THE AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY OF AN OLD KINGDOM TOWN IN EGYPT’S WEST DELTA: INSIGHTS FROM THE PLANT REMAINS* MARIE-FRANCINE MOENS, Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven WILMA WETTERSTROM, Harvard University I. INrRODUCTION Mosr of our knowledge of the Old Kingdom economy in Egypt comes from ancient texts and representations.’ These sources suggest that there were important centers of cattle-raising in the Delta during this time (ca. 2700-2250 B.c.). Cattle occur in the names of four Delta nomes’ and frequently appear crossing Delta marshes in Old Kingdom mastaba scenes.* In addition, cattle cults were widespread and prominent in Lower Egypt.’ Yet, except for the representations on the walls of funerary monuments, there is almost no archaeological evidence for cattle-herding in the Old Kingdom Delta. No studies of economy and community structure have been based on soundings of actual settlements of this period until recently. In 1984, excavations focusing on economy and settlement were begun at Kom el-Hisn, a West Delta site which proved to have extensive Old Kingdom deposits (fig. 1). During the excavations, both floral and faunal remains were systematically collected, but it is the floral materials, surprisingly, which offer the best evidence of cattle in the economy of this Delta town. Plant remains derived from bovine dung confirm that cattle-raising was important at Kom el-Hisn and shed light on specific breeding practices. Since the late nineteenth century, various scholars have visited Kom el-Hisn and surveyed or probed portions of the site. Their efforts have yielded First and Second Dynasty flint implements and remains of tombs, monuments, and artifacts dating from the end of the Old Kingdom until Greco-Roman times.® The site at Kom el-Hisn is * The excavation at Kom el-Hisn under the dir- ection of Robert Wenke of the University of Wash- tologie (LA), vol. | (Wiesbaden, 1972-75), pp. xii ington, Seattle, and Richard Redding of Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, was made possible by grant from the National Science Foundation. The laboratory analysis of the plant remains was sup- ported by a grant from the Belgian Department of Higher Education and Scientific Research We wish to thank Robert Moens, Station de Zoologie Appliquée, Centre de Recherches Agro- nomiques, Gembloux, Belgium, for his helpful ad- vice. The abbreviations for journals, series, and monographs are cited in the Lexikon der Agyp- LUNES 47 no. 3 (1988) ©1988 by The University of Chicago. Al rights reserved. 0022-2968 / 88 / 4703-0001$1.00. 'W. Helck, Wirtschafisgeschichte des alten Agyp- tens im 3. und 2. Jahrtausend vor Chr., HO, vol. 1, pt. 5 (Leiden and Cologne, 1975), 2H. Kees, Ancient Egypt: A Cultural Topogra- phy (Chicago, 1961), pp. 29-30; W. Ghoneim, Die ‘okonomische Bedeutung des Rindes im alten Agyp- ten (Bonn, 1977), p. 29: LA, vol. 5, p. 259. 3P. Montet, Géographie de I'Egypte ancienne, vol. | (Paris, 1957), pp. 89, 103, 119, 129. 4 PM? vol. 3, pp. 355 (5b), 904 (5b). 5 Kees, Ancient Egypt, p. 29: K. W. Butzer, Early Hydraulic Civilization in Egypt (Chicago, 1976), p94, © A, Bernand, Le Delta égyptien, vol. 1, MIFAO 91 (Cairo, 1976), pp. 977 ff; LA, vol. 4, p. 403; W. D. E, Coulson and A. Leonard, Jr., Cities of the Delta, vol. 1, Naukratis (Malibu, 1981), pp. 81-85. 159160 JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES \ ,\Y Jb KOM EL-HISN y ” \ Fic. 1.