UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles The Ground Plan as a Tool for The Identification and Study of Houses in an Old Kingdom Special-Purpose Settlement at Heit el-Ghurab, Giza A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures by Mohsen E Kamel 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Ground Plan as a Tool for The Identification and Study of Houses in an Old Kingdom Special-Purpose Settlement at Heit el-Ghurab, Giza by Mohsen E Kamel Doctor of Philosophy in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor Willemina Z. Wendrich, Chair The ground plan is an essential goal of the settlement archaeologist. For the archaeologist who would attempt to glean evidence of settlements of the Old Kingdom (c. 2543 - 2120 BCE), the ground plan is most often the ultimate goal, for although the seemingly eternal stone funerary monuments of Giza dominate the Old Kingdom landscape (both literally and figuratively), the Pyramid Age has not left standing the mudbrick walls of the houses within which people lived-- the preponderance of Old-Kingdom wall remnants comprising mere centimeters. Without an accurate ground plan, material culture and faunal and botanical evidence have no context. This study presents a detailed, concrete analysis and comparison of the ground plans of two structures that can be interpreted as houses from the Old Kingdom, 4th-dynasty (2543 – 2436 BCE) settlement site of Heit el-Ghurab at Giza. The houses whose ground plans are presented here are representative of a corpus of unpublished probable dwellings from this site, which excavation ii suggests was a “special-purpose” settlement that housed and provisioned the personnel engaged in the monumental constructions on the Giza plateau. iii This dissertation of Mohsen E Kamel is approved. Mark Lehner Kathlyn M Cooney Michael D Cooperson Diane G Favro Willemina Z. Wendrich, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2015 iv Dedicated to my wife, Gina, without whom this work and the rest of my professional life would have been way off track, and to my father, who always wanted to learn more throughout his life. “The opening-up of the world affects us all, becomes part of the general intellectual inheritance, and the justification of archaeology is that it does in the end concern everyone. Its subject is modern man . and its material is the work of man’s hands. The surprise which a visitor to a museum expresses at the age of a given object . is the surprise of one who sees his horizon suddenly opening out. .” --Sir Leonard Woolley Digging up the Past (1930) v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …..................................................................................................................................vii CURRICULUM VITAE ..........................................................................................................................................viii CHAPTER ONE: AN INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Research design ................................................................................................................................. 4 1.2 Research tools ...................................................………………........................................................... 6 1.3 What constitutes an Old Kingdom house? ..………………………………............................... 7 1.4 An orientation to Heit el-Ghurab …………................................................................................. 8 CHAPTER TWO: OVERVIEW OF PRIOR RESEACH ................................................................................. 12 2.1 Elephantine ....................................................................................................................................... 14 2.2 Abydos (North) ............................................................................................................................... 36 2.3 Khentkawes Settlement ……….................................................................................................... 45 CHAPTER THREE: A TALE OF TWO HOUSES ………..………………………………………………….…… 63 3.1 The Life-cycle of the Eastern Town House …………………………………....……………… 66 3.2 Discussion……………………………………………………………………...…………………………….90 3.3 The Life-cycle of the Western Town House…………………………………...…………….…99 3.4 Discussion…………………………………………………………………………..116 CHAPTER FOUR: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS………………….121 APPENDIX………………………………………………………………………..……………133 WORKS CITED…………………………………………………………….