Hierakonpolis 2000/01 Acknowledgment The members of the Hierakonpolis Expedition would like to extend sin- cere thanks to the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiqui- ties, Dr. Gaballa A. Gaballa, and the other members of the Permanent Committee for their kind permission to continue and expand our investi- gations. Our work would not be pos- sible without the generous assistance of Fathy Abu Zeid, Director General Solar hot water system. Fathy Abu Zeid, Director General of Edfu Antiquities, and our on-site of Edfu Antiquities inspectors, Adel Kalany and Osama Many many thanks to the Friends of Ismael Ahmed. We are grateful for their help in all aspects of this season’s Nekhen who made this possible. Your help work and for their continuing efforts to protect the desert site of is greatly appreciated !(See Hierakonpolis Hierakonpolis. Home Page for further information.) Vol. 13 2001 2 Tales of the Unexpected —by Renée Friedman Work at Hierakonpolis never fails to perts work together on the wide range produce interesting discoveries, but the of material we have found at all of these new and continued excavations, explo- sites, we are little by little getting an rations, analysis, and conservation un- ever clearer view of the formative fac- dertaken in the 2000/2001 season re- tors that led to the development of one vealed new findings beyond even our of the world’s most enduring civiliza- (occasionally overambitious) expecta- tions. tions. From under the sand to under It was all better than we could have the microscope, amazing new things hoped for, and even the tomb of were found, the full ramifications of Hormose, after three years of intensive which we are only just beginning to conservation and recording, had more understand. secrets to reveal. As each unexpected As usual, Barbara Adams kicked off discovery was made, the buzz within the season in November, 2000. While the camp grew, as did the display we awaiting the publication of ESA4, Ex- laid out for the many visitors we wel- cavations in the Locality 6 Cemetery at comed this season. Hierakonpolis 1979-1985 (BAR 903), One unexpected guest was Phoebe which came out in December 2000, she the falcon, who, after an unfortunate returned to the elite cemetery at Lo- encounter with the power lines, found cality 6 with the very reasonable goal a haven at the dig house while being of finding more human remains. What nursed back to health by Helena she found instead casts a completely Jaeschke of Barbara’s team. Back in new light on the political, architectural, good flying form by December, she still and sculptural history of Upper Egypt Serena Giuliani examining a pot from the comes to visit now and again. in the Naqada II period. Meanwhile, Pan Grave cemetery HK47. For helping to make the 2000/2001 an afternoon’s constitutional around the back wadis has led season such an unexpected success, we are grateful to the to the discovery of a previously unknown cemetery of mys- British Academy and the Institute of Archaeology, Univer- terious cairns or tumuli, probably dating to the historic pe- sity College London, who funded the excavations at Locality riod. 6. Ethan Watrall’s work at the Predynastic house at HK11 In the second half of the season (January -March 2001), was in part funded by the William P. McHugh Award, a grant more of the historic side of Hierakonpolis was explored when to young scholars pursuing Predynastic research, highlighted we tested three known cemeteries with Nubian cultural traits elsewhere in this issue. Many of the Hierakonpolis team mem- dating to the Second Intermediate Period. To have three such bers have been grateful recipients of this award over the years, cemeteries was already extraordinary, but when two turned and Bill McHugh himself was a veteran of excavations at out to belong to the Pan Grave people and the third to the Hierakonpolis Nubian C–Group, the northernmost evidence of this cul- Donations from the Crow Canyon Archaeological Cen- ture ever verified, it became a totally unprecedented discov- ter, the Friends of the Petrie Museum, the Sussex College of ery within Egypt. Egyptology (the Narmer Palette Raffle) also made this sea- Although the recovery of whole pots, beautiful beads, son of field work possible and—at long last—allowed us to and an exquisite scarab was a hard act to follow, continued install the hot water system. Our thanks to Roger and Maissa exploration into the Predynastic did not fail to impress. Ex- Sanders as well for updating our First Aid kit, which we are cavation and examination have shed further light on the pleased to report passed its “sell by” date without hardly ever