—Map of the Egyptian Delta showing the location of Kom el-Hisn (after Montet, Géographie Kl. 0, thought to be the ancient locality Im3w (which means im3-trees), mentioned in texts since the Fifth Dynasty.” In 1984, Kom el-Hisn was studied under the auspices of the American Research Center in Egypt, as part of the Naucratis Project's ongoing research on human settlement in the western Delta. The excavations, under the direction of Robert Wenke and Richard Redding, exposed settlements of a relatively large site, covering at least fifteen hectares and partly surrounded by a mud-brick wall. The stratified deposits are mostly above the water table’ and range from 1 to 3m in depth. The excavations, which included a series of | x 2 m excavation units, test trenches, and auger holes, cut mainly through domestic areas revealing mud-brick walls, pits, and household refuse: pottery, stone tools, bone, and charred plant remains. Most of the deposits probably 7 This identification is based on inscribed monu- ments from the Middle and New Kingdoms found at Kom el-Hisn, which call the goddesses Hathor and Sekhmet mistresses of the im3-trees; see Montet, Géographie, vol. 1, p. 58; K. Zibelius, Agyptische Siedlungen nach Texten des Alten Reiches (Wies- baden, 1978), pp. 35-36; Ld, vol. 3, pp. 673-74.Tae AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY OF AN OLD KiNGDom Town 161 date from the Old Kingdom and perhaps earlier. Two radiocarbon dates from middle levels of occupation correct to early Old Kingdom dates. Most of the pottery recovered appears to be typical of the Old Kingdom, while some ceramic samples suggest earlier occupations.® Il. FIELD AND LaBoratTory PROCEDURES Plant remains were recovered systematically by flotation from 1x 2m square excavation units, located in the central area of the site. Six units were selected by stratified random sampling designs, while the others were arbitrarily chosen. Each unit was excavated by “cultural stratigraphy in so far as was possible, with the goal of separating as precisely as possible the remains representing different depositional events.”” In order to recover plant remains, approximately 3 to 4 liters of sediment were collected from each unit constituting a depositional event, here referred to as a “sedimentary unit.” Flotation, or water separation, was done at the site using a simple bucket technique. After air-drying for several days, the sediment samples were gently poured into a bucket of water, stirred, and allowed to settle for a few minutes. Relatively good separation was achieved with the porous carbonized plant remains floating on the surface. This flotate was decanted into a sieve covered with a fine mesh cloth that caught even minute seeds of less than 0.5mm in diameter. Once the sample was collected, the cloth was set on an open newspaper, which was then folded over to protect the carbonized remains. After air-drying, the flotate was gently brushed off the cloth and transferred to small plastic boxes. The samples were later analyzed at the Harvard University Botanical Museum, Each sample was scanned under a binocular microscope, and seeds, fruits, and other plant parts were set aside. These were identified by comparison with a reference collection of modern plants and with the aid of manuals.'° Both dried and charred specimens were recovered but only the latter were considered archaeological deposits. The dried specimens, which were not abundant, were almost certainly of recent origin, since seeds, stems, and fruits would decompose readily in the moist Delta soils. Carbonized materials, on the other hand, resist decay better and can persist for thousands of years. IIL. RESuLTs AND Discussion Nearly 10,000 carbonized seeds and other plant parts were recovered from the 130 flotation samples analyzed. A full report with detailed descriptions and discussions of all these remains is forthcoming in the excavation report on the Kom el-Hisn site.'' cation Manual (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1973); C. F, Reed, Economically Important Foreign ®R. Wenke, “Excavations at Kom el-Hisn,” ARCE Newsletter, no. 129 (spring 1985), pp. 1-11 Ibid. p. 6. © Manual for Testing Agricultural and Vegetable Seeds, Agricultural Handbook, no. 30 (Washington, 1952); G. Berggren, Atlas of Seeds and Small Fruits of Northwest European Plant Species with Mor- phological Description, vols. 2-3 (Stockholm, 1970- 81); A. C. Martin and W. D. Barkley, Seed Identifi- Weeds, U.S. Department of Agriculture Handbook, no. 498 (Washington, 1977); R. W. Haines and K.A. Lye, The Sedges and Rushes of East Africa (Nairobi, 1983). 