Gerzeh

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Gerzeh (also Girza ;جرزه Gerzeh ) is a place in Egypt , about 80 south of Cairo . In 1911 near Gerzeh, in the desert, a small prehistoric cemetery was excavated, which dates from around 3500 to 3000 BC. . BC was occupied. The later cemetery of Riqqeh is located near this cemetery.

graveyard

Most of the burials found here are simple body graves. Most of the graves were well preserved. Ceramic vessels , stone vessels, jewelry and make-up pallets were mainly found as accessories . Some skeletons show remains of special treatment. The corpses may have been cut up after death. This may be taken as evidence of attempts towards mummification .

A special feature is a necklace made of rod-shaped chain links found in a grave, dating from around 3200 BC. Was made. The individual chain links consist either of pierced gemstones or rolled up sheets of iron or gold . The iron in the iron rolls comes from an iron meteorite . These iron rolls are among the oldest evidence that iron was worked by cold hammering. A total of nine rolls of meteorite iron were found from two graves. Lapis lazuli pearls are evidence of long-distance trade at this time.

Cultural assignment

The cemetery can be assigned to the Naqada culture , which developed in Upper Egypt and then slowly spread to the north. The Naqada culture can be divided into two main phases, which are now called Naqada I and Naqada II. However, this distinction was only worked out with the discovery of this cemetery, and Naqada II was therefore often referred to as Girzéen or Girza culture in older research after this site .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The oldest iron artifacts are of extraterrestrial origin. Der Standard, August 20, 2013, accessed August 20, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Thilo Rehren et al .: 5,000 years old Egyptian iron beads made from hammered meteoritic iron. In: Journal of Archaeological Science. Volume 40, number 12, December 2013, pp. 4785–4792, doi : 10.1016 / j.jas.2013.06.002 ( full text as PDF file, English )

literature

  • Petrie / Wainwright / Mackay: The Labyrinth, Gerzeh and Mazghuneh , British School of Archeology in Egypt XXI. London 1912
  • Alice Stevenson: Gerzeh, a cemetery shortly before History (Egyptian sites series), London 2006, ISBN 0-9550256-5-6

Coordinates: 29 ° 27 '  N , 31 ° 12'  E