Image of the "main scene" etched on wall. (Credit: Image courtesy of Yale University)
Posted on 08/06/2011 5:34:24 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
...The site had been partially damaged in recent years, and the Yale-led team -- which also included Egyptologists from the University of Bologna, Italy and the Provinciale Hogeschool of Limburg, Belgium -- relied on Habachi's photos (now stored with the Epigraphic Survey in Luxor) and cutting-edge digital methodology to reconstruct and analyze the images and hieroglyphic text inscribed in several areas within the larger site.
According to Maria Carmela Gatto, director of the project, the group of images and the short inscription represent the earliest depiction of a royal Jubilee, complete with all the identifying elements of the Early Dynastic period known from later documents, such as the so-called Palermo Stone (Egyptian royal annals from the First through the Fifth Dynasties): an Egyptian ruler wearing a recognizable Egyptian crown, and an inscription alluding to "the Following of Horus," i.e., the royal court...
Darnell, Stan Hendrickx of Belgium and Gatto date the Nag el-Hamdulab cycle of images to the late Naqada period, around 3200 BCE, the time between the beginning of Dynasty 0 and Narmer, first ruler of Dynasty 1. Darnell, who has considerable experience with early Egyptian rock inscriptions, said the latest finding from Nag el-Hamdulab is so important that it already figures in a new documentary series from Germany, which will soon be available worldwide.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Image of the "main scene" etched on wall. (Credit: Image courtesy of Yale University)
Most of the occurrences of Narmer's name are on jars and jar fragments; an astonishing number of serekhs has emerged in the last 25 years from excavations in Israel and Palestine (Tel Erani, En Besor, Arad, Halif Terrace/Nahal Tillah, Small Tel Malhata, Tel Maahaz, Tel Lod and some more) signifying an apex of commercial contacts between Egypt and Canaan which lasted all through [Early Bronze I] ...These data and the excavation of many Southern Palestine sites, are proof of a very complex series of interrelations between Egypt and peoples centred beyond North Sinai lasting more than two (or three) centuries. It has been ascertained, mainly on the base of ceramic types and fabric, that Egyptian colonies did exist in this area, which must have worked either as tradingposts or as bazaars or points of exchange, storage and forwarding to Egypt of products (wine, oils) and raw materials (wood, ores, copper, resins, honey... In many cases the evidence of imported foreign pottery in Egypt and of Egyptian ceramic types in Palestine (both locally made or imported from Egypt), dates back to early Naqada II (thus before EB Ia, in late Ghassoulian and late Beersheba contexts. Some more serekhs of Narmer have been excavated at Minshat Abu Omar, Tell Ibrahim Awad and Tell Farain-Buto in the Delta and at Kafr Hassan Dawood in a c. 1000 tombs cemetery on the southern limit of the Wadi Tumilat.
Egyptian Tomb In IsraelThe discovery of an Egyptian-style tomb at Tel Halif in the Negev Desert suggests an Egyptian colonial presence in southern Israel ca. 3000 B.C... A 30-foot-long passageway descends to the burial chamber, which is about 26 feet long, 16 feet wide, and nine and one-half feet high. Within the dome-shaped chamber is a plastered stone platform on which the skeleton of a woman was found. About 25 years old when she died, she was found in a fetal position facing east, characteristic of Egyptian burials... Egyptian ceramics, seal impressions, and bread molds found at Tel Halif support an Egyptian occupation. Among these artifacts is a potsherd engraved with the serekh, or sign, of King Narmer, who is believed to have united Upper and Lower Egypt between 3050 and 3000 B.C.
by Andrew Kasdan
January/February 1997
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This seems to be a rather significant finding.
around 3200 BCE,
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very cool article! thanks for posting this.
My pleasure!
It’s still amusing to me that Narmer is the name on the monuments, but later in ancient Egypt the founder was called “Menes” — a name also found (it is believed, a synchronism) in Akkadian records. Sounds like an earlier conquest of lower Egypt by the Assyrians (the Old Assyrians are called Akkadians, after their capital, to keep it straight) was actually being documented.
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