1 W. Wetterstrom and M.-F. Moens, “The Plant Remains,” in R. J. Wenke, ed., Cities of the Delta Kom el- Hisn (in preparation).JouRNAL oF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES 162 zr tt 5 600 8 re el coe ss 9e 99 Lt s ut re 8 oor el Lor 9 sw se oe 01 t ’ MIA oF oz 1 80r 7 sv a 59 el 19 £ 0 0 MA 61 ver 96 oo oz 69% Le ce s6 s8 19 rT 8 IA Tver sr 09 ore 180 81 661 ose Buy £1 se 87 8e A we se % 9s at a1c vor sw or see we ve % Al sez we oF au 965 oe 169 ¥0C sev zal 88 61 lv m og6t ria we est 88 or Isr Le ise siz vy oz ae 1 post vl o 98e 169 8 ae ad zr aa oe oT 8 1 LOL INdOWId “ON INSOWd ON INSOWd ON ANSOWSd ON INSOWSd ON INFOWAd ON. INO. SINVId WJHLO SINVId YIGGOA SADGISSGITA —_ SGAIM TALL SASIHDVATVIYID SNIVYO TWAWID _NOLLVAVOXA TWO] aun Jo aBejuaoi9g Se pur JaqUWON se passaudyg HUN UOHWAROX YOR UI SUIEWIY Wea NSIH 14 WOY WOME SNIVASY INV I atavi.Tue AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY OF AN OLD KiNGDoMm TowN 163 TABLE 2 PLANT Types AND QuANTITIES RECOVERED PLANT TYPES, QUANTITIES OF SEEDS OR RACHISES FOUND. PERCENT CLASS CLASS PERCENT COMMON AND LATIN NAME NO. OFTOTAL TOTAL OF TOTAL ‘CEREAL Grains, Barley Hordeum vulgare 132 14 186 20 Emmer Triticum dicoccum 54 06 Ceneat, Raciises Barley Hordeum vulgare 49 0s 1812 19.5 Emmer Triticum dicoccum 1,763 19.0, Fist Weeps Canary Grass Phalaris paradoxa Ls 120 2.279 246 Darnel Lolium temulentum 960 10.3 Mayweed Anthemis sp. 133 14 G Scorpiurus muricata 6 07 Vetchling Lathyrus sp. 3 00 Reeps and Sepaes Reed Phragmites australis 122230 2,218 239 Sedge Carex sp. 782 84 Bulrush Scirpus spp. 106 Ld Fimbristylis Fimbristylis spp. ” 08 Nutgrass Cyperus spp. 38 04 Spikerush Eleocharis sp. 6 00 Fopper PLANTS Clover Trifolium sp. 1953210 2,468 266 Mustard Brassica sp, 215 23 Dock Rumex sp. 158 WW Vetch Vicia spp. 129 L4 Medick Medicago sp. 1B ot OrneR PLants * Lapulla sp. 136 Ls 316 34 Wild Grasses Bromus sp. and 7 08 Unidentified Gramineae Goosefoot Chenopodium sp. 41 04 Purslane Portulaca sp. 2 03 Little Mallow Malva parviflora 7 0.2 Pink Family Caryophyllaceae " oO Carpet Weed Gilinus sp. 4 0.0 Carpet Weed Family Aizoaceae 3 0.0 Knotweed Polygonum sp. 2 00 Flax Linum usitatissimum 2 0.0 Pea Pisum sativum 1 00 ‘Camel Thorn Alhagi maurorum 1 0.0 Total 9279 99.4 9279 100.0 Nore: *no English common name, “Total does not add up to 100 percent because of rounding errors.164 JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES Most of the plant material belongs to one of four categories: cereal straw, field weeds, reeds and sedges, and fodder plants. Table 1 shows the quantities and percentages of the plant categories for each of the excavation units. Table 2 gives the composition of these categories and indicates the percentage of the total plant remains for the different species. The cereal straw and field weeds, altogether 44 percent of the total remains, appear to be by-products of grain processing. The straw consists of the dense, tough remains of cereal spikes: glume bases and rachises, mainly of emmer wheat. These components of the cereal head are separated from the grains during winnowing, after the grain has been threshed.'? Other impurities, such as weeds, are also removed during winnowing and cleaning of the crop and are probably the source of most of Kom el-Hisn’s weed seeds. Darnel, one of the most abundant weeds in the samples, grows exclusively in cultivated fields," while canary grass and Scorpiurus are common invaders of Egyp- tian grain fields today.'* Mayweed and vetchling might have come from grain crops as well since some species of these two weeds grow in cultivated ground.'