ANCIENT EGYPT

SOURCES:

1. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, Ian Shaw ed. 2000. (O)
2. The British Museum (BM)

LINKS:

Chronology
MAP 1, MAP 2, MAP 3

NOTES

Osiris: fertility and regenerative

Sphinx is a greek word. The word in egyptian means living image of Ra (the lion). The lion is seen as a force of destruction but also as the ruler.

Nemes – striped head dress of the pharoh (son of Ra) trns into mane of lion image of pharoh as sphinx one of conqueror, protector of son god

First sphinx we looked at sent to Levant in Amenhap III rule
Lecture at the British Museum on the Armana Letters

Amenhoptep III, next to Ramses II (or was it the III?), was the biggest builder of the pharohs

The letters were usually from abroad.

1886 – found a horde of tablets in cuneform

Gold is for diplomatic gifts btw rulers, silver is for trading. Gold, ivory and meticula (sp?) are sought after. Egyptians do not have lapis.

PALAEOLITHIC

Lower (700/500,000-250,000 BP)

Middle (250,000-70,000 BP)

 The Nile (much larger than today) River Valley climate provided abundant rainfall and a wide variety of plants and animals. 2
 Transition from Levallois flaking to blade production.
 From 100,000-30,000 more devloped style of flint implements appear including tools made from flint flakes as well as from core material. 2
 Taramsa-1 – probably the OLDEST GRAVE that has so far been identified in Africa.
 Tridemensional reasoning and a knowledge of geology and geomorphology

100,000 year old Flint Tools (scrapers and hand axes)
100,000 year old Fossilized Wood

Transitional Group (70,000-50,000 BP)

See Middle.

Upper (50,000-24,000 BP)

 Sites are rare
 Oldest is Khater-4 in Middle Egypt: Mining activities from about 35,000 to 30,000, oldest example of underground mining it the world.

Late (24,000-10,000 BP)

 Many sites btw 21,000 BP and 12,000 BP.
 Microburin technique (also found in Negev and southern Israel and Jordan)
 Climatic changes by the end of the last Ice Age resulted in unusually high Nile water discharges around 13-12,000 BP.
 Fish preservation by smoking
 Cemetery at Gebel Sahaba – 59 skeletons excavated
 In Egypt proper there are also a few rock-art sites that appear to be pre-Neolithic

No human presence attested btw 11-8,000 BP except a very small Arkinian site (9400BP) by second cataract. Due to downcutting of the Nile with a reduced floodplain. More likely that the sites are covered by modern alluvial deposits.

Epipalaeolithic (10,000- 7,000 BP)

From 7000 onwards human groups again present in the Nile Valley.
Number of sites limited, normally covered by flood plain deposits.
Continuation of style of subsistence: hunting, fishing and gathering.

Two distinguishable cultures:

Elkabian

 Used boats for fishing.
 Microlithic industry, including large number of microburins
 Nomadic hunters

Qarunian

 Renaming of the Faiyum B culture
 Sites located on high ground overlooking the Proto-Moeris Lake
 More info p. 36 Oxford

MESOLITHIC

Not sure where this fits in: Canton-Thompson’s Faiyum B Culture

SAHARAN NEOLITHIC (CERAMIC) (8800-4700 BC)

Overview

The western desert had been abandoned towards the end of the Middle Palaeolithic. People returned about 9300 BC with the Holocene wet phase.

 No evidence of agriculure
 Cattle herding
 Presence of some ceramics

Early (8800-6800 BC)

 Main sites: near Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba. They are small short term camps of hunters and gatherers which were seasonally abandoned.
 Lithics: numerous backed bladelets, often pointed, some rare geometrics, and microburin technique.
 Few bones of cattle, possibly domesticated
 After 7500 - digging of wells.
 Evidence that animals used for milk and blood, not meat, wanted to keep the cattle alive. Hunted local wild animals, hare and gazelle.
 Stone grinding equipment was used for processing harvested wild plant foods, wild grasses, Ziziphus fruits, and wild sorghum.
 Potsherds, all decorated, independent African invention

Middle and Late (6600-4700 BC)

6600/6500-5100 BC Middle
5100-4700 BC Late

 Human occupation of the Western desert reached its peak.
 Presence of shells: contact with the Nile Valley and the Red Sea
 Unlikely people stayed year round.

