The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt

by Toby Wilkinson

  Basalt statue of King Nakhthorheb (Thirtieth Dynasty) protected by the god Horus. The diminutive figure of the king, nestling between the legs of the falcon, emphasizes the reduced status and confidence of the monarchy in the twilight years of Egyptian independence. Compare the statue of King Khafra from two millennia earlier.

  Temple of Isis on the island of Philae, near Aswan. One of the most important centers of indigenous Egyptian religion during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, Philae was also the location of the last-ever inscription carved in hieroglyphics.

  Head of a statue of Penemerit, governor of Tanis during the reign of King Ptolemy XIII. The portrait shows the increasing influence of Greek art in the late Ptolemaic Period, particularly noticeable in the rendering of the hair.

  Relief fragment of a Ptolemaic queen, believed to be Cleopatra VII. The vulture headdress was part of the traditional costume of Egyptian royal women. The traces of a grid suggest that the piece was either produced as a sculptor’s model or left unfinished.

  NOTES

  INTRODUCTION

  The most accessible account of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb and the careers of the main protagonists is Nicholas Reeves, The Complete Tutankhamun. Carter’s own three-volume publication, The Tomb of Tut.ankh.Amen, also makes fascinating reading.

  For the decipherment of hieroglyphics by Jean-François Champollion, an entertaining recent study is John Ray, The Rosetta Stone. The career of John Gardner Wilkinson is reconstructed from the entry in Warren Dawson and Eric Uphill, Who Was Who in Egyptology (pp. 305–307).

  The book about Tutankhamun that I read at the age of six was Christiane Desroches Noblecourt, Tutankhamen. I have yet to track down my first encyclopedia that piqued my interest in hieroglyphics.

  CHAPTER 1: IN THE BEGINNING

  The literature on the Narmer Palette is extensive and varied. Besides the valuable original publication by James Quibell, “Slate Palette from Hierakonpolis,” among the more interesting recent discussions are Walter Fairservis, “A Revised View of the Na‘rmr Palette”; O. Goldwasser, “The Narmer Palette and the ‘Triumph of Metaphor’ ”; Christiana Köhler, “History or Ideology?”; Bruce Trigger, “The Narmer Palette in Cross-Cultural Perspective”; David Wengrow, “Rethinking ‘Cattle Cults’ in Early Egypt”; and Toby Wilkinson, “What a King Is This.” The last also argues that “Narmer” is unlikely to be the correct reading of the name; indeed, the catfish and chisel may not represent a name at all but rather an expression of royal authority. Ian Shaw’s Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction (passim) and Barry Kemp’s Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization (pp. 83–84) also present some original and important insights. Whitney Davis’s Masking the Blow is more controversial, though nonetheless stimulating.

  Quibell and Green’s excavations at Nekhen are summarized in two slim reports, Hierakonpolis, I (by Quibell alone) and Hierakonpolis, II (by Quibell and Green); these are very usefully supplemented by Green’s field notebooks, kept in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge. For an accessible and comprehensive overview of Nekhen and its archaeology, see the historical essay by Barbara Adams in her book Ancient Nekhen.

  The important material from Nabta Playa has been well documented by the site’s excavators, Fred Wendorf and Romauld Schild. Especially useful are their articles “Nabta Playa and Its Role” and “Implications of Incipient Social Complexity.” The original announcement of the discovery of the “calendar circle” was made by J. Malville et al., “Megaliths and Neolithic Astronomy.”

  By contrast, the rock art of the Eastern Desert has been known for a century or more. The most significant early reports are Arthur Weigall, Travels in the Upper Egyptian Deserts, and two volumes by Hans Winkler, Völker und Völkerbewegungen and Rock-Drawings of Southern Upper Egypt, vol. 1. Further discoveries have been documented by Walter Resch, “Neue Felsbilderfunde in der ägyptische Ostwüste”; Gerard Fuchs, “Petroglyphs in the Eastern Desert of Egypt” and “Rock Engravings in the Wadi el-Barramiya”; Pavel Červícˇek, Rock Pictures of Upper Egypt and Nubia; Sharon Herbert and Henry Wright, “Report on the 1987 University of Michigan/University of Assiut Expedition”; Susan and Donald Redford,“Graffiti and Petroglyphs”; David Rohl (ed.), The Followers of Horus; and Maggie and Mike Morrow (eds.), Desert RATS. The evidence is usefully summarized and interpreted in Toby Wilkinson, Genesis of the Pharaohs.

