Introduction to Egyptian Civilization (Prehistoric-Predynastic) PDF

HS 201 World Civilizations and Cultures Lecture 004 Introduction to Egyptian Civilization Up to Pre-Dynastic Period V.N. Prabhakar, IIT Gandhinagar Africa Evidence of settled life in the Nile Ri...

HS 201 World Civilizations and Cultures Lecture 004 Introduction to Egyptian Civilization Up to Pre-Dynastic Period V.N. Prabhakar, IIT Gandhinagar Africa Evidence of settled life in the Nile River valley River Nile originates in the Equatorial plateau around Lake Victoria Upper Nile River valley, relatively narrow and flat- flooded, widens after the bend of Qena, reaching a width of 18 km at Cairo The river fans out and enter the deltaic region Upper Egypt the Nile valley is never more than 10 km across Nile valley distinguished for centuries and habitable due to annual floods, rich in silt from Ethiopian highlands Heavy spring rains due to combination of moisture laden winds from South Atlantic and dry winds of north, enables flooding of Sobat, Blue Nile and Atbara rivers in Ethiopia  Rosetta stone inscription: Discovered in 1799 during Napolean’s expedition) Egyptian Hieroglyph (Egyptian) Demotic, modified form of Hieratic (Egyptian) Greek (Greek) Greek portion, a decree written in 196 BCE, during Ptolemy V Epiphanes Early accounts of Egypt Greeks and Romans were fascinated by the ancient Egyptian culture Herodotus of Helicarnassas visited Egypt in c. 450 BCE Diodorus Siculus visited in first century CE, out of his 12 volumes on Universal History, the first volume dedicated to Egypt Manetho, a Egyptian priest wrote Aegyptiaca (History of Egypt) in third century BCE; only fragments of this work survive in the writings of later writers The chronology of pharaonic dynasties mentioned in Manetho’s writings helped Jean Francois Champollion in deciphering the names of pharaohs Strabo, the Roman geographer, visited Egypt in 25 BCE; his 17 volume book on Roman world, mentions about the geography, tombs, pyramids, temples, historical information in the last volume Pliny, the Elder (c. 23-79 CE), in his work Historia Naturalis, mentions about Sphinx, Egyptian obelisks erected in Rome The Egyptian method of mummification mentioned by Pliny the Elder, Herodotus and Diodorus Earliest Settlers in the Nile Valley Favourable climatic conditions Climatic conditions favoured a savannah type of open grass land with a combination of different types of water sources, with abundant wild animals including gazelle and hare and an edible variant of sorghum Nile Valley and the regions adjoining the river was an important source of various types of fish, mollusks, birds and animals, which could be hunted on a regular basis Changes in the local environmental around 9000 BCE enabled the sedentary lifestyle as evidenced from several sites in Egypt and Western Desert area The Dakhleh oasis in western desert in a way supported human habitation as early as 40 ka and thus an important area for the overall development of human cultures Pre-Dynastic Period Preconditions met 1) diverse agricultural and pastoral adaptations to the Delta and the upper Nile regions 2) expanded trade networks linking resource areas to settlements o Nile served as main conduit of North South trade, caravan routes to the Red Sea via the Wadi Hammamat, links to Ethiopia, Sinai, Palestine and Mediterranean o agriculture dominated by annual floods coincide with the rising of the star Sirius (Sothis), flooding 3-4 months between August and November o irrigation using the shaduf water lift o cyclical renewal became an important aspect of Egyptian world view Preconditions 3) technology of the shaduf and flood irrigation, walled settlements, specialized crafts to produce symbolic objects for use in rituals and to include with the dead - establishment of regional ritual and trade centers 3) differential access to resources is easy to maintain due to the limited amount of good agricultural land and the distribution of resources Earliest Settlers in the Nile Valley Nile Valley Region Merimde, arrangement of the dwelling on either side of narrow lanes, mud-lined storage pits, basket granaries, with the lithic industry consisting of bifacially flaked tools and undecorated pottery The subsistence economy consisted of “…barley, emmer- wheat and flax. Cattle, sheep, goats and pigs were kept, as were dogs” along with domesticated donkey, one of the earliest of such finds. Evidence for largely farming based permanent settlements with populations of more than 1000 persons is found from sites like Merimde and other contemporary sites near Helwan In contrast, Fayum region had only semi-permanent settlements Some sort of domestication could be found as early as 10 ka with the full-fledged domestication and farming emerged around 7 ka Pre-Dynastic Period Ma’adi Pre-Dynastic Ma’adi Culture is a Pre-Dynastic Culture based on the type- site of Ma’adi, which is located to the southwest of Cairo Ma’adi culture has been attributed to the preceding Neolithic and early farming cultures of this region Site was occupied for over a thousand years starting from 4900 – 3500 BCE Important sites of Ma’adi culture are, Fayum, Merimde- Benisalame, EI Omari, Maadi, Buto, Minshat Abu Omar, Wadi Digla, Heliopolis, Es-Saff, Tell el-Iswid, Tell Ibrahim Awad, Girza The culture represents a: “…village community of agriculturists, craftsmen and traders”…along with “…specialized craft production such as metallurgy and inter-regional trade” Pre-Dynastic Period Badarian Pre-Dynastic Badarian Pre-Dynastic is datable to around 4800-4200 BCE, and preceded the Amratian Naqada culture Badarian settlements are found on the low bank on the eastern banks of River Nile from Matmar to Etmanieh and also between Asyut and Hierakonpolis. Badarian remains are found at Hemamiah, Deir Tasa, Abydos, and around 42 sites have been recorded Badarian levels brought to light the characteristic rippled pottery and a developed lithic industry Badarian economy represented by predominantly farming and herding economy The excavation at Hemamiah brought to light 2 m