In Middle there is a shift in Lithic Technology: Blade production gave way to bifacial flaking for foliates and cancave based arrowheads. Geometrics except lunates were rare. At Late sites basin type grinding stones are common… and pottery developments, see page 34 Oxford.

After 4900 BC and especially from 4400 BC onwards the desert bacame less inhabitable, onset of arid climate the continues today.

NEOLITHIC - LOWER EGYPT
5300 – 4000 BC (or 6400-5200 BP)

Tarifian Culture

 Flake industry: small microlithic component referring to Epipalaeolithic and bifacials pieces announcing Neolithic technology.
 Pottery, organic tempered is thus restricted to a number of small fragments
 NO traces of agriculture or animal breeding
 No remains of structures
 Similar to final palaeolithic sites

Faiyumian Culture (5450-4400 BC)

 Same as Caton-Thompson’s Faiyum A
 Developed out of the Qarunian
 Lithic technology closely related to Late Neolithic Western Desert. Flake industry with minor bifacial component.
 Storage pits for grain – AGRICULTURE is basis of subsistence. Probably introduced from the Levant. Practiced on a community basis.
 Animal Husbandry
 Fishing and Hunting
 Pottery: coarsely made, no decoration. Excellent baskets.
 Sea shells: indirect links with Mediterranean and Red Sea.
 Cosmetic Palettes of Nubian diorite and beads of green feldspar, but No Copper.
 Settlements of rough shelters made from reeds on the shores of the lake in the Fayum Depression. 2
 Cultivation of emmer wheat and barley. 2

5th Millenium Flint Tools
5th Millenium Wooden Throwstick, Sickle and Pottery
5th Millenium Reed Basket
5th Millenium Pottery Cup and Reed Basket

Merimda Beni Salama Settlement (5000-4100 BC)

Three main cultural stages, situated on a low terrace at the edge of the Western Nile Delta. See p. 37 Oxford

Classic Merimda Culture (Levels III-IV) 4600-4100 BC

 Well made oval houses
 Economically independent family units
 Formal organization of village life
 Burials in shallow oval pits, hardly any grave goods (p. 38 O)
 Ceramic revolution: polishing, and it becomes red/black. Bifacial chert tech improved
 Oldest human representation in Egypt. 1 (see Badarian)

el-Omari Culture (4600-4350)

 several sites in the neighborhood of Wadi Hof-Helwan.
 cemetaries with contracted bodies preferentially to the south, lying on their left

NEOLITHIC - UPPER EGYPT

BADARIAN CULTURE (4400-4000 BC) MAP

Maybe began as early as 5000 BC. Possibly a still earlier culture, the Tasian.
Oldest human representation from the Nile Valley. 2 (see Classical Merimda)

Related settlements at Deir Tasa, Matmar, Mostagedda.

 Grave goods indicate unequal distribution of weath, limited social stratification
 Pottery in the graves made by hand from Nile silts which has a very fine organic temper. Refining of the clay and obtaining very thin walls has never been equaled in subsquent Egyptian periods. Shapes are simple, cups and bowls with direct rims and rounded bases. Distinctive characteristic is the ‘rippled surface’ found on the finest pottery. Decoration is rare.
 Flake and blade industry.
 Personal items such as hairpins, combs, bracelets, and beads in bone and ivory.
 Ivory female statuettes.
 Hammered copper in limited amounts.
 Economy primarily based on agriculture and husbandry. (Oxen, sheep and goats) Fishing also very important, hunting only marginally so.
 Small villages or hamlets, very light construction, in most cases temorary. Possibly the larger permanent settlements closer to the flood plain and have consequentially been washed away or covered with alluvium.
 Foreign contact: Red Sea shells in graves, copper ore maybe from Eastern Desert or less likely the Sinai. Contact with Sinai evidenced by turquoise probably through the Eastern Desert and not Lower Egypt where there is no evidence of Badarian.

Origins

Originally believed to be from the south.
Rippled pottery may have been a local development of a Saharan tradition.
Provenance of domesticated plants my have originated in the Levant then passed through
Faiyem and Merimda cultures.
Origins not from a single source, probably predominantly Western Desert.

Relationship to Naqada I culture

Badarian finds have also been made to the south at Mahgar Dendera, Armant, Elkab and Hierakonpolis; and to the east in the Wadi Hammamat.