* All these weeds were recovered from Djoser’s tomb at Saqqara where they apparently were con- taminants of the grain offerings.’ Darnel, canary grass, mayweed, and Scorpiurus were also found among crop processing debris in two Middle Kingdom tombs at Abusir.'” Reeds and sedges, accounting for about 24 percent of the Kom el-Hisn material, are predominantly plants of wet habitats and almost certainly belonged to the natural vegetation of the Delta."* The fodder plants represent almost 27 percent of the material. Clover, vetch, and medick are commonly cultivated to feed livestock," while the weeds, mustard and dock, are considered good forage.”” Dock, knotweed, and mallow invade clover as well as wheat fields and may have been introduced to Kom el-Hisn via fodder crops rather than grains.”! The Kom el-Hisn plant remains are not an unusual assemblage for ancient Egypt. The wild plants are consistent with the country’s weed flora and the natural Delta landscape, while the cultivars, emmer wheat and barley, were ancient Egypt’s major crops. Remarkable, however, is the plethora of fodder plants. The significance of these plant materials can be better understood when they are compared with a plant assemblage from another ancient site. Nagada South Town, a 2G, Hillman, “Interpretation of Archaeological Plant Remains: ‘The Application of Ethnographic Models from Turkey,” in W. Van Zeist and W. A. Casparie,eds., Plants and Ancient Man (Rotterdam and Boston, 1984), pp. 19-26. 13G. Schweinfurth, in H. Schafer, ed., Priester graber und andere Grabfunde vom Ende des Alten Reiches bis zur griechischen Zeit vom Totentempel des Ne-User-Ré, WVDOG 8 (Leipzig, 1908), pp. 155, 164; E. Klapp, Taschenbuch der Graser (Berlin and Hamburg, 1965), p. 156. \4N, Ei Hadidi and J. Kosinova, “Studies on the Weed Flora of Cultivated Land in Egypt,” Mittei- lungen der Botanischen Staatssammlung Miinchen 10 (1971): 357. 1S V, Tickholm, Students’ Flora of Egypt (Cairo, 1974), p. 574; J.-P. Lauer, V. Laurent-Tckholm, and E. Aberg, “Les Plantes découvertes dans les souterrains de Venceinte du Roi Zoser & Saqgarah (IIe Dynastie),” BIE 32 (1951); 142-44, 147-48. '6 Ihid., pp. 136-37, 142-48 "7 Schweinfurth, in Schafer, Priestergrdber, pp. 154-57. "8 Butzer, Hydraulic Civilization, p. 25. 19 J, Lahaye et al., L’Eneyclopédie agronomique et vétérinaire, Les bovins II: Alimentation du bétail (Paris, 1946), pp. 197-203, 207-10; J. Janick et al, Plant Science: An Introduction to World Crops (Gan Francisco, 1981), pp. 537-41; J. Duke, Hand- book of Legumes of World Economic Importance (New York, 1981), pp. 148-62, 234-68, 271-86. 20 Lahaye et al., Alimentation du bétail, pp. 211~ 12, N. F, Miller, “The Use of Dung as Fuel: An Ethnographic Example and an Archaeological Ap- plication,” Palgorient 10 (1984): 75 21 El Hadidi and Kosinova, “Weed Flora of Cul- tivated Land in Egypt,” p. 357.Tue AGRICULTURAL EcoNoMY OF AN OLD KinGDom Town 165 Kom eL-misn Uaverage per excavation unit) umber of Seeds or wagaoa rest sourn Town souane 4 fotner Pant Parte $e (22222777777) Gzzz. (LEELA (ae ERETITTTIIID ULE Barnet Gi cz, Canary Grane Grane Reed & Sedge Seeas co Legume Seeds Coe Fic. 2.—Comparison of Kom el-Hisn and Nagada South Town plant remains Predynastic Upper Egyptian political and ceremonial center, well known through Petrie’s work in the cemeteries,” was recently investigated by one of us.”* Habitation areas of the site, dating from about 3400 B.c.,"* were tested as part of the Predynastic of Egypt Project in 1978 and 1981.”° Figure 2 shows a comparison of the Kom el-Hisn plant remains with the charred remains from South Town Test Square A, a rich undisturbed midden of 1 m square closely matching the context of the Kom el-Hisn excavation units. The mean number of each plant type per excavation unit at Kom el-Hisn is represented in bar graph form opposite the totals of the charred remains recovered from South Town Test Square A. Although both sets of plant remains were 22 W. M. F. Petrie and J. E, Quibell, Nagada and Ballas, BSAE 1 (London, 1896). 