  The subject of climatic change in prehistory, and its effects, has received much attention in recent years. See, for example, Kathryn Bard and Robert Carneiro, “Patterns of Predynastic Settlement”; Karl Butzer, “Desert Environments”; and Romauld Schild and Fred Wendorf, “Palaeo-ecologic and Palaeo-climatic Background to Socio-economic Changes.” For the closely related topic of prehistoric desert cultures and their influence on the rise of civilization in the Nile Valley, see W. McHugh, “Implications of a Decorated Predynastic Terracotta Model.” See also several of the papers in Renée Friedman (ed.), Egypt and Nubia, especially Colin Hope, “Early and Mid-Holocene Ceramics”; Deborah Darnell, “Gravel of the Desert”; and Renée Friedman and Joseph Hobbs, “A ‘Tasian’ Tomb.”

  The best overview of the geology and topography of the Nile Valley is David Jeffreys, “The Nile Valley.” There are strong echoes of the ancient Egyptian creation myth, with its dark and watery abyss, in the Judaeo-Christian creation story: “darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2). Ancient Egyptian creation myths are considered in detail by James Allen, Genesis in Egypt, and are summarized by Vincent Arieh Tobin, “Creation Myths.”

  Badarian culture was first identified by Guy Brunton and Gertrude Caton-Thompson, The Badarian Civilisation, and Wendy Anderson, “Badarian Burials,” recognized the presence of social differentiation. The sequence of cultural development during the latter phases of the Predynastic Period has been extensively studied. Authoritative works include Kathryn Bard, From Farmers to Pharaohs; Béatrix Midant-Reynes, The Prehistory of Egypt; and Toby Wilkinson, State Formation in Egypt.

  The significance of elite cemeteries for charting the later stages of political unification is discussed by Barry Kemp, Ancient Egypt (Chapter 2, especially pp. 73–92), and Toby Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt (Chapter 2). “Political Unification,” also by Toby Wilkinson, presents a plausible reconstruction of events based on the archaeological evidence. The important new discovery of the Gebel Tjauti victory inscription is published by John and Deborah Darnell, “Opening the Narrow Doors of the Desert” and Theban Desert Road Survey. For tomb U-j at Abdju, the royal tomb designed to resemble a miniature palace, see the two volumes of final excavation reports by Günter Dreyer, Umm el-Qaab I, and Ulrich Hartung, Umm el-Qaab II. The evidence for warfare having played a decisive role in the final stages of unification is discussed by Marcelo Campagno, “In the Beginning Was the War.” See also Elizabeth Finkenstaedt, “Violence and Kingship.” For cranial injuries at predynastic Hierakonpolis, see Wendy Potter and Joseph Powell, “Big Headaches in the Predynastic.”

  The surviving Nilometer on Elephantine dates to the Roman Period, but there must have been similar devices from the dawn of history, since the government kept records of the height of the Nile floods from early in the First Dynasty (see Toby Wilkinson, Royal Annals). Although more than a quarter century old, John Baines and Jaromír Málek, Atlas of Ancient Egypt, still offers the most accessible overview of the geography of the Nile Valley and delta.

  1. Herodotus, Book II, Chapter 5.

  2. Book of the Dead, Chapter 17, section 2.

  CHAPTER 2: GOD INCARNATE

  Ancient Egyptian kingship has an extensive bibliography. For a good introduction, with further references, see Katja Goebs, “Kingship,” and David O’Connor and David Silverman (eds.), Ancient Egyptian Kingship. In the latter volume, John Baines, “Origins of Egyptian Kingship,” focuses on the early development of kingship ideology, as does Chapter 5 of Toby Wilkinson’s Early Dynastic Egypt.

  The painted beaker from Abdju is pu
blished by Günter Dreyer et al., “Umm el-Qaab, Nachuntersuchungen im frühzeitlichen Königsfriedhof” (figures 12.1 and 13). The recently discovered sacred complex of tombs and halls near Nekhen is described by Renée Friedman, “New Tombs and New Thoughts” and “From Pillar to Post.” For the Painted Tomb (Tomb 100) at the same site, see H. Case and Joan Crowfoot Payne, “Tomb 100,” supplemented by Barry Kemp, “Photographs of the Decorated Tomb at Hierakonpolis.” The longevity of the smiting motif is considered by Emma Swan Hall, The Pharaoh Smites His Enemies. The iconography of the Battlefield Palette, Gebel Sheikh Suleiman inscription, and Narmer Palette are considered by Bernadette Menu, “L’émergence et la symbolique du pouvoir pharaonique,” Winifred Needler, “A Rock-Drawing on Gebel Sheikh Suliman,” and Toby Wilkinson, “What a King Is This.”

