Egyptian Monuments: El-Badari at Sohag

El-Badari

Badarian Culture

The Badarian culture provides the earliest direct evidence of agriculture in Upper Egypt. It flourished between 4500 to 3250 BCE, and might have already existed as far back as 5000 BCE. It was first identified in El-Badari, Asyut.

About forty settlements and six hundred graves have been located. Social stratification has been inferred from the burying of more prosperous members of the community in a different part of the cemetery. The Badarian economy was mostly based on agriculture, fishing and animal husbandry. Tools included end-scrapers, perforators, axes, bifacial sickles and concave-base arrowheads. Remains of cattle, dogs and sheep were found in the cemeteries. Wheat, barley, lentils and tubers were consumed.

The culture is known largely from cemeteries in the low desert. The deceased were placed on mats and buried in pits with their heads usually laid to the south, looking west. The pottery that was buried with them is the most characteristic element of the Badarian culture. It had been given a distinctive, decorative rippled surface.

Ancestral Origins

The Badarian culture seems to have had multiple sources, of which the Western Desert was probably the most influential. Badari culture was probably not restricted to solely the Badari region, because related finds have been made farther to the south at Mahgar Dendera, Armant, Elkab and Nekhen (named Hierakonpolis by the Greeks) and to the east in the Wadi Hammamat.

Numerous anthropological studies were performed on Badarian crania after two successful excavations conducted in the mid- to late-1920s. The usual result was that the Badarians were African hybrids. Notably in 1971 Physical Anthropologist Eugen Strouhal re-analyzed over a dozen independent scientific studies (a couple of which were his own) performed previously and summarized their results to arrive at a similar conclusion: "mixture of races." Recent re-analyses of previous studies, including Professor Strouhal's paper, reveal that only West and South African skulls were included in the baseline for a determination of "true negro" though, while the typically elongated East African skull forms were disregarded, assumed not to indicate true blacks. Some recent studies additionally suggest a modal metric phentoype in Badarian crania that is much more similar to the Tropical African series than to the various other samples studied.

Near the end of his paper (1971), Professor Strouhal further enumerated several archaeological studies that suggest a migration of culture, practice and belief from African regions located to the west and south of the Badarian sites. Strouhal's work is noted in a 2005 study of the Badari which concluded: "The Badarians show a greater affinity to indigenous Africans while not being identical. This suggests that the Badarians were more affiliated with local and an indigenous African population than with Europeans. It is more likely that Near Eastern/southern European domesticated animals and plants were adopted by indigenous Nile Valley people without a major immigration of non-Africans. There was more of cultural transfer."

El-Badari (Arabic: البداري) is an area of Upper Egypt between Matmar and Qau, including numerous Predynastic cemeteries (notably Mostagedda, Deir Tasa and the cemetery of el-Badari itself), as well as at least one early Predynastic settlement at Hammamia. The finds from el-Badari form the original basis for the Badarian period (c. 5500-4000 BC), the earliest phase of the Upper Egyptian Predynastic period. The el-Badari region, stretching for 30km along the east bank of the Nile, was first investigated by Guy Brunton and Gertrude Caton-Thompson between 1922 and 1931. Most of the cemeteries in the Badarian region have yielded distinctive pottery vessels (particularly red-polished ware with blackened tops), as well as terracotta and ivory anthropomorphic figures, slate palettes, stone vases and flint tools. The contents of Predynastic cemeteries at el-Badari have been subjected to a number of statical analyses attempting to clarify the chronology and social history of the Badarian period.

Many of the sites were excavated during the early part of the 20th century by Petrie, Guy Brunton, Gertrude Caton-Thompson and others under Petrie's direction. The region's main importance was that the finds from these areas form the original basis for dating the Badarian Period (c5500 to c4000BC) which at the time constituted the earliest phase of Egyptian Predynastic history. The area covers 35km from south to north at the edge of the valley plain and includes around 7000 recorded tombs. Artefacts found during excavations were varied. A distinctive pottery type was identified - especially black-topped, polished red vessels which Petrie named Badarian ware. Terracotta vessels and stone vases, ivory figurines, slate palettes and large quantities of flint tools were also found around many of the graves.

