Des éléphants, des hippopotames et des mouflons. Trois hypothèses de marqueurs animaux d’identités régionales pendant les périodes de Nagada I-II

Abstract

In the field of Predynastic studies, the question of cultural homogenization between Upper and Lower Egypt has attracted much more attention than the less visible case of cultural discrepancies amongst settlement centers within Upper Egypt. Since the pioneer work of Elizabeth Finkenstaedt, few studies have sought to highlight possible regional idiosyncrasies, and hardly any in the field of iconography, so much that the case has remained that of rather vague ‘ painting styles’. A thorough study of rock art depictions and their plotting on a GIS offers a unique opportunity to open this case again. Indeed, the clear-cut geographical separation between two very different and yet contemporary renderings of the ears in elephant depictions enables one to hypothesize a specialization of different Upper Egyptian settlement zones in roaming and exploiting different desert areas. While this could not be remarked by examining contemporary artifacts due to scarcity of comparable depictions of known provenance, evidence related to two other animal species, namely the hippopotamus and Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia) show the same clear-cut distinction both between urban centers and desert areas, as well as convincing correlations with the two types of elephants. While the former has not been found anywhere outside the Eastern Desert, the latter is almost entirely restricted to rock art attestations in the Theban and Western desert, with a few occurrences as far as the western oasis of Dakhla or Nubia. Material culture shows an equally exclusive distribution, Barbary sheep being found mostly in cemeteries inside the Qena bend area and hippos overwhelmingly in a 20-kilometer perimeter around Abydos. This paper will therefore argue for the existence of ‘ regional hallmarks’ in the Naqada I-II iconography produced in the regions around Abydos and Naqada-Nubt, with a possible very special status for Hierakonpolis.