The Predynastic Period

The term "Pre-Dynastic" often cover the subsequent Neolithic as well as the Chalcolithic periods, starting circa 6000-5500 BC.

Neolithic (c. 6000-4000 BC)

Early evidence for Neolithic cultures in the Nile Valley are generally located in the north of Egypt, exhibiting well-developed stages of Neolithic subsistence, including the cultivation of crops and sedentism, as well as pottery production from the late 6th Millennium BC onwards.

Neolithic anthropology

The natural scientist Frederick Falkenburger in 1947, based on a sample set of around 1,800 prehistoric Egyptian crania, noted great heterogeneity amongst his samples. Falkenburger categorized them based on the nasal index, overall head and face form, taking into account width, eye socket structure, amongst other given indicators. He divided and characterized the skulls into four types: Cro-Magnon type, "Negroid" type, Mediterranean type, and mixed types resulting from the mixture of the aforementioned groups. Similarly, the craniometrics of early Egyptians were according to the physician and anthropologist Eugene Strouhal in 1971, designated as either Cro-Magnon of North Africa, Mediterranean, "Negroid" of East Africa, and intermediate/mixed.

According to professor Fekhri A. Hassan, the peopling of the Egyptian Nile Valley from archaeological and biological data, was the result of a complex interaction between coastal northern Africans, "neolithic" Saharans, Nilotic hunters, and riverine proto-Nubians with some influence and migration from the Levant (Hassan, 1988).

Egypt was one of the first areas to adopt the Neolithic package emerging from West Asia as early as the 6th millennium BCE. In particular, goats and sheep, which are not indigenous to Africa, were introduced from the Neolithic Levant around 6000 BCE, probably through the Sinai Peninsula, followed by a rapid spread. Population genetics in the Nile Valley observed a marked change around this period, as shown by odontometric and dental tissue changes. Cultural exchange and trade between the two regions, including Egypt-Mesopotamia relations, then continued through the 4th millennium BCE, as shown by the transfer of Mesopotamian Late Uruk period features to the Nile Valley of the later Predynastic Period. Migration flows from Mesopotamia accompanied such cultural exchanges, possibly through the sea routes of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea or through yet un-sampled intermediaries in the Levant, which could explain the relative sparsity of genetic influence from known Chalcolithic/Bronze Age Levantine populations.

Lower Egypt

Faiyum B, Qarunian culture

Faiyum B culture, also called Qarunian due to being of the Lake Qarun or Qaroun area is an Epipalaeolithic (also called Mesolithic) culture and predates Faiyum A culture. No pottery has been found, with blade types being both plain and microlithic blades. A set of gouges and arrow-heads suggests it may have had contact with the Sahara (c. 6500 to - 5190 BC).

Maciej Henneberg (1989) documented a remote 8,000 year old female skull from the Qarunian. It showed closest affinity to Wadi Halfa, modern African groups and Aboriginal Australians, being quite different from Epipalaeolithic materials of Northern Africa usually labelled as Mechta-Afalou (Paleo-Berber) or the later Proto-Mediterranean types (Capsian). The skull still had an intermediate position, being gracile, but possessing large teeth and a heavy set jaw. Similar results would later be found by a short report from SOY Keita in 2021, showing affinities with the Qarunian skull and the Teita series.

Faiyum A culture

Dating to about 5600-4400 BC of the Faiyum Neolithic, continued expansion of the desert forced the early ancestors of the Egyptians to settle around the Nile more permanently, adopting increasingly sedentary lifestyles. The Faiyum A industry is the earliest farming culture in the Nile Valley. Archaeological deposits that have been found are characterized by concave base projectile points and pottery. Around 6210 BC, Neolithic settlements appear all over Egypt. Some studies based on morphological, genetic, and archaeological data have attributed these settlements to migrants from the Fertile Crescent in the Near East returning during the Egyptian and North African Neolithic, bringing agriculture to the region.

Studies in anthropology and post-cranial data has linked the earliest farming populations at Faiyum, Merimde, and El-Badari, to Near Eastern populations. The archaeological data also suggests that Near Eastern domesticates were incorporated into a pre-existing foraging strategy and only slowly developed into a full-blown lifestyle. Finally, the names for the Near Eastern domesticates imported into Egypt were not Sumerian or Proto-Semitic loan words.

However, some scholars have disputed this view and cited linguistic, physical anthropological, archaeological and genetic data which does not support the hypothesis of a mass migration from the Levant during the prehistoric period. According to historian William Stiebling and archaeologist Susan N. Helft, this view posits that the ancient Egyptians are the same original population group as Nubians and other Saharan populations, with some genetic input from Arabian, Levantine, North African, and Indo-European groups who have known to have settled in Egypt during its long history. On the other hand, Stiebling and Helft acknowledge that the genetic studies of North African populations generally suggest a big influx of Near Eastern populations during the Neolithic Period or earlier. They also added that there have only been a few studies on ancient Egyptian DNA to clarify these issues.

Egyptologist Ian Shaw (2003) wrote that "anthropological studies suggest that the predynastic population included a mixture of racial types (Negroid, Mediterranean and European)", but it is the skeletal material at the beginning of the pharaonic period that has proven to be most controversial. He said according to some scholars there may have been a much slower period of demographic change, than previously hypothesized rapid conquests of people coming into Egypt from the East. It probably involved the gradual infiltration of a different physical type from Syria-Palestine, via the eastern Delta.

Weaving is evidenced for the first time during the Faiyum A Period. People of this period, unlike later Egyptians, buried their dead very close to, and sometimes inside, their settlements.

Although archaeological sites reveal very little about this time, an examination of the many Egyptian words for "city" provides a hypothetical list of causes of Egyptian sedentarism. In Upper Egypt, terminology indicates trade, protection of livestock, high ground for flood refuge, and sacred sites for deities.

Merimde culture

From about 5000 to 4200 BC the Merimde culture, so far only known from Merimde Beni Salama, a large settlement site at the edge of the Western Delta, flourished in Lower Egypt. The culture has strong connections to the Faiyum A culture as well as the Levant. People lived in small huts, produced a simple undecorated pottery and had stone tools. Cattle, sheep, goats and pigs were held. Wheat, sorghum and barley were planted. The Merimde people buried their dead within the settlement and produced clay figurines. The first life-sized Egyptian head made of clay comes from Merimde.

The community at Merimde Beni Salama was primarily sedentary. Archaeological stratification shows that the site had been continuously inhabited for several centuries, with people during that time conducting trade with regions outside of the Nile Valley. The settlement itself was home to several large communal storage pits, and the inhabitants resided in sturdy structures that were constructed with mud slabs. Not much is known about the details surrounding Merimde society, but the site provides little evidence to suggest a pronounced level of socioeconomic differentiation between individuals. Additionally, the culture’s stone tools appear to show a degree of standardization and organization, with the majority of lithics found at the site being classified as bifacially carved core tools.

El Omari culture

The El Omari culture is known from a small settlement near modern Cairo. People seem to have lived in huts, but only postholes and pits survive. The pottery is undecorated. Stone tools include small flakes, axes and sickles. Metal was not yet known. Their sites were occupied from 4000 BC to the Archaic Period (3,100 BC).

Maadi culture

The Maadi culture (also called Buto Maadi culture) is the most important Lower Egyptian prehistoric culture dated about 4000–3500 BC, and contemporary with Naqada I and II phases in Upper Egypt. The culture is best known from the site Maadi near Cairo, as well as the site of Buto, but is also attested in many other places in the Delta to the Faiyum region. This culture was marked by development in architecture and technology. It also followed its predecessor cultures when it comes to undecorated ceramics.

Copper was known, and some copper adzes have been found. The pottery is hand-made; it is simple and undecorated. Presence of black-topped red pots indicate contact with the Naqada sites in the south. Many imported vessels from Palestine have also been found. Black basalt stone vessels were also used.

The culture primarily relied on the cultivation of crops such as wheat and barley, as well as herding animals such as cattle, sheep, and pigs. People lived in small huts, partly dug into the ground. The dead were buried in cemeteries, but with few burial goods. The Maadi culture was replaced by the Naqada III culture; whether this happened by conquest or infiltration is still an open question.

The developments in Lower Egypt in the times previous to the unification of the country have been the subject of considerable disputes over the years. The recent excavations at, Sais, and Tell el-Iswid have clarified this picture to some extent. As a result, the Chalcolithic Lower Egyptian culture is now emerging as an important subject of study.

Gallery

Upper Egypt

Tasian culture

The Tasian culture appeared around 4500 BC in Upper Egypt. This culture group is named for the burials found at Der Tasa, on the east bank of the Nile between Asyut and Akhmim. It is believed that the Tasian culture primary resided in the desert, and often interacted with other nearby cultures in the Nile Valley, such as the Badarian. The Tasian culture group is notable for producing the earliest blacktop-ware, a type of red and brown pottery that is colored black on the top portion and interior. This pottery is vital to the dating of Predynastic Egypt. Because all dates for the Predynastic period are tenuous at best, WMF Petrie developed a system called sequence dating by which the relative date, if not the absolute date, of any given Predynastic site can be ascertained by examining its pottery.

As the Predynastic period progressed, the handles on pottery evolved from functional to ornamental. The degree to which any given archaeological site has functional or ornamental pottery can also be used to determine the relative date of the site. Since there is little difference between Tasian ceramics and Badarian pottery, the Tasian Culture overlaps the Badarian range significantly. From the Tasian period onward, it appears that Upper Egypt was influenced strongly by the culture of Lower Egypt. Archaeological evidence has suggested that "the Tasian and Badarian Nile Valley sites were a peripheral network of earlier African cultures of around which Badarian, Saharan, Nubian, and Nilotic peoples regularly circulated." Bruce Williams, Egyptologist, has argued that the Tasian culture was significantly related to the Sudanese-Saharan traditions from the Neolithic era which extended from regions north of Khartoum to locations near Dongola in Sudan.

Badarian culture

The Badarian culture, from about 4400 to 4000 BC, is named for the Badari site near Der Tasa. It followed the Tasian culture, but was so similar that many consider them one continuous period. The Badarian Culture continued to produce the kind of pottery called blacktop-ware (albeit much improved in quality) and was assigned Sequence Dating numbers 21–29. The primary difference that prevents scholars from merging the two periods is that Badarian sites use copper in addition to stone and are thus Chalcolithic settlements, while the Neolithic Tasian sites are still considered Stone Age.

Badarian flint tools continued to develop into sharper and more shapely blades, and the first faience was developed. Distinctly Badarian sites have been located from Nekhen to a little north of Abydos. It appears that the Faiyum A culture and the Badarian and Tasian Periods overlapped significantly; however, the Faiyum A culture was considerably less agricultural and was still Neolithic in nature. Many biological anthropological studies have shown strong biological affinities between the Badarians and other Northeast African populations. However, according to Eugene Strouhal and other anthropologists, Predynastic Egyptians like the Badarians were similar to the Capsian culture of North Africa and to Berbers.

In 2005, Keita examined Badarian crania from predynastic upper Egypt in comparison to various European and tropical African crania. He found that the predynastic Badarian series clustered much closer with the tropical African series. Although, no Asian or other North African samples were included in the study as the comparative series were selected based on "Brace et al.'s (1993) comments on the affinities of an upper Egyptian/Nubian epipaleolithic series". Keita further noted that additional analysis and material from Sudan, late dynastic northern Egypt (Gizeh), Somalia, Asia and the Pacific Islands "show the Badarian series to be most similar to a series from the northeast quadrant of Africa and then to other Africans".

Dental trait analysis of Badarian fossils conducted in a thesis study found that they were closely related to both Afroasiatic-speaking populations inhabiting Northeast Africa, as well as the Maghreb. Among the ancient populations, the Badarians were nearest to other ancient Egyptians (Naqada, Hierakonpolis, Abydos and Kharga in Upper Egypt; Hawara in Lower Egypt), and C-Group and Pharaonic era skeletons excavated in Lower Nubia, followed by the A-Group culture bearers of Lower Nubia, the Kerma and Kush populations in Upper Nubia, the Meroitic, X-Group and Christian period inhabitants of Lower Nubia, and the Kellis population in the Dakhla Oasis. Among the recent groups, the Badari markers were morphologically closest to the Shawia and Kabyle Berber populations of Algeria as well as Bedouin groups in Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, followed by other Afroasiatic-speaking populations in the Horn of Africa.

Chalcolithic (c. 4000-3000 BC)

Naqada culture

The Naqada culture is an archaeological culture of Chalcolithic Predynastic Egypt (c. 4000–3000 BC), named for the town of Naqada, Qena Governorate. It is divided in three sub-periods: Naqada I, II and III.

Similar to the preceding Badarian culture, studies have found Naqada skeletal remains to have Northeast African affinities. A study by Dr. Shormaka Keita found that Naqada remains were conforming almost equally to two local types, a southern Egyptian pattern (which shares closest resemblance with Kerma), and a northern Egyptian pattern (most similar to Coastal Maghreb).

In 1996, Lovell and Prowse also reported the presence of individuals buried at Naqada in what they interpreted to be elite, high status tombs, showing them to be an endogamous ruling or elite segment of the local population at Naqada, which is more closely related to populations in northern Nubia (A-Group) than to neighbouring populations in southern Egypt. Specifically, they stated the Naqda samples were "more similar to the Lower Nubian protodynastic sample than they are to the geographically more proximate southern Egyptian samples" in Qena and Badari. However, they found the skeletal samples from the Naqada cemeteries to be significantly different to protodynastic populations in northern Nubia and predynastic Egyptian samples from Badari and Qena, which were also significantly different to northern Nubian populations. Overall, both the elite and nonelite individuals in the Naqada cemeteries were more similar to each other than they were to the samples in northern Nubia or to samples from Badari and Qena in southern Egypt.

In 2023, Christopher Ehret reported that the physical anthropological findings from the "major burial sites of those founding locales of ancient Egypt in the fourth millennium BCE, notably El-Badari as well as Naqada, show no demographic indebtedness to the Levant". Ehret specified that these studies revealed cranial and dental affinities with "closest parallels" to other longtime populations in the surrounding areas of northeastern Africa "such as Nubia and the northern Horn of Africa". He further commented that "members of this population did not come from somewhere else but were descendants of the long-term inhabitants of these portions of Africa going back many millennia". Ehret also cited existing, archaeological, linguistic and genetic data which he argued supported the demographic history.

Naqada I (Amratian culture)

The Amratian culture lasted from about 4000 to 3500 BC. It is named after the site of El-Amra, about 120 km south of Badari. El-Amra is the first site where this culture group was found unmingled with the later Gerzean culture group, but this period is better attested at the Naqada site, so it also is referred to as the Naqada I culture. Black-topped ware continues to appear, but white cross-line ware, a type of pottery which has been decorated with close parallel white lines being crossed by another set of close parallel white lines, is also found at this time. The Amratian period falls between S.D. 30 and 39 in Petrie's Sequence Dating system.

Newly excavated objects attest to increased trade between Upper and Lower Egypt at this time. A stone vase from the north was found at el-Amra, and copper, which is not mined in Egypt, was imported from the Sinai, or possibly Nubia. Obsidian and a small amount of gold were both definitely imported from Nubia. Trade with the oases also was likely.

New innovations appeared in Amratian settlements as precursors to later cultural periods. For example, the mud-brick buildings for which the Gerzean period is known were first seen in Amratian times, but only in small numbers. Additionally, oval and theriomorphic cosmetic palettes appear in this period, but the workmanship is very rudimentary and the relief artwork for which they were later known is not yet present.

