The Royal Cemetery of Abydos

The Royal Cemetery of Abydos

With the founding of the unified Egyptian state, the monarchy had also acquired a new dimension, and a new character in its socio-political role. These are most closely reflected in the development of royal tomb architecture, which can be traced in the Abydos cemetery until the end of the First Dynasty. The necropolis lies in the desert area, some 1.5 km away from the strip of fertile land. Its tombs are rectangular chambers sunk into the desert soil and shored up on the outside by brick walls. The first stage of development came with Horus Aha.

His tomb, instead of having two chambers sunk side by side, as in the case of three previous tombs from “Dynasty 0,” comprised three considerably larger chambers. In addition, his tomb shows the first evidence of a custom that flourished intensively for a short time, and then fell into disuse at the end of the First Dynasty: the custom of burying members of the royal household in neighboring tombs. The finds on the site as a whole make it hard to avoid concluding that the people buried here were in fact killed on the occasion of the royal funeral. Stelae referring to such tombs mention servants, including people of small stature (“dwarfs”), who were popular as part of a royal household, and women and dogs. In the case of Aha, thirty-six secondary tombs were laid out in three parallel rows. Investigation of bones cast aside by earlier excavators as worthless recently produced some results as surprising as they were revealing. King Aha had also taken a group of young lions into the next world with him as a symbol of royalty. Judging by the state of their bones, the animals had lived and were probably even born in captivity; in other words, the royal court kept lions.

In the next large tomb complex, that of King Djer, the new structural organization is completed and was the point of departure for gradual further development in following generations. Instead of several small chambers, there is only one rectangular burial chamber laid out in a deep pit in the desert sand, but it is a very much larger one. The traces still show that a wooden coffin was set against its back wall, and the king was buried in this coffin. The burial chamber was covered by a massive timber ceiling, above which, still within the top of the pit, a low tumulus of sand was piled up and enclosed by brick walls. It is not at all certain what these tombs looked like from the outside: new excavations have left no room for illusion on that topic. Since there are no remains of buildings, and indeed architectural factors would categorically prohibit it, the tombs can have had no monumental super O structures. The most that can be assumed is the presence of a low heap of sand contained within brick walls above the tomb. The pairs of stelae sometimes found in front of the tombs would have indicated a place of sacrifice; their inscriptions give the names of the kings and thus identify the owners of the tombs.

While at first the roofing of the pit and the erection of the burial mound could have been carried out only after the funeral rites were completed, later on, from the time of King Den in the middle of the First Dynasty, a stairway closed by stone slabs led down to the burial chamber.

The subsidiary tombs were arranged in a rectangle around the royal tombs themselves, first in large and then in swiftly dwindling numbers. Access was regularly left free to the southwest. In the tomb of Den, a stairway led from this opening down to an underground statue chapel adjoining the outside of the royal burial chamber: a place where the king could be ritually addressed, and where he could be imagined stepping out of his tomb.

The royal tombs of the First Dynasty thus acquired a new complexity, and were rich in symbolism, but they cannot be described as monumental even in the context of contemporary comparisons. However, there was yet another component to the royal tomb complex from the time of King Djer at the latest. Additional huge, rectangular precincts were laid out some 1.5 km north of the cemetery, on the borders of the fertile land near the town and the temple of the local god Khontamenti, who was also god of the necropolis. Djer’s precinct consists of a rectangle 100 x 55 m in size, surrounded by a brick wall over 3 m broad and at one time about 8 m high, ornamented on the outside by a regular niche pattern. Access to the precinct was through monumental gates at the southeast and northeast corners.

As yet we have very little idea of any buildings inside the precinct. Remains of a number of structures have been identified in later complexes, but it is to be supposed that the only ones erected at this date for certain ritual celebrations consisted of light materials (wood and matting) and have left no traces. These “valley precincts” are also surrounded by rows of subsidiary tombs. There is no doubt that such precincts are connected with the royal tomb complex: a direct line leads from their design to the entire pyramid complex of King Djoser at the beginning of the Third Dynasty at Saqqara. In its turn, this connection enables us to conclude with great probability that the valley precincts of Abydos served for the ritual of great festivals, celebrating the sacred role of kingship and the renewal of the king’s dominion in the next world on the occasion of his funeral.

Memphis
The kings of the first two dynasties gave high priority to the traditions of the past by having themselves interred in the ancient cemetery at Abydos, in the territory of their town of origin This (the name of the town is the reason that the two first dynasties are described in classical antiquity as Thinite, from This).

However, it had been clear for some time that the true cultural center of the country was moving farther and farther north, to the area between the beginning of the Faiyum and the southern extremity of the Delta. This was a central location between the large cultivated areas of Middle Egypt and the Delta, and closer to the routes communicating with the culturally very important Near Eastern areas. Once the kingdom had been unified, Memphis was laid out here as the new capital and the king’s royal residence, and archaeological evidence confirms the information provided by the later tradition of classical antiquity, naming King Menes as its founder. Only recently have traces of the early settlement been found under later strata of fertile land. Once again, however, it is principally the evidence of the burial grounds that allows us to draw conclusions about the importance of the site: these burial grounds comprise the extended cemetery of Helwan and the necropolis of the kingdom’s elite in Saqqara.

The Great Niche Mastaba Tombs at Saqqara
The largest of the tombs standing here in a long line on the desert
plateau that rose above the old settlement are of truly royal dimensions, but in design they are very different from the complexes of Abydos. These monuments are large, rectangular buildings, known as mastaba tombs, their exteriors decorated with a complex niche pattern that was even more striking in its original condition because of the colored paint on the plaster. Such niche tombs are found not only in Saqqara but also at certain burial sites between Tarkhan, north of the exit route from the Faiyum, and Abu Roash at the southern end of the Delta. Only a single example of this genre is known in Upper Egypt, but it is one of the oldest.

