Long-Term Nile Flood Variation in Pharaonic Egypt

10 Long-Term Nile Flood Variation and Political Discontinuitie~~ in Pharaonic Egypt KARL w. BUTZER Egypt provides a unique physical, archaeological, and historical record of environment, technology, land use, settlement, and economic history. In ef fect, the Nile constitutes an oasis corridor through a thinly inhabited desert, providing a test-tub,~ case for a society circumscribed by its environment and relatively isolated from external turmoiL Egyptian livelihood was closely linked to the waters of the river, further limiting the number of potential vari ables. Egyptian culture-defined by languagr~, re ligion, and national consciousness-spanned some four thousand years, from late prehistoric wdl into Roman times. This gives an unusual time depth in which to evaluate ecological adjustments and re sponse on various scales. Subsistence-settlement systems of complex so cieties such as that of Pharaonic Egypt are in con stant readjustment. They are also repeatedly modi fied and even transformed in response to external and internal variables. Endogenic factors in the case of Egypt include demographic trends, ul'bani- This paper profited sustantially from discussioll 'Nith Klaus Baer, George Cowgill, and Cynthia Batc£. 102 Nile Flood Variation and Political Discontmuities zation, social and economic stratification, agricul role of economic limiting conditions in a complex tural intensification, and spontaneous as well as human ecosystem. governmental expansion of agriculture into mar ginal environments (Butzer, 1976). Exogenic fac tors include human variables such as repeated inva sions or wstained immigration by various peoples Pharaoh and the Nile Floods from the Western Desert, Nubia, or western Asia and from the open Mediterranean Sea; they also To the ancient Egyptians the Nile represented include the financial and cultural impacts of the the source of life, the cosmic order, and creation New Kingdom imperium in Asia. Epidemics re itself. The annual flood reenacted creation, with lated to human or environmental factors are sug the Primeval Hill rising above the receding primor gested by indirect evidence, e.g., the catastrophic dial waters. The first dry land emerging from the plague introduced to Anatolia by Egyptian pris inundation promised fresh life in the new agricul oners of'.var ca. I325 B.C. (Aldred, 1975), as well tural year (J. A. Wilson, 1946). The cosmic order as by aU,egorical references in Exodus. Last but not was identified with the cyclic, repetitive nature of least, pressures were exerted at the core of the events, e.g., the Nile and solar and lunar cycles. human ecosystem by forces from the non-human Osiris came to personify this fundamental concept enviromr,ent, primarily reflecting climatic variabil of rebirth, growth, and death. The Pharaoh, by ity within the monsoonal rainfall belt of eastern extension, was believed to cause the life-giving Africa (Butzer, 1979, 198ob). The critical continu waters that brought fertility to Egypt and guaran ing adjustments of the agricultural system to the teed the seasons (Frankfort, 1948: 52; Goedicke, vicissitudes of the Nile constitute the most funda 1960 ). mental and most dynamic aspect of Egyptian Pharaoh was depicted as the single representa adaptation. tive of the entire community and sometimes de In an earlier monograph this writer (I 976) em scribed as the shepherd of his people. He was both phasized the continuities in Egyptian hydraulic ag god and man, the sole source of authority, yet ric:ultu:re. The present paper focuses on the discon Egypt was not an effectively authoritarian state. tinuities, namely, flood variation and the F rom at least the Thirteenth Dynasty (1784 -I 668 vulnerability of Egyptian irrigation agriculture in B.C.),l a vizier was responsible for actual adminis Pharaonic times. The potential role of environ tration, but the detailed implementation of central mental stress in the historical discontinuities of authority is not clear (Heick, I954: 134ff.; 1975c). Egypt is outlined, but the equally important social In earliest times, such direct administration may and poli tical processes that marked these times of have been restricted to the royal properties scat~ turmoil can only be hinted at in a brief paper such tered throughout the country (Heick, I975a) and as this. It therefore bears emphasis that the present to such aspects as external defense and religious purpose is to explore the potential co-agency of cult. As late as Ninetjer (ca. 2928-2884 B.C.), environmental variables in the historical ensemble. tribute appears to have been collected directly dur There are two reasons for emphasizing an ecologi ing periodic royal visitations to the provinces, and a cal perspective. First, the rich corpus of historical complex system of taxation first began under Sne informatJ.on from Egypt has yet to be critically re fru (see Heick, 1975b). By the Sixth Dynasty (ca. viewed from such a vantage point. A number of Egyptologists tend to regard their primary source literature as metaphorical; the only "real" events 1. The chronology used