Some Recent Trends in the Archaeology of Predynastic Egypt

Abstract

The traditional explanation of the origin of Egypt credits the legendary Menes with founding the state through the conquest of the Delta region, but this is more of a political legend than explanation. Anthropological archaeologists and Egyptologists are bringing new methods and questions to their search for an adequate explanation for the development of one of the world's first territorial states. Early investigations of cemetery sites in Upper Egypt and settlements in the Delta have been supplemented by the excavation of more Upper Egyptian settlement sites, while cemeteries and other important settlements are now being uncovered in the Delta. Three trends are particularly important for the development of social complexity in ancient Egypt: (1) a growing appreciation of regional differences in Predynastic culture; (2) chronological refinements; and (3) an emphasis on group social and political developments, and trade. A consensus appears to be developing that stresses the gradual development of complex society in Egypt, in which a number of small polities coalesced into three or four larger entities during the late Predynastic, followed by the assimilation of the northwestern Delta by the Thinite rulers. The effort to control trade with the southern Levant and Mesopotamia seems to have encouraged expansion of Upper Egyptian cultural and political influence northward.