  The most detailed discussion of the origins and early development of royal regalia is to be found in Toby Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt (pp. 186–199). For the original publication of the wooden staff from el-Omari, see Fernand Debono and Bodil Mortensen, El Omari (plates 28 and 43.2). Günter Dreyer, “A Hundred Years at Abydos,” includes an excellent color photograph of the royal scepter from tomb U-j (the royal tomb at Abdju).

  Palace-façade architecture and its supposed Mesopotamian origins have attracted much comment. Still useful are Henry Frankfort, “The Origin of Monumental Architecture,” and Werner Kaiser, “Zu Entwicklung und Vorformen”; the evidence is collated in Toby Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt (pp. 224–229). The wider context of cultural interaction between Mesopotamia and Egypt in the late fourth millennium B.C. is addressed by Toby Wilkinson, “Uruk into Egypt,” and Ulrich Hartung, Umm el-Qaab II.

  The best overview of ancient Egyptian royal titles is Stephen Quirke, Who Were the Pharaohs?, while Toby Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt (pp. 200–208) charts the titles’ early development. The latter source (pp. 208–218) also discusses early royal ceremony, a subject dealt with at greater length by Alessandro Jiménez Serrano, Royal Festivals.

  The Scorpion and Narmer mace heads are examined in detail by Krzysztof Ciakowicz, Les Têtes de Massues, and Nicholas Millet, “The Narmer Macehead”; for excellent photographs of both objects by Werner Forman, see Jaromír Málek, In the Shadow of the Pyramids (pp. 28 and 29). Liam McNamara is carrying out a thorough reinvestigation and reinterpretation of the Hierakonpolis temple/cult center; for his preliminary conclusions, see “The Revetted Mound at Hierakonpolis.” The observation about the severed genitals of Narmer’s enemies was first made by Vivian Davies and Renée Friedman, “The Narmer Palette: A Forgotten Member.” For Werner Forman’s photograph of the statue base of Netjerikhet, with the king trampling the common people underfoot, see Jaromír Málek, In the Shadow of the Pyramids (pp. 88–89).

  The evidence for possible human sacrifice in early Egypt is discussed in Jean-Pierre Albert and Béatrix Midant-Reynes (eds.), Le sacrifice humain en Égypte ancienne, especially the contributions by Éric Crubézy and Béatrix Midant-Reynes, “Les sacrifices humains”; Michel Baud and Marc Étienne, “Le vanneau et le couteau”; and Bernadette Menu, “Mise à mort cérémonielle.” Useful summaries include Béatrix Midant-Reynes, “The Naqada Period” (p. 50); Kathryn Bard, “The Emergence of the Egyptian State” (p. 68); Jeffrey Spencer, Early Egypt (p. 79); and Toby Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt (pp. 227 and 237). Recent evidence for scalping and decapitation at Nekhen is presented by Amy Maish, “Not Just Another Cut Throat”; Sean Dougherty, “A Little More off the Top”; and Xavier Droux, “Headless at Hierakonpolis.” The willing death of retainers to accompany their master into the afterlife is not as far-fetched as it may sound. As recently as 1989, a loyal servant of the Japanese emperor Hirohito committed suicide as soon as his monarch’s death was publicly announced. The pictorial evidence for human sacrifice in a cultic setting is presented by Toby Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt (pp. 265–267).

  The subsidiary burials surrounding the First Dynasty royal tombs and funerary enclosures at Abdju were published by Flinders Petrie, Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty, Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties, and Tombs of the Courtiers. Recent fieldwork by the University of Pennsylvania Museum/Yale University/Institute of Fine Arts, New York University expedition has been reported online and by Matthew Adams, “Monuments of Egypt’s Early Kings at Abydos.” I am indebted to Professor Geoffrey Martin for information about the funerary stelae from the subsidiary burials at Abdju. The human retainers included dwarfs, trappers of wild game, and a butcher—an entourage redolent of English noble households in the Middle Ages. In a similar vein, the First Dynasty Egyptian kings evidently favored dogs as pets, but one ruler seems to have kept a hyena, while another was buried with donkeys, perhaps to transport his belongings into the next world (see Stine Rossel et al., “Domestication of the Donkey”).

  CHAPTER 3: ABSOLUTE POWER

  The best discussions of the origins and early uses of writing in ancient Egypt are Kathryn Bard, “Origins of Egyptian Writing,” and John Ray, “The Emergence of Writing in Egypt.” Nicholas Postgate, Tao Wang, and Toby Wilkinson, “The Evidence for Early Writing,” compares the Egyptian evidence with early writing from Mesopotamia, Central America, and China. Günter Dreyer, Umm el-Qaab I, presents the new evidence from Abdju.

