http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ mirrored file For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== [*_Back to the Main Page_*] <../index.htm> *The Origins of the Ancient Egyptian State: from Predynastic to Early Dynastic* Lectures by F. Raffaele in Faenza (Sede del Rione Giallo) and Imola (CISE), February 25-26, 2004 [Lectures sketch] * **Italian Version: _HERE _* *- FIRST PART -* Slides Sketch 1. Map of Egypt Introduction. outlining the scheme and development of my discussion: - SPACE (Upper and Lower Egypt); - TIME (Temporal boundaries of Prehistory, Predynastic and Dynastic periods) - PURPOSE: Showing the millenary continuity in various aspects of the ancient Egyptian cultural tradition within the context of State formation (a durable process which developed along the end of Predynastic and the beginning of Dynastic period) through the description of some of the most important remains of the material culture and their interpretations. *ENVIRONMENT* Stress on environmental archaeology since the 1970s (K. Butzer). Natural barriers in Predynastic Egypt (Northern sea, Eastern and Western 'deserts', Southern Nile cataracts) THE RESOURCES - Stones, timber, gold, minerals, semiprecious stones. Plants and animals. - Foundation of important predynastic settlements in strategic locations controlling trade (Maadi, Buto, Thinis, Elephantine) or access routes to the Eastern Desert quarries (Koptos, Naqada, Hierakonpolis). THE NILE RIVER - Benefìts of annual flood (wide valley, agriculture) - Comfortable and fast navigation (N-S communication) - Effects of these factors in mythology, religion, rituals: the boats (from rock-art to the funerary "Solar barks" buried beside mastabas and pyramids, to the bark as a synonym of 'feast' in early writing, to the ceremonies involving boats processions, the boats as a means of communication with the Netherworld. Analogies between Nile River and Milky Way. CLIMATE - Pleistocene earliest dry phases (+50000 BP). Modern palaeoclimatological studies. - Dry Middle-Holocene (c. VIth Millennium BC) and moister Subpluvial Neolithic (c. Vth Millennium BC) - CONSEQUENCES of the climatic changes and of their increasing incidence during the Predynastic: Melting of cultures since Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic as a result of peoples migrations caused by the sudden climatic changes. Common cultural features in Nile Valley, Sudanese and Sahara Neolithic: - Lithic industries: concave base arrowheads / - Wavy line/ pottery decorations - Egypt as a crossover of cultures (Western and Eastern Desert populations moved towards the Nile Valley mixing with local peoples settled since Palaeolithic. Influxes from Near East -animals and plants domestication-, and the Southern Africa). - This ethno-cultural dynamism is also reflected in the field of linguistics: The Afro-Asiatic (Libyco-Berber, Chadic, Ancient Egyptian, Kushitic, Omotic and North/South Western and Eastern Semitic languages families). * NEOLITIZATION AND NEOLITHIC* VIIIth-IVth Millennium BC in the Western Desert: Nabta Playa Second half of the VIth millennium -Vth millennium Fayyum (Fayum A, c. 5300-4200 BC) - Aftermath of "Neolithic Revolution" (agriculture): villages, more and more socially stratified societies, emerging elites, specialization. - BADARIAN (c. 4600-3900 BC): General features: Settlements, cemeteries, material culture, sustenance, trade; beginning of main socio-cultural transformations. Types of objects of daily and funerary use, contacts and relationships with Fayum, Upper Egypt (Naqada I) and Sudan (Khartoum Neolithic); social stratification evidenced through tombs and gravegoods analysis. * EVOLUTION OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCIPLINE* Old excavations and past theories: late XIXth and early XXth Century - Different methods, aims and needs in past archaeological