EARLY DYNASTIC EGYPT EARLY DYNASTIC EGYPT Toby A.H.Wilkinson London and New York First published 1999 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. © 1999 Toby A.H.Wilkinson All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Wilkinson, Toby A.H. Early Dynastic Egypt/Toby A.H.Wilkinson p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p.378) and index. 1. Egypt—History—To 332 B.C. I. Title DT85.W49 1999 932′.012–dc21 98–35836 CIP ISBN 0-203-02438-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-20421-2 (Adobe e-Reader Format) ISBN 0-415-18633-1 (Print Edition) For Benjamin CONTENTS List of plates ix List of figures x Prologue xii Acknowledgements xvii PART I INTRODUCTION 1 Egyptology and the Early Dynastic Period 2 2 Birth of a Nation State 23 3 Historical Outline 50 PART II THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AUTHORITY 4 Administration 92 5 Foreign Relations 127 6 Kingship 155 7 Royal Mortuary Architecture 198 8 Cults and Shrines 225 PART III THE DIVERSITY OF LOCAL EXPERIENCE 9 The Rise of Urbanism 280 10 The Regions of Egypt 297 Epilogue 316 Glossary 317 Bibliography 327 Index 356 PLATES 1.1 The Umm el-Qaab at Abydos 3 1.2 Mastaba K1 at Belt Khallaf 5 1.3 The Early Dynastic cemetery at Tarkhan 7 1.4 An élite First Dynasty tomb at North Saqqara 8 1.5 The Early Dynastic necropolis at Helwan/el-Maasara 10 1.6 Tell el-Fara’in 17 3.1 Abu Rawash 64 3.2 King Ninetjer 73 6.1 The emblem of the Sed-festival 184 6.2 Palace-facade architecture, 2 196 7.1 The tomb of Qaa 204 7.2 The unfinished step pyramid complex of Sekhemkhet at Saqqara 218 8.1 Markers of the royal cult 240 FIGURES Map 1 Map of Egypt and Nubia showing sites mentioned in the text xviii Map 2 Map of the Near East showing sites mentioned in the text xx Chronological chart of the late Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods 22 2.1 Early centres of kingship 31 2.2 Trade, ownership and power 35 2.3 Kings before the First Dynasty 44 3.1 Rulers of the First Dynasty: contemporary lists 53 3.2 Royal annals 55 3.3 Year label of Semerkhet 67 3.4 Ephemeral rulers, 1: Weneg and Nubnefer 74 3.5 The Third Dynasty: a problem solved 83 3.6 Ephemeral rulers, 2: Khaba 85 4.1 Royal domains 100 4.2 Estates 102 4.3 The treasury and its functions 107 4.4 Taxation 108 4.5 The titles of the vizier 117 4.6 The structure of Early Dynastic administration 123 5.1 Campaigns against southern Palestine 132 5.2 Activity in Egypt’s desert margins 142 5.3 Campaigns against Nubia 151 6.1 The staff of office 159 6.2 The red crown 164 6.3 The white crown 166 6.4 Standards on early royal monuments 169 6.5 The Two Ladies 174 6.6 Hunting the hippopotamus 185 6.7 Year labels 188 6.8 Palace-façade architecture, 1 194 7.1 The royal cemetery at Abydos 200 7.2 The royal cemetery at Saqqara 208 8.1 Depictions of deities 227 8.2 Human sacrifice 230 8.3 Divine images 232 8.4 Royal cult statues 238 8.5 Early Dynastic cult dedications 242 8.6 The goddess Mafdet 250 8.7 Festivals involving a divine bark 261 8.8 Early Dynastic shrines and temples 266 8.9 Early cult at Buto, 1: the sacred bull 275 8.10 Early cult at Buto, 2: the Djebaut shrine 277 9.1 Elkab 287 10.1 Map of the Hierakonpolis region showing sites mentioned in the text 300 10.2 Map of the Abydos region showing sites mentioned in the text 305 10.3 Map of the Memphite region showing sites mentioned in the text 310 PROLOGUE Ancient Egypt holds a unique fascination. No other civilisation of the ancient world has such popular appeal, none is as significant for the history of human society and its organisation. The valley of the River Nile witnessed the world’s first example of that enduring and now omnipresent political structure, the nation state. Today, practically the entire land surface of the earth is divided among nation states, which number nearly two hundred. But the origins of this phenomenon go back five thousand years, to the formation of a unified territory and government in Egypt. Moreover, that government, centred on the royal court and the person of the king, succeeded in creating and promoting an élite culture which expressed itself on a grand scale. Hence, ancient Egyptian civilisation has left an unparalleled series of monuments to allure and intrigue countless generations of visitors. The pyramids of the Old Kingdom are perhaps the most remarkable, and certainly the most captivating, of Egyptian monuments. Those