Merimde Beni-salame (the Merimde culture)

Neolithic settlement site in the West delta (30°19' N 30°51'E). The site was discovered by Hermann Junker during his West Delta Expedition in 1928. Junker excavated the site from 1923 to 1939. The results were never fully published because the documentation was lost in the Second World War.

1976: Excavations by the Egyptian Antiquities Organisation

1977-1982: Excavations by the German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo (DAI-Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Kairo) under the direction of Josef Eiwanger

The settlement consists of small huts made of wattle and reed with round or elliptical ground plan. There are no separate areas for cemeteries. The dead were buried within the settlement in a contracted position in oval pits without grave goods. Bodies of children were simply thrown into rubbish pits.

In the time of the Maadi culture the place was used as cemetery.

Merimde Beni-salame is a Neolithic culture which corresponds in its later phase to Fayum Neolithic (Fayum A) and the Badari culture.

Dating: about 4750 - 4250 BC.

Finds in the Petrie Museum

stone tools	pottery	see also
		food production in the Merimde culture

Further reading:

• Eiwanger 1984, Eiwanger 1984, Eiwanger 1992 (the excavation reports)
• Eiwanger 1999 (a short introduction, in English)

Copyright © 2000 University College London. All rights reserved.