The settlement of Elkab: Documenting the Rise of Urbanism in an Upper Egyptian town

The ancient Egyptian site of Elkab lies on the east bank of the Nile in southern Upper Egypt and was an important provincial centre during the early stages of Egyptian history. Despite over a century of intensive archaeological research, our knowledge of its occupational history is still limited and biased. Indeed, past research has primarily focused on the large funerary and religious monuments and little attention has been devoted to the study of the settlement. As a result, we have a fairly clear picture of the religious beliefs and funerary practices of the inhabitants of Elkab but our knowledge regarding the habitation contrasts glaringly. As is the case for numerous other sites in Egypt, systematic research regarding the actual settlement was completely lacking for Elkab.

Since 2009, the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels are carrying out new excavations in the Elkab settlement area. These excavations have yielded important new information regarding the early occupation of the site and the origin and establishment of the town. They revealed the presence of a vast settlement, possibly four to five hectares, with well-preserved mud-brick buildings and other settlement remains, dating from the terminal phases of Egyptian prehistory, the period of state formation and the early phases of pharaonic civilization. The archaeological materials, supported by a series of radiocarbon dates, indicate that the origin of the settlement goes back to the Badari period (c. 4500 BC). The Badari settlement at Elkab may or may not have had a seasonal character, but there is no doubt that from the Naqada I period onwards (c. 4000 BC), the site was continuously inhabited until Graeco-Roman and Coptic times. They moreover bear witness to the on-the-spot gradual transition from a prehistoric (Neolithic/Predynastic) village lifestyle to a fully-developed Old Kingdom urban society. Such a situation is completely unparalleled in the archaeology of ancient Egypt and offers an immense scientific potential.

The first objective of this research is to document the occupational history of Elkab, based primarily on the results of the recent and ongoing excavations and geo-archaeological fieldwork within the settlement area. It is beyond doubt that this aspect is by far the largest gap in our knowledge concerning this important provincial centre. A second objective concerns the position of Elkab within the broader regional and historical context of Upper Egyptian settlements. The combined results regarding the settlement of Elkab proper will be compared with the available information for other Upper Egyptian settlement sites. In this way, this study will contribute to a better understanding of and enhance our current knowledge regarding early and regional settlement organisation and patterns. As such, we will gain a better insight into the rise of urbanism in Upper Egypt. The understanding of the settlement site of Elkab could significantly expand our knowledge on this subject.

Our current knowledge of ancient Egyptian settlements is at best to be defined as extremely theoretical, biased and incomplete, especially in comparison to other regions (e.g. Mesopotamia). Settlement patterns, organisation and transformation are still very poorly understood. This state of affairs is the result of several factors, including changing foci of Egyptologists and archaeologists and the locational aspects of the sites, often in positions that prevent or severely hamper their archaeological investigation. Because of the lack of direct habitational evidence, archaeologists often exploit the cemetery record to gain insight in settlement patterns, but conclusions drawn on this basis should be handled with caution. Previous archaeological work and the preliminary results of the new excavations indicate that Elkab can be considered to be one of the largest known Predynastic and Old Kingdom settlement sites in Egypt. Furthermore, it is also one of the best accessible early settlements in the Egyptian Nile Valley (as the later strata of the town have been removed by the sebkahin in the course of the 19th century). With few exceptions, such as Hierakonpolis (but there the Badari levels are situated below the water table), most other sites in the region have been completely destroyed by the sebakhin, by the expanding cultivation of the floodplain, or are covered by a thick layer of Nile alluvium or by modern towns and cities. Elkab is therefore a notable exception to the rule and, as stated above, may be the only site in the Upper Egyptian Nile Valley where a continuous occupation, from the early Predynastic Badari period (c. 4500 BC) until the early Old Kingdom (c. 2600-2500 BC), can be traced over such a long period of time, covering also the crucial period of state formation in Egypt (around 3000). In this context, Elkab presents a unique research case for the study of both a Predynastic settlement and an early pharaonic town.