It cannot be supposed that such a complex type of building,
appearing here so suddenly during the rule of King Aha, had no
models. In Egypt, one would expect to find these models in urban
temple and palace architecture, and indeed there is such an example in the Early Dynastic complex of Hierakonpolis, although unfortunately the function of the building concerned is not clear. In terms of architectural history, however, the trail leads to the Near East, where the development of niche architecture from the pilasters required for structural reasons to the complex type of decoration for official buildings found in Egypt can be followed step by step. The niche facades in the tombs at Saqqara were mostly built on a low base course, where the heads of cattle modeled in clay were frequently placed. A slab stela was found outside one niche at the southern end of the east wall of one particular mastaba, showing the occupant of the tomb seated, and giving his title in an inscription. It was probably originally set at the back of the niche, as frequently seen later in the false doors of the early Old Kingdom.

Inside the tombs, the burial chambers were dug out of the desert ground and, like the complexes ofAbydos, were roofed with timber and covered with a tumulus above which stood the superstructure. Here again a stairway was introduced during the First Dynasty, giving access to the burial chamber and allowing construction on the tomb to be completed before the funeral.

Since the discovery of the great niche mastabas in Saqqara, there has been dispute as to whether these were the real tombs of the First Dynasty kings, in which case the complexes of Abydos would be cenotaphs or “false tombs,” merely a remnant of tradition. In view of the number of tombs at Saqqara, which exceeds the number of kings of the First Dynasty, only some of the largest complexes could in fact be royal. Nonetheless, it would be surprising to find the tombs of kings and officials promiscuously mingled and only gradually coming to differ in terms of size. Later on, the royal burial place was always distinct in quality from the tombs of even the highest administrative officials, just as Pharaoh himself was not primus inter pares, but by virtue of his royal office stood closer to the divine creator himself than to humanity.

However this difficult question may finally be decided, for all their differences the close connection between the large niche tombs and the royal tombs at Abydos must not be overlooked. They are linked by the development of the shape of the burial chamber and the covered tumulus above its roof. At Saqqara the tumulus is even sometimes found with a stepped exterior, which naturally calls the later Step Pyramid to mind. Subordinate tombs surrounding the main tomb were built at Saqqara too. Moreover, elements of later royal funerary architecture are anticipated in the large niche tombs.

This is particularly clear where a funerary temple actually adjoins the mastaba tomb on its north side, just as a temple does later in King Djoser’s funerary precinct at the beginning of the Third Dynasty. This site is not an isolated find. One of the oldest mastabas had a complex of enclosed courtyards, with walled benches probably used for sacrificial purposes, on the north of the tomb precinct. A cult area north of the tomb therefore seems typical of the design of such precincts. Boats as grave goods, known from the pyramid complexes of the Old Kingdom, also seem to appear for the first time in the great niche tombs of the First Dynasty.

The royal tomb architecture of the Old Kingdom, then, is certainly based on a synthesis of elements from the entire spectrum of the funerary architecture of the elite. Nor is this surprising, for although the kings set great ideological store by their exclusive status, in sociological terms they were also members of the kingdom’s elite. Their family members and the highest functionaries of their courts may be sought in the niche mastaba complexes of other cemeteries too.

From the beginning of the First Dynasty, these tombs provide us with our first view of not just the kings but the other leading figures of the kingdom, a clearly defined sociological group concentrated in the region of the capital, and this is almost the most distinctive cultural contrast between the period of the unification of the two lands and the Predynastic Period.

Early Historical Times Of Egypt

Early Historical Times

Archaeological research enables us to trace the origins of the pharaonic kingdom to the prehistoric past, and ancient Egyptian culture itself was aware of the great depths of time lying behind it. In the annals of the Old Kingdom, historical tradition already gave a long list of names of prehistoric rulers before the kings of the dynastic period. This list, based on oral tradition, may perhaps mention the names of some genuine prehistoric chieftains and petty kings, but it is impossible to check today. The later historical traditions of ancient Egypt, as they have come down to us in New Kingdom documents, transferred the prehistory of the pharaonic kingdom to the realms of mythology, deriving the origin of the kings’ dominion over Egypt from the sun god’s control over his creation. The kingship is ascribed to its first human bearer only after generations of gods and ancestral spirits have been mentioned. The King Lists give the name of Menes to this ruler, who was supposed to head the list of historical holders of the office. His image appears in the ornamental relief of the funerary temple of Ramesses II, in a procession of statues of royal ancestors, after Mentuhotep II, founder of the Middle Kingdom, and Ahmose, founder of the New Kingdom. The writers of classical antiquity, headed by the Greek historian Herodotus, relied on this tradition, and constructed an image of the first king of the First Dynasty as originator and cultural founder of the realm.

The search for this King Menes — so prominent in later tradition — in the contemporary sources of the Early Dynastic Period proves to be unexpectedly difficult. Judging by its form, the name Menes is the king’s birth name. However, the oldest monuments call the rulers exclusively by their “Horus name,” the name they took only on accession to the throne and bore by virtue of their royal role. Consequently it is only inference from a number of clues (although a fairly safe inference) that makes us believe that King Menes was the “Horus Aha” (the name means “warrior”) whose tomb lies in the necropolis of the First Dynasty kings in Abydos, and who is named in many contemporary documentary records.

Why did the ancient Egyptian view of history present this king’s emergence as such a turning point? Modern research, preferring to emphasize continuity and demonstrate slow, smooth developments by detailed analysis, does not find it easy to relate to this clear—cut, epochal line. Is it simply coincidence, the incidental result of some development in bureaucratic accounting techniques — or is it pure fiction? Can any definite meaning be found in it?

The Unification of the Two Lands

Any discussion of this issue must revolve around the term “unification.” It too is ultimately a concept of ancient Egyptian culture. The land of Egypt was regarded as made up of two linked halves, Upper and Lower Egypt, and the pharaonic kingship as a double institution: the Pharaoh ruled both parts of the country. Every ruler had to perform anew the ritual of the “unification of the two lands” on ascending the throne. This pattern of geographical dualism permeates Egyptian thinking. Crowns, architectural forms, emblematic plants and divinities were symmetrically allotted to the two parts of the country. It made no difference to this state of affairs that the crown of Lower Egypt, the Red Crown, for instance, is pictorially represented for the first time (in the mid-fourth millennium BC) in the middle of Upper Egypt, in fact in Naqada itself and cannot possibly have been of genuinely Lower Egyptian origin. Such cases make the conventional and historically very dubious character of this schematic approach clear. Consequently, only an unprejudiced study of sources from the period just before the First Dynasty can show how far the key to understanding of the foundation of the ancient Egyptian state is to be discovered there. Archaeological finds help us to trace the rise of kingship through the development of elite cemeteries and the tombs of rulers, a development continuing into the Protodynastic period (in archaeological terms, the Naqada III Period).

