The
Predynastic of Upper Egypt (Southern)
Introduction
1. In the upper reaches of the Egyptian Nile
south of the Fayum A, a very different tradition emerged after 5000 BC, one
that earlier and more completely made the transition to a domesticated
subsistence base and one that developed a social system in which hierarchy and
differentiation were central qualities.
As part of this southern system emerged emphasis on the symbols of rank,
the long-distance networks needed to acquire them, and the craft specialization
required to produce them.
2. All this contrasts with the more basic Neolithic way of life of Lower Egypt where society did not develop such internal differentiation and where hunting/gathering long remained an important part of the economy. (This latter situation was possibly due to the wider potentials for this type of activity in the Fayum and Delta regions than in the more restricted valley of the south).
3. This early separation of basic subsistence strategies accompanied cultural separation that is reflected in the archaeological record by the following features:
- Much greater elaboration of pottery, jewelry,
and lithic items in the south than in the north
- Cemetery burial in south as opposed to in-settlement burial in north.
-
Representational sculpture in the south, none in the north.
- Substantial architecture in south, less in the
north.
- More artifacts of power (maces, crowns etc.)
in the south than in the north.
4. This diverse situation is another example of the broader Middle Eastern Neolithic experimentation with different ways of life that were best adapted to the opportunities and limitations of the specific areas in which they developed. Again, people made choices that they perceived as best serving their needs, using the specific tools at their command.
The Cultural Sequence of Upper Egypt
1. The
following cultural phases have been described through their archaeological
remains:
Badarian ca 4500-4000 contemporary with Fayum A
of the North
Amratian
(Naqada I): ca 4000-3500
contemporary with the northern Merimde
Gerzean
(Naqada II): ca 3500-3300 contemporary with the northern Ma’adi.
Naqada III: ca 3300-3100 in both north and
south.
2. During this period the southern tradition (Upper Egyptian) emerged and developed during the Badarian and Amratian/Naqada I cultural phases, then consolidated during the Gerzean/Naqada II and Naqada III phases into a dominant socio/political order, then subsequently became the foundation for 3000 years of Egyptian Civilization.
3. The southern predynastic can be basically described in two segments with Badarian/Amratian (Naqada I), marking a continuum of Neolithic development and Gerzean/Naqada II-Naqada III marking a period of rapid growth and transformation toward complex society that set up the subsequent unification of Egypt.
Badarian/Amratian (Naqada
I) (4500-3500)
1. As in the north, a well-developed Neolithic inventory appears quite suddenly in Upper Egypt probably deriving from Asia (Palestine) during the period contemporary with late Catal Huyuk of Anatolia and, Halafian/Samarran cultures of the eastern Fertile Crescent. This Upper Egyptian Neolithic complex includes the full complement of Asian Neolithic features: sheep, goat, cattle, wheat, barley, with less dependence on hunting and fishing than in the Fayum and Delta communities further north.
2. There is only one well-known and
well-excavated settlement - Gertrude Caton-Thompson's 1920 work at
Hammammiya. Otherwise most of the
information comes from superficial survey and a great deal of cemetery
excavation of variable quality, the best being represented by Sir Flinders
Petrie's early 20th century work at the Naqada cemeteries where he
revealed the entire predynastic cultural sequence.
3. The Hammammiya work stratigraphically confirmed Petrie's seriation. Here Caton-Thompson uncovered a probably semi-sedentary way of life in Badarian times that became permanent by Amratian (Naqada I) and possessed a basic settlement character that typifies both periods:
- Flimsy architecture of skin or mat shelters that later evolved into round pole-and-thatch framed soused daubed with mud with individual hearths.
-
Wind breaks creating shelters for outdoor activities (food preparation, tool manufacture
etc).
-
Grain pits that later became more substantial clay lined silos for food
storage.
4.
The economic features of the Badarian/Amratian (Naqada I) continuum show
gradual elaboration through time but no major changes the chief economic features
are:
-
Some hunting but most dependence on domesticated animals and plants.
