The Predynastic Period of Ancient Egypt, traditionally defined as the period from the final part of the Neolithic period beginning c. 6210 BC to the end of the Naqada III period c. 3000 BC, is an enigmatic phase of ancient Egypt’s history. As there are no written records from this time to help us interpret material objects or visual representations, this period stretches from the earliest settlements in ancient Egypt to the beginning of the time of kings/dynasties, from c.4400 BC to c.3100 BC.
Standing at the cusp of one of the longest-lived and most influential cultures that ever existed, the people living in the Nile valley during the fifth and fourth millennia B.C.E. laid the foundation for everything to come. During this era, powerful townships developed unique local cult practices and ruling organizations.
The term predynastic denotes the period of emerging cultures that preceded the establishment of the 1st dynasty in Egypt. In the 6th millennium bce there began to emerge patterns of civilization that displayed characteristics deserving to be called Egyptian.
The accepted sequence of predynastic cultures is based on the excavations of British archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie at Naqādah, at Al-ʿĀmirah (El-ʿÂmra), and at Al-Jīzah (El-Giza). Another earlier stage of predynastic culture has been identified at Al-Badārī in Upper Egypt.
This period saw the rise of several powerful towns, especially Abydos, Naqada, and Nekhen (commonly called Hierakonpolis) and a possible unified southern kingdom. Hieroglyphic writing emerged, probably for administrative and ritual purposes to support the rulers of these southern towns. The earliest known texts were short labels and captions, but the writing system developed rapidly and helped frame the dynamic civilization that emerged along the Nile.
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During the Predynastic Period, the Naqada culture established itself throughout Egypt (from c.3900 BC to c.3100 BC) providing major growth in craftmanship, material use, and social and religious practices. The artistic traditions practised by Naqada society were applied and followed throughout ancient Egyptian history. Their artistic motifs and themes, such as nature, animals, human figures, the Nile and the desert, and the narrative of order over chaos, can be found from the Protodynastic Period and Early Dynastic Period through the pharaonic era in ancient Egypt.
Naqada culture, characterised by specific types of pottery and archaeological objects, developed in Upper Egypt in a time period defined by three sometimes overlapping major periods: Naqada I, II, and III. These phases represent a continuum of social, political, and artistic conventions, resulting in a fluidity of styles, motifs, and themes across these time periods. By the end of Naqada II, the Naqada culture had assimilated other cultures to the north.
Naqada culture timeline
Typical Naqada II culture D-ware vases, depicting boats and animals, held by the Garstang Museum of Archaeology, Liverpool. In the Predynastic Period, as hieroglyphs had not yet fully developed, ancient Egyptian ideas, beliefs, and themes were expressed through objects and visual representations. Depictions of the natural world, and interactions with animals and humans, were found on multiple objects.
Although most information comes from pottery and other objects found at grave and ritual sites, one unique wall mural from Naqada II (Tomb 100 at Hierakonpolis) demonstrates the range of representation: hunting, military victory and ‘smiting the enemy’ (lower left corner), and the narrative of ‘order over chaos’ through subjugation of animals and humans.
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Key Phases of the Naqada Culture
- Naqada I: (c.3900-3700 BC) Settlements consisted primarily of villages and local cultures.
- Naqada II: (c.3450-3300 BC) The Naqada culture spread from the Delta to Nubia, with social hierarchy appearing in grave sites.
- Naqada III: (c.3300-3100 BC) There was domination by individual rulers and movement towards the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt.
As the Naqada timeline progressed, representational motifs were grouped into rudimentary scenes, then into themes, and finally into narratives on complex ritual objects, which brought all the motifs and themes together in stylised ways, such as in registers (rows). Maintaining ‘order over chaos’ was throughout history one of the highest tenets of ancient Egyptian society.
Themes such as military victory and dominance over chaotic influences (wild animals, the natural world, and other humans) became more prominent on highly sophisticated ritual objects in the later Naqada phases, as on the famous Narmer Palette (late Naqada III/Dynasty 0).
Palette of Narmer
The local villages of Naqada I presented visualisations of the world through depictions of geometrical basketwork, plants, river and desert animals, and sometimes human figures. A ‘white cross-lined ware’ vase with plant motifs, Naqada I.
The interior of one white cross-lined ware concave, shallow pottery bowl in the Metropolitan Museum of Art features painted representations of a crocodile, a hippopotamus, and a human in a boat, forming a riverine hunting ‘scene’. Crocodiles and hippos, considered dangerous animals, were ubiquitous in the Nile, and were common images on this type of pottery. In this example, zigzag lines represent water, plants are sketched along the perimeter, a hatched area along one side of the bowl possibly represents a net used to catch the crocodile, while the human figure appears to have harpooned a hippo.
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In late Naqada I and early Naqada II, the culture expanded with manufactured and artisanal objects beginning to appear. Riverine hunting scenes were still represented on white cross-lined ware, and Nilotic and desert animal images continued to be associated with apparent ritual objects, such as bowls, combs, and amulets.
