Teething problems in cereal cultivation in prehistoric Egypt: a restudy of Fayum Neolithic sickle blades

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the beginning and development of cereal cultivation in the Fayum Neolithic of northern Egypt by restudying flint sickle blades, which were found and poorly published by the British archaeologist Gertrude Caton-Thompson in the early twentieth century and are presently stored in the British Museum, the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at University College London, the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The restudy of various sickle blades in the Fayum Neolithic suggests that they derived from those in the Pottery Neolithic of the southern Levant and evolved in the Fayum according to local conditions and needs. It also suggests that the diffusion of cereal cultivation to the Fayum probably took place earlier than previously thought.

RESUMÉ

Cet article traite du début et du développement de la culture céréalière dans le Néolithique du Fayum du nord de l'Égypte. Cette étude se fait à travers l’examen de lames de faucille en silex, découvertes mais mal publiées par l'archéologue britannique Gertrude Caton-Thompson au début du XXième siècle et actuellement conservées au British Museum, au Musée Petrie d'Archéologie Égyptienne à University College London, au Musée Allard Pierson à Amsterdam, et enfin au Musée Égyptien au Caire. Ce ré-examen des diverses faucilles du Néolithique du Fayum permet de suggérer qu'elles dérivent de celles connues dans le Néolithique céramique du sud du Levant, et qu’elles évoluèrent au Fayum selon les conditions et besoins locaux. De plus, leur étude indique une diffusion de la culture céréalière au Fayum plus ancienne qu’on ne l’a pensé.

KEYWORDS:

• Egypt
• Fayum
• Neolithic
• cereal cultivation
• sickle blade

Acknowledgements

I should like to thank all the staff of the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan of the British Museum and the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at University College London for accommodating my research on Gertrude Caton-Thompson’s Fayum lithic collection, on which this article was written. I should also like to thank the editors and reviewers of Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa for taking the time to read through an earlier manuscript of this article and to comment on it.

Notes on contributor

Noriyuki Shirai is an honorary research associate in the Institute of Archaeology at University College London. His research focus is on the Neolithisation of Egypt and lithic technology.

Additional information

Funding

This research was based in the Institute of Archaeology at University College London and was made possible by a Marie Curie post-doctoral fellowship of the Gerda Henkel Foundation's M4HUMAN Programme (file number: AZ45/EU/12). I sincerely appreciate their support.