Some satellite towns became nome capitals at different points in the Pharaonic period, while other sites are less firmly identified with historic nomes. In general, during the late Old Kingdom and early Middle Kingdom the main differences between towns and provincial capitals appear to be the scale and nature of the administrative infrastructure and the absence of a governor’s palace and family cemetery (see above). In addition, the presence, size, and wealth of cultic complexes vary between individual towns, with some satellite communities containing important cult centers and receiving royal and private patronage.
A significant Old Kingdom (and later) town appears at Kom el-Hisn, near the capital of the Third Nome of Lower Egypt (Grajetzki 2006: 129; Wenke 1999a: 416-18). It contained a large agricultural settlement in which the excavated mud-brick houses tend to be small and fairly similar in design and contents, and have yielded farming tools (sickle blades), cooking hearths, and other forms of domestic activity. Osteological debris and dung temper in bricks reveal evidence for an unusually heavy emphasis on cattle herding at this site. Wenke (1999: 416) suggests it may be associated with the ‘‘Estate of the Cattle’’ (hwt-ihwt), which Egyptian texts ascribed to the Third Nome. The presence and nature of various clay sealings have suggested a state-sponsored community run by a few low-level administrators, while limited social stratification is implied by the relatively poor housing and a few contemporary intramural graves and tombs. The discovery of a stone tomb, built for Khesuwer in the First Intermediate Period, suggests that the town’s leadership managed to acquire some wealth.
During the Middle Kingdom, despite the emergence of many state-founded orthogonal-type settlements, there is evidence for continuity in organic settlements at both provincial centers and satellite communities: e. g., Abu Ghalib, Tell ed-Daba, Elephantine, and Lisht (Grajetzki 2006: 123-4). Excavations at Abu Ghalib in the southwest Delta reveal a few medium to large houses separated by streets (Badawy 1966: 29-30). The houses display thick outer walls, a courtyard, an oven, multiple rooms of various sizes, hallways, and a stairway to an upper storey.
Tell el-Maskhuta furnishes a good example of a Second Intermediate Period village at the eastern end of the Wadi Tumilat (Holladay 1982). The community measures about 2-3 ha in area, lacks an enclosure wall, and appears to have been occupied seasonally from the autumn to spring (Holladay 1999a: 787). It contained small mud-brick houses, workshops for pottery, metal, textiles, and leather, sickle blades for cultivation, silos for wheat and barley, pens for pigs, sheep, goats, and cattle, and evidence for hunting hartebeests, gazelles, and birds. The village may represent a satellite community for larger settlements near Tell er-Retaba and probably facilitated overland trade across North Sinai. The intramural and external graves and tombs yielded evidence for Asiatic contact and influence, including donkey burials and foreign weapons. The interments also displayed diversity in prosperity and social stratification via minimal-to-rich funerary goods, including jewelery, implements, and provisions (Holladay 1999a-b: 787, 878).
Many New Kingdom provincial towns are known, including Ezbet Hilme, which has produced extensive traces of housing and a large palace complex (Bietak 2005: 14). Another New Kingdom settlement lies at Medinet Gurob (Merwer, ‘‘Great Channel’’), near the entrance to the Fayum, and is enclosed by a wall measuring 250 m north-south by 220 m east-west (Gorzo 1999: 359-61). Although the establishment of a royal harem is equated with its foundation, Gurob has also been interpreted as a workmen’s community. Three large mud-brick cultic complexes and a much smaller enclosure dominate almost 45 percent of the settlement. The central complex houses a mud-brick and limestone structure, built by Thutmose III, and is interpreted variously as a temple to Sobek or a large harim palace. Ramesside rulers apparently built a small mud-brick western shrine dedicated to Thutmose III and a southern and northern temple complex. Inscribed materials suggest the latter two structures are the ‘‘Mansion of Ramesse-miamun’’ and the ‘‘House of Uesermaatre, Beloved of Amun, East ofWaset in Merwer’’ (Thomas 1981: 7). Kemp interprets these buildings as magazines and other facilities for the palace. The remainder of the settlement contains domestic structures. Archaeological and inscriptional sources indicate that the population consisted mainly of Egyptians, but also included foreign residents, especially harim employees in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties.
The environs of Gurob produced outlying installations and cemeteries. A square enclosure lay 40 m to the northeast, contained kilns and glass furnaces, and was apparently founded in the early Eighteenth Dynasty (Gorzo 1999: 360-1). A small New Kingdom village lay to the south, while some Ramesside housing was found 500 m to the north, intruding into a late Eighteenth to early Nineteenth Dynasty cemetery. Social segregation is evident in three cemeteries: the main cemetery to the northeast, which yielded infant burials and simple graves for lower to middle class persons; the southern tombs of higher ranking officials and professionals; and the burials of high ranking officials and elite persons in 500 shaft tombs to the west, including a royal family member (Piramessu). In addition, an animal cemetery occurs 600 m to the south, yielding clusters of oxen and goats and individual burials of fish (mostly Nile perch).
Although fewer excavations have exposed significant portions of provincial towns and villages dating to the Third Intermediate Period (Anthes 1959; 1965), sufficient information can be extrapolated from other periods and limited exposures at contemporary settlements. For instance, Brissaud (2000: 10) has used aerial photography to differentiate the subsurface structures from the Third Intermediate Period and later settlement at Tanis. In contrast, more Late Period sites and strata are available for study, including Tell Tebilla and Tell el-Nebesha. Tebilla’s temple complex lay to the northwest, while the remaining mound (400 by 400 m) contains numerous Saite mastaba tombs and graves (Mumford 2004); Tell el-Nebesha’s town has been more broadly excavated, extending at least 200 by 300 m with its cemetery to the east. The northwest quadrant also contained a large temple enclosure, while the adjacent town has square and rectilinear houses of varying sizes arranged across an irregular network
Of narrow to wider alleys and streets. The foundations from these houses resemble Ptolemaic-Roman models of tall and narrow town houses (Kemp 2006: 354). Although this settlement is not fully excavated, it appears to lack an outer wall.
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