strange funerary practices as well as the lifestyle and very being used. However, we reserve our greatest thanks for Dr. human concerns of the inhabitants of the working class cem- Raymond and Mrs. Beverly Sackler, Tom and Linda Heagy, etery at HK43. The results of the meticulous excavation in the LaSalle National Bank, and our valued Friends of Nekhen, the domestic structure at HK11 complement the work in without whose continued support and encouragement we both this and the elite cemetery. As the specialists and ex- could never have come so far. Vol. 13 2001 3 Locality 6 in 2000: Amazing revelations —by Barbara Adams Last year (Nekhen News 7 bos grave because it plots the 12) I wrote about a sea- 0 30 m abundant oval craters son of excavation at Local- 2 all over the surface of ity 6 that closed a chapter the cemetery. Our exca- 5 on the central part of the 4 dog grave mag vation has shown that 3 N N necropolis. The results of 6 these ovals do not al- excavation within a rela- ways turn out to be tively small area in the graves, but the map is centre of the cemetery in still useful. The excava- the 1997-99 seasons tion squares were se- 12 baboon grave showed that there are camp site lected this season on the separate and possibly basis of the cemetery mixed graves of humans map combined with and animals dating to surface observation. Naqada I, an individual 23 + enclosure From this we expected early Naqada II animal that the southernmost grave, and a much larger Excavations 2000 square would be dis- human grave dating to elephant grave turbed by a later Early Naqada III. Flushed with 20/21 15 14 13 Dynastic campsite, the success of finding which indeed proved to 17 new graves with a relative 16 18 be the case, but that it abundance of skeletal re- 19 extent of might retain a few small cow grave cemetery mains in this plundered Naqada I or II graves, cemetery, the 2000 season 22 which it did not. Our was planned, funded by G Area 1 assumption that a size- r the British Academy and e able depression in the the Institute of Archaeol- a square to the north di- t ogy, with the aim of dis- agonal would reveal a covering more such W large grave proved true, a Naqada I and II graves in d but the other ovals, the southern part of the i which we hoped would cemetery. Our working be the small graves con- hypothesis was that the 11 taining the human or cemetery grew from this animal burials we were point in the south and looking for, turned out then extended to the to be something else en- north where the Naqada tirely. III tombs are concen- 10 Remarkably, the trated. If successful, we 2000 season, fitting the would add to the meager 1 advent of a new millen- corpus of human remains Locality 6: the Potato Map. nium as well as my from this cemetery and twentieth year working provide skeletal material from an elite population to com- at the site of Hierakonpolis, produced results that we could pare with the working class people in the contemporary not have guessed at. We began work in the southern part of Predynastic cemetery at HK43. the south square, near an area that Michael Hoffman had Once again the team (including some new members identified as an Archaic campsite. Copious quantities of pot- Alvaro Figueiredo, Nicola Midgely, Gregory Gilbert, and Iain tery sherds were lifted and at least three sequential charcoal Ralston) had recourse to the site map produced by Carter hearths were found, located in almost the same spot but used Lupton in 1980, now affectionately termed the “potato map” at different times. The only flint sickle blade ever found in Vol. 13 2001 4 this cemetery was discovered in a substratum of one hearth, wooden posts set close to its south and east side were found thus emphasising its settlement (rather than funerary) char- outside Tomb 23, which presumably were the supports for a acter. Analysis of the campsite pottery, which includes beer superstructure raised over the tomb cavity. jars datable to the reign of Qa’a, the last king of the First And these massive posts were not all the structural trea- Dynasty (2890BC), and part of an orange streak-burnished sures around Tomb 23. The amazing revelation, never ob- pottery bowl, confirmed the First to Second Dynasty date served at any other site, is that this Naqada IIAB tomb is set that Michael had anticipated. in the earliest funerary complex yet discovered. Excavation In contrast, the surface finds to the north and west of the south and east of Tomb 23 revealed trenches in which a line campsite date to Naqada IC-IIA and include fine objects of evenly spaced wooden posts was set, forming a large en- such as flint hollow-based closure around it.