Merimde Beni Salama is a

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

settlement in Egypt, in the West delta of the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...

, 45 km northwest of

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

. It is the

typesite In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron Ag ...

Merimde culture The Merimde culture (also Merimde Beni-Salame or Benisalam) ( ar, 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 P ...

. The settlement was occupied for about 800 years, from around 5000 to 4200 BC. The population may have reached as many as 16,000. The site represents the earliest evidence for a fully sedentary settlement in the Nile valley.

History of research

The site was discovered by

Hermann Junker Hermann Junker (29 November 1877 in Bendorf – 9 January 1962 in Vienna) was a German archaeologist best known for his discovery of the Merimde-Benisalam site in the West Nile Delta in Lower Egypt in 1928. Early life Junker was born in 1877 in ...

during his West Delta Expedition. He excavated the site from 1923 to 1939. In 1976, excavations were continued by the Egyptian Antiquities Organisation. In 1977-1982, excavations were conducted by the German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo under the direction of Josef Eiwanger.

Description

Lithic assemblages

Merimde is located near the terraces at the Wadi el-Gamal. A wide variety of

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

lithic assemblages have been discovered in the area. Finds around Merimde Beni Salama fall into four broad phases, the Lower Palaeolithic, the Middle Palaeolithic, the

Epipalaeolithic In archaeology, the Epipalaeolithic or Epipaleolithic (sometimes Epi-paleolithic etc.) is a period occurring between the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic during the Stone Age. Mesolithic also falls between these two periods, and the two are someti ...

and the Neolithic. All these correlate with many other dated lithic assemblages in the broader region, such as in

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient ...

Nubia Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...

, and

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

, as well as in the

Nile Delta The Nile Delta ( ar, دلتا النيل, or simply , is the delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Po ...

. The Qarunian stone industry in the

Faiyum Faiyum ( ar, الفيوم ' , borrowed from cop, ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ or Ⲫⲓⲱⲙ ' from egy, pꜣ ym "the Sea, Lake") is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum ...

, and the Helwanian industry (Helwan points) provide the closest similarities to those at Wadi Gamal terraces. Both of them are

microlithic A microlith is a small Rock (geology), stone tool usually made of flint or chert and typically a centimetre or so in length and half a centimetre wide. They were made by humans from around 35,000 to 3,000 years ago, across Europe, Africa, Asia an ...

, consisting mostly of bladelets and blades.

Settlement

Early on, the settlement had been considered to be ca. 25 hectares, but recent research expanded this to at least 40 hectares, and possibly as much as 60 hectares. The earliest radiocarbon date for Merimde Beni Salama is 5300 BC. Agriculture and animal breeding were a feature at the site right from the beginning. According to Eiwanger, there were 3 functional phases of the settlement, with a total of 5 layers. After Phase I, there was a clear interruption in the settlement activity. In Phase II, the settlement became more compact and substantial, with storage pits and hearths. Dwellings were in the form of rush and reed shelters. The role of cattle breeding also increased, but hunting still played an important role.

Wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley pr ...

sorghum ''Sorghum'' () is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the grass family (Poaceae). Some of these species are grown as cereals for human consumption and some in pastures for animals. One species is grown for grain, while many othe ...

and

vetch ''Vicia'' is a genus of over 240 species of flowering plants that are part of the legume family (Fabaceae), and which are commonly known as vetches. Member species are native to Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Africa. Some other ...

were cultivated. At this stage, the settlement was inhabited by communities with strong African influences. Sorghum is a crop that is native to Africa, where it was first domesticated. During Phase III, the first human depictions known from Egypt were found, such as a figurine with visible hair, eyes and breasts. Northeast of Merimde Beni Salama, in the western Delta, a Neolithic settlement at

Sais Sais ( grc, Σάϊς, cop, Ⲥⲁⲓ) was an ancient Egyptian city in the Western Nile Delta on the Canopic branch of the Nile,Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. "Saïs." '' Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary''. 9th ed. Springfiel ...

had been identified in 1999. Numerous cultural parallels with Merimde are found here. Agriculture appears at Sais at about the same time as Merimde. The adoption of a settled hunting and agricultural lifestyle in the Delta area may be connected to gradual changes in climatic conditions from 4600 BC onwards. It is believed that the Middle Holocene Moist phase started at that time.Penelope Wilson (2014)
THE PREHISTORIC SEQUENCE AT SAIS: TEMPORAL AND REGIONAL CONNECTIONS.
The Nile Delta as a centre of cultural interactions between Upper Egypt and the Southern Levant in the 4th millennium BC. Studies in African Archaeology 13

Notes

Literature

* Joanne Rowland, Geoffrey Tassie (2014)
Prehistoric Sites along the Edge of the Western Nile Delta: Report on the Results of the Imbaba Prehistoric Survey 2013–14.
The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 100(1):49-65 Project: The Prehistory of the Nile Delta * 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. * Eiwanger J. Merimde Beni-salame. In Bard, Kathryn A. Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. London/New York. 1999; 501–505 * Josef Eiwanger (1992). Merimde-Benisalame 3, Die Funde der jungeren Merimdekultur. Mainz

External links

Horus magazine, 2021 {{coord, 30.316, N, 30.850, E, display=title Populated places established in the 5th millennium BC 1928 archaeological discoveries Former populated places in Egypt Predynastic Egypt Lithics