El-Badari

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El-Badari is an Egyptian city ​​with 42,770 inhabitants (2006) in the Asyut governorate . It is located on the eastern bank of the Nile near the city of Assiut and is best known for the prehistoric Badari culture that was widespread in this region.

archeology

Research history

All current knowledge about the predynastic period in el-Badari is essentially based on the work of Guy Brunton , who carried out extensive excavations here in the 1920s and early 1930s, and on Gertrude Caton-Thompson's thorough investigation in Hemamieh in the 1924/25 season .

At the time of Brunton, the excavation area consisted of a 16 km long strip of desert that stretched between the modern villages of el-Etmania ( Qau el-Kebir ) and Naga Wissa. He then worked his way into two areas, which he named Mostagedda and Matmar . These are now seen only as an extension of the Badari district. The Badari region today also includes the two 60 km long Wadis el-Asyuti and Qau Bay.

Between 1922 and 1931, Brunton uncovered over 100 predynastic cemeteries and settlements in his three areas of el-Badari . His colleague Caton-Thompson decided to carry out a more thorough excavation about 3 km north of the modern village of el-Hemaniah, in a strip of desert that Brunton left out due to its narrowness, because he suspected no cemetery there. The work of Caton-Thompson and Brunton left many fundamental questions about the Badari culture unanswered, so that in 1989 and 1992 a small team led by Diana L. Holmes of the Archaeological Institute of University College London undertook new investigations.

Locations

All known predynastic sites are in the flat desert area between the fruiting land and the limestone plateau. In the region of el-Badari, this strip of desert is very narrow and rarely exceeds a few hundred meters. The sites are usually shallow and have an average deposit depth of 0.5 to 2 meters. The vast majority was occupied at different times, with late predynastic and dynastic graves intersecting older settlement layers. The sediments from the settlement phase are made up of loose sand sediments mixed with ash , charcoal , plant remains and animal bones. Pottery shards and stone artifacts are abundant, although evidence of settlement structures is rare. Since all sites are palimpsests of different phases, the predynastic culture of the el-Badari region is best described in terms of time periods rather than by treating individual sites.

Badari culture

Figure of the Badari culture made of carved ivory, approx. 4000 BC Chr.

During his first field season, Brunton came across a "new" thin-walled type of ceramic with a wave or comb pattern on the outside. Brunton attested a great age to ceramics and assigned it a culture that preceded the other known predynastic cultures. His suspicion was confirmed by the excavations of Caton-Thompson in Hemamieh. Thompson removed the sediments of this small settlement in 15 cm thick layers. As she got deeper, she came across well-known Nagada I / II ceramics and, on the bottom layer, specimens of fluted clay jugs along with other types that Brunton found in the graves during his excavations. The culture with the fluted ceramics was now called "Badari".

The Badari culture is the oldest known agricultural culture in the Nile Valley of Upper Egypt . It coincided with an early phase of Naqada culture in the Armant region. The Badari people planted wheat and barley, and kept cattle, sheep and goats. However, it is not known to what extent they depend on these resources. They also went fishing on the Nile and hunted gazelles . Almost nothing is known about the nature of their housing. At Deir Tasa stumps of various wooden posts were found that could represent the remains of a light hut or a shelter. Apart from that, all Badari settlements have several deep pits which, according to Brunton , are to be interpreted as granaries .

Graves

In addition to the more than 50 Badari settlements, Brunton cleared more than 750 burial sites, which were distributed over 45 places. The graves consisted of shallow, roughly oval-shaped pits. The bodies lay on the left in a contracted position with the head facing south and the face facing west. The position and orientation of the dead should be characteristic of burials in Upper Egypt during the predynastic period. The grave goods were relatively simple. The corpse was usually wrapped in mats or hides and placed on a reed mat. Usually personal jewelry such as necklaces made of shells or stone beads was added. The remaining artifacts usually include a single vessel and the occasional slate of slate or some flint tools .

