The World of Ancient Egypt: A Daily Life Encyclopedia [2 Volumes] by Peter Lacovara;

Author:Peter Lacovara;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing (ABC-CLIO)
Published: 2017-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

FURTHER READING

Azzam, Omar Abdulrahman. The Development of Urban and Rural Housing in Egypt. Zurich: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, 1960.

Institute of Egyptology, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan. “Malkata South.” www.egyptpro.sci.waseda.ac.jp/e-msouth.html. Accessed November 20, 2015.

Smith, William Stevenson. Country Life in Ancient Egypt. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1954.

SANITATION

As in most premodern societies, sanitation in ancient Egypt was a rather ad hoc affair. Trash was usually thrown over the household enclosure walls. Centuries of this debris piling up created the great “tells” or city mounds that are known throughout the ancient Near East. These are not so evident in Egypt as the constant growth of the floodplain, the fresh soil deposited by the yearly flooding of the Nile, would have kept pace with the rising town mounds. During flood season, the mounds would often become little islands in the midst of the engorged river. At other times of the year, the Nile served as a handy sewer, and the Greek historian Herodotus (484–425 BCE) records household waste being dumped in the river. Refuse pits were also dug in and around settlements to contain waste.

Large pits were found in association with the royal palaces at Malqata and Tell el-Amarna. At Malqata, they were dug into the hard marl substrate, sometimes three or four feet deep, and they are filled mostly with pottery shards. Vast shard scatters in the neighboring desert may have been the remains of large, open-air feasts with the refuse just left in place. Smaller rubbish pits were also found in association with the houses in the North Village. Similar pits dug for the disposal of household refuse are found at other New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 BCE) sites such as Deir el-Ballas, Gurob, and Memphis.

The famous “palace rubbish heaps” at Tell el-Amarna that were excavated by Sir W. M. F. Petrie contained potsherds as well as detritus from stoneworking, faience and glass production, and metalworking. Some of the material was surprisingly rare and beautiful. In the crowded main residential city at Amarna, it is more difficult to trace the disposal of refuse deriving from a single household. The relatively limited waste that has been studied rarely confirms the craft activities that must have typically taken place inside these houses. It appears as though much of the refuse from textile production, faience manufacture, stoneworking, leatherworking, and metalworking either remained in use or was transported to dumps that lay some distance away. However, it may be that the dumping areas within the urban confines have been missed. So far, there has been little excavation of streets in the main city, and it is possible that refuse may have been deposited under them. Waste material was also sometimes incorporated into the mud floors of houses, which were often replastered with mud to keep them clean and sprinkled with water to tamp down the dust.

Since the Nile was nearby most settlements or water was in easy reach through wells for those at a remove from its banks, there was no need for aqueducts or provision for a communal water supply.

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