Later Amratian pottery and artwork often depicts various plants and animals. Pieces featuring fish, birds, elephants, crocodiles, and other animals have all been dated to the late Amratian. One small bowl depicts a man standing on a boat or raft while he appears to hunt a hippopotamus with a harpoon. The human figure is also commonly depicted on Amratian vessels. Jar E3002 in the Brussels Art & History Museum shows a group of eight men, two of which are wearing feathers and animal tails, while holding their arms above their heads. Additionally, bowl UC9547 in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology shows two men in a weaving scene, providing early evidence for textile production in Egypt.

Naqada II (Gerzean culture)

The Gerzean culture, from about 3500 to 3200 BC, is named after the site of Gerzeh. It was the next stage in Egyptian cultural development, and it was during this time that the foundation of Dynastic Egypt was laid. Gerzean culture is largely an unbroken development out of Amratian Culture, starting in the delta and moving south through upper Egypt, but failing to dislodge Amratian culture in Nubia. Gerzean pottery is assigned values from S.D. 40 through 62, and is distinctly different from Amratian white cross-lined wares or black-topped ware. Gerzean pottery was painted mostly in dark red with pictures of animals, people, and ships, as well as geometric symbols that appear derived from animals. Also, "wavy" handles, rare before this period (though occasionally found as early as S.D. 35) became more common and more elaborate until they were almost completely ornamental.

Gerzean culture coincided with a significant decline in rainfall, and farming along the Nile now produced the vast majority of food, though contemporary paintings indicate that hunting was not entirely forgone. With increased food supplies, Egyptians adopted a much more sedentary lifestyle and cities grew as large as 5,000.

It was in this time that Egyptian city dwellers stopped building with reeds and began mass-producing mud bricks, first found in the Amratian Period, to build their cities.

Egyptian stone tools, while still in use, moved from bifacial construction to ripple-flaked construction. Copper was used for all kinds of tools, and the first copper weaponry appears here. Silver, gold, lapis, and faience were used ornamentally, and the grinding palettes used for eye-paint since the Badarian period began to be adorned with relief carvings.

The first tombs in classic Egyptian style were also built, modeled after ordinary houses and sometimes composed of multiple rooms. Although further excavations in the Delta are needed, this style is generally believed to originate there and not in Upper Egypt.

Although the Gerzean Culture is now clearly identified as being the continuation of the Amratian period, significant Mesopotamian influence worked its way into Egypt during the Gerzean, interpreted in previous years as evidence of a Mesopotamian ruling class, the so-called dynastic race, coming to power over Upper Egypt. This idea no longer attracts academic support.

Distinctly foreign objects and art forms entered Egypt during this period, indicating contacts with several parts of Asia. Objects such as the Gebel el-Arak knife handle, which has patently Mesopotamian relief carvings on it, have been found in Egypt, and the silver which appears in this period can only have been obtained from Asia Minor.

In addition, Egyptian objects are created which clearly mimic Mesopotamian forms, although not slavishly. Cylinder seals appear in Egypt, as well as recessed paneling architecture, the Egyptian reliefs on cosmetic palettes are clearly made in the same style as the contemporary Mesopotamian Uruk culture, and the ceremonial mace heads which turn up from the late Gerzean and early Semainean are crafted in the Mesopotamian "pear-shaped" style, instead of the Egyptian native style.

The route of this trade is difficult to determine, but contact with Canaan does not predate the early dynastic, so it is usually assumed to have been conducted over water. During the time when the Dynastic Race Theory was still popular, it was theorized that Uruk sailors circumnavigated Arabia, but a Mediterranean route, probably by middlemen through Byblos, is more likely, as evidenced by the presence of Byblian objects in Egypt.

The fact that so many Gerzean sites are at the mouths of wadis that lead to the Red Sea may indicate some amount of trade via the Red Sea (though Byblian trade potentially could have crossed the Sinai and then taken the Red Sea). Also, it is considered unlikely that something so complicated as recessed panel architecture could have worked its way into Egypt by proxy, and at least a small contingent of migrants is often suspected.

Despite this evidence of foreign influence, Egyptologists generally agree that the Gerzean Culture is still predominantly indigenous to Egypt.

Naqada III (Protodynastic Period)

The Naqada III period, from about 3200 to 3000 BC, is generally taken to be identical with the Protodynastic period, during which Egypt was unified.

Naqada III is notable for being the first era with hieroglyphs (though this is disputed by some), the first regular use of serekhs, the first irrigation, and the first appearance of royal cemeteries.

The relatively affluent Maadi suburb of Cairo is built over the original Naqada stronghold.

Bioarchaeologist Nancy Lovell had stated that there is a sufficient body of morphological evidence to indicate that ancient southern Egyptians had physical characteristics "within the range of variation" of both ancient and modern indigenous peoples in the Sahara and tropical Africa. She summarised that "In general, the inhabitants of Upper Egypt and Nubia had the greatest biological affinity to people of the Sahara and more southerly areas", but exhibited local variation in an African context.

Genetics at the end of the Neolithic period

For the first time in 2025, a study was able to give insights into the genetic background of Early Dynastic Egyptians, by sequencing the whole genome of an Old Kingdom adult male Egyptian of relatively high-status, radiocarbon-dated to 2855–2570 BCE, which was excavated in Nuwayrat (Nuerat, نويرات), in a cliff 265 km south of Cairo. Before this study, whole-genome sequencing of ancient Egyptians from the early periods of Egyptian Dynastic history had not yet been accomplished, mainly because of the problematic DNA preservation conditions in Egypt.

The corpse had been placed intact in a large circular clay pot without embalming, and then installed inside a cliff tomb, which accounts for the comparatively good level of conservation of the skeleton and its DNA. Most of his genome was found to be associated with North African Neolithic ancestry, but about 20% of his genetic ancestry could be sourced to the eastern Fertile Crescent, including Mesopotamia. The genetic profile was most closely represented by a two-source model, in which 77.6% ± 3.8% of the ancestry corresponded to genomes from the Middle Neolithic Moroccan site of Skhirat-Rouazi (dated to 4780–4230 BCE), which itself consists of predominantly (76.4 ± 4.0%) Levant Neolithic ancestry and (23.6 ± 4.0%) minor Iberomaurusian ancestry, while the remainder (22.4% ± 3.8%) was most closely related to known genomes from Neolithic Mesopotamia (dated to 9000-8000 BCE). Genomes from the Neolithic/Chalcolithic Levant only appeared as a minor third-place component in three-source models. A 2022 DNA study had already shown evidence of gene flow from the Mesopotamian and Zagros regions into surrounding areas, including Anatolia, during the Neolithic, but not as far as Egypt yet.

Overall, the 2025 study "provides direct evidence of genetic ancestry related to the eastern Fertile Crescent in ancient Egypt". This genetic connection suggests that there had been ancient migration flows from the eastern Fertile Crescent to Egypt, in addition to the exchanges of objects and imagery (domesticated animals and plants, writing systems...) already observed. This suggests a pattern of wide cultural and demographic expansion from the Mesopotamian region, which affected both Anatolia and Egypt during this period.

The Mesopotamian ancestors of the Nuwayrat individual may have migrated to Egypt during the Neolithic period, or may have arrived in a recent period through a yet unknown migration through the Near-East, or alternatively through direct sea-routes in the Mediterranean or the Red Sea.

The authors acknowledged limitations of the 2025 study, such as their reliance on a single Egyptian genome for analysis, and known limitations in predicting the above-referenced phenotypic traits in understudied populations. Analyses excluded any substantial ancestry in the Nuwayrat genome related to a previously published 4,500-year-old hunter-gatherer genome from the Mota cave in Ethiopia, or other individuals in central, eastern, or southern Africa.

Regarding the supplement facial reconstruction, the researchers noted that while the DNA analysis is indicative of population origin, there was no physical evidence of any particular skin colour, eye colour, or hair colour, and therefore, the reconstruction was produced in black and white without head hair or facial hair.

International Scholarship

In 2025, the UNESCO International Scientific Committee published a review of their 1974 Symposium which discussed the Peopling of Ancient Egypt and featured multidisciplinary views on the population formation of Egypt. UNESCO International Scientific Committee Chair Augustin Holl stated that Egypt was situated in an intersection between Africa and Eurasia but affirmed "Egypt is African" with "a fluctuating distribution of African and Eurasian populations depending on historical circumstances".

According to anthropologist Alain Anselin, reviewer of the 1974 symposium, the weight of recent evidence had repositioned Upper Egypt as the origin centre for pharaonic unification and the "migration of peoples of the Sahara and groups from the South to the valley - something confirmed by research over the last thirty years". Anselin referenced a range of specialist studies (anthropology, linguistics, population genetics and archaeology) presented at a triennial conference in 2005 which he stated was a continuation of the 1974 recommendations. This included a genetic study which quantified the "key impact" of Sub-Saharan populations and showed that the early pre-dynastic population of the Berber people of the Siwa Oasis in north-western Egypt had close demographic links with people of North-East Africa. He further described the value of other studies such as a Crubezy study which "traced the boundaries of the ancient Khoisan settlement to Upper Egypt, where its faint traces remain identifiable and Keita’s work, as the most groundbreaking", and that Cerny's team had identified close genetic and linguistic links between the peoples of Upper Egypt, North Cameroon (some of whom spoke Chadic languages) and Ethiopia (some of whom spoke Kushitic languages). Genetic analysis of a modern Upper Egyptian population had "confirmed the presence of ancient DNA related to current sub-Saharan populations", with 71% of the sampled cases carrying E1b1 haplogroup and 3% carrying the L0f mitochondrial haplogroup. A secondary review published in 2025 noted the results were preliminary and need to be confirmed by other laboratories with new sequencing methods. The genetic marker E1b1 was identified to have wide distribution across Egypt, with "P2/215/M35.1 (E1b1b), for short M35, likely also originated in eastern tropical Africa, and is predominantly distributed in an arc from the Horn of Africa up through Egypt".

Mainstream scholars have situated the ethnicity and the origins of predynastic, southern Egypt as a foundational community primarily in northeast Africa which included the Sudan, tropical Africa and the Sahara whilst recognising the population variability that became characteristic of the pharaonic period. Pharaonic Egypt featured a physical gradation across the regional populations, with Upper Egyptians having shared more biological affinities with Sudanese and southernly African populations, whereas Lower Egyptians had closer genetic links with Levantine and Mediterranean populations.

Archaeological work

The culture was concentrated around Merimde Beni Salama, the main settlement site, located in the West delta of the Nile in Lower Egypt 45 km northwest of Cairo. The site was discovered by German archaeologist Hermann Junker, who excavated 6,400 m2 of the site during his West Nile Delta expedition in 1928.

Early on, the settlement had been considered to be ca. 25 hectares, but recent research expanded this to at least 40 hectares.

Later excavations in the 1970s performed by the Egyptian Antiquities Organization and the German Institute of Archaeology led to the establishment of the stratigraphical sequence.

Characteristics

Merimde shows a sequence of occupations which lasted almost a millennium according to some estimates. While Junker identified three sequences, others such as Joseph Eiwanger established in 1977 that there are five with significantly different levels of development. Artifacts such as ceramics were quite primitive during phase I – a phase characterized by a light occupation. Eiwanger documented that storage areas appeared during phase II when the intensity of the occupation increased.

Economy

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Merimde economy was dominated by agriculture although some fishing and hunting were practiced to a lesser degree. The settlement consisted of small huts made of wattle and reed with a round or elliptical ground plan. Merimde pottery lacked "rippled marks".

Burials

Burials had unique characteristics, different from those practiced in Upper Egyptian Predynastic Egypt and later Dynastic Egypt. There were no separate areas for cemeteries and the dead were buried within the settlement in a flexed position in oval pits without grave goods and offerings.

In the time of the Maadi-Buto culture, the place was used as a cemetery.

Excavations of Merimde burials have yielded a number of skeletons, chiefly those of females. The fossils are generally taller and more robust than later predynastic Egyptian specimens. In this regard, the Merimde skeletons are most similar to those associated with the Tasian culture. Furthermore, although the Merimde crania are dolichocephalic (long-headed) like many of the other predynastic skulls, they have a large and wide vault like the Tasian crania. Skulls excavated from Badarian, Amratian sites tend instead to be smaller and narrow.

Location and excavation

Badari culture is so named because of its discovery at El-Badari, an area in the Asyut Governorate in Upper Egypt. It is located between Matmar and Qau, approximately northwest of present-day Luxor (ancient Thebes). includes numerous Predynastic cemeteries (notably Mostagedda, Deir Tasa and the cemetery of itself), as well as at least one early Predynastic settlement at Hemamieh. The area stretches for along the east bank of the Nile. Some Badarian sites also show evidence of later predynastic use.

It was first excavated by Guy Brunton and Gertrude Caton-Thompson between 1922 and 1931. About forty settlements and six hundred graves have been located.

Cultural features

The Badarian economy was based mostly on agriculture, fishing and animal husbandry. Populations in the Badari culture planted wheat, barley, lentils and tubers. Pits that have been found may have served as granaries. They kept cattle, sheep, and goats; their livestock, as well as dogs, were given ceremonial burial. They used boomerangs, fished from the Nile and hunted gazelle.

Little is known of their buildings, although remains of wooden stumps have been found at one site and may have been associated with a hut or shelter of unknown construction.

The deceased were wrapped in reed matting or animal skins and buried in pits with their heads usually laid to the south, looking west. This seems contiguous with the later dynastic traditions regarding the west as the land of the dead. They were sometimes accompanied by female mortuary figures carved from ivory, or with personal items such as shells, flint tools, amulets in the shape of animals like the antelope and hippopotamus, and jewelry made of ivory, quartz or copper. Green malachite ore has also been detected on stone palettes, perhaps for personal decoration. Tools included end-scrapers, axes, bifacial sickles and concave-base arrowheads. Social stratification has been inferred from the burying of more prosperous members of the community in a different part of the cemetery. Black-topped pottery has been discovered in these cemeteries. These works with their distinctive rippled pattern are considered the most characteristic element of the Badarian culture.

British Africanist, Basil Davidson, (1995) observed that the earliest southern Egyptian farmers, Tasian and Badarian communities, were close neighbours of the Middle Nile and would have emerged from regions south-west or west of the Nile territories. In his view, the early Egyptians belonged to wide communities that lived between the Red Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, shared a common 'Saharan-Sudanese culture' and drew their reinforcements from this source whilst absorbing a number of wanderers from the Near East over time.

Trade

Basalt vases found at Badari sites were most likely traded up the river from the Delta region or from the northwest. Shells came in quantities from the Red Sea. Turquoise possibly came from Sinai. A Syrian connection is suggested for a four-handled pot of hard pink ware. The black pottery, with white incised designs, may have come directly from the West, or from the South. The porphyry slabs are like the later ones in Nubia, but the material could have come from the Red Sea Mountains. The glazed steatite beads were not made locally. These all suggest that the Badarians were not an isolated tribe, but were in contact with the cultures on all sides of them. Nor were they nomadic, having pots of such size and fragility that would have been unsuitable for use by wanderers.

Physical anthropology

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

Older and modern scholarship have characterised the Badarians as an indigenous, Northeast African population that was rooted in a localised, context.

