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"Too Much Stuff": Recent Finds in Predynastic Egypt By Mario Beatty, Ph.D.
Approximately two hundred and fifty objects from the Old Kingdom in Ancient Egypt are now on display in a major exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York until January 9, 2000. Although this exhibit reflects a cooperative effort from various museums around the world, it will only be shown in three venues: Paris, New York, and Toronto. The exhibit embodies the beauty of the Ancient Egyptian script and language along with meticulous craftsmanship fashioning sculptural and architectural masterpieces using the crudest of tools by modern standards.
In conjunction with the exhibit, there were two major scholarly presentations given on a period that precedes and lays the foundation for the Old Kingdom. This period is referred to as predynastic Egypt and roughly covers a time spanning throughout the 4th millenium B.C. (c. 4000 to 3100 B.C.).
One presentation, entitled the "Beginnings of Writing in Ancient Egypt," was given by Gunther Dreyer who is now heading the German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo. For over twenty-five years, this Institute has been at the forefront of forging a reexamination of the Royal Necropolis of Abydos in Upper Egypt. This site is often referred to as Umm el-Qaab or the "Mother of Pots" because of the large number of vessels and jars found there used for funerary offerings in the context of burial sites and rituals. Dreyer defined writing as "a system to encode the sounds of language by using signs." To illustrate his point, he provided a modern-day example of our ability to look at traffic signs and understand their meaning without being able to "read" them because they do not represent sounds. When signs are used to represent sounds in systematic ways the beginnings of writing emerge. In interpreting various inscribed tags, seals, pottery, and jars found, Dreyer placed the origin of writing in Ancient Egypt at approximately 3400 B.C. He highlighted the theme of trade and commerce as perhaps being the catalyst for the emergence of writing because various objects describe quantities of imported and exported goods such as oil and fat functioning as tribute.
An important artifact found at the site was an obsidian bowl. Obsidian is a natural glassylooking material of volcanic origin. As a natural resource, it does not exist in Egypt; it comes from the south either from modern-day Sudan or Ethiopia. Dreyer asserted that the obsidian used to make this bowl came from Ethiopia suggesting significant cultural contacts among Nile Valley populations. He concluded his presentation by noting similarities between specific Egyptian and Mesopotamian objects and suggesting that perhaps there is an initial influence of Egyptian writing on Mesopotamia because there are signs on Mesopotamian objects that are only "readable" from the standpoint of the Egyptian language, but not the Mesopotamian language. The second presentation, entitled "Too Much Stuff: Recent Finds at Hierakonpolis," was given by Renee Friedman, co-leader of The Hierakonpolis Expedition. There have been many important archaeological finds at Hierakonpolis, the most notable being heret ofore the famous Narmer Palette. The Ancient Egyptians referred to Hierakonpolis as Nekhen and afforded this site a sacred place in its historical memory. Modern expeditions have affirmed the validity of Ancient Egypt's historical memory and continue to highlight its central role and import in the context of the emergence of the civilization. Among the most notable discoveries are the oldest preserved house in Egypt (c. 3600 B.C.), Egypt's earliest brewery (c. 3500 B.C.), the first attempts at artificial mummification (c. 3500 B.C.), Egypt's first temple (c. 3400 B.C.), a first dynasty royal palace (c. 3000 B.C.), and ritual masks (c. 3600 B.C.)
Other finds continue to amplify important African cultural features and continuities. As was the case in Abydos, significant amounts of obsidian were found at various burial sites and these samples have been scientifically determined to have come from Ethiopia. Burials of elephants and baboons continue to highlight the shared animal world of the Nile Valley cultural complex. And last, but not least, the burial of an older woman (approximately sixty years of age) showed definitive evidence of hair dyeing and hair weaving dated to about 3500 B.C. Hence, we encounter the first recorded hair extensions in history 5500 years ago and it's a tradition that is still going strong among African women worldwide!
Unfortunately, this sacred place is about to be lost to researchers forever. The contemporary Egyptian government wants to settle 100,000 people in the area of Hierakonpolis and this encroaching dynamic will ultimately destroy this ancient and sacred predynastic site. The Hierakonpolis expedition is feverishly attempting to salvage and preserve as much of this site as possible given the seemingly inevitable inflation in population.
In the area of archaeology, Ancient Egypt is always providing us with something new that continues to give us important glimpses into the world of our ancestors. We owe it to ourselves and to them to pause, look, listen, and continue to learn from this complex civilization.
