Regional Differences in Pottery Repertoires: Two Case Studies of Early and Late Middle Kingdom Ceramic Assemblages
A. Jiménez-Serrano, A. J. Morales (eds.), Middle Kingdom Palace Culture and Its echoes in the Provinces, Regional Perspectives and Realities, Leiden, Boston, 45-76, 2021
Regional differences in pottery production occur in terms of raw materials used, manufacturing te... more Regional differences in pottery production occur in terms of raw materials used, manufacturing technologies employed, and the range of vessel shapes created. The shapes were not only determined by the intended use contexts-for example in a settlement/funerary/cultic activity/industrial location- but also depend on the chronological period in which the vessels were made. lt is, however, often difficult to date material culture precisely within dynasties unless an undisturbed context can be connected with a well dated monument. A separate analysis is required for each case study in order to find explanatory models for the observed differences. In Egypt, except during the Middle Kingdom, differences in pottery repertoires over time have often been explained by the strengthening or weakening of the central administration, which is thought to have governed pottery production to a significant extent. This holds true for some of the material recovered, but an inadequate number of pottery workshops have been found to clearly support the hypothesis. Pictorial evidence and three-dimensional models of vessels, workers, and industrial buildings indicate that larger estates may also have included pottery workshops. This paper argues that estate production may explain some of the differences seen in the material assemblages. Two case studies are used to illustrate this, as well as the challenges and questions that arise when studying regional variations in pottery production. The first focuses on the early Middle Kingdom period at the sites of Ihnasya el-Madina/Herakleopolis Magna and Dayr al-Barsha, and the second focuses on the late Middle Kingdom at the sites of Tell el-Dab'a/Avaris and Kom Rabia/Memphis.
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Books by Bettina Bader
This volume comprises the final archaeological report of three settlement layers of the late Middle Kingdom (ca 1830-1700 BC) at the site of Tell el-Dab’a in the north-eastern Nile delta. Area A/II was excavated to the expanse of 3800 square metres. The western part (1600 square metres) is the subject of this publication, while the eastern part will be presented in the second volume.
The settlement entails three phases, where the latest one, Phase G/3-1, is described and analysed first, because it was excavated in all squares and provides therefore a continuous overview of life. Five medium to small compounds were laid-out in a self-organised manner, which are not uniform in size or in plan. This suggests a certain element of social stratification. Beside simple dwellings the architectural remains yielded evidence for a number of round silos, several irregular alleyways, courtyards and installations such as hearths and fire places. Each of these features was numbered, described and the associated finds presented. The finds included pottery and stone vessels, chipped stone tools, stone objects such as querns, rubbing stones, animal bones, but also a few faience objects and stone palettes. The majority of the finds reflects domestic activities but some industrial remains with two horse-shoe shaped ovens and two limestone moulds for tools. The large amount of imported transport amphorae from Syria-Palestine is remarkable, hinting at the reception of commodities from there. Noteworthy are the burials of three individuals in houses and courtyards (two women and one child). While the number of the burials obviously does not correspond with the number of inhabitants in this neighbourhood, it is difficult to ascertain, whether there was a separate cemetery elsewhere or if the dead were buried in another neighbourhood.
The earlier archaeological Phases H and G/4 were excavated in a more restricted area as the later phase, often due to the high water table. While Phase H consisted mostly of thin dividing walls forming irregular areas with small huts and very few finds, the lay-out of Phase G/4 represents a precursor of phase G/3-1. Several alleyways and dwellings were in place then, with walls renewing this erstwhile lay-out. Remarkable for Phase H is a number of relatively large and well-built silos in the northern part of the excavation area, while thin dividing walls with regular pilasters presumably for strengthening them and small dwellings are typical for Phase G/4.
While comparative settlements in the Levant and Egypt are scarce, the full publication of this self-organised settlement provides primary evidence for daily life in the delta marches and a valuable source for Egyptian settlement archaeology.
That such pottery is also found in Sinai, other parts of Egypt and Nubia points to a complex system of internal trade which is also touched upon in this study.
Papers by Bettina Bader
Open Access publication Collection Ægyptiaca Leodiensia 13.2: https://presses.uliege.be/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/NKHD_2_Book-Lt.pdf (Presses Universitaires de Liège).
