Naqada I

  General Description   The Naqada is a Predynastic archaeological culture located in Upper Egypt, the strip of land flanking the Nile river south of the Faiyum region and north of the First Cataract. Named after the site where British archaeologist Flinders Petrie uncovered a necropolis of over 3000 graves in the late 19th century, ^[1] the Naqada culture is dated from around 3800 to 3100 BCE. ^[2] The Naqada has been subdivided into three periods ‒ the Amratian, Gerzean, and Semainean ‒ as well as, more recently, into Naqada IA-C, IIA-D, and IIIA-D. ^{[3] [4]} Seshat’s ’Naqada 1’ (3800-3550 BCE) corresponds to the Naqada IA-IIB phases; Naqada 2 (3550-3300 BCE) to IIC-IID; and Naqada 3 (3300-3100 BCE) to IIIA-IIIB. We end Naqada 3 with the IIIB-C transition, because the First Dynasty of the Egyptian state is considered to begin with the accession of King Aha in Naqada IIIC. ^[4] Naqada III is also sometimes referred to as the Protodynastic period or ’Dynasty 0’.
Early Naqada archaeological material is clustered around the key sites of Naqada itself, Abydos, and Hierakonpolis (ancient Nekhen) in the fertile land nestled around the ’Qena bend’ of the Nile. ^[5] However, from the late Naqada II onwards, there is an archaeologically visible expansion of the culture both southwards along the Nile and northwards into Lower Egypt (the Delta), eventually reaching as far north as the Levant in Naqada IIIA-B. ^[6]
Population and Political Organization
The 4th millennium BCE was a crucial period for Egyptian state formation. Prior to roughly 3800 BCE, Upper Egypt was inhabited by seasonally mobile farmers and herders, constituting an archaeological culture known as the Badarian. ^[7] However, the Naqada periods brought a series of key social transformations to the region, including increasing inequality, a greater commitment to sedentary settlement and cereal farming, the emergence of full-time craft specialists, and, towards the end of the millennium, the invention of writing. ^{[8] [9] [10]} The growth of hierarchical social structures and the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt laid the foundations for the divine kings and complex bureaucracy of the Old Kingdom and beyond.
During Naqada I, new forms of political organization appeared ‒ relatively swiftly compared to other prehistoric cultures ‒ in the upper Nile Valley. ^[11] According to the Egyptologist Branislav Anđelković, previously autonomous agricultural villages began to band together to form ’chiefdoms’ or ’proto-nomes’ between Naqada IA and IB (a ’nome’ was an administrative division in the later Egyptian state). ^[12] In Naqada IC, even larger political entities ‒ ’nome pre-states’ ‒ started to form, centred on Naqada, Abydos and Hierakonpolis. It has been suggested that a ’primitive chiefdom’ centred around a ’royal’ authority based at Hierakonpolis, had formed by around 3700 BCE. ^[13] Not all researchers agree with this terminology, believing that it creates the impression of an inexorable march towards state formation, and some prefer to stress the fragile and experimental nature of early complex social formations in Upper Egypt. ^[14] However, the term chiefdom remains in common usage as a label for the new ranked societies of the early 4th millennium. ^{[15] [16] [17]} In the Naqada II period, ’proto-states’ formed, and by the Naqada III we can speak of kings and a centralized government ruling over a unified Upper and Lower Egypt. ^[18]
We lack firm figures for the population of Egypt during the Naqada. At the beginning of the period, most inhabitants of Upper Egypt were living in small villages. ^[12] However, as the 4th millennium progressed, archaeologists can discern a process of urbanization and aggregation into larger political units. The largest known settlement, Hierakonpolis, grew into a regional centre of power in the 3800‒3500 BCE period ^[19] and may have reached a population of between 5,000 and 10,000 people in the late Naqada I. ^[20] Other researchers consider this figure ’inflated’ ^[21] and point to recent evidence from the Abydos region for low population numbers throughout the Predynastic period. ^[22]

[1]: (Midant-Reynes 2000, 41) Béatrix Midant-Reynes. 2000. ’The Naqada Period (c. 4000-3200 BC)’, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, 41-56. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[2]: (Dee et al. 2013, 5) Michael Dee, David Wengrow, Andrew Shortland, Alice Stevenson, Fiona Brock, Linus Girdland Flink and Christopher Bronk Ramsey. 2013. ’An Absolute Chronology for Early Egypt Using Radiocarbon Dating and Bayesian Statistical Modelling’. Proceedings of the Royal Society A 469 (2159). DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2013.0395.

