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Nagada (Naqada)

The Nagada area is on the west bank of the Nile midway between Luxor and Dendera. Investigating during the last decennary of the nineteenth century by Jacques  de  Morgan  and  Flinders  Petrie  led to  the  discovery  of  several  sites  from  the separation  foregoing  the  emergence  of  the  best  Egyptian  dynasties,  identified as  the Predynastic period. Sites from this period show evidence of agriculture and herding and date from circa 3,8003,100/3,000 BC. Nagada was noted as Nubt (City of Gold) in Dynastic times, and control of gold mines in the Eastern Desert and/or gold trade may have gave to the centers riches in later Predynastic times.

De Morgan was the 3rd Dynasty were  likewise  took  by  Petrie  in  the  Nagada  area,  but  about  of  his  fieldwork  there concentrated on the Predynastic remains, taking three Predynastic cemeteries (Great New Race graveyard, and Cemeteries B and T), which disciplined over 2,200 burials. Two Predynastic  colonies,  North  Town  and  South  Town,  were  as well  hollowed  by Petrie. At South Town Petrie exposed the remains of a thick mudbrick surround, which he taken  was  a  fortification.  South  Town  was  later  inquired  in  the  1970s  and  early 1980s by an American outing directed by Fekri Hassan and T.R.Hays, and an Italian one of the Oriental Institute of Naples.
best to exercise at Nagada, where he unearthed two important royal tombs with niched mudbrick superstructures, going out to the end of the Predynastic period (Nagada  III / Dynasty  0),  and  a  cemetery  of  lower  status  burials.  In  18945  Petrie taken more thorough diggings at Nagada with J.E. Quibell, who likewise unearthed a Predynastic  memorial park  with  about  1,000  burials  to  the  north  at  Ballas.  A  issue  of Dynastic tombs, a temple and a young step pyramid probably dating to the

The  majority  of  Predynastic  websites  in  the  Nagada  region  looked into by Hassan and Hays  belong  to  Early  Nagada  (used  here  as  a  local  archeological/stratigraphic subdivision).  The  sites  range  in  sized  from  a  few  thousand  m2 to  3ha.  They  represent imbrication  businesses  of  many  huts  in  small  villages  and  hamlets.  The  settlements plausibly housed 50250 persons. Evidence of small postholes and the woody stub of a post  indicate  architecture  of  flimsy  caning  about  a  frame  of  wooden  posts.  The copiousness of dust and mud clumps too points that many abodes were made from mud  with  rubble,  commonly  used  today  in  field  houses  and  mud  fences.  The  houses taken  hearths  and  storage  pits.  In  some  examples,  graves  were  dug  into  the  story  of houses. Trash regions were interspersed with domestic homes. Thick levels of (sheep) dung intimate that animal inclosures (zeribas) were standard.



Collection of jars from Nagada


Jars from Nagada II

The  stone  tools  in  Early  Nagada  sites  show  a  high  frequency  of  burins,  scrapers, notches and denticulates, truncations and perforators. They too include grand peroirs, planes, bifacial tools, concave-based projectile targets and axes. The axes are distinctive. North Town and South Town show evidence of late Nagada businesses (circa 3,6003,300 BC), with a Nagada IIc-d ceramic accumulation. With the exception of sickle blades, the lithic assembly is very similar to that of early Nagada sites. The pottery, however, is markedly different. South Town and North Town too have high densities of artifacts, which indicates that they could have therefore been little early towns. The sites besides show a shift in the placement of the main settlement through time.

The rarity of Nagada II sites by compare to the earlier sites is future related to a shift of settlement location away from the desert border, where early Nagada sites are set, closer to the intimate Nile floodplain. One cause for this shift is presumptively the decline  in  Nile  flood  levels  at  that  time,  a  decline  well  genuine  in  the  Faiyum impression.  There  may  likewise  have  been  a  switching  in  subsistence  natural actions  and  increased economic interaction and trade via the river.

Faunal and botanical remains, which are rich and well continued, clearly indicate that farming and herding were the regular subsistence actions. People cultivated wheat and barleycorn, as well as other plants, including medicinal plants. They likewise crowded cattle, sheep/goats and pigs. Hunting was very limited, but fishing was wide practiced.

The  cemeteries  in  the  Nagada  realm  were  in  the  low  desert  adjacent  to  the colonies. Analysis of the dispersion, morphometry, density, clustering and contents of  graves  shows  evidence  of  gradual,  increasing  social  hierarchy  and  a  shift  in sociopolitical administration from a chiefdom to a small-scale state society.

Grave  goods  of  figurines,  slate  palettes  and  variety  of  artifacts  (other  than  pottery) indicate great sophistication, skill and specialization in the yield of craft goods. A section  of  rising  elite  (administrative/blessed)  was  buried  with  many  sumptuary artifacts. Trade was obviously practiced to secure rare minerals, gems and craft goods. The standardization the placement of the dead hints that blessed burial rites were strictly noted. Scenes on the pottery (Decorated class) may typify the duality of death  and  the  notion  of  resurrection.  Figurines  of  women  with  grown  arms,  and representations  of  some  women  on  pots,  towering  over  men,  hint  that  female goddesses  might  have  figured  highly  in  the  religious  discuss  at  Nagada  in  late Predynastic period.

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