Originally the Badarian Culture seen as a chronologically separate unit out of which the Naqada culture developed. But the Naqada I period poorly represented in the Badari region suggesting they were contemporary with the Naqada I culture to the south. How far south (from Badari to Hierakonpolis) the separate Badarian culture existed contemparily with Naqada I is at this point indeterminable.

5th Millenium Flint, Bone and Ivory Artefacts
5th Millenium Pottery, Celts and Knives
5th Millenium Cosmetic Palettes
5th Millenium Ivory and Pottery Figurines, a boat and a hippopotamus
5th Millenium Pottery
5th Millenium Pottery and Jewelery
5th Millenium Various Jewelery
5th Millenium Pottery and Ivory Figurines

NAQADA PERIOD (4000-3000 BC)

LINKS

MAP 1
MAP 2
Development of Pottery

Name comes from site of Naqada (‘Nubt’ in ancient times meaning [city] of gold) where in 1892 Flinders Petrie uncovered a 3000 grave cemetery of humble burials with a body in foetal poition wrapped in an animal skin, sometimes covered by a mat in a simple pit hollowed out of the sand. Example

Naqada I (Amratian) 4000-3500 BC

Not much different from the earlier Badarian culture, possibly an older regional version. 1

 Carved male figurines with tirangular beards and ‘phrygian’ cap.
 Ceremonial beard later to be reserved for the chins of kings and gods.
 Disc shaped maceheads
 New styles of pottery including red polished vessels, some decorated with white painted patterns. Black topped pottery from the Badarian period continued to be made, but without the textured surface. 2 (see Classical Maadian)
 Cosmetic palattes in the form of animals. 2
 Hard stone worked, basalt for vases. 2
 Copper becoming more common: usually for beads and pins. 2
 Material culture spread as far north as Asyut by 3600 BC. 2

4000-3600 Pottery
4000-3600 Pottery
4000-3600 Pottery
4000-3600 Two hoe blades of flint
4000-3600 Mudstone amuletic palettes, one: hippopotamus (1), (2)
4000-3600 Bone and Ivory Figurines
4000-3600 Bone Tags, figure, model tusk and pendants
4000-3600 Maceheads

Naqada II (Gerzean) 3500-3200 BC

 Expansion extended northwards towards the Delta (Minshat Abu Omar) and southwards as far as Nubia.
 Early mummification
 Funerary rituals
 Possibility of human sacrafice
 Predominant motif of the boat in representational art indicates importance of the river for the economy and communication.
 Pear Shaped Macehead replaces disc shaped.
 Pottery painted with lively images of people, animals, boats and plants. 2
 Social elite
 Class of artisans.
 Hunting of big game (hippopotami, gazelle, and lion) became socially restricted to the elite group
 Urbanization: Naqada & Hierakonpolis – Clusters of rectangular, mud brick dwellings. 2

The 'Painted Tomb' at Hierakopolis

3600-3250 Maceheads and a limestone vessel of a hippopotamus
3600-3250 Jewelery
3600-3250 Limestone and Ivory Woman Figures and Maceheads
3600-3250 Pottery (1), (2)
3600-3250 Pottery (1 and 2), (3)
3600-3250 Pottery Vases and Flint Tools

MAADIAN COMPLEX (Northern Egypt)

Emerged from the tradition of the Faiyum region and sites at Merimda Beni Salama and el-Omari. (See Neolithic – Lower Egypt)

Appeared during the second half of Naqada I and continued until Naqada IIc/d when it was eclipsed by the spread of Naqada II culture.

Cemeteries less prominent – knowledge comes from settlements.

Metalic objects common
Pastoral-agricultural and sedentary culture

Cultural Crossroad:
 Sherds reminiscent of Saharo-Sudanese pottery
 Links with Upper Egypt: imported vessels of black topped red ware
 Commercial links with Early Bronze Age Palestine: distinctive footed ceramics with neck, mouth and handles decorated en mamelons, made from a calcareous clay fabric. They contained imported products (oils, wines, resins).

Naqada III (Dynasty ‘0’) 3200-3000 BC

UNIFICATION OF EGYPT

Egypt first united into a large territorial state. The political consolidation laid foundations for the Early Dynastic state of the 1st and 2nd Dynasties. Evidence of kings in the later part buried at Abydos also indicated on the Palermo Stone. Much debate concerning the nature of unification, the date and origins of Dynasty 0.

