Contents
A. Early Neolithic Prelude
B. Emergence of Regional Cultures
1. Stone Tools and Interrelations
2. Egypt and the Middle Nile
C. Cultures of Northern Egypt
1. Domestic Economy
2. Structures and Settlements
3. Religious Practice
4. Manufactured Goods
5. Trade
6. End of Northern Egypt
7. Summary
D. Cultures of Upper Egypt
1. Tasian
2. Badarian
3. Succession of Tasian, Badarian, and Naqada I
4. Naqada Culture
E. A-Group in Nubia and Upper Egypt
F. Emergence of Pharaonic Egypt
1. Ruler, Writing, and Cults
2. Succession of Rulers
G. Consolidation of Egypt
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A. Early Neolithic Prelude
The earliest evidence for Neolithic settlement near the Nile occurs in poor and dispersed sites or site-complexes without durable structures or deep deposits, which lack the transitions and detailed interconnections that make later sequences cohesive historical units. Although regionally distinctive features suggest that groups occupied areas as spheres of activity for long periods, important features of pottery, implements, and a rich rock art which emphasized cattle can be traced across the Sahara, indicating widespread relationships (Haland 1987; Striedter 1984). This era of changing climate in northeastern Africa produced widely varying opportunities for human existence in any small area, but always allowed some kind of habitation in the region. By obstructing movement, the desert increasingly encouraged regional cultures (Eiwanger 1987: 83).
B. Emergence of Regional Cultures
In the sixth and fifth millennia B.C., human occupation shifted from the drying desert toward its southern and northern margins, the Nile, and the oases. Areas occupied included the mountainous desert east of the Nile, savanna lands east of the Nile in the south, Kordofan [region constituting the central area of The Sudan. It lies between Darfur on the west and the valley of the White Nile River on the east. Kordofan was originally inhabited by brown-skinned Nubian-speaking peoples, and the region's name may be derived from the Nubian word kurta, meaning “men.” Here, an annual inundation removed surface salts, leaving a layer of new silt, naturally fertilizing and irrigating the land well enough to support a limited population (Krzyzaniak 1977: 25-27, 55; Butzer 1976: 18-20).
1. Stone Tools and Interrelations. Regional cultures are present in the Nile Valley from the Middle Neolithic to the Egyptian 1st Dynasty. Despite their differences, these cultures shared such developments as trends in stone tool making. From Sudan to northern Egypt, the earliest Neolithic industries were blade industries. Thereafter, a bifacial core industry predominated until the Maadi and Naqada cultures of Egypt revived blade technique (Eiwanger 1983: 63-67). Mutual contacts and those with Asia correlate the cultures, but chronology in real time remains approximate, despite the application of radiometric techniques (Kantor fc.). The earliest phases in northern Egypt shared significant features with the pottery Neolithic of Palestine, but these contacts were severed (Eiwanger 1983) until the Chalcolithic period, when they again became important.
2. Egypt and the Middle Nile. The three major regional cultures in the northern Nile Valley were centered in northern Egypt, Upper (or southern) Egypt, and Lower Nubia, respectively. Far to the south, The Sudanese-Saharan tradition appears in small settlements supported mainly by hunting, fishing, and gathering, notably at Khartoum. Later, people also raised cattle and crops (Haland 1987: 51-56, 59-62). Distant contacts are illustrated by the widespread adoption of a special form of harpoon in Africa and Palestine (Haland 1987: fig. 3). In the Khartoum Neolithic phase contemporary with the Naqada period of Upper Egypt, a major center comparable in size to the great sites of Upper Egypt was established at Taragma near Meroe, a concentration previously unsuspected in the region (Reinold 1987: 17-43).
C. Cultures of Northern Egypt
From the western delta to south of the Fayum, the cultures of northern Egypt occur largely in single sites or restricted areas, rather than extensive horizons. The emergence of distinct cultural traditions in northern Egypt has often been connected to the later canonical division between Upper and Lower Egypt, although these early cultures were actually located in large part south of the Delta in areas assigned to Upper Egypt. In order of appearance, the site phases are Merimda (early and main) at the western edge of the delta; Fayum A; sites near the northern shore of Lake Oarun el-Omani and Maadi just south of modern Cairo; and possibly Buto, in the northwest delta.
