Excavating Egypt’s early kings: Recent discoveries in the elite cemetery at Hierakonpolis (original) (raw)

2008, Egypt at its origins 2. Proceedings of the International conference “Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt”

in the cemetery of the Predynastic elite at HK6 at Hierakonpolis focused on and around the large tomb (Tomb 23) partly exposed by Adams in 2000. The resumed excavations in 2005 revealed the full extent of Tomb 23 and the above-ground architecture surrounding it. The largest known tomb of its time (early Naqada IIB), the discovery of eight posts/postholes arranged on either side of the tomb cavity confirms that a substructure was erected above it. East of the grave, evidence for six similar posts indicates the presence of a possibly separate above-ground structure that may have housed a near life-sized limestone statue to which a number of votive deposits may have been dedicated. Surrounding the complex, rows of regularly spaced smaller posts form an enclosure 16m (east-west) by 9m (north-south) with an entrance in the northeast. This is the earliest evidence for above-ground funerary architecture in Egypt. The scale of the Tomb 23 architecture, the effort involved in its construction, and the presence of the stone statuary and offerings, justifies the belief that it belonged to one of the early rulers of Hierakonpolis, living at a time when the settlement at Hierakonpolis was at its peak. In 2006, further exploration of the area to the north, south and east of the tomb appears to confirm this assumption, placing Tomb 23 within a large and elaborate complex of above-ground architecture, within which more evidence for ritual practices were observed. The implications of these recent discoveries for understanding the origins of the Egyptian state and Hierakonpolis' place in it are wide ranging. The recovery of painted wall plaster also sheds new light on the transmission of motifs and the public display of power at this early time. Hierakonpolis, ancient Nekhen, has always been closely associated with rise of the first pharaohs and the birth of the early Egyptian state. This connection was recognised by the ancient Egyptians themselves, while over thirty years of archaeological investigations at Hierakonpolis have elucidated the site's immense importance for understanding developments in the formative Predynastic age. Currently the largest Predynastic settlement still extant and accessible anywhere in Egypt, at its prime in the early Naqada II period, it was certainly one of, it not the, largest urban centre along the Nile. Excavations within the vast settlement have revealed the