excavations Influence of 'large and medium range theories' and of politics (colonialism) on the philosophical and scientific thought - Evolution(ism) (Darwinism) - Diffusionism and "Dynastic Race" - The "quest for museum masterpieces" archaeology New theories and researches; modern and more specific fields of investigation, objectives, technologies. Live interest for Predynastic and Protodynastic Egypt; increasing studies and publications. *SUMMARY OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORIES ON THE ORIGIN OF STATE/CIVILIZATION* 2. Chronological table Naqada I-II-III & subphases (aft. K. Cialowicz, 2001, 38, fig. 3) 3. W-ware evolution (aft. B. Adams, 1988, 27, fig. 13) 4. Naqada I-III tombs and gravegoods (aft. B. Adams, 1988, 16, fig. 4 with some modifications) * THE PREDYNASTIC CHRONOLOGY* The three phases of Naqada Culture. How was this subdivision achieved? - W.M.F. Petrie: Amratian, Gerzean and Semainean. Contexts' seriation (1899, 1901, 1920). /Sequence dating/ and the bases of relative chronology. The units groupings SD: 30-39, 40-62, 63-80. - Typologies and artefacts corpora (influence of the Evolutionism) - Wavy-handled ware development - W. Kaiser: Armant cem. 1400-1500 and the /Naqadakulturstufen / (1957, 1990). - S. Hendrickx: further improvement to the system (1989, 1994, 1996, 1999). - Terminology: "Late Predynastic", "Protodynastic", "Archaic Period" and /dynasties/. *- SECOND PART -* 5.- 6. Palettes 7. - 8. C-ware vessels 9. Gebelein textile *NAQADA I *(c. 3900-3600BC) Matmar - Kubbaniyeh area with its core in the Qena bend (Diospolis, Naqada) - Upper Egyptian culture (links with Badarian and Sudanese facies; differences with Lower Egyptian culture) - Increasingly marked social stratification (particul. in Naqada Ic-IIa). Tribal societies and simple chiefdoms - Few traces of semi-permanent settlements. Sustenance activities and interregional contacts. - Rock art of Western and Eastern Desert. Interpretation and stylistical analogies. - Grave-goods and their typological evolution; their practical, and magic-symbolical purpose B, C, P ware and stone vessels Cosmetic schist palettes ('slate'): practical and ritual use rhomboidal palettes with rare incised motifs (elephant, hippopotamus hunt, symbols) zoomorphic palettes (fishes, amphibious, mammals) and early /pelta/ shapes Magical/apotropaic amulets Pottery figurines and statuettes (praying women, wild/domestic animals, barks...) Mace-heads (disk shaped) - Interpretation of C-ware decorations (types of motifs and scenes; regional styles) Representations of human beings (Brussels E3002 , London UC15339 , Abydos t. U-239 ) (earliest violent rituals and high-sized /portraits/ of chiefs/gods) - The Gebelein textile in Museo Egizio, Turin (suppl. 17138). Date (late Naqada I- early Naqada II [Naqada Ic-IIa(b), c. 3550BC] Resemblance with scenes and motifs painted on C (and D) pottery and incised in Desert rock art. The Heb Sed (anthropology of regicide; purpose, phases/ceremonies, periodicity of historical Heb-Sed) - The oldest traits of sacred/divine kingship begin to emerge: The king as a champion/hero/annihilator of foe/chaos and partisan of /Maat/: Hippopotamus and other wild beasts hunt Royal attributes: Crowns, feathers/horns on the head, bull/lion tail, penis sheath, sticks and scepters - Elites and chiefs: Cemeteries: separation of nuclei of tombs belonging to the ruling classes. Statistical analysis and other data (wider, better built, more and better furnished tombs) global synthesis and comparison of Naqadan cemeteries: J.J. Castillos, B. Kemp, K. Bard, T. Wilkinson Some 'Amratian' tombs: Hierakonpolis, Locality 6, t. 14, (c. 10 years old elephant, Naqada Ic period) Naqada, t. 1610 (red crown relief on a B-ware sherd) Abadiya, tombs 101, 102 Abydos, earliest tombs in U-cemetery: tomb U-239. 