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\"The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1076-664 BCE) has been characterised previously by political and social changes based upon the introduction of Libyan social and cultural influences. In this book, James Bennett analyses the concepts of 'transition' and 'continuity' within the cultural and societal environment of Egypt during the Third Intermediate Period and provides an up-to-date synthesis of current research on the settlement archaeology of the period. This is done through the assessment of settlement patterns and their development, the built environment of the settlements, and their associated material culture. Through this analysis, Bennett identifies several interconnected themes within the culture and society of the Twenty-First to Twenty-Fifth Dynasties. They are closely related to the political and economic powers of different regions, the nucleation of settlements and people, self-sufficiency at a collective and individual level, defence, both physical and spiritual, regionality in terms of settlement development and material culture, and elite emulation through everyday objects\"-- Provided by publisher.

This study examines the distribution of high-status materials in addition to archaeological evidence of their production in the settlements known as royal cities during the New Kingdom in ancient Egypt (c.1550-1069 BC). The research focuses on the site sites of Amarna, Gurob, and Malqata, but incorporates Qantir/Pi-Ramesse for comparison.

Excavations at the site of Tell el-Retaba since 2007 have revealed an extensive settlement and associated material culture dating from the Third Intermediate Period (1070–664 BC). This work represents the only large-scale investigation into domestic archaeology from this period in Egypt and the results offer important insights into aspects of urban life for an under-studied phase of Egyptian history.

A major research problem in anthropology is the origin of the state and its bureaucratic form of governance. Of particular importance for evaluating theories of state origins are cases of primary state formation, whereby a first-generation state evolves without contact with any preexisting states. A general model of this process, the territorial-expansion model, is presented and assessed with archaeological data from six areas where primary states emerged in antiquity: Mesoamerica, Peru, Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and China. In each case, the evidence shows a close correspondence in time between the first appearance of state institutions and the earliest expansion of the state's political-economic control to regions lying more than a day's round-trip from the capital. Although additional research will add detail and clarity to the empirical record, the results to date are consistent with the territorial-expansion model, which argues that the success of such long-distance expansion not only demanded the bureaucratization of central authority but also helped provide the resources necessary to underwrite this administrative transformation.

Since 2005, Egypt has a new land-use development policy to control unplanned human settlement growth and prevent outlying growth. This study assesses the impact of this policy shift on settlement growth in Assiut Governorate, Egypt, between 1999 and 2020. With symbolic machine learning, we extract built-up areas from Landsat images of 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020 and a Landscape Expansion Index with a new QGIS plugin tool (Growth Classifier) developed to classify settlement growth types. The base year, 1999, was produced by the national remote sensing agency. After extracting the built-up areas from the Landsat images, eight settlement growth types (infill, expansion, edge-ribbon, linear branch, isolated cluster, proximate cluster, isolated scattered, and proximate scattered) were identified for four periods (1999:2005, 2005:2010, 2010:2015, and 2015:2020). The results show that prior to the policy shift of 2005, the growth rate for 1999–2005 was 11% p.a. In all subsequent periods, the growth rate exceeded the target rate of 1% p.a., though by varying amounts. The observed settlement growth rates were 5% (2005:2010), 7.4% (2010:2015), and 5.3% (2015:2020). Although the settlements in Assiut grew primarily through expansion and infill, with the latter growing in importance during the last two later periods, outlying growth is also evident. Using four class metrics (number of patches, patch density, mean patch area, and largest patch index) for the eight growth types, all types showed a fluctuated trend between all periods, except for expansion, which always tends to increase. To date, the policy to control human settlement expansion and outlying growth has been unsuccessful.

The paper explores the relationship between the archaeological zones of the ancient city of Sais at Sa el-Hagar, Egypt, and the natural landscape of the western central Nile Delta and, in particular, the extent to which the dynamic form of the landscape was an element in the choice of settlement location. Furthermore, settlement at Sais has been determined to have existed at several locations in the immediate environs of the current archaeological zones from the Neolithic period, around 4000 BCE (Before Common Era), to the modern day, suggesting that the local environment was conducive to sustainable settlement, culminating in the establishment of a capital city in the 7th century BCE. The nature of the settlement, its immediate environs and waterway systems will, thus, be described, based on correlation of geological, geophysical, remote sensing and archaeological data, in order to establish if and when human interactions in the landscape can be determined to be reactive or proactive.

There is a need to understand the complex nature of informal settlements to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 11: “Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable”. Thus, addressing the urban governance of informal settlements requires an inter/trans-disciplinary scope to reach a cross-cutting agenda that combines social/behavioral, economics, and public health with the built environment disciplines. Respectively, this paper aims to establish an integrative framework based upon a blended inter/trans-disciplinary approach of urban governance for informal settlements in Egypt. The study adopts a theoretical analytic methodology to achieve its aim by reviewing the literature on informal settlement policies. It argues that the inter/trans-disciplinarity approach contributes to integrative urban governance agendas that enhance the quality of life of informal settlements. While exploring three bottom-up perspectives of understanding the formation of informal urban settings—socioeconomic, morphological, and sociophysical—an integrative model is developed to allow a contextual perspective for examining informal domains. The model is articulated to guide the purpose of the multidimensional analysis methods for investigating informal contexts. An integrative agenda with six analysis tasks, each involving interdisciplinary group of academics, experts, stakeholders, and authorized representatives, is outlined by the method originated in this paper. Ultimately, and concerning aspects of sustainable urban cities, the paper introduces an integrative agenda that enables overcoming gaps in current upgrading practices when examining the informal settlements of the Egyptian contexts.

