Naqada III is the last phase of the

Naqada culture The Naqada culture is an archaeological culture of Chalcolithic Predynastic Egypt (c. 4000–3000 BC), named for the town of Naqada, Qena Governorate. A 2013 Oxford University radiocarbon dating study of the Predynastic period suggests a beginn ...

of ancient Egyptian prehistory, dating from approximately 3200 to 3000 BC. It is the period during which the process of

state formation State formation is the process of the development of a centralized government structure in a situation in which one did not exist. State formation has been a study of many disciplines of the social sciences for a number of years, so much so tha ...

, which began in

Naqada II The Gerzeh culture, also called Naqada II, refers to the archaeological stage at Gerzeh (also Girza or Jirzah), a prehistoric Egyptian cemetery located along the west bank of the Nile. The necropolis is named after el-Girzeh, the nearby contem ...

, became highly visible, with named kings heading powerful

polities A polity is a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of political institutionalized social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize resources. A polity can be any group of people organized for governance ...

. Naqada III is often referred to as Dynasty 0 or the Protodynastic Period to reflect the presence of kings at the head of influential states, although, in fact, the kings involved would not have been a part of a dynasty. In this period, those kings' names were inscribed in the form of

serekh In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a serekh is a rectangular enclosure representing the niched or gated façade of a palace surmounted by (usually) the Horus falcon, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The serekh was the earliest conven ...

s on a variety of surfaces including pottery and tombs.

History

The Protodynastic Period in ancient Egypt was characterised by an ongoing process of political unification, culminating in the formation of a single state to begin the Early Dynastic Period. Furthermore, it is during this time that the

Egyptian language The Egyptian language, or Ancient Egyptian (; ), is an extinct branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages that was spoken in ancient Egypt. It is known today from a large corpus of surviving texts, which were made accessible to the modern world ...

was first recorded in

hieroglyphs Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters.I ...

. There is also strong archaeological evidence of Egyptian settlements in southern

Canaan CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : D ...

during the Protodynastic Period, which are regarded as

colonies A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often or ...

or trading ''

entrepôt An entrepôt ( ; ) or transshipment port is a port, city, or trading post where merchandise may be imported, stored, or traded, usually to be exported again. Such cities often sprang up and such ports and trading posts often developed into comm ...

s''. Archaeologists Pierre de Miroschedji and Moain Sadeq hypothesise that the Egyptian activity in the Levant of this period can be classified in three parts: an area of permanent settlement including

Tell es-Sakan Tell es-Sakan () is a tell (a mound created by accumulation of remains) about south of Gaza City in the Gaza Strip. It was the site of two separate Early Bronze Age urban settlements: the first was a fortified administrative centre of the E ...

(which may have been the administrative centre) and En Besor; an area extending north along the coast of seasonal habitation, and beyond this to the east and further north was an area of interaction between the Egyptians and the Canaanites. State formation began during this era and perhaps even earlier. Various small city-states arose along the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

. Centuries of conquest then reduced

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...

to three major states:

Thinis Thinis ( Greek: Θίνις ''Thinis'', Θίς ''This'' ; Egyptian: Tjenu; ; ) was the capital city of pre- unification Upper Egypt. Thinis remains undiscovered but is well attested by ancient writers, including the classical historian Manetho ...

Naqada Naqada (Egyptian Arabic: ; Coptic language: ; Ancient Greek: , Ancient Egyptian: ''Nbyt'') is a List of cities and towns in Egypt, town on the west bank of the Nile in Qena Governorate, Egypt, situated ca. 20 km north of Luxor. It include ...

, and

Nekhen Nekhen (, ), also known as Hierakonpolis (; , meaning City of Hawks or City of Falcons, a reference to Horus; ) was the religious and political capital of Upper Egypt at the end of prehistoric Egypt ( 3200–3100 BC) and probably also during th ...

. Sandwiched between Thinis and Nekhen, Naqada was the first to fall. Thinis then conquered

Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ') is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, the Nile River split into sev ...

. Nekhen's relationship with Thinis is uncertain, but these two states may have merged peacefully, with the Thinite royal family ruling all of Egypt. The Thinite kings were buried at Abydos in the

Umm el-Qa'ab Umm El Qaʻāb (sometimes romanisation, romanised Umm El Gaʻab, ) is an archaeological site located at Abydos, Egypt. Its modern name, meaning "Mother of Pots", refers to the mound made of millions of broken pieces of pots which defines the landsc ...

cemetery. Early Egyptologists such as

Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Sir Flinders Petrie, was an English people, English Egyptology, Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. ...

were proponents of the Dynastic race theory which hypothesised that the first Egyptian chieftains and rulers were themselves of Mesopotamian origin, but this view has been abandoned among modern scholars. Most

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end ...

s consider

Narmer Narmer (, may mean "painful catfish", "stinging catfish", "harsh catfish", or "fierce catfish"; ) was an ancient Egyptian king of the Early Dynastic Period, whose reign began at the end of the 4th millennium BC. He was the successor to the Prot ...

to be both the last king of this period and the first king of the First Dynasty. He was possibly preceded over some parts of Upper Egypt by

Crocodile Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large, semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term "crocodile" is sometimes used more loosely to include ...