From these excavated objects archaeologists have gained much information about the Badarian Culture. The people were early farmers in the Nile Valley, possibly originating from an area of Upper Sudan (suggested by pottery styles). Skeletal remains suggest that they were a tall people who wore their hair in plaits and garments woven from flax or grass fibres and animal skins. They were also hunters and fishermen, herded sheep and cattle and cultivated cereals such as emmer and barley as well as lentils and tubers to supplement their diet.

Although we do not have any remains of dwellings, post holes, pits and ash hearths have been found at the edge of the valley. They stored their food in large upright bins or jars placed in holes in the ground. The Badarian people were the first in Egypt to manufacture metal objects in the form of copper beads and pins but they used flint and stone tools to create the beautiful pottery we see today in museums. The best known pottery of this period is the black-topped and burnished wares which was carried on into the Naqada Periods. They were influenced by the world around them, producing textured pottery in the form of baskets and gourds and vessels in animal form.

Much of the knowledge we have of Predynastic burials comes from the cemeteries in Upper and Middle Egypt, while Lower Egypt has primarily revealed settlement sites from the period. In the early 1900s Flinders Petrie was instrumental in setting up a framework for dating the middle to late Predynastic Period, from pottery and flints found in graves in the Naqada region of Upper Egypt (sequence dating). He named these periods of chronology Naqada I and II, which are now more commonly known as the Amratian and Gerzean periods.

When Guy Brunton and Gertrude Caton-Thompson excavated at el-Hammamiya during the 1920s their main aim was to confirm the relationship between Badarian and Naqada culture, which they did when they found Badarian levels below that of the Naqada period level. In recent investigations at el-Hammamiya, Diane Holmes has discovered a settlement containing small huts, thought to be animal shelters, dating from Badarian to Naqada II periods.

At Mostagedda, Deir Tasa and Matmar there are small cemetery sites dating to the Amratian phase (Naqada I) of Predynastic culture.

El-Hammamiya

There are also many Old Kingdom tombs at el-Hammamiya. A new flight of stone steps lead up the slope to three decorated tombs, belonging to the reign of Khufu, which were originally recorded by Steindorff in 1913-1914.

The first tomb, facing the top of the steps belongs to Kakhent, who held the titles ‘Chief of the Tens of Upper Egypt’ and ‘Overseer of works in the nomes of Upper Egypt’. Kakhent’s wife was Ify who is named as ‘King’s daughter, Prophetess of Neith North of the Wall’. The tomb contains an entrance passage decorated with marsh scenes as well as Kakhent with his wife, son and daughter seated at a table. The main hall of the tomb is decorated with scenes on both left and right side walls. There are reliefs of boats containing the deceased and his wife, scribes writing accounts, offering bringers and cattle. Some scenes still have good colour. The hall also contains several statues.

The second tomb on an upper level also belongs to another Kakhent, ‘Chief of the Tens of Upper Egypt’ and ‘Overseer of the Guilds of Upper Egypt’. His wife is named as Khentkaus, ‘Prophetess of Hathor and Seth?’. The entrance passage contains the usual Old Kingdom offering scenes and a statue of the deceased. Inside the main hall are several funerary scenes and although badly damaged, it is still possible to read some of the texts.

Below the tomb of Kakhent and Ify there is another unfinished tomb belonging to Nemu. The entrance hall shows the deceased as a priest wearing a leopard skin, a wig and holding a Sekhem sceptre, with his wife and three children. A statue niche containing his statue can be seen on the back wall.

Sources:

Wikipedia - El-Badari

Egyptian Monuments - El-Badari Region

"Early Nile Valley Farmers from El-Badari" Journal of Black Studies by S.O.Y. Keita

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