1. Domestic Economies. The domestic economies of northern Egypt were substantially supported by agriculture which concentrated on the cultivation of cereals. Animals such as sheep, goats, cattle, and dogs were kept; fish and a wide range of animals were taken. Even hippopotamus bones occur in the settlements (Hayes 1965: 93, 112). Hunting this dangerous animal requires the coordinated tactics of bands or crews (but see Eiwanger 1988; 44).
2. Structures and Settlements. Like earlier playa settlements, most habitations were light, irregular or oval structures made of posts and reeds, sometimes plastered with mud. Many had hearths and circular storage pits nearby, some of which were lined with baskets or mud. At Maadi, some light structures were rectangular. The settlements had no regular plan, but part of a ditch and palisade were found at Maadi, in addition to large communal storage areas. Merimda contained a number of oval structures about two meters long, built of mud or mud slabs with floors below ground level. Sometimes a small jar would be imbedded in the floor near one end of the oval, and a stick or hippopotamus tibia would be plastered against the wall near the opposite end (Hayes 1965: 105). The buildings, some arranged as though on a lane (Hayes 1965: 105), were built only in restricted areas, probably for a special purpose (Eiwanger 1982: 68). They may be related to structures at Maadi that were sunk into the ground over two meters and approached by steps. One very large (10 x 6 x 2 m) and elaborate brick-lined sunken structure had a special entry and a niche. It was found with a cemetery and large deposits of fish and pottery vessels, many containing grain. These structures at Merimda and Maadi, especially the large building, may represent a tradition of religious architecture (Anonymous 1986).
3. Religious Practice. Other evidence of religious practice includes burials, deposits, and possibly structural features. Early Merimda contained a small cemetery of contracted burials, mostly placed with the heads south, on the right side. Later, burials in the Merimda levels were oriented irregularly (Eiwanger 1982; Hayes 1965: 112-13). In the el-Omari and Maadi phases, burials were made in cemeteries, some of them very large. Grave goods were deposited with later burials, and some later graves have simple dolmen-like superstructures. Even some goats were buried at Heliopolis with grave goods (Debono and Mortenson 1988: 39, 46-48). Female figurines and an eggshaped terra-cotta head from Merimda are not readily connected to known traditions, but a deposit with axes and a hippopotamus figurine (Eiwanger 1982: 76-80; 1988; 46) and the hippopotamus tibia used as steps may be forerunners of Egyptian magical practices.
4. Manufactured Goods. The handmade pottery of earliest Merimda was relatively fine, but apart from some stands, the mostly ovoid shapes were simpler than later pottery. Many vessels were pattern burnished with a pebble. Some vessels have a band of incised herringbone decoration, a feature that occurs both in Palestine and elsewhere in northern Africa (Eiwanger 1984: 61). The pottery of later Merimda was coarser, with vegetable temper. Shapes remained simple, but knobs and lugs were sometimes applied (Hayes 1965: 106-107; Eiwanger 1979: 28-38, 56; 1988: 15-33, pls, 1-32). Most vessels were burnished, with a dark surface color. This simple pottery continued at Maadi. Only a few pieces were decorated in red paint on a light ground, and the finer red and black burnished vessels were accompanied by much coarse dark pottery, and some very large storage jars (Ibrahim and Seeher 1987: pls. 2,2 and 28,2). In other industries, the stone vessels of Maadi were more elaborate than those found at Merinda (Hayes 1965:126). Copper was also worked at Maadi from imported ores.
5. Trade. Trade and contacts expanded greatly between the time of Merimda and Maadi, but imports from the East primarily consisted of raw materials such as copper ore and asphalt, or oils; most objects were made locally or regionally, although wavy-handled jars were imported from southwest Asia and some vessels and other objects were imported or imitated from Upper Egypt (Kaiser 1985: 70; Ibrahim and Seeher 1984; vorr der Way 1987; 242-247, 256-257).
6. End of Northern Egypt. Maadi ended early in the second phase (II) of Upper Egypt's Naqada culture; Kaiser 1985: fig.10). The settlement seems to have been finally destroyed by fire (Hayes 1965: 123). Maadi was the last of Lower Egypt's cultures in the area, although Buto in the Delta where a settlement with a cemetery has recently been found may continue (von der Way 1986; 1987: 242-247, including Naqada II pottery; Kaiser 1985: fig.10).
