Unités et diversités des sociétés nomades au fil du temps

Abstract

Although archaeological evidence of their settlement is sparse, the nomads of the Egyptian Eastern Desert have been known since the earliest Pharaonic times from the comments of Nile residents and travellers. Today, they are largely sedentary or semi-sedentary, living mainly in the Valley and on the banks of the Red Sea. Sometimes feared and shunned by the Egyptians, sometimes commercial and diplomatic partners, sometimes both, they were indispensable in the exploitation, control and crossing of the desert. Until recently, they were still involved in the operation of trade routes that remained vital until the Suez Canal was opened. Today, they still play a major role in the exploitation of mineral resources and in guiding sedentary people (mainly tourists) through the desert.Although different groups from this desert have been described and have been in contact with the people of the Nile Valley for five millennia, common features are observed among these populations, in particular their means of subsistence, their material culture and their relations with the sedentary people of the valley: what are the marks of unity and diversity displayed by the Egyptian nomadic societies of the past and present?In order to characterise these societies over the long term, the Nomad's Lands research project proposes to examine the links that unite the different tribes and populations over the centuries in the Egyptian Eastern Desert, based on textual data (Pharaonic; travellers’ accounts from the 17th to 20th centuries), archaeological data (excavations of the French archaeological mission in the Eastern Desert - MAFDO), small finds (ceramics produced by the desert populations in the Greco-Roman period), and geographical (observations at the end of the 20th century).