In 2015 the project Beyond Politics: Material Culture in Second Intermediate Period Egypt and Nubia1 was initiated to assess archaeological finds in their own right, independently from
the historical, written sources. This approach was born out of necessity because the majority of archaeological finds do not bear dynastic affiliations. This is particularly true of the non-élite strata of ancient society.
The difficulties would not be alleviated even if such data were more frequent, because in the Second Intermediate Period (SIP) a) the sequence of pharaohs is not completely preserved2 b) the
reconstruction is not agreed upon3 and c) numerous archaeological SIP sites do not include any king’s names.
Most objects discussed here lack inscriptions or names, to demonstrate the complications and the need to add archaeological interpretations to obtain greater insight into the reconstruction of the lives of past people in the SIP. This is not to say that texts should be ignored, but the full value
of archaeological finds should be used to add knowledge of the past.
at Tell el-Dab‘a knew and used a small proportion of non-Egyptian cooking pots, but the majority belonged to the Egyptian tradition, demonstrating the material and/or relational entanglement at the site.
This volume comprises the final archaeological report of three settlement layers of the late Middle Kingdom (ca 1830-1700 BC) at the site of Tell el-Dab’a in the north-eastern Nile delta. Area A/II was excavated to the expanse of 3800 square metres. The western part (1600 square metres) is the subject of this publication, while the eastern part will be presented in the second volume.
The settlement entails three phases, where the latest one, Phase G/3-1, is described and analysed first, because it was excavated in all squares and provides therefore a continuous overview of life. Five medium to small compounds were laid-out in a self-organised manner, which are not uniform in size or in plan. This suggests a certain element of social stratification. Beside simple dwellings the architectural remains yielded evidence for a number of round silos, several irregular alleyways, courtyards and installations such as hearths and fire places. Each of these features was numbered, described and the associated finds presented. The finds included pottery and stone vessels, chipped stone tools, stone objects such as querns, rubbing stones, animal bones, but also a few faience objects and stone palettes. The majority of the finds reflects domestic activities but some industrial remains with two horse-shoe shaped ovens and two limestone moulds for tools. The large amount of imported transport amphorae from Syria-Palestine is remarkable, hinting at the reception of commodities from there. Noteworthy are the burials of three individuals in houses and courtyards (two women and one child). While the number of the burials obviously does not correspond with the number of inhabitants in this neighbourhood, it is difficult to ascertain, whether there was a separate cemetery elsewhere or if the dead were buried in another neighbourhood.
The earlier archaeological Phases H and G/4 were excavated in a more restricted area as the later phase, often due to the high water table. While Phase H consisted mostly of thin dividing walls forming irregular areas with small huts and very few finds, the lay-out of Phase G/4 represents a precursor of phase G/3-1. Several alleyways and dwellings were in place then, with walls renewing this erstwhile lay-out. Remarkable for Phase H is a number of relatively large and well-built silos in the northern part of the excavation area, while thin dividing walls with regular pilasters presumably for strengthening them and small dwellings are typical for Phase G/4.
While comparative settlements in the Levant and Egypt are scarce, the full publication of this self-organised settlement provides primary evidence for daily life in the delta marches and a valuable source for Egyptian settlement archaeology.
That such pottery is also found in Sinai, other parts of Egypt and Nubia points to a complex system of internal trade which is also touched upon in this study.
Open Access publication Collection Ægyptiaca Leodiensia 13.2: https://presses.uliege.be/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/NKHD_2_Book-Lt.pdf (Presses Universitaires de Liège).
In 2015 the project Beyond Politics: Material Culture in Second Intermediate Period Egypt and Nubia1 was initiated to assess archaeological finds in their own right, independently from
the historical, written sources. This approach was born out of necessity because the majority of archaeological finds do not bear dynastic affiliations. This is particularly true of the non-élite strata of ancient society.
The difficulties would not be alleviated even if such data were more frequent, because in the Second Intermediate Period (SIP) a) the sequence of pharaohs is not completely preserved2 b) the
reconstruction is not agreed upon3 and c) numerous archaeological SIP sites do not include any king’s names.