  For the early Egyptian presence in southern Palestine, a useful collection of papers is brought together by Edwin van den Brink and Thomas Levy (eds.), Egypt and the Levant. An earlier article by Baruch Brandl, “Evidence for Egyptian Colonization,” is still useful, while the material from the crucial site of En Besor is presented by Ram Gophna, “The Contacts Between ‘En Besor Oasis, Southern Canaan, and Egypt,” and (with D. Gazit) “The First Dynasty Egyptian Residency at ‘En Besor.” The contrast between the reality of Egypt’s foreign relations and the institutionalized xenophobia is discussed by Toby Wilkinson, “Reality Versus Ideology.” After decades of misattribution, the second inscription at Gebel Sheikh Suleiman was correctly reinterpreted by William Murnane, “The Gebel Sheikh Suleiman Monument,” while Toby Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt (pp. 175–179), charts the extirpation of the Nubian predynastic A-Group culture by the early Egyptians.

  The latter work (Chapter 4) also includes the best treatment to date of early taxation and the workings of the Early Dynastic treasury. A comprehensive publication of the Palermo Stone and its associated fragments may be found in Toby Wilkinson, Royal Annals of Ancient Egypt. By the same author, Early Dynastic Egypt (pp. 75–78) is now the best source for the reign of Den and, at the end of the First Dynasty, the career of Merka (pp. 148–149). Bryan Emery excavated most of the major First Dynasty mastabas at North Saqqara, and his three-volume Great Tombs of the First Dynasty remains indispensable. He also published a separate account of the tomb of Hemaka, Excavations at Saqqara: The Tomb of Hemaka, and summarized his findings (with excellent architectural drawings but a now seriously outdated interpretation) in the popular Archaic Egypt.

  The First Dynasty fortress on Abu is published by Martin Ziermann, Elephantine XVI, and its implications are discussed by Stephan Seidlmayer, “Town and State in the Early Old Kingdom.”

  The history of the Second Dynasty has received less attention than the preceding or succeeding periods, because of the difficulties involved in interpreting the fragmentary evidence. The best summaries are Aidan Dodson, “The Mysterious 2nd Dynasty,” and Toby Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt (pp. 82–94). For the cedarwood ships at Abdju, see David O’Connor, “The Earliest Royal Boat Graves” and “The Royal Boat Burials at Abydos”; the earliest bronze vessels in Egypt are published by Jeffrey Spencer, Early Egypt (p. 88). Evidence for the early timber trade with Kebny is provided by the recent discovery of coniferous veneers at a predynastic funerary complex at Hierakonpolis. See Renée Friedman, “Origins of Monumental Architecture.”

  The Gisr el-Mudir has been the subject of recent survey and excavation by a team from the National Museums of Scotland. Their preliminary reports provide the most up-to-date information on this intriguing monume
nt: Ian Mathieson and Ana Tavares, “Preliminary Report”; Elizabeth Bettles et al., National Museums of Scotland Saqqara Project Report 1995; and Ana Tavares, “The Saqqara Survey Project.”

  The late Jean-Philippe Lauer dedicated his entire adult life to excavating and reconstructing the Step Pyramid complex of Netjerikhet, and his three-volume Fouilles à Saqqarah remains the unrivaled publication of this monument; his more popular Saqqara is more accessible to an English-speaking audience. The careers of Imhotep and other high officials at the court of Netjerikhet are examined in Toby Wilkinson, Lives of the Ancient Egyptians (nos. 5, 6, and 7).

  For the small step pyramids of the late Third Dynasty, see the preliminary studies by Günter Dreyer and Werner Kaiser, “Zu den kleinen Stufenpyramiden,” and Günter Dreyer and Nabil Swelim, “Die kleine Stufenpyramide”; and the interpretations by Stephan Seidlmayer, “Town and State in the Early Old Kingdom,” and Toby Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt (pp. 277–279).

  CHAPTER 4: HEAVEN ON EARTH

  The most comprehensive and up-to-date source (with an extensive bibliography) for the Great Pyramid is John Romer, The Great Pyramid. Mark Lehner, The Complete Pyramids, is essential for understanding Khufu’s pyramid as the apogee of a long tradition in ancient Egyptian funerary architecture. José-Ramón Pérez-Accino, “The Great Pyramid,” conveniently summarizes some of the more exotic theories concerning the construction of the Giza monument.

  For social change at the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty, see Ann Macy Roth, “Social Change.” The entry on the Palermo Stone recording the foundation of royal estates by Sneferu is discussed in Toby Wilkinson, Royal Annals (p. 143), while Barry Kemp, Ancient Egypt (p. 166 and fig. 59), provides a useful discussion of the estates serving Sneferu’s mortuary cult. The results of recent excavations at Imu have been published by Robert Wenke, “Kom el-Hisn.”