A remarkable example of this group of finds has recently been discovered in excavations of the elite cemetery at Abydos, later the royal cemetery. This tomb, consisting of bricks lining a rectangular pit, is unexpectedly differentiated in structure. The burial chamber itself, where the ruler to whom the tomb belonged was once laid to rest in a wooden coffin, adjoins a complex of several other rooms, possibly representing a palace building or a work of ritual architecture. By good fortune, large quantities of the grave goods have been preserved, including hundreds of imported clay vessels from Palestine that probably once held wine, and labels and ink inscriptions providing evidence of an administrative labeling system at quite a sophisticated level. Such material gives us some idea of the splendor and the political and economic resources of the courts of Predynastic rulers.

A few generations before Menes, the first inscriptions recording kings’ names in the style of the later royal titulary appear. They show the Horus falcon on a stylized palace facade with the king’s name inscribed in it. It has become usual to describe the series of rulers recorded like this as “Dynasty 0.” It is not easy to form any detailed idea of the role of these kings and the areas over which they reigned; sometimes only local evidence is available. Only the last king of this group, Narmer, the predecessor and (if the records are correct) the father of Horus Aha or Menes, is mentioned throughout the country, from Hierakonpolis in the south to the northeast of the Delta; it was by Narmer at the latest that the political unification of the country was finally achieved.

Objects with relief ornamentation, particularly cosmetic palettes, ivory knife handles and maceheads, constitute an important source of information on this period and its culture, and contemporary historical events. In these items Egyptian art expresses itself for the first time in large-scale compositions on a high aesthetic level. There is clear Mesopotamian influence, stylistically and in the repertory of motifs; sometimes, as in the Gebel el-Arak knife handle, it is so strong that we may even assume the reliefs on this obviously Egyptian piece were executed for an Egyptian patron by a Mesopotamian artist living in Egypt. Animals are a major subject of this kind of art: both in composite friezes of curious design, but chiefly in pictures of animals fighting, for instance dogs and predatory wild cats bringing down antelopes. Occasional fabulous creatures such as griffins and snake-necked panthers show that an imaginary world is being depicted. Other subjects are hunting, and above all war. These depictions show emblematic standards, personified as part of the king’s retinue by the addition of arms, leading away bound enemies while the dead are torn to pieces by birds of prey on the battlefield. Lions and bulls triumphing over a human opponent are often shown in such contexts. They are symbolically exaggerated representations of the king, and the lion and bull were still the most common symbols of the pharaoh at a later date. The political content of the scene is thus clear, and can be identified even more precisely once there are accompanying inscriptions. For instance, one side of a palette preserved in fragmentary condition shows the destruction of fortified settlements by animals representing the protective powers of the king. The design on the back of the palette probably shows the loot being taken away: a herd of three rows of animals above an orchard with the inscription “Libya.” It is clear that the battles to which the pictures relate went beyond Egyptian territory. Howevei the ceremonial palette of King Narmei probably the best known item of this genre, is concerned with the political union of Egypt. On one side, it shows the king standing, striking down an enemy whose name (or that of the territory he represents) is inscribed next to him. The depiction on the right repeats the same information, partly in writing, partly in pictures. A falcon holds an oval of land on a leash; the land, personified by the addition of a human head, is identified by the papyrus reeds growing from it. The top part of the other side shows the king with his retinue, inspecting two rows of decapitated enemies. These scenes have always been thought to depict the conquest of an area in Lower Egypt, and a label from the time of Narmer recently found in Abydos, identifying a year by the “smiting” of a land identified by papyrus reeds, confirms this interpretation. The picture of the two captive snake-necked panthers in the lower part of the palette, with the depression to take ointment set in it, has been compared to the symbolic representation at a later date of the “unification of the two lands” in which the two emblematic plants of Upper and Lower Egypt are intertwined in a similarly symmetrical composition. Although it is impossible to give even an approximate account of the historical events this palette records, it may be regarded as referring to the final stage in the political unification of the country.

Stylistically, the Narmer palette shows the basic features of the canonical art of pharaonic Egypt in its clear-cut (one might almost say rigid) construction. By comparison with the drama of older pieces, the tendency toward a stiffly emblematic design is unmistakable. The whole concept of the representation also shifts from procedure to structure: from violence and war as deeds and events in themselves to the political order they have imposed. Consequently the picture of the king striking down his enemies represents not just a single moment and a single event, but the state’s claim to dominion in general and its monopoly of power.

In most cases, it is not known in exactly what circumstances such pieces were found. The Narmer palette, howevei and several ornamented maceheads, come from the temple of Hierakonpolis, where they had been dedicated to the god Horus. In this connection their format is interesting. More than twice the size of the everyday items from which their shapes derive, they are not only masterpieces of craftsmanship but already show art striving toward monumentality. Remains of monumental pieces have also been found in the temple of the town of Coptos, on the east bank of the Nile opposite Naqada, a little way north of Thebes. The finest among them are the torsos of at least three statues of the god Mm, which must once have stood some 4 m high. These finds illustrate the importance and magnificence of the temples of the gods in the central towns of Upper Egypt. They also provide evidence of the part played by the practice of their cults as a platform for the ruler while the institution of the monarchy was emerging.

Seen as a whole, the period of the unification of the two lands has a character very much its own, and the unification itself proves to have been a long process rather than a sudden event. King Menes, therefore, does not figure as the creator of the country’s political unity but as heir to it, and matters remained more or less the same. What had once been at dispute was now secured: unopposed, a unified political system covered the entire territory of Egypt within its natural boundaries, a state of such dimensions as the world had never seen before. The consequences of this new situation became the history of the Early Dynastic Period.

