Naqada culture

The Naqada culture is an archaeological culture of Chalcolithic Predynastic Egypt (ca. 4000–3000 BC), named for the town of Naqada, Qena Governorate. A 2013 Oxford University radio carbon dating study of the Predynastic period, however, suggests a much later date beginning sometime between 3,800 and 3,700 BC.[1]

Naqada culture
Location of Naqada
Naqada culture (Egypt)
Geographical rangeEgypt
PeriodNeolithic
Datesc. 4000 – 3000 BC
Type siteNaqada
Preceded byBadarian culture
Followed byProtodynastic Period

The final phase of the Naqada culture is Naqada III, which is coterminous with the Protodynastic Period (Early Bronze Age, ca. 3200–3000 BCE) in ancient Egypt.

Chronology

William Flinders Petrie

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

Werner Kaiser
Evolution of Egyptian prehistoric pottery styles, from Naqada I to Naqada II and Naqada III

Petrie's chronology was superseded by that of Werner Kaiser in 1957.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:[2]

  • Figure of a woman with bird traits. Naqada II period, 3500–3400 BCE. Brooklyn Museum
  • Pre-dynastic Naqada cooking pot - scientific analysis has shown that this pot once contained a meat stew with honey
  • Incised hippopotamus ivory tusk, an upper canine with four holes around top, from Naqada Tomb 1419, Egypt, Naqada period, The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London
  • Spatha shell from Naqada tomb 1539, Egypt, Naqada I period, The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London
  • Naqada D-ware jar with image of a boat
  • Bull Palette
  • The Battlefield Palette, 3100 B.C.
  • Predynastic human figures, Naqada.[5][6][7]
  • The Gebel el-Arak Knife, Musée du Louvre (3300-3200 BCE).

Monuments and excavations
Gebelein predynastic mummy, with Naqada II decorated jars on its side, circa 3400 BCE

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.[8] They also imported obsidian from Ethiopia to shape blades and other objects from flakes.[9] Charcoal samples found in the tombs of Nekhen, which were dated to the Naqada I and II periods, have been identified as cedar from Lebanon.[10]

Craniometric analysis of predynastic Naqada fossils found that they were closely related to other Afroasiatic-speaking populations inhabiting 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 fossils and these ancient and recent skeletons were phenotypically distinct from fossils belonging to modern Niger-Congo-speaking populations inhabiting Tropical Africa, as well as from Mesolithic skeletons excavated at Wadi Halfa in the Nile Valley.[11]

Relative chronology

References
  1. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24145-carbon-dating-shows-ancient-egypts-rapid-expansion/
  2. Hendrickx, Stan. "The relative chronology of the Naqada culture: Problems and possibilities [in:] Spencer, A.J. (ed.), Aspects of Early Egypt. London: British Museum Press, 1996: 36-69": 64. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. Shaw, Ian (2002). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 61. ISBN 0-500-05074-0.
  4. Barbara G. Aston, James A. Harrell, Ian Shaw (2000). Paul T. Nicholson and Ian Shaw editors. "Stone," in Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, Cambridge, 5-77, pp. 46-47. Also note: Barbara G. Aston (1994). "Ancient Egyptian Stone Vessels," Studien zur Archäologie und Geschichte Altägyptens 5, Heidelberg, pp. 23-26. (See on-line posts: and .)
  5. "UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology" (PDF).
  6. "Naqada, ivory carvings". www.ucl.ac.uk.
  7. Petrie, William Matthew Flinders (1895). Naqada and Ballas. p. 213.
  8. Shaw, Ian (2002). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 61. ISBN 0-500-05074-0.
  9. Barbara G. Aston, James A. Harrell, Ian Shaw (2000). Paul T. Nicholson and Ian Shaw editors. "Stone," in Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, Cambridge, 5-77, pp. 46-47. Also note: Barbara G. Aston (1994). "Ancient Egyptian Stone Vessels", Studien zur Archäologie und Geschichte Altägyptens 5, Heidelberg, pp. 23-26. See on-line posts: [3] and [4].
  10. Parsons, Marie. "Egypt: Hierakonpolis, A Feature Tour Egypt Story". www.touregypt.net. Retrieved 2008-07-09.
  11. Brace, C. Loring et al. (1993). "Clines and clusters versus "race:" a test in ancient Egypt and the case of a death on the Nile". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 36 (S17): 1–31. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330360603. Retrieved 1 November 2017.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link); also cf. Haddow (2012) for similar dental trait analysis
  12. Liverani, Mario (2013). The Ancient Near East: History, Society and Economy. Routledge. p. 13, Table 1.1 "Chronology of the Ancient Near East". ISBN 9781134750917.
  13. Shukurov, Anvar; Sarson, Graeme R.; Gangal, Kavita (7 May 2014). "The Near-Eastern Roots of the Neolithic in South Asia". PLOS ONE. 9 (5): e95714. Bibcode:2014PLoSO...995714G. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0095714. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 4012948. PMID 24806472.
  14. Bar-Yosef, Ofer; Arpin, Trina; Pan, Yan; Cohen, David; Goldberg, Paul; Zhang, Chi; Wu, Xiaohong (29 June 2012). "Early Pottery at 20,000 Years Ago in Xianrendong Cave, China". Science. 336 (6089): 1696–1700. Bibcode:2012Sci...336.1696W. doi:10.1126/science.1218643. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 22745428.
  15. Thorpe, I. J. (2003). The Origins of Agriculture in Europe. Routledge. p. 14. ISBN 9781134620104.
  16. Price, T. Douglas (2000). Europe's First Farmers. Cambridge University Press. p. 3. ISBN 9780521665728.
  17. Jr, William H. Stiebing; Helft, Susan N. (2017). Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture. Routledge. p. 25. ISBN 9781134880836.
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