Greater success of cereal agriculture produces surpluses which are used to pay for specialization of craft goods. Possibly first southerns to go north were traders, followed by colonists. This expansion seems to be a peaceful one at first. The northern culture was not in a vaccum (see Maadi Complex) and very well may have offered some resistence. No evidence of migration.
Boats would have been necessary for control and communication. The timber (cedar) would have come from modern day Lebanon. A motivating factor for expansion north may have been to control trade with eastern mediterranean which had developed earlier.

At some sites show a layer of only Maadian wares and then one of Naqada II wares. “At Tell el-Farkha there is a transitional layer of aeolian sand between such strata suggesting the abandonment of the settlement by the local population for unknown reasons. (intimidation?) and the later reoccupation of the site in Dynasty 0 by people of the Naqada culture. By the end of Naqada II (c3200 BC) or early Naqada III the indigenous material culture of Lower Egypt had disappeared.” 1

Burials as evidence of the political enviroment

Three major centers: Naqada, Abydos and Hierakonpolis in Naqada II times become united in Naqada III resulting from alliances and/or warfare.

CITIES

Naqada

Elite cemetery T burials impoverished compared to Naqada II. In a cemetery 6 km south has burials from late Naqda II with a ‘royal’ brial style indicating a split with the polity centered at South Town (located 150m north of the large predynastic cemetery), and the Naqada polity being absorbed into a larger one. Politically insignificant in Early Dynastic Period.

Abydos

Umm el-Qa’ab region: the graves in Cemeteries U, B and the ‘royal cemetery’ (all in one area) evolved from undifferentiated burials in eary Naqada times to an elite cemetery in late Naqada II to the burial place of Dynasty 0 and 1 kings.

Tomb U-j dating to c3150 BC contained the earliest known hieroglyphs, the invention of which most likely predated unification.

Most important centre for the cult of the dead king. Last three kings of Dynasty 0: Iri-Hor, Ka, and Narmer were buried in Cemetery B.

Hierakonpolis

An important centre associated with the god Horus, symbolic of the living king.
Became the the residence of the Predynastic rulers of Upper Egypt. 2

Macehead of King Scorpion and Palette (2)and Macehead of King Narmer possible donations to the temple of Horus indicating Hierakonpolis was still important at the end of Naqada III. Illustrates dead enemies and vanquished peoples and/or settlements, war captives and booty. 1

No layers of destruction of Naqada III date in the delta. But warfare could have implemented the expansion and consolidation into Lower Nubia and southern Palestine which occurred in the early 1st Dynasty. 1

EARLY DYNASTIC (c3000-2686 BC)

1st Dynasty (c3000-2890)

Kings

Aha
Djer
Djet
Den
Queen Merneith
Anedjib
Semerkhet
Qa’a

Roots of 1st Dynasty are believed to be in Upper Egypt and they created a unique and indigenous state. No evidence that the foreign contact in the 4th millenium was military. Contemporary polities in Nubia, Mesopotamia and Syria-Palestine ranged a much smaller area. See more p. 66 (O). 1

 By c3000 BC the Early Dynastic state had emerged and controled 1000 km along the Nile from the Delta to the first cataract at Aswan.
 Cereal agriculture was the economic base.
 Focus of development shifted from south to north, centrally controled from the Memphis region by a (god-)king.

Mortuary Cult / Royal Tombs

 Abydos remained the most important cult centre.
 Tombs contained wooden shrines where the acutal burial was located.
 Only period when humans were sacrificed (strangled) for royal burials. The tomb of Djer (the largest) had the most subsidiary burials – 338.
 Tomb of Den had the major innovation of the addition of a staircase while its design and decoration is the most elaborate at Abydos.
 Tomb of Semerkhet had a ramp saturated up to ‘three feet’ deep with aromatic oil which still permeated the entire tomb.
 Tomb of Qa’a had 30 inscribed labels describing the delivery of oil mostly from Syria-Palestine: indicates very large-scale foreign trade controlled by the crown and the importance of luxury goods for the royal burials.
 The Royal Tombs at Abydos located in the low desert (Umm el-Qa’ab. To the northeast of them, closer to the edge of civilization are the Funerary Enclosures.
 Funerary Enclosures are where the cult of each king perpetuated by priests and other personnel after the burial.


2nd dynasty

Khasekhemwy has the best preserved funerary enclosure. p. 73

3rd dynasty