 212. ISBN 0-415-11585-X.
  6. "Metropolitan Museum of Art". www.metmuseum.org.
  7. Brewer, Douglas J.; Emily Teeter (2007). Egypt and the Egyptians. Cambridge University Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-521-85150-3.
  8. Hoffman - pp. 174.
  9. Forde-Johnston, James L. (1959). Neolithic cultures of North Africa: aspects of one phase in the development of the African stone age cultures. University of California. p. 58. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  10. Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 65. Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 1935. p. 27. Retrieved 17 June 2016.

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