Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T02:51:23.820Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Role of Environmental Factors in the Early Development of Egyptian Stone Architecture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2020

Jun Yi Wong Open the ORCID record for Jun Yi Wong [Opens in a new window]
Jun Yi Wong*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto, Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, 4 Bancroft Avenue, TorontoONM5S 1C1, Canada Email: jun.wong@mail.utoronto.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Much detail regarding the early development of stone architecture in Egypt remains unclear. Prevailing studies tend to focus on the contribution of religious and socio-economic factors, but the role of environmental elements should not be understated. For much of the First Dynasty, innovation in stone architecture was driven by developments in the private realm, a result of favourable geology in Lower Egypt. Meanwhile, multiple strands of evidence suggest that Egypt experienced wetter climatic conditions during the Early Dynastic period and the Old Kingdom. This would have had major implications on both the production of mudbrick and the short-term durability of mudbrick structures. It is argued that these environmental factors played a key role in facilitating and accelerating the rise of stone architecture in Egypt.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , February 2021 , pp. 53 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexanian, N., Bebermeier, W. & Blaschta, D., 2012. Untersuchungen am unteren Aufweg der Knickpyramide in Dahschur [Investigations at the lower causeway of the Bent Pyramid at Dahschur]. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 68, 1–30.Google Scholar
Arnold, D., 1991. Building in Egypt: Pharaonic stone masonry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Arnold, D., 2003. The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egyptian Architecture. London: Tauris.Google Scholar
Bárta, M., 2005. Location of the Old Kingdom pyramids in Egypt. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 15(2), 177–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernhardt, C.E., Horton, B.P. & Stanley, J.D., 2012. Nile Delta vegetation response to Holocene climate variability. Geology 40(7), 615–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bestock, L., 2008. The early dynastic funerary enclosures of Abydos. Archéo-Nil 18, 42–59.Google Scholar
Brewer, D.J., Redford, D.B. & Redford, S., 1994. Domestic Plants and Animals: The Egyptian origins. Warminster: Aris & Phillips.Google Scholar
Bunbury, J., 2019. The Nile and Ancient Egypt: Changing land-and waterscapes, from the Neolithic to the Roman era. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bussmann, R., 2016. Great and little traditions in Egyptology, in 10. Ägyptologische Tempeltagung: Ägyptische Tempel zwischen Normierung und Individualität. München, 29.–31. August 2014 [10th Egyptological Conference on Temples: Egyptian Temples between Standardization and Individuality], ed. Ullmann, M.. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 37–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butzer, K.W., 1959. Environment and human ecology. Geography 4, 43–87.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W., 2001. When the desert was in flood… Environmental history of the Giza Plateau. Aeragram: Newsletter of the Ancient Egypt Research Associates 5(1), 3–5.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W., Butzer, E. & Love, S., 2013. Urban geoarchaeology and environmental history at the Lost City of the Pyramids, Giza: synthesis and review. Journal of Archaeological Science 40(8), 3340–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, R.J., 2016. Tomb Security in Ancient Egypt from the Predynastic to the Pyramid Age. Oxford: Archaeopress.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, S. & Engelbach, R., 1930. Ancient Egyptian Masonry: The building craft. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Claussen, M. & Gayler, V., 1997. The greening of the Sahara during the mid-Holocene: results of an interactive atmosphere-biome model. Global Ecology and Biogeography Letters 6(5), 369–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Correas-Amador, M., 2013. Ethnoarchaeology of Egyptian Mudbrick Houses: Towards a Holistic Understanding of Ancient Egyptian Domestic Architecture. Unpublished PhD thesis, Durham University.Google Scholar
Correas-Amador, M. & Simpson, C., 2017, Comparative evolution of vernacular mudbrick houses in the Nile Delta and Qurna (Luxor), in Vernacular and Earthen Architecture: Conservation and sustainability, eds Mileto, C., Vegas López-Manzanares, F., García-Soriano, L. & Cristini, V.. Leiden: CRC Press, 71–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cwiek, A., 1998. Date and function of the so-called minor Step Pyramids. Göttinger Miszellen 162, 39–52.Google Scholar