An assemblage of archaeological data have identified a common African substratum for early Egyptian cultural practices. Central African tool designs are featured in the Badarian and Naqada archaeological sites. According to archaeologist, Charles Thurstan Shaw, "the early cultures of Merimde, Badari, Naqadi I and II are essentially African and early African social customs and religious beliefs were the root and foundation of Egyptian way of life."

Egyptologist Frank Yurco considered the Badarians as exhibiting a "mix of North African and Sub-Saharan physical traits", and referenced older analysis of skeletal remains which "showed tropical African elements in the population of the earliest Badarian culture".

Recent archaeological evidence has suggested that the Tasian and Badarian Nile Valley sites were a peripheral network of earlier Northeast African cultures that featured the movement of Badarian, Saharan, Nubian and Nilotic populations.

Cranial traits

In 1971, Eugene Strouhal came to the conclusion that the distribution of the Badarian skulls extends from the "Europoid" to "Negroid" range, according to an obsolete racial categorization that has been disproven. Of the total 117 skulls, the majority of 94 skulls showed mixed Europoid-Negroid features. The share of both components was nearly the same, with some overweight to the Europoid side. Even though the share of 'pure' Negroes is small (6-8%), being half that of the Europoid forms (12.9%), the high majority of mixed forms (80.3%) suggests a long-lasting dispersion of African genes in the population. Additionally, in some of the Badarian crania hair was preserved, in the first series they were curly in 6 cases, wavy in 33 cases and straight in 10 cases. They were black in 16 samples, dark brown in 11, brown in 12, light brown in 1, and grey in 11 cases. In 2007, Strouhal would characterize the physical features of ancient A-Group Nubians as being "Caucasoid" which were "not distinguishable from the contemporary Predynastic Upper Egyptians of the Badarian and Naqadian cultures", based in reference to previous anthropological studies from 1975 and 1985. According to Strouhal, the Predynastic Egyptians seemed to be similar to the Capsian culture of North Africa and to Berbers.

A 1993 craniofacial study performed by the anthropologist C. Loring Brace reached the view that: "The Predynastic of Upper Egypt and the Late Dynastic of Lower Egypt are more closely related to each other than to any other population. As a whole, they show ties with the European Neolithic, North Africa, modern Europe, and, more remotely, India, but not at all with sub-Saharan Africa, eastern Asia, Oceania, or the New World."

However, various biological anthropological studies have demonstrated strong biological affinities between the Badarians and other Northeast African populations. S.O.Y. Keita, a biological anthropologist, in 1990 conducted a craniometric analysis, which included early pre-dynastic Badarian and Naqada I skulls. Both series were found to "cluster with tropical Africans", and with the latter overlapping with Kerma.

In 2005, S.O.Y. Keita examined Badarian crania from predynastic upper Egypt in comparison to European (Norway and Hungary) and various tropical African crania (Southern Africa, Mali and Kenya). He found that the predynastic Badarian series clustered much closer with the tropical African series. Although, no West Asian or other North African samples were included in the original study as the comparative series were selected based on "Brace et al.'s (1993) comments on the affinities of an upper Egyptian/Nubian epipalaeolithic series". Keita further noted that "additional analysis using material from Sudan, late dynastic northern Egypt (Gizeh), Somalia, Asia and the Pacific Islands show the Badarian series to be most similar to a series from the northeast quadrant of Africa and then to other Africans". Moreover, Keita criticised the methodology of the 1993 Brace study for excluding "the Maghreb, Sudan, and the Horn of Africa" from the designated Sub-Saharan group samples which he argued was nearly categorised and "(incorrectly)" as monolithic". Keita further commented on the findings of Boyce that whilst the "post-Badarian southern predynastic and a late dynastic northern series (called "E" or Gizeh) cluster together, and secondarily with Europeans", in the primary cluster with Egyptian groups there were also remains representing populations from ancient Sudan and recent Somalia.

In 2008, Keita found that the early predynastic groups in Southern Egypt which included Badarian skeletal samples, were similar to Nile-Valley material from areas to the south and north of Upper Egypt. Overall, based on the 9 variables, the dynastic Egyptians (includes both Upper and Lower Egyptians) showed much closer affinities with the included Northeast African populations than Europeans, who were more similar to the set of Late Dynastic Egyptians. In his comparison to the various Egyptian series, Greeks, Somali/Horn, and Italians were used. He also concluded that more material was needed to make a firm conclusion about the relationship between the early Holocene Nile valley populations and later ancient Egyptians.

Kanya Godde in a 2009 study evaluated population relationships by comparing cranial traits in twelve Nubian and Egyptian groups which included skeletal remains from the Badarian period. The results showed small biological distance between the groups, which indicate there may have been some sort of gene flow between these groups of Nubians and Egyptians or a common adaptation to similar environments. Godde further specified that the Badarians, Naqadans and Kerma Nubian samples clustered closely in spite of the timescale differences. She also cited previous anthropological studies and archaeological evidence which indicated close affinities between the Badarians and other southernly, African populations. In 2020, Godde analysed a series of crania which included two Egyptian (predynastic Badarian and Naqada series), a series of A-Group Nubians, and a Bronze Age series from Lachish, Palestine. The two pre-dynastic series had strongest affinities, followed by closeness between the Naqada and the Nubian series. Further, the Nubian A-Group plotted nearer to the Egyptians and the Lachish sample placed more closely to Naqada than Badari. According to Godde the spatial-temporal model applied to the pattern of biological distances explains the more distant relationship of Badari to Lachish than Naqada to Lachish as gene flow will cause populations to become more similar over time. Overall, both Egyptian samples were more similar to the Nubian series than to the Lachish series.

In 2023, Christopher Ehret wrote that the physical anthropological findings, performed by Keita and Zakrzewski, from the "major burial sites of those founding locales of ancient Egypt in the fourth millennium BCE, notably El-Badari as well as Naqada, show no demographic indebtedness to the Levant". Ehret specified that these studies revealed cranial and dental affinities with "closest parallels" to other longtime populations in the surrounding areas of Northeastern Africa "such as Nubia and the northern Horn of Africa". He further commented that "members of this population did not come from somewhere else but were descendants of the long-term inhabitants of these portions of Africa going back many millennia". Ehret also cited existing, archaeological, linguistic and genetic data which he argued supported the demographic history.

Some researchers have critiqued the reliability of craniology—the study of skull shapes and sizes—in drawing definitive conclusions about the biological relationships and identities of ancient populations. Critics argue that cranial morphology can be influenced by various factors which may not accurately reflect genetic ancestry or population dynamics. According to S.O.Y. Keita, relying solely on cranial measurements without considering broader archaeological and environmental contexts can lead to oversimplified or misleading interpretations. Keita emphasizes that "cranial metrics alone are insufficient for determining discrete biological populations, especially in regions with significant genetic diversity and historical population movements".

Furthermore, advancements in genetic and genomic studies have provided more robust tools for investigating ancient human populations. Researchers such as Ron Pinhasi and Jay T. Stock strongly advocate for integrating craniometric data with genetic, archaeological, and environmental evidences to offer a more comprehensive understanding of population history and biological relationships. They argue that conclusions drawn strictly from craniological or other morphological analyses about cultural or ancestral relationships should be approached with caution and supported by multiple lines of evidence. Genetic studies can reveal ancestry and migration patterns that are not discernible through morphology alone. Advancements in ancient DNA analysis and other bioarchaeological methodologies have provided more precise tools for investigating genetic relationships and migration patterns.

Dental traits

Joel D. Irish and Lyle Konigsberg (2007) re-examined the findings of a 1955 study in light of recent archaeological and dental morphological data. They stated that re-inspection of the craniometric samples "indicate a Badarian affiliation to North Africans, not sub-Saharan samples".

Dental trait analysis of Badarian fossils conducted in a thesis study found that they were closely related to other Afroasiatic-speaking populations inhabiting Northeast Africa and the Maghreb. Among the ancient populations, the Badarians were nearest to other ancient Egyptians (Naqada, Hierakonpolis, Abydos and Kharga in Upper Egypt; Hawara in Lower Egypt), and C-Group and Pharaonic era skeletons excavated in Lower Nubia, followed by the A-Group culture bearers of Lower Nubia, the Kerma and Kush populations in Upper Nubia, the Meroitic, X-Group and Christian period inhabitants of Lower Nubia, and the Kellis population in the Dakhla Oasis. Among the recent groups, the Badari markers were morphologically closest to the Shawia and Kabyle Berber populations of Algeria as well as Bedouin groups in Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, followed by other Afroasiatic-speaking populations in the Horn of Africa. The Late Roman era Badarian skeletons from Kellis were also phenotypically distinct from those belonging to other populations in Sub-Saharan Africa.

A 2025 report used 3D morphometrics on the teeth and bony labyrinth structures from skeletal material of 171 individuals from 15 Nile Valley sites. As well as a comparative dataset of 121 individuals from northeastern Africa, the wider continent, and Eurasia making 12 assemblages as a comparison. These anatomical characteristics were chosen because they are highly heritable and strong markers of biological affinity. There was homogeneity with the late Pleistocene and early Holocene hunter-gatherer and fishing populations, with a continuity amongst these foragers. During the Neolithic transitions to agriculture there is morphological discontinuity, with new groups entering the Nile Valley, who had likely Near-Eastern affinities. Despite this influx, there was no total population replacement, with older forager groups persisting in peripheral zones. The El-Badari population was considered as heterogenous and represented admixture, showing high internal biological diversity. Being shaped by indigenous groups and external migration, some individuals from the Badari culture resembled more the earlier Nile foragers, and others Neolithic migrants.

While dental trait analysis has been a useful tool in bioarchaeology for assessing biological relationships among ancient populations, recent scholarship highlights its limitations. Researchers caution that relying exclusively on dental morphology can be problematic due to factors such as environmental influences, dietary practices, and genetic drift, which can affect dental characteristics independently of genetic ancestry. Dental traits may exhibit convergent evolution, where similar dental features develop in unrelated populations due to similar selective pressures, potentially leading to misinterpretations of population affinities.

Bioanthropologist Christy G. Turner II and colleagues have emphasized that "dental morphology alone may not provide a complete picture of population relationships and must be integrated with other lines of evidence." They advocate for a multidisciplinary approach to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of an ancient population.

Limb proportions

Sonia Zakrzewski (2003), found that samples from the Badarian to the Middle Kingdom in Upper Egypt had "tropical body plans", but that their proportions were actually "super-negroid" (i.e. the limb indices are relatively longer than in many "African" populations). She proposed that the apparent development of an increasingly African body plan over time may also be due to Nubian mercenaries being included in the Middle Kingdom sample. Although, she noted that in spite of the differences in tibae lengths among the Badarian and Early Dynastic samples, that "all samples lie relatively clustered together as compared to the other populations." Zakrzewski concluded that the "results must remain provisional due to the relatively small sample sizes and the lack of skeletal material that cross-cuts all social and economic groups within each time period".

In 2011, Michelle Raxter examined the changes in limb proportions and body sizes in ancient Egyptians in a worldwide and regional comparative thesis study. The study featured 92 males and 528 female samples which included skeletal remains from the Badarian period. The Egyptian body sizes were compared with Nubian samples, as well as to modern Egyptian samples and other higher and lower latitude populations. Overall, the study found that "Ancient Egyptians have more tropically adapted limbs in comparison to body breadths, which tend to be intermediate when plotted against higher and lower latitude populations. These results may reflect the greater plasticity of limb lengths compared to body breadth. The results might also suggest early Mediterranean and/or Near Eastern influence in Northeast Africa". Raxter also acknowledged that a larger sample collection from the early and late predynastic groups would have enabled "closer examination of biological changes in the transition to agriculture".

Limb proportion analysis has been utilized in physical anthropology to study climatic adaptations and infer aspects of population history among ancient groups. Measurements such as the brachial index (upper arm to forearm ratio) and crural index (thigh to lower leg ratio) have been used to assess thermoregulatory adaptations according to Allen's rule, which posits that populations in warmer climates tend to have longer limbs to dissipate heat, while those in colder climates have shorter limbs to conserve heat.

Scholarship has also highlighted the limitations of drawing definitive conclusions about cultural identity or ancestry based solely on limb proportions. Factors such as environmental influences during growth, nutritional status, and genetic admixture can affect limb development independently of genetic heritage or cultural practices. Additionally, plasticity in human growth can result in limb proportion variations within a population over relatively short time spans, potentially leading to misinterpretations when inferring long-term population histories. Anthropologist Tenton W. Holliday further cautions that "while limb proportions can provide insights into broad patterns of climatic adaptation, they are not definitive indicators of genetic relationships or cultural affiliations among ancient populations." Holliday emphasizes the importance of integrating multiple lines of data for a more accurate biological history.

Genetic data on the Badarian remains

Keita and Boyce (1996) noted that DNA studies had not been conducted on the southern predynastic Egyptian skeletons. Several scholars have highlighted a number of methodological limitations with the application of DNA studies to Egyptian mummified remains. According to historian William Stiebling and archaeologist Susan N. Helft, conflicting DNA analysis on Egyptian mummies has led to a lack of consensus on the genetic makeup of the ancient Egyptians and their geographic origins.

Although no remains of pre-dynastic material has been sequenced, various DNA studies have found Christian-era and modern Nubians, along with modern Afro-Asiatic speaking populations in the Horn of Africa to be descended from a mix of West Eurasian and African populations.

The Tasian culture is possibly one of the oldest-known Predynastic cultures in Upper Egypt, which evolved around 4500 BC. It is named for the burials found at Deir Tasa, a site on the east bank of the Nile located between Asyut and Akhmim. There is no general agreement about the proposed "Tasian culture", and some scholars since Baumgartel in 1955 have suggested it is a part of the Badarian culture, rather than a separate entity.

The Tasian culture group is notable for producing the earliest black-topped pottery, a type of red and brown pottery which is black-colored on its top and interior. This pottery is vital to the dating of the various predynastic Egyptian civilizations. Since all dates for the Predynastic period are tenuous at best, Flinders Petrie developed a system called Sequence Dating through which the relative date, if not the absolute date, of any given Predynastic site can be ascertained by examining the handles on pottery.

As the Predynastic period in ancient Egypt progressed, the handles on pottery evolved from functional to ornamental, and the degree to which any given archaeological site has functional or ornamental pottery can be used to determine the relative date of the site. Since there is little difference between Tasian and Badarian pottery, the Tasian Culture overlaps the Badarian place on the scale between Sequence Dating 21 and 29 significantly.

Excavations of Tasian burials have yielded a number of skeletons. The fossils are generally taller and more robust than later predynastic Egyptian specimens. In this regard, the Tasian skeletons are most similar to those associated with the Merimde culture. Furthermore, although the Tasian crania are dolichocephalic (long-headed) like many of the other predynastic skulls, they have a large and wide vault like the Merimde crania. Skulls excavated from Badarian, Amratian, and Natufian sites tend instead to be smaller and narrow.

Anthropologist Alain Anselin cited recent archaeological data compiled which had identified Tasian and Badarian Nile Valley sites as peripheral networks of earlier African cultures that featured the movement of Badarian, Saharan, Nubian, and Nilotic populations. Bruce Williams, Egyptologist, has stated "The Tasian Period is significantly related to the Neolithic of Sudanese-Saharan tradition as found just north of Khartoum and near Dongola in Sudan".

British Africanist, Basil Davidson, (1995) observed that the earliest southern Egyptian farmers, Tasian and Badarian communities, were close neighbours of the Middle Nile and would have emerged from regions south-west or west of the Nile territories. In his view, the early Egyptians belonged to wide communities that lived between the Red Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, shared a common 'Saharan-Sudanese culture' and drew their reinforcements from this source whilst absorbing a number of wanderers from the Near East over time.

