Predynastic Cemetery Research Articles

The Jars from Tomb U-j – a Further Petrographic and Contextual Reassessment

The petrographic investigations of imported vessels from Abydos, published a few years ago in “Egypt and the Levant,” 4 confirmed their origin from different regions of the Levant. In addition to vessels from Early Dynastic royal tombs and from Cemetery B, the samples also included five jars from Predynastic Cemetery U, especially from Tomb U-j. For the latter, such an origin had already become apparent from the archaeological point of view, as well as from NAA and XRF analyses when the material was first published 20 years ago. However, the interpretation of the results of petrographic investigations at the time neglected this option. The new series of samples from Abydos has since been supplemented by 13 additional vessels from U-j and other Cemetery U tombs. The analysis presented below leaves no doubt as to the Levantine origin of the jars and shows that an evaluation of analytical results based on a limited database can easily lead to misinterpretation, which has long hindered the archaeological discussion concerning the significance of these finds. In the case of the U-j jars, this is regrettable as this thus far unique finding is not only important for the understanding of the connections to the Levant from an Egyptian point of view, but also sheds light on the socio-economic developments in different regions of the Levant in the late 4th millennium BCE.

The Grammar of Ornamentation: An Egyptian Predynastic Decorative Continuum

Tags made of mudstone are predominantly found in ancient Egyptian Predynastic cemetery contexts. This study examines the symbolism and significance of mudstone tags with the recurved horns of hartebeests and crescent-shaped mudstone tags. The use of syncretic imagery on these tags provides evidence for the fluidity of artistic perceptions in Predynastic Egypt. Available data suggests that individuals buried with mudstone hartebeest and crescent tags were almost exclusively female. Evidence for use wear and the find locations of the tags in burials indicates these artefacts were likely associated with rituals performed by female individuals.

The ‘overlooked’ Predynastic Cemeteries φ and χ in Abydos

Research into bead string E.01513 in the Egyptian collection of the Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire (RMAH) in Brussels led to the predynastic cemeteries φ and χ in Abydos which were never fully published. A detailed review of the E.E.F. distribution lists related to these cemeteries enabled the identification of specific objects in the RMAH collection, as well as in museum collections in the UK and US, as originating from these φ and χ cemeteries. These objects provide additional insights into the φ and χ grave ensembles as well as the burial customs in Predynastic Abydos.

Contributions of ground‐penetrating radar in research of some predynastic and dynastic archaeological sites at the eastern and western banks of the River Nile, Assiut, Egypt

AbstractThe ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) prospection method has rarely been used previously in Egyptian archaeology and never for a necropolis. Archaeologists have looked at GPR as a powerful method for exploring subsurface spatial patterns in the archaeological record without excavation. The results of the GPR survey were compared with the archaeological excavation outcomes on two archeological sites in Assiut. The first site is the temple located on a rocky bench on the northern slopes of El‐Hamamia, the Eastern bank of the Nile (a part of El Badari civilization period, belongs to Predynastic cemeteries). The second is the rocky tomb at the Western bank of the Nile at Gahdem (belongs to the period from the IXth to the XXXth dynasty). The main purpose of this study is to correlate the types of reflections recorded from GPR profiles and high‐amplitude features visible in amplitude maps with unearthed archaeological features. The applied software was able to process and analyse different digital data set with the given parameters. In each investigated archaeological area, the details of the GPR model are correlated level‐by‐level to the data of archeological excavations of ancient ages and data of the historical documents. Three‐dimensional time‐slices of the GPR data allow the identification of the enhanced targets of potential archaeological interest before planning excavation. Therefore, this research paper can be used as a benchmark to evaluate the efficiency of GPR method for identifying buried archaeological artifacts/vestiges for future archaeological prospection in Egypt.