-
The lower focus on hunting is reflected in a utilitarian lithic technology that
is less fine and varied than in the northern (Lower) Egyptian sites. There was greater emphasis on sickle blades
for reaping tools farming and grinding stones for preparation of grains.
-
Later Amratian (Naqada I) stone-flaking (bifacial ripple flaking) and
vessel-shaping is much finer but this was used for "ceremonial,"
non-utilitarian purposes.
-
Upper Egyptian pottery is much finer than in the north with thin red burnished
and polished vessels with black (oxygen-reduced) rims.
-
In later Amratian (Naqada I) times there is some evidence for contact with
other areas in order to acquire raw resources for manufacturing status items of
steatite, turquoise, and copper ore (malachite) from the Red Sea Hills, shell
from the Red Sea, and copper ornaments that may have diffused from Asia. However suggestions of closer contact with
Mesopotamia until Uruk times are implausible.
5.
Technology was chiefly concerned with producing status items. This contrasts with the northern situation
and indicates a progressive development of social complexity and emergence of
social hierarchy. The status inventory
includes:
-
Stone Palettes
-
Ivory combs and spoons
-
Stone vases
-
Clay figurines and later elaborate wood, ivory and pottery figurines.
-
Finely painted pottery
-
Bead jewelry
6.
Funerary feature forecast subsequent developments with cemeteries being located
in the desert fringes outside of the settlements and grave goods contain items
of identity and rank. Important
funerary characteristics are:
-
The buried chamber is usually a simple oval pit roofed by matting and earth.
-
Burials are usually clustered in formal cemeteries.
-
Burial goods include the items noted above and mark the earliest origins of
what was to become the Pharaonic Egyptian emphasis on funerary ritual as an
expression of social ranking.
Gerzean Period (Naqada
II) (3500-3300)
1. The Gerzean (Naqada I) period represents a
short period of rapid change contemporary with the Uruk Expansion of
Mesopotamia. This important period
inaugurated complex ("urban") society in Egypt and built the foundations
for the Egyptian (Pharaonic) Dynastic Tradition and subsequent unification of
the country in the Naqada III period.
2. Two important features characterize this
period:
-
Significant, probably direct, contact with Mesopotamia.
-
Evolution of complex socio/political and economic institutions.
3.
The Gerzean (Naqada II) period was one of emergence of large settlements
dominating the traditional rural pattern:
Hierakonpolis and Naqada in Upper Egypt became the centers of the rival
religious cults of Seth and Horus in Dynastic times. This town remained politically important for a millennium and
persisted in Egyptian political ideology as significant originating centers for
important aspects of state theology.
4.
Excavations at these sites show their evolution from smaller predynastic
villages of the Amratian (Naqada I) period to walled cities containing
monumental sandstone block construction.
At the town of Naqada this monumental building was probably an early
temple – an integral component of the emerging Egyptian Pharaonic
tradition. Residential areas comprised
dense clusters of mud brick dwellings, surrounding courtyards. This proto-urban pattern contrasted greatly
with the more modest settlements of the Delta (i.e.Ma'adi) and clearly
indicated the rise of an urban system of hierarchical institutions, labor
organization, and defense.
The
archaeology (defensive walls, numerous separate towns) and iconography that
appears to represent warfare between towns suggest the rise of inter-settlement
competition and warfare as emerging elites struggled for power. This early development parallels early
developments in Sumer, although the outcome was very different.
5.
Cemeteries were still separated from the settlements as in earlier times. They became much bigger in the Gerzean
(Naqada II) period and more elaborate; some are double-chambered with brick and
timber walls that are plastered and painted.
There are niches for grave offerings that comprise large quantities of
well-crafted pottery and other items made especially for funerary use. This
marks the true beginnings of the funerary cult that characterizes the Pharaonic
tradition.
Funerary
offerings include:
-
Painted pottery
-
Cast copper items
-
Many ivory and stone items (vases and slate palettes)
-
Large "Ripple-flaked" stone ceremonial blades
-
Gold and Silver items (including gold-silver alloy - the "white gold"
favored in Egypt through the Dynastic periods.
