2 Neighborhood to National Network: Pyramid Settlements of Giza

Abstract

A twenty-hectare swath of Old Kingdom 4th Dynasty settlement that central authorities laid out at the low, southeastern base of the Giza Plateau as housing and infrastructure for building pyramids shows distinct components that reflect how they mobilized labor into collective action for building on a colossal scale through already existing social bonds and home-based fellowships from districts, villages and neighborhoods. Correlation between this architectural footprint, builders’ graffiti, and recently discovered papyrus day logs with district signs suggests links to larger national networks. Ensconced alongside the major Nile port of its time, community members served in both ships’ crews and work gangs with links to broader interregional networks. It is possible that immigrants from source countries who specialized in procurement and transport of exotic products contributed to ethnic diversity in the distinct components of “downtown Egypt.” Brought together in a central settlement much larger and denser than any at home, each occupant experienced an exponential increase in social interactions. But we see hints that, as authorities multiplied social clusters for collective action and established procurement networks of broad spatial range, they preserved home-based fellowships. It may have been true for downtown Egypt at the pyramids that, regardless of a city's size, everyone lived in villages and neighborhoods.