Tasians were shown to have dental traits similar to Sub-Saharan Africans and some also to North Africans. According to the researchers, it is possible that the population may have been a mix of both groups, but the sample size was concluded to be too small to make definitive statements.

The Naqada culture is an archaeological culture of Chalcolithic Predynastic Egypt (c. 4000–3000 BC), named for the town of Naqada, Qena Governorate. A 2013 Oxford University radiocarbon dating study of the Predynastic period suggests a beginning date sometime between 3,800 and 3,700 BC, and end circa 3,100 BC, going through the three periods of Naqada I, Naqada II and Naqada III.

"Naqada" (Nubt) literally means "Golden Town", reflecting the exceptional wealth of the eastern desert region in gold, and the strategic position of Naqada and its facing town of Koptos for the commerce of that gold. The exploitation of precious metals from the Eastern Desert, and the development of floodplain agriculture creating surpluses which could generate demand for a variety of crafts, made the region especially advanced in term of economic specialization and diversification, much more advanced than the regions of contemporary Lower Egypt.

Established scholarship have identified a common African substratum for the formation of early Egypt which included the Naqada cultural practices. Older studies have found Central African tool designs in the Badarian and Naqada archaeological sites. According to archaeologist, Charles Thurstan Shaw, "the early cultures of Merimde, Badari, Naqadi I and II are essentially African and early African social customs and religious beliefs were the root and foundation of Egyptian way of life."

The final phase of the Naqada culture is Naqada III, which is coterminous with the Protodynastic Period (Early Bronze Age ) in ancient Egypt.

Chronology

William Flinders Petrie

The Naqada period was first divided by the British Egyptologist William Matthew Flinders Petrie, who explored the site in 1894, into three sub-periods:

Werner Kaiser

Petrie's chronology was superseded by that of Werner Kaiser in 1957. Kaiser's chronology began c. 4000 BC, but the modern version has been adjusted slightly, as follows:

Monuments and excavations

The material culture at Naqada sites varies depending on the phase of Naqada culture. The excavation of pottery at most Naqada sites with each distinct periods of culture having their own defining pottery. The types of pottery that were found at Naqada sites ranges from bowls, small jars, bottles, medium-sized neck jars to wine jars and wavy-handled jars. Most of the pottery excavated from Naqada sites was probably used for cultural purposes (when having decorations on them) and for storage of food.

Many of the designs seen on pottery contain waves, sometimes accompanied by floral motifs or drawings of people, suggesting the importance of art in the Naqada Cultures. These designs may have also had early Mesopotamian influence, as some of the animals depicted on pottery during the Naqada II period are griffins and serpopards (serpent-necked panthers), which are linked to early Uruk period pottery.

There is evidence that copper harpoons had been manufactured at various Naqada III sites such as Tell el-Farkha and Tel El-Murra. Copper harpoons in Naqada society were primarily used for hunting Nile fauna such as the hippopotamus. Hunting the hippopotamus is noted to be important among the Naqada upper class as it was regarded as high social status although access to copper was more open to the elites rather than the common folk. Harpoons themselves were likely used for protection of trade as evident from an Ancient Egyptian port that signaled that it was used by trade caravans as protection. Another use of the harpoon was in art as the symbolism of the harpoon was probably used for religious purposes as possibly referencing a magic-like hunt using these weapons. The small figurines that are found at Naqada type sites are usually made out of materials such as stones and Ivory. They may have been made for everyday use such as children toys or for ritualistic purpose such as for medicine and magic. The figurines may have also had a religious aspect as it is speculated that some figurines were made to be worshiped as fertility idols and to help with farm productivity. The small figurines may have also been used in mortuary and burial rituals as excavated figurines at Naqada sites have been found close to bodies, suggesting that the figurines may have been used in these rituals.

Knives and knife handles were common in Naqada culture. There seems to be a distinct tradition of knife: the twisted-knife tradition which started in Northern/Lower Egypt and made its way into upper Egypt combining Northern and Southern knife manufacturing styles. The knives that were found during this period appeared to be made out of flint. Knife handles that are dated back to the Naqada II period show intricate work on knife handles as designs of humans worshiping and scenes from nature in Egypt are shown on these knife handles. The knives that were used in Naqada society were used for everyday use such as for cutting food and for hunting and ritualistic purposes. Due to the artwork on some of the knife handles, it can be inferred that knives with designed handles on them were reserved for the upper elites of society.

Early forms of Egyptian writing appear in the Naqada culture. Writing itself appears around the Naqada II period and the forms that it took were in the forms of pictograms. There are several artifacts that depict writing on them. Mostly these are found on vessels and the writing usually depicts animals and people and was used to document trade and administrative transactions. With writing being central around the elites, early writing was used more for documentation of royalty more than everyday life in Naqada culture as seen in early dynastic and predynastic Egypt.

Multiple buildings were present at Naqada sites. The site at Tel-El Farkha, located 14 km east from El-Simbillawein in Egypt, shows evidence of breweries that date back from the Naqada II site. The breweries were surrounded by wooden fences that would have separated them from ordinary houses. The wooden fences were replaced over time by mud brick walls as evident from the excavation at Tel-El Farkha. The brewery located at Tel-El Farkha has 13 consecutive vats in the building which were probably used for the production of beer. The beer was usually made in two steps. Part of the grain was malted and the other part made into porridge. Then it would be mixed and the liquid would be removed from the mixture via sieving the liquid. This resulted in beer. Also at the Tel-El Farkha sites is evidence of buildings: one of the biggest in the site was built on top of a mound and is surrounded by thick mud brick walls and inside the building are small poorly preserved rooms that were surrounded by 30–40 cm walls. The walls around the structure were probably made for defensive reasons. There have also been jars found in this specific building suggesting that the building was also used as a warehouse.

Predynastic Egyptians in the Naqada I period traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the western desert to the west, and the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean to the east. Trade was most likely conducted by the elites of society. People of the Naqada culture traded with cultures in Lower Nubia, most likely the A-culture group. Material evidence of the trade between the Naqada cultures and Nubians is found in the artifacts at these sites. Items that were frequently traded between the two include pottery, clothing, palettes, and stone vessels. The pottery in Nubia was mostly found in grave sites, usually around bodies. Pottery was also traded from the Levant; one piece of pottery from the Tel-El Farkha site was found to have been made out of clay that is not present in the region, suggesting that it was made and traded from the Levant. They also imported obsidian from Ethiopia to shape blades and other objects from flakes. Charcoal samples found in the tombs of Nekhen, dated to the Naqada I and II periods, have been identified as cedar from Lebanon.

Physical anthropological studies

In 1993 a craniofacial study was performed by the anthropologist C. Loring Brace, the report reached the view that "The Predynastic of Upper Egypt and the Late Dynastic of Lower Egypt are more closely related to each other than to any other population", and most similar to modern Egyptians among modern populations, stating "the Egyptians have been in place since back in the Pleistocene and have been largely unaffected by either invasions or migrations." The craniometric analysis of predynastic Naqada human remains found that they were closely related to other Afroasiatic-speaking populations inhabiting North Africa, parts of the Horn of Africa and the Maghreb, as well as to Bronze Age and medieval period Nubians and to specimens from ancient Jericho. The Naqada skeletons were also morphologically proximate to modern osteological series from Europe and the Indian subcontinent. However, the Naqada skeletons and these ancient and recent skeletons were phenotypically distinct from skeletons belonging to modern Niger-Congo-speaking populations inhabiting Sub-Saharan Africa and Tropical Africa, as well as from Mesolithic skeletons excavated at Wadi Halfa in the Nile Valley.

However, another study by Brace et al. (2006) based on 24 craniofacial measures/variables, found close affinities between Naqada Bronze, Somalis, Nubia Bronze, Nubians, and to a lesser extent, Tanzania Haya, Dahomey, and Congo. On the other hand, lower similarities were found between the Naqada sample and the other regions of the world, which included samples named Middle East, Berber, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Italy amongst others, with the exception of the Israeli Fellaheen who also plotted with Naqada Bronze.

In 2022, the methodology of the Brace study was criticised by biological anthropologist S.O.Y. Keita for "misstating the underlying assumptions of canonical variates and principal component analysis used in others' work". Also, Keita noted that the 1993 study overlooked "the fact that even in their study Egyptians could be found clustering with ancient Nubians and modern Somalis, both tropical African groups".

In 2003, Japanese anthropologists Tsunehiko Hanihara, Hajime Ishida and Yukio Dodoet examined cranial traits from 70 human populations. The survey featured sourced samples from Predynastic Naqada and 12th-13th dynasty Kushite Kerma (Sudan). In the context of the study, these samples were collectively classified as "North Africans" and other samples from Somalia along with Nigeria were classified as "Sub-Saharans", but lacked a specified dating period. Overall, the samples from predynastic Naqada and Kerma clustered most closely and more remotely with European groups, whilst the other samples from Sub-Saharan Africa showed "significant separation from other regions, as well as diversity among themselves".

On the other hand, various biological anthropological studies have found Naqada skeletal remains to have Northeastern African biological affinities. In 1996, 53 Naqada crania were measured and characterized by SOY Keita. He concluded that 61-64% were classified as southern series (which shares closest affinities with Kerma Kushites), while 36-41% were more similar to the northern Egyptian pattern (Coastal Maghrebi). In contrast, the set of Badarian crania were largely conforming to the Upper Egyptian-southern series at rates of 90-100%, with 9% possibly displaying northern affinities. This change is mainly attributed to the local migration along the Nile-Valley from northern Egyptians, and/or migration of Near-East populations, which lead to genetic exchange. The Middle Eastern series had some similarities with the early Southern Upper Egyptians and Nubians, which was considered by the researcher probably a reflection of their real presence to some degree, a consideration attested by archeological and historical sources.

The biological anthropologists, Shomarka Keita and A.J. Boyce, have stated that the "studies of crania from southern predynastic Egypt, from the formative period (4000-3100 B.C.), show them usually to be more similar to the crania of ancient Nubians, Kushites, Saharans, or modern groups from the Horn of Africa than to those of dynastic northern Egyptians or ancient or modern southern Europeans". Keita and Boyce further added that the limb proportions of early Nile Valley remains were generally closer to tropical populations. They regarded this as significant because Egypt is not located in the tropical region. The authors suggested that "the Egyptian Nile Valley was not primarily settled by cold-adapted peoples such as Europeans".

In 1996, Lovell and Prowse reported the presence of individuals buried at Naqada in what they interpreted to be elite, high-status tombs, showing them to be an endogamous ruling or elite segment who were significantly different from individuals buried in two other, apparently nonelite cemeteries, and more closely related morphologically to populations in Northern Nubia (A-Group) than to neighbouring populations at Badari and Qena in southern Egypt. Specifically, the authors stated that the Naqada samples were "more similar to the Lower Nubian protodynastic sample than they are to the geographically more proximate Egyptian samples" in Qena and Badari. Although, the samples from Naqada, Badari and Qena were all found to be significantly different from each other and from the protodynastic populations in northern Nubia. Overall, both the elite and nonelite individuals at the Naqada cemeteries were more similar to each other than they were to the samples in northern Nubia or to other predynastic samples in southern Egypt.

In 1999, Lovell summarised the findings of modern skeletal studies which had determined that "in general, the inhabitants of Upper Egypt and Nubia had the greatest biological affinity to people of the Sahara and more southerly areas" but exhibited local variation in an African context. She also wrote that the archaeological and inscriptional evidence for contact between Egypt and Syro-Palestine "suggests that gene flow from these areas was very likely".

In 2018, Godde assessed population relationships in the Nile Valley by comparing crania from 18 Egyptian and Nubian groups, spanning from Lower Egypt to Lower Nubia across 7,400 years. Overall, the results showed that the biological distance matrix demonstrates the smallest biological distances, which indicate a closer affiliation are between Kerma and Gizeh, as well as Kerma and Lisht. The greatest biological distances are assigned to Sayala C-Group and the Pan-Grave sample, along with Sayala C-Group and the Semna South Christian sample. The earliest group, the Mesolithic, demonstrated smaller biological distances with Egyptian Naqada individuals than another Nubian group (Kulubnarti Island) and inline with the Nubian Christian group from Semna South. The northern Lower Nubia and Upper Egypt samples clustered together: A-Group, C-Group, Mesolithic, Sayala C-Group, Coptic, Hesa/ Biga, Badari, and Naqada. Second, the Lower Egypt samples (Gizeh, Cairo, and Lisht) formed a relatively homogeneous grouping. Finally, Semna South (Meroitic, X-Group, Christian), the geographically close Kulubnarti (Christian), Pan-Grave, and Kerma samples also plotted close together. In sum, there was a north–south gradient in the data set.

In 2020, Godde analysed a series of crania, including two Egyptian (predynastic Badarian and Naqada series), a series of A-Group Nubians and a Bronze Age series from Lachish, Palestine. The two pre-dynastic series had strongest affinities, followed by closeness between the Naqada and the Nubian series. Further, the Nubian A-Group plotted nearer to the Egyptians and the Lachish sample placed more closely to Naqada than Badari. According to Godde the spatial-temporal model applied to the pattern of biological distances explains the more distant relationship of Badari to Lachish than Naqada to Lachish as gene flow will cause populations to become more similar over time. Overall, both Egyptian samples were more similar to the Nubian series than to the Lachish series.

In 2023, Christopher Ehret reported that physical anthropological findings, performed by Keita and Zakrzewski, had found that the "major burial sites of those founding locales of ancient Egypt in the fourth millennium BCE, notably El-Badari as well as Naqada, show no demographic indebtedness to the Levant". Ehret specified that these studies revealed cranial and dental affinities with "closest parallels" to other longtime populations in the surrounding areas of northeastern Africa "such as Nubia and the northern Horn of Africa". He further commented that "members of this population did not migrate from somewhere else but were descendants of the long-term inhabitants of these portions of Africa going back many millennia". Ehret also cited existing, archaeological, linguistic and genetic data which he argued supported the demographic history.

Genetic data on Naqada remains

Several scholars have highlighted a number of methodological limitations with the application of DNA studies to Egyptian mummified remains. Moreover, Keita and Boyce (1996) noted that DNA studies had not been conducted on the southern predynastic Egyptian skeletons. According to historian William Stiebling and archaeologist Susan N. Helft, conflicting DNA analysis on Egyptian mummies has led to a lack of consensus on the genetic makeup of the ancient Egyptians and their geographic origins.

Various DNA studies have found that samples from the Kerma culture (c. 2000 BC) and Christian-era Nubia, as well as Pastoral Neolithic samples from East Africa, modern Nubians and modern Afro-Asiatic speaking populations in the Horn of Africa to be descended from a mix of West Eurasian and East African populations.

Naqada II refers to the second Pre-dynastic archaeological stage centered around the Naqada region of Upper Egypt. It was formerly also called Gerzeh culture, after discoveries at Gerzeh (also Girza or Jirzah), a small prehistoric Egyptian cemetery located along the west bank of the Nile but much farther north, where Flinders Petrie first characterized this period in the 19th century. Gerzeh is situated only several miles due east of the oasis of Faiyum, but was only peripheral to the Naqada culture. Depending on the sources, the Naqada II period is dated from to, from to, or from 3,500 to 3,200 BC. Naqada II had many types of potteries, which were categorized chronologically by Petrie from SD ("Sequence Date") 38 to 62. It is coeval with the Uruk period in Mesopotamia.