…………………………….197 vi Acknowledgments I would like to thank my committee for their patience and understanding: Dr. Willeke Wendrich, Dr. Michael Cooperson, Dr. Kara Cooney, Dr. Diane Favro, and especially Dr. Mark Lehner, for his generous gifts of time and insight over the past several years, and for providing all needed access to the material for this study. I would like to express my gratitude to Piers Litherland for his help and support. I would like to thank Dr. Antonio Loprieno for his kindness and help during the time I was fortunate enough to be his student at UCLA, and the many friends and colleagues who helped over the years in various ways to make this possible: Ashraf Abd el-Aziz, Dr. Peter Lacovara, Rebekah Miracle, Dan Jones, Ali Witsell, Dr. Richard Redding, Dr. Wilma Wetterstrom, Ana Tavares, Pieter Collet, Justine Gesell, Sayed Salah, Dr. Mohamed Ismail, and Mohamed Megahed, just to name a few. Never last, and definitely not least, I extend a very special heartfelt thank you to Dr. Zahi Hawass for literally thrusting in my hand the application for graduate study at UCLA: without that gesture, there would be no dissertation. Finally, my sincerest gratitude to Freya Sadarangani, whose professional writing pointed the way. vii CURRICULUM VITAE EDUCATION University of California, Los Angeles M.A., Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Egyptian Archaeology, 2000 Cairo University, Egypt B.A. (Honors), Faculty of Archaeology, Egyptology, 1987 UNIVERSITY TEACHING AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE University of California, Los Angeles Instructor: “Ancient Egyptian Civilization” (Summer 2001, Spring 2002) Teaching Assistant: “Ancient Egyptian Civilization” (Summer 2000; Dr. Zahi Hawass) “Ancient Egyptian Civilization” (Spring 2004; Dr. Willeke Wendrich) FIELD EXPERIENCE 1997-Present Ancient Egypt Research Associates, Inc. Dr. Mark Lehner 1997-2000: Archaeologist/Area Supervisor, Giza Workmen’s Village 2001-2007: Field Director, Giza Workmen’s Village, Luxor Temple, Avenue of the Sphinxes, Luxor 2005-Present: Joint AERA/ARCE Field School Director, Memphis 2002-2004 University of California, Los Angeles, and Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Dr. Willeke Wendrich Archaeologist/Instructor Fayum Field School, Fayum, Egypt 1998-2001 Amarna Royal Tombs Project Drs. Geoffrey Martin and Nicholas Reeves Archeologist/Draftsman Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt 1989-1992 Supreme Council of Antiquities Dr. Zahi Hawass Inspector/Draftsman/Assistant Field Director Old Kingdom Workmen’s Cemetery, Giza, Egypt PRESENTATIONS Bloomsbury Theater, London, England (2001) “Amarna Royal Tombs Project Excavation in the Valley of the Kings” viii Seattle, Washington (2005) “Report on Fieldwork for Ancient Egypt Research Associates, Inc., Board Members and Supporters” Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., Lost City of the Pyramid Builders Seminar (2006) “Lost City Housing: From Two-Room Huts to Manor Houses” (co-written with/presented by Ana Tavares) PUBLICATIONS 2006 Mark Lehner, Mohsen Kamel, and Ana Tavares (eds.) Giza Plateau Mapping Project Season 2005 Preliminary Report. Giza Occasional Papers 2. Boston: AERA. 2009 Mark Lehner, Mohsen Kamel, and Ana Tavares (eds.) Giza Plateau Mapping Project Season 2004 Preliminary Report, Giza Occasional Papers 1, Boston: AERA. 2009 Mark Lehner, Mohsen Kamel and Ana Tavares (eds.) Giza Plateau Mapping Project Seasons 2006-2007 Preliminary Report, Giza Occasional Papers 3, Boston: AERA. 2009 Mark Lehner, Mohsen Kamel, and Ana Tavares (eds.) Giza Plateau Mapping Project Season 2008 Preliminary Report, Giza Occasional Papers 4, Boston: AERA. ix Chapter One: An Introduction The ground plan is an essential goal of the settlement archaeologist. For the archaeologist who would attempt to glean evidence of settlements of the Old Kingdom (c. 2543 - 2120 BCE),1 the ground plan is most often the ultimate goal, for although the seemingly eternal stone funerary monuments of Giza dominate the Old Kingdom landscape (both literally and figuratively), the Pyramid Age has not left standing the mudbrick walls of the houses within which people lived. A rare exception is the extant wall of two meters,2 the preponderance of Old-Kingdom wall remnants comprising mere centimeters, and a minority offering upon surface scraping a faint outline. Without an accurate ground plan, the important supporting evidence from material culture and faunal and botanical remains has no context. Happily there is no need to indulge in stagnant, timeworn lamentations on the paucity of settlement archaeology conducted in Egypt. As this study illustrates, today the continuing search for tombs and temples takes place alongside the excavation of ancient urban centers throughout the Nile Valley, an increasing number of them emerging from the Old Kingdom: the tide has turned and we are already moving forward. This study presents a detailed, concrete analysis and comparison