The Phoebe A. Hearst Expedition to Naga ed-Deir, Cemeteries N 2000 and N 2500 Harvard Egyptological Studies Editor Peter Der Manuelian (Harvard University) Editorial Board Thomas L. Gertzen (Einstein Center Chronoi, Freie Universität Berlin) Ramadan Hussein (Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen) Salima Ikram (American University in Cairo) Peter Jánosi (University of Vienna) Christian E. Loeben (Museum August Kestner, Hannover) Marleen De Meyer (KU Leuven) Nicholas Picardo (The Giza Project, Harvard University) Harvard Egyptological Studies This monograph series (“HES”) was established in 2015 to present scholarly publications in the field of Egyptology. It highlights, but is by no means limited to, sites and selected aspects of the Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition (1905–1947). Invited topics include recent PhD dissertations; reports from excavations; specialized studies in ancient Egyptian language, history, and culture; conference proceedings; publications of scholarly archives; and historiographical works covering the field of Egyptology. Harvard Egyptological Studies is published by the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and the Department of Anthropology, both of which are in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. volume 10 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/hes The Phoebe A. Hearst Expedition to Naga ed-Deir, Cemeteries N 2000 and N 2500 Edited by Vanessa Davies LEIDEN | BOSTON This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided no alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited. Further information and the complete license text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ The terms of the CC license apply only to the original material. The use of material from other sources (indicated by a reference) such as diagrams, illustrations, photos and text samples may require further permission from the respective copyright holder. Cover illustration: Cemeteries N 2000 and N 2500, Naga ed-Deir. Photo by Ayman Damarany. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Davies, Vanessa (Ph.D.), editor. Title: The Phoebe A. Hearst Expedition to Naga ed-Deir, Cemeteries N 2000 and N 2500 / edited by Vanessa Davies. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2021] | Series: Harvard Egyptological studies, 2352–7501 ; volume 10 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020033264 (print) | LCCN 2020033265 (ebook) | ISBN 9789004396913 (hardback) | ISBN 9789004396906 (e-book) Subjects: LCSH: Naga ed-Deir Site (Egypt) | Phoebe A. Hearst Expedition of the University of California (1899–1905) | Tombs—Egypt—Naga ed-Deir Site. | Cemeteries—Egypt—Naga ed-Deir Site. | Excavations (Archaeology)—Egypt. | Naga ed-Deir (Egypt)—Antiquities. | Reisner, George Andrew, 1867–1942. | Mace, A. C. (Arthur Cruttenden), 1874–1928. Classification: LCC DT73.N2 P47 2020 (print) | LCC DT73.N2 (ebook) | DDC 962/.3—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020033264 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020033265 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 2352-7501 ISBN 978-90-04-39691-3 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-39690-6 (e-book) Copyright 2021 by the authors. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect this publication against unauthorized use. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. For Preston, and all those who give their time preserving and recording material in libraries, museums, and archives all over the world ∵ Contents Foreword ix Acknowledgements xiii Abbreviations xv Map 1 xvi Map 2 xvii Introduction 1 Vanessa Davies 1 Catalogue of Tombs 29 Transcribed by Vanessa Davies 2 Ceramics 219 Gabriella diBattista and Brooke Norton 3 Four Unique Pottery Vessels from N 2000 and N 2500 294 Natasha D. Ayers 4 Scarabs, Scaraboids, Seals, Seal Impressions, and Knotted Cords 308 Emily Teeter 5 Small Stone Vessels 329 Virginia L. Emery 6 Flint Objects and Bone Object 362 Lisa Maher 7 Beads, Pendants, and the Like 370 Jocelyn Simlick, Andrea Miloslavic, and Vanessa Davies 8 Analysis of Beads and Pendants 408 Jolanda Bos and Vanessa Davies 9 Miscellaneous Objects 423 Elizabeth Minor viii Contents 10 Late Antique Textiles 442 Amandine Mérat 11 Coptic Burial Wrapping 453 Jonathan P. Elias 12 Conclusions 483 Vanessa Davies Appendix 1: Arthur Mace’s Draft Manuscript 487 Appendix 2: Coptic Inscriptions 520 Index 524 Foreword The village of Naga ed-Deir is located on the east bank of the Nile opposite Girga in Upper Egypt and some 160 km north of Luxor. Here is located an im- portant series of cemeteries representing a long period of time principally from the Predynastic Period to the Middle Kingdom. Sheikh Farag is located on the north and Mesheikh six kilometers to the south with Naga ed-Deir it- self located about one