Predynasty Villages in Upper Egypt

 

Source: ancient-egypt.org

Progressing villages in Upper Egypt that rivaled and eventually unified were Naqada and Nekhen, “the City of the Falcon.” Naqada 4000 BC is twenty-five kilometers south of Thebes. Small grain farming provided seventy-six to one hundred fourteen persons per square kilometer. More extensive efforts eventually yielded enough for seven hundred sixty to fifteen hundred twenty persons per kilometer. In the heart of the town were cemeteries and “rectangular mud-brick dwellings.” Many “officials, traders, and artisans flourished in Naqada.

Source: www.arce.org/project/hierakonpolis-expedition

This economic and political power was minute compared to the rival village of Nekhen. In 3800 BC, the town had only a few hundred people but then flourished to ten thousand five hundred inhabitants. 

This town was known for its red plum-colored pots used to make three hundred gallons of wheat beer daily. Agriculture utilized their time digging “canals and reservoirs to conserve water.” Ideological power was forceful with the god Horus, on “the top pole in the center of the oval court in front of the shrine” contained in three rooms. Ruling families had an elaborate burying palace.

Source: ancientegyptonline.co.uk

Even though Naqada built elaborate mastaba tombs and showed their political power through “themselves and gods statuettes wood covered in gold foil and lapis lazuli eyes,” Nekhen overpowers Naqada and takes over through conquest or dynastic marriage. The ruler becomes king, warrior, trader, and “a living Horus on earth.” The power of trading routes through the war on the Delta cities ultimately developed Egypt’s first pharaohs.

References


Fagan, Brian M., and Chris Scarre. ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS. 4th ed., ROUTLEDGE, 2017.