oi.uchicago.edu Before the pyramids oi.uchicago.edu before the pyramids baked clay, squat, round-bottomed, ledge rim jar. 12.3 x 14.9 cm. Naqada iiC. oim e26239 (photo by anna ressman) 2 oi.uchicago.edu Before the pyramids the origins of egyptian civilization edited by emily teeter oriental institute museum puBlications 33 the oriental institute of the university of chicago oi.uchicago.edu Library of Congress Control Number: 2011922920 ISBN-10: 1-885923-82-1 ISBN-13: 978-1-885923-82-0 © 2011 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. Published 2011. Printed in the United States of America. The Oriental Institute, Chicago This volume has been published in conjunction with the exhibition Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization March 28–December 31, 2011 Oriental Institute Museum Publications 33 Series Editors Leslie Schramer and Thomas G. Urban Rebecca Cain and Michael Lavoie assisted in the production of this volume. Published by The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago 1155 East 58th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 USA oi.uchicago.edu For Tom and Linda Illustration Credits Front cover illustration: Painted vessel (Catalog No. 2). Cover design by Brian Zimerle Catalog Nos. 1–79, 82–129: Photos by Anna Ressman Catalog Nos. 80–81: Courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford Printed by M&G Graphics, Chicago, Illinois. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Service — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984 ∞ oi.uchicago.edu book title TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword. Gil J. Stein ............................................................................................................................................ 7 The Chronology of Early Egypt .......................................................................................................................... 8 Introduction. Emily Teeter ................................................................................................................................... 9 List of Contributors ............................................................................................................................................. 11 Map of Principal Areas and Sites ...................................................................................................................... 14 1. Sequence Dating and Predynastic Chronology. Stan Hendrickx ................................................................... 15 2. Petrie and the Discovery of Earliest Egypt. Patricia Spencer ........................................................................ 17 3. Political Organization of Egypt in the Predynastic Period. Branislav Anđelković ....................................... 25 4. Hierakonpolis. Renée Friedman ........................................................................................................................ 33 5. The Predynastic Cultures of the Nile Delta. Yann Tristant and Béatrix Midant-Reynes ................................ 45 6. The Predynastic/Early Dynastic Period at Tell el-Farkha. Krzysztof M. Ciałowicz ....................................... 55 7. Material Culture of the Predynastic Period. Alice Stevenson ........................................................................ 65 8. Iconography of the Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods. Stan Hendrickx ............................................ 75 9. Relations between Egypt and Nubia in the Naqada Period. Bruce B. Williams ............................................ 83 10. Crafts and Craft Specialization. Stan Hendrickx ........................................................................................... 93 11. The Invention of Writing in Egypt. David Wengrow ..................................................................................... 99 12. Early Interaction between Peoples of the Nile Valley and the Southern Levant. Eliot Braun ................. 105 13. The Rise of the Egyptian State. E. Christiana Köhler .................................................................................... 123 14. Tomb U-j: A Royal Burial of Dynasty 0 at Abydos. Günter Dreyer ............................................................... 127 15. The First Kings of Egypt: The Abydos Evidence. Laurel Bestock ................................................................. 137 16. The Narmer Palette: A New Interpretation. David O’Connor ...................................................................... 145 Catalog of Objects ................................................................................................................................................ 153 The Physical Setting: The Nile Valley ......................................................................................................... 153 Contact and Trade ..................................................................................................................................... 162 Sequence Dating ....................................................................................................................................... 168 The Culture of Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt ............................................................................... 169 Predynastic Pottery of Upper Egypt .......................................................................................................... 169 Stone Work ................................................................................................................................................ 188 Early Dynastic Religion ................................................................................................................................ 207 Gods ......................................................................................................................................................... 207 Votive Offerings ........................................................................................................................................ 208 The Rise of the State ..................................................................................................................................... 222 The Battlefield Palette ................................................................................................................................................. 222 Statue of King Khasekhem .......................................................................................................................................... 224 The Invention of Writing ............................................................................................................................ 226 Symbols of Royal Power ............................................................................................................................. 232 Objects from the Royal Tombs .................................................................................................................... 243 Subsidiary Burials of the First Dynasty ...................................................................................................... 251 Concordance of Museum Registration Numbers .............................................................................................. 261 Checklist of the Exhibit ....................................................................................................................................... 263 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................................ 265 5 oi.uchicago.edu oi.uchicago.edu book title FOrEwOrd gil J. Stein Director, oriental inStitute The phrase “ancient Egypt” almost automatically evokes the Sphinx, the pyramids, and the golden sar- cophagus of Tutankhamun. However, these iconic images represent Egypt when it was already a fully formed, powerful, and highly centralized state in the third and second millennia bc — the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. We need to remind ourselves that Egyptian civilization was not a static, timeless culture, and it did not spring into being ex nihilo. For Egyptologists and archaeologists, much of the fascinating complexity of Egypt derives from precisely the fact that it was a rich, vibrant, living culture that was constantly evolving, while at the same time grounding itself in a set of deeply rooted core elements and symbols that make it unique among the civilizations of the ancient world. How did the Egyptian state begin? This is the fundamental question addressed by the Oriental Institute’s special exhibit Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization. It is especially challenging for us to understand and reconstruct the Predynastic origins of Egypt because so many of the key developments took place before the invention of writing, about 3300 bc. Without texts, researchers are forced to rely heavily on purely archaeological evidence and the interpretation of the relatively small number of artistic depictions of key events and processes. Our exhibit presents some of the objects that are uniquely important pieces in this wordless puzzle. Drawing on both the most current research and on excavations done more than a century ago, Before the Pyramids allows us to examine the Egyptian state at the historical moment of its birth. As volume editor and exhibit curator Emily Teeter notes, Egypt existed as a unified kingdom under pharaonic rule for more than 500 years before the