7. Summary. In northern Egypt, a large number of small, shifting villages probably sustained a few more permanent large settlements (Eiwanger 1987: fig.9). Consolidated in the area of Helwan and Maadi, these centers transcended the shifting earlier habitations without eliminating cultural variations (Kaiser 1985: 67), a contrast with the more uniform Naqada culture of Upper Egypt.
D. Cultures of Upper Egypt
Largely known through burials, the stream of culture in Upper Egypt is uninterrupted from the Tasian to the First Dynasty. The Naqada culture -- divided into I (Amratian), II (Gerzean), and III consists of broadly distributed cultural horizons most readily identified by their pottery (Kaiser 1957; for a different view, see Kantor fc.).
1. Tasian. The Tasian culture of Middle Egypt was found in few graves, but the burial arrangements and objects deposited were distinctive (Brunton 1937: 25-33), especially a narrow black pottery beaker with a flared rim and white-filled incised geometric decoration. The typical ordinary Tasian bowl or jar was burnished with a rippled effect in shallow grooves or facets.
2. Badarian. The culture identified at el-Badari and other sites in Middle Egypt is typified by red- or black-topped pottery combed and burnished to make a diagonally rippled surface. Other objects, decorated ivory combs and spoons, stone vessels, slate palettes, carved amulets, figurines, and vessels, were often elaborate versions of Tasian prototypes and many were developed still further in the Naqada I phase (Brunton and Caton-Thompson 1928; Krzyzaniak 1977: 68-84).
3. Succession of Tasian, Badarian and Naqada I. The relations between Tasian, Badarian, and the succeeding Amratian or Naqada I are problematic; some have considered them partly or even entirely contemporary, although they are found in close proximity. Since the differences between objects are those usually encountered in successive phases in Egypt, the later reappearance of Tasian features such as the flared beaker -- which had persisted in Nubia and Sudan -- was probably due to reintroduction (Kaiser 1985: 81, fig. 8; but see Reinold 1987: fig. 4).
4. Naqada Culture. The Naqada culture leads directly into the 1st Dynasty. In the Naqada I this culture extended from Middle Egypt to northern Lower Nubia. In Naqada II, it expanded into the delta, while a separate culture, known as the Nubian A-Group, occupied Lower Nubia (Kaiser 1956: fig. 5; 1957: 74). During Naqada III, official art appears in a refined and elaborate form in the well-known carved slate palettes and ivories. The later part of the period is sometimes referred to as Dynasty 0 because the names of pharaonic rulers not attested in the later king lists occur (Kaiser and Dreyer 1982: 260-269).
a. Manufactured Goods. The shapes of most Naqada I pottery vessels were different from Badarian, and burnished surfaces were no longer rippled; but continuity can be traced in such features as white-painted designs inside bowls derived from patterns incised in Badarian bowls. This Naqada I painted pottery became elaborate and included complex representations. Increased technical competence in other crafts is apparent in the presence of copper tools, glazed steatite, and high-quality linen textiles. Other objects, especially ivories, further developed Badarian types. In Naqada II, black-topped and red-polished pottery was first augmented, then replaced by buff or hard pink vessels fired in a closed kiln, and sometimes decorated with red paint in a new style. In Naqada III, only the pink-buff pottery was left among the Egyptian vessels (Kaiser 1957: 72-73; Kroeper and Wildung 1985: 69-72). Painting became less common, done in a third style related to formal art on the ivories and palettes. Stone vessels became truly elaborate and these and other industries develop without interruption (Petrie 1920: 34-36; Krzyzaniak 1977: 140-156), possibly already organized along lines familiar from later representations.
b. Domestic Economy. The domestic economy of Upper Egypt was agricultural, based on the cultivation of grains and raising livestock. By late Naqada III, even the date palm was cultivated. However, permanent agriculture and settlement in Upper Egypt's narrow valley was only possible where irregularities in the location, timing, and even height of the inundation could be sufficiently controlled to ensure reliable yields in the same location year after year. The foundation of Egyptian agriculture, the simple, flexible, and relatively reliable basin irrigation system, achieved control using crescentic canals to take water from the high river, direct it onto a series of basin fields, and then drain it back into the river downstream. Even a rudimentary basin system is a large-scale enterprise requiring a considerable effort made yearly by organized troops of workers. Thus, a large resident population in Upper Egypt and control of the inundation are mutually implied, but control was never complete enough to prevent progressive or catastrophic failures (Butzer 1976: 51-56).
c. Settlements and Construction. The known habitation, mostly located at the desert edge, were probably peripheral and do not fairly represent the original settlements. Most major permanent settlements were probably located on modest eminences in the floodplain or on the riverbanks; they are now largely destroyed or deeply buried. A reconstruction of Upper Egypt depends on inference from scattered and fragmentary physical remains such as the village at Hemamiyya (Brunton and Caton-Thompson 1928: 69-74), representations, and cemeteries.