In Naqada II, a new pottery type - ‘decorated ware’ (D-ware), found primarily in funerary contexts - appeared, with red painting on buff-coloured clay. In contrast to earlier periods, boats and human representations became more prominent on pottery, and presented as a theme, rather than a simple scene. The prominence of boats on this pottery possibly reflected the Nile as an important source of water and transportation/communication. Human representations are prevalent: a female in each of the boat scenes is particularly prominent and could possibly represent a deity.
By late Naqada II, the culture appeared to be socially hierarchical and spread from the Delta to Nubia. In late Naqada II and early Naqada III, decorated ware and simple palettes appeared early in the period, but declined thereafter. New designs with customary materials such as greywacke resulted in more three-dimensional versions of palettes.
Early narrative art was carved in fine detail on objects such as ritual knife handles and large ceremonial palettes. Recurrent motifs that were also found in pharaonic Egypt included rows or registers, victory over enemies, and domination over wild animals.
Elaborate ceremonial palettes represented a significant advance in material manipulation, iconographic style, and narrative. As the unification of Egypt progressed, these palettes presented the themes from the beginning of the Naqada era (the natural world, military victory, and order over chaos) with more complexity.
The artistic traditions practised by Naqada society were consistently applied and followed throughout ancient Egyptian history, with artistic motifs and themes that can be found from the earliest times right through to the end of the Late Period (c.332 BC).
The Early Dynastic Period
The Early Dynastic Period of Egypt immediately followed the unification of Lower and Upper Egypt around 3100 BCE. During the First Dynasty, the capital moved from Abydos to Memphis, with a unified Egypt ruled by an Egyptian god-king. Abydos remained the major holy land in the south. Before the unification of Egypt, the land was settled with autonomous villages.
With the early dynasties, and for much of Egypt’s history thereafter, the country came to be known as the Two Lands, and the rulers established a national administration and appointed royal governors. Many of the common aesthetic practices of Egyptian art and architecture were formalized during this era, as Egyptian society grew and advanced rapidly toward becoming a highly complex civilization.
Much of Egyptian art revolved around the theme of permanence, from large architectural structures to writing and imagery of the afterlife. While funeral practices for peasants remained much the same as in predynastic times, wealthier members of Egyptian society began seeking something more. The first mastabas were constructed in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with outward sloping sides that marked the burial site of many eminent Egyptians.
Symbolism is omnipresent in Egyptian art and played an important role in establishing a sense of order. Symbols ranged from the pharaoh’s regalia (signifying his power to maintain order), to the individual symbols of Egyptian gods and goddesses, to animals depicted as highly symbolic figures. The crocodile god Sobek served a variety of purposes including fertility, military prowess, and protection.
Crocodile God Sobek
Colours were more expressive rather than natural. For instance, red skin painted on characters implied vigorous, tanned youths; yellow skin was used for women or middle-aged men who worked indoors; blue or gold indicated divinity because of its unnatural appearance and association with precious materials; the use of black for royal figures expressed the fertility of the Nile from which Egypt was born.
Art forms were characterized by regularity and detailed depiction of gods, human beings, heroic battles, and nature, and were intended to provide solace to the deceased in the afterlife. Media ranged from papyrus drawings to pictographs (hieroglyphics) and included funerary sculpture carved in relief and in the round from sandstone, quartz diorite, and granite.
The hallmarks of ancient Egyptian architecture took shape during the Early Dynastic Period. Due to the scarcity of wood, the two predominant building materials used in ancient Egypt were sun-baked mud brick and limestone. Ancient Egyptian houses were made of mud collected from the Nile River. The mud was placed in moulds and left to dry in the hot sun to harden. Many Egyptian towns situated near the cultivated area of the Nile Valley have disappeared, either by flooding as the river bed slowly rose during the millennia, or the mud bricks of which they were built were used by peasants as fertilizer.
Large tombs of pharaohs at Abydos and Naqada, in addition to cemeteries at Saqqara and Helwan near Memphis, reveal structures built largely of wood and mud bricks, with some small use of stone for walls and floors. Stone was used in quantity for the manufacture of ornaments, vessels, and occasionally for statues. Tamarix was used to build boats such as the Abydos Boats.
Ancient Egyptian temples were aligned with astronomically significant events like solstices and equinoxes, requiring precise measurements at the moment of the particular event. The Early Dynastic Period of Ancient Egypt reached a high level in painting and sculpture that was both highly stylized and symbolic.
All Egyptian reliefs were painted, and less prestigious works in tombs, temples, and palaces were just painted on a flat surface. Stone surfaces were prepared by whitewash, or, if rough, a layer of coarse mud plaster, with a smoother gesso layer above; some finer limestones could take paint directly. Pigments were mostly mineral, chosen to withstand strong sunlight without fading.
Many ancient Egyptian paintings have survived due to Egypt’s extremely dry climate. The paintings were often made with the intent of making a pleasant afterlife for the deceased. The themes included journeys through the afterworld or protective deities introducing the deceased to the gods of the underworld (such as Osiris). Some tomb paintings show activities that the deceased were involved in when they were alive and wished to carry on doing for eternity.
Egyptian paintings are painted in such a way to show a profile view and a side view of the animal or person-a technique known as composite view. The monumental sculpture of Ancient Egypt is world-famous, but refined and delicate small works exist in much greater numbers.
