Organisers: Sławomir Rzepka (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw), Anna Wodzińska (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)

Session language: English

Date: 26.03.2021

House and household is an increasingly popular topic in the archeology of the Mediterranean. Researchers are interested not only in the architecture of the house itself, in the evolution of its shape, but also its use and internal organization.
The session relates primarily to Egypt, but we would like to show the Egyptian house against the background of houses from Greece and the Middle East, which were built and used in more or less the same period, i.e. in the Bronze Age.
We are interested in multi-faceted research on the house and household not only in relation to architecture, but also to texts on the organization of the house, various types of artifacts found inside houses.
Research on a house can be carried out in many directions, taking into account the function of individual rooms, the social status of its inhabitants, the method of supply (self-sufficiency, dependence on external factors), and functioning in a larger urban space.

 

The session schedule is available here.

 

Speakers and papers with abstracts:

1. Hermann Genz (Department of History and Archaeology, American University of Beirut)

Being Forced to Leave Ones Home: Possible Evidence for Closing Rituals in an Early Bronze Age III Building at Tell Fadous-Kfarabida (Lebanon)

Artifact assemblages found in rooms and buildings during archaeological excavations are generally thought to provide evidence for the use of individual rooms or entire buildings. Yet, depending on the nature of the abandonment of the buildings, we rarely have the complete evidence at hand for reconstructing activities conducted in these units during their regular use. Especially when a building is abandoned gradually, we can expect that valuable and still functional items will have been removed, either by the inhabitants themselves upon their leave, or by scavengers later on.

The discovery of groups of completely preserved fine-ware vessels in the abandonment horizon of the Early Bronze Age III Building 1 at Tell Fadous-Kfarabida therefore is somewhat unusual and the presence of these vessels requires an explanation. Rather than being seen as remnants of the original room inventories, these vessels seem to represent deliberate deposits left by the inhabitants when they had to leave the building due to the construction of a large special Building 3 of non-domestic function partially on top of the older building.

These vessels deposits therefore are interpreted as representing closing rituals.

2. Evi Gorogianni (Department of Anthropology, University of Akron)

Finding the elusive household in the Bronze Age Aegean

The household has been a topic of considerable anthropological interest since membership in a residential unit is often held as one of the prerequisites for belonging to the wider political, religious and cultural groupings. Therefore, if one is to understand the contribution and dynamic of a settlement in the broader regional network, one has to begin with an appreciation of the households within it. The paper focuses on the settlement of Ayia Irini on the island of Kea (Aegean, Greece) and puts the spotlight on the households dating from the end of the Middle Bronze Age to the middle of the Late Bronze, or 17th to 15th c. BCE. Aided by GIS and ethnographic analogies, a delineation of various households is proposed based on a combination of various types of archaeological evidence, such as hearths, concentrations of cooking paraphernalia, and storage facilities. Households are analyzed in order to assess their position within the socio-economic landscape of the site and trace patterns of social interaction (from cooperation and peaceful coexistence to competition and conflict).

3. Lucia Hulková (Department of Egyptology, University of Vienna)

New Era, New House? Living in Tell el-Retaba between the Second Intermediate Period and the early New Kingdom 

At the western edge of Tell el-Retaba, remains of occupation dating from the second half of the Second Intermediate Period to the beginning of the New Kingdom were uncovered. This time period is seen as one of the major historical and political transitions in Egyptian history. This paper aims to look at different features of the domestic architecture of these periods in Tell el-Retaba to see, if and how this transition is reflected in the way of construction of the living space of its inhabitants. Houses and their surrounding household structures will be compared and contrasted across discussed time periods but also with other settlements of this time range from Egypt. In short, selected small finds recovered from different stages of the settlement will be presented too, in order to see, if we can make out any changes in the function of the settlement in Tell el-Retaba over time.

4. Manuela Lehmann (British Museum)

Artefact production and households – a Ramesside perspective from Amara West 

The ancient town of Amara West, situated in Lower Nubia, was the administrative centre of Kush (Upper Nubia) during the Ramesside Period. A British Museum fieldwork project (2008-2019) explored a series of houses and two cemeteries, yielding a range of objects (over 10,000), but also archaeological information (deposits, scientific analyses, architecture, fittings), that provide perspectives on household-based production, and re-use of artefacts. The material provides further insights on cultural entanglement and the supply of artefacts and raw materials, and how these changed over time.