quote: One presentation, entitled the "Beginnings of Writing in Ancient Egypt," was given by Gunther Dreyer who is now heading the German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo. For over twenty-five years, this Institute has been at the forefront of forging a reexamination of the Royal Necropolis of Abydos in Upper Egypt. This site is often referred to as Umm el-Qaab or the "Mother of Pots" because of the large number of vessels and jars found there used for funerary offerings in the context of burial sites and rituals. Dreyer defined writing as "a system to encode the sounds of language by using signs." To illustrate his point, he provided a modern-day example of our ability to look at traffic signs and understand their meaning without being able to "read" them because they do not represent sounds. When signs are used to represent sounds in systematic ways the beginnings of writing emerge. In interpreting various inscribed tags, seals, pottery, and jars found, Dreyer placed the origin of writing in Ancient Egypt at approximately 3400 B.C. He highlighted the theme of trade and commerce as perhaps being the catalyst for the emergence of writing because various objects describe quantities of imported and exported goods such as oil and fat functioning as tribute…
MS 2787 PROTOHIEROGLYPHS OF SHIP AND OAR (TRANSPORTATION)
MS in archaic Egyptian on clay, Egypt, Nagada II period, 3500-3100 BC, 1 black top jar, diam. 13-6 cm, h. 28 cm, (7x18 cm), 1 line of 2 large protohieroglyphs incised in the clay.
Context: A related example incised with an ibis: Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, Predynastic Egyptian collection, fig. 25, no. 174.
Provenance: 1. Found at Kamoula, Egypt (1897); 2. Pitt-Rivers Museum, Farnham, Surrey; 3. Private collection, Switzerland; 4. Sotheby's New York 5.6.1999:337.
Commentary: The present jar and the Ashmolean jar have, so far, the earliest "script" known in the Western world, preceding the earliest examples from Egypt and Sumer. Whether it actually is script is under discussion. It certainly is not continuos writing.
A group of pottery and ivory tags was discovered in a predynastic Royal tomb in Abydos in 1998 with similar protohieroglyphs dated to 33rd - 32nd c. BC. A pottery shed was found in 1999 in Harappa in the Indus Valley with 6 signs, dated to ca 3500 BC, but without any connection to the later Indus Valley script, see MS 2645.
Exhibited: 1. Kon-Tiki Museet, Oslo, April 2002 - Jan. 2003; 2. Tigris 25th anniversary exhibition. The Kon-Tiki Museum, Oslo, 30.1. - 15.9.2003; 3. Kon-Tiki Museet, Oslo, September 2003 -.
MS 200
HOR AHA OF UPPER EGYPT, THE NAME OF ONE OF THE FIRST TWO PHARAOHS OF DYNASTY I
MS in archaic Egyptian on clay, possibly Abydos, Upper Egypt, 3007-2975 BC, 1 cylindrical jar, h. 24 cm, diam. 11 cm, 2 columns, (10x7 cm), 7 hieroglyphs, including the cartouche of Aha surmounted by a falcon denoting the royal title "Horus", and "Shema" for Upper Egypt, in a rapid flowing script in black ink.
Provenance: 1. Possibly excavated at the First Dynasty tombs in the Royal necropolis at Abydos; 2. Sotheby's New York 2.12.1988:126.
Commentary: Among the earliest examples of human script in ink extant. The oldest are probably similar cylindrical jars from Abydos, with the cartouche possibly of the predynastic King Ka, about 3100 BC. One of these is in British Museum (BM 35508). Further the recent discovery of a predynastic Royal tomb at Abydos containing inscribed pottery and ivory tags. The first 2 Pharaohs of the first dynasty, Narmer and Hor Aha, reigned both ca. 3000 BC. Beckerath, however, allocates Narmer as a pre-dynastic king, before 3000 BC.
Exhibited: 1. Conference of European National Librarians, Oslo. Sept. 1994. 2. "Preservation for access: Originals and copies". On the occasion of the 1st International Memory of the World Conference, organized by the Norwegian Commission for UNESCO and the National Library of Norway, at the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, 3 June - 14 July 1996. 3. The Norwegian Institute of Palaeography and Historical Philology (PHI), Oslo, 13.10.2003-
Source for the above notes on the exhibits: The Schoyen Collection.
From Dreyer's 1998 archeological work, as acknowledged above in the notes from the Schoyen Collection, we have...
"The earliest writing ever seen may have been discovered in southern Egypt. The hieroglyphics record linen and oil deliveries made over 5,000 years ago…the new Egyptian discoveries have been confidently dated to between 3300 BC and 3200 BC using carbon isotopes.
The writings are line drawings of animals, plants and mountains and came mainly from the tomb of a king called Scorpion in a cemetery at Abydos, about 400 km (250 miles) south of Cairo…
Since 1985, Mr Dreyer and his team have unearthed about 300 pieces of written material on clay tablets barely bigger than postage stamps…
The newly discovered Egyptian writings also show that the society then was far more developed than previously thought, Dreyer said. He said man's first writings were not a creative outpouring but the result of economics: when chieftains expanded their areas of control they needed to keep a record of taxes. Although the Egyptian writings are made up of symbols, they can be called true writing because each symbol stands for a consonant and makes up syllables." - BBC News, Sci/Tech, 1998.
Photos: Courtesy Dreyer
Thus, these findings date the earliest scripts of the Nile Valley, which can confidently be considered writing or ‘continuous’ writing , back to Nagada III phase. One thing is clear, as Dreyer put it,…
“The newly discovered Egyptian writings also show that the society then was far more developed than previously thought, Dreyer said.”
quote: He concluded his presentation by noting similarities between specific Egyptian and Mesopotamian objects and suggesting that perhaps there is an initial influence of Egyptian writing on Mesopotamia because there are signs on Mesopotamian objects that are only "readable" from the standpoint of the Egyptian language, but not the Mesopotamian language.