10. Nile Valley model-settlement (aft. B. Williams, 1994, 277) 11. Cultural and political regional units during Naqada II (aft. B. Kemp, 1989, 34, fig. 8) 12. - 13. D-ware vessels 14: Hierakonpolis painted tomb 100 and Naqada tomb T5 15. Tomb 100 painting 16. Detail of the painting *NAQADA II *(c. 3600-3350/3300BC) Northward and southward expansion of the 'Gerzean' cultural area'. - Higher structural complexity of society: ruling élites and developed /chiefdoms/. Coercive strategies. - Central and peripheric settlements Alluvial settlements on ancient Nile islands in strategic locations for the control of wadis and/or trade Fortifications (mud walls or palisades): permanent settlements and sedentarization - Propensity for cultural-territorial encroachment towards Lower Egypt and Lower Nubia - All-levels specialization (ideological, technological, artistic, political-organizative, commercial) - Material culture 'Bearded men' statuettes (ivory, stone) Stone vessels fashioned in several shapes Mace-heads (pear-shaped) Knife handles (extreme skill in working and retouching the /ripple flake/ flint), flint animals figurines Palettes (zoomorphic, scutiform/shield-shaped) Amulets (Bull head, small palettes) Pottery: R-, D-, W-ware Objects of personal and domestic use - The sense of D-ware paintings (more standardized than the previous phase ones): (representations of the /Underworld/, of ceremonies/rites/funerary processions, legends/folklore, divinities...) - Cemeteries and tombs of regional leaders (Hierakonpolis loc. 33, loc. 6; Naqada T) Crude mud brick, large rectangular tombs, funerary gravegoods and exotic materials ('powerfacts'). Hierakonpolis tomb 100 (size: 4.5 x 2.0 x 1.5m; date: Naqada IIC, c. 3450BC) Main motifs of the wall painting : Boats procession. Mace armed chief smashing the enemies' heads. The "lord of the animals". Conflicts. Hunt. Trapping. Early prototypes of base-lines (registers). (Analogies with the Gebelein textile and the D-ware decorations). Interpretations proposed. - Mesopotamic/Elamite influences (Uruk V-IV, Susa II) Statuettes, iconographic features, imported seals. 17. Gerzeh palette 18. - 19. Hierakonpolis palette 20. Gebel Arak knife handle 21. Abu Zeidan knife handle 22. Carnarvon knife handle 23. Gebel Tarif knife handle 24. Seyala mace handle 25. Qustul incense burners (aft. K. Cialowicz, 2001, 61, fig. 2) * NAQADA II-III TRANSITION* - Cultural expansion to the area East of the Fayum (Gerzeh, Harageh, Abusir el Meleq) and into Lower Nubia - Earliest seal-impressions from Abydos U-cemetery (implications for the administration development) - Earliest relief decorations on the surface of palettes (Manchester /Ostriches, Gerzeh , El-Amrah/Min ) Proposed interpretations and implications for the formation and development of ruling classes' ideology - Knife handles (attached to the most beautiful /ripple-flake /flint blades ever worked out/)/ - Interpretations proposed for the carved scenes and motifs (/ordered/ animals rows; processions of soldiers, prisoners, offering bearers, boats; battles) - Ritual-symbolical use/purpose of these prestige objects. - Relative and absolute datation: New ivory handles from Abydos (cemetery U, t. 503 , 127 ); recently cleared one from Hierakonpolis (Ashmolean E4975 ) - Examples of ivory knife-handles: - Gebel el-Arak (Louvre Museum) - Abu Zeidan (Brooklyn Museum) - Carnarvon (Metropolitan Museum) - Gebel Tarif (Cairo Museum) gold handle - Mace-heads (pear-shaped) with carved ivory handles or with incised/hammered gold-leaf handle cover Seyala mace (cemetery 137, tomb 1) Ideological background and ritual use. Stylistical resemblance to the Gebel Tarif handle decoration Origin (Egyptian manufacture and gift of an UE chief Nekhen or Nubian origin?). - Digression on Lower Nubia 'proto-states' (/Ta-Seti/) early in Naqada III (Qustul, Seyala, Afieh). A-Group (classical and terminal). General features. The great 'royal' tombs of cemetery L at Qustul and prestige objects (incense burners, seals, stone vases...) Relationships with Egypt and Palestine. Long distance trade. B.B. Williams' hypothesis on Ta-Seti and the origin of Egyptian tradition (bias and confutation). 