Traumatism in the Wild Animals Kept and Offered at Predynastic Hierakonpolis, Upper Egypt

AbstractA description is given of the violence‐related pathologies that are observed in a number of wild mammals that were buried in the predynastic cemetery HK6 at Hierakonpolis, Upper Egypt. Unlike other predynastic graveyards, where only domestic cattle, sheep, goat and dogs are interred, the elite cemetery HK6 yielded also a wide variety of wild species that were buried as part of extensive mortuary complexes surrounding the graves of the highest local elite. The animals were interred, singly or in groups, often in graves of their own, but some also accompany human burials. Pathologies were found on the skeletons of 20 of the 38 wild animals discovered thus far, namely 15 anubis baboons (Papio anubis), one leopard (Panthera pardus), one jungle cat (Felis chaus), one hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus), one aurochs (Bos primigenius) and one hippo (Hippopotamus amphibius). Most of the pathologies are healed fractures resulting from violent blows, and a smaller proportion seems to be related to tethering. These conditions indicate that the animals were held in captivity for a prolonged period of time after their capture. The type and frequency of the encountered deformations differ from those seen in wild animals from other, more recent Egyptian cemeteries (Abydos, Tuna el‐Gebel, Gabanet el‐Girou and Saqqara) where mainly metabolic disorders are observed that have been attributed to chronic malnutrition and vitamin D deficiency as a result of inadequate housing in a dark environment. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Animal dung from arid environments and archaeobotanical methodologies for its analysis: An example from animal burials of the Predynastic elite cemetery HK6 at Hierakonpolis, Egypt

Bioarchaeological studies of animal dung from arid environments provide valuable information on various aspects of life in ancient societies relating to land use and environmental change, and from the Neolithic onwards to the animal husbandry and the use of animals as markers of status and wealth. In this study we present the archaeobotanical analysis of animal gut contents from burials in the elite Predynastic cemetery HK6 at Hierakonpolis, Upper Egypt. The study involved analysis of plant macrofossils, phytoliths and pollen applied on samples from two elephants, a hartebeest, an aurochs and five domestic cattle. The study showed that most probably the elephants were given fodder containing emmer spikelets (dehusking by-products) before the animals death. Most of the other animals were also foddered with cereal chaff, but were mainly allowed to browse and graze in the settlement area and near the Nile. The diet of some contained only wild growing plants. The variety of plant remains identified in the stomach contents indicates that the food plants for the animals were obtained from three possible habitats near the site: the river banks, the low desert and the cultivated/anthropogenically modified areas.

Predynastic settlement and cemeteries at Nag el-Qarmila, Kubbaniya

Predynastic settlement and cemeteries at Nag el-Qarmila, Kubbaniya

Dancing or Fighting? A Recently Discovered Predynastic Scene from Abydos, Egypt

A recently discovered painted pottery vessel from the Predynastic cemetery of Umm el-Qaab in Abydos, Egypt (early fourth millennium bc), bears one of the most sophisticated proto-historic scenes surviving from the ancient Near East. The excavators interpreted the scene as a depiction of warfare. A systematic analysis of its various components, however, as well as two similar contemporary scenes, suggests that the scene depicts dancing. It is even possible that the scene represents four stages in a sequence of movement. If so, it is one of the earliest movement notation documents preserved from antiquity.

Towards an AMS Radiocarbon Chronology of Predynastic Egyptian Ceramics

The wide and varied connections between Israel and Egypt during the Early Bronze Age/Predynastic are frequently calibrated through ceramics that depend to a large degree on two seriation methods developed for Predynastic Egypt. Petrie's seriation technique and Kaiser'sStufedating method utilize whole forms from mortuary contexts. Because of the ways they were developed and deployed in Predynastic research, a logical tautology exists that makes their usage highly problematic. Radiocarbon dating of the Predynastic is vital if we are to untangle existing ceramic chronologies. But up to now, almost all14C dates have come from domestic contexts where whole vessels are not usually found and which differ significantly from cemeteries in their ceramic assemblages. A14C-based chronology of whole forms in the Petrie Corpus is thus highly desirable, but has proven elusive until now. Samples of organic materials and Black-Topped Red Ware vessels from over 100 graves in the Predynastic Cemetery, N7000, at Naga-ed-Dêr have recently been submitted for dating with AMS methods, providing the first comprehensive14C chronology of a Predynastic cemetery. The results are compared to a suite of recalibrated dates from Upper Egyptian Predynastic domestic contexts, which allows the14C chronology for the region to be further refined. Absolute date ranges for a number of ceramic forms can be estimated for the first time, and results of early analysis are discussed.