The earliest long-lasting sites are found in Middle Egypt, but great sites began in the Naqada I southern Upper Egypt. From south to north, these include the cemeteries and town of Hierakonpolis (Fairservis, Weeks, and Hoffman 1971: 29-37), the large structures, and cemeteries of Naqada (Petrie and Quibell 1896), evidence for a temple at Coptos (Petrie 1896: 5-9), and the cemeteries Abadiya-Hu, or Diospolis Parva (Kaiser 1957: 73-74). Population was not just scattered in villages, but also concentrated in such major centers. The consolidated towns dominated almost crescentic areas of arable land sharply constricted at either end where the river approaches the desert to define a virtually natural basin irrigation complex. The Scorpion Macehead of Naqada III may actually depict part of such a complex (Krzyzaniak 1977: fig.3; Butzer 1976: 20-21).
As in the north, dwellings in Upper Egypt were at first simple circular or oval shelters of posts and reeds with some substantial circular mud-ring foundations; enclosures of grass or matting were also used (Brunton and Caton-Thompson 1928: 47, 82). Some shelters were rectangular (Hoffman 1980). In Naqada II, an important rectangular tomb was lined with mudbrick and painted, and a model probably represents a rectangular brick house (Baumgartel 1960: p. 1. XII, 3). A terra-cotta model of Naqada I-II date and representational evidence from Naqada III indicate that large oval fortifications with bastions were erected of a type later depicted enclosing the names of known towns, using brick for at least part of the structure (Baumgartel 1960: p. 1. XII.1-2; Petrie 1953, pls. F: 19 [Libyan Booty Palette], F: 17-18 [Bull Palette], and K [Narmer Palette]). A sinuous, curved wall with a bastion of this general kind surrounded the compact town of Elephantine by the end of the 2nd Dynasty (Kaiser et al.1987: figs.5-6).
d. Trade. Trade for products such as malachite (and copper?) and vessels of oil from the east, and resins from the south, was already important in the Naqada Period. Its organization is not easy to reconstruct, but groups of cache pits found from the northern delta to Nubia and small short-term settlements in northern Sinai indicate that it was at least partly handled by small parties or teams (Oren 1973). Naqada III sealings from Ein Besor in Palestine may derive from official trade (Williams 1986: 175). Many large pottery vessels that may have contained agricultural products were taken to Nubia, probably in cargo boats. Naqada II-III rock drawings in the Eastern Desert indicate that expeditions already obtained products such as gold, slate or schist, and alabaster.
E. A-Group in Nubia and Upper Egypt
Through trade, the growing prosperity of Naqada-period Upper Egypt played a vital role in the expansion of the Nubia A-Group culture of Lower Nubia and southernmost Upper Egypt. Although the two cultures differed somewhat, A-Group pottery was related to both older Tasian-like ceramics and the preceding Abkan of Lower Nubia (Nordstrom 1972: 21-22, 28-29), while A-Group and Egyptian art shared important formal features (Williams 1986: 138-159, 167-171). Although the settlements were badly preserved and cemeteries were of modest size, one site at Afya contained substantial rectangular buildings with apsidal ends, and fields of cache pits at Khor Daud near Nubia's gold-mining region were larger than most in Egypt (Nordstrom 1972: 20-21; Williams 1986, table 6 and 16-18). The domestic economy may have been simple, but trade was so important that Egyptian vessels were placed even in poor burials and A-Group vessels appear in Egypt (Nordstrom 1972: 26; Kroeper and Wildung 1985: 73). Sudanese features also appear. Later tombs contained evidence of differences in wealth comparable to Upper Egypt and early Naqada III attests a rich cemetery of great tombs at Qustul near the modern Sudanese more important than any in contemporary Egypt. This cemetery contained representational evidence linking it to pharaonic rulers (Williams 1986: 163-83).
