Abstrakt
This paper deals with circular silos and their distribution pattern within the settlements of Elefantine, Kahun, and Ezbeth Rushdi. This focus on circular silos is due to three main reasons.
First, these storage structures are considered to have been used only for grain storage purposes (Von Pilgrim 1996, 214, 233-234). Second, circular silos are the most numerous storage facilities which have been found.
Third, these structures are relatively easy to identify, even when the publication of excavation lacks information (Bietak, Dorner, Czerny and Bagh 1998, 9-49; Czerny 1999, 2010, 69-80; Jacquet 2001; Millet 2007, 681-743; Petrie 1890, 24; Von Pilgrim 1996). Moreover, the study focuses on just the three above-mentioned sites, because the size of the excavated area in those settlements was sufficient, and because the state of their publication enables us to analyse them properly.
The aim of this paper is to answer the three following questions: Can we use the circular silos as a status-marker in the same ways as the houses? Is it possible to observe any diachronic trends, and if so, what do they say about the socio-political changes? What aspects of local societies can the distribution pattern of silos reveal?