Cognitive capacities, visual representations of a message and the invention of writing in Egypt

For some Egyptologists or linguists, the invention of writing in Egypt appeared all of a sudden. For neuroscientists, it was certainly preceded by a phase of development because it implies a major evolution of the cognitive senses of humans. We have tested this last hypothesis using data from the Predynastic cemetery of Adaïma. It appears that the nature, distribution and arrangement of funerary offerings is directly associated to the biological (age, sex, pathology) and cultural (symbolic artifacts) status of the deceased. This leads us to believe that a very sharp sense of analytical thinking existed concerning the elite and the portrait. The evolution from the portrait to the ideogram seems to have been linear ; phonograms are more specific of the transition from the portrait to the proper name defined by royal power and the pharaoh

The Predynastic Cemeteries at Badari

Dans cet article, l'auteur etudie l'evolution des conditions sociales dans les cimetieres predynastiques de Badari. Il note des differences sensibles avec les autres necropoles de cette region du nord de la Haute Egypte, mais aussi quelques convergences avec d'autres cimetieres predynastiques egyptiens.

AMS Radiocarbon Dates from the Predynastic Egyptian Cemetery, N7000, at Naga-ed-Dêr

Much of our understanding of early periods in Near Eastern archaeology depends on synchronisms with ancient Egypt. Chronological problems in the early Dynastic and Predynastic periods in Egypt indicate that a more accurate radiocarbon-based chronology would be desirable, but dates from the critical Predynastic period are not abundant at this time. Dates from Predynastic cemeteries are unfortunately rare, though reliable radiocarbon dates from these contexts are especially valuable because of their ability to tie relative ceramic chronologies to more recent radiocarbon chronologies from Predynastic settlement sites. Since most of the cemeteries were excavated nearly a century ago, though, the prospects for obtaining radiocarbon dates have seemed dim. This article reports the successful completion of 12 AMS radiocarbon assays on materials from the Predynastic cemetery at Naga-ed-Dêr. Aggregated results indicate the cemetery was probably in use between about 3800 and 3090BC. Four distinct use phases in the cemetery are discerned. The results constitute one of the first series of AMS dates from a suite of individual graves in a Predynastic cemetery where full artefact inventories are known. Not only are they important for themselves, but also for the comparative value the contents of the dated graves have with other interments at other sites. A comparison of these results with other radiocarbon dates from Upper Egypt establishes synchronisms between the cemetery and settlement sites, while helping to fill in gaps in the known radiocarbon chronology.

Descent Group Competition and Economic Strategies in Predynastic Egypt

During the late fourth and early third millennia BC the pristine state of Egypt arose from a group of independent, Neolithic agricultural villages. The traditional explanation of the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt is that Narmer conquered the Delta. A diachronic model based on intergroup competition suggests that a gradual coalescence of polities occurred. Chiefdoms at Nagada, Thinis, and Hierakonpolis are hypothesized to have formed in the middle Predynastic and were then absorbed by the Hierakonpolis polity in the later fourth millennium. Later, the Upper Egyptian polity absorbed the Deltaic one. If such a model is accurate, it may be possible to identify intragroup competition at the level of a single polity (as well as interpolity competition). Here, a mortuary analysis of the large Predynastic cemetery at Naga-ed-Dêr indicates that several descent groups used the facility simultaneously. Grave inventories indicate that the different groups experienced economic trajectories consistent with a competition model. At various times in the use of the cemetery, different groups displayed greater amounts of wealth, and it was derived from different sources. In the earliest phase of the cemetery, trade was directed toward the south. In the second phase evidence of outside trade vanishes at about the time of the Chalcolithic collapse in the Southern Levant. In the third phase, trade rebounds, but now it is oriented toward Syria and Mesopotamia. The outside contacts appear to have been an important element in elites’ gaining and justifying positions of power. The political unification of Egypt may be the result of the efforts of Upper Egyptian chieftains to control the lucrative trade routes with Southwest Asia; the creation of an Egyptian state may then be seen as an unintended consequence, in that it resulted not from the tenuous political unification forged putatively by Narmer, but from a series of actions throughout the first two dynasties to retain and extend economic, political, and ideological control of the Nile Valley.