2 W. Wetterstrom, “Paleoethnobotanical Studies at Predynastic Sites in the Nagada-Khattara Re- gion,” in F. Hassan, ed., Predynastic Studies in the Nagada-Khattara Region (in press). 24F. A. Hassan, “The Beginnings of Egyptian Civilization at Hierakonpolis,” Quarterly Review of Archaeology 5 (1984): 13-15, 28 Hassan, ed., Predynastic Studies (in press).166 JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES recovered in nearly identical fashion, several major differences set them apart. Cereal spike remains, while common at both sites, represent almost 90 percent of the South Town material, but only 20 percent of Kom el-Hisn’s. Weeds, reeds and sedges, and fodder plants, important components of the Kom el-Hisn remains, were scarce at South Town. Combined, they represented only about 3.2 percent of the total, whereas at Kom el-Hisn they accounted for about 25 percent, 24 percent, and 27 percent respectively or about 76 percent altogether. One other important difference not shown in the figure is the fact that charcoal was abundant in the South Town midden but extremely rare at Kom el-Hisn, South Town's plant remains have been interpreted as primarily by-products of crop processing which were probably used as fuel or discarded in household hearths.”* Household hearths are also the most likely source of Kom el-Hisn’s plant remains. Both the distribution of the samples and their contents suggest that they were derived from domestic cooking and heating fires. The charred materials were scattered in relatively low concentrations throughout the entire area sampled, and the same proportions of plants occurred in each sedimentary unit.” Such a distribution is most easily accounted for by the regular and recurrent burning of plant materials in household fires followed by deposition of ash throughout the habitation area. ‘The hearths as a source of charred seeds at Kom el-Hisn seems even more likely when ethnographic evidence from the Middle East is considered. In Malyan, a traditional rural village in southwestern Iran, N. F. Miller studied hearth and ash deposits as part of an effort to develop models helpful in interpreting the archaeo- logical plant record.” She determined that seeds found in hearth samples could have come from (a) food residues spat into a fire; (b) intentionally discarded debris from the cleaning of grain and crops; (c) food processing near fires; (d) cooking accidents; (e) ambient weed seeds blown or dropped into a fire; and (f) dung burned for fuel. She found that dung was one of the main sources of seeds. Sheep, goat, and cattle dung is surprisingly laden with undigested seeds that pass through the ovine, caprine, and bovine guts relatively unscathed because of a tough seed coat.” S. Bottema reached a similar conclusion after a study of fireplaces in two modern, rural villages of northern Syria.” Although he determined that seeds might make their way into hearths from extant vegetation under the fire, ambient seed rain, grains spilled during cooking, and vegetable fuels, he found that burned sheep dung seemed to be a major source. Dung is a good suspect for seeds found in Egyptian village hearths as well. It has served as fuel in rural areas of Egypt from Pharaonic times to the present. Women and girls currently prepare fuel by mixing cattle or bird dung with chopped straw and shaping it into round flat cakes.’' Once dried and hardened in the sun, the cakes are 2 Wetterstrom, in Hassan, ed., Predynastic Stu- of Dung as Fuel,” p. 76 dies (in press). 30. Bottema, “The Composition of Modern 7 Wetterstrom and Moens, in Wenke, ed., Kom Charred Seed Assemblages,” in W. Van Zeist and el- Hisn (in preparation). W. A. Casparie, eds., Plants and Ancient Man 28 Miller, “Use of Dung as Fuel,” pp. 71-79. (Rotterdam and Boston, 1984), pp. 207-12. 