Réflexions sur le stockage alimentaire en Égypte, de la Préhistoire aux premières dynasties

Abstract

The late and original way in which Egypt adopted the food production economy was rapidly followed by the birth of a strongly hierarchic state society from the 4th millennium BC. Anthropology emphasizes the role of food storage in the birth of social hierarchy, some authors considering it to be at the roots of inequalities. A technological approach of the different ways of storing shows the variety of their social implications. An examination of archaeological data reveals that the use of underground anaerobic silos allowed the seasonal mobility of the first farmers like those of the Fayum. On the contrary, the storage in built granaries implies sedentism and allows stranglehold on the food supply by some individuals. There is a correlation between the appearance of this form of storage and the accentuation of the social hierarchy in Egypt. Control over these granaries is valued through funerary goods by the elites of the first dynasties.