New 14C Dating of the Archaic Royal Necropolis Umm El-Qaab at Abydos (Egypt)

Since 1977, the German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo has been reexamining the archaic Royal necropolis Umm el-Qaab at Abydos (ca. 500 km south of Cairo). The necropolis consists of the tomb complexes of six kings and one queen of Dynasty I as well as two kings of Dynasty II in the southern part, the cemetery with royal tombs from Dynasty 0 and early Dynasty I in the middle and the predynastic cemetery in the northern part. Although partly destroyed and deprived of most of their contents, the tombs and the remaining artifacts are a major source for the early dynastic period and are of utmost importance for the understanding of predynastic development during Naqada I–III and the chronology of the formation of Egyptian culture. Sixteen newly 14C-dated samples were mainly taken from remains of wooden roofs and coffins, or in the case of the earliest tombs from mattings. The dating results in general are in good accordance with the relative archaeological dating of the tombs, but 100–150 yr earlier than the so far established historical chronology.

New Data on Egyptian Predynastic Cemeteries

L'auteur met en avant des elements provenant des cimetieres qui confirment les interpretations traditionnelles sur l'evolution generale des cultures predynastiques egyptiennes et qui permettent de connaitre les centres de telles cultures en Haute Egypte.

From Farmers to Pharaohs: Mortuary Evidence for the Rise of Complex Society in Egypt

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in multinational, archaeological research into the origins of civilization in the Nile Valley north of Aswan. This has resulted in a more precise definition of the cultural differences between Upper and Lower Egypt in Predynastic times and of the manner in which northern Egypt came to be dominated economically and culturally by southern Egypt in the century or more preceding the beginning of the First Dynasty. In From Farmers to Pharaohs, Kathryn Bard advances this understanding with a reanalysis of material recovered from Upper Egyptian Predynastic cemeteries at Nagada by W. M. F. Petrie in 1894-1895 and at Armant by O. H. Myers in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In Chapter 1 Bard briefly surveys the full range of current theories concerning state formation in Egypt and then provides a detailed and critical review of archaeological work that has been accomplished throughout Egypt relating to the Predynastic period. This includes Bard's own surveys and excavations in the Hu region of southern Egypt between 1989 and 1991. Bard stresses the unique characteristics of ancient Egyptian civilization, especially its symbolic association of major institutions of social control with a mortuary cult that had its origins in the Nagada culture of Upper Egypt. This suggests that the emphasis in the prehistoric archaeological record of Upper Egypt on cemeteries rather than on large urban centers, palaces, and temples is culturally significant rather than an accident relating to the preservation or recovery of the archaeological evidence. Bard's approach accords with Michael Mann's (1986) powerful theoretical formulation concerning multiple sources of power in complex societies. Bard then surveys the general archaeological literature relating to the interpretation of mortuary evidence. For the past 25 years the analysis of burials has been to archaeology what the study of kinship once was to social anthropology: a cutting edge of critical debate and measure of intellectual progress. Bard traces how interpretations of material evidence relating to funerary behavior have been systematically theorized; how alternative theories have been elaborated, tested, and modified; and how progress has been made in building an integrated theoretical framework. Bard pays attention to explanations that seek to account for both cross-cultural regularities and the culturally-specific aspects of mortuary behavior. One of the few major studies she does not consider is Aubrey Cannon's (1989) examination of cyclical fashions and the impact of status emulation on funerary practices. She establishes the persistent tendency, beginning in Predynastic southern Egypt, for funerary customs to reflect social status through the elaboration of graves and grave contents. The theoretical literature suggests that the longterm persistence of this practice may be a culturally-specific eature of ancient Egyptian society. A third chapter, dealing with the chronology of the Upper Egyptian Predynastic period, is followed by the application of divisive cluster analysis (specifically the BMDP K-means clustering technique) to detect socially significant cultural patterning in Predynastic cemeteries at Armant and Nagada. At Armant a well-documented cemetery containing about 200 graves exhibits increasing mean sizes of graves and quantities of grave goods from the Nagada I to IIIa periods (3800-3050/2950 B.c.). Cluster analysis reveals a continuation of small numbers of relatively richer and large numbers of relatively poorer burial types into the Nagada IIIa period, when the poorer graves tend to disappear. The geographical division of the Armant cemetery into east and west sections also suggests some kind of moiety or descent group division within the A mant community. The absence of evidence for complex social hierarchies and for a clearly differentiated elite is in keeping with the interpretation of Armant as a small farming community. Nagada, which was one of the major centers of Predynastic Upper Egypt, is associated with a series of cemeteries containing about 3000 graves, half of which had their contents recorded. These cemeteries contained some