2C. C, Townsend, Leguminaies, Flora of Iraq, 3H. H. Ayrout, The Egyptian Peasant (Boston, vol. 3 (Baghdad, 1974), p. 41, quoted in Miller, “Use 1963), pp. 127, 164THE AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY OF AN OLD KINGDOM Town 167 stored on the roofs along with bundles of sticks and dry maize stalks which are also burned for fuel.* Nearly identical fuels were used in ancient Egypt as indicated by evidence surviving from New Kingdom times. Hieratic ostraca often mention several ass-loads of dung (hrit) as fuel.” One ostracon acknowledges the receipt of sw-rushes and dung, followed by two ass-loads of woodsticks; another mentions several ass-loads of Sw- rushes, dung, and straw.’* Papyrus Anastasi IV records “dung for the winter” among other storage goods. When translating this text, R. Caminos suggested that the dung was used as fuel in winter time and that the grasses, sedges (?), and reeds mentioned along with the dung served the same purpose.’’ In addition to this documentary evidence, a store of unused fuel consisting mainly of straw and sheep dung was found in a kitchen in the house at no. 12 Gate Street in El-Amarna, along with some inconclusive evidence of cow dung fuel cakes.” At Kom el-Hisn, dung and plant stems were probably the major fuel, since virtually no charcoal was found in any of the flotation samples. Trees and shrubs may have been scarce in this area or protected from villagers searching for fuel. The dung burned for fuel was most likely cattle excrement since only a few sheep/goat pellets were found in all of the Kom el-Hisn flotation samples. Had the latter been an important fuel they should have been abundant. Both Miller” and Bottema“ found numerous pellets in their hearth ash samplings. If the Kom el-Hisn flotation samples were derived mainly from dung and dung fuel cakes, it would account for a number of features of this material. Clover, a highly nutritious forage cultivated only for animal consumption, accounts for 21 percent of all the Kom el-Hisn plant remains. Another important component, the winnowing debris, is a major animal feed.“' Cereal straw also serves as a dung cake “temper.” Barley grains, though not a major constituent of the samples, also point to dung as a source of the plant remains. The grains, which are often used as fodder,” far outnumber barley rachis segments here suggesting that they served as forage directly rather than coming from winnowing waste. In the latter, small quantities of grain usually occur with huge numbers of rachises, as is seen in the emmer wheat remains at Kom el-Hisn. Finally, the reeds and sedges may also have been derived from dung although they could have been burned directly. The stems of these marsh plants could have served as fodder and as stable litter that was eventually incorporated in dung cakes S2E. W. Lane, An Account of the Manners and BAe 7 (Brussels, 1937), pp. 43-44 (=Anast. IV Customs of the Modern Egyptians Written in Egypt during the Years 1833-1835 (Cairo, 1895), pp. 194, 196; W. S. Blackman, The Fellahin of Upper Egypt (London, 1927), pp. 27-28, 154-55. 334, Cerny,” “Some Coptic Etymologies,” in ©. Firchow, ed., dgyptologische Studien: Hermann Grapow zum 70. Geburtstag gewidmet (Berlin, 1955), pp. 36-37. 4 Ostracon IFAO Inv. 1015, vs. 2-3: quoted in Caminos, LEM, p. 167. 38 oDeM 13, tt. 2-3 3A. H. Gardiner, Late Egyptian Miscellanies, {8,10}-19,1p. 37 Caminos, LEM, p. 167. BT. E, Peet and C. L. Woolley, The City of Akhenaten, vol. 1, EES 38 (London, 1923), p. 64. 3 Miller, “Use of Dung as Fuel,” p. 75, table 3. 4 Bottema, in Van Zeist and Casparie, eds., Plants and Ancient Man, p. 208. 