Iry-Hor Iry-Hor (or Ro; ) was a predynastic pharaoh of Upper Egypt during the 32nd century BC. Excavations at Abydos in the 1980s and 1990s and the discovery in 2012 of an inscription of Iry-Hor in Sinai confirmed his existence. Iry-Hor is the earliest ...

, Ka, and perhaps by the king

Scorpion II Scorpion II (Ancient Egyptian: possibly Selk or Weha), also known as King Scorpion, was a ruler during the Protodynastic Period of Upper Egypt (). Identity Name King Scorpion's name and title are of great dispute in modern Egyptology. ...

, whose name may refer to, or be derived from, the goddess

Serket Serket /ˈsɜːrˌkɛt/ (Ancient Egyptian: ''srqt'') is the goddess of protection against the venomous stings and bites of scorpions in Egyptian mythology. She was primarily worshiped in Lower Egypt during the Predynastic Period (c. 6000 – c ...

, a special early protector of other deities and the rulers. Naqada III extended all over

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and was characterized by some notable firsts: *The first

*The first graphical narratives on palettes *The first regular use of

s *Possibly the first example of

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

And at best, a notable second: *The invention of

sail navigation A sail is a tensile structure, which is made from fabric or other membrane materials, that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, Windsurfing, windsurfers, ice boats, and even land sailing, sail-powered land ...

(derived from its prior invention in the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

2,000 years earlier) According to the Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities, in February, 2020, Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered 83 tombs dating back to 3,000 B.C, known as the Naqada III period. Various small ceramic pots in different shapes and some sea shells, makeup tools, eyeliner pots, and jewels were also revealed in the burial.

Decorative cosmetic palettes

Many notable decorative palettes are dated to Naqada III, such as the

Hunters Palette The Hunters Palette or Lion Hunt Palette is a cosmetic palette from the Naqada III period of late prehistoric Egypt. The palette is broken: part is held by the British Museum and part is in the collection of the Louvre. Content The Hunters Pale ...

. File:HuntersPalette-BritishMuseum-August21-08.jpg,

, circa 3100 BC File:Palette with quadrupedes-E 11052-IMG 9460-9470-gradient.jpg, "Four Dogs Palette" (3300–3100 BC) File:Fragment of a ceremonial palette illustrating a man and a type of staff,ca. 3200–3100 BC.jpg, Fragment of a ceremonial palette illustrating a man and a type of staff, ca. 3200–3100 BC File:Duck-shaped palette-90000838-IMG 9538-white.jpg, Duck-shaped palette File:Palette with Bull-E 11255-IMG 9459-9466-gradient.jpg, Bull Palette, 3100 BC File:The Battlefield Palette 3100 BC - Joy of Museums.jpg, The Battlefield Palette, possibly showing the subjection of the people of the

Buto-Maadi culture Prehistoric Egypt and Predynastic Egypt was the period of time starting at the first human settlement and ending at the First Dynasty of Egypt around 3100 BC. At the end of prehistory, "Predynastic Egypt" is traditionally defined as the period ...

, by the Egyptian rulers of Naqada III, circa 3100 BC. File:Fragment of a palette 3200-2800 BCE.jpg, Fragment of a palette, 3200–2800 BC.

Other artifacts

BaboonDivityBearingNameOfPharaohNarmerOnBase.png, Baboon Divinity bearing name of Pharaoh Narmer on base Kingscorpion.jpg, The

Scorpion Macehead The Scorpion macehead (also known as the ''Major Scorpion macehead'') is a decorated ancient Egyptian macehead found by British archeologists James E. Quibell and Frederick W. Green in what they called the main deposit in the temple of Horus ...

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...

. File:Dynastie 0 Stabaufsatz.jpg, Protodynastic sceptre fragment with royal couple.

Staatliche Sammlung für Ägyptische Kunst The Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst (, ''State Museum of Egyptian Art'') is an archaeological museum in Munich. It contains the Bavarian state collection of ancient Egyptian art and displays exhibits from both the predynastic and dynastic ...

, Munich File:Hair Comb Decorated with Rows of Wild Animals 3200-3100 BCE Naqada III.jpg, Hair Comb Decorated with Rows of Wild Animals 3200–3100 BCE, Naqada III File:Vase mit Vogelfries.jpg, Naqada III vessel File:Cylindrical Jar MET LC-12 187 5 EGDP026693.jpg, Typical Naqada III cylindrical jar

References

External links

Naqada III: Dynasty 0
* . {{Rulers of the Ancient Near East 4th millennium BC in Egypt Predynastic Egypt Archaeological cultures in Egypt 4th-millennium BC establishments 4th-millennium BC disestablishments

History

Decorative cosmetic palettes

Other artifacts

See also

References

Further reading

External links