Cwiek, A., 2008. History of the Third Dynasty, another update on the Kings and Monuments, in Chronology and Archaeology in Ancient Egypt (The Third Millennium BC), eds Vymazalová, H. & Bárta, M.. Prague: Czech Institute of Egyptology, 87–103.Google Scholar
Dickinson, T., 2014. A Landscape and Materials-based Approach to Royal Mortuary Architecture in Early Third Millennium BC Egypt. Volume 1: Text. Unpublished PhD thesis, University College London.Google Scholar
Dodson, A., 1998. On the threshold of glory: the Third Dynasty. KMT 9(2), 27–40.Google Scholar
Dodson, A. & Ikram, S., 2008. The Tomb in Ancient Egypt: Royal and private sepulchres from the Early Dynastic period to the Romans. London: Thames & Hudson.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorn, A., 2015. The hydrology of the Valley of the Kings, in The Oxford Handbook of the Valley of the Kings, eds Wilkinson, R.H. & Weeks, K.R.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 30–38.Google Scholar
Dreyer, G. & Jaritz, H., 1983. Die Arbeiterunterkunfte am Sadd-el-Kafara [The settlement of workmen at Sadd-el-Kafara], in Der Sadd-el-Kafara: Die älteste Talsperre der Welt (2600 v. Chr.) [Sadd-el-Kafara: the world's oldest dam (2600 BCE)], eds Garbrecht, G. & Bertram, H.U.. Braunschweig: Technische Universität Braunschweig, Appendix B.Google Scholar
Dreyer, G., 2003. The tombs of the First and Second Dynasties at Abydos and Saqqara, in Treasures of the Pyramids, ed. Hawass, Z.A.. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 62–77.Google Scholar
Emery, V.L., 2011. Mud-brick architecture, in UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, ed. Wendrich, W.. https://uee.cdh.ucla.edu/Google Scholar
Emery, W.B., 1939. Excavations at Saqqara 1937–1938. Hor-Aha. Cairo: Government Press.Google Scholar
Emery, W.B., 1958. Great Tombs of the First Dynasty III. London: Egypt Exploration Society.Google Scholar
Engel, E.M., 2008. The royal tombs at Umm el-Qa'ab. Archéo-Nil 18, 30–41.Google Scholar
Eyre, C. 1987. Work and the organisation of work in the Old Kingdom, in Labor in the Ancient Near East, ed. Powell, M.A.. New Haven (CT): American Oriental Society, 5–48.Google Scholar
Firth, C.M. & Quibell, J.E., 1935. Excavations at Saqqara: The step pyramid. Cairo: Institut français d'archéologie orientale.Google Scholar
Hassan, F.A., 1997. Nile floods and political disorder in early Egypt, in Third Millennium BC Climate Change and Old World Collapse, eds Dalfes, H.N., Kukla, G. & Weiss, H.. Berlin: Springer, 1–24.Google Scholar
Hoffman, M.A., Hamroush, H.A. & Allen, R.O., 1986. A model of urban development for the Hierakonpolis region from Predynastic through Old Kingdom times. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 23, 175–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, M.A., Hamroush, H.A. & Allen, R.O., 1987. The environment and evolution of an early Egyptian urban center: archaeological and geochemical investigations at Hierakonpolis. Geoarchaeology 2(1), 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ikram, S., 2002. Mud matters: domestic silt technology in Upper Egypt, in Moving Matters: Ethnoarchaeology in the Near East, eds Wendrich, W. & van der Kooij, G.. Leiden: Research School CNWS, 159–70.Google Scholar
Jaeschke, R.L. & Friedman, R., 2011. Conservation of the Enclosure of Khasekhemwy at Hierakonpolis, Upper Egypt: investigation, experimentation, and implementation, in Terra 2008: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on the Study and Conservation of Earthen Architectural Heritage, Bamako, Mali, February 1–5, 2008, eds Rainer, L., Rivera, A.B. & Gandreau, D.. Los Angeles (CA): Getty Conservation Institute, 189–93.Google Scholar
Jeffreys, D. & Tavares, A., 1994. The historic landscape of early dynastic Memphis. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. Abteilung Kairo 50, 143–73.Google Scholar
Kemp, B.J., 1967. The Egyptian 1st Dynasty royal cemetery. Antiquity 41, 22–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kemp, B.J., 1989. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a civilization. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kemp, B.J., 2000. Soil (including mud-brick architecture), in Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, eds Nicholson, P.T. & Shaw, I.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 78–103.Google Scholar
Kemp, B.J., 2006. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a civilization (2nd edn). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Klemm, D.D. & Klemm, R., 2001. The building stones of ancient Egypt – a gift of its geology. Journal of African Earth Sciences 33, 631–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klemm, D.D. & Klemm, R., 2010. The Stones of the Pyramids: Provenance of the building stones of the Old Kingdom pyramids of Egypt. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Köhler, C., 1997. Socio-economic aspects of early pottery production in the Nile delta. Bulletin of the Australian Centre for Egyptology 8, 81–9.Google Scholar
