Naqada III culture (c.3200-3050 BCE) was characterized by the abandonment or reduction in significance of certain population centers in Egypt's South (e.g., Matmar, Mahasna), the maintenance or even growth in significance of others (e.g., Hierakonpolis,
Abydos), and the foundation of yet others (e.g., Elkab, Tarkhan, Tura). Social changes were of increasing importance, yet despite a certain variance in material culture, this period was a direct continuation of the Gerzean. A major settlement move from the desert to the vicinity of the Nile was necessary in Naqada III. Ecological changes that began in
Naqada II were intensified, bringing with them a relative cessation in herding in favor of agriculture. Changes in the material culture indicate an accompanying alteration in the spiritual realm. Some objects were modified in shape, while their basic function was preserved; others, while their shape was preserved, had their functions changed—from utility to ritual-cult-symbolic (e.g., palettes). Pottery included decorated wares, cylindrical jars, cups, and large transport-storage jars, often with engraved and painted serekhs, indicating that the contents were intended for the royal court. The production of flint artifacts relatively decreased—due mainly to the expanded use of metal tools. The use of jewelry also increased, as did the role of sculpture and relief. In Coptos, no later than Narmer's time, three colossal statues of Min (4 meters/I 3 feet high) and three statues of lions (1.5 meters/4 feet long) were erected. Many items have elaborate scenes: palettes, ceremonial mace heads, and knife handles. In temple deposits at Hierakonpolis,
Abydos, and Elephantine, a number of figurines—prisoners, children, women, scorpions, baboons—were made of various materials, some votive but some fragments of larger objects and furniture. They indicate development of the ritual-symbolic sphere—that associated with the centralization of authority.
Glyptics and writing became increasingly important, clearly developed under the influence of impulses from the Near East, passing through a brief phase of imitation, then ultimately containing typically Egyptian motifs and inscriptions. The role of long-distance trade, conducted in all the traditional directions, increased considerably. Contacts with Palestine and the Sinai intensified, showing the importance of this nearby northeastern region and its goods (wine, oil, resin, timber, copper). The Protodynastic colonization of northern Sinai and southern Canaan lasted until the mid-first dynasty. The kings known from this period ruled over all of Egypt—"Uj," Iry-Hor(?),
Ka, "
Scorpion," and
Narmer—have been dated to Naqada IIIB-IIICl. (c.3150-3050 BCE). Toward the end of the Protodynastic Dynasty "O," probably in the reign of Narmer, the kingdom of the pharaohs was established, more or less in the form known from the Early Dynastic (Archaic) period. The gradual (not by conquest) formation of an Egyptian state was therefore the last stage, not the first, from which the civilization of the Nile Valley grew.
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