An Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt

Kathryn A. Bard is Professor of Archaeology at Boston University. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she has directed excavations in Egypt and northern Ethiopia since 1989, and in 1998 was given the Chairman’s Award of the National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration. She is the author of From Farmers to Pharaohs: Mortuary Evidence for the Rise of Complex Society in Egypt (1994), the editor of The Archaeology of Ancient Egypt: An Encyclopedia (1999), and is on the editorial board of The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology published by the Egypt Exploration Society. Professor Bard is co-director of excavations at the pharaonic harbor at Mersa-Wadi Gawasis on the Red Sea, which has uncovered evidence of ancient Egyptian ships used in seafaring expeditions to the land of Punt, probably located in what is now eastern Sudan and Eritrea.

List of Plates ix

List of Figures xi

List of Maps xv

Abbreviations xvii

Preface xix

Acknowledgments xxi

1 Egyptian Archaeology: Definitions and History 1

1.1 Introduction: Ancient Egyptian Civilization and Its Prehistoric Predecessors 3

1.2 Egyptian Archaeology 3

1.3 Egyptology 5

1.4 History of Egyptology and Egyptian Archaeology 5

1.5 Archaeological Methods 14

1.6 Archaeological Theory 21

1.7 Ancient Egypt and Egyptian Archaeologists in Fiction and Films 22

2 Hieroglyphs, Language, and Pharaonic Chronology 25

2.1 Language of the Ancient Egyptians 27

2.2 Origins and Development of Egyptian Writing 27

2.3 Scripts and Media of Writing 31

2.4 Signs, Structure, and Grammar 31

2.5 Literacy in Ancient Egypt 33

2.6 Textual Studies 34

2.7 Use of Texts in Egyptian Archaeology 36

2.8 Historical Outline of Pharaonic Egypt 38

2.9 The Egyptian Civil Calendar, King Lists, and Calculation of Pharaonic Chronology 39

3 The Environmental Background to Pharaonic Civilization: Geography, Environment, Agriculture, and Natural Resources 47

3.1 Geography: Terms and Place Names 49

3.2 Environmental Setting 53

3.3 Environmental and Other Problems for Archaeology in Egypt 56

3.4 The Seasons and the Agricultural System 58

3.5 The Ancient Egyptian Diet 60

3.6 Other Useful Animals and Plants 62

3.7 Building Materials 63

3.8 Other Resources: Clays, Stones, Minerals 64

3.9 Imported Materials 66

4 Egyptian Prehistory: The Paleolithic and Neolithic 69

Paleolithic 71

4.1 Paleolithic Cultures in Egypt 71

4.2 Lower Paleolithic 73

4.3 Middle Paleolithic 74

4.4 Upper Paleolithic 79

4.5 Late Paleolithic 80

4.6 Epipaleolithic (Final Paleolithic) 82

Neolithic 84

4.7 Saharan Neolithic 84

4.8 Neolithic in the Nile Valley: Faiyum A and Lower Egypt 87

4.9 Neolithic in the Nile Valley: Middle and Upper Egypt 90

5 The Rise of Complex Society and Early Civilization 93

Predynastic Egypt 95

5.1 The Predynastic Period: Egypt in the Fourth Millennium BC 95

5.2 Lower Egypt: Predynastic Culture 95

5.3 Upper Egypt: Naqada Culture 99

5.4 Lower Nubia: A-Group Culture 110

5.5 State Formation and Unification 112

The Early Dynastic State 117

5.6 Organization and Institutions of the Early Dynastic State 117

5.7 Early Writing and Formal Art 129

5.8 The Expanding State 130

5.9 Who Were the Ancient Egyptians? Physical Anthropology 131

6 The Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period 133

6.1 The Old Kingdom: Overview 135

The Early Old Kingdom 140

6.2 The 3rd Dynasty: Djoser’s Step Pyramid at Saqqara 140

6.3 The 4th Dynasty’s First King, Sneferu, and His Three Pyramids 145