The Early Naqada Culture

The Early Naqada Culture

The Badarian culture was succeeded by the Naqada culture, the most important prehistoric culture of Upper Egypt. Its development can be traced without a break to the founding of the Egyptian state. Divided into three main phases (Naqada I—Ill), each with several subdivisions, it provides a line along which the technological, social, and political progress of the Predynastic Period can be clearly traced.

At the beginning of the fourth millennium the oldest phase, Naqada I (also known as Amratian) initially ran parallel to the Badarian culture, which was geographically next door to it, gradually superimposing itself and finally replacing it. However, the area of origin of the Naqada culture lies south of the known area of distribution of the Badarian culture, in the region between Luxor and Abydos, that part of the Nile Valley where the great routes running east and west crossed the river, linking the Red Sea and the oases.

In its ecological and tehnological character and its basic material features, the early Naqada culture resembles the Badarian culture. However, its unmistakable feature appears in the typology of its craftsmanship, particularly clearly illustrated once again by the finds from the cemeteries. In the Naqada I culture fine ceramic ware predominates: red-polished pottery, either plain or with a black rim. Besides plates and dishes, the main items are tall, flat-bottomed pots of a wide conical shape. Only in the course of time did the upper parts of such vessels become progressively narrower, so that bottles and voluminous pots could be made.

Red-polished pottery painted with cream line decoration is a special feature of the Naqada I culture. At first the patterns were geometrical, but they can sometimes be interpreted as stylized floral motifs. In the later Naqada I period, however, they have figure decoration most frequently showing animals, particularly those of the Nile Valley such as hippopotamuses and crocodiles. Now and then the decoration consists of scenic compositions with human figures, and these are clearly pictures of hunts, or sometimes perhaps scenes of worship or of battle. The first depictions of boats also appear. Along with painted decoration, small sculptural figures are sometimes set on the rims of vessels. The amount of figurative depiction in other artistic areas was also increasing. Female idols, only three specimens of which are known from the Badarian culture, now appear in greater numbers. Bearded male figures feature on pendants (perhaps amulets) and ivory sticks (known as “magic wands”). We can only speculate on the true function and significance of these items, but it is obvious that it must have lain in the symbolic or imaginative and not the practical sphere.

Characteristic rhomboid slate palettes and disk-shaped, stone maceheads are other common forms in the Naqada I culture. Mace- heads appear as grave goods in high-ranking male burials, until finally, in historic times, the mace, now useless as a weapon, became a part of pharaonic regalia.

A crucial feature of the Naqada culture is its geographical
dynamic. Setting out from its core area on the loop of the Nile at Qena, it spread north to the Asiut region even in its first phase (and perhaps as far as the area between Asiut and the Faiyum, where there have been no archaeological finds), and south to the far side of the first cataract. The colonization of hitherto uninhabited regions is not the only possible reason for this process. In the same context, the cultural adaptation of groups of people already living in the area must also be considered; they may still have led the life of hunter-gatherers and fishermen, presenting a less clear archaeological picture.

In any case, we should not be too ready to identify the spread of an archaeologically defined culture with the dispersal of a people or even a political structure. In studying the surface development of the Naqada culture in Egypt, we are primarily tracing the way in which a new lifestyle and economic strategy, a new complex of technological knowledge, a new kind of social organization and its forms of expression became established on a broad basis.

The Material Evidence of the Naqada II Period

The archaeological finds provide records of the further material development of the Naqada culture. If several characteristics are considered as a whole, the Naqada II phase (also known as Gerzean) can be discerned from about the middle of the fourth millennium.
The black-rimmed pottery so predominant in the earlier period becomes less and less common. Two new technical developments were to acquire increasing importance. One was the use of Nile silt coarsely mixed with chaff for the production of ceramics. Such material appeared in the earlier finds at settlement sites, in the shape of rough and ready tableware, vessels and storage containers, but now it was used for a broad range of pottery utensils.
However, the most important innovation was undoubtedly the introduction of a kind of ceramic ware made from clay of different geological origin, principally found embedded in the limestone formations of the mountain ranges bordering the valley and known as “marl clay.” Technically, this material is much more difficult to work, but it produces hard, dense ceramic ware of high quality, extremely suitable for containers intended for the storage of fluids, milk products, honey, and similar foodstuffs over a fairly long period.
Marl clay ware was used to make a new kind of decorated pot that
superseded the white-painted vases of the Naqada I period. These pots are mainly small or medium-sized vessels, barrel-shaped or broad and globular, often with handles pierced by holes. The decoration, now applied on a cream ground in dark reddish-brown paint, tends to be limited to geometrical shapes, dots, and spirals. The idea was obviously
to imitate the play of color of stone vessels, just as the shapes of the pots
themselves resemble those of containers made of stone. Such vessels,
especially containers for ointment, were very skillfully made of
colorful, expensive hard stone and breccia. They were extremely popular at this period, and were to become a favorite sphere of craftsmanship in pharaonic culture.

Other pots had figurative decoration. A basically very limited range of motifs was assembled to form friezes running around the bodies of the pots. Stylized chains of triangular hills and zigzag lines suggesting water represent the landscape of the Nile Valley. There are also depictions of animals, flamingo-like birds and gazelles, and plants.
The most prominent pictorial subjects, however are ships: large, sickle-shaped boats with cabins made of woven matting and a great many oars. Emblematic standards reminiscent of the divine standards of later times repeatedly appear, planted upright in the boats.

Interpretation of the significance of these boats, and of the scenes as a whole, remains merely hypothetical. The ship later became a key motif of pharaonic culture. Ships featured in funerary rites, and were also used symbolically in divine worship and celebrations of royal magnificence.

The cultural atmosphere of the Naqada Period itself was marked by expansive dynamism, trade, and wide-ranging contacts. As an emblem of mobility, the ship suggests this momentum, and it may be that it developed into the symbol of dominance it later became within this cultural and historical context. Human forms are only subsidiary figures, most of them broad-hipped women with their arms raised. Sculptural versions of such figures also occur as idols.