5. Claire Malleson (Department of History and Archaeology, American University of Beirut)

Keep the home fires burning: sustainable energy in Ancient Egypt

The role of animal dung as a highly valuable commodity in the ancient world (and indeed still today in many places) was initially brought to the attention of a select group of archaeological specialists – specifically, archaeobotanists – in the early 1980s, by Dr. Naomi Miller (Miller 1984; Miller and Smart 1984). Since then a great deal of energy has been directed towards studies of charred plant remains in archaeological deposits that may or may not derive from the use of animal dung as fuel, resulting in a vast wealth of literature on the topic (Anderson and Ertung-Yaras 1998; Charles 1998; Lancelotti and Madella 2012; Marinova et al. 2013; Miller 1996; Shahack-Gross 2011; Spengler 2015; Valamoti and Charles 2005; Wallace and Charles 2013). The use of this commodity in ancient Egypt has been confirmed; both cattle dung, and sheep/ goat faeces (Moens and Wetterstrom 1988; Murray 2009; Malleson In Press).

The use of this commodity represents the implementation of a highly sustainable practise, exploiting an energy source that was constantly being renewed, but, evidence indicates that it was not always used – even when it would have been the cheapest and most readily available option for people. From settlements such as Tell el-Retaba (Wadi Tumilat, Egypt) we can ascertain that some heating / cooking installations were fuelled with sheep / goat faeces or cattle dung, whilst cereal-processing by-products, or wood, were burned in others. At the mining ‘town’ of Ain Sukhna (Red Sea, Egypt), again there is evidence for differential fuel choices within different buildings, and different types of installations.

In this paper I will present a preliminary study of the differential uses of fuel in several Egyptian settlement sites, focussing on trying to ascertain what may have influenced their decision making processes.

Anderson, S., and F. Ertung-Yaras. 1998. ‘Fuel Fodder and Faeces: An Ethnographic and Botanical Study of Dung and Fuel Use in Central Anatolia’. Environmental Archaeology 1: 99–109.

Charles, M. 1998. ‘Fodder from Dung: The Recognition and Interpretation of Dung-Derived Plant Material from Archaeological Sites’. Environmental Archaeology 1: 111–22.

Lancelotti, C., and M. Madella. 2012. ‘The “invisible” Product: Developing Markers for Identifying Dung in Archaeological Contexts’. Journal of Archaeological Science 39: 953–63.

Malleson, C. In Press. ‘Chaff, Dung, and Wood: Fuel Use at Tell El-Retaba. Archaeobotanical Investigations in the Third Intermediate Period Settlement, Area 9 Excavations 2015-2019.’ Ägypten Und Levante.

Marinova, E., P. Ryan, W. Van Neer, and R. Friedman. 2013. ‘Animal Dung from Arid Environments and Archaeobotanical Methodologies of Its Analysis: An Examples from Animal Burials of the Predynastic Elite Cemetery HK6 at Hierkaonpolis, Egypt’. Environmental Archaeology 18 (1): 58–71.

Miller, N. 1984. ‘The Use of Dung as Fuel: An Ethnographic Example and an Archaeological Application’. Paléorient 10: 71–79.

———. 1996. ‘Seed Eaters of the Ancient Near East: Human or Herbivore’. Current Anthropology 37: 521–28.

Miller, N., and T. Smart. 1984. ‘Intentional Burning of Dung as Fuel: A Mechanism for the Incorporation of Charred Seeds into the Archeological Record’. Journal of Ethnobiology 4 (1): 15–28.

Moens, M., and W. Wetterstrom. 1988. ‘The Agricultural Economy of an Old Kingdom Town in Egypt’s West Delta: Insights from the Plant Remains’. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 47: 159–73.

Murray, M. A. 2009. ‘Questions of Continuity. Fodder and Fuel Use in Bronze Age Egypt’. In A. Fairburn and E. Weiss (eds.). From Foragers to Farmers. Papers in Honour of Gordon C. Hillman.  254–67. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

Shahack-Gross, R. 2011. ‘Herbivorous Livestock Dung: Formation, Taphonomy, Methods for Identification, and Archaeological Significance’. Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 205–18.

