Omari

OMARI (El-Omari) — an Early Neolithic culture in Lower Egypt (around 4600–4400 BC, or 4700–3500 BC according to more general data); a centre of agriculture in the Nile Valley. The El-Omari culture may have succeeded the Epipaleolithic hunting culture of Helwan, which resembled the Near Eastern Natufian culture and was possibly brought to Egypt from the Middle Euphrates via the Levant. The El-Omari culture does not appear to have spread through the Nile Valley, but instead remained confined to an ecological niche at its primary settlement away from the river [Proussakov 2009: 56–59].

Discoveries and Research

The El-Omari settlement and burial site was located on the right (eastern) bank of the Nile, some 4–6 km away from the river and 3 km north of Helwan, near the mouth of Wadi Hof (Cairo Governorate) (Fig. 1). It was discovered in 1918 by the French Jesuit archaeologist P. Bouvier-Lapierre and named after his student, a young Egyptian researcher, Amin el-Omari. El-Omari conducted the first excavations at the site in 1924, but died shortly thereafter. Further excavations were conducted by Bouvier-Lapierre in 1925 and by Egyptian archaeologist F. Debono in 1943–1944, 1948, and 1952 [Bovier-Lapierre 1926; Debono 1946; 1948; 1956; Debono, Mortensen 1990]. The main site was divided into sections A to H, presumably corresponding to different phases of occupation (however, only sections A and B were excavated). The site also includes Gebel Hof, which is located on a terrace 5 km north of Helwan at an elevation of 90–100 m above Wadi Hof. The area, discovered in 1947 and surveyed by the Egyptian Department of Antiquities in 1954, is now virtually lost. The main site covers a total area of approximately 375,000 sq m.

Settlement and Dwellings

Prior to the settlement, the site appears to have been occupied by seasonal camps. These were later replaced by randomly scattered huts and domestic structures, of which more than a hundred round and oval pits remain. These are 0.5–2.5 m wide and 0.5–1.1 m deep, coated with clay and lined with basketry. The pits contained postholes for wooden posts (fragments of which have survived) that once supported reed walls and roofs. Hearths were attested both inside and outside some of the huts and surrounded by household items and litter, including clay vessels and potsherds, stone tools, grinding stones, animal bones, mollusc shells, and other items. The dwellings (possibly family units) were surrounded by small pits lined with clay-covered matting for storing food supplies; reed partitions were used to separate spaces. Traces of ochre found in the huts were evidently used for cosmetic and ritual purposes. The stratigraphy of the settlement indicates that the dwellings might have been abandoned for some time before being reoccupied.

Burials

A total of 43 graves (12 belonging to children) have been excavated at the settlement in small oval pits ranging from 0.7 to 1.2 m in diameter and up to 0.4 m deep. Some of these graves were located inside huts, which had presumably been abandoned by the inhabitants. One of the pits had a rough stone facing, while another two were set with postholes around the perimeter. Men were buried in the western side of the El-Omari settlement, away from women and children. The bodies were placed in a contracted position, usually on their left side with the head facing south, wrapped in mattings or (less commonly) animal skins, and sometimes with headrests of stones or plant materials. Nearly every grave contained a clay pot in front of the deceased. The scant grave goods also included beads made from sea mollusc shell, bone, or stone (including simple perforated pebbles). One of the child burials contained ibex horns, while one of the adult graves revealed a 35 cm long, carved wooden staff with thickened ends in the hand of the deceased (Fig. 2), suggesting the person’s authoritative or magical role in life.

Tools and Сrafts

The finds included stone tools (suggesting a possible workshop for their production), such as bifacial axes produced with сhipping and polishing techniques, heavily retouched flakes, handled knives, triangular arrowheads with concave bases, sickle inserts, sidescrapers, scrapers, perforators, etc. Microliths were also found scattered everywhere.Other finds comprised grinding stones, pestles of stone or petrified wood, limestone discs used as fishing net weights or spindle whorls, fragments of linen fabric, and items of bone, e. g. needles, perforators, and fishing hooks (hooks made of mollusc shells have also been found). Fragments of stone vases (basalt, etc.), likely of Near Eastern origin, are also attested.

Ceramics

The ceramics of El-Omari comprise plain red, brown, and black wares without decoration, and consist of simple open-shaped vessels with flat or slightly concave bottoms and polished or smoothed surfaces. They constitute an original find assemblage connected to Palestine and — according to French archaeologist B. Midant-Reynes — without direct analogues in Egypt [Midant-Reynes 2000: 121]. The shapes include hemispherical and conical vessels, vases, bowls, cups, goblets, oval plates, and footed vessels, among others (Fig. 3).

Economy

People of the El-Omari culture engaged in fishing (Nile perch and catfish Synodontis) and hunting (hippopotami, crocodiles, antelopes, gazelles, ostriches; dog bones have also been found). Livestock breeding (cattle, pigs, goats, and sheep) also played an important role — in fact, the first find of domesticated donkey bones in Egypt was made at the El-Omari settlement. Evidence of early agriculture found at the site, together with Gebel Hof, includes carbonised macro-remains (spikelets, grains) of cereals (club wheat Triticum compactum, einkorn wheat Triticum monoсoссum, emmer wheat Triticum diсoссum, barley Hordeum vulgare, and rye). Remains of wheat and barley bread were also reported. The consumption of dates and legumes is also attested.