F. Emergence of Pharaonic Egypt
The origin of Egypt's all-pervading pharaonic culture is the major problem in the era before the 1st Dynasty. Although scholars do not now generally believe that pharaonic Egypt was essentially the creation of a dynastic race from the northeast, or that the Delta was largely responsible for high culture (Kantor fc.; Krzyzaniak 1977: 14-18), contacts with Mesopotamia are based more firmly on the striking similarity of elements that occur in both countries. These include important artistic motifs, such as a bark approaching a paneled or niched building, intertwined serpents, and paired monsters with long, intertwined necks, as well as cylinder seals and niched brick architecture (Helck 1987: 134-37, Kantor fc.). Even the development of writing may have been accelerated by Mesopotamian contacts (Kantor fc.). Most of these features appear early in Upper Egypt, but Mesopotamian relations remain an important consideration.
1. Ruler, Writing, and Cults. Pharaonic images always depicted or indicated the ruler and the gods in a manner that supported universal order. Certain signs, images, and conventional activities can be traced in progressively earlier representations as early as Naqada I. Standards of known deities appear in the art of Naqada I and II. A pharaonic sacrificial procession appears on monuments of Naqada III, on a painted textile from Gebelein of Naqada I, and in a large wall painting in a tomb dating to the middle of Naqada II at Hierakonpolis that is an organized pharaonic composition (Williams and Logan 1987: 253-57). In Naqada III pharaonic images on ceremonial stone and ivory carvings can be linked with other representations to show that the art of the period was completely pharaonic (Williams 1988). It concentrated on the figure of the pharaoh and his ceremonial activities and often included or reflected political conflict (Kaiser 1964: 89-92). The compositions have brief but definite inscriptions that label persons, objects, possibly situations, and name rulers, such as Narmer and Scorpion, whose monumental carved stone palette and macehead were found at Hierakonpolis. Cults already included the monumental gigantism characteristic of later ages. Stone colossi found at Coptos in the pose of Min were inscribed by Narmer and display the emblem of the god (Anonymous 1988: 41-42).
2. Succession of Rulers. Important lists such as the Turin Papyrus and the Palermo Stone, as well as later mythological texts and the 3d-century historian Manetho, record dynasties and rulers for this early period, but a relationship to actual persons and events is difficult to establish (Helck 1987: 81-114). Archaeological evidence must be used to help reconstruct political geography in Naqada II-III. The large painted tomb of a ruler at Hierakonpolis of mid-Naqada II and comparable tombs at Naqada and Abadiya indicate that Upper Egypt was consolidating into regional sovereignties (Kaiser and Dreyer 1982: 242-45). At the end of Naqada II, these large tombs in different locations were replaced by a unique series of even larger tombs and complexes whose designs lead in a direct possibly dynastic, succession from Naqada III into the 1st Dynasty. At Abydos, double-shaft tombs of three predecessors of the 1st Dynasty, were found: Iry-Hor (Ra), Ka (Sekhen), and Narmer. A still earlier tomb at Hierakonpolis, a long trench with a side chamber, may be assigned to Scorpion. Qustul's great trench and side-chamber tombs may fill the hiatus between Scorpion and the latest rulers of Naqada II to complete a series that led to the 1st Dynasty. (Williams 1986: 177).
G. Consolidation of Egypt
In early Naqada II, the northern Nile Valley was divided among northern Egyptian cultures, the Naqada culture, and the Nubia
A-Group. By mid-Naqada II, Naqada culture cemeteries appeared in the delta, indicating that control of the southern delta and the entire valley had passed to the south. By Naqada III, the vast cemeteries at Tarkhan and Tura indicate that the Naqada culture now had regional centers in an area that had been the core of northern Egypt. The geographical completion of ancient Egypt, if not its unity, had essentially been accomplished, for records of conflict parallel the consolidation of regional centers. At the same time, trade with Asia and Sudan expanded, leaving northern Sinai dotted and A-Group Nubia lined with sites. The culmination of the consolidation is reflected in monuments at Abydos in Dynasty 0, followed by great but secondary funerary monuments at Saqqara and elsewhere in the 1st Dynasty. At this time, the overland routes across Sinai became inactive and Lower Nubia was largely abandoned. Having developed in contact with so many peoples, Egypt began her 1st Dynasty as a solitary eminence in northeastern Africa.
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