The other main kinds of marl clay pots are high-shouldered vessels, barrel-shaped or at first sometimes bulbous, flat-bottomed and with undulating handles; they are known as wavy-handled pots. They derive directly from imported Palestinian models that are also found at the same sites. In the Egyptian version, where handles were very unusual, the shape went through a degenerative process, eventually producing the slender cylindrical vases of the Early Dynastic period, with a single narrow band of decoration. This morphological procedure is of importance to Egyptology. WM. Flinders Petrie, founder of the scientific study of Egyptian archaeology, thought the chronology of Egyptian prehistory could be anchored to it. In principle, he was correct, but in view of the stock of archaeological material as a whole, his theory cannot be strictly applied today.

New characteristic shapes also emerge in other categories of objects in the Naqada II Period. Particularly striking is the variety of animal- shaped palettes used to mix cosmetics. A type of shield-shaped cosmetic palette with two heads of birds in the upper corners was the ancestor of the decorated ceremonial palettes of the Early Dynastic Period.
Large flint knives worked on both sides (or “retouched”) and technically similar knives of a special fishtail shape (a form that continued in use as a ritual knife into the pharaonic period) provide evidence of a high degree of skill in working flint. Their shapes could hardly have been designed without the influence of copper knives of the same period.
In fact, the importance of metalworking continued to increase. Carved decorative pins and combs, amulets, beads of many different materials — in short a whole range of items belonging to the sphere of personal adornment — are represented in increasing quantity and variety.
The Cultural Dynamics
The Naqada II Period may be regarded as an era of rapid cultural change in the development of its material goods. An understanding of the way different clays react to firing, the smoothing and drilling of stone vessels, the manufacture of fine flint knives, and of course metalworking and the making of glazes all called for knowledge, training, and tools far beyond the level of domestic production. These objects were made by specialists who could devote themselves entirely or very largely to their trade, and practiced it in professional workshops.

Such developments in craftsmanship had to be based on a corresponding development in agriculture to provide a material basis. Surpluses originally stored only as a cushion against occasional lean years had to be accumulated more and more systematically. Unfortunately the archaeological material at our disposal does not allow us to trace this process so directly. Here and there, however we can see how the center of settlement was shifted from the desert borderland area into the plain of the valley itself. This suggests that cultivation of the inundated area was more and more dominant, while exploitation of the biotope of the outskirts of the desert, a region that was probably becoming impoverished anyway by the increasingly arid climate, became less important. Technically, it was a question of making the best possible use of the natural situation, by building small dikes and branch canals to improve the flow of water into and out of the natural basins. Large systems of dikes and canals were not necessary, and would have been pointless, since there was no need as yet to enlarge the cultivated area. In a situation where everything ultimately depended on the rising and falling of the river, which was not subject to human control, the exercise of social power could not hinge on the water supply, and it is a mistake to present the organization of the irrigation system as a prime factor in the evolution of structures of dominance in Egypt.

Crucial factors for an understanding of cultural development in the Naqada period are the territorial dynamic of that culture and its external relations. The appearance of wavy-handled pots in Egypt has provided important proof of intensive trading contacts in the Palestinian area. Egyptian imports in Palestine itself symmetrically complement that evidence. It is particularly easy to trace the foreign contacts of the Naqada culture in Nubia, to the south. There was an independent. Neolithic culture in the Nubian Nile Valley, the so-called Nubian A group, and its sites were almost inundated with Egyptian imports. They are mainly pottery, vessels that originally arrived as packaging for agricultural produce exported by Egypt to the less fertile neighboring area, and were of such high quality that they continued in use. Nubian pots, on the other hand, have seldom been found in Egypt. We must suppose that the flow of trade the other way was in raw materials, as indeed the records show at a later date. Ivory, copper, precious stones, fine woods, and skins were among these imports. Some of the goods came from Lower Nubia itself; but some were brought north from Central Africa.

The further expansion of the Naqada culture in Egypt itself should be seen in this wide context. With the Naqada II phase, the cemeteries of the Naqada culture reached north into the Faiyum, no doubt the northern frontier of a region that had been continuously inhabited for a long time. Recent excavations in the Delta, however, have produced evidence that the Naqada culture was already emerging here towards the end of its Phase II, at least sporadically. The details of this process, like the extinction of the Lower Egyptian culture of Buto and Maadi that accompanied it, need further clarification of a kind that can be acquired only from archaeological fieldwork.

Howevet the finds we have do show that the spread of the Naqada culture in the Nile Delta, and the merging of the traditions of Upper and Lower Egypt to form a single countrywide cultural area, were not the result of political unification but the reason for it. Trade means more than the mere exchange of material goods. Intensive trade relations bring both sides together in an interactive framework; it may not be represented by any central institution, but it implies agreement on values, the mutual adaptation of social and organizational structures, cooperation, and competition.

The Rise of Urban Centers

A determining factor in the social evolution of the Predynastic Period was the rise of a number of different kinds of settlements. Beside the country regions where people lived in villages, towns began to form, early urban centers. Hierakonpolis, a town south of Luxor on the westbank of the river, provides an illustration of this development, and with its cult of Horus of Hierakonpolis it was regarded in pharaonic times as one of the kingdom’s places of origin. Moreover, the extensive prehistoric legacy of the town has been relatively well studied in recent fieldwork.

There is evidence that a settlement had existed in the area since the beginning of the Naqada period, covering a length of 3 km and a breadth of about 400 m, and situated on the strips of desert land bordering the fertile country. The early settlement also extended for up to 2 km into a large desert wadi entering the Nile Valley at Hierakonpolis. We should not, of course, picture this large area entirely covered with buildings. Instead, it consisted of scattered (but relatively close) villages and farms and their burial grounds. However, these finds do prove that there was an increase in population density. There are traces of rectangular houses here even in the Naqada I period, in contrast to the simple round huts found elsewhere.

During the Naqada II Period and up to Early Dynastic times there was progressive concentration of the population in the region of the town itself, situated on a broad height of sedimentary soil near the mouth of the wadi in the fertile area. It can also be shown to have had temple precincts and fortifications since the Early Dynastic Period. Traces of specialized crafts occur repeatedly in the extended settlement area.

The furnaces, obviously designed with great skill, are particularly striking. Some of them are built into the wind channels of the sides of the wadi, so that very high firing temperatures, necessary for manufacturing ceramic ware of the highest quality, could be achieved by natural ventilation. There are also workshops where stone vessels were hollowed out and polished, and for working flint and boring holes in decorative beads. Kilns for drying grain also indicate the development of techniques for the preserving and storing of foodstuffs.