Naqada II is the second of three phases of the prehistoric Naqada cultures, and was preceded by Naqada I (also known as the "Amratian culture"), and followed by Naqada III (also known as the "protodynastic" or "Semainian culture").

The end of the period, namely Naqada IID, is thought to correspond to the origins of Dynastic Egypt, a process which was further strengthened during the periods of Naqada IIIa and Dynasty 0. Naqada IID saw the inception of kingship, writing, and organized religion, which would become the basis of the classical Egyptian civilization.

Historical context

Sources differ on dating, some saying use of the culture distinguishes itself from the Amratian and begins circa 3500 BC lasting through circa 3200 BC. Accordingly, some authorities place the onset of the Gerzeh coincident with the Amratian or Badari cultures, i.e. c.3800 BC to 3650 BC, even though some Badarian artifacts, in fact, may date earlier. The Naqada sites were first divided by the British Egyptologist Flinders Petrie in 1894, into Amratian (after the cemetery near el-Amrah) and "Gerzean" (after the cemetery near Gerzeh) sub-periods.

The Naqada II culture lasted through a period of time when the desertification of the Sahara had nearly reached its state seen during the late twentieth century.

The primary distinguishing feature between the earlier Amratian and the Gerzeh is the extra decorative effort exhibited in the pottery of the period. Artwork on Gerzeh ceramics features stylised animals and environment to a greater degree than the earlier Amratian artwork. Further, images of ostriches on the pottery artwork possibly indicate an inclination these early peoples may have felt to explore the Sahara desert.

Economy: the "City of Gold'

"Naqada" (Nubt) literally means "City of Gold", reflecting the exceptional wealth of the eastern desert region in gold, and the strategic position of Naqada and its facing town of Koptos for the commerce of that gold.

The exploitation of precious metals from the Eastern Desert, and the development of floodplain agriculture creating surpluses which could generate demand for a variety of crafts, made the region especially advanced in term of economic specialization and diversification, much more advanced than the regions of contemporary Lower Egypt.

Gold production is documented through the creation of gold artifacts, going as far back as about 3500 BCE. Gold was obtained mainly from the older and younger granites of the Eastern Desert, through open pits and moderate underground digging.

Imports from Mesopotamia appear to have been quite intensive during the late Gerzean period (late Naqada II), and correspond to the Protoliterate b and c cultures of Mesopotamia (Uruk period). Mesopotamians may have been attracted by the fact that Naqada was at the center of the developing trade of gold from the Eastern Desert of Egypt. This may have stimulated the direct involvement of Mesopotamian adventurers and traders, who, accompanied by artists and various skilled personnel, may have introduced Mesopotamian styles and practices. The fact that Mesopotamian influence, and possibly influence from Susa, mainly appears in Upper Egypt, and is almost non-existent in Lower Egypt, suggests an independent series of direct contacts, probably through the Red Sea at a point facing Wadi Hammamat, using some of the large ships visible on Mesopotamian seals.

The exploitation of gold may also have stimulated the development of the first organized proto-state structures in Egypt.

Northern and southern expansion

The people of Naqada II and Naqada III seem to have expanded northward into Lower Egypt, replacing the Maadian culture. Maadi was first conquered during Naqada II c-d. The cultures of Lower Egypt were replaced by Upper Egypt and Naqada culture by the end of Naqada II circa 3200 BCE. The Maadian culture of Buto, Tell Ibrahim Awad, Tell el-Rub'a, and Tell el-Farkha were vacated, giving way to the Naqada III culture.

From its core in Upper Egypt, the Naqada II expanded northward to the eastern edge of the Nile Delta, and southward to the Nubian A-Group culture.

Funerary practices

Most of the artifacts known from the period were discovered in tombs. Two main types of tombs are known: small shallow tombs, dug into the sand, in which the body is in the fetal position, and large rectangular tombs, dug deep into the ground and roofed, in which the bodies were dispersed in pieces.

Common pit graves

Until late in the Predynastic period, many tombs consisted in shallow graves, directly opened in the sand, sometimes covered by a mound of earth, such as Tomb 2, El Ma’marîya or the Gebelein predynastic mummies. The dry conditions often preserved the body to this day. The body were often put in a foetal position, as late as the Old Kingdom period, when body were mummified in the extended position. The bodies found in Gebelein (ca. 3400 BC) also had some of the oldest known tattoos in the world, using designs consistent with those of D-ware potteries, with animals such as the Barbary sheep or the bull, or throw-sticks and "SSSS" symbols.

The tombs usually included some utensils, including vessels for provisions for the afterlife, jewelry or slate palettes.

Elite tombs

The other type of tombs in Naqada were wealthy graves, such as Tomb T5, Tomb T4 from the elite Cemetery T at Naqada, or Tomb 271, all dated to the Naqada IIA-IIC period. Contrary to the usual Egyptian graves placed in caves or hollows, these tomb belonged to a different category: they were deep and rectangular, formed from a vertical pit and were roofed. These wealthy graves were roofed over with beams and brushwood, a system not seen in standard Egyptian tombs. These tombs were quite large and well furnished, and were built for the elite of the period. The artifacts in the tomb were precious and well-manufactured, including pottery, jewelry, status symbols, cosmetic palettes. These tombs usually contained detached skulls and bodies, often arranged in heaps. In some tombs, there is evidence of one man accompanied in death by several females, suggesting a sacrifice of concubines or servants attending the deceased. Such practice is characteristic of later royal burials at Abydos. These tomb were usually furnished with large jars, some of them filled with organic materials, including possibly beer and scented fats, probably offerings. Finely-polished stone vases, made of diorite and breccia, were positioned among the skulls. The pottery of these high-level tomb consisted exclusively of Fancy-form (F-ware), Wavy-handled (W-ware) and multiple Rough-ware vessels. Many of the bodies discovered in these tombs were mutilated or decapitated, suggesting either ritual practices or even ritual cannibalism.

Artificial mummification was already practiced from around 3500 BC in Hierakonpolis, where traces of resin and linen wrappings were discovered.

Transitional bearded tusk statuettes (End Naqada I- Early Naqada II)

Many figurines are known which have pointed beards, with often some traces of hair, and sometimes tall hats. They are carved on hippopotamus tusks or ivory tags. Datation is uncertain, but the earliest ones are securely dated from the end of Naqada I, and they continue into Naqada II, but none of these anthropomorphic tusks are attested in the Late Pre-Dynastic, i.e. Naqada III.

Anthropomorphic tusks are only found in Upper Egypt, most of the time in tombs and rarely in settlements, and most of them before Naqada IID. In 1895, Flinders Petrie excavated several anthropomorphic tusks in Naqada, which he always found in pairs, one solid and one hollow to half of its length, in total eight pairs of anthropomorphic tusks found in eight different graves from the Naqada cemetery, including the tomb of a woman. Petrie also obtained several other anthropomorphic tusks on the antiquity market in Egypt. Petrie initially dated these bearded statuettes to SD 33-45 (mid-Naqada I to Naqada IIB) on stylistic grounds, and later to SD 38, the earliest stage of Naqada II. A wider date range between Naqada I and Naqada IID has been suggested by Hendrickx (2016).

The figures seem to be wearing clothing, and may represent people dressed in long cloaks. Bearded men also appear in many other pre-dynastic artifacts, such as the Gebel el-Arak Knife. The headgear of the Mesopotamian-style "Lord of Animals" on the Gebel el-Arak knife may also be comparable to the torus-shaped headgear visible on many of the Naqada I figurines.

Tusks with human heads are of two types, depending on their sizes: smaller ones, made from the canine teeth of the hippopotamus, and larger ones, made from the lower incisors. Most have a knob-like headdress, which is often pierced. The authenticity of these bearded tusk statuettes is generally considered beyond doubt. Some of the statuettes originally obtained by Petrie, and now in the Musées de Bruxelles, were analyzed forensically, and their authenticity confirmed. Two other datable pieces excavated from Badari by Guy Brunton (tomb 3165 and tomb 3828), include one similar tusk surmounted by a bearded face in relief, which is securely attributed to SD 37-38 (Naqada IC-IIA).

Men with beards never appear other than in sculptural works, neither in the victory and hunting scenes on White Cross-lined pottery nor in the Decorated potteries with males accompanying women raising their arms.

Naqada IIA and IIB (c.3500 BC)

The period of Naqada IIA and Naqada IIB see the appearance of early forms of artifacts that would become characteristic of the later Naqada period: ivory tusks and tags with designs of bearded men start to appear, as well as simple designs of cosmetic palettes in the shape of rhomboids or animals.

In the area of pottery, black-topped red pottery continued to be produced, while white cross-lined pottery ("C-ware") started to disappear, before vanishing completely and being replaced by decorative "D" ware from the Naqada IIC period. Rough pottery (type "R") also started to appear during this period.

Known Naqada IIA and IIB cemeteries occupy a rather limited geographical area and are essentially located in the area around Naqada, including the cemeteries of Matmar, Salmany, Naqada and Armant.

Trading relations between Upper Egypt and south-western Asia may have started during this time, centered around the mineral wealth of the eastern desert, particularly gold. Traders may have arrived through the Red Sea or through the Nile Delta, which they seem to have bypassed for lack of local precious resources. Such trade may have stimulated urban and state development in Upper Egypt.

Vessels

Naqada II continued to use large quantities of Black-top redware, especially present in the burials of Naqada IIA and IIB, such as Abadiya grave B101 or B102. Globally, the Naqada IIA and IIB are characterized by the fact that White Cross-Lined ware (Polished red body with white painting, "C-ware") gradually disappears, while Rough ware (a new type of pottery with vegetal particles which burn upon firing and create an uneven surface, "R-ware") emerges, and Polished Red ware (red polished pottery, "P-wares") become more diverse.

One of the originalities of the period is that figures in relief started to be incorporated into Black-top redware. A remarkable fragment from this period appears to have the motif of the Red Crown, of which it is considered as the first known depiction. The symbol of the Red Crown has been known historically as the regnal symbol of Lower Egypt, but it seems that it originated in Upper Egypt, where it was the crown worn by the rulers of Naqada.

Other wares were used in lesser quantities, such as Rough ware (type "R") a new type of pottery with vegetal particles which burn upon firing and create an uneven surface, or Polished Red ware.

Some beautiful and precious stone vessels were also manufactured, such as the red and white limestone vessels of Naqada Tomb T4 (Naqada IIB).

Ivory and stone anthropomorphic figures

Many anthropomorphic ivory tags showing bearded individuals have also been were found in Naqada graves dated to the Naqada IC-IIA period, with only a few specimens in Naqada IIB, and essentially none after. These have been found in the same graves as anthropomorphic tusk and simple animal ivory tags, indicating contemporaneity between these objects (for example Tomb 271, Naqada).

Clay figurines

Various steatopygous female statuettes in dancing postures start to appear during Naqada IIA. Especially remarkable are the dancing Venuses holding their arms rounded above their heads in a seemingly dancing pause, or a pose of praise. Such statuettes may be wearing a fine skirt, signified by the joint legs design and the whitish coloration. Although these so-called "Bird Lady" are very slender and elegant bodies, the heads do not have realistic human proportions, and are rather bird-like, for uncertain reasons. The most famous of these statuettes, now in the Brooklyn Museum, was excavated by Henry de Morgan in 1909, from Tomb 2 at El Ma’marîya, a small oval tomb 1.3m deep, with the corpse in the traditional foetal position.

These female figures may be simply dancing. Alternatively the raised arms may imitate the horns of a cow, and the figures may be depictions of a deity, such as Hathor. This posture of raising arms over the head was already known from the Naqada I period, as it appears for some of the figures on Cross-lined pottery (C-ware), although they seem to be male, and seem to be in the act of dancing or celebrating a victory. Naqada II male statuettes (3650-3450 BC) with raised arms are also known.

Although statuettes essentially disappear from the archaeological record for Naqada IIC and IID, the theme of the woman with raised arms had a great longevity, and can be seen extensively in Naqada IIC Decorated pottery, or in the wall painting of Tomb 100 at Hierakonpolis.

Various clay statuettes of male figures are also known. They generally wear a large penile sheath to affirm their gender, and can be bird-like too, or more realistic, often with short curly hair.

Animal figures

Cosmetic palettes are archaeological artifacts, originally used in predynastic Egypt to grind and apply ingredients for facial or body cosmetics. The decorative palettes of the late 4th millennium BCE appear to have lost this function and became commemorative, ornamental, and possibly ceremonial. They were made almost exclusively out of siltstone with a few exceptions. The siltstone originated from quarries in the Wadi Hammamat. Many of the palettes were found at Hierakonpolis, a centre of power in pre-dynastic Upper Egypt. After the unification of the country, the palettes ceased to be included in tomb assemblages.

During the Naqada IIA and IIB periods, fish-shaped palettes appear while rhomboidal palettes tend to disappear, compared to the previous Naqada I period.

Many simple animal ivory tags appears in Naqada IIA graves, together with anthropomorphic ivory tags showing bearded individuals, with only a few specimens in Naqada IIB. There is a clear contemporaneity between these objects.

Naqada IIC (c.3400 BC)

Territorial expansion

Naqada IIC is marked by a significant geographical expansion from the core area around Naqada. Naqada IIC cemeteries are known from the central areas of Naqada IIA and IIB (Matmar, Salmany, Naqada and Armant), but also from Badari, Hammamiya, Naqa ed-Deir and the Hierakonpolis Fort Cemetery, and north into the Fayum (Gerza, Haraga, and Abusir el-Meleq, all traditional areas of the Maadi-Buto culture), and possibly as far as the large cemetery at Minshat Abu Omar in the eastern Nile delta, fully occupied in Naqada IID. In Nubia, A-Group cemeteries were also strongly influence by Egyptian style.

Contacts with the Near East were at their most significant during the Naqada II (ca. 3600–3350 BCE) and III (ca. 3350–2950 BCE) periods, corresponding to the Late Uruk (ca. 3500–3100 BCE) and Jemdet Nasr (ca. 3100–2900 BCE) periods in Mesopotamia, and to the Susa I-Susa II and Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100–2700 BCE) periods in Elam. Trade between Egypt and the Levant took place during the late Predynastic (ca. 3500–2950 BCE) and Early Dynastic (ca. 2950–2593 BCE) periods, as vessels with content were exchanged in both directions, and Egypt imported lapis lazuli from Central Asia and spouted jug designs and actual cylinder seals from Mesopotamia and Elam as early as Naqada II. Intense contacts then essentially vanished and would only resume much later during the Egyptian New Kingdom (ca. 1570–1069 BCE), during the international upheaval of the Late Bronze Age.

Artistic rupture

Artistic styles and techniques became radically different from Naqada IIC, representing an "iconographic rupture" with previous systems. The eclecticism of the previous periods, with artefacts such as tusks, tags, or zoomorphic models disappeared, as well as some styles such as C-ware. Regional particularisms vanished in favor of standardized artistic traditions across Egypt. New technologies were adopted, such as the introduction of marl clay for pottery, which used desert deposits rather than Nile alluvial sources. New and original iconographies were introduced, as seen in D-ware. Compared to the very restricted domain of Naqada I-IIB assemblages, these new productions also had a much wider geographical scope, from the second cataract of the Nile in the south northwards to the Nile Delta and even the Chalcolithic Levant. Foreign features were adopted from the Levant (such as wavy ledge handles) and possibly from Mesopotamia following the Uruk expansion (such as lapis lazuli and cylinder seals). Ritual and social practices also changed, with for example statuettes essentially disappearing from the archaeological record for Naqada IIC and IID, being replaced by other forms of artistic expression.