41 Hillman, in Van Zeist and Casparie, eds., Plants and Ancient Man, pp. 4-5. “2. Tickholm and M. Drar, Flora of Egypt, vol. 1, Bulletin of the Faculty of Science 17 (Cairo, 1941), p. 284,168 JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES Unfortunately, it is not possible to calculate precisely the actual contribution of dung, vegetable fuel, stable litter, and spilled foods, but it seems highly probable that cattle dung contributed a large share of fuel and hence carbonized seeds. We can also infer that cattle were probably responsible for a good share of the economic life at Kom el-Hisn. This view is consistent with the historic evidence linking the town specifically with cattle. According to Middle Kingdom inscriptions found at Kom el- Hisn, the cow goddess Hathor was the principal deity of the locality at that time.” Remains of her temple, dating from the Nineteenth and Twenty-second Dynasties, were found at the site.“* Evidence for the Hathor cult at Kom el-Hisn can be traced back to the Fifth Dynasty.” Hathor was also worshiped at Kom el-Hisn in the form of the sacred milk cow Sekhat-Hor, a protectress of cattle, whose cult here may go back even earlier.“* Additional historical records point to the importance of cattle-breeding in the region. Kom el-Hisn was situated in the third Lower Egyptian nome,”” the same nome in which Egyptian texts list the locality Hw#-ihwt or Estate of the Cattle.’ Not yet located, the Estate of the Cattle was originally one of the oldest state foundations in Egyptian history.’ A seal inscription found in the tomb of Queen Merneith at Abydos (ca. 3000 8.c.) and impressions on jar lids from the reign of King Den (ca. 2950 B.C.) found at Abu-Roach (Tomb no. 6) date the Estate of the Cattle back to. the First Dynasty.” But cattle-raising may be a Predynastic tradition in the Kom el-Hisn region and areas west of the Delta, as is suggested by a First Dynasty palette in the Cairo Museum, which shows cattle, donkeys, sheep, and trees from the T3- thnw, the ancient Egyptian name for Libya." The animals were war tribute for the expanding Egyptian state.” How far back cattle-raising was practiced at Kom el-Hisn cannot be determined from the 1984 excavations, but the flotation samples do confirm the importance of pastoralism during the Old Kingdom and possibly earlier times. They also offer unique evidence of specific cattle management practices. The dung found in the flotation samples provides a partial record of the cow’s diet, documenting the seeds that passed through the bovine digestive system, were carbonized, and ended up preserved in the archaeological strata. Although dung is an incomplete diet inventory,’? favoring primarily plants eaten in fruit, it nonetheless offers clues to the ways in which the people of Kom el-Hisn cared for their cattle. In general, a bovine diet consists of (a) forage consumed in stables, including cereal, straw, and fresh, dried, or siloed fodder plants, and (b) fresh vegetation grazed in 435. Allam, Beitrdge zum Hathorkult (Berlin, 1963), p. 90. “4 PM, vol. 4, p. SI. 48 Inscription in the tomb of Ti at Saqgara, Zibelius, Siedlungen. p. 35. 460. Perdu, “La Déesse Sekhathor a la lumiére des données locales et nationales,” in L'Egyptologie en 1979, vol. | (Paris, 1982), pp. 255-66. 47 W. Helck, Die altigyptische Gaue (Wiesbaden, 1974), p. 154. “8 Ibid., pp. pp. 149-51. “9 W. Helck, “Die Bedeutung der Felsinschriften J. Lopez,” SAK 1 (1974): 223, n. 16; idem, Wirt- schafisgeschichte, p. 27, 9.38. 154-55; Zibelius, Siedlungen, 5 Petrie, The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty, vol. 1 (London, 1900), pl. 20 (15); P. Montet, “Tombeaux des I et IV Dynasties & Abou-Roach,” Kémi 8 (1946): 196; P. Kaplony, Die Inschrifien der agyptischen Fridhzeit (Wiesbaden, 1963), p. 134, fig, 18, 51CG 14238; J.-P. Corteggiani, L’Egypte des Pharaons au Musée du Caire (Paris, 1979), pp. 26-29. 52 Helek, Wirtschafisgeschichte, p. 125. 33, Hillman, “Reconstructing Crop Husbandry Practices from ‘Charred Remains of Crops,” in R. Mercer, ed., Farming Practice in British’ Pre- history (Edinburgh, 1981), pp. 139-40; ef. Bottema, in Van Zeist and Casparie, eds., Plants and Ancient ‘Man, pp. 207-12.THE AGRICULTURAL Economy OF AN OLD KinGpom Town 169 pastures which consist predominantly of grasses. Curiously, the Kom el-Hisn samples have almost no grasses, except for reeds and weeds of cultivated fields.