Such finds illustrate one important function of these urban centers. Specialized crafts were concentrated here as the pivot on which the exchange of craft goods and agricultural produce turned. However, trade beyond the immediate vicinity must also have been linked with the network of the regional economy. This was a place where supply and demand met, practical and organizational skills were concentrated, and information was exchanged: in fact the emphasis was on all the classic functions of a city as a form of settlement and a way of life. As it happened, Ancient Egypt did not take the path leading to the city state, but towns played a major part in its own development into a state.

It was here that an elite social class formed and institutional dominance was established, an aspect tangibly presented by the burial grounds linked to the settlements. In fact the development of the lavish funerary cult sketched out even in the earliest phases of prehistoric Upper Egyptian culture was now accelerating. The pits dug for interment become larger and rectangular, their walls were partially lined with masonry or reinforced with wooden planks, and side chambers to hold grave goods began to be made. The grave goods themselves became more and more extensive: a concentration of particularly fine objects is found in the tombs, in contrast to people’s ordinary everyday utensils. Naturally not all the tombs were lavish to the same degree. Indeed, the increasingly long and varied scale of grave goods expresses an ever-extending range of social distinctions.

Very large tombs of this period now stood in their own small burial grounds. The type of the elite cemetery was emerging. Hierakonpolis has two such areas, taking over from each other throughout the period from the end of the Naqada I culture to Early Dynastic times. The combination of rich tombs with small, exclusive cemeteries in use over a long period shows that these were not individual cases of high-ranking persons: instead, they are the burial grounds of a whole social class, never comprising a large number of people, and deliberately set apart from the rest of society.

The expense these people could lavish on their tombs shows in itself that they must have occupied a key position in the economic network of the urban centers. In fact one can easily imagine the courts of the elite as centers for interaction between agriculture and craftsmanship, the local economy and external trade, in just the same way as the organizational structure of the palace economy functioned at the king’s court in the early Old Kingdom.

A lucky discovery provides us with more detailed information about the role of the predynastic elite: that of the famous Painted Tomb of Hierakonpolis. To the south of the settlement, it was probably part of a Naqada II elite cemetery that, unfortunately, has never been systematically excavated. Architecturally, the tomb is conventional if very large: a rectangular pit 5 m long, over 2 m wide and about 1.5 m deep. The walls are lined with masonry and the room is divided by a partition projecting into it to create a side chamber for grave goods. Judging by the remains of the grave goods themselves, there can be no doubt that the tomb dates from the second half of the Naqada II Period (Phase TI-c). However, it is the wall painting on the plaster of the burial chamber that makes it so spectacular, and unique among the finds here.

The main picture runs around three adjacent walls in a great frieze. The pictorial motifs are depicted separately on the background. The main line consists of six ships, five painted white and with curved hulls, the sixth distinguished by its black color and high bows. The ships are surrounded by depictions of hunting: huntsmen and hounds pursuing gazelles and ibex, and animals caught in traps. However thescene does not remain in this everyday sphere. At one point a hero approaches two lions swinging his mace; elsewhere he is taming two lions in the character of “Master of the Beasts.” Finally, there are pictures of men fighting, and underneath, in a perfunctorily added vignette, a depiction of the victor using his mace to smash the skulls of three enemies he has seized. This motif, the “Smiting of the Foes,” became the great emblem of the power of the Egyptian king, endlessly reiterating and elaborating his claim to dominion until the end of pharaonic culture. A very recent discovery takes us a step further: on the outskirts of the desert, near the settlement area of Hierakonpolis, a palace and a ritual precinct of the same period have been identified. The reconstruction produced by the excavators shows a large oval courtyard surrounded by impressive buildings made of posts and matting. The design and the style of the buildings clearly anticipate the royal ritual precincts of the Early Dynastic Period, in particular the sed festival complex in the tomb ofDjoser in Saqqara.

Approaching the Unification of the Two Lands

The elite class of the sophisticated Naqada II Period brings us to the roots of Egyptian kingship, and the beginnings of the construction of the unified state can also be deduced from the distribution in space and time of the archaeological evidence.

Early elite cemeteries exist not only in Hierakonpolis but also in Naqada, perhaps also in Diospolis Parva on the river loop at Qena, where evidence of at least one large tomb of a member of the elite has been found, and above all in the town of This (or Thinis) with its funerary site at Abydos, whose early history, going far back in time, has become known only from recent excavations. The neighboring Nubian culture was caught up in the surge of Egyptian developments too, although only rather later. Elite cemeteries are also known to have existed at Sayala on the loop of the Nile at Korosko, and at Qustul near the second cataract.

Furthermore, the distribution of the early elite cemeteries shows that the Naqada culture did not represent a homogeneous political structure. In the south of Upper Egypt alone, which has been archaeologically well investigated, there were at least three and perhaps four centers of similar standing. These areas were at the heart of chiefdoms or proto-states that existed side by side, and from whose amalgamation the pharaonic state of the Early Dynastic Period finally emerged.

The territorial aspect of the process can also be deduced from the distribution of elite cemeteries. In Phase III of the Naqada culture, around the time of the “unification of the two lands,” there is evidence of outstanding princely tombs at only two places, Hierakonpolis and Abydos. And only in Abydos does the series of tombs of chieftains, beginning in the Naqada I Period, continue without a break to the tombs of the first kings who ruled a united Egypt.

The Neolithic in Egypt

The Neolithic in Egypt

A far-reaching climatic change from about 10,000 BC, with a general increase in rainfall, led to high (sometimes extremely high) inundations of the Nile Valley, and the rise in precipitation made the bordering desert areas habitable once more. They became savannas well provided with watering holes and oases. There were settlements in the Sahara again, and innovations of great significance are evident here in the eighth and seventh millennia BC. The technological features of the Neolithic period make their appearance in early pottery and polished stone axes. People still lived a semi-nomadic life as hunters, and were not yet cultivating crops, but collecting the seeds of wild grasses. However, these groups seem to have domesticated cattle. The Near East, the Levant and Palestine, on the other hand, saw the building of fortified settlements, the beginnings of farming and the domestication of sheep and goats during the eighth millennium. The technological, economic and social features that, taken as a whole, were to be characteristic of a new era in the history of mankind, emerged and interacted over the entire extended area of northeast Africa and southwest Asia.