Pottery

Naqada II pottery mainly uses two types of clay. First, a grey clay from the alluvium of the Nile, which is rich in ferrous oxide and becomes red to brown upon firing in an oxidizing environment. Second, a clay of limestone origin or marly (a mix limestone and clay), obtained from regular rivers and wadis, which is yellowish to white due to its high content in calcium, and becomes creamy upon firing.

Naqada II practiced to various extents all the types of pottery known from the Naqada period, but in addition was characterized by the development of new pottery types with wavy handles, coarse utilitarian wares, and decorated vessels (called "D-type" for "decorated") consisting in brown paint over a cream surface. Naqada II had many types of potteries, which were categorized chronologically by Petrie from SD ("Sequence Date") 38 to 62 (SD 38-45 covers Naqada IIA and IIB, and SD 45-62 covers Naqada IIC-IID):

During Naqada IIC and IID Rough ware ("R-ware") dominates, while "D-ware" and "W-ware" appear and Black Top ware ("B-ware") almost disappears.

High-level Tomb T5, Naqada

One of the most important burials at Naqada was Tomb T5, an undisturbed wealthy grave belonging to the elite Cemetery T at Naqada, dated to Naqada IIC, circa 3400 BC, Sequence Date 50. Contrary to the usual Egyptian graves placed in caves or hollows, this tomb belonged to a different category: large, deep, graves formed from a rectangular vertical pit. Tomb T4 in Naqada is another such grave. As in all wealthy graves, it was roofed over with beams and brushwood, a system not seen in standard Egyptian tombs.

The tomb contained six detached skulls, with a heap of bones in middle and bones along the sides. There were one man and a least four females, suggesting a sacrifice of concubines or servants attending the deceased. Such practice is characteristic of later royal burials at Abydos.

The tomb was also furnished with large jars, some of them filled with organic materials, including possibly beer and scented fats, probably offerings. Finely-polished stone vases, made of diorite and breccia, were positioned among the skulls. The pottery of this high-level tomb consisted exclusively of Fancy-form (F-ware), Wavy-handled (W-ware) and multiple Rough-ware vessels.

Stone vessels

Luxurious stone vessels, hollowed out and shaped from blocks of semi-precious stones, were also crafted, and were often models for pottery types. The technique was probably known from the time of the Badarian culture and northern Egypt seems to have played an important role in their production. Stone allowed for more precision than pottery, and was the material of choice to obtain the most beautiful and the finest results. Stone vessels started to evolve towards shapes inspired by the shapes of Decorated wares. Excellent stonework, with a remarkable ability to handle colors and textures, would become one of the principal characteristics of Classical Egyptian culture, and was probably developed over centuries of excellence and specialization.

Mesopotamian-style pottery

Red-slipped spouted pottery items dating to around 3500 BCE and after (Naqada II C/D), which were probably used for pouring water, beer or wine, suggest that Egypt was in contact with and being influenced by Mesopotamia around that time. This type of pottery was manufactured in Egypt, with Egyptian clay, but its shape, particularly the spout, is certainly Mesopotamian in origin. Such vessels were new and rare in pre-Dynastic Egypt, but had been commonly manufactured in the Mesopotamian cities of Nippur and Uruk for centuries. This indicated that Egyptians were familiar with Mesopotamian types of pottery. The discovery of these vessels initially encouraged the development of the dynastic race theory, according to which Mesopotamians would have established the first Pharaonic line, but is now considered by many scholars to be simply indicative of cultural influence and borrowings circa 3500 BCE, although there is an established gene flow from Mesopotamia and West Asia into Egypt.

Spouted jars of Mesopotamian design start to appear in Egypt in the Naqada II period. Various Uruk pottery vases and containers have been found in Egypt in Naqada contexts, confirming that Mesopotamian finished goods were imported into Egypt, although the past contents of the jars have not been determined yet. Scientific analysis of ancient wine jars in Abydos has shown there was some high-volume wine trade with the Levant and Mesopotamia during this period.

Decorated pottery ("D-Ware")

Decorated "D" ware was essentially produced between 3,650 and 3,400 BC, during the Naqada IIC and IID periods. It succeeded White cross-lined pottery ("C-ware"), which was current from 3,900 to 3,650 BC, from Naqada IA to Naqada IIA and Naqada IIB, before vanishing. This pottery used a different type of clay, not brownish Nilothic clay, but a white clay of limestone origin or marly (a mix limestone and clay), obtained from regular rivers and wadis or desert sources, which is yellowish to white due to its high content in calcium, and becomes creamy upon firing. The new painting technique was different, since D-ware used brown painting over cream-bodied pottery, while the older C-ware used white or cream white painting over a red background. In addition to the different types of ceramic base and the different colors used for painting, the types of drawings and well as their style also differ widely between C-ware and D-ware. Overall, the layout of drawings of the Naqada II D-ware was much more regular and constrained than that of C-ware, a possible consequence of increased hierarchy and control in society during the Naqada II period. These vessels were found in graves, but were also used in daily life.

Pictures of ceremonial reed boats appear on some of these vessels, showing male and female figures standing aboard, the boat being equipped with oars and two cabins. The regular presence of ships in these paintings suggests intense activity along the Nile river. Some masculine figures also wear a tall feathered or foliage headdress. Timber was necessarily for the construction of large boats capable of trading along the Nile, and such timber could only be found in the Levant, which may have been an added motivation for expansion towards the north.

Although men with beards are ubiquitous in sculptures, they never appear in these paintings.

Gold objects

Several gold objects are known from this period, sometimes decorated with motifs also found in decorated pottery. A flint knife with handle covered in gold has a one side a depiction of three women next to a river, one of them holding a fan, and on the reverse the depiction of a boat with two cabins.

During Naqada II, flint remained the main material for making tools such as knives, chisels, punches or scrappers, but such decorated knives were not in daily use, and probably had a religious function. The flint blade is a pseshkf, a blade shaped in the form of a fish tail, which became typical of knives used in the ceremony of the "Opening of the Mouth" in Classical times, where touching the mouth of a dead person with such a blade was supposed to make the jaw move. Gold remained a scarce and precious material, and was probably only used among the elite.

Oldest known Egyptian painted tomb and textiles

Discoveries at Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) include Tomb 100, the oldest known tomb with a mural painted on its plaster walls. The sepulchre is thought to date to the Naqada IIC phase (c. 3400–3300 BCE), and may belong to an early king of Hierakonpolis.

It is presumed that the mural shows religious scenes and images. It includes figures featured in Egyptian culture for three thousand years—a funerary procession of barques, presumably a goddess standing between two upright lionesses, a wheel of various horned quadrupeds, several examples of a staff that became associated with the deity of the earliest cattle culture and one being held up by a heavy-breasted goddess. Animals depicted include wild asses or zebras, ibexes, ostriches, lionesses, impalas, gazelles, and cattle.

Several of the images in the mural resemble images seen in the Gebel el-Arak Knife: a figure between two lions, warriors, or boats, but are not stylistically similar.

Gebelein painted linen. Naqada II (small boat detail).jpg|Painted linen (small boat detail) from a grave in Gebelein, 3450–3300 BC. Museo Egizio, Turin.

Proto-hieroglyphic symbols

Some symbols on Gerzeh pottery resemble traditional Egyptian hieroglyphs, which were contemporaneous with the proto-cuneiform script of Sumer. The figurine of a woman is a distinctive design considered characteristic of the culture.

On the Koptos monumental statues of the god Min, generally dated to circa 3300 BCE during the late Naqada II- early Naqada III periods, the Min symbol, an archaic form of the classical hieroglyph, is inscribed.

Final period, Naqada IID (c.3300 BC)

The period of Naqada IId (ca. 3350–3150 BCE) is thought to have been particularly in rich in rather revolutionary societal, artistic, and technological innovations, which culminated with the formation of Dynasty 0 (ca. 3150–3000 BCE) and the rise of the Egyptian Empire. The Naqada IId period is characterized by major accomplishments in the work of ivory, with small works of extraordinary quality, ceremonial knife handles, and decorated pottery. These accomplishments were accompanied by societal innovations, with the development of kingship, writing, and organized religion around clearly defined gods.

Ivory tusks with realistic depictions of bearded men may be attributable to this period, as late as Naqada IID, especially on stylistic grounds and based on the fact that they entirely disappear in the Naqada III period.

Territorial expansion into northern areas was confirmed during Naqada IID, with the occupation of major cemeteries and settlements in the Nile delta (Minshat Abu Omar, Kafr Hassan Daoud) and the replacement of the Maadi-Buto culture as seen Buto.

The period probably saw the development of city-states ruled by kings, such as Abydos and Hierakonpolis, resulting in conflicts in which Abydos was the final victor, thereby unifying Upper Egypt, as seen in the scenes of the Gebel el-Arak Knife, which likely depict the conflict between Abydos and Hierakonpolis. King Horus of Dynasty 0, would then endeavor to conquer the region of the Nile Delta.

Contacts with Western and Central Asia

Distinctly foreign objects and art forms entered Egypt during this period, indicating contacts with several parts of Asia. Scientific analysis of ancient wine jars in Abydos has shown that there was some high-volume wine trade with the Levant during this period. Objects such as the Gebel el-Arak knife handle, which has patently Mesopotamian relief carvings on it, have been found in Egypt, and the silver which appears in this period can only have been obtained from Asia Minor.

Lapis lazuli trade, in the form of beads, from its only known prehistoric source – Badakhshan in northeastern Afghanistan – also reached ancient Gerzeh.

These imports from Mesopotamia appear to have been quite intensive during the late Gerzean period, and correspond to the Protoliterate b and c cultures of Mesopotamia.

Warfare

Numerous scenes of warfare appears on decorated ivories of the period, especially on knife handles such as the Gebel el-Arak knife. The period has been characterized as a period of expansion and consolidation, establishing the basis for the formation of the Egyptian empire.

In the Gebel el-Arak knife, the fighting figurines are armed with flint knives, clubs and also pear-shaped maces, which are considered as an innovation introduced from Mesopotamia, replacing the initial Egyptian disk-shaped mace. Some authors have suggested that the reliefs represent a battle between warriors of the cities of Abydos and Hierakonpolis, the two main rival Egyptian cities of the period, and that the victor was Abydos. In effect, most of Egypt became unified under rulers from Abydos during the Naqada III period.

Another knife with very similar iconography, including depictions of warriors, prisoners and nearly identical types of ships can be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Accession number: 26.241.1). Numerous objects from the Naqada II period are similar to the Gebel el-Arak Knife in style and content.

Maceheads

Egyptians used traditional disk-shaped maceheads during the early phase of Naqada culture, circa 4000–3400 BCE. At the end of the period, the disk-shaped macehead was replaced by the militarily superior Mesopotamian-style pear-shaped macehead as seen on the Narmer Palette. The Mesopotamian macehead was much heavier with a wider impact surface, and was capable of giving much more damaging blows than the original Egyptian disk-shaped macehead.

Cylinder seals

It is generally thought that cylinder seals were introduced from Mesopotamia to Egypt during the Naqada II period. Cylinder seals, some coming from Mesopotamia and Elam, and some made locally in Egypt following Mesopotamian designs in a stylized manner, have been discovered in the tombs of Upper Egypt dating to Naqada II and III, particularly in Hierakonpolis. Mesopotamia cylinder seals have been found in the Gerzean context of Naqada II, in Naqada and Hiw, attesting to the expansion of the Jemdet Nasr culture as far as Egypt at the end of the 4th millennium BC.

In Egypt, cylinder seals suddenly appear without local antecedents from around Naqada II c-d (3500–3300 BC). The designs are similar to those of Mesopotamia, where they were invented during the early 4th millennium BC, during the Uruk period, as an evolutionary step from various accounting systems and seals going back as early as the 7th millennium BC. The earliest Egyptian cylinder seals are clearly similar to contemporary Uruk seals down to Naqada II-d (circa 3300 BC), and may even have been manufactured by Mesopotamian craftsman, but they start to diverge from circa 3300 BC to become more Egyptian in character. Cylinder seals were made in Egypt as late as the Second Intermediate Period, but they were essentially replaced by scarabs from the time of the Middle Kingdom.

Religion

The worship of nameless supernatural powers, numina, may go back thousands of years before Naqada, mainly revolving around the worship of supernatural beasts, votive figurines, or bearded human effigies. Organized religion however seems to first appear during Naqada IID, with images of the goddess Bat and possibly the fertility god Min, both symbolized by proto-hieroglyphic signs.

Bat appears as a cloaked female, with cow horns and surrounding stars, a possible symbol of divinity similar to the dingir of Mesopotamian culture. The first image specifically identifying Bat is a Naqada IID greywacke palette from Gerzeh. She appears as a cloaked, horned female. She has extended arms and a star replaces her head and her hands. She has two additional stars at her waist. This exact motif is also known from other contemporary artifacts. Bat can also be shown symbolically as a bovine head with human shoulders.

The first known depictions of the Egyptian god of fertility Min, appear in the form of monumental statues discovered in an ancient temple at Koptos, dated to the late Naqada II to early Naqada III periods, and now displayed in the Ashmolean Museum following their discovery by Flinders Petrie in Koptos at the end of the 19th century. The estimated size of the three known statues ranges from 372 cm to 403 cm. The statues show a bearded man, naked but for a belt and a sash, holding his erect penis. An early form of the character for "Min" is inscribed on the side of one of these statues.

On the Koptos monumental statues of Min, generally dated to circa 3300 BCE during the late Naqada II- early Naqada III periods, the Min symbol is inscribed, together with marine objects: the "sword" of a sawfish and two shells of the Pterocera species of conchs. These symbols seem to corroborate the traditional origin histories of the god, according to which he originated in the fabulous "Land of Punt", in the Eritrean region bordering on the Red Sea.

The Koptos colossi are "remarkably similar" to the much earlier Pre-Pottery Neolithic A statues of northern Mesopotamia, dating to circa 9,000 BCE, such as the Urfa Man (a sculpture from a Pre-Pottery Neolithic temple at Yeni Mahalle), or the Adiyaman-Kilisik sculpture. They share the same hieratic construction and phallic emphasis. According to Ian Hodder, the cult of the Egyptian god Min is related to the Middle East and goes back millennia.

Identity

Name

King Scorpion's name and title are of great dispute in modern Egyptology. His name is often introduced by a six- or seven-leafed golden rosette or flower sign. This emblem can be found on numerous objects from the Dynasty 0 and Dynasty I periods; it vanishes until the end of the Third Dynasty, when it re-appears under high-ranked officials, such as Khabawsokar and Akhetaa (both dated to the end of the Third Dynasty). Its precise meaning has been intensely discussed; the most common interpretation is that of an emblem meaning 'nomarch' or 'high lord'. During the protodynastic and early dynastic eras, it was evidently used as a designation for kings; in much later periods, it was bestowed on high-ranked officials and princes, especially on those who served as priests for the goddess Seshat. Thus, the golden rosette became an official emblem of Seshat. The reading of the rosette sign is also disputed. Most linguists and Egyptologists read it Neb (for 'lord') or Nesw (for 'king'), and they are convinced that the golden rosette was some kind of forerunner to the later serekh.

