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Abstract
The thesis deals with the ethnoarchaeobotany and reconstruction of the plant life in Predynastic Hierakonpolis (3800-3500 B.C.) which was one of the pioneer cities of the ancient Egyptian civilization. A total of 70 plant species were retrieved from 304 samples which were subjected to different preservation processes (desiccation and charring) through which archaeobotanical remains incorporated into our context. The study includes seven localities viz. HK29A (temple); HK29 (pottery kiln and burnt house); HK24A (brewery); HK11C and HK11 (trash mounds); HK43 and HK6 (cemetery areas). Another 28 species were identified by Fahmy (1995) from HK11C and HK29A
Man in Predynasic Hierakonpolis used all the available plant resources to facilate his life. He cultivated the fertile alluvial terraces of the Nile with the most important cereals of Old World (emmer wheat, free threshing wheat, hulled barley and six rowed barley); also he cultivated linen (flax) which was the most important textile and oil crop for Predynastic inhabitants. On the edges in between Nile terraces and desert plain, important summer vegetables were cultivated (melon, water melon, cucumber and lupine).
On the margins of cultivations and in between them, 35 field weeds were grown (21 in this study and extra 14 reported by Fahmy (1995); they are 21 winter weeds, 8 summer weeds and 11 all year weeds; many of these weeds are potential fodders and were used for animal nutrition, also many of them have medicinal uses, some of these field weeds were palatable for man and were used as human food under condtions of food shortage.
The wide range of cultivated crops and field weeds indicated that agriculture was practiced on a large scale in our study area in both winter and summer seasons. In the Holocene of the Middle East plant domestication was developed earlier than the around areas in Europe and Sub-tropical Africa where rainfall and wild resource were enough for Prehistoric inhabitants while in the Middle East rainfall was less available.
Edible fruits of sidder, date palm, doum palm, balanos, capers, sycamore fig and Cordia sinensis trees were collected from the Nile Valley and from the desert wadis around Hierakonpolis; these fruits were used as complementary diet and as offerings in ceremonies.
Predynastic Egyptians of Hierakonpolis used local trees (from the Nile Valley and desert wadis) and introduced wood to construct their houses and to make charcoal necessary for cooking of foods and for pottery kilns firing. Acacia nilotica, Tamarix nilotica, T. aphylla, Ficus sycomorus, Balanites aegyptiaca, T. passerinoides, Faidherbia albida and Ziziphus spina-christi were the most important native trees used as timber and charcoal resources. Cupressus sempervirens, Pinus cf. halepensis and Cedrus libani trees were introduced from Lebanon, Syria, Palastine, Greece or Crete. The presence of Gymnosperm woods proved the cultural relations between ancient Egyptians and the inhabitants of the Levant; also it is a good indication about the experience of ancient Egyptians with wood qualities and industries.
Many herbs, grasses, rushes, sedges and palms were used in basketry, ropes and mats. Branches of Ceruana pratensis were used in baskets, coffins, jar stopper, sarcophagi and tombs preparations. Culms of Juncus sp. were used in mats for mummies wraping, pens; baskets and arrows industry. Fibres of palms were used in ropes and primitive filters. Culms of common reed were used in matting and constructing fences, roofs and doors for primitive houses. Plant remains of emmer wheat, barley and many of the recorded weeds were mixed with caly and animal dung to form pise which was used for linning walls of silos and roofs of buildings. The same technique was recorded by Willcox and Fornite (1999) in the prepottery Neolithic of Syria and in the Neolithic of Cyprus by Willcox (2000); by Thanheiser (1999) in the Roman Dakhla Oases and by Newton (2004) in the Predynastic of Adaїma (25km north of Hierakonpolis) in Upper Egypt. Seeds of Acacia nilotica were used in tanning of leather.
58 native species were recorded in Predynastic Hierakonpoilis. Flora of the Nile Valley included 44 species (21 weeds of cultivated lands, 13 tree or shrub, 10 weeds, reeds or rush plants of waste places and canal banks). Desert habitat included 14 species (four trees or large shrubs, eight small shrubs or under shrubs and two annuals) grow in Wadis besid Hierakonpolis.
Acacia nilotica, Tamarix nilotica, T. aphylla, Ficus sycomorus, Balanites aegyptiaca and Ziziphus spina-christi were the most important trees recorded in Hierakonpolis. Apart from Ficus sycomorus, which grows in the Nile Valley only; they constitute the frutescent of vegetation in the Nile Valley and in Wadi Abul-Suffian. In the Nile Valley Ceruana pratensis, halfa garsses and common reed were the main constituents of the suffrutescent layer; Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon), rye (Lolium spp.), Crabgrass (Digitaria sanguinalis) Black nightshade (Solanum nigrum), Willow-leaved knot weed (Persicaria salicifolia), Coronopus niloticus, Cotula anthemoides, Crypsis alopecuroides, Crypsis schoenoides, Lathyrus hirsutus, Brachiaria sp., Potentilla supine, Setaria verticillata, Rumex pulcher and Rumex dentatus contributed to the ground layer.
In the desert Wadi area Tamarix aphylla , T. nilotica and Balanites aegyptiaca represented the frutescent layer; Capparis decidua, Hammada elegans, Pulicaria crispa, Hyoscymus muticus and Zygophyllum coccineum formed the suffrutescent layer; Cleome chrysantha, Cyperus aucheri, Morettia philaena, Astragalus vogelii Fagonia bruguieri and Stipagrostis obtusa formed the ground layer. The presence of remains of tamarisk trees in the Wadi area indicate that the soil water content was high to support the growth of these trees.
Anlaysis of floristic categories of the flora of Predynastic Hierakonpolis shows that Saharo-Sindian was the most effective element on the flora, it was represented by 50 species (68.5%) of the total species: Two monoregional species, 25 biregional species (19 extend to the Sudano-Zambezian element, three extend to the Irano-Turanian element and three extend to the Mediterranean element). Saharo-Sindian taxa which were tri or Pluriregional were represented by 23 species (31.5%). Biregional Irano-Turanian and Mediterranean were occurred by two species. Cotula anthemoides was Sudano-Zambezian and extened to Sino-Japanese regions. 17 species have wide geographical distribution (11 Pantropical and six Cosmpolitan. Monoregional elements were represented with five species (two Saharo-Sindian, one Sudano-Zambezian, one Mediterranean and one endemic).
So the floristic elements of Predynastic Hierakonpolis were mostly desert plants affected by the Saharo-Sindian elements also Sudano-Zambezian elements which envaded the area from the south were represented. The flora was weakly affected by north elements from Irano-Turanian and Mediterranean regions. It is very important to mention that in the Nile Valley the effect of rainfall of vegetion is doubtfull as the water of the Nile has the major effects.
A total of 33 species are new records to Predynastic Hierakonpolis, 13 species of them are new records to the historical flora of Egypt viz: Morus sp., Boerhavia diffusa, Hammada elegans, Agathophora alopecuroides, Moricandia nitens, Lobularia maritima, Gynandropsis gynandra, Fagonia bruguieri, Zygophyllum coccineum, Tamarix tetragyna, T. passerinoides and Stipagrostis obtusa.