26. Model landscape and stages of formation of ruling centres from small hamlets and villages: political expansion (aft. B. Kemp, 1989, 33, fig. 7) 27. Naqada III: the 'Proto-kingdoms' 28. Chronological table *NAQADA III: * * GENESIS OF A STATE *(from 3320/3300BC to Early Dynastic period): The cradle of State Formation - Macroregional "proto-states" in Upper Egypt. Enlargement of political-territorial units which absorb the closer ones Anthropological theories on the origin of ancient states: - Mono-causal hypotheses (environment, population pressure, trade/resources monopoly, low resources competition, hydraulic technology, war, personal authority and decisions) - Multi-causal theories (more factors at work, their interaction and feedback) Biases, limits and possible evaluation/interpretative mistakes in reconstructing the relevancy of old politics from the archaeological data (more or less known and documented cemeteries). Towns in (pre-)dynastic Egypt - Causes of the scanty archaeological evidence of urban sites (modern cities, deep stratification of alluvial deposit, sebakkhin) - Nile Valley archaeology: an unbalanced knowledge (much better known, with but few exceptions, for/from cemeteries than for settlement sites) - The picture from the Delta according to the two recent decades of archaeological campaigns - Lower Egypt: General features of ancient Maadi-Buto culture late in Naqada I up to early Naqada II (less social inequalities emerging from funerary contexts, emphasis on trade with Southern Canaan) - /Naqadization/ of Northern Egypt (apparently non-traumatic cultural superimposition) Gerzeh, Harageh, Abusir el-Meleq area during Naqada IID Nile Delta: Tell Fara'in-Buto, Minshat Abu Omar, Tell Ibrahim Awad, Tell el-Farkha (Naqada IID-IIIC) (the "Transitional layer"; scarce traces of destruction and struggles) - Reasons of the spreading of the Naqada culture (population pressure, monopoly of trade with the Southern Levant) Formation and canonisation of divine kingship Rulers start to appropriate symbols, objects and attributes proper of the previous periods' leaders (iconography of powerful individuals portrayed on rock-art and artifacts decorations during the first half of IVth millennium BC) 29. Abydos. Plan of Cemetey U (aft. G. Dreyer, 1998, fig. 1) 30. Abydos, tomb U-j (photo) 31. Abydos, tomb U-j (plan) 32. - 33. Some inscribed tags from tomb U-j 34. Scorpions (ink inscribed on cylinder jars) 35. Seal impressions from Abydos cemetery U 36. Koptos colossi 37. Predynastic kings list (as reconstructed by G. Dreyer) 38. Gebel Tjauti graffito *ABYDOS (THINIS) DURING NAQADA IIIA* - Abydos Cemetery U. Tomb U-j Absolute and relative datation: c. 3300±50 BC, Naqada IIIA1 The constructional features: 2 crude mud-brick courses; size 9.10 x 7.5m, 12 rooms, 2 building phases Reconstruction of the tomb as a model royal palace (slits between the chambers). The southern /Opferplatz/. Principal findings from tomb U-j: ivory /heka/ scepter, c. 2000 vessels (about 1/3 of which were Palestinese imports) carved ivory knife-handles fragments small obsidian vase decorated in the shape of two hands bone and ivory tags (150+) with incised hieroglyphic indications ink inscriptions on cylinder (W) vessels (scorpion, shells, bucranium, fish...) - The Egypt most ancient true writing attestations: Administration and royal propaganda; morphological characteristics Examples of reading/epigraphy of some tags' signs - phonetic reading of places where the labelled containers and their contents came from (Bubastis, Buto, Abydos districts, Elephantine, some /nomos/; cf. Kahl, in: CdE 