The scorpion fetish, which underlies the name of Scorpion II, is generally linked to the later-introduced goddess Selket, but Egyptologists and linguists such as L.D. Morenz, H. Beinlich, Toby Wilkinson and Jan Assmann have pointed out that the goddess was introduced no earlier than the late Old Kingdom period. In this view, the scorpion fetish of the protodynastic period should not be associated with Selket. Morenz points out that, in cases where a fetish animal is included in a ruler's name, the animal generally has a different, rather cultic and political meaning. The scorpion animal commonly stood for dangerous things, such as 'poison' and 'illness', but it could also mean 'bad breath', or in military contexts 'storm' or 'attack'. Since it is unclear what actual meaning was reserved for the serekh animal of Scorpion II, scholars usually refer to him as 'King Scorpion II'.

Historical figure

There are several theories regarding his identity and chronological position. Some Egyptologists, such as Bernadette Menu, argue that, because Egyptian kings of the First Dynasty seem to have had multiple names, Scorpion was the same person as Narmer, simply with an alternative name, or additional title. They also argue that the artistic style seen on the macehead of Scorpion II shows conspicuous similarities to that on the famous Narmer macehead. Other scholars, including T. H. Wilkinson, Renée Friedman and Bruce Trigger, have identified king Scorpion II as the 'Gegenkönig' (opponent ruler) of Narmer and Ka (or Sekhen). At the time of Scorpion II, Egypt was divided into several minor kingdoms that were fighting each other. It is likewise conjectured that Narmer simply conquered the realms of Ka and Scorpion II, thus unifying the whole of Egypt for the first time.

Attestations

Macehead

The only pictorial evidence of his existence is the so-called Scorpion Macehead, which was found in the Main deposit by archeologists James E. Quibell and Frederick W. Green in a temple at Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) during the dig season of 1897–1898. It is currently on display at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The stratigraphy of this macehead was lost due to the methods of its excavators, but its style seems to date it to the very end of the Predynastic Period.

The Scorpion Macehead depicts a single, large figure wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt. He holds a hoe, which has been interpreted as a ritual either involving the pharaoh ceremonially cutting the first furrow in the fields, or opening the dikes to flood them. The use and placement of the iconography is similar to the depiction of the pharaoh Narmer on the obverse side of the Narmer Palette. The king is preceded by servants, the first in row seems to throw seeds from a basket into the freshly hacked ground. A second servant (his depiction is partially damaged) wears a huge bundle of grain sheafs, which strengthens the interpretation of a seed sowing ceremony, possibly connected to the Sed festival or a founding ceremony. Scorpion II may have been the founder of Nekhen or Buto, which would explain why the macehead was found in Hierakonpolis. Above the servants, a row of standard bearers, who carry the same standards as seen on the Narmer palette, precede the king. Below the royal servants, a road and a landscape with people and houses is preserved.

Behind the king (on the left side) two fan bearers follow the king. Left of the fan bearer, bundles of papyrus groves are depicted. Behind these, in the upper section, a group of dancers and a priest are visible; the priest guards a Repw.t-palanquin. The lower section is lost due to damage. The festive parade looks into the opposite direction of the king and his standard bearers; an outstretched complete view reveals that both processions meet each other in the center of the whole macehead relief scene. In this very center, scholars such as K. M. Ciałowicz, E. J. Baumgärtel and T. H. Wilkinson believe that they see the tiny traces of the feet and the coil of the Red Crown; a second golden rosette is clearly visible. The traces strengthen the presumption that the scene on the Scorpion macehead once contained the depiction of a second figure of the king, wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt. In this case, the Scorpion macehead would show king Scorpion II as the ruler of the whole of Egypt.

The uppermost scene on the macehead shows a row of divine standards. Each standard is surmounted by a god (Set, Min and Nemty, for example) or nome crest. The original number of standards is unknown, but it is clearly visible that one half shows hanged lapwings, the other shows hanged hunting bows. Both standard rows face each other. Lapwings stood for 'Lower Egyptian folks' or 'common folks' and the bows stood for 'folk of archers', pointing to hostile Asian tribes. Their hanging is interpreted as evidence that Scorpion II began the attacks on Lower Egypt and Egyptian enemies at the border lands, which eventually resulted in Narmer's victory and unification of the country.

Ivory tags

Numerous small ivory tags showing the depiction of a scorpion were found. They come from Abydos, Minshat Abu Omar and Tarkhan. Some of them show the scorpion holding the hieroglyphic sign for "nome/garden/land" (Gardiner sign N24) and it is disputed, if this clear sign combination has a deeper meaning: the scorpion could represent King Scorpion II in his role as a ruler of a certain (but unnamed) nome. Some other tags show the scorpion close over a swallow sign, which reads 'the scorpion is great'. One unique tag shows the scorpion holding a long stick, smiting an enemy. Since many of the tags show a shrine with a heron on the roof at the backsite, it is thought that Scorpion II originated from Buto.

Rock and vessel inscriptions

At Tarkhan and Minshat Abu Omar, several stone and clay vessels were found. They have royal serekhs incarved at their bellies and the reading of the name inside is disputed. Several Egyptologists (including Thomas Schneider, Dietrich Wildung and Herman TeVelde) are convinced that the serekhs present a strongly stylized figure of a scorpion. Others, such as Günter Dreyer and Wolfgang Helck, are not so sure and read it as a sloppily drawn version of the name of King Ka.

At the second cataract of the Nile, not far from the Nasser-reservoire at Gebel Sheikh Suliman (Sudan), a large rock cutting depicts a big scorpion figure striding over killed enemies. Their death is demonstrated by depicting them standing upside-down and being hit by arrows; two further figures are still holding their own bows and shooting. The enemies can be identified as Nubians, due to their ostrich feathers and bows, since ostrich feathers and bows were the typical attributes for Egyptians to mark Nubians. The scorpion faces a human figure with an artificial beard and ceremonial knife in a belt; the figure holds a long cord, to which captured Nubians are tied. The whole scene is interpreted as representing King Scorpion II celebrating his victory against the hostile Nubians.

Reign

Political situation

Numerous artifacts with relief decoration and pottery markings made of black ink point to a flourishing trade economy at the time of Scorpion's rulership. For the first time, the inscriptions give the hieroglyphic writings for 'Lower Egypt' and/or 'Upper Egypt'. Therefore, both parts of Egypt slowly started to work together. But, since it seems clear that Egypt was divided into at least two coexisting kingdoms, scholars wonder on which kind of power factor the rulership of protodynastic kings was based. Conquering and warfare had to be economically promoted, warriors and guardians had to be fed. Based on this cognition, scholars such as K. M Ciałowitz, T. H. Wilkinson, Karl Butzer and Michael A. Hoffman point to the irrigation systems, which were founded in huge quantities. Numerous palettes (such as the Hunters Palette, the Libyan Palette, and the Narmer Palette, for example) and the maceheads of Scorpion II and Narmer show depictions of rivers, plants, trees and several different animals (birds, mammals, and fishes) in surprising natural detail. Alongside these motifs, human figures performing agricultural work are depicted. Ciałowitz, Wilkinson, Butzer and Hoffman see the power source of the protodynastic kings in these agricultural developments. Irrigation systems allowed increasing settlements, cattle possessions and vegetable cultivation. The scholars wonder if the kings kept the irrigations scarce on purpose, to ensure their power, influence and wealth.

Religious and cultic situation

The numerous decorations on the artifacts also depict large numbers of fetishes and standards, surmounted by gods, which reveals an already very complex religion and cult system. Since the standards often guide the battle scenes, battles and conquests might have been seen as cultic events as well. The earliest recognizable gods are Horus, Seth, Min, Nemty, Nekhbet, Bat, and Wepwawet. But it is unknown where these gods had their cultic centers and shrines, because the hieroglyphs depicting the place names were not introduced yet.

Another aspect of cultic and religious beliefs under Scorpion II are the numerous depictions of mythical creatures, such as the serpopard and the winged chimera. The serpopard appears on the Narmer palette and the Two Dogs Palette. He was named Swdja, which means "undestroyable". In Egyptian mythology the serpopard was described as "the one who moves the sun". On the Narmer palette, two serpopards are entwining their necks. This picture is thought to be an allegoric display of the unification of Egypt. Under Scorpion II, two serpopards are lacerating a gazelle, which might imply that the serpopards were under the control of the king (they attack on command).

The "winged chimeras" were named Sefer in Egyptian and they represent chaos and violence. They appear on the Two-dogs-palette and on several ivory artifacts. Scholars point to the fact that creatures such as the chimera and the serpopards were of Mesopotamian origin.

A further motif of Scorpion's era, clearly of Mesopotamian origin, is that of a warrior fighting two lions with his bare hands. He holds one lion in each hand, both at his sides. A similar motif shows the warrior with two giraffes. In later dynasties, this motif became a hieroglyph, registered as Gardiner A38 and Gardiner A39. It reads Qjs and it was used as the emblem of the city of Cusae.

Mesopotamian influences under Scorpion II

All listed motifs and emblems, but also tomb architecture and traded items (such as tools, bead collars and cylinder seals) prove a surprisingly strong and extensive influence of Mesopotamian culture and religion to the early Egyptians. This cognition is promoted by the evaluations of architectural developments, visible at burial places such as Minshat Abu Omar, Hierakonpolis and Naqada. The architectural methods used for building complex and stable tombs were clearly copied from Mesopotamian buildings.

It is not fully clarified why the Egyptians fostered their amicable relationship with Mesopotamia so intensively; proponents of the Dynastic race theory believe that the first Egyptian chieftains and rulers were themselves of Mesopotamian origin, but this view has been abandoned among modern scholars.

The current position of modern scholarship is that the Egyptian civilization was an indigenous Nile Valley development and that the archaeological evidence "strongly supports an African origin" of the ancient Egyptians. During the rulership of King Scorpion II and his immediate successors, the influence seems to decrease and Egypt begins to foster its own, more independent culture. This surely was a further important step toward Egypt's future as a powerful and wealthy kingdom.

Tomb

The exact burial place of Scorpion II is unknown. There are two tombs that are both seen as candidates. The first one is registered as Tomb B50 and lies at Umm El Qa'ab (close to Abydos). It is a nearly quadratic chamber divided into four rooms by a simple, cross-shaped mud wall. Several ivory tags with scorpion figures were found here. The second one is located at Hierakonpolis and is registered as Tomb HK6-1. It measures 3.5 m × 6.5 m, has a depth of 2.5 m, and is strengthened with mud. Several ivory tags with scorpion figures were found here.

Naqada III is the last archaeological phase of the Naqada culture of ancient Egyptian prehistory. Depending on the sources, it is dated to approximately from 3325 to 3000 BC, from to, or from 3200 to 3000 BC. The period corresponds to Flinders Petrie's "Sequence Dates" SD 63–76.

It is the period during which the process of state formation, which began in Naqada II, became highly visible, with named kings heading powerful polities. Naqada III is often described as the Protodynastic Period of Egypt, and the later part of Naqada III is usually associated with Dynasty 0 to reflect the presence of kings at the head of influential states, although, in fact, the kings involved would not have been a part of a dynasty. In this period, those kings' names were inscribed in the form of serekhs on a variety of surfaces including pottery and tombs. The period was characterized by constant conflict with the people of the Nile Delta, probably for the control of valuable trade routes with the Levant.

The periodization of the Naqada Culture was originally developed by Flinders Petrie in the early 1900s. The defined periods have evolved since then and Naqada III is now further subdivided into IIIA1, IIIA2, IIIB1, IIIB2, IIIC1, IIIC2, and IIID subperiods.

History

The Protodynastic Period in ancient Egypt was characterised by an ongoing process of political unification, culminating in the formation of a single state to begin the Early Dynastic Period. Furthermore, it is during this time that the Egyptian language was first recorded in hieroglyphs. There is also strong archaeological evidence of Egyptian settlements in southern Canaan during the Protodynastic Period, which are regarded as colonies or trading entrepôts.

Archaeologists Pierre de Miroschedji and Moain Sadeq hypothesise that the Egyptian activity in the Levant of this period can be classified in three parts: an area of permanent settlement including Tell es-Sakan (which may have been the administrative centre) and En Besor; an area extending north along the coast of seasonal habitation, and beyond this to the east and further north was an area of interaction between the Egyptians and the Canaanites.

State formation began during this era and perhaps even earlier. Various small city-states arose along the Nile. Centuries of conquest then reduced Upper Egypt to three major states: Thinis, Naqada, and Nekhen. Sandwiched between Thinis and Nekhen, Naqada was the first to fall. Thinis then conquered Lower Egypt. Nekhen's relationship with Thinis is uncertain, but these two states may have merged peacefully, with the Thinite royal family ruling all of Egypt. The Thinite kings were buried at Abydos in the Umm el-Qa'ab cemetery.

Early Egyptologists such as Flinders Petrie were proponents of the Dynastic race theory which hypothesised that the first Egyptian chieftains and rulers were themselves of Mesopotamian origin, but this view has been abandoned among modern scholars.

The "City of Gold'

"Naqada" (Nubt) literally means "City of Gold", reflecting the exceptional wealth of the eastern desert region in gold, and the strategic position of Naqada and its facing town of Koptos for the commerce of that gold. The exploitation of precious metals from the Eastern Desert, and the development of floodplain agriculture creating surpluses which could generate demand for a variety of crafts, made the region especially advanced in term of economic specialization and diversification, much more advanced than the regions of contemporary Lower Egypt. Imports from Mesopotamia appear to have been quite intensive during the late Gerzean period (late Naqada II), and correspond to the Protoliterate b and c cultures of Mesopotamia (Uruk period).

Naqada was at the center of the developing trade of gold from the eastern desert of Egypt. This may have stimulated the direct involvement of Mesopotamian traders, who, accompanied by artists and various skilled personnel, may have introduced Mesopotamian styles and practices. The exploitation of gold may also have stimulated the development of the first organized proto-state structures in Egypt.

Gold production is documented through the creation of gold artifacts, going as far back as about 3500 BC. The extraction of gold occurred mainly in the older and younger granites of the Eastern Desert, through open pits and moderate underground digging.

Golden figurines

At Tell el-Farkha, on the Eastern Kom, a deposit of "gold foil, carnelian and ostrich eggshell beads of a necklace, and two large flint knives" was found. When reconstructed the gold fragments formed two statues of naked men with lapis lazuli eyes. The statuettes represent standing naked males. The tall one is 60 cm, and the other one 30 cm tall. The statues featured "large protruding ears, unnaturally large phalluses, and carefully modeled fingernails and toenails". The lapis lazuli came from what is now modern day Afghanistan. The figurines represent bald individuals, with no facial hair and large protruding ears. They are equipped with very large phallus sheaths, one of them decorated with a carved band around it. The larger figure also has a necklace. The core of the statuettes (now decomposed) was made of wood, which was covered with thin sheets of gold fastened by 140 golden rivets.

These characteristics follow the stylistic conventions of Predynastic Egyptian art, similar to the Mahasna statuette (Amratian Period), or Mac Gregor Man statuette in the Ashmolean Museum. The golden statuettes most probably depict a Predynastic ruler and his son during the heb-sed festival, and they probably adorned a shrine in the Western Kom area. They are thought to belong to the Naqada IIIB period (c. 3200–3000 BC), or possibly even Naqada IIIA (circa 3300 BC). They are thought to be the oldest known depictions of Ancient Egyptian rulers.