at Giza were hailed as one of the wonders of the ancient world; to modern eyes they are perhaps the quintessential symbol of the ancient Egyptians’ extraordinary creativity and craftsmanship. Yet the cultural and political developments which led to the construction of the pyramids have been comparatively neglected. Without central control of the economy, the royal court would not have had the resources to engage in monumental building projects. Without the ability to command the necessary manpower, the pyramids could not have been raised. Without the religious and ideological motivation, the construction of huge funerary monuments would, quite literally, never have got off the ground. All these prerequisites for pyramid-building have their roots in the Early Dynastic period. Hence to understand the most potent symbols of ancient Egypt, we must look at what went before. Five hundred years separate the birth of the Egyptian state and the erection of the pyramids. This half-millennium constitutes the formative period of civilisation in the Nile valley, when Egypt’s early kings developed the mechanisms of rule and the élite culture that were to characterise their country for the next three thousand years. This crucially important formative stage is the subject of the current work. The chapters that follow seek to explain not only the background to the formation of the Egyptian state, but also the means by which its early rulers controlled the people, the land and its resources. Central authority, however, is only one side of the coin. At all periods, Egypt’s governing élite strove to convey the impression that the nation was unified politically and culturally, that all its institutions revolved around the king and took their lead from the royal court. The true picture is rather more complex: in reality, local and regional concerns were important, and often had a direct impact on the pace and direction of change. Egypt was never a monolithic state, despite the wishes and protestations of its rulers. The current work addresses this interesting question, examining the character of Early Dynastic Egypt at the provincial level. The evidence for local and regional variation is by no means straightforward; but here, as elsewhere in the study of early Egypt, recent scholarship has led to major advances in understanding. Indeed, research into the formative period of ancient Egyptian civilisation has intensified exponentially over the past thirty years. The re-evaluation of material from old excavations has been accompanied by dramatic new discoveries. Record numbers of archaeological expeditions have been concentrating their efforts on illuminating the remotest periods of Egyptian history, and in particular the processes which led to the formation of the Egyptian state. As a result of this new information, a comprehensive study of the Early Dynastic period can now be attempted for the first time. Early Dynastic Egypt has traditionally suffered from being squeezed between two, more obviously glamorous, neighbours. On the one hand, the prehistoric origins of ancient Egypt and the unification of the country at the beginning of the historic period have intrigued scholars, attracting much comment and debate. On the other hand, the glories of the pyramid age, combined with a wealth of artistic and written evidence, have given the Old Kingdom an undeniable appeal for professionals and public alike. While the Predynastic period and the Old Kingdom have been intensively studied, the intervening phase of Egyptian history—the Early Dynastic period—has been comparatively neglected. The current work seeks to redress the imbalance, giving the first three dynasties the attention they deserve as a period of great innovation and lasting importance, a period, moreover, which paved the way for the familiar glories of ancient Egypt. This book is arranged in three parts. Part I forms an introduction to the study of Early Dynastic Egypt. The re-discovery of Egypt’s remote past, although very much a feature of the last three decades, began more than a century ago. A long line of distinguished archaeologists and scholars have added pieces to the puzzle, although the picture is by no means complete. Chapter 1 tells the extraordinary story of how ‘Egypt before the pyramids’, once an obscure dark age, has emerged from the shadows into the spotlight of academic inquiry and popular interest.