![]() Extent of Naqada I culture | |
Geographical range | Egypt |
---|---|
Period | Neolithic |
Dates | c. 4000–3000 BC |
Type site | Naqada |
Preceded by | Badarian culture |
Followed by | Protodynastic Period |
Chalcolithic Eneolithic, Aeneolithic, or Copper Age |
---|
↑ Stone Age ↑ Neolithic |
↓ Bronze Age ↓ Iron Age |
Coordinates: 25°57′00″N 32°44′00″E / 25.95000°N 32.73333°E 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.[1]
The final phase of the Naqada culture is Naqada III, which is coterminous with the Protodynastic Period (Early Bronze Age c. 3200–3000 BC) 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:
- Naqada I: Amratian (after the cemetery near El-Amrah, Egypt)
- Naqada II: Gerzean (after the cemetery near Gerzeh)
- Naqada III: Semainean (after the cemetery near Es-Semaina)
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Petrie's chronology was superseded by that of Werner Kaiser in 1957.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:[2]
- Naqada I (about 3900–3650 BC)
- black-topped and painted pottery
- trade with Nubia, Western Desert oases, and Eastern Mediterranean[3]
- obsidian from Ethiopia[4]
- Naqada II (about 3650–3300 BC)
- represented throughout Egypt
- first marl pottery, and metalworking
- Naqada III (about 3300–2900 BC)
- more elaborate grave goods, first Pharaohs
- cylindrical jars
- writing
Figure of a woman. Naqada II period, 3500–3400 BCE. Brooklyn Museum
The Gebel el-Arak Knife, Musée du Louvre (3300-3200 BCE).
Monuments and excavations
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20230110210921im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Bm-ginger.jpg/220px-Bm-ginger.jpg)
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]
Biological anthropological studies
Some craniometric analysis of predynastic Naqada human remains 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 skeletons and these ancient and recent skeletons were phenotypically distinct from skeletons 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] The 1993 craniofacial study performed by Brace et al 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 that "the Egyptians have been in place since back in the Pleistocene and have been largely unaffected by either invasions or migrations."[12] 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 Somali, both tropical African groups”.[13]
Hanihara et al. (2003) performed a cranial study on 70 samples from a global database which featured samples from Predynastic Naqada and 12th-13th dynasty Kerma which were classified in the study as "North Africans" and other samples from Somalia along with Nigeria which were classified as "Sub-Saharans" but lacked a specified dating period. The samples from predynastic Naqada and Kerma clustered closely whilst the other samples from Sub-Saharan Africa showed "significant separation from other regions, as well as diversity among themselves".[14]
Various biological anthropological studies have found Naqada skeletal remains to have African biological affinities.[15][16][17] 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”.[18]
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 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.[19] 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.[20]
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 between these areas was very likely".[21]
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 Mesolithic Nubian sample had a greater similarity with Naqada Egyptians. Similarly, Lower Nubian and Upper Egyptian samples clustered together. However, the Lower Egyptian samples formed a homogeneous unit, and there was a north-south gradient in the data set.[22]
In 2020, Godde analysed a series of crania, including two Egyptian (predynastic Badarian and Nagada 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 Nagada 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.[23]
Genetic data on the Naqada remains
Keita and Boyce (1996) noted that DNA studies had not been conducted on the southern predynastic Egyptian skeletons.[24] Although, 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.[25][26][27][28] Several scholars have highlighted a number of methodological limitations with the application of DNA studies to Egyptian mummified remains.[29][30]
Relative chronology
References
- ^ "Carbon dating shows ancient Egypt's rapid expansion".
- ^ 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.
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(help) - ^ Shaw, Ian (2002). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 61. ISBN 0-500-05074-0.
- ^ 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: [1] and [2].)
- ^ "UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology" (PDF).
- ^ "Naqada, ivory carvings". www.ucl.ac.uk.
- ^ Petrie, William Matthew Flinders (1895). Naqada and Ballas. p. 213.
- ^ Shaw, Ian (2002). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 61. ISBN 0-500-05074-0.
- ^ 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].
- ^ Parsons, Marie. "Egypt: Hierakonpolis, A Feature Tour Egypt Story". www.touregypt.net. Retrieved 2008-07-09.
- ^ 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.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link); also cf. Haddow (2012) for similar dental trait analysis - ^ 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.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link) - ^ Keita, S. O. Y. "Ideas about "Race" in Nile Valley Histories: A Consideration of "Racial" Paradigms in Recent Presentations on Nile Valley Africa, from "Black Pharaohs" to Mummy Genomest". Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections.
- ^ Hanihara, Tsunehiko; Ishida, Hajime; Dodo, Yukio (July 2003). "Characterization of biological diversity through analysis of discrete cranial traits". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 121 (3): 241–251. doi:10.1002/ajpa.10233.
- ^ "When Mahalanobis D2 was used,the Naqadan and Badarian Predynastic samples exhibited more similarity to Nubian, Tigrean, and some more southern series than to some mid- to late Dynasticseries from northern Egypt (Mukherjee et al., 1955). The Badarian have been found to be very similar to a Kerma sample (Kushite Sudanese), using both the Penrose statistic (Nutter, 1958) and DFA of males alone (Keita,1990). Furthermore, Keita considered that Badarian males had a southern modal phenotype, and that together with a Naqada sample, they formed a southern Egyptian cluster as tropical variants together with a sample from Kerma". Zakrzewski, Sonia R. (April 2007). "Population continuity or population change: Formation of the ancient Egyptian state". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 132 (4): 501–509. doi:10.1002/ajpa.20569. PMID 17295300.