The Egyptians used the distinctive technique of sunk relief, which is well suited to very bright sunlight. The main figures in reliefs adhere to the same figure convention as in painting, with parted legs (where not seated) and head shown from the side, but the torso from the front, and a standard set of proportions making up the figure, using 18 “fists” to go from the ground to the hairline on the forehead.
The Palette of Narmer (c. 31st century BCE) is named for the pharaoh who unified Upper (southern) and Lower (northern) Egypt and founded Dynasty I. As in the art of many cultures of ancient times, the palette contains hieratic scale, in which Narmer is the largest figure. Narmer’s headgear symbolizes the historic unification of the two kingdoms.
On the recto (front) side of the palette, he wears the bulbed White Crown of Upper Egypt. To the right is a set of papyrus flowers, which symbolize Lower Egypt. On the second register of the verso (back) side, he wears the more geometric Red Crown of Lower Egypt.
The recto side of the palette depicts the unification of Egypt as a violent one. Narmer wields a mace in his right hand as he grabs a kneeling man by the hair with his left. The king’s right arm is raised in a manner that foreshadows a deadly blow about to be struck to the enemy. Behind Narmer is his servant holding his sandals. In the bottom register, two conquered foes either flee in fear or lie dead or dying.
The subject matter of the verso side is more complex than that of the recto side. Bat once again flanks each side of the top register. On the second register, Narmer marches between his sandal bearer on the left and a procession of standard-bearers. To the far right are ten decapitated corpses of vanquished foes. Above them are the names of towns that have fallen to Narmer.
The third register depicts two mythological animals whose intertwined necks symbolize the newly unified Egypt and form a recessed area in which cosmetics were ground. On the bottom-most register, a bull tramples a vanquished foe and knocks over the walls of a city. From the epithet “Bull of His Mother,” the image likely symbolizes the pharaoh, the perceived son of Bat.
In around 3000 BC the unification of Egypt was completed by Pharaoh Narmer or Aha who, according to Egyptian historian Manetho, was possibly identified with the mythical king Menes. What follows is the Early Dynastic Period (circa 3000-2575 BC, 1st-2nd Dynasties) that was distinguished by the establishment of theocratic monarchy in which the Pharaoh, the absolute monarch, was identified with the god Horus and was considered as the reincarnation of god on earth. At the same time, the nobility was consolidated and the hieroglyphic script evolved as well as the first calendrical system.
From graves at Al-Badārī, Dayr Tasa, and Al-Mustaqiddah evidence of a relatively rich and developed artistic and industrial culture has been retrieved. Pottery of a fine red polished ware with blackened tops already shows distinctive Egyptian shapes. Copper was worked into small ornaments, and beads of steatite (soapstone) show traces of glazing.
Subsequently, in the Naqādah I and Naqādah II stages, predynastic civilization developed steadily. Pottery remains the distinctive product, showing refinement of technique and the development of adventurous decoration. Shapes already found in Badarian graves were produced in Naqādah I with superior skill and decorated with geometric designs of white-filled lines and even representations of animals.
Later, new clays were exploited, and fine buff-colored wares were decorated in dark red pigment with scenes of ships, figures, and a wide variety of symbols. The working of hard stones also began in earnest in the later Predynastic period. At first craftspeople were devoted to the fashioning of fine vessels based on existing pottery forms and to the making of jewelry incorporating semiprecious stones.
Sculpture found its best beginnings not so much in representations of the human form (although figurines, mostly female, were made from Badarian times) as in the carving of small animal figures and the making of schist (slate) palettes (intended originally for the preparation of eye paint) and ivory knife handles. The Hunters and Battlefield cosmetic palettes show sophisticated two-dimensional representation.
The Narmer Palette Described
The basic techniques of two-dimensional art-drawing and painting-are exemplified in Upper Egyptian rock drawings and in the painted tomb at Hierakonpolis, now lost. Scenes of animals, boats, and hunting (the common subjects of rock drawings) were more finely executed in paint in the tomb, and additional themes, probably of conquest, presaged those found in dynastic art.
The Two Lands (Upper and Lower Egypt) became united around 3000 B.C.E. under a single king, Narmer (or Menes), who ruled as the first king of Upper and Lower Egypt.
Over the next couple of centuries, disparate townships and local cultures were bound together under the control of the single king, and a dynamic stratified society evolved.
A complex pantheon of deities was already evident at this time. Local worship of Ra, Horus, Ptah, and Seth and many cult shrines were first established in this era. Items excavated from royal tombs included small labels, originally attached to grave goods, with scenes showing the king performing ritual actions for a variety of deities and may record actual visits to divine shrines associated with local cults.
Many artistic conventions were established during this period, as was much of the royal iconography that expressed the ideology of kingship. This includes specific poses, items of clothing and regalia, and image associations, such as the smiting pose, the wearing of various crowns, and the use of bull imagery as an analogy for the king, all of which are visible on the Narmer Palette.
With the First Dynasty, focus turned from south to north and the city of Memphis was selected as the capital of the united Egypt. This move also shifted the royal cemeteries from Abydos north to the site of Saqqara.
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