Most objects discussed here lack inscriptions or names, to demonstrate the complications and the need to add archaeological interpretations to obtain greater insight into the reconstruction of the lives of past people in the SIP. This is not to say that texts should be ignored, but the full value
of archaeological finds should be used to add knowledge of the past.
at Tell el-Dab‘a knew and used a small proportion of non-Egyptian cooking pots, but the majority belonged to the Egyptian tradition, demonstrating the material and/or relational entanglement at the site.
This type of domestic architecture consists exclusively of mud brick. Measurements as well as proportions are given as possible means for dating such dwellings. The point of departure is the late Middle Kingdom settlement in Area A/II at Tell el-Daba, where a number of one and two room houses were excavated. While some of these houses are free standing, it is possible to find bipartite core-units, with one wide and one narrow room, embedded in other architectural assemblages in Egypt. These are known from at least the early Middle Kingdom onwards with a possible earlier tradition. At Tell el-Daba itself, the bipartite ground plan exists from the Middle Kingdom onwards with a possible earlier tradition. House models and other comparanda were also used to learn more about the distribution of this very simple architectural type used by non-elite individuals. In an overall cultural comparison various other socio-economic topics such as subsistence strategies, placement and capacity of storage facilities and various other influences on the assemblage found in Area A/II of the late Middle Kingdom are also discussed.
Review by S. Rotroff in American Journal of Archaeology:
http://www.ajaonline.org/sites/default/files/1161_Rotroff.pdf
The papers cover domestic, funerary, festival, and ritual contexts and the ceramic finds within them. Additional topics are the widely neglected reuse of pottery and how ceramic material can be interpreted in its wider socio-economic context. The case studies discuss pottery derived from many sites in Egypt from the Delta in the north to Elephantine in the south, and cover a chronological range from the Old Kingdom to the Coptic period. This broad approach ensures that the focus was on the role of Egyptian pottery within past societies as seen through various types of archaeological contexts. This volume provides archaeological and ceramic insights that are significant beyond Ancient Egypt"
in the Report of the German Archaeological Institute and the Swiss Institute in Cairo by Johanna Sigl, Bettina Bader, Michael Fielauf, Clara Jeuthe, Ewa Laskowska-Kusztal, Peter Kopp, Claire Malleson, Marie-Kristin Schröder, Cornelius von Pilgrim
In periods or at sites, when and where material culture is the only preserved remnant of activity, particular care needs to be employed to not impose pre-conceived ideas, historiographic and modern, on the finds before the data set has been analysed in depth and thus provides a valuable source type, which can then be compared to other sources.
Differences in interpretation of relations by means of material culture can be observed when the material culture of the First Intermediate Period with all its regional developments and variation are contrasted with that of the Second Intermediate Period.
Various definitions and concepts will be discussed, especially where cultural contacts are perceived to go beyond Egypt.
Even very broken material in surface contexts informs about the periods in which activities took place, because the general sequence of pottery development is quite well researched, so that at the very least a general date can usually be proposed. This is not to say that no more advances and refinement can be achieved or that new research is superfluous in the light of advances in research method and technology. The practice of dating by parallels from other sites is to a certain extent problematic especially in transitional periods because an absolutely uniform time horizon for certain pottery types seems to be the exception rather than the rule as well as total conformity in technology as well as in typology.
The paper focusses on methodology in processing, data collection and ways to tease out information of the smallest pieces of pottery including material from drill cores. Last but not least the controversial topic of discarding material will also be discussed.
Of special importance are the sequences in Sector 15 as well as the material deposited close to an inscribed stela of Nenj in Sector 20. The lowest exposure of Sector 15, where the water table ended the excavations, yielded ceramic material resembling that from other nearby Old Kingdom sites. Whilst the nature and derivation of these depositions remains unclear due to limited exposure, it provides an opportunity to have better idea of pottery development in the Fayoum region in the period from the late Old Kingdom to the beginning of the Middle Kingdom. The connection with Sedment on the other hand, allows one to see the further development of the ceramic repertoire in this area.
Furthermore a contrasting juxtaposition of grave good types between Herakleopolis and Sedment also allows an estimate of how thorough the destruction of the necropolis at Herakleopolis must have been.
Handed in to the Ministry of Antiquities in Egypt for publication in ASAE.
Handed in to the Ministry of Antiquities in Egypt for publication in ASAE.
Handed in to the Ministry of Antiquities in Egypt for publication in ASAE.
Handed in to the Ministry of Antiquities in Egypt for publication in ASAE.