The Social Implication of a “mixed” Ceramic Assemblage: Understanding the Predynastic Community of Nag el-Qarmila (First Nile Cataract, Egypt) Through Pottery Technology

Afr Archaeol Rev (2024) 41:443–475 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-024-09602-8 ORIGINAL ARTICLE The Social Implication of a “mixed” Ceramic Assemblage: Understanding the Predynastic Community of Nag el‑Qarmila (First Nile Cataract, Egypt) Through Pottery Technology Jade Bajeot · Mary Ownby Maria Carmela Gatto · Accepted: 9 September 2024 / Published online: 2 October 2024 © The Author(s) 2024 Abstract This article investigates the social landscape of the First Nile Cataract region in the 4th mill. BCE through the application of petrographic and technological approaches to pottery analysis. The study focuses on the ceramic assemblages from the settlement WK15 and the necropolis WK14 at Nag el-Qarmila and identifies for the first time three technical traditions along with their synchronic and diachronic interaction. It provides new data on the more ancient phases of the so-called Naqadan productions and their relationship with the Shale Ware and the Nubian Black-Mouthed Ware. The results allow us to better frame the mixed assemblage that characterizes a site far from the elite centers and where relations between mobile and sedentary groups were, therefore, J. Bajeot (*) · M. C. Gatto Instytut Kultur Śródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych, Polska Akademia Nauk, Warsaw, Poland e-mail: ; M. C. Gatto e-mail: J. Bajeot Université de Toulouse 2 Jean Jaurès UMR5608 TRANCES, Toulouse, France M. Ownby Ownby Analytical, LLC, Albuquerque, NM, USA e-mail: more fluid. The data obtained also constitute a comparative nucleus for the growth of technological and petrographic studies at other sites and periods, and the numerous insights that emerged will be useful for directing future research. Résumé Cet article étudie le paysage social de la région de la Première Cataracte du Nil au 4e millénaire avant notre ère en appliquant les approches pétrographiques et technologiques à l’analyze des poteries. L’étude se concentre sur les assemblages céramiques du village WK15 et de la nécropole WK14 à Nag el-Qarmila et identifie pour la première fois trois traditions techniques ainsi que leur interaction synchronique et diachronique. Elle fournit de nouvelles données sur les phases les plus anciennes des productions dites Nagadiennes et sur leurs relations avec la “Shale Ware” et avec la “Black-Mouthed Ware” nubienne. Les résultats nous permettent de mieux cerner l’assemblage mixte qui caractérise un site éloigné des centres élitaires et où les relations entre groupes mobiles et sédentaires étaient, par conséquent, plus fluides. Les données obtenues constituent également un noyau comparatif pour le développement d’études technologiques et pétrographiques sur d’autres sites et d’autres périodes, et les nombreuses aperçues qui en découlent seront utiles pour orienter les recherches futures. M. C. Gatto School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK Vol.: (0123456789) 444 Keywords Predynastic Egypt · Technology · Petrography · Ceramic traditions · First Nile Cataract · Nag el-Qarmila Introduction This paper explores the social implications of a mixed ceramic assemblage from a small Predynastic community that of Nag el-Qarmila in southern Egypt. The assemblage is made of ceramics commonly attributed on a typological basis to the so-called Egyptian Naqada culture, the Nubian A-Group culture, a Shale Ware with parallels in the Egyptian Western Desert, Upper Egypt, and the Sheikh Muftah culture, plus a few hybrid items. What is the reason for such a diversified array of pottery vessels and their use in combination by a small and peripheral community? What can this combination tell us about pottery modes of production? What can we learn about the people living in and making up the community, and their regional and supra-regional network of communities? To address these questions, a technological and petrographic analysis was performed for the first time on the pottery from the village and its adjoining cemetery to highlight the various chaînes opératoires that characterize the assemblage and understand whether the variability is functional or sociological. In particular, the technological approach allowed us to reconstruct the various manufacturing procedures present at the site, from clay collection to firing, while the petrographic analysis was mainly aimed at describing the fabrics in detail, both from a technological and mineralogical point of view. It also obtained information on the possible local or exogenous origin of the raw material and consequently better frame the various productions we have in Nag el-Qarmila. Furthermore, as a secondary objective, the two analytical approaches have made it possible to continue “mapping” the fabrics and the chaînes opératoires widespread in predynastic Egypt for future research. Background The First Cataract is located almost mid-way along the Nile, and it has been a crossroads since prehistory. The granitic outcrops and the rocky landscape have made the region a natural boundary, which subsequently Vol:. (1234567890) Afr Archaeol Rev (2024) 41:443–475 became the political border between Egypt and Nubia (modern-day Sudan). The Nag el-Qarmila settlement and necropolis were both in use during the 4th millennium BCE, and their importance lies in being the southernmost Predynastic sites recently investigated (apart from the settlement of Elephantine, which is, however, slightly later and larger in size and scope). Another fundamental element is that we have both a settlement and a cemetery, a non-negligible factor in a research field in which most of the data comes from funerary contexts where the range of material is limited, and domestic productions are poorly represented. The preponderance of data from necropolises has pushed previous research to focus heavily on elites. In this case, however, the settlement material and adopted methodology have allowed us to have a bottom-up approach looking at the Predynastic society from the point of view of a small community established in a peripherical area of the soon-to-be ancient Egyptian state. The sites, located approximately 17 km north of Aswan on the west bank of the Nile, in a small valley facing the river, were partially excavated between 2007 and 2012 by the Aswan–Kom Ombo Archaeological Project—AKAP directed by M. C. Gatto (Polish Academy of Sciences) and A. Curci (University of Bologna), (Fig. 1; for a detailed description of the sites see: Gatto, 2014, 2016; Gatto & Siegel, forthcoming; Gatto et al., 2009a, 2009b). At that time, their preservation was good enough to provide valuable archaeological information; now they have been severely damaged by new housing. A series of areas were excavated in the village (WK15) and cemetery (WK14), as well as a storage facility located on the first terrace of the slope overlooking the valley from the south (WK22), (Fig. 1). The cemetery WK14, found on the northern wadi terrace, was poorly preserved because of the sandy sedimen (...truncated)