Dating

Although the Badari culture was undoubtedly classified as "early", it took a long time to establish an exact absolute dating. In the early 1970s, thermoluminescence (TL) determinations were made for eight ceramic shards from Caton-Thompson's excavations in Hemamieh , but these only corroborated the already known relative time sequence without giving any information about a realistic absolute dating. Five later radiocarbon dates of samples from new excavations at Hermanieh and Deir Tasa have only shown that the Badari culture clearly dates back to the period 4500-4000 BC. Is classified.

Other predynastic sites in Upper Egypt from before 4000 BC It only exists in the Gurna - Armant region . However, these do not belong to the Badari culture, but are attributed to the "Naqada culture" by archaeologists. Although there are some similarities between the Armant and Badari finds in ceramics, these are not sufficient to support a southern expansion of the Badari culture as far as Armant. Other sites outside of the Badari region, which some researchers have repeatedly associated with the Badari culture, usually contained only a few shards with reefs, which at most indicated a trade with the Badari region.

"Tasa culture"

When Brunton began his work near Deir Tasa, he believed he had found evidence of an even older culture which he called "Tasian". Only a few researchers who looked into his research results in detail have recognized this so-called Tasa culture. Brunton did not proceed stratigraphically in his excavations and never made "Tasian" finds that did not include finds that could be assigned to the Badari culture.

According to current research, all artifacts that Brunton classified as "Tasian" are to be regarded as part of the material Badari culture. The incised bell-shaped cups that Brunton thought were typical of Tasian could have been imported from outside, possibly from a people from the Eastern Desert or Northern Sudan.

Late Predynastic Period

Many sites in Badari show signs that they were reused as settlements or cemeteries in later predynastic times. Although Brunton dated the graves using Flinders Petries' sequencing method, relative dates could not be determined for all predynastic settlements. Nevertheless, he classified many late graves in the Gerzean ( Naqada II ), while the settlements were mainly dated to the Amratian ( Naqada I ).

One of the most surprising results of the last excavations carried out by Holmes in the 1990s was the almost complete absence of pottery and other objects from the Naqada I phase. The predynastic sites examined showed easily identifiable pottery from the Badari and Naqada II cultures, but pottery shards from Naqada I were extremely rare. The lack of Naqada I material cannot yet be fully explained, but an interruption in the settlement of the Badari region between the Badari and Naqada II phases appears unlikely. The excavations by Caton-Thompson and Holmes near Henamieh indicate that this site was populated more or less continuously from the Badari to the Naqada II phase during the predynastic period. Apart from that, the Hemamieh sequence and the results of the investigations from 1989 to 1992 indicate that the material culture of the el-Badari region during the Naqada I phase (3900-3300 BC) was clearly different from other settlement areas in Upper Egypt differs. As early as 1956, Werner Kaiser suggested that the Badari phase in the el Badari region should largely coincide with the Naqada I phase in other parts of the Nile valley. However, this is only partially correct, even if more data is needed to make a more precise statement. The results of the last field surveys from the 1990s suggest that the Badari culture changed after 4000 BC. Developed into an "advanced Badari culture" or "Badari / Naqada-I transition culture", which was still Badari at its core, but already had some Naqada-I elements. This "developed Badari culture" paved the way for a definite Naqada II phase with artifacts from settlements and cemeteries that can also be found in other places in Upper Egypt during this phase. An exception are flint artefacts, which seem to reflect a local tradition and are assigned to a “mostagedda industry” in specialist literature.

Settlement structures

There are indications of predynastic settlement structures after the Badari phase in Hemamieh and north of Sheikh Esa.

At Hemamieh, Caton-Thompson found nine “hut circles”, which she dated to the Amratian (Naqada I). These are small adobe buildings one to two meters in diameter, some of which had a superstructure made of wattle walls . Only the larger huts could perhaps have served as housing, the others were probably pantries or shelters for young animals.