** The category wild grasses represents less than I percent of the total plant remains. The paucity of grass seeds in the samples is remarkable, since such a dearth of grasses would not be expected in natural pastures. Even on marshy ground, grasses survive between sedges and rushes and are preferred by cattle because of their tenderness. Carex, the principal sedge in our samples, prefers moist, grassy environments,”* suggesting an abundance of grasses in this region. If the cattle at Kom el-Hisn were herded in the natural Delta environment, we would expect to find a variety of grasses in the dung samples, complemented by rushes and other marsh plants besides the sedges and reeds. The small quantity of grasses might be attributed to the biases described earlier rather than the diet, but that seems unlikely in light of data from another site. Small samples of desiccated cattle dung were collected for flotation from animal enclosures at an Upper Egyptian Predynastic village studied as part of the Predynastic of Egypt Project.* In these samples, emmer straw represents about 50 percent of the material, while grasses account for 13 percent. This percentage corresponds better than Kom el-Hisn’s with an expected proportion of grass seeds eaten in natural pastures. A second unusual feature of the Kom el-Hisn plant remains is the abundance of fodder plants and cereal straw with field weeds. Clover represents such a large proportion (21 percent) of the total remains that it appears to have been expressly cultivated for the cattle. Berseem or Egyptian clover (Trifolium alexandrinum L.) is one of the three principal crops in Egypt today. Cut several times a year, this excellent cattle fodder is native to the Mediterranean region, the Near East, and India. The numerous clover seeds found in the Kom el-Hisn samples have not been positively identified, but they are probably berseem. They are virtually identical to modern berseem seed specimens but usually smaller. They may have shrunk during carbonization or they might be immature specimens. The latter would be expected among fodder plants because of harvesting methods. Forage is usually cut while still in flower, since annuals become dry and tough after the fruit develops.®* At harvest time, fruits and flowers at various stage of development would be cut, since the entire crop would not be growing in perfect synchrony. Another possibility is that these berseem- like seeds represent older varieties of the modern Egyptian clover, such as a progenitor or an intermediate form with another species.” Whatever the exact identity of this clover, it was probably cut as fodder for penned animals rather than grazed. The plant grows in natural meadows with grasses, but since there are so few of the latter in the Kom el-Hisn samples, grazing seems unlikely. Other legumes found in the flotation samples, such as vetch and meqick, may have been grown for the same purpose. Legumes not only add valuable nitrogen to the soil, but their high protein content stimulates milk production in cattle."' Some of the plants in the samples, such as dock and mustard, could have been collected as forage also, 5 Reeds may not be as important as they seem 57 Ayrout, Peasant, pp. 48, 51 based on sheer numbers. Although they represent a $8 Duke, Legumes, p. 235, sizable percentage of the seeds found at Kom el- 5G, H. Clark and M. O, Malte, Fodder and Hisn, it should be noted that a single reed spike Pasture Plants (Ottowa, 1913), pp. 17, 24-25 produces an enormous quantity of seeds. 69 Cf. Duke, Legumes, p. 235. 58 Tickholm, Students’ Flora, p. 771 61 Lahaye et al., Alimentation du bétail, pp. 196— 56 Wetterstrom, in Hassan, ed., Predynastic 210 Studies (in press)