Early Dynastic Egypt

by Toby A H Wilkinson

  Excavation intensifies: Petrie and Quibell joined by Reisner, Junker and Firth

  The first two decades of the twentieth century witnessed a substantial increase in the number of early sites excavated. Spurred on by the spectacular discoveries at Abydos and Hierakonpolis, archaeologists turned their attention to cemeteries throughout Egypt. The American interest in the early periods of Egyptian civilisation began in earnest with the Hearst Expedition to Egypt, directed by George Andrew Reisner (1867–1942). From 1901 to 1903, Reisner excavated the sequence of cemeteries at Naga ed-Deir, a site on the east bank of the Nile in the Abydos region, directly opposite the modern town of Girga. Assisted first by Green, fresh from his excavations at Hierakonpolis, and subsequently by Arthur Mace, Reisner uncovered graves of virtually every period at Naga ed-Deir, stretching from the early Predynastic period to modern times (Reisner 1908; Mace 1909). The Early Dynastic period was particularly well-represented, with four cemeteries covering the period of the first three dynasties (Cemeteries 1500, 3000, 3500 and 500). By the standards of the time, Reisner’s excavations were conducted in a thorough and professional manner. As well as providing a wealth of information on Early Dynastic burial practices and provincial culture, the Naga ed-Deir excavations yielded a few finds which indicated contacts between Egypt and other early civilisations of the Near East. Contacts of some form had already been suggested by the decoration of late Predynastic élite objects (palettes and knife handles) which included elements of Mesopotamian iconography. The discovery of cylinder seals—a class of object indisputably Mesopotamian in origin—in graves at Naga ed-Deir offered tangible evidence for trade between the two cultures.

  In concentrating on the rich remains of Upper Egypt, Reisner was following the pioneering missions of the late nineteenth century. At the end of the first decade of the twentieth century a change of emphasis occurred, and sites in the Memphite area were

  investigated for the first time. Petrie (1907) excavated a series of Early Dynastic mastabas to the south of Giza, one of which had already been investigated by Daressy (1905) for the Cairo Museum. However, the pioneer of archaeological investigation in the Memphite area was Hermann Junker (1877–1962). He significantly enhanced the understanding of Early Dynastic Egypt by his work at Tura, a site on the east bank of the Nile about 10 kilometres south of central Cairo. It was Junker’s first excavation in Egypt, and he certainly struck lucky. During the winter of 1909–10, a large cemetery of some 500 late Predynastic and Early Dynastic graves was revealed, together with a wealth of grave goods, particularly pottery (Junker 1912). This was the first time that early material had been discovered on the east bank of the Nile in the Memphite region, and it paved the way for later excavations in the vicinity by Brunton and Saad. What made the Tura cemetery so important for future studies was its linear growth over time: the earliest graves were located in the southern part of the site, the latest graves in the northern part. The contents of each grave were recorded in detail; this information, in conjunction with the cemetery plan, could therefore be used to chart the development of artefact assemblages over time, and the growth of the cemetery itself.

  In 1911, responding to reports of looting by local villagers, Petrie turned his attention back to early Egypt and to the extensive cemetery on the desert edge behind the hamlet of Kafr Tarkhan (Plate 1.3), near the entrance to the Fayum (Petrie et al. 1913; Petrie 1914). In two seasons of excavation, from 1911 to 1913, Petrie uncovered many hundreds of tombs dating to the very beginning of Egyptian history, including several large mudbrick mastabas decorated with recessed niches, in the style exemplified by the royal tomb at Naqada. The wealth of grave goods shed considerable light on the accomplishments of the Early Dynastic Egyptians,

  Plate 1.3 The Early Dynastic cemetery at Tarkhan (author’s photograph).

  particularly in the spheres of arts and crafts. A number of burials contained objects inscribed with early royal names. Analysis of the other objects in these graves enabled characteristic types of pottery and stone vessels to be associated with the reigns of particular kings. This provided useful comparative material to help with the dating of other tombs which did not contain any inscriptions. Just as important, Petrie’s work at Tarkhan enabled him to extend his sequence dating system down to the Third Dynasty, thus linking the first three dynasties with the preceding Predynastic period in one continuous sequence of ceramic development. This built upon de Morgan’s work at Naqada and firmly established the cultural and historical context of the Early Dynastic period.