Northern expansion

The people of Naqada II and Naqada III seem to have expanded northward into Lower Egypt, replacing the Maadian culture. Maadi was first conquered during Naqada II c-d. The cultures of Lower Egypt were replaced by Upper Egypt and Naqada culture by the end of Naqada II c. 3200 BC. The Maadian culture of Buto, Tell Ibrahim Awad, Tell el-Rub'a, Tell el-Murra, and Tell el-Farkha were vacated, giving way to the Naqada III culture.

Technological innovations

Naqada III extended all over Egypt and was characterized by some notable firsts:

And at best, a notable second: According to the Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities, in February, 2020, Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered 83 tombs dating back to 3,000 BC, known as the Naqada III period. Various small ceramic pots in different shapes and some sea shells, makeup tools, eyeliner pots, and jewels were also revealed in the burial.

Decorative cosmetic palettes

During Naqada III, the highly decorated ivory sculptures of Naqada II were replaced by decorated greywacke palettes. Many notable decorative palettes are dated to Naqada III, such as the Hunters Palette. During the Naqada IIIA period (IIIA1 and IIIA2), cosmetic palettes are dominated by rectangular shapes.

Penile sheaths

Numerous male statuettes from the Naqada I-III period are shown displaying penile sheaths, a characteristic attribute of many hunter-gatherer societies. Such depictions appear in Hierakonpolis, Abydos, on the Gebel el-Arak Knife, or on the golden statuettes of Tell el-Farkha. They were held in place by leather strings tied at the waist, and possible at the bottom as well.

It has been suggested that many of the decorated hippopotamus tusks also found in tombs of the period may be the very penile sheaths depicted in these statuettes, or at least symbolic representations of them. Penile sheath (karnatiw) may also have been used for medical reasons, in a mistaken attempt to avoid schistosomiasis and contamination by cercariae.

Pottery vessels

Naqada II pottery mainly uses two types of clay. First, a grey clay from the alluvium of the Nile, which is rich in ferrous oxide and becomes red to brown upon firing in an oxidizing environment. Second, a clay of limestone origin or marly (a mix limestone and clay), obtained from regular rivers and wadis, which is yellowish to white due to its high content in calcium, and becomes creamy upon firing. Most potteries of the Naqada III period used the second type.

Naqada III practiced, to various extents, most of the types of pottery known from the Naqada period, but most of the production tended to be monochrome, with sometimes simple designs in relief. Naqada III was categorized chronologically by Petrie from SD ("Sequence Date") 63 to 76:

During the Naqada IIIA period (IIIA1 and IIIA2), Decorated ware ("D-ware") and Polished Red ware ("P-ware") decline, while Late ware ("L-ware") increased considerably. Wavy-handled ware ("W-ware") exist only with banded decoration. During Naqada IIIB, L-ware dominates, together with important productions of W-ware in the form of cylindrical incised jars. Rough ware ("R-ware") declines, especially pointed-base styles.

Dynasty 0

The Egyptian rulers of the period belong to the so-called "Dynasty 0", and may have ruled over some parts of Upper Egypt. They include rather obscure rulers such as Crocodile, Iry-Hor, Ka, and perhaps the king Scorpion II, whose name may refer to, or be derived from, the goddess Serket, a special early protector of other deities and the rulers. The period ended with the rise of Narmer, who became the first king of the First Dynasty and the first unifier of Egypt.

For Upper Egypt in the south, the following Dynasty 0 rulers have been listed: A, Finger Snail, Fish, Elephant, Stork, Bull, Scorpion I, Crocodile, Iry-Hor, Ka, Scorpion II, Narmer / Menes.

For Lower Egypt in the north, the following Dynasty 0 rulers have been listed: Hedju Hor, Ny-Hor, Ni-Neith, Hat-Hor, Pu, Hsekiu, Khayu, Tiu, Thesh, Neheb, Wazner, Mekh, Double Falcon, Wash.

Early dynastic genetics

For the first time in 2025, a study was able to give insights into the genetic background of Early Dynastic Egyptians, by sequencing the whole genome of an Old Kingdom adult male Egyptian of relatively high-status, radiocarbon-dated to 2855–2570 BC, which was excavated in Nuwayrat (Nuerat, نويرات), in a cliff 265 km south of Cairo. Before this study, whole-genome sequencing of ancient Egyptians from the early periods of Egyptian Dynastic history had not yet been accomplished, mainly because of the problematic DNA preservation conditions in Egypt.

The corpse had been placed intact in a large circular clay pot without embalming, and then installed inside a cliff tomb, which accounts for the comparatively good level of conservation of the skeleton and its DNA. Most of his genome was found to be associated with North African Neolithic ancestry, but about 20% of his genetic ancestry could be sourced to the eastern Fertile Crescent, including Mesopotamia. The genetic profile was most closely represented by a two-source model, in which 77.6% ± 3.8% of the ancestry corresponded to genomes from the Middle Neolithic Moroccan site of Skhirat-Rouazi (dated to 4780–4230 BC), which itself consists of predominantly (76.4 ± 4.0%) Levant Neolithic ancestry and (23.6 ± 4.0%) minor Iberomaurusian ancestry, while the remainder (22.4% ± 3.8%) was most closely related to known genomes from Neolithic Mesopotamia (dated to 9000–8000 BC). Genomes from the Neolithic/Chalcolithic Levant only appeared as a minor third-place component in three-source models. A 2022 DNA study had already shown evidence of gene flow from the Mesopotamian and Zagros regions into surrounding areas, including Anatolia, during the Neolithic, but not as far as Egypt yet.

Overall, the 2025 study "provides direct evidence of genetic ancestry related to the eastern Fertile Crescent in ancient Egypt". This genetic connection suggests that there had been ancient migration flows from the eastern Fertile Crescent to Egypt, in addition to the exchanges of objects and imagery (domesticated animals and plants, writing systems...) already observed. This suggests a pattern of wide cultural and demographic expansion from the Mesopotamian region, which affected both Anatolia and Egypt during this period.

The Mesopotamian ancestors of the Nuwayrat individual may have migrated to Egypt during the Neolithic period, or may have arrived in a relatively recent period through a yet unknown migration through the Near-East, or alternatively through direct sea-routes in the Mediterranean or the Red Sea.

Other artifacts

The Narmer Palette, also known as the Great Hierakonpolis Palette or the Palette of Narmer, is a significant Egyptian archaeological find, dating from about the 31st century BC, belonging, at least nominally, to the category of cosmetic palettes. It contains some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found. The tablet is thought by some to depict the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the king Narmer. Along with the Scorpion Macehead and the Narmer Maceheads, also found together in the main deposit at Nekhen, the Narmer Palette provides one of the earliest known depictions of an Egyptian king. On one side, the king is depicted with the bulbed White Crown of Upper (southern) Egypt, and the other side depicts the king wearing the level Red Crown of Lower (northern) Egypt, which also makes it the earliest known example of a king wearing both types of headdress. The Palette shows many of the classic conventions of Ancient Egyptian art, which must already have been formalized by the time of the Palette's creation. Egyptologists Bob Brier and A. Hoyt Hobbs have referred to the Narmer Palette as "The oldest Egyptian historical record".

The Palette, which has survived five millennia in almost perfect condition, was discovered by British archeologists James Quibell and Frederick W. Green, in what they called the Main Deposit in the Temple of Horus at Nekhen, during the dig season of 1897–98. Also found at this dig were the Narmer Macehead and the Scorpion Macehead. The exact place and circumstances of these finds were not recorded very clearly by Quibell and Green. In fact, Green's report placed the Palette in a different layer one or two metres (yards) away from the deposit, which is considered to be more accurate on the basis of the original excavation notes. It has been suggested that these objects were royal donations made to the temple. Nekhen, or Hierakonpolis, was one of four power centers in Upper Egypt that preceded the consolidation of Upper Egypt at the end of the Naqada III period. Hierakonpolis's religious importance continued long after its political role had declined. Palettes were typically used for grinding cosmetics, but this palette is too large and heavy (and elaborate) to have been created for personal use and was probably a ritual or votive object, specifically made for donation to, or use in, a temple. One theory is that it was used to grind cosmetics to adorn the statues of the deities.

The Narmer Palette is part of the permanent collection of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It is one of the initial exhibits which visitors have been able to see when entering the museum. Its inventory number is JE 32169 and its former identification number is CG 14716.

Description

The Narmer Palette is a by, shield-shaped, ceremonial palette, carved from a single piece of flat, soft dark gray-green greywacke. The stone has often been wrongly identified, in the past, as being slate or schist. Slate is layered and prone to flaking, and schist is a metamorphic rock containing large, randomly distributed mineral grains. Both are unlike the finely grained, hard, flake-resistant siltstone, whose source is from a well-attested quarry that has been used since pre-dynastic times at Wadi Hammamat. This material was used extensively during the pre-dynastic period for creating such palettes and also was used as a source for Old Kingdom statuary. A statue of the 2nd dynasty pharaoh Khasekhemwy, found in the same complex as the Narmer Palette at Hierakonpolis, was also made of this material.

The Palette is carved in low relief. At the top of both sides is an identical royal insignia called a serekh, which is "a composite hieroglyphic symbol standing for the king/crown/state and the state's property". The serekhs bear the rebus symbols nꜥr (catfish) and mr (chisel) inside, being the phonetic representation of Narmer's name. Both serekhs are flanked by a pair of bovine heads with highly curved horns, thought to represent the cow goddess Bat. She was the patron deity of the seventh nome of Upper Egypt, and was also the deification of the cosmos within Egyptian mythology during the pre-dynastic and Old Kingdom periods of Ancient Egyptian history.

Recto side

Depicted at the top of either side, two human-faced bovine heads, thought to represent the patron cow goddess Bat, flank the serekh of Narmer. The goddess Bat is, as she often was, shown in portrait, rather than in profile as is traditional in Egyptian relief carving. Hathor, who shared many of Bat's characteristics, is often depicted in a similar manner. Some authors suggest that the images represent the vigor of the king as a pair of bulls.

The largest relief on this side depicts Narmer, who lifts a royal mace in his right hand while with his left he pulls up a kneeling captive by the hair. In contrast to the verso depiction of Narmer, where he is shown with the Red Crown of Lower Egypt, on this side he wears the White Crown of Upper Egypt. His pose reflects the Ancient Egyptian convention of showing an important figure from multiple perspectives at once. His feet, legs and head are shown in profile, while the torso and hips turn slightly and his shoulders face the front. One eye, even though it would normally not be seen if this were an actual profile head, is also shown from the front. The purpose was to provide the most complete information possible about a person on a flat surface. The Palette also shows the Egyptian canon of body proportions. Based on an established unit correlating to the distance across the knuckles of human fist, this conventional form of measurement was a means of standardizing the proportions of important figures in Egyptian art. The standard measurement of 18 fists from the ground to the hairline on the forehead is apparent in the Palette. Both artistic conventions remained in use until at least the conquest by Alexander the Great. The minor figures in active poses, such as the king's captive, the corpses and the handlers of the serpopard beasts, are much more freely depicted.

Attached to the belt worn by Narmer are four beaded tassels, each capped with an ornament in the shape of the head of the goddess Hathor. They also are the same heads as those that adorn the top of each side of the palette. At the back of the belt is attached a long fringe representing a bull's tail.

On the left of the king is a man bearing the king's sandals, flanked by a rosette symbol. To the right of the king is a kneeling prisoner, who is about to be struck by the king. A pair of symbols appear next to his head perhaps indicating his name (Wash) or indicating the region where he was from. Above the prisoner is a falcon, representing Horus, perched above a set of papyrus flowers, the symbol of Upper Egypt. In his talons, he holds a rope-like object which appears to be attached to the nose of a man's head that also emerges from the papyrus flowers.

Verso side

Below the bovine heads is what appears to be a procession. Narmer is significantly larger than anyone else on that register, an artistic convention known variously as hierarchical proportion, hierarchic scale or hierarchy of scale. As on the recto, his disproportionate size reinforces the ideas of conquest and political power as a god-like leader. He wears a Red Crown of Lower Egypt, symbolized by a papyrus. He holds a mace and a flail, two traditional symbols of kingship. To his right are the hieroglyphic symbols for his name, though not contained within a serekh. Behind him is his sandal-bearer, whose name may be represented by the rosette appearing adjacent to his head, and a second rectangular symbol that has no clear interpretation, but which has been suggested may represent a town or citadel.

Immediately in front of the pharaoh is a long-haired man, accompanied by a pair of hieroglyphs that have been interpreted as his name: Tshet (this assumes that these symbols had the same phonetic value used in later hieroglyphic writing). Before this man are four standard bearers, holding aloft an animal skin, a dog, and two falcons. At the far right of this scene are ten decapitated corpses with their heads placed between their legs and their severed genitals placed atop each head. These figures are generally understood to be victims of Narmer's conquest. Above them are symbols for a ship, a falcon holding a harpoon and a door.

Below the procession, two men are holding ropes tied to the outstretched, intertwining necks of two serpopards confronting each other. The serpopard is a mythological creature, a mix of serpent and leopard. The circle formed by their curving necks is the central part of the Palette, which is the area where the cosmetics would have been ground. Upper and Lower Egypt each worshipped lioness war goddesses as protectors; the intertwined necks of the serpopards may thus represent the unification of the state. Similar images of such mythical animals are known from other contemporaneous cultures, and there are other examples of late-predynastic objects (including other palettes and knife handles such as the Gebel el-Arak Knife) which borrow similar elements from Mesopotamian iconography, suggesting Egypt-Mesopotamia relations.

At the bottom of the verso, a bull is seen knocking down the walls of a city while trampling on a fallen foe. Head lowered, Narmer is shown here as a stylized, two-dimensional beast who will vanquish his enemies. Bulls had an ideological connection to Egyptian kingship. "Bull of his Mother", for example, was a common epithet given to an Egyptian king as the son of the patron cow goddess. This posture of a bovine has the meaning of "force" in later hieroglyphics.

Scholarly debate

The Palette has raised considerable scholarly debate over the years. In general, the arguments fall into one of two camps: scholars who believe that the Palette is a record of an important event, and other academics who argue that it is an object designed to establish the mythology of united rule over Upper and Lower Egypt by the king. It had been thought that the Palette either depicted the unification of Lower Egypt by the king of Upper Egypt, or recorded a recent military success over the Libyans, or the last stronghold of a Lower Egyptian dynasty based in Buto. More recently, scholars such as Nicholas Millet have argued that the Palette does not represent a historical event (such as the unification of Egypt), but instead represents the events of the year in which the object was dedicated to the temple. Whitney Davis has suggested that the iconography on this and other pre-dynastic palettes has more to do with establishing the king as a visual metaphor of the conquering hunter, caught in the moment of delivering a mortal blow to his enemies. John Baines has suggested that the events portrayed are "tokens of royal achievement" from the past and that "the chief purpose of the piece is not to record an event but to assert that the king dominates the ordered world in the name of the gods and has defeated internal, and especially external, forces of disorder".

In popular culture

The Narmer Palette is featured in the 2009 film Watchmen as one of the Egyptian objects that are present in Ozymandias's office. The Australian author Jackie French used the Palette, and recent research into Sumerian trade routes, to create her historical novel Pharaoh (2007). The Palette is featured in manga artist Yukinobu Hoshino's short story El Alamein no Shinden. The Palette is also featured in The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan where the palette is fetched by a magical shawabti servant. In Ubisoft's 2017 game Assassin's Creed Origins, the Palette is mentioned as a trivia bit in loading screen tips. The Narmer Palette is a main plot point in Lincoln Child’s The Third Gate novel, in which they attempt to find the tomb of king Narmer in the Sudd.