Köhler, C., 2005. Helwan I: Excavations in the Early Dynastic cemetery, season 1997/98. Heidelberg: Heidelberger Orientverlag.Google Scholar
Köhler, C., 2008. The Helwan cemetery. Archéo-Nil 18(1), 113–30.Google Scholar
Köhler, C., 2014. Helwan III: Excavations in Operation 4, Tombs 1–50. Rahden: Marie Leihdorf.Google Scholar
Köhler, C., 2017. Helwan IV: Excavations in Operation 4, Tombs 51–100. Rahden: Marie Leihdorf.Google Scholar
Köhler, C. & Jones, J., 2009. Helwan II. The Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom funerary relief slabs. Rahden: Marie Leidorf.Google Scholar
Kuper, R. & Kröpelin, S., 2006. Climate-controlled Holocene occupation in the Sahara: motor of Africa's evolution. Science 313(5788), 803–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuraszkiewicz, K.O., 2011. An afterworld for Netjerykhet, in Old Kingdom, New Perspectives. Egyptian art and archaeology 2750–2150 BC, eds Strudwick, N. & Strudwick, H.. Oxford: Oxbow, 139–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuraszkiewicz, K.O., 2013. Saqqara V, Old Kingdom Structures between the Step Pyramid Complex and the Dry Moat. Part 1: Architecture and development of the necropolis. Warsaw: Editions Neriton.Google Scholar
La Loggia, A., 2008. The use of stone in Early Dynastic Egyptian construction. Bulletin of the Australian Centre for Egyptology 19, 73–95.Google Scholar
Lauer, J.P., 1936 La pyramide à degrés I. L'architecture. Cairo: Department of Antiquities.Google Scholar
Lehner, M., 1997. The Complete Pyramids. London: Thames & HudsonGoogle Scholar
Lehner, M., 2010. Giza Plateau Mapping Project, in Oriental Institute 2009–2010 Annual Report. Chicago (IL): Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, 40–64.Google Scholar
Lehner, M. & Hawass, Z.A., 2017. Giza and the Pyramids: The definitive history. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lehner, M., Kamel, M., & Tavares, A., 2006. Giza Plateau Mapping Project: Season 2005 Preliminary Report. Cairo: Ancient Egypt Research Associates.Google Scholar
Malek, J., 1988. The ‘altar’ in the pillared court of Teti's pyramid-temple at Saqqara, in Pyramid Studies and Other Essays Presented to I.E.S. Edwards, eds Baines, J., James, T.G.H., Leahy, A. & Shore, A.F.. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 32–3.Google Scholar
Marouard, G. & Papazian, H., 2012. The Edfu Pyramid Project: recent investigation at the last provincial step pyramid. Oriental Institute News and Notes 213, 3–9.Google Scholar
Mathieson, I., Bettles, E., Clarke, J., et al. , 1997. The National Museums of Scotland Saqqara Survey Project 1993–1995. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 83(1), 17–53.Google Scholar
Mathieson, I., Bettles, E., Dittmer, J. & Reader, C., 1999. The National Museums of Scotland Saqqara Survey Project, Earth Sciences 1990–1998. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 85(1), 21–43.Google Scholar
McNamara, L. 2008. The revetted mound at Hier-akonpolis and early kingship: a reinterpretation, in Egypt at its Origins 2. Proceedings of the international conference Origin of the State: Predynastic and early Dynastic Egypt, Toulouse, 5th–8th September 2005, eds Midant-Reynes, B. & Tristant, Y.. Leuven: Peeters, 901–36.Google Scholar
Morgenstein, M.E. & Redmount, C.A., 1998. Mudbrick typology, sources, and sedimentological composition: a case study from Tell El-Muqdam, Egyptian Delta. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 35, 129–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, E.F., 2007. On the ownership of the Saqqara mastabas and the allotment of political and ideological power at the dawn of the state, in The Archaeology and Art of Ancient Egypt. Essays in honor of David B. O'Connor, Volume II, eds Hawass, Z. & Richards, J.. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 171–90.Google Scholar
O'Connor, D., 1989. New funerary enclosures (Talbezirke) of the Early Dynastic period at Abydos. Journal of the American Research Centre in Egypt 26, 51–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, D., 1992. The status of early Egyptian temples: an alternative theory, in The Followers of Horus: Studies dedicated to Michael Allen Hoffman 1944–1990, eds Adams, B. & Friedman, R.. Oxford: Oxbow, 83–97.Google Scholar
O'Connor, D., 2009. Abydos: Egypt's first pharaohs and the cult of Osiris. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
O'Connor, D. & Adams, M.D., 2003. The royal mortuary enclosures of Abydos and Hierakonpolis, in Treasures of the Pyramids, ed. Hawass, Z.A.. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 78–85.Google Scholar