Spengler, R. 2015. ‘Dung Burning in the Archaeobotanical Record of West Asia: Where Are We Now?’ Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 28: 215–27.

Valamoti, S., and M. Charles. 2005. ‘Distinguishing Food from Fodder through the Study of Charred Plant Remains: An Experimental Approach to Dung-Derived Chaff’. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 14: 528–33.

Wallace, M., and M. Charles. 2013. ‘What Goes in Does Not Always Come out: The Impact of the Ruminant Digestive System of Sheep on Plant Material, and Its Importance for the Interpretation of Dung Derived Archaeobotanical Assemblages’. Environmental Archaeology 18: 18–30.

6. Agnieszka Ryś (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)

Craft in the domestic context and its role in Ancient Egyptian microeconomics

Craft production in the domestic context includes all works carried out by household members for self-consumption or for the exchange. Understanding the function and structure of the latter provides information about the economic strategy of households. Based on archaeological evidence as well as textual and iconographical sources, the paper discusses two models of domestic craft production in rural and urban settings in Ancient Egypt. The first can be described as intermittent and it relied on a periodical craft activity, which was an extension of daily subsistence works, especially agriculture. Finished goods were exchanged on local markets and provided contributions to household wealth. The second model assumes more organized production that required technological investments (ovens, molds) and skills as well as the availability of raw material. Therefore this type of production is considered as full-time work, and also seems to have been controlled, to some extent, by the elite.

7. Sławomir Rzepka (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)

Households in Egyptian iconography. Why the pictures do not match the archaeological reality?

For a long time the iconographic sources (reliefs and paintings on walls of tomb chapels, funerary models) were a basic source used in attempts to reconstruct the daily life of ancient Egyptians. Actual archaeological remains of houses of “regular” people were scarce, as Egyptologists preferred to work on cemetery or temple sites. The situation changed in the recent several decades, when the number of settlement sites excavated in Egypt grew significantly. A large set of archaeological remains of households of “regular” people (not the just the pharaoh and the highest elite) gives us a new perspective on the daily life of ancient Egyptians. For the best understanding of this daily life all types of sources must be combined: archaeological, iconographic and textual. It turns out that iconography quite often seem to contradict the archaeological record: objects and installations known from pictures are not preserved in archaeological record, on the other hand artefacts and structures found in houses do not occur in iconography. The present contribution is a presentation of several cases of such (alleged?) contradictions, where the archaeological material from the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period houses from Tell el-Retaba does not find direct parallels in iconographic sources.

8. Anna Smogorzewska (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)

Domestic Economy and Social Organization in the third millennium BC Syrian Jezirah. A Case Study from Tell Arbid

House and household when analyze in all their archaeological aspects – architecture, domestic features and artefacts – can provide an ample picture of the everyday life of the ancient societies. The results of the excavations at Tell Arbid, a site in the north-east Syria, will serve to reconstruct a socio-economic organization of the ancient inhabitants of the town. The inhabitants of one the dwelling quaters at Tell Arbid (Area D) left behind a rich collection of material remains that provide important insights into their daily practices in the late Ninevite 5 and EJZ 3 periods. By analyzing specific house structures, artefact assemblages, production, and consumption patterns interaction of different members of a household will be discussed as well as domestic economy, labor organization and household resources.

9. Anna Wodzińska (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw)

Pottery in ancient household. Reconstruction of space use of Old Kingdom settlement at Heit el-Ghurab (Giza)

Pottery can be a very good indicator of specific use of space, for example in a settlement. It can be associated with specific activities like preparation and consumption of food, storage and transport of goods. Well-studied site at Heit el-Ghurab (Giza) dated to a very short period is a very good example of a settlement where such activities can be recognized – especially food storage, baking of bread, beer brewing, and consumption of food. The site is characterized by a number of quarters which can be described differently through their architecture but also pottery used by their inhabitants. The presentation will show selected areas of the site – gallery house, bakery in the gallery system, Eastern Town House, bakery and possible brewery in Western Town, Western Town House, so-called Pottery Mount, with information about pottery associated with them.