[3]: (Stevenson 2016, 424) Alice Stevenson. 2016. ’The Egyptian Predynastic and State Formation’. Journal of Archaeological Research 24: 421-68.

[4]: (Dee et al. 2013, 2) Michael Dee, David Wengrow, Andrew Shortland, Alice Stevenson, Fiona Brock, Linus Girdland Flink and Christopher Bronk Ramsey. 2013. ’An Absolute Chronology for Early Egypt Using Radiocarbon Dating and Bayesian Statistical Modelling’. Proceedings of the Royal Society A 469 (2159). DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2013.0395.

[5]: (Bard 1994, 267) Kathryn A. Bard. 1994. ’The Egyptian Predynastic: A Review of the Evidence’. Journal of Field Archaeology 21 (3): 265-88.

[6]: (Stevenson 2016, 442-43) Alice Stevenson. 2016. ’The Egyptian Predynastic and State Formation’. Journal of Archaeological Research 24: 421-68.

[7]: (Stevenson 2016, 422, 428-29) Alice Stevenson. 2016. ’The Egyptian Predynastic and State Formation’. Journal of Archaeological Research 24: 421-68.

[8]: (Stevenson 2016, 431-32, 434) Alice Stevenson. 2016. ’The Egyptian Predynastic and State Formation’. Journal of Archaeological Research 24: 421-68.

[9]: (Hendrickx 2011, 93) Stan Hendrickx. 2011. ’Crafts and Craft Specialization’, in Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization, edited by Emily Teeter, 93-98. Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

[10]: (Wengrow 2011, 99) David Wengrow. 2011. ’The Invention of Writing in Egypt’, in Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization, edited by Emily Teeter, 99-103. Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

[11]: (Stevenson 2016, 431-32) Alice Stevenson. 2016. ’The Egyptian Predynastic and State Formation’. Journal of Archaeological Research 24: 421-68.

[12]: (Anđelković 2011, 28) Branislav Anđelković. 2011. ’Political Organization of Egypt in the Predynastic Period’, in Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization, edited by Emily Teeter, 25-32. Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

[13]: (García 2013, 187-88) Juan Carlos Moreno García. 2013. ’Building the Pharaonic State: Territory, Elite, and Power in Ancient Egypt during the Third Millennium BCE’, in Experiencing Power, Generating Authority: Cosmos, Politics, and the Ideology of Kingship in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, edited by Jane A. Hill, Philip Jones, and Antonio J. Morales, 185-217. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.

[14]: (Stevenson 2016, 422, 427) Alice Stevenson. 2016. ’The Egyptian Predynastic and State Formation’. Journal of Archaeological Research 24: 421-68.

[15]: (Stevenson 2016, 422) Alice Stevenson. 2016. ’The Egyptian Predynastic and State Formation’. Journal of Archaeological Research 24: 421-68.

[16]: (Bard 2017, 2) Kathryn A. Bard. 2017. ’Political Economies of Predynastic Egypt and the Formation of the Early State’. Journal of Archaeological Research 25: 1-36.

[17]: (Koehler 2010, 32) E. Christiana Koehler. 2010. ’Prehistory’, in A Companion to Ancient Egypt, Volume 1, edited by Alan B. Lloyd, 25-47. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

[18]: (Anđelković 2011, 29-30) Branislav Anđelković. 2011. ’Political Organization of Egypt in the Predynastic Period’, in Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization, edited by Emily Teeter, 25-32. Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

[19]: (Friedman 2011, 34) Renée Friedman. 2011. ’Hierakonpolis’, in Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization, edited by Emily Teeter, 33-44. Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

[20]: (Hoffman, Hamroush and Allen 1986, 181) Michael Allen Hoffman, Hany A. Hamroush and Ralph O. Allen. 1986. ’A Model of Urban Development for the Hierakonpolis Region from Predynastic through Old Kingdom Times’. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 23: 175-87.

[21]: (Stevenson 2016, 436) Alice Stevenson. 2016. ’The Egyptian Predynastic and State Formation’. Journal of Archaeological Research 24: 421-68.

[22]: (Patch 2004, 914) Diana Craig Patch. 2004. ’Settlement Patterns and Cultural Change in the Predynastic Period’, in Egypt at Its Origins: Studies in Memory of Barbara Adams, edited by S. Hendrickx, R. F. Friedman, K. M. Ciałowicz and M. Chłodnicki, 905-18. Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters en Departement Oosterse Studies.