An Analysis of Ancient Egyptian Settlement Patterns Using Location- Allocation Covering Models

Location-allocation models may be used to focus upon a multiplicity of factors potentially underlying settlement pattern development. We describe several such maximal covering models and their applicability in understanding the degree of political centralization in the Nile Valley during the Ramessid period (ca. 1317-1070 B.C.). The results of the covering models support the contention that the main objective of the Ramessid bureaucracy in choosing sites for administrative c nters was to maximize control of the Nile Valley population and the agricultural labor power they provided, to supply much needed land rent-taxes to the royal coffers. Even when a premium is placed upon centrality (i.e., spatial coverage) at the expense of maximizing the population which could be served from a set of administrative c nters, capitals of eight political subdivisions (nomes) appear consistently in the solution sets. Factors not accounted for in the covering model, such as trade routes and selected resource deposits, may account for the close spacing of three nome capitals. In general, the results of the covering models tend to minimize the administrative/economic role of several east-bank towns towards the middle of the study region and those near the Faiyum Depression. Covering models demonstrate that three other nome capitals which were of minor consequence during the Ramesside were also inefficiently located. Two non-capital sites appeared consistently in the optimal sets of administrative centers. Both had a mayor in residence, supporting Butzer's contention that mayors may have been more important o the functional viability of administrative centers during the Ramessid period of the New Kingdom than the traditional nome structure, which had been in place from Old Kingdom times onward. The location-allocation modeling results reinforce many of the contentions of field archaeologists about the nature of Egyptian society.