The Nile Valley in Egypt seems to have played no part in this process at first. The archaeological evidence is scanty, and a series of very high inundations may have destroyed entire levels of sites. The well-known sites at Elkab, in the Faiyum and at Helwan, however show that the Egyptian way of life that developed at the end of the Paleolithic, in adaptation to conditions in the Nilotic area, continued into the sixth millennium BC. The unusual wealth of the area where they lived allowed the people to maintain a primitive lifestyle, and there was no change in these conditions until another period of drought, in the seventh and sixth millennium BC, forced the inhabitants of the border regions back into the Nile Valley. At this time, the end of the sixth millennium and the fifth millennium BC, the first Neolithic cultural groups appear in Egypt. The quantity of archaeological finds does not yet allow us to trace the merging of the Epipaleolithic traditions of the Nile Valley with the cultures of immigrant groups. However, the originally heterogeneous character of the Egyptian Neolithic can be accounted for only if it arose in this way.

A progressive increase in aridity, leading to the modern climatic situation in the middle of the third millennium BC, made the Nile Valley more clearly a strictly delimited area. In a process of internal colonization and the fusion of cultural factors, an independent form of culture appeared that can now be called genuinely Egyptian. Although it was late in coming by comparison with the cultures of neighboring areas, it developed all the more powerfully in the fourth millennium BC, and at the turn from the fourth to the third millennium it led to the creation of the pharaonic state and the advanced civilization of Egypt.

The Prehistoric Cultures of Lower Egypt

Merimda Beni Salama, probably the oldest truly Neolithic Egyptian site, is situated in Lower Egypt on the western border of the Nile Delta and, at its southern extremity, about 50 km northwest of Cairo. Recent excavations of this extensive site have identified five archaeological phases, the oldest of which probably goes back to the sixth millennium BC, while the later phases cover most of the fifth millennium BC.

The oldest cultural level of Merimda clearly shows independent features. In the excavator’s opinion, the fishbone patterns incised into plates, dishes, and deep bowls of beautiful, fine, polished or burnished pottery indicate contact with the Near East, as do the arrowheads. On the second cultural level, however, there is also evidence of contact with the south, in the shape of bone harpoons and axes of Nubian stone: a warning that the background of the Delta’s prehistoric cultures should not be sought exclusively in the Near East.

In the settlement area, remains of oval huts have been found. Some of them were set a little way into the ground and had reed screens to protect them from the wind. Large baskets sunk into the ground acted as silos to store grain and similar produce. The people kept sheep, goats, and pigs. Most of the later pottery of this period contains a large admixture of straw and chaff. Consequently, it is of coarser appearance, but the process facilitated the making of larger vessels and narrower shapes: pots and bottles as well as dishes and bowls.

The making of stone implements was obviously very important in the Merimda settlement. Plenty of the requisite large flints were available here on the edge of the desert, and since the inhabitants of settlements in the central Delta had no access to this raw material, there was a wide market outlet for early barter transactions. Another particularly interesting feature is the first evidence of artistic activity in small terracotta figures of livestock, and a remarkably impressive head of a human figure.

A number of graves were also found in the Merimda settlement. The dead lay on their sides in shallow pits, in the fetal position. Grave goods are rare, and indicate no social distinctions between the dead. It used to be thought that they had been buried within the settlement, but new excavations show that over the long period during which it was inhabited the settlement zones extended further and further, so that at a later date there were dwellings above the old burial grounds. Finds corresponding chronologically more or less to those of Merimda are known to us from the Faiyum and el-Oman, near Helwan, southeast of Cairo. However, the later phase of the prehistoric culture of Lower Egypt, dating from the first two-thirds of the fourth millennium BC, is represented by the archaeological finds from the settlement of Maadi. The Maadi site also lies southeast of Cairo. An extensive settlement site and two associated burial grounds offer a broad cross section through its culture. The pottery is of a very specific kind here. Most important of all, at this period, copper tools, needles, fishhooks, and axes are represented in great quantity (or their existence can be deduced), and they were beginning to displace similar tools made of bone and stone. Copper ore, probably for use as a dye in cosmetics, has also been found in Maadi.

This material suggests intensive trade relations and contacts with the south of Palestine and the Near East. However, connections with the contemporaneous culture of Upper Egypt can also be traced, for instance in imported Upper Egyptian pottery and local copies of it, and imported slate. Taken as a whole, these items shows that the site was a commercial trading station between the Near East and the Nile Valley, also enabling the early cultures of Upper Egypt to gain access to those areas for the first time. New excavations in Buto, in the northwest of the Delta, have revealed an archaeological level corresponding to the Maadian culture, thus providing evidence that this form had quite wide geographical distribution. Important indications of contact with the Near East have also been found here, for instance terracotta pins resembling the clay studs used to ornament the temple buildings of Mesopotamia in the Uruk Period.
Several cemeteries illustrate the burial customs of the Maadian culture; as at Merimda, they were on a rather modest scale. The dead lay in shallow, oval pits, wrapped in matting and accompanied by a few grave goods such as clay vessels, and sometimes shells of the kind found in the burials of the Merimda culture. Other items, for instance combs or hairpins, are rare. There were great differences between the fourth millennium BC cultures of Lower and Upper Egypt, not only in the equipment they left but also in their customs and therefore, probably, in the social structures reflected in those customs.

Although recent fieldwork has placed our knowledge of the prehistoric cultures of the Nile Delta on a new foundation, the problems are as great as ever. The reason lies in the Delta’s geographical situation. Unlike the sites of the Upper Egyptian valley, with its long bordering desert regions, the Delta sites are within the river’s immediate area of contact, and in many cases they are now buried under thick layers of sediment.