6.4 Khufu’s Great Pyramid at Giza 147

6.5 The Great Sphinx and Khafra’s Pyramid Complex 153

6.6 Menkaura’s Giza Pyramid and Its Remarkable Valley Temple Finds 155

6.7 Giza Pyramid Towns 156

6.8 Giza Mastabas, Queen Hetepheres’s Hidden “Tomb,” and the Workmen’s Cemetery 160

The Later Old Kingdom 166

6.9 Sun Temples of the 5th Dynasty 166

6.10 Later Old Kingdom Pyramids and the Pyramid Texts 168

6.11 An Expanding Bureaucracy: Private Tombs in the 5th and 6th Dynasties 170

6.12 Egypt Abroad 174

The First Intermediate Period 176

6.13 The End of the Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period: Causes of State Collapse 176

7 The Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period 181

The Middle Kingdom 183

7.1 The Middle Kingdom: Overview 183

7.2 Pre-Unification 11th Dynasty: Saff Tombs at Thebes 190

7.3 Mentuhotep II’s Complex at Deir el-Bahri 190

7.4 Model Workers and the Deir el-Bahri Tomb of Meketra 192

7.5 12th-Dynasty Temples 194

7.6 12th- and 13th-Dynasty Pyramids 198

7.7 Towns and Domestic Architecture: Kahun and South Abydos 202

7.8 Nomarchs in Middle Egypt: The Beni Hasan Tombs 206

7.9 Mining in the Sinai and a Galena Mine in the Eastern Desert 207

7.10 Egyptian Forts in Nubia and Indigenous Peoples There 208

The Second Intermediate Period 211

7.11 The Second Intermediate Period: The Hyksos Kingdom in the North 211

7.12 The Kerma Kingdom in Upper Nubia 217

7.13 The Theban State during the Second Intermediate Period 223

8 The New Kingdom 225

8.1 The New Kingdom: Overview 227

The Early New Kingdom 234

8.2 Early New Kingdom Architecture: Ahmose’s Abydos Pyramid Complex, the Thutmosid Palace and Harbor at Tell el-Daba, and the Theban Mortuary Temples of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III 234

8.3 Amenhotep III’s Malkata Palace 238

8.4 Tell el-Amarna and the Amarna Period 240

8.5 The Amarna Aftermath and Tutankhamen’s Tomb 247

New Kingdom Temples 254

8.6 Restoration of the Traditional Gods: Sety I’s Abydos Temple 254

8.7 The Temples of Karnak and Luxor in the New Kingdom 255

8.8 Ramessid Mortuary Temples 260

Royal and Elite Tombs 264

8.9 Royal Tombs in the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens 264

8.10 Elite Tombs at Thebes and Saqqara 270

State Towns and Settlements 275

8.11 The Workmen’s Village and Tombs at Deir el-Medina 275

8.12 Nubian Temple Towns 281

9 The Third Intermediate Period and Late Period 285

9.1 The Third Intermediate Period: Overview 287

9.2 The Late Period: Overview 291

9.3 Tanis: A New City with Royal Tombs 294

9.4 Napata/Gebel Barkal and Sanam 296

9.5 el-Kurru and Nuri: The Kushite Royal Tombs 299

9.6 Saqqara: The Serapeum and Animal Cults 302

9.7 Some High-Status Tombs of the Third Intermediate Period and Late Period 306

9.8 Tell el-Maskhuta and Tell el-Herr 308

10 The Greco-Roman Period 311

Greco-Roman Egypt 313

10.1 The Ptolemaic Period: Overview 313

10.2 The Roman Period: Overview 317

10.3 Alexandria 321

10.4 Greco-Roman Settlements in the Faiyum 323

10.5 Two Greco-Roman Temple Complexes in Upper Egypt: Dendera and Philae 325

Sites Outside the Nile Valley 328

10.6 The Western Desert: Bahariya and Dakhla Oases 328

10.7 The Eastern Desert: Roman Ports, Forts, Roads, and Quarrying Sites 332

Nubia 336

10.8 Qasr Ibrim 336

10.9 Meroe: The Kushite Capital and Royal Cemeteries 338

11 The Study of Ancient Egypt 345

Glossary of Terms 351

Suggested Readings 355

Appendix 1: Additional Readings in French, German, and Italian 399

Appendix 2: Websites 409

Chapter Summaries and Discussion Questions 411

Index 427