The purpose of this paper aims to clarify the distributional pattern of the ancient settlements in the ‘Middle Nomes’ (9th-15th) in Upper Egypt from a geographical and toponymical point of view.
The origins of urban settlement in ancient Egypt still remain unknown. Most of the ancient settlements were buried by thick alluvial soils of the Nile, or occupied by later settlements. Therefore empirical studies for the ancient settlements remain very difficult.
The place-names derive from the characteristics of the past. Therefore, the toponymical study may help to classify the spatial structure of nomes. The results of this study are as follows.
1. 148 pre-Islamic settlements were specified in the targeted region, and the location sites of the 88 place-names could be identified. 70% of the identified place-names were of hieroglyphic origin, while 25% were of the Coptic origins, and the remainder 5% were of Greek origin.
2. About 29 settlements are located at the desert edges. Most of them originated from the Predynastic or the Greco-Roman eras, however the majority of them had already vanished or become smaller settlements.
3. Only 17 place-names may have been of Greek origin. Most of their settlements were concentrated in the Hermopolite nome where the Greeks had actively settled. From the lack of historical data it can be construed that the Greek place-names were not popular among the Egyptians; therefore their settlements did not remain in later times. Another reason for thelimited Greek origin was due to the fact that their settlements were severely damaged bythe low water level of the Nile and the desertification at later times. After the original settlements were ruined, new settlements on the reclaimed lands were never built any more.
4. The number of settlements of the Coptic origin reaches 30, however, most of these settlements had already vanished or become smaller.
5. The Nile Valley of this region is relatively widespread, so a number of settlements had developed on the flood plains, particularly in the 9th, 10th and 15th nomes.
6. Most of the ancient settlements that had developed in the regional centers were located on the Nile bank or on the natural levees and low mounds near the bank. However, many of the ancient settlements are not situated on the present Nile banks any more, because the river had changed its position over the years.
7. Few settlements in the Middle region except the 9th, 10th and 12th nomes were located on the east bank of the Nile. The settlements on the east bank were scattered intermittently, while the settlements on the west bank were distributed evenly.
8. The distributional pattern of the ancient settlements in the ‘Middle Nomes’ is lattice-like, which was based on the network of transportation and irrigation canals.
9. Many place names of the ancient settlements, even the Greek or the Coptic names, derived from the local deities. Names derived from geographical aspects such as geomorphological characteristics were uncommon.