and a half kilometers south of Sheikh Farag. Mesheikh is separated from Naga ed-Deir by the site of Mesaeed. The subdivisions of the site all form part of a single, large cemetery which served as a necropolis for the ancient town of Thinis, whether at Girga or nearby. Thinis functioned as the ancient capital of Upper Egypt nome 8, while Abydos was a secondary seat of the central government and, by the Middle Kingdom, an important re- ligious center of the god Osiris. Reisner designated all these subdivisions as the “Cemeteries of Naga ed-Deir” or simply “Naga ed-Deir.” Reisner excavated the different subdivisions at first for the Hearst Egyptian Expedition of the University of California up to 1905, when Mrs. Phoebe Apperson Hearst, the patroness of the expedition, and mother of the newspa- per publisher Willian Randolph Hearst, informed Reisner that owing to a fault in the gold bearing stratum of the Homestake Mine, a large part of her income had been cut off so that she could not continue her support beyond 1905. At that point, and after extended negotiations, the excavations resumed under Reisner’s direction but as the Harvard-University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Egyptian Expedition. Reisner and his assistants published several volumes on the excavation in the Naga ed-Deir cemeteries, as follows: Reisner, G. A. 1908. Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-ed-Dêr, Part I. University of California Publications, Egyptian Archaeology 2. Leipzig. Mace, A. C. 1909. Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-ed-Dêr, Part II. University of California Publications, Egyptian Archaeology 3. Leipzig. Reisner, G. A. 1932. A Provincial Cemetery of the Pyramid Age, Naga-ed-Dêr Part III. University of California Publications, Egyptian Archaeology 6. Berkeley. Lythgoe, A. M. 1965. The Predynastic Cemetery N 7000, Naga-ed-Dêr. Edited by D. Dunham. University of California Publications, Egyptian Archaeology 7. Berkeley. x Foreword In addition, Henry F. Lutz published the steles from the Naga ed-Deir cem- eteries in Berkeley in Egyptian Tomb Steles and Offering Stones of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology of the University of California, University of California Publications, Egyptian Archaeology 4, Leipzig, 1927. Regrettably, Lutz did not have access to Reisner’s field notes and his publication is replete with errors. In 1937, Dows Dunham, then Associate Curator of Egyptian Art (later Curator of Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art) published an impor- tant and substantial volume, Naga-ed-Dêr Stelae of the First Intermediate Period, published for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, by the Oxford University Press, London. A number of Ph.D. dissertations have also been dedicated to various aspects of the Naga ed-Deir cemeteries, beginning with Caroline Nestmann Peck, “Some Decorated Tombs of the First Intermediate Period from Naga Ed-Dêr,” Brown University, 1958. My own doctoral dissertation for the University of Chicago, “The Inscribed Material of the First Intermediate Period from Naga-ed-Dêr,” was published by University Microfilms in 1989. An updated version has re- cently appeared in print, published by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as Naga ed-Dêr in the First Intermediate Period. The following dissertations, theses, and books also treat various aspects of the Naga ed-Deir cemeteries: Podzorski, P. 1990. Their Bones Shall Not Perish: An Examination of Predynastic Human Skeletal Remains from Naga ed-Der in Egypt. PhD diss. University of California, Berkeley. And again: 1993. “The Correlation of Skeletal Remains and Burial Goods: An Example from Naga-ed-Dêr N 7000.” In Biological Anthropology and the Study of Ancient Egypt, edited by W. V. Davies, 119–129. London. Harrington, L. D. 1992. Naga ed-Der Cemetery 100: A Sample of Cranial Material and Its Context. MA thesis. University of California, Berkeley. Savage, S. H. 1995. Descent, Power, and Competition in Predynastic Egypt: Mortuary Evidence from Cemetery N 7000 at Naga-ed-Der. PhD diss. Arizona State University. Hussein, R. B. 2004. “The Texts on the Coffin of Ppy-im’: Translations and Annotations.” MA thesis. Brown University. Delrue, P. 2001. “The Predynastic Cemetery N 7000 at Naga ed-Dêr, A Re-evaluation.” In Social Aspects of Funerary Culture I: The Egyptian Old and Middle Kingdoms: Proceedings of the International Symposium Held at Leiden University, 6–7 June 1996, edited by H. Willems, 21–66. OLA 103. Leuven. Foreword xi Kroenke, K. 2010. The Provincial Cemeteries of Naga ed-Deir: A Comprehensive Study of Tomb Models Dating from the Late Old Kingdom to the Late Middle Kingdom. PhD diss. University of California, Berkeley. In addition, I may mention two articles by the present writer published in the Lexikon der Ägyptologie, ed. W.