Now, there is someone willing to openly bring up this possibility actually based on archeology discovery. Some, have tried to resist this inevitable conclusion by hypothesizing merely on the account of small tabs [mind you, these are not writing, or even pictographs] used in Mesopotamia supposedly for counting purposes. They claim such tools for counting may have necessitated eventual adoption of writing. Meanwhile they engage in such extreme hypothesizing, NO evidence of writing experimentation in Mesopotamia that predates those in the Nile Valley; matter of fact, based on archeological finds, the Egyptian items date much earlier, and I’ve already presented examples above. Thus, we actually see hieroglyphics precursor within the Nile Valley itself.
quote: An important artifact found at the site was an obsidian bowl. Obsidian is a natural glassylooking material of volcanic origin. As a natural resource, it does not exist in Egypt; it comes from the south either from modern-day Sudan or Ethiopia. Dreyer asserted that the obsidian used to make this bowl came from Ethiopia suggesting significant cultural contacts among Nile Valley populations…
Other finds continue to amplify important African cultural features and continuities. As was the case in Abydos, significant amounts of obsidian were found at various burial sites and these samples have been scientifically determined to have come from Ethiopia.
Indeed, so much for claims about inner Africans being too foreign and distant to Kemetians. Relationships go even before the emergence of the world’s first nation state.
quote: Among the most notable discoveries are the oldest preserved house in Egypt (c. 3600 B.C.), Egypt's earliest brewery (c. 3500 B.C.), the first attempts at artificial mummification (c. 3500 B.C.), Egypt's first temple (c. 3400 B.C.), a first dynasty royal palace (c. 3000 B.C.), and ritual masks (c. 3600 B.C.)
Getting details on the artificial mummification would be particularly insightful.
quote: And last, but not least, the burial of an older woman (approximately sixty years of age) showed definitive evidence of hair dyeing and hair weaving dated to about 3500 B.C. Hence, we encounter the first recorded hair extensions in history 5500 years ago and it's a tradition that is still going strong among African women worldwide!
Again, speaks out to the already overwhelming and incontestable evidence of Kemet’s inner African roots.
quote: [b]Unfortunately, this sacred place is about to be lost to researchers forever. The contemporary Egyptian government wants to settle 100,000 people in the area of Hierakonpolis and this encroaching dynamic will ultimately destroy this ancient and sacred predynastic site. The Hierakonpolis expedition is feverishly attempting to salvage and preserve as much of this site as possible given the seemingly inevitable inflation in population.
Better get busy, because we don’t want a repeat of what happened to the invaluable “Nubian” relics, that could have provided crucial information on the intertwined relationship between Kemet and its southerly neighbors.
Hope increased attention will be extended to other areas in and around the Sahelian regions, including west Africa, which undoubtedly will continue to harbor surprises.
-------------------- Truth - a liar penetrating device! Posts: 5964 | Registered: Jan 2005
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The more important point is WHEN are they going to UPDATE the MAINSTREAM view on Egypt with this information. It is AMAZING how many NEW discoveries have been made, yet NONE of it has been allowed to change outdated thinking on Egyptian civilization. Textbooks STILL teach that Egypt got its writing from Mesopotamia.....
Posts: 8889 | Registered: May 2005
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^^Doug, this has already been done in fact for a while now!
Ever since the discovery of the the proto-hieroglyphs in southern Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia, sources have already expunged the inaccurate view that Egyptians "borrowed" the concept of writing from Sumerians!
Such a theory of Sumerian influence on Egyptian writing was flimsy enough as it was. Egyptian writing was totally different from cunieform and so scholars assumed that at least the very 'idea' of writing came from Sumer. But the earliest evidence of writing in Egypt comes from the south to as far as Nubia and NOT the Delta. All of this blew out the whole Sumerian influence myth!
The only textbooks and sources that speak of the Sumerian influence in writing are all outdated and have to be more than a decade old.
Posts: 26238 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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Notice how black topped pottery of this time period is NOT associated with so called "Nubian" or black African culture for some reason, but later on it is treated as a DISTINGUISHING feature of the so-called "black" African civilization called "Nubia".
Posts: 8889 | Registered: May 2005
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These africans keep amazing me more and more everyday. There knowledge is so vast. The funny thing is that we keep calling them Ancient Egyptians but who are they really.
-------------------- Hikuptah Al-Masri Posts: 526 | From: Aswan Egypt | Registered: Jun 2006
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^^They're Kememu (Egyptians) and various other groups, but ALL can be collectively called Nile Valley peoples.
Posts: 26238 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Doug M: Notice how black topped pottery of this time period is NOT associated with so called "Nubian" or black African culture for some reason, but later on it is treated as a DISTINGUISHING feature of the so-called "black" African civilization called "Nubia".
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