  Following his spectacularly productive excavations at Hierakonpolis, Quibell was appointed to the post of Chief Inspector at Saqqara. His attention turned to the myriad monuments of the Saqqara plateau, and he began by excavating two small areas of the Early Dynastic cemetery in the years 1912 to 1914. This marked the beginning of a period of intensive archaeological investigation in the cemeteries of Memphis, which was to continue for over forty years. Quibell uncovered many tombs, including that of Hesira, a high official in the reign of Djoser/Netjerikhet (Quibell 1913, 1923). The systematic excavation of Netjerikhet’s Step Pyramid complex-perhaps the outstanding architectural achievement to have survived from Early Dynastic Egypt—occupied QuibelPs later years (Firth and Quibell 1935). He directed work at the complex from 1931 until his death in 1935.

  Plate 1.4 An élite First Dynasty tomb at North Saqqara (author’s photograph).

  The complex of buildings surrounding the Step Pyramid had been discovered by Cecil Mallaby Firth (1878–1931), who had succeeded Quibell as Inspector of Antiquities at Saqqara in 1923. Firth conducted excavations at the complex from 1924 to 1927, his

  results completely transforming theories about the origins of stone architecture in Egypt. Excavation and restoration of the Step Pyramid complex has continued ever since, yielding important information on many aspects of early Egypt, including material culture, architecture, kingship, the order of succession and, of course, funerary religion. After he handed control of the Step Pyramid excavations to Quibell, Firth turned his attention to the Early Dynastic cemetery at North Saqqara (Plate 1.4). The excavation of this site was to have been Firth’s second major project, but fate cruelly intervened. He was about to start clearing the cemetery when he returned to England on leave in 1931. On the journey home he contracted pneumonia and within a few days he was dead. It was left to his young assistant, Emery, to carry out Firth’s plans, with spectacular results.

  THE CEMETERIES OF MEMPHIS: 1936–1956

  Emery at North Saqqara

  Walter Bryan Emery (1903–71) took over as director of excavations at North Saqqara in 1935, in succession to Firth. Rejecting the piecemeal approach to excavation pursued by his predecessors, Emery decided that only a systematic clearance of the entire cemetery would do the site justice and produce the best results. He was keenly aware of the importance of the cemetery for the early history of Egypt (Emery 1938: vii), and his first season of excavation did not disappoint. In 1936 he cleared the tomb of Hemaka, which Firth had partially excavated five years earlier (Emery 1938). The tomb’s contents included several masterpieces of Egyptian craftsmanship, notably an inlaid gaming disk and the earliest roll of papyrus ever discovered. Although uninscribed, it proved that this writing medium—and therefore a cursive version of the Egyptian script for use on papyrus—already existed in the First Dynasty. In the following season of 1937–8, Emery and his team excavated the earliest tomb in the élite cemetery, number 3357, dated to the reign of Aha (Emery 1939). The Second World War interrupted work at Saqqara, but Emery returned to the site to re-commence excavations in 1946. Another break of three years followed from 1949 to 1952, before Emery was able to complete his work in the cemetery during the years 1952 to 1956. The years of excavation succeeded in revealing an entire sequence of large First Dynasty tombs, strung out along the edge of the escarpment (Emery 1949, 1954, 1958). Emery was particularly impressed by the size and splendour of the tombs, especially by comparison with the contemporary
royal tombs at Abydos. He formed the belief that the Saqqara tombs were the true burial places of the First Dynasty kings, and that the Abydos monuments excavated by Petrie were merely cenotaphs. Thus began a long debate between Egyptologists, one which continues to this day. There can be no doubt that Emery’s results at North Saqqara represented ‘the most important contributions made to the history of the 1st Dynasty since…Petrie’s excavations at Abydos’ (Lauer 1976:89). The numerous seal-impressions and labels have added greatly to knowledge of Early Dynastic titles and kingship, whilst the artefacts of copper, stone, wood and ivory are some of the most impressive achievements of early Egyptian craftsmanship to have survived. Emery limited his excavation reports to ‘the hard facts’ (1949: iv); the interpretation of his finds was left for a later, semi-popular work (Emery 1961). Whilst some of the theories it expresses can no longer be

  substantiated, it none the less remains an important source-book for the Early Dynastic period, and in particular for Emery’s own discoveries at North Saqqara.

