Merimde Beni Salama facts for kids

This ancient head was found at Merimde Beni Salama. It's from around 5,000 BC!

Merimde Beni Salama was an ancient village in Egypt, located in the western part of the Nile River delta. It is about 45 kilometers (28 miles) northwest of Cairo. This site is very important because it gives its name to the "Merimde culture," a group of people who lived there long ago.

People lived in Merimde Beni Salama for about 800 years, from around 5000 BC to 4200 BC. At its busiest, the village might have had as many as 16,000 people! It's one of the earliest places in the Nile Valley where people settled down permanently instead of moving around.

Discovering Merimde Beni Salama

The site of Merimde Beni Salama was first found by a researcher named Hermann Junker. He led an expedition and started digging there in 1923. His team continued to explore the site until 1939.

Later, in 1976, the Egyptian Antiquities Organisation continued the important work. From 1977 to 1982, a German team from the German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo also carried out more excavations. These digs helped us learn a lot about the ancient people who lived here.

Life in the Ancient Village

Stone Tools and Ancient Finds

Merimde Beni Salama is located near an area called Wadi el-Gamal. Many different kinds of stone tools have been found here. These tools show that people lived in this area during different time periods, including the Stone Age (Palaeolithic) and the New Stone Age (Neolithic).

The stone tools found at Merimde Beni Salama are similar to those found in other parts of Egypt and nearby regions. Many of these tools were very small, called microliths. They were often made from thin blades of stone.

How the Village Grew

At first, experts thought the village was about 25 hectares (62 acres) big. But newer research suggests it was much larger, possibly up to 60 hectares (148 acres)!

The earliest signs of people living here date back to about 5300 BC. Right from the start, the people of Merimde Beni Salama were farming and raising animals.

Researchers believe the village developed in three main stages, with five different layers of settlement found. After the first stage, there was a break before people returned to live there again.

In the second stage, the village became more organized. People built storage pits to keep their food and hearths for cooking. Their homes were simple shelters made from reeds and rushes. Raising cattle became more important, but hunting animals for food was still a big part of their lives. They grew crops like wheat, barley, sorghum, and vetch.

During this time, the people living in Merimde Beni Salama had strong connections to other African cultures. For example, sorghum is a type of grain that first came from Africa.

In the third stage, archaeologists found some of the very first human statues or figures known from Egypt. One example is a small figure with hair and eyes.

Another ancient village, similar to Merimde Beni Salama, was found nearby at a place called Sais. It also shows that farming started around the same time in both places.

The change to a settled life, with farming and hunting, might have happened because the climate was changing around 4600 BC. It became a wetter period, which was good for growing crops.

See also

• Population history of Egypt
• African humid period

Images for kids

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  This ancient head was found at Merimde Beni Salama. It's from around 5,000 BC!