ScienceDaily (July 2, 2008) — A University of Chicago expedition at Tell Edfu in southern Egypt has unearthed a large administration building and silos that provide fresh clues about the emergence of urban life. The discovery provides new information about a little understood aspect of ancient Egypt—the development of cities in a culture that is largely famous for its monumental architecture.
The archaeological work at Tell Edfu was initiated with the permission of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, headed by Zahi Hawass, under the direction of Nadine Moeller, Assistant Professor at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago. Work late last year revealed details of seven silos, the largest grain bins found in ancient Egypt as well as an older columned hall that was an administration center.
Long fascinated with temples and monuments such as pyramids, scholars have traditionally spent little time exploring the residential communities of ancient Egypt. Due to intense farming and heavy settlement over the years, much of the record of urban civilization has been lost. So little archaeological evidence remains that some scholars believe Egypt did not have a highly developed urban culture, giving Mesopotamia the distinction of teaching people how to live in cities.
"The traditional view of ancient Egypt has been biased by the fact that most excavation work so far has focused on temples and tombs. The mounds which comprise the remains of Egyptian cities were either ignored, buried under modern towns, or else destroyed by modern agricultural activities. Edfu is one of the very few remaining city mounds that are accessible for scientific study," said Gil Stein, Director of the Oriental Institute.
"The work at Edfu is important and innovative in that it finally allows us to examine ancient Egypt as an urban society, whose cities and towns housed bureaucrats, craft specialists, priests, and farmers. Nadine Moeller's discovery of silos and local administrative buildings shows us how these cities actually functioned as places where the agricultural wealth of the Nile valley was mobilized for the state. Grain as currency provided the sinews of power for the pharoahs," he added.
"Ancient Egyptian administration is mainly known from texts, but the full understanding of the institutions involved and their role within towns and cities has been so far difficult to grasp because of the lack of archaeological evidence with which textual data needs to be combined," Moeller said.
At Tell Edfu, archaeologists have uncovered what amounts to a downtown area. The community, halfway between the modern cities of Aswan and Luxor, was a provincial capital an important regional center. Tell Edfu is also rare, in that almost 3,000 years of Egyptian history are preserved in the stratigraphy of a single mound.
The administrative building and silos were at the heart of the ancient community. Because grain was a form of currency, the silos functioned as a bank and a food source. The silos' size indicates the community was apparently a prosperous urban center.
The grain bins are in a large silo courtyard of the 17th Dynasty (1630-1520 B.C.) and consist of at least seven round, mud-brick silos. With a diameter between 5.5 and 6.5 meters, they are the largest examples discovered within a town center.
The team unearthed an earlier building phase for the hall that predated the silos. In that phase, a mud-brick building with 16 wooden columns stood at the site. The pottery and seal impressions found in the hall date it to the early 13th Dynasty (1773-1650 B.C.). The building layout indicates that it may have been part of the governor's palace, which was typical of provincial towns.
There is no exact parallel for such a columned hall being part of the administrative buildings. Scribes did accounting, opened and sealed containers, and received letters in the column hall. The ostraca, or inscribed pottery shards, list commodities written on them.
The administrative center was used when Egypt's political unity was lost and a small kingdom developed at Thebes (modern Luxor) and controlled most of Upper Egypt.
"During this period, we can see an increase in connections between the provincial elite, such as the family of the governor, to the royal family at Thebes, who were keen on strengthening bonds through marriage, or by awarding important offices to these people," Moeller said.
"It is exactly at this period when Edfu seems to have been very prosperous, which can now be confirmed further by archaeological discoveries such as this silo-court, a symbol for the wealth of the town," she said.
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posted
^ What about the common people? They need to discuss more about the commoners or gain more findings on them. What were their lives like and what was their relation to these noblemen?
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quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: ^ What about the common people? They need to discuss more about the commoners or gain more findings on them. What were their lives like and what was their relation to these noblemen?
Indeed, I agree. Since this is a new finding, I assume there will be more research and excavations taking place.
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Egypt's best-known excavations usually focus on the glittering mummies and grand monuments of the pharaohs, but for something completely different, travel up the Nile to Tell Edfu: The archaeologists digging there have uncovered ruins that shed light on the administrative and agricultural foundations of ancient Egypt's riches.
The Tell Edfu site is significant because it preserves about 3,000 years' worth of history in a single mound - and because the ancient settlement served as a key link in the chain connecting Egypt's agricultural society with the lifestyles of the rich and famous.
"The problem has been that my colleagues deal with temples and monumental architecture, and settlements haven't been something that has attracted that level of interest," the dig's director, University of Chicago archaeologist Nadine Moeller, told me. "But they're actually really important for understanding the ancient Egyptian civilization."
Many of ancient Egypt's urban sites have gone by the wayside, obliterated either by farming or by centuries of urban renewal. So little evidence has survived that some scholars question whether Egypt ever had a well-developed urban culture, according to today's report from the University of Chicago about the Tell Edfu dig.
A granary ... and a bank Moeller and her colleagues excavated what amounted to the downtown area in a provincial capital, south of ancient Thebes (modern-day Luxor). Thebes is hundreds of miles upstream on the Nile from the Great Pyramids - but for long stretches of Egypt's history, the city served as a pharaonic capital.
Among the most intriguing structures excavated so far are seven grain bins dating back to the 17th Dynasty (1630-1520 B.C.). Because grain served as a form of currency, this wasn't merely a granary - it was also the ancient equivalent of a bank, essentially managing tax collections for the provincial governor and the pharaoh.
"Grain as currency provided the sinews of power for the pharaohs," Gil Stein, director of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, explained in today's news release.
The administration of that power has been described in ancient Egyptian texts, but there's nothing like seeing the actual places where that power was exercised. The silos measure 18 to 21 feet wide, making them the largest grain bins ever discovered within an ancient Egyptian town center.
Going deeper Yet another layer of construction predated the silos. Moeller and her colleagues determined that a mud-brick structure with 16 wooden columns was used in the 13th Dynasty (1773-1650 B.C.), based on an analysis of shards of pottery and scarab seals found at the site. The hall of columns served as a place where scribes did their accounting, opened and sealed containers, and received letters.
Moeller speculated that the hall may have been part of the provincial governor's palace. "It was far more extensive than we expected," she said. "Actually, I still haven't reached the full limit of the whole structure."
For now, the dig has sparked more questions than answers: How much time did the grain spend in the silos? How was it distributed among provincial, priestly and pharaonic officials? What heights did Egypt's urban society reach more than 3,000 years ago? When Moeller returns to the dig in October, she plans to seek the answers to such questions and more.
Tell Edfu may not look as monumental as the Great Pyramids - but the dead city, and other sites like it, are just as important for learning how everyday Egyptians lived. If anything, such sites are more endangered than the pyramids themselves.
"We don't have many of these sites left," Moeller said.
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