2003) - ideographical, logographical, phonetic signs; numerals. - The alleged "King Scorpion" and the predynastic kings list proposed by G. Dreyer: Dreyer's hypothesis and recent critics to his reading of the royal names (including /Scorpion/'s own one) (Kemp, Kahl, Breyer) - Political /status/ of the owner of tomb U-j of Abydos: /Thinite/ chief or king of an already unified Egypt? - Seal impressions from cemetery U: the meaning of scenes/motifs and socio-administrative implications The earliest Egyptian seal impressions: Naqada (tombs and South Town), Naga ed-Der, Mahasna, Matmar, Abusir el-Meleq... - Religion and (monumental) statuary: the Min Colossi from Koptos: stylistical analogies (Mac Gregor statuette in Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) inscriptions/reliefs and their possible meaning (kings names; gods and/or localities emblems/names) - B. Williams' identification of Narmer's name on the Cairo Museum colossus, and its relevancy for Dreyer's kings' names hypothesis: critics to both the reconstructions - parallels between the signs on the Colossi and those found on other objects - War and submission: Gebel Tjauti tableau 1 - description and interpretations (both in political and in symbolical key) (T. Wilkinson, R. Friedman/S. Hendrickx, J. Kahl) 39. - 41. Both sides of the Battlefield palette and detail of the lion 42. Towns (Tehenu) palette 43. Early anonymous serekhs 44. Gebel Sheikh Suleiman 45. King Scorpion mace-head 46. Naqada IIIB: serekh signs *NAQADA IIIB: TOWARDS THE POLITICAL UNIFICATION OF EGYPT *(c. 3200-3050 BC) - Hypotheses on the modalities of Egyptian political Unification (Kaiser, Von der Way, Trigger, Kemp, Köhler, Campagno) - Conflicts with neighbouring peoples (Libya, Delta, Asiatics, Nubians, Bedouins) or internal conflicts? Violence as a magical-symbolical-apotropaic need or as a mirror of real socio-political tensions? Palettes with violent scenes (Battlefield, Tehenu, Bull palettes), brief description and interpretations - The oldest anonymous /serekhs/ from the southern part of U-cemetery at Abydos. What is a /serekh /? - Royal ideology propaganda or real events chronicles? Decorated objects and rock-art: The main graffito at Gebel Sheikh Suleiman and the beginning of the A-Group decadence (global sense of the scene and some fresh notes on the anonymous serekh) - King Scorpion (II) at Hierakonpolis: his mace-head in Oxford, Ashmolean Museum (E3632 ) The /rosettes/ in Late Predynastic Egypt. King Scorpion: a Thinite or a Hierakonpolite ruler? - HIERAKONPOLIS (/Nekhen/): The site, Horus temple, 'main deposit', Locality 29A ceremonial centre, Locality 6 élite and animal tombs Which role did Hierakonpolis play in the Late Predynastic political panorama? - "Dynasty 0": Thinis/Abydos, Hierakonpolis and other regions' kings ('Crocodile': a Fayum /Gegenkönig/?) *- THIRD PART -* 47. Narmer mace-head 48. - 49. Narmer palette 50. Abydos: subsidiary tombs B16 (Horus Aha) 51. Djet comb (Louvre) 52. Ivory statuette of a king wrapped in the Heb Sed garment (from Abydos) 53. - 54. Saqqara mastabas (First Dynasty) 55. Hemaka/Den label 56. Merka stela (Saqqara tomb S3505) 57. The royal necropolis at Abydos, Umm el-Qaab: tomba Q (Horus Qaa) 58. S3507, S3038 and Djoser complex/pyramid 59. Saqqara, tomb A *NAQADA IIIC-D: THE FIRST DYNASTIES AND THE NEW BORN STATE* The definitive "Political Unification" (?) - Narmer's mace-head and palette : description and interpretations offered (again, chronicle of real events or symbolic representations?) The identity of the defeated ones (theories) and the meaning of the single acts and motifs shown - Narmer reign (the apex of southern Palestine contacts): Digression on the relations between Egypt and Levant all through the Early Bronze I (EB I, c. 3500-3000BC) - the nature of contacts with the /'colonies' / in Palestine (Lebanon, Syria) (wine, oils, timber) ('En