Merimde Beni-Salam

The site found at Merimde Beni-Salam is the earliest know settlement in Lower Egypt. It was occupied during the predynastic period. Found by German archaeologist, Herman Junker in 1928. It was excavated through 1939. Through carbon dating, the site was discovered to have been occupied between 4880 BC and 4250 BC. Unfortunately, most of Junker’s notes were destroyed in World War II. Eiwanger has conducted more recent studies.

The site found 50km northwest of Cairo, was thought by Junker to be about 160,000sq. m. The site is naturally raised above the level of a flood. The mound of Merimde covers 44 acres. The settlement had been constructed on a natural rise above the inundation, and gradually rose as the town was built upon it’s own debris. It is believed that there were about 5000 occupants at one time at this site. Because the site was occupied for a long time, the progression of house styles and street patterns reflect the growing level of urban organization. Large pits found were understood to be granaries. Some scholars believe that Merimde pooled together surplus crops in some form of a community organization. Besides growing grains, residents of Merimde reared cattle, goats, and pigs. They hunted animals such as antelope. The Nile River gave them an ample supply of fish, shellfish, turtle, and hippopotamus. The pottery found at the site was rather plain and simple in shape. Tools were also found. Those made of stone and flint would have been used for butchery, craftwork, and felling trees. Some scholars believe that the pear shaped flint mace heads were used not for the killing of animals, but for the use on other humans, and believed that Merimde may have been at conflict with a neighboring community.

The Merimde funerary culture was quite different than that of other predynastic sites. Instead of interring the dead in large, organized cemeteries, the bodies were buried inside the settlement, mainly in the unoccupied sections of the town. It is impossible to determine if the bodies were buried in the houses while living people were still occupying them. The bodies were buried in shallow oval pits and laid on their sides in a fetal position. The bodies very rarely had grave offerings, apart from the occasional beads, amulets or reed mats.