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Towns
Tombs and temples provide most information about
ancient Egypt because they were built of stone to last for eternity.
They are well preserved, and most have not been built over in
succeeding periods; their wall scenes and the objects buried in the
tombs provide a wealth of information about daily life as well as
religious and funerary practices. The towns (settlement sites) are
also very important, but many of these no longer exist because they
were all built of mud brick, which did not fare well under the
alluvial mud of the yearly inundations or was removed for use as
fertilizer by many generations of local people. Therefore,
settlement sites have not been studied in as much detail as the
tombs and temples, and it is difficult to correctly assess the
number and size of towns that once existed.
Patterns of Urban Development Some archaeologists claim that there was no widespread true urban development and that walled cities with different building levels and continuous settlement did not exist throughout the land. The strong, centralized monarchy established at the start of Dynasty 1 removed the need, it is argued, for walled towns, and deserts and mountains protected the people from external threats. Egypt was thus able to use most of its resources for constructing tombs (especially the king’s burial monument) and temples rather than for fortified towns. This contrasted markedly with the parallel early civilization in Mesopotamia where the city-state was the most important element dominating the society, and there were continuing conflicts between the city-states. In Egypt, however, towns were possibly only built in those areas where products entered the country or along the east-west trade route linking the Red Sea and the oases in the Western Desert. Otherwise, there were perhaps only a small number of towns situated along the Nile; each nome (district) had an urban center that housed the local administrators and officials and their families; and there was the royal capital which accommodated the residence of the royal family and was also the seat of government. The location of the capital varied from one period to another, and there were also other royal residences, which the kings visited periodically, around the country. All these towns housed not only the officials but all the other people craftsmen, traders, and farmers who were needed to feed and service the community. This state of relative nonurbanization, it is claimed, continued until the New Kingdom. According to an alternative view, however, Egypt had an ordinary pattern of urban development rather than just these scattered towns. Certainly when the Greeks arrived they remarked that there were thousands of towns and villages. Centers would have developed in a number of ways: In many cases the predynastic villages developed to become capitals of nomes; new villages sometimes grew up; there were new locations for temples and royal residences; and there were military colonies at the forts and fortresses and royal workmen’s towns to house the necropolis workforces and their families. There were three major capital cities Memphis, Heliopolis, and Thebes and, it is claimed, even in the Old Kingdom there were also walled towns of various types and sizes such as Edfu and Abydos. Some were administrative centers, and others were centers of worship that had a national importance. The geographic location of a town or the economic activity of a community sometimes dictated their growth and development, but others were specifically created by the government to house the personnel associated with temples or other monuments. Again, in addition to the officials and their families, craftsmen and agricultural workers lived in these settlements to supply the community’s needs. The inundation dictated the location of the towns, which were concentrated on mounds and hillocks formed by the alluvial deposits and on the dykes. They were continuously rebuilt on former constructions that were demolished and leveled, and certainly in the long-established towns there was no logical order or real attempt at town planning. This practice of rebuilding at the same site over many generations makes it very difficult to study their town planning principles, but a few sites that were built for a particular purpose and occupied for a limited period have remained sufficiently intact to enable us to examine their methods. These include the towns built for the royal necropolis workers (Kahun, Deir el-Medina, and the special village at Tell el-Amarna) and the capital city of Akhetaten (Tell el-Amarna). The latter demonstrates that this city at least had an overall plan: Three distinct areas residential, the palace and temple district, and administrative headquarters were linked by three almost parallel main streets. The villas belonging to the wealthy were arranged to good advantage and occupied prime sites, but the poorer dwellings were built randomly between them. The question of the quantity, importance, and spread of towns remains in dispute, but it is evident that two main types of urban development emerged. There was the natural and unplanned growth of towns, which evolved, for economic, administrative, or religious reasons, from the predynastic villages; and there were planned towns, initiated for particular purposes in specific locations. The latter were occupied for the duration of the project but were subsequently abandoned because there was no continuing need for them. Since they were not leveled and rebuilt for continuous occupation, some have survived in a better state than the great cities of Memphis or Thebes. They include several royal workmen’s towns. .
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Towns for Necropolis
Workmen For building the pyramids and royal temples the Egyptians used a labor force made up of conscripted peasants and professional craftsmen and architects. No details survive of how the conscripts were controlled and managed, but they were probably temporarily housed in barracks near the building site. Purpose-built towns, however, were constructed to accommodate the craftsmen and their families for the duration of the project, and three of these have survived in a good state of preservation. Unlike most towns these were not used and rebuilt over many centuries, so their original plan and buildings have survived. Although these towns were constructed at different periods, they had a common functional purpose and share certain physical and environmental features. The earliest workmen’s dwellings that archaeologists have discovered are near the Giza pyramids. These settlements are associated with the pyramid complexes, and some have been excavated, whereas others still lie under modern villages. The mud brick buildings excavated in these settlements include the areas where bread and beer were produced to feed the workforce. The different positionings of the nearby workers’ cemeteries indicate that these people, when alive, were segregated according to the tasks they performed: Those who decorated the tombs and cut the stones lived in one village, while those who were engaged in transporting the stones resided in another. It has been estimated that about 30,000 men, plus their families, actually lived at the site, while others traveled there daily from the city of Memphis. These sites, which accommodated the dwellings and food preparation centers for the workers and also their cemeteries, were segregated from the main construction area by a large boundary wall. The workers had to enter this work area at dawn and leave again at sunset. Kahun, built c.1895 BC, was excavated by William M. Flinders Petrie in the late nineteenth century. The village housed the workforce engaged on the pyramid at Lahun (Dynasty 12) for King Senusret II, specifically the pyramid and temple officials and craftsmen and their families. Rectangular in shape and designed by a single architect who was almost certainly also the builder of the Lahun pyramid, Kahun was arranged in two sections within its enclosure wall. These were built at the same date, but the eastern part housed the wealthier quarters while the workmen’s houses were concentrated in the western area. Kahun is uniquely important because it was the first example of Egyptian town planning to be uncovered by archaeologists and the possessions of the people had been left behind in the houses. This provided an unparalleled opportunity to study articles of everyday use, which were so rarely preserved in comparison with the objects placed in tombs. Some of these demonstrate specific technological developments. The discovery of written documents at Kahun has also enabled scholars to study legal, medical, veterinary, and educational practices in the town, which was continuously occupied for about 100 years. There is evidence that some of the residents were of non-Egyptian origin. The reason for desertion of the site remains unclear. Deir el-Medina housed the royal necropolis workmen and their families for some 450 years while royal tombs were being constructed in the Valley of the Kings. Tombs of these families discovered nearby have also been excavated. Although personal possessions have not been uncovered in this town as at Kahun, a wealth of documentation has survived in the adjacent rubbish heaps. These records have supplied information about the legal and religious organization of the community. They show that the people enjoyed considerable autonomy. They also show many details of the workforce’s conditions of service including the successful industrial action they took when their food rations were not paid. At Amarna the workmen’s town was divided internally into two sections, but these did not reflect a class segregation as at Kahun. Domestic objects discovered here have not been as numerous as at Kahun, but they do indicate the use of the same type of tools, household equipment, and toilet objects. Again, there is not the same wealth of inscriptional evidence as at the other sites, but Amarna is of unique religious interest because the finds in this village indicate that the workforce continued to worship traditional deities although they were building a city dedicated to the monotheistic cult of the sun disk (Aten). The workmen’s town was probably only occupied for about twenty years. .
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Towns
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