Maadi I: The Pottery of the Predynastic Settlement. By Ibrahim Rizkana and Jürgen Seeher. Maadi II: The Lithic Industries of the Predynastic Settlement. By Ibrahim Rizkana and Jürgen Seeher. Maadi III: The Non-Lithic Small Finds and the Structural Remains of the Predynastic Settlement. By Ibrahim Rizkana and Jürgen Seeher. Maadi IV: The Predynastic Cemeteries of Maadi and Wadi Digla. By

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsMaadi I: The Pottery of the Predynastic Settlement. By Ibrahim Rizkana and Jürgen Seeher. Maadi II: The Lithic Industries of the Predynastic Settlement. By Ibrahim Rizkana and Jürgen Seeher. Maadi III: The Non-Lithic Small Finds and the Structural Remains of the Predynastic Settlement. By Ibrahim Rizkana and Jürgen Seeher. Maadi IV: The Predynastic Cemeteries of Maadi and Wadi Digla. By Ibrahim Rizkana and Jürgen Seeher.James M. WeinsteinJames M. Weinstein Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Archaeology Volume 98, Number 2April 1994 The journal of the Archaeological Institute of America Views: 1Total views on this site Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/506645 Views: 1Total views on this site Copyright © 1994 by the Archaeological Institute of America. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Archéologie funéraire et anthropologie : l’exemple du cimetière prédynastique d’Adaïma (Haute-Égypte)

Funerary archeology and anthropology : the predynastic cemetery of Adaima. 65 graves have been excavated in the predynastic cemetery of Adaima, which cover the Nagada period. An anthropological approach has been undertaken, which allowed to reconsider the question of mortuary practices and put new light on the problem of cannibalism. These first results establish the archeological potentiality of Adaima and allow to recognize the importance of the field anthropology for a better understanding of ancient cemeteries.

L’anthropologie de terrain : Le particularisme Egyptien

Field anthropology : particularities of Egypt . After a short review of «Field Anthropology» we show that in this field scarcely anything has been done in ancient Egypt while the potentialities are very important. A problematic, taking into account the historical and taphonomic problems of the Nile valley, is defined. The first «Field Anthropology» studies on the Predynastic cemetery of Adaïma give new datas about mortuary practices of this period but also about methodological problems of osteo-archaeology.

The Evolution of Social Complexity in Predynastic Egypt: An Analysis of the Naqada Cemeteries

A large territorial state emerged in Egypt by 300 BC, but its origins are not well known. Because what we know about the Predynastic period is mainly from cemeteries, archaeological evidence for the rise of the state in Egypt is lacking. An analysis of the largest Predynastic cemetery at Naqada shows increasingly differentiated graves over time, as well as an increasing interest in elite goods. An interpretation of the cemetery analysis seems to indicate increasing social differentiation and very possibly the emergence of political roles.