in this paper is based on an evalu were politicomilitary, and even these are considered ation of the radiocarbon dates (see Long, 1976, cali brated with reference to Damon et aI., 1974) for the suspect unless they are corroborated in Asiatic ar First and Second Dynasties (ca. 3 170-2760 B.C.), K. chives or archaeology. Second, the Egyptian case Baer (n.d.) for the Old and Middle Kingdoms, and provide~, an unusual opportunity for examining the Wente and Van Siden (1977) for the New Kingdom. Paleoemironments and Ecologl;ca! Adaptations 2405-2255 B.C.), the central administration ap royal appointees, although irrigation manag~!ment pointed agents responsible for local or regional was a local matter, judging by the handful of exclu supervision of specific tasks or f,--,nctions (Martin sively low-echelon officeholders on record (Endes Pardey, 1976), but such individuals served as inter felder, 1979)' Even so, Papyrus Wilbour (C8.. I 141 mediaries between the capital and the local com B.C.) suggests that large segments of Middle Egypt munities rather than as components of a fully inte were used preeminently for pastoral activitie~; grated bureaucratic hierarchy administering all (O'Connor, 1972), implying that the irrigation net phases of national activity. work was still incomplete (Butzer, 1976: IO~-I03)' Next to nothing is known about the emergence Competition for water was never an issue in of artificial irrigation during late prehistoric times. free-flooding alluvial basins (Butzer, 1976: H)9), The first document is the ceremonial breaching of which obviated the need for meticulous govern the canal by the prehistoric Scorpion King (Butzer, mental regulation. Except for "new lands" in the 1976: 20-2 I ), probably dating ca. 3200 B.C. Some Faiyum, the Delta, and Middle Egypt, there lis no what later, instances of royal canal-digging as well evidence of a governmental farm policy keeping the as tax exemption of a complex, if local, irrigation rural sector gainfully employed or distribl.ltillg network are recorded in several Sixth Dynasty texts land, seed, and tools. Instead, community afE1irs, (Dunham, 1938; Goedicke, 1967: 72; Butzer, including irrigation and flood control, continued to 1976: 45-47; Endesfelder, 1979), and an elaborate be organized at the grassroots level by corvee Fourth Dynasty (ca. 2680-2545 B.C.) masonry (forced labor) under the direction of village head dam is preserved in one desert valley (G. W. Mur men, who owed their prestige to merit as 1nLJfh as ray, I947). to wealth and who acted as first among equals. This Flood basins would have operated as autono situation persisted well into the nineteenth Cf:otury mous units, since they were impossible to interlink A.D. (see Willcocks, 1904: 71; G. Baer, 1969: without highly elaborate technology and since, by chap. 2). Government seems to have been primarily drawing water directly from the Nile, they were interested in agriculture as a tax base-·i.e., as an unaffected by patterns of water-use upstream (see end-product-contributing little to its elil"eel orga Butzer, 1976: 42-43). No regular or national ap nization or maintenance. Agricultural productivity, pointment for irrigation and no related bureauc although influenced by public order and secutity racy can be inferred from among almost 2,000 ti and responsive to new technologies, was. primarily a tles of the Old Kingdom (ca. 2760-2225 B.C.) (see response to the Nile floods. The health of tll<' K. Baer, 1960). The early record of canal-digging overall economic system, overwhelmingily depen therefore suggests government support for expan dent on agriculture, was consequently controlled as sion of artificial irrigation rather than an attempt to much by environmental as by human variables. Ul centralize irrigation administration; as late as 2000 timately, the central government was weak when the B.C., the Hekanakht letters suggest that half of the national economy was weak, although a weak gov valley floodplain was still traditionally used as un ernment could equally well lead to a weak economy. improved pasture or fallow (K. Baer, 1963). Irrigation of natural or artificial flood basins continued to be organized at the local level during the First Intermediate Period (ca. 2225-2035 Limitations to Traditional B.C.), when provincial governors were first on rec Irrigation Agriculture ord to cut several canals (Schenkel, 1965, 1978; Endesfelder, 1979). Middle Kingdom (2035 -I 668 Spatially, the ancient Egyptians viewed their B.C.) viziers were responsible for delegating orders land as a flat plain of fertile alluvial soil (Black for canal-digging nationwide (Endesfelder, 1979; Land), sharply demarcated from a rim of mountain HeIck, 1975c), and during the New Kingdom ous desert (Red Land) inhabited by foreign ])':0- (15 70-I 070 B.C.) new projects and possibly also pIes. Equally important was the differentia! produc maintenance were at times entrusted to ad hoc tivity due to a relief variation of I to 3 m within the Nile Flood VariatIOn and Political Discontinuities alluvialbnds (Butzer, 1976: 15-18).

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