A Re-examination of the Badarian Culture

A re-examination of the relative chronology and socio/economic structures of the Badarian culture via an algorithmic seriation of its ceramic and slate artifact assemblages by Glen Newell M.A., B.Sc.(Hons), B.A., Cert.Ed. This paper is an abridged and slightly revised version of my M.A. dissertation and is reproduced here under the auspices of ‘The Journal of Open Archaeology. X.Cathedra Publications. Some of the maps and most of the illustrations have been omitted from this abridged version. Further details about the contents of this thesis can be obtained by e-mailing the author at glendnewell@yahoo.co.uk or X.Cathedra Publications at X.Cathedra@yahoo.co.uk October 2012 Chapter 1 1.1 Introduction There can be few people today who are not familiar with the achievements of the Ancient Egyptian Civilization; and yet, despite some sterling work in recent decades (Wilkinson 1996, Holmes 1989 and Hendrickx 2000), the orgins of this iconic State are far from established. There is nevertheless, a consensus that many of its narratives and developmental catalysts were born amongst a group of people living in Upper Egypt, a thousand years before the first of its Pharoahs (Brunton 1928: 1; Wilkinson 2003: 178). This group was first identified in the 1920s and grandly called the ‘Badarian Civilization’ (Brunton 1928). Many aspects of the Badarian way of life are, however, beset by often-contradictory speculations, which make its contributions to the later periods far from secure (Trigger 1983:27). This dissertation, by bringing together the findings of its seriation data with more recent contributions to the Badarian debate, begins to address several of the most pressing of these speculations, namely, those which are implicit in its relative and absolute chronology. The objectives of this work are therefore relatively precise, and can be summarised by the following points. 1.2 General aims To establish a relative chronology of the Badarian cemetery populations in the Badari area. To analyse and interpret any revisions highlighted by the revised relative chronology. To discuss some of the cultural implications of the revised chronology. Via the above analysis, to begin to reconcile the inconsistent data. 1.3 Specific aims To construct a seriation-specific pottery typology To use the pottery and palette typologies to construct a relative chronology by means of a computer-generated seriation matrix. To use the revised relative chronology to examine the developmental structure of the cemeteries, in particular, to search for evidence of clustering and/or horizontal stratigraphy. To examine the collective data for evidence for specific cultural traits: Social hierarchies Age-group systems Subsistence strategies To examine the collective data for traits which appear to change over time. To use the absolute and relative chronologies to re-assess the likely origins and disappearance of the Badarians. 1.4 Structure of the dissertation The dissertation is divided into three main subdivisions: Chapter 2 gives a summery of our present understanding of the Badarian culture, and the current estimates on its relative and absolute chronology. Chapters 3 to 5 give a description of the seriation process and the results obtained from the procedure. The final chapter develops a discussion based on the results obtained in chapter 5. The discussion looks specifically at the revisions the new data may make to our understanding of the overall structure, origins and evolution of the Badarian culture. 1.5 Chronology Both the relative and absolute chronologies of the prehistoric Badarian period are beset with problems (Shaw 2000: 39); these will be detailed in chapter 2. However, a set of AMS measured radio carbon dates (see table 2.32) from Badarian occupation levels at Badari have recently been published (Hedges et al 1994: 367-368) which approximate well with a series of other chronological data sets published prior to 1994 (Hassan 1985; Holmes et al 1994). These AMS dates, allow us, for the first time, to explore with greater confidence and acuity the important questions regarding the origins, cultural minutiae and apparent demise of the Badarian culture. It must be noted however that many recent academic works on the Predynastic still use dates amassed from less stringent criteria, which place the origins of the Badarians at around 5000 BC. The only relative chronology for the Badarian culture was undertaken nearly a hundred years ago with the proviso that it was ‘hardly practicable to attempt a sequencing’ (Brunton 1928: 26). Brunton’s sequencing was also undertaken well before any of the algorithmic seriation techniques had been developed. As stated above, the main focus of this work is to rehabilitate the Badarians relative chronology, so that a more rigorous analysis of the development, sequencing and context of the culture can be undertaken. Whenever possible the dates given in this dissertation will be calibrated years before present, and written in the form: cal BP. 1.6 The source material The principle source material for the present study is ‘The Badarian Civilization’, the original excavation report from the Egyptologists Brunton and Caton-Thompson which was published in 1928. Brunton’s published plans of cemeteries 5100, 53/400 and 5700 (Brunton 1928) have been adopted throughout, although, where expedient for the reading and analysis of the sites, some enhancements and modifications have been made. 1.7 Cemetery studies Owing to the scarcity of stratified settlement material from the whole of the Predynastic period, all the relative chronologies have, by necessity, been built upon cemetery data. Cemeteries are indeed, the greatest source of excavated material from the Egyptian Predynastic and, in particular, of the whole-vessel ceramics which have been instrumental in the development and refinement of the chronologies of the period. All of the well-published Badarian cemeteries lie within a narrow corridor of raised land adjacent to the alluvial plain in Upper Egypt. This corridor is some 40km long and begins in the north at Matmar and ends south west of this area at Qau. This general area will be referred to as the Badari core area. The Badarian cemeteries selected for this work are 5100, 5300, 5400 5700 and 5800 all of which are situated in the low desert above the modern settlement of el Badari. These cemeteries constitute the bulk of the burial sites above el Badari and contain just under half of the total inhumations within the core area. It was decided that the inclusion of the cemeteries at Matmar, Mostagedda and Qau in a dissertation of this size would unduly compromise the depth of analysis; they are, accordingly, given only brief mention in the proceeding pages. Nevertheless, due to the limited number of graves fitting the requirements of a computer-generated seriation, all the graves from the Badari core area containing two or more pots were included in the initial data set. This methodology may be seen as a serious defect in the analytical process, however, the geographic proximity of these cemeteries to the Badari settlement cluster suggests that the same pot types were being used and buried in similar time frames throughout the area. Chronological distortions from the use of the cemeteries at Matmar, Mostagedda and Qau are accordingly, considered to be marginal. 1.8 Seriation The popularity today of absolute dating methods has in many ways marginalized the relative dating techniques of seriation. This is however, epistemologically unsound as seriation is every bit as scientific, in terms of the testability of its results, as the absolute methods (Blackwell and Schwarcz 1993:56). The basic principles of archaeological seriation are described in chapter 3, but, briefly, it is a process by which given units, in this case a group of graves, can be sorted into a relative order which, it is assumed, approaches the original order of burial. The first step in any seriation is to construct a typology. A typology is however, always constructed for a specific purpose, and the nature of that purpose will affect, to a considerable degree, the nature of the typology designed to meet it. In the present study the types upon which the seriation is formed consist of pottery and slate palettes. These items were chosen both for their regular occurrence in the graves, and because of their proven chronological characteristics within later Predynastic cultural contexts. Another important consideration in the use of pottