The Desert Fayumat 80: revisiting a Neolithic farming community in Egypt

Abstract

Abstract

Kom W and X Basin: Erosion, Deposition, and the Potential for Village Occupation

“…However, this conclusion rests on interpretations derived from a geomorphic context affected by erosion. We cannot dismiss the notion of a Neolithic village nor can we accept it based on typological artifact comparisons and the site's contemporary appearance (e.g., Shirai 2016). Instead, building on the remarkable geoarchaeological foundations laid by Caton-Thompson and Gardner, and extended by Wendorf and Schild, the context of the site needs to be acknowledged and greater attention given to detailed analyses of the available portable material culture.…”

The Desert Fayumin the twenty-first century

“…Shirai (2016b) claims that the role of ‘formal’ tools (i.e. retouched tools thought to have been deliberately shaped) has been underplayed by recent research.…”

“…Our extensive survey of the artefactual remains on the surface of Kom W (including artefacts derived from the backfill from Caton-Thompson's excavations that were not collected) allows us to estimate that there are approximately six million uncollected flakes, cores and ‘informal’ tools (Phillipps 2012). This quantity places any ‘disregard’ of ‘formal’ tools, which number only 163 (approximately 0.000003 per cent) from Caton-Thompson and Gardner's collections, into context (Shirai 2016b: tab. 1).…”

“…Low-level food production provides an alternative means to conceptualise evidence that indicates a mix of wild and domestic species. The approach suggested by Shirai (2016b), which abandons faunal evidence in favour of a claimed relationship between ‘farming’ and the presence of ‘formal’ tools, seems of limited value. Sickle blades may indeed be associated with plant harvesting, perhaps including the south-west Asian domesticated grasses, yet there is no direct evidence for such an association.…”

“…2017; Holdaway & Wendrich 2017). A recent article in Antiquity , however, uses Caton-Thompson and Gardner's preliminary interpretations of their excavations at a stratified deposit in the Fayum, Kom W, to generate a series of speculative statements concerning agricultural origins in the region (Shirai 2016b). The majority of these statements are very similar to conclusions initially made by Caton-Thompson and Gardner in the first half of the twentieth century, and new data and theory needed to reassess earlier conclusions are not considered.…”