deep strata represented by Badarian, Amratian (Naqada I) and Gerzean (Naqada II) Black and Red pottery, with crown of lower Egypt Pre-Dynastic Period Upper Egypt Pre-Dynastic Naqada Pre-Dynastic flourished from 4630 – 3030 BCE and consists of Naqada I (Amratian), Naqada II (Gerzean) and Naqada III (Semainean) or Proto- Dynastic phases, and a further 15 sub-divisions in the entire Naqada phase Origin of the Nagada Pre-Dynastic can be traced to the “…indigenous hunter-gatherers and fishermen living along the Nile” Petrie identified at least three different phases, viz., Amratian, Gerzean and Semainean of Pre-Dynastic based on the type sites, which were followed by the Dynastic period Kaiser modified the seriation system of Petrie and placed the ceramics from the graves and the settlement into three phases, namely Naqada I, II and III Bead of meteoritic iron, el- Crystal structure known as Gerzeh; traces of flax fibre, Modern beads from meteoritic Widmanstatten pattern, that takes high nickel content iron millions of years to form Transition from Pre-Dynastic to Early Dynastic State Evidence for emergence of social hierarchy during pre- dynastic period Internment of exotic materials for craft goods, which clearly indicates the competition for exhibition of social status in the burials, and also indicates the control of exotic goods by certain sections of the society to emerge as chief Unification of the Pre-Dynastic cultures and its emergence into the Dynastic Period has been traced by the scholars to the Naqada region Grave types, pottery, and artifacts demonstrate an evolution of form from the Predynastic to the First Dynasty Emergence of hierarchical system during Naqada II period clearly indicates its origin in Upper Egypt However, causes for unification of the Pre-Dynastic cultures are also not clearly understood Transition from Pre-Dynastic to Early Dynastic State Expansion of Naqada Culture to Lower Egypt Inscriptional evidences in the form of earliest hieroglyphs and later period king lists proposes that the expansion of Naqada culture to the Fayum region took place during Naqada IIc-d, followed by the Cairo and Delta regions Unification of the northern territories could have happened due to conquests, while the ‘earlier unification of the southern polities’ consisting of Abydos, Hierakonpolis, Nagada through alliances Other scholars argue that no evidences of conquest at the sites of Upper Egypt in the form of destruction layers The gradual replacement of material culture of Ma’adi of Lower Egypt by the Naqada culture of Upper Egypt has been interpreted by scholars as evidence of military conquests or colonization Transition from Pre-Dynastic to Early Dynastic State Reasons for Unification Ever increasing demand of the direct contact or trade relations with the Mediterranean region and Levant could have prompted the Naqada culture to venture into Lower Egypt Non-availability of timber for the manufacture of boats and ships, which was an important mode of communication for the Egyptians Less availability of raw material resources in Egypt could also be a factor to explore other raw material sources in the Mediterranean, Levant and Mesopotamia and to trade the raw materials with other regions Major sea route connecting the Levant region with the Nile Delta during the fourth millennium BCE is another important factor Transition from Pre-Dynastic to Early Dynastic State Reasons for Unification Roots of characteristic features of royalty, e.g. concept of red crown, motifs associated with kingship could be traced back even to the Naqada I period Later period hierarchy and the importance attached to the pharaohs could have been a long drawn ideological development, much more substantiated by the legitimacy attached to such an institution, the incipient stages could be seen in the Pre-Dynastic period Evidence of warfare also emerges during the Naqada III period in the form of carved palettes, the warfare could have final contributing factor for the unification of the different city-states Transition from Pre-Dynastic to Early Dynastic State Dynasty 0 Rock engraving at Gebel Tjauti, which is datable to the Naqada IIIA Pre-Dynastic period, which depicts “…a man wielding a mace and holding the rope of a bound captive.” Signs associated with the carving are also attributed to the King Scorpion of Dynasty 0 Unification of the Upper and Lower Egypt occurred during Dynasty 0 and the burials at Abydos have been identified clearly as royal burials belonging to this phase Emergence of temples and priesthood and writing, the latter is clear from the labels found from the royal burials of U-j at Abydos Transition from Pre-Dynastic to Early Dynastic State First Dynasty Early Dynastic Egyptian State emerged with the First Dynasty, with the most important institution of kingship, who administered through a set-up of bureaucracy and writing system Writing system was an important invention during this period, as also indicated by the emergence of labels with pictographs in the U-j burial at Abydos Clear administrative set-up emerges by the Dynasty 5, during which different regions were designated administrative districts or provinces for better control The Greeks called the provinces as nomes Ancient Egypt: https://youtu.be/hO1tzmi1V5g Transition from Pre-Dynastic to Early Dynastic State First Dynasty 22 nomes in the Nile Valley region with different cities / towns as their administrative capital Nile Delta had further 20 nomes, but their exact consolidation occurred during the Roman times Memphis emerged as the capital city during the Early Dynastic period Importance attached to the burials had already been established during the Pre-Dynastic period, which becomes further elaborated during the Early Dynastic period with the evidence of large-scale burial complexes at Abydos and Saqqara Without the invention of a monetary system, the taxes were collected in kind from the agricultural surplus and the entire administrative set-up and all associated trade, craftsman activities were maintained through this surplus only