Ancient Egyptian landscapes must also be viewed through the lens of climate change. This affected ancient Egyptian landscapes far more broadly than the Nile, although the changes are far less easy to view. At what time and where should one begin? One might associate climate change with only the start of ancient Egyptian civilization, c.3000 BC, but determining exactly how the civilization started means going back even further in time. Earliest remains (from the Neolithic Period) are buried beneath many metres of silt in the Nile Valley, while many other settlements remain to be discovered (Parcak 2007a; 2008; 2009a; 2009b).
In early parts of the Paleolithic Period (c.500,000-12,000 years ago) the Nile as a whole was much smaller in size, composed of smaller channels. Early groups living at both Bir Tarfawi and Bir Sahara East lived in savannah and wooded savannah areas, with animals such as hartebeest and gazelles. During the Middle Paleolithic (c.175,000-45,000 years ago) people lived along the Nile at sites such as Wadi Halfa, where archaeologists have noted higher rainfall levels. Conditions became too arid in the desert c.70,000 years ago for inhabitation, and the Nile changed course c.45,000 years ago. Archaeologists have noted no remains in the Sahara in the Upper Late Paleolithic period (c.45,000-12,000 years ago) (Wendorf and Close 1999, 6-14; Wendorf and Schild 1980). Additional rainfall between 14,00012,000 years ago in Eastern and Central Africa caused the White Nile to flow much more strongly, which, in turn, contributed to much stronger annual Nile flooding. Around 12,500 years ago this additional rainfall caused the Nile to flow in the single channel it has today (Hassan 1980, 421-50; Hassan 1999a, 15-16).
A cooling period of 9 degrees C has been noted across East Africa and South-east Asia c.9000 BC, with many sand dunes advancing south. Populations would have moved into the Nile Valley owing to the increasing aridity of the Sahara, which would have caused lakes or streams next to seasonal campsites to dry out. This is noted, in particular, in the Fayum, where archaeologists have discovered hundreds of campsites dating to c.9000-6000 bc (Caton-Thompson and Gardner 1934). Domesticated sheep and barley have been noted around 8,000 years ago, during the Epipaleolithic period. The climate shift caused a cultural response, with changes noted in stone tools and pottery. During the Neolithic Period, people living along the Nile Valley cultivated wheat and barley, as well as tending to their flocks of domesticated cattle and sheep. For the first time, farmers altered their landscapes with building dykes and irrigation ditches. It is not known if the cultivated crops came from Southeast Asia via trade or via immigration (Wenke 1999: 17-22).
During the Predynastic period climatic conditions allowed Egyptian civilization to develop. The ancient city of Hierakonpolis provides a good case study. It represented an ideal habitat owing to good Nile flood levels, fertile soil, nearby raw materials in the Eastern Desert, the proximity of a (now defunct) Nile channel, and an easily established irrigation system. The environment apparently remained stable during this time, allowing economic growth (Hoffman et al. 1986: 175-87). A similar situation existed in the eastern Delta, which lay along the trade routes without desert access to metals and mineral resources but had good agricultural lands allowing settlements to take hold and grow. The influx of state organization and local officials overseeing irrigation systems throughout Egypt coincided with an increasing need for crops and the material required to farm new lands.
A stable climate led to broad growth in all aspects of Old Kingdom society and culture, which led to a search for raw materials and products abroad. This shows the overall need to obtain the produce from more agricultural lands to support the increasingly expansive state, cult, and royal projects (Eyre 1987b: 5-47). Even with Old Kingdom trade shifting to the royal Memphite court, the state would have needed increasing and large amounts of agricultural produce and livestock to support the construction and maintenance of pyramids, temples, state projects, and royal cults. The royal court would have benefited from large numbers of agricultural settlements whose produce (and related landscape alterations) could feed workforces and craftsmen numbering in the tens of thousands (Lehner 1997: 224-5).
Why the Old Kingdom, a period of tremendous prosperity, ‘‘collapsed’’ is debated by Egyptologists. They have suggested economic, political, and environmental factors, or some combination thereof (Seidlmayer 2000: 118-47). Hydraulic agriculture, and, thus, landscapes in ancient Egypt were an integral part of the economy. Having an organized system of dykes and canals allowed the development of new land for agriculture and created a reliance on increased resources. This, in turn, increased the potential for disaster if floods were low. It seems that this is precisely what happened. Culminating around 2200 bc, it appears an occurrence known as the ‘‘4200 KA BP Event’’ (Weiss and Bradley 2001: 609-10) took place. This ‘‘event’’ encompasses the changes in patterns of monsoon rainfall and Mediterranean westerlies which led to droughts and cooling periods in Africa and Asia. Egypt most likely experienced a drought during this time, which is evidenced by coring done in the Delta that detected iron hydroxides (dating to c.4200-4050 bp) in the soil (a signature for drought) (Stanley et al. 2002a: 395-402). The base flow from the White Nile was also low at this time (Stanley et al. 2002b: 71-4). Upper Egypt would not have faced as many disastrous effects from a likely drought as the Delta at the end of the Old Kingdom, because of a reliance on the principal branch of the Nile that held more water than the Nile’s subdivided Delta channels. Although much more work is needed to understand what exactly took place at the end ofthe Old Kingdom, this recent research shows how important it is to consider environmental perspectives in addition to other archaeological and historical data.
Higher Nile floods were noted during the Middle Kingdom by late Twelfth Dynasty inscriptions, with higher Fayum lake levels recorded multiple times (Butzer 1976: 52). Throughout Egyptian history Nilometers recorded years of high and low floods, especially at places such as Elephantine. A period of high floods did not automatically mean a prosperous year: They could, in fact spell disaster if the waters did not recede in time for planting. Key factors, such as long-term fluctuations in precipitation, flood levels and river courses, could affect dramatically the fortunes of individual settlements, resulting in the decline and abandonment of some sites and the foundation and flourishing of new riverine sites, especially within marginal regions. Egypt’s annual flood levels varied (for example, good flood levels were recorded during the Late Period), but did not play as significant a role in periods of decline as socio-political factors.
World History