Besor, Arad, Tel Erani, Smal Tel Malhata, Halif Terrace, Palmahim, Tel Lod, N. Sinai...) New (and last) Mesopotamic influx: the /palace façade/ Richer information on single sovereigns and their reigns Some significant finds from Narmer period: (earliest serekh signs incised/in relief on stone vases; labels; seals; Hierakonpolis Main Deposit) - Later "historical" sources (Den and Qa'a necropolis sealings; annals; New Kingdom royal lists; Herodotus; Manetho) The Egyptian chronology (sothic cycle, Egyptian calendar, C-14 and the Near East chronologies) - "Menes" (theories and debates on his identity) - _The ideology_ of dynastic state: continuity of some traditions, rejection and rielaboration of other ones Conspicuous consumption - Mass human sacrifices (ethnographical comparison with other incipient-state societies) - Monumental architecture (tombs, temples). Abydos royal necropolis B . - /Arts/ (time and efforts taken to fashion some objects and to procure rare/exotic materials) Cosmology, religion, divine kingship and the concept of /Maat/ - Fighting the enemy and eliminating or ruling chaos and the unruled/ / (symbolic meaning of the motif of smashing enemies' heads with a mace; ritual hunt) - Djet ivory comb from Abydos (Louvre) - Serekh and 'palace façade' (royal names, administrative inscriptions, artifacts, stelae...) - The royal jubilee (Heb Sed) SAQQARA AND MEMPHIS The foundation of a new capital in northern Egypt (reasons). Ancient Memphis (underneath modern Abu-Sir) - The administrative élite cemetery at North Saqqara Some tombs of the 1st Dynasty (Hemaka/S3035, Herneith/S3507, Nebitka/S3038 , Merka/S3505) - Hints at the structures and their developments - Quibell, Firth, Emery excavations: the finds - Debates on the ownership of the mastabas? The "Abydos vs. Saqqara" question. - _The state administration_ subsystem in the Early Dynastic period A label of Hemaka (Den) - Epigraphy, practical use and 'year events' (ceremonies, sieges and else) - Parallel with tomb U-j tags: the evolution of the writing system Multiplying titles, officials and offices, both administrative and religious: Merka stela (from t. S3505) - Epigraphic explanation, function and evolution of private stelae - _Foreign politics_: Lower Nubia, Libya, Eastern Desert, Sinai and Palestine (labels of Aha , Den , Qaa <8qaa.htm>) ABYDOS, UMM EL-QA'AB - First (and Second) Dynasty royal tombs - Funerary enclosures at Kom es-Sultan (North Abydos) - Architectural and ideological progress: palace façade enclosure walls, inner tumuli, step pyramids - The shift of the royal necropolis to Saqqara early in the Second Dynasty Saqqara royal tombs south of Djoser complex: A (Hotepsekhemui), B (Nineter) e C . - Evolution of the underground chambers, function and reference model (royal palace) - Hypothesis on the superstructures - Hints to the history of the Second Dynasty: old theories and new evidence: Civil war (?). Horus and Seth conflict. Khasekhemwy's re-unification. Buto and Elephantine excavations The great achievement in the reign of Horus-Seth Khasekhemwy (stone masonry, relief and statuary, military raids, bureaucracy, foreign relations). 60. Djoser statue 61. Hesyra wooden panel * EARLY OLD KINGDOM AND THE STATE MATURITY* The state on the threshold of the full maturity. Hints at the Third Dynasty history. - Monuments and art. - Central organization. Taxation. Provinces. Resources exploitation.Long distance trade management. - Technological specialisation. Cities. Administration. Writing (progress as against previous periods). - The institution of divine kingship and the refined ideology. - Conclusions. The fruits of the pharaonic civilisation's /formative tree/: the classic period of the great pyramids. Total time should be 190-200 minutes; the effettive time of the lecture has been c.100 minutes *[_Back to the Main Page_]* <../index.htm>