Ormeling, M., 2017. Planning the construction of First Dynasty Mastabas at Saqqara, in Egypt at its Origins 5: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference Origin of the State: Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt, Cairo, 13th–18th April 2014, eds Midant-Reynes, B., Tristant, Y. & Ryan, E.M.. Leuven: Peeters, 401–32.Google Scholar
Petrie, W.M.F., 1892. Medum. London: David Nutt.Google Scholar
Pokorný, P., Kočár, P., Sůvová, Z. & Bezděk, A., 2009. Paleoecology of Abusir South according to plant and animal remains, in Abusir XIII: Abusir South 2: Tomb complex of the Vizier Qar, his sons Qar Junior and Senedjemib, and Iykai, ed. Bárta, M.. Prague: Czech Institute of Egyptology, 29–48.Google Scholar
Quibell, J.W. & Green, F.W., 1902. Hierakonpolis. Part II. London: Bernard Quaritch.Google Scholar
Reader, C., 2017. An early dynastic ritual landscape at North Saqqara: an inheritance from Abydos? Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 103(1), 71–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Regulski, I., 2009. Investigating a new Dynasty 2 necropolis at South Saqqara. British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan 13, 221–37.Google Scholar
Reisner, G.A., 1931. Mycerinus, the Temples of the Third Pyramid at Giza. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Reisner, G.A., 1936. The Development of the Egyptian Tomb down to the Accession of Cheops. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Reisner, G.A., 1942. A History of the Giza Necropolis. Volume I. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Saad, Z.Y., 1957. Ceiling Stelae in Second Dynasty Tombs from the Excavations at Helwan. (Supplément aux Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte, Cahier 21.) Cairo: Institut français d'archéologie orientale.Google Scholar
Saad, Z.Y., 1969. The Excavations at Helwan: Art and civilization in the First and Second Egyptian Dynasties. Norman (OK): University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Shaw, I. (ed.), 2000. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. New York (NY): Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Simpson, C., 2010. Qurna – more pieces of an unfinished history, in Thebes and Beyond: Studies in honour of Kent R. Weeks, eds Hawass, Z.A. & Ikram, S.. Cairo: Supreme Council of Antiquities, 197–210.Google Scholar
Spencer, A.J., 1979. Brick Architecture in Ancient Egypt. Warminster: Aris & Phillips.Google Scholar
Swelim, N., 1988. The dry moat of the Netjerykhet complex, in Pyramid Studies and Other Essays Presented to I.E.S. Edwards, eds Baines, J., James, T.G.H., Leahy, A. & Shore, A.F.. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 12–22.Google Scholar
Tallet, P., 2017. Les papyrus de la Mer Rouge 1: Le ‘Journal de Merer’ (Papyrus Jarf A et B). Cairo: Institut français d'archéologie orientale.Google Scholar
Trzciński, J., Kuraszkiewicz, K.O. & Welc, F., 2010. Preliminary report on geoarchaeological research in West Saqqara. Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 19, 194–208.Google Scholar
Ullmann, M., 2016. The temples of millions of years at western Thebes, in The Oxford Handbook of the Valley of the Kings, eds Wilkinson, R.H. & Weeks, K.R.. New York (NY): Oxford University Press, 417–32.Google Scholar
Van Beek, G.W. & Van Beek, O., 2008. Glorious Mud! Ancient and contemporary earthen design and construction in North Africa, Western Europe, the Near East, and Southwest Asia. Washington (DC): Smithsonian Institution.Google Scholar
Van Wetering, J., 2004. The royal cemetery of the Early Dynastic period at Saqqara and the Second Dynasty royal tombs, in Egypt at its Origins: Studies in memory of Barbara Adams, eds Hendrickx, S., Friedman, R.F., Ciałowicz, K.M. & Chłodnicki, M.. (OLA 138.) Leuven: Peeters, 1055–80.Google Scholar
Welc, F., 2011. The Third Dynasty open quarry west of the Netjerykhet pyramid complex (Saqqara). Études et Travaux 24, 271–304.Google Scholar
Welc, F. & Marks, L., 2014. Climate change at the end of the Old Kingdom in Egypt around 4200 BP: new geoarchaeological evidence. Quarternary International 324, 124–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Welc, F., Mieszkowski, R., Trzciński, J. & Kowalczyk, S., 2015. Western section of the ‘dry moat’ channel surrounding Step Pyramid complex in Saqqara in the light of ground-penetrating radar prospection. Archaeological Prospection 22, 293–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, T.A.H., 1999. Early Dynastic Egypt. New York (NY): Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, W., 1987. The Archaic stone tombs at Helwan. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 73(1), 59–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar