Since the seminal research by Caton-Thompson and Gardner over 80 years ago,the archaeology of the Desert Fayum has attracted significant interest asthe earliest known centre of agriculture in Egypt. Traditionalinterpretations of subsistence behaviour and residential mobility have drawnheavily on the studies of lithic assemblages and faunal remains. Theseinterpretations must now be reconsidered in light of lithic material, bothfrom the original excavations and from more recent fieldwork. It emergesthat Kom W, the type site for the Neolithic Fayum, was probably a permanentsettlement occupied by a community cultivating cereals, in addition tohaving long-standing practices of hunting and fishing.