- ^ Keita, Shomarka. "Analysis of Naqada Predynastic Crania: a brief report (1996)" (PDF).
- ^ Godde, K. (2009). "An examination of Nubian and Egyptian biological distances: support for biological diffusion or in situ development?". Homo: Internationale Zeitschrift für die Vergleichende Forschung am Menschen. 60 (5): 389–404. doi:10.1016/j.jchb.2009.08.003. ISSN 1618-1301. PMID 19766993.
- ^ Keita, Shomarka and Boyce, A.J. (December 1996). "The Geographical Origins and Population Relationships of Early Ancient Egyptians", In Egypt in Africa, Theodore Celenko (ed). Indiana University Press. pp. 20–33. ISBN 978-0253332691.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Lovell Nancy and Prowse Tracy (17 December 2012). "Concordance of cranial and dental morphological traits and evidence f…". Archive.ph.
Table 3 presents the MMD date for Badari, Qena, and Nubia in addition to Naqada and shows that these samples are all significantly different from each other. Since the two nonelite samples from Naqada are not significantly different, they were pooled for the cluster analysis that is presented in Figure 2 and which demonstrates that 1) the Naqada samples are more similar to each other than they are to the samples from the neighbouring Upper Egyptian or Lower Nubian sites and 2) the Naqada samples are more similar to the Lower Nubian protodynastic sample than they are to the geographically more proximate Egyptian samples.
- ^ Lovell Nancy and Prowse Tracy (17 December 2012). "Concordance of cranial and dental morphological traits and evidence f…". Archive.ph.
the Naqada samples are more similar to each other than they are to the samples from the neighbouring Upper Egyptian or Lower Nubian sites
- ^ Lovell, Nancy C. (1999). "Egyptians, physical anthropology of". In Bard, Kathryn A.; Shubert, Steven Blake (eds.). Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. London. pp. 328–331. ISBN 0415185890.
- ^ Godde, K. (July 2018). "A new analysis interpreting Nilotic relationships and peopling of the Nile Valley". Homo: Internationale Zeitschrift für die Vergleichende Forschung am Menschen. 69 (4): 147–157. doi:10.1016/j.jchb.2018.07.002. ISSN 1618-1301. PMID 30055809. S2CID 51865039.
- ^ Godde, Kane. "A biological perspective of the relationship between Egypt, Nubia, and the Near East during the Predynastic period (2020)". Retrieved 16 March 2022.
- ^ Celenko, Theodore (1996). "The Geographical Origins and Population Relationships of Early Ancient Egyptians" In Egypt in Africa. Indianapolis, Ind.: Indianapolis Museum of Art. pp. 20–33. ISBN 0936260645.
- ^ Sirak, K.A. (2021). "Social stratification without genetic differentiation at the site of Kulubnarti in Christian Period Nubia". Nature Communications. 12 (1): 7283. Bibcode:2021NatCo..12.7283S. doi:10.1038/s41467-021-27356-8. PMC 8671435. PMID 34907168.
We find that the Kulubnarti Nubians were admixed with ~43% Nilotic related ancestry on average (individual proportions varied between ~36-54%) and the remaining ancestry reflecting a West Eurasian-related gene pool ultimately deriving from an ancestry pool like that found in the Bronze and Iron Age Levant. … The Kulubnarti Nubians on average are shifted slightly toward present-day West Eurasians relative to present-day Nubians, who are estimated to have ~40% West Eurasian-related ancestry.
- ^ Hollfelder, Nina (2017). "Northeast African genomic variation shaped by the continuity of indigenous groups and Eurasian migrations". PLOS Genetics. 13 (8): e1006976. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1006976. PMC 5587336. PMID 28837655.
All the populations that inhabit the Northeast of Sudan today, including the Nubian, Arab, and Beja groups showed admixture with Eurasian sources and the admixture fractions were very similar. …Nubians are an admixed group with gene-flow from outside of Africa … The strongest signal of admixture into Nubian populations came from Eurasian populations and was likely quite extensive: 39.41%-47.73%. … Nubians can be seen as a group with substantial genetic material relating to Nilotes that later have received much gene-flow from Eurasians.
- ^ Haber, Marc (2017). "Chad Genetic Diversity Reveals an African History Marked by Multiple Holocene Eurasian Migrations". American Journal of Human Genetics. 99 (6): 1316–1324. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.10.012. PMC 5142112. PMID 27889059.
We found that most Ethiopians are a mixture of Africans and Eurasians. … Eurasian ancestry in Ethiopians ranges from 11%–12% in the Gumuz to 53%–57% in the Amhara.
- ^ Ali, A. A. (2020). "Genome-wide analyses disclose the distinctive HLA architecture and the pharmacogenetic landscape of the Somali population". Scientific Reports. 10 (6): 1316–1324. Bibcode:2020NatSR..10.5652A. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-62645-0. PMC 5142112. PMID 27889059.
Principal component analysis showed approximately 60% East African and 40% West Eurasian genes in the Somali population, with a close relation to the Cushitic and Semitic speaking Ethiopian populations.
- ^ Eltis, David; Bradley, Keith R.; Perry, Craig; Engerman, Stanley L.; Cartledge, Paul; Richardson, David (12 August 2021). The Cambridge World History of Slavery: Volume 2, AD 500-AD 1420. Cambridge University Press. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-521-84067-5.
- ^ Candelora Danielle (2022). Candelora Danielle, Ben-Marzouk Nadia, Cooney Kathyln (eds.). (31 August 2022). Ancient Egyptian society : challenging assumptions, exploring approaches. Abingdon, Oxon. pp. 101–122. ISBN 9780367434632.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)