Paints and plasters from two pharaonic settlement sites in Nubia (northern Sudan) were analysed to investigate the presence and origin of organic binding materials. The town of Sai was founded around the time of the pharaonic conquest of Kush (Upper Nubia) around 1500 BC, with Amara West created as a new centre for the pharaonic administration of the region around 1300 BC. Recent fieldwork at both sites yielded examples of paint palettes, including several from houses. These provide a different economic and social context to funerary contexts upon which most previous research has been conducted, making this study the first to report on binding media for vernacular architecture in the Nile Valley. It is also the first study of binding media from Nubia. Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of methanolysed and silylated paint and plaster samples revealed a range of monosaccharides present in eight of the seventeen samples from Amara West, and in six of the seven samples from Sai. Interpretation of the data was supported by field collection and study of locally available botanical gums. The results indicate that mixtures of gums were in use as a pigment binder at both sites during the mid- to late-second millennium BC. The possibility that some of these plant gums could have been imported from the Mediterranean is also posited.

Egypt is considered a Neolithic without villages, yet despite this characterisation, settlement pattern remains one of the more uncertain aspects of prehistoric lifeways. Reconstruction of settlement pattern often relies on environmental factors, subsistence strategies or typo-chronological associations to dictate likely modes of human settlement. Here, we examine the period from around 6,500 cal. BP to the late Neolithic in the Egyptian Nile Valley compared to selected examples from the Western Desert. Descriptions of regional settlement patterns have largely focused on divisions between Upper and Lower Egypt and the Western Desert based on a difference in subsistence strategies. We consider the features of the archaeological record in both these regions to determine whether such a dichotomy is warranted, and what this might mean in terms of the relationship between environment and socio-economic change. We suggest an alternative approach to the archaeological record to better understand the nature of Neolithic settlement pattern. L'Egypte est considéré comme un néolithique sans villages pourtant, malgré cette caractérisation, le modèle d'établissement est l'un des aspects les plus incertaines de modes de vie préhistoriques. Reconstruction du modèle d'établissement repose souvent sur les facteurs environnementaux, les stratégies de subsistance, ou les associations de typo-chronologique de dicter le modèle d'établissement de peuplement humain. Ici, nous examinons la période d'environ 6500 cal. BP à la fin du Néolithique dans la vallée du Nil Égyptien par rapport à des exemples choisis former le Désert Occidental. Les descriptions des modèles d'établissement régionaux ont principalement porté sur les divisions entre Haute et Basse Égypte, et le Désert Occidental basé sur une différence dans les stratégies de subsistance. Nous considérons les caractéristiques de l'enregistrement archéologique dans ces deux régions afin de déterminer si une telle dichotomie est justifiée et ce que cela signifie en termes de la relation entre l'environnement et le changement socio-économique. Nous proposons une approche alternative à l'enregistrement archéologique de mieux comprendre la nature du modèle d'établissement de l'habitat néolithique.

Waist circumference and risk of morbidity have been reported to be related in some populations. However, the generalisability of the findings to populations in developing countries is not clear. Cultural and ethnic differences might affect not only waist size, but also its association with risk of morbidity. We assessed the association of waist circumference with hypertension in women from two refugee camps in the West Bank, occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). We used data from a 2001 survey about parity and risk factors for coronary heart disease in a sample of 515 Palestinian women (aged 40–65 years) from two refugee camps in the West Bank. These women were selected from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East's registration records by use of random numbers assigned to the names of all women. Trained staff did face-to-face interviews and obtained information about demographics, socioeconomic, behavioural, and reproductive health, and took measurements of weight, height, waist, and hip circumferences, and blood pressure (while seated). Fasting blood samples were taken by a laboratory technician. We used multiple logistic regression analysis to assess the association between hypertension as an outcome and behavioural and biological risk factors. We used SPSS (version 17.0) for the data analysis. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK, provided ethics approval for this study. All women provided written informed consent. The mean age of the women was 49·4 years (SD 6·4) and their body-mass index (BMI) was 33·3 kg/m2 (6·0). 355 (69%) women were obese (BMI ≥30 kg/m2); their waist circumference was 98 cm (12·0), and 432 (84%) women had central obesity (waist circumference ≥88 cm). 220 (43%) women had hypertension and 115 (22%) diabetes including those on medication. After adjustment for age, factors associated with hypertension were younger age at menarche, which had a protective effect (odds ratio 0·8, 95% CI 0·7–0·9; p=0·006), waist circumference of at least 88 cm (3·0, 1·6–5·8; p=0·001), and diabetes (1·9, 1·2–3·0; p=0·009). Married women were less likely to have hypertension than were those who were not married (0·6, 0·4–0·9; p=0·017). Household amenities, education, parity, BMI, and concentrations of cholesterol and triglycerides were not associated with hypertension (data not shown). Central obesity (waist circumference ≥88 cm) was a stronger predictor of hypertension than was BMI in this study. Waist circumference should be part of the routine physical examinations for all women, especially those older than 40 years in the oPt. Population Council, Cairo, Egypt, and British Council, London, UK.