-
Lapis lazuli and turquoise jewelry
6.
This architectural and burial elaboration mark the rapid rise of more
centralized administration, the emergence of an elite group of rulers, and
their use of craft specialists to produce the symbols of power that separated
them from commoners.
7.
The beginnings of hieroglyphic probably extend back to the Gerzean (Naqada II)
period. Writing was from the start used
to designate the position, property and rank of the emerging ruling class. This is a very different and more
ideological/political use than in Sumer where it became the medium for commercial
bookkeeping
Asian
Contacts
1.
The rapid construction of the foundations of Egyptian statecraft occurred in
the context of significant contact with the Uruk societies of Southern
Mesopotamia and Susiana as well as with neighboring Palestine in the north.
2. Upper Egyptian societies incorporate
Sumerian symbols in their art and details of Mesopotamian architectural style
in their important buildings and tombs, while Mesopotamian cylinder seals occur
both in Upper Egypt and the late predynastic site of Bhuto in Lower Egypt (the
Delta).
3 Sumerian/Susianian features include:
-
Interlacing serpent motif
-
Hero dominating two animals motif
-
Serpent necked panthers
-
Sumerian clothes
- Niched facades of tomb interiors (later on
exteriors) and temples
4. However, this foreign symbolism is adapted
to the rising Egyptian social/political structure, which, as discussed above,
was very different from that of Mesopotamia.
Thus Sumerian iconography is placed on distinctively Egyptian artifacts
– for instance the slate and stone palettes, the distinctively Egyptian tomb
forms, and later temple facades. This
adaptation shows selective adoption of traits that have been brought by
intensive contact over a short period of time.
They then become submerged in the developing, specifically Egyptian,
cultural tradition of the Pharaonic Age.
5. The routes of contact were via the Upper
Euphrates Drainage – Syria- Palestine via the Mediterranean coast in the
north. This was the period when
Sumerian intrusive towns of the Uruk Expansion spread across this northern
region so the direction of contact was geographically directed towards Levant
and ultimately Egypt from this direction.
In the south another possible route of contact may have led from the
great bend of the Nile in Upper Egypt via the Red Sea and the Red Sea Hills,
either by boat around the peninsula or across it.
6. The nomadic peoples of the Eastern Desert
and Arabian Peninsula may well have acted as middlemen in some of this contact
at a time when these areas were wetter and more habitable than today. There is considerable evidence for Nile
Valley/ Eastern Desert/ Red Sea contact along the coast and in the intervening
regions at this time.
7. The motive for contact may well have been in
part commercial in exploiting the ores of the Red Sea Hills and the Sinai
Peninsula (gold and copper). Equally
important was the acquisition of rank by local Upper Egyptian elites by
monopolizing the trade in valued commodities and the foreign (transcendental)
symbols of ideology that accompanied them
Summary of Upper Egyptian Neolithic
(Predynastic Period)
1.
A cultural/social tradition, distinct from that of the north, emerged in Upper
Egypt, with more complete dependence on domestication, greater emphasis from
the outset on rank and stratification, and the technology required to produce
the specialized symbols of this system.
2. This system slowly evolved during the 4th
millennium, developing the religious, (burial ritual), economic (exploitation
of the Sinai, Eastern Desert and Red Sea Hills raw resources), and political
(emergence of important individuals buried with their symbols of rank)
foundations of the Upper Egyptian tradition.
3. In a last centuries of the 4th millennium
this Neolithic base expanded rapidly in scope to create the beginnings of a
complex, proto urban society with walled towns, probably centered on temples,
inter-settlement competition, accomplished architecture, an elaborate elite
funerary cult, and well-established social ranking, and writing.
4. This development occurred at a time of diffusion of ideas from Mesopotamia in the context of expanding trade networks and the Uruk Expansion, bringing influences to Egypt that possibly including the idea of writing, even though it was put to a different use and used totally different forms than in Sumer. The Sumerian contact may well have helped stimulate the rapid emergence of an urban society during the Gerzean (Naqada II) period and prepared the way for the subsequent establishment of Pharaonic Egypt.