Crucial questions, therefore, remain open. In the later tradition of pharaonic culture, Delta towns like Buto and Sais play an important part beside the great royal cities of Upper Egypt. What prehistoric realities lie behind this phenomenon? Were there rich trading towns in the Delta making contact by sea with the Near East, as one theory suggests? Were the buildings in such towns, their temples or palaces, in fact the predecessors of architectural forms such as the niche facades, undoubtedly inspired by the Near East, that suddenly appeared fully developed in the funerary architecture of the Early Dynastic Period? And what was the social and political organization of the Nile Delta in the fourth millennium BC? Did it consist of city states, or an extensive kingdom? These are all questions of critical import for our understanding of the rise of the pharaonic state.

The Archaeological Cultures of Upper Egypt
The northern part of Central Egypt is also poor in archaeological sites. Sites at both ends of this section of the valley, near the Faiyum and at Deir Tasa, south ofAsiut, indicate that groups whose culture was of the Lower Egyptian tradition originally extended beyond the Delta and far to the south. We are on sure ground, archaeologically speaking, only on coming to the southern part of Central Egypt and the Upper Egyptian Nile Valley, where there is plenty of evidence, based on a wealth of finds, for the settlement of the country in the fourth millennium BC. The development of pharaonic culture rises primarily from this Upper Egyptian cultural tradition, and it also forms the chronological backbone of Egyptian prehistory.

The oldest truly Neolithic cultural group of Upper Egypt is represented by a series of settlement sites and cemeteries on the east bank of the Nile, near the village of Badari, south of Asiut. Chronologically, the early stages of this culture overlap the end of the Merimda culture in the north, about 4400 BC, and it coincides with the beginning of the Naqada culture in the early fourth millennium, around 3800 BC.

The settlement sites provide evidence of a series of small villages in the strips of flat desert bordering on the fertile country. Remains of huts, silos sunk in the ground, and vessels to hold provisions, as well as strata containing refuse from the settlements, show that the economic activities of these people covered a broad spectrum, including farming, the rearing of livestock, hunting, and fishing. Early forms of farming here did not involve too much hard labor. The river itself had created a system of natural dams and basins in the valley plain, and the principle of irrigation from a reservoir that was to be the basis of Egyptian agriculture, later perfected by the addition of artificial dikes and canals, was already provided naturally.

The dead were buried in small burial grounds on the outskirts of the villages, most of them lying on their left sides in the fetal position, eyes turned to the west. As a rule they were wrapped in matting and were often accompanied by a wealth of grave goods. While large clay vessels of coarse ware predominate in the settlement area itse1f fine ceramics of great beauty are often found in the graves. Plates, bowls, and dishes were usually made of red or brown polished clay. The blackened rim produced by a special firing technique is characteristic. The surface of the vessel was often “combed” before polishing, giving an attractive ribbed effect.

The graves also contained a broad range of items chiefly relating to cosmetics and the adornment of the body. The carvings on bone and ivory are particularly striking. These utensils are often decorated with figures. They include stone cosmetic palettes, carved spoons for ointments, hairpins, decorative combs and bracelets of bone and ebony, and necklaces of turquoise beads, glazed steatite (soapstone), shells, and various stones. Copper is also occasionally found, made into pins and beads.

These finds in the Badarian cemeteries are the first manifestation on Egyptian soil of the highly developed funerary cult that was to have so much influence on ancient Egyptian culture in the future. Since the dead were buried with their most personal possessions and in their own clothes, the funerary cult also provided a medium for social display and the expression of social distinctions.

Features of the items found indicate the origin and external
contacts of the Badarian culture. The technique of its pottery points to Nubia, while the use of glazed beads, turquoise, and copper is of Near Eastern origin, like the domestication of certain species of animals.

Egypt Advanced Civilization

Culture and Natural Surroundings

Cultural development is very closely linked to geographical and ecological conditions, and Egypt provides a perfect example of that link. The valley of the Nile is a river oasis lying between two deserts: the wide expanses of the Sahara to the west, and the rugged mountain ranges separating Egypt from the Red Sea to the east. Only in the northeast does a narrow passage over the north coast of the Sinai give access to Palestine and the Near East. The river valley itself; protected and cut off from the outer world, spreads out into an increasingly broad alluvial plain north of the first cataract at Aswan, until the river divides into many distributaries to the north of Cairo, creating the broad fan of the Nile Delta. The country has low rainfall, but the annual flooding of the Nile in late summer provided the conditions for stable agrarian prosperity. These fundamental ecological factors have always, correctly, been recognized as the basis of the pharaonic culture that made such a deep impression on all succeeding generations.

However, these conditions were not always present. in seeking the prehistoric roots of Egyptian culture, we must also examine the changes in its geographical setting. The climate was subject to great variation. Two factors should be taken into consideration: rainfall and the inundation of the Nile. While the latter influenced living conditions in the valley itself, the former decided whether the bordering desert regions were habitable or not, thus determining the relationship of the Nile Valley to its surroundings, and the relations of its inhabitants with their neighbors.

The Beginnings

Finds of stone tools provide evidence of human life in the Nile Valley going back to the Early Paleolithic. However, it is impossible to discern any characteristics specific to Egypt as a cultural area at this time. Those characteristics emerge only in the Late Paleolithic, somewhere between 25,000 and 10,000 BC. During this period a phase of extreme drought drove the early human groups out of the savannas of the Sahara, where they had led a nomadic life as hunter-gatherers, and into the valley of the Nile. The Nile was still a small river at this time, probably containing water in its bed only seasonally, but it offered subsistence. Sites where stone tools and traces of food have been found prove that a number of small groups had adapted to life in the conditions then prevailing here. Instead of traveling over large areas, they probably moved relatively short distances between seasonal campsites and ate the foods naturally available, depending on the time of year. Next to hunting and gathering, fishing in particular played a key role in the economy of these people.

Within this context, developments of great significance began to occur. The stone tools, predominantly small blades and geometrical microliths, do not look impressive at first sight. However, they were used to give a sharp edge or point to composite tools — knives, arrowheads, spears, fishhooks and harpoons and they actually represent enormous technical progress. The remnants of food found show that provisions such as fish were already being dried and stored to tide people over the months of scarcity. The first step to economic foresight and the storing of surpluses had been taken. Finally, the increasing number of such sites over the course of time also shows that a semi- settled way of life made population growth possible.

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