At Sheikh Esa, Brunton exposed several circular, clay plastered floors in various places. These were about three meters in diameter and were bordered by low walls or window sills made of clay. The remains of wooden posts were found near one hut. According to current knowledge, the settlements are dated to the Naqada I phase.

Naqada III phase

During the Naqada III phase , the desert strip near Badari was used exclusively for burials. The settlements were probably located in the fertile land. A rectangular construction made of adobe bricks with two rooms (3.6 × 2 meters) seems to have served as a temple during Naqada III or the 1st Dynasty, as it was overlaid by the remains of two dynastic temples.

Pharaonic time

The cemeteries in the region continued to be documented in subsequent periods of Pharaonic history. Especially from the time of the end of the Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period, there are numerous simple, but often relatively richly furnished burials. The dead were usually buried in simple shafts, which sometimes had a small chamber. It can be assumed that the dead were in a coffin, but organic materials are not well preserved, so that most of the coffins were only discolored in the sand. Young women in particular have often been richly endowed with jewelry, including numerous gold amulets. The jewelry was mostly found on the corpses, but there was often also a chest in which further jewelry and toilet utensils were found. Other additions were mainly ceramic vessels . It can be assumed that these were the burials of the farmers who lived in this region.

The remains of a temple were also found near El-Badari. Brunton could distinguish three layers. A few remains date to the predynastic period. A larger building dates from the Old Reich. A courtyard with an altar and the Holy of Holies behind it could be excavated. A larger building was erected above this in the New Kingdom. It was probably a common temple. In the east there were two sanctuaries, with various rooms in front of them. From parallels it can be deduced that the building was surrounded by pillars, but Brunton found only mud brick foundations. The deities worshiped here are unknown.

literature

  • Gay Brunton, Gertrude Caton-Thompson: The Badarian civilization and predynastic remains near Badari: by Guy Brunton, OBE, and Gertrude Caton-Thompson. Quaritch, London 1928.
  • Gay Brunton: Mostagedda and the Tasian culture: by Guy Brunton, with a chapter by GM Morant. Quaritch, London 1937.
  • Gay Brunton: Qau and Badari I (= British School of Archeology in Egypt and Egyptian Research Account. Volume 44). Quaritch, London 1927.
  • Gay Brunton: Qau and Badari II (= British School of Archeology in Egypt and Egyptian Research Account. Volume 45). Quaritch, London 1928.
  • Guy Brunton: Qau and Badari III (= British School of Archeology in Egypt and Egyptian Research Account. Volume 50). Quaritch, London 1930.
  • Diane L. Holmes: The Predynastic lithic industries of Badari, Middle Egypt: new perspectives and inter-regional relations. In: World Archeology. Volume 20, 1988, pp. 70-86.
  • Diane L. Holmes, RF Friedman: Survey and test excavations in the Badari region, Middle Egypt. In: Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. Volume 60, 1994, pp. 105-142.
  • Diane L. Holmes: el-Badari district Predynastic sites. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 161-163.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e Diane L. Holmes: el-Badari district Predynastic sites. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , p. 161.
  2. ^ Diane L. Holmes: el-Badari district Predynastic sites. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 161-162.
  3. ^ A b c d e f Diane L. Holmes: el-Badari district Predynastic sites. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , p. 162.
  4. ^ Diane L. Holmes: el-Badari district Predynastic sites. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 162-163.
  5. ^ A b c Diane L. Holmes: el-Badari district Predynastic sites. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , p. 163.
  6. ↑ Stephan Johannes Seidlmayer: Grave fields from the transition from the Old to the Middle Kingdom . SAGA 1. Heidelberg 1990, ISBN 3927552011 , pp. 123-210
  7. ^ Brunton: Qau and Badari I , 18-20, Plate XXIII


Coordinates: 27 ° 0 ′  N , 31 ° 25 ′  E