  In contrast to the important series of First Dynasty mastabas, the numerous minor tombs of the First Dynasty, plus the Second and Third Dynasty burials excavated by Emery before and after the Second World War (1934–9 and 1945–7), were never published. This is much to the detriment of Early Dynastic studies, since the later tombs, in particular, yielded important evidence for the evolution of mortuary architecture in the latter half of the Early Dynastic period, providing a link between the First Dynasty élite tombs and the mastabas of the Old Kingdom.

  Saad at Helwan

  In his first five years at North Saqqara, up to the outbreak of the Second World War, Emery was assisted by Zaki Youssef Saad (1901–82). Saad was to make his own major contribution to Early Dynastic studies by excavating the huge necropolis across the river at el-Maasara (Plate 1.5) (Saad named the site ‘Helwan’ after the nearest large town). The excavations lasted from 1942 to 1954, and revealed in excess of 10,000 graves (Saad 1947, 1951, 1957, 1969). All but a handful dated to ‘Dynasty 0’ and the Early Dynastic period. The necropolis must have served the city of Memphis, which lay directly opposite on the west bank of the Nile. The sheer size of the Helwan burial ground is staggering, and reflects the size of the capital’s administrative class, even at the beginning of Egyptian history. Some of the tombs clearly belonged to individuals of considerable status (Wood 1987), almost equalling in size the contemporary

  Plate 1.5 The Early Dynastic necropolis at

  Helwan/el-Maasara (author’s photograph).

  mastabas at North Saqqara (Wilkinson 1996a). Unfortunately, to the great loss of Early Dynastic studies, the results of Saad’s later seasons were never published (although some finds from the later seasons are discussed in Saad 1969), and the wealth of material that must have been uncovered in the years 1947 to 1954 remains inaccessible.

  Montet at Abu Rawash

  Jean Pierre Marie Montet (1885–1966), best known as the excavator of Tanis, directed work at Abu Rawash, at the northernmost end of the Memphite necropolis, in the late 1930s, at the same time that Emery was excavating at North Saqqara. Montet’s discoveries on so-called Hill M-a prominent knoll close to the edge of the cultivation— paralleled those of Emery further south: élite mastaba tombs of mudbrick, their façades decorated with recessed niches, dating to the First Dynasty (Montet 1938, 1946). The cemetery at Abu Rawash seems to have been used exclusively during the reign of Den, and may have served as an ‘overspill’ burial ground from North Saqqara. As at the latter site, one of the large tombs at Abu Rawash was accompanied by two boat burials.

  Lauer at the Step Pyramid complex

  After two years of excavation at the Step Pyramid complex, it became clear to Firth that the skills of an architect were required to reassemble the mass of confusing fragments and reconstruct the original appearance of Netjerikhet’s great funerary monument. So, in 1926, Firth called upon the services of the young Jean-Philippe Lauer, who has since devoted his entire life—in a career spanning the last seventy years—to the restoration of the complex. Most of the architectural elements that are visible today owe their appearance and restoration to Lauer’s patience and insight. More than any other scholar, Lauer has been responsible for elucidating the history and symbolism of the Step Pyramid complex (Lauer 1936, 1939, 1962).

  Discoveries of great importance were made by Lauer during the clearance of the galleries beneath the Step Pyramid. Particularly interesting is the hoard of stone vessels amassed by Netjerikhet to furnish his burial. The vessels seem to have been gathered together from the royal stores as they include many inscribed for earlier kings (Lacau and Lauer 1959). Nearly every king before Netjerikhet is attested, including some ephemeral rulers unknown from other sources. Some vessels are inscribed with the names of successive rulers, including a group of bowls bearing the names of the last four kings of the First Dynasty. The stone vessels from the Step Pyramid thus comprise one of the most important sources of historical information for the first two dynasties. Many vessels bear inscriptions not incised but written in ink (Lacau and Lauer 1965). These attest the use of cursive script as early as the First Dynasty—already suggested by the papyrus discovered by Emery in the tomb of Hemaka – and provide valuable insights into the workings of the Early Dynastic administration. They include the earliest known occurrence of the title of ‘vizier’ (the executive head of the administration), and the earliest reference to an administrative division or nome. The inscriptions from the Step Pyramid complex form one of the largest bodies of early writing from Egypt.

  Goneim at the Sekhemkhet complex

  Zakaria Goneim (1911–59) was responsible for one of the most important and unexpected discoveries at Saqqara: the unfinished Step Pyramid complex of King Sekhemkhet, the successor of Netjerikhet whose own mortuary complex so dominates the Saqqara plateau. Goneim was appointed Keeper of the Saqqara necropolis in 1951 and almost immediately began excavations to the south-west of the pyramid of Unas. His discovery and excavation of an unknown mortuary complex built for a previously unknown king of the Third Dynasty caused something of a sensation (Goneim 1957). In some respects, the architecture of the Sekhemkhet complex is more developed than that of the Netjerikhet monument, illustrating a gradual refinement in the monumental use of stone. A pen holder from the chambers beneath the pyramid is inscribed with the second name of King Sekhemkhet, confirming his identification with the Djoserty of the New Kingdom lists. Goneim’s discovery not only resolved one of the outstanding problems of Third Dynasty chronology, it also helped scholars to see the Step Pyramid complex of Netjerikhet in context: as part of a sequence of development in the sphere of royal mortuary architecture, rather than as a unique and unparalleled monument.

  A change of perception

  During the two decades of excavation in the Memphite necropolis, Early Dynastic studies struggled to keep up with the wealth of new evidence provided by archaeologists. However, despite the continuous flow of excavation reports, critical examination of some of the overriding issues did not cease altogether. An important transformation in the understanding and perception of Early Dynastic Egypt came with the publication of Emile Massoulard’s book, Préhistoire et protohistoire d’Egypte (Massoulard 1949). He seems to have been the first scholar to recognise, or at least to articulate in print, that the civilisation of dynastic Egypt was largely an indigenous development, with its most fundamental roots in the culture of the Predynastic period (Massoulard 1949:333). By contrast, the theory of the ‘dynastic race’—a ‘master race’ of invaders from the east, thought to be responsible for imposing civilisation on the ‘primitive’ and unsophisticated indigenous Egyptians—had been articulated by Petrie only ten years before (Petrie 1939) and was still being espoused enthusiastically by scholars such as Emery (1961) and Edwards (1971) two decades after the publication of Massoulard’s work. The recognition of the indigenous roots of classic Egyptian civilisation emphasised the continuities between Predynastic and Early Dynastic culture. The a
chievements of the First Dynasty, it was realised, were the result of a long period of cultural and political development, rather than a radically new order imposed from outside. This change of perception undoubtedly influenced the course of Early Dynastic scholarship, and has now totally replaced the discredited ‘dynastic race’ theory.

  A TIME OF TRANSITION: 1957–76

  The end of an era: Klasens and Emery in the Memphite necropolis

  From 1953 until the break in excavations in 1956, Emery was assisted at North Saqqara by Adolf Klasens. The following year, Klasens took his own team to the northernmost site of the Memphite necropolis, Abu Rawash. Here, he directed three seasons of excavation for the Leiden Museum of Antiquities, from 1957 to 1959 (Klasens 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961). He re-investigated the élite cemetery excavated by Montet, uncovering several more mastabas of the First Dynasty (Klasens 1961). Immediately below Hill M, at the edge of the cultivation, Klasens revealed a sequence of four Early Dynastic cemeteries, spanning the period from ‘Dynasty 0’ to the late Second Dynasty. The graves yielded abundant quantities of stone vessels and pottery, including imported Syro-Palestinian jugs, providing concrete evidence for trade between Egypt and the Near East during the First Dynasty. One of the most significant objects was an ivory plaque, originally covered in gold foil, decorated in relief with the head of a cow goddess (Hathor or, more likely, Bat) between two ‘thunderbolt’ symbols of Min (Klasens, 1958:50, fig. 20 (y) and 53, pl. XXV). This small object is an important piece of evidence for Early Dynastic religious iconography.