Badari culture

For the town in The Gambia, see Badarri.

Badari culture
Geographical range	Egypt
Period	Neolithic
Dates	circa 5,000 B.C.E.^[1] — circa 4,000 B.C.E.
Type site	El-Badari
Preceded by	Faiyum A culture
Followed by	Amratian culture

El-Badari

Map of Egypt showing El-Badari, during the Predynastic Period of Egypt (clickable map)

Dynasties of Ancient Egypt

All years (rightmost column) are BC (BCE)

Early

First Dynasty	I	c. 3150–2890
Second Dynasty	II	2890–2686

Old Kingdom

Third Dynasty	III	2686–2613
Fourth Dynasty	IV	2613–2498
Fifth Dynasty	V	2498–2345
Sixth Dynasty	VI	2345–2181

First Intermediate

Seventh and Eighth Dynasties	VII/VIII	2181–2160
Ninth Dynasty	IX	2160–2130
Tenth Dynasty	X	2130–2040
Early Eleventh Dynasty	XI	2134–2061

Middle Kingdom

Late Eleventh Dynasty	XI	2061–1991
Twelfth Dynasty	XII	1991–1803
Thirteenth Dynasty	XIII	1803–1649
Fourteenth Dynasty	XIV	1705–1690

Second Intermediate

Fifteenth Dynasty	XV	1674–1535
Sixteenth Dynasty	XVI	1660–1600
Abydos Dynasty		1650–1600
Seventeenth Dynasty	XVII	1580–1549

New Kingdom

Eighteenth Dynasty	XVIII	1549–1292
Nineteenth Dynasty	XIX	1292–1189
Twentieth Dynasty	XX	1189–1077

Third Intermediate

Twenty-first Dynasty	XXI	1069–945
Twenty-second Dynasty	XXII	945–720
Twenty-third Dynasty	XXIII	837–728
Twenty-fourth Dynasty	XXIV	732–720
Twenty-fifth Dynasty	XXV	732–653

Late Period

Twenty-sixth Dynasty	XXVI	672–525
Twenty-seventh Dynasty (1st Persian Period)	XXVII	525–404
Twenty-eighth Dynasty	XXVIII	404–398
Twenty-ninth Dynasty	XXIX	398–380
Thirtieth Dynasty	XXX	380–343
Thirty-first Dynasty (2nd Persian Period)	XXXI	343–332

Ptolemaic (Hellenistic)

Argead Dynasty	332–305
Ptolemaic Kingdom	305–30

The Badarian culture provides the earliest direct evidence of agriculture in Upper Egypt during the Predynastic Era. It flourished between 4400 and 4000 BCE,^[2] and might have already emerged by 5000 BCE.^[1] It was first identified in El-Badari, Asyut Governorate.

About forty settlements and six hundred graves have been located. Social stratification has been inferred from the burying of more prosperous members of the community in a different part of the cemetery. The Badarian economy was based mostly on agriculture, fishing and animal husbandry. Tools included end-scrapers, perforators, axes, bifacial sickles and concave-base arrowheads. Remains of cattle, dogs and sheep were found in the cemeteries. Wheat, barley, lentils and tubers were consumed.

The culture is known largely from cemeteries in the low desert. The deceased were placed on mats and buried in pits with their heads usually laid to the South, looking West. This seems contiguous with the later dynastic traditions regarding the West as the land of the dead. The pottery that was buried with them is the most characteristic element of the Badarian culture. It had been given a distinctive, decorative rippled surface.

Location and discovery

Ancient Badarian mortuary figurine of a woman, held at the Louvre.

Ancient Badarian mortuary figurine of a woman, held at the British Museum.

Badari culture is so named because of its discovery at El-Badari (Arabic: البداري‎‎), an area in the Asyut Governorate in Upper Egypt. It is located between Matmar and Qau, approximately 200 km northwest of present-day Luxor (ancient Thebes). El-Badari includes numerous Predynastic cemeteries (notably Mostagedda, Deir Tasa and the cemetery of el-Badari itself), as well as at least one early Predynastic settlement at Hammamia. The area stretches for 30 km along the east bank of the Nile, was first excavated by Guy Brunton and Gertrude Caton-Thompson between 1922 and 1931. Most of the local cemeteries have yielded distinctive pottery vessels (particularly red-polished ware with blackened tops), as well as terracotta and ivory anthropomorphic figures, slate palettes, stone vases and flint tools. The contents of Predynastic cemeteries at el-Badari have been subjected to a number of analyses attempting to clarify the chronology and social history of the Badarian period.

Cultural features

Populations in the Badari culture planted wheat and barley, and kept cattle, sheep, and goats. They fished from the Nile and hunted gazelle. Little is known of their buildings, although remains of wooden stumps have been found at one site and may have been associated with a hut or shelter of unknown construction. Pits that have been found may have served as granaries. Some Badarian sites also show evidence of later predynastic use.^[3]

Badarian grave goods were relatively simple and the deceased wrapped in reed matting or animal skins and placed with personal items such as shell or stone beads. Green malachite ore, perhaps for personal decoration, has also been detected on stone palettes.

Trade

Basalt vases found at Badari sites were most likely traded up the river from the Delta region or from the northwest. Shells came in quantities from the Red Sea. Turquoise possibly came from Sinai; copper from the North. A Syrian connection is suggested for a four-handled pot of hard pink ware. The black pottery, with white incised designs, may have come directly from the West, or from the South. The porphyry slabs are like the later ones in Nubia, but the material could have come from the Red Sea mountains. The glazed steatite beads were not made locally. These all suggest the Badarians were not an isolated tribe, but were in contact with the cultures on all sides of them. Nor were they nomadic, having pots of such size and fragility that would have been unsuitable for use by wanderers.^[4]

Ancestral origins

The Badarian culture seems to have had multiple sources, of which the Western Desert was probably the most influential. Badari culture was likely not to have been solely restricted to the Badari region since related finds have been made farther to the south at Mahgar Dendera, Armant, Elkab and Nekhen (named Hierakonpolis by the Greeks), as well as to the east in the Wadi Hammamat.

References

Guy Brunton and Gertrude Caton-Thompson: The Badarian Civilisation and Predynastic Remains near Badari, London: British School of Archaeology in Egypt, 1928.

Notes

1 2 Watterson, Barbara (1998). The Egyptians. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 31. ISBN 0-631-21195-0.
↑ Shaw, Ian, ed. (2000). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press. p. 479. ISBN 0-19-815034-2.
↑ Bard, Kathryn, ed. (2005). Encyclopaedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge. ISBN 0415185890.
↑ Brunton, Guy; Caton-Thompson, Gertrude (1928). The Badarian Civilisation and Predynastic Remains near Badari. British School of Archaeology in Egypt. ISBN 9780404166250.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Badari culture.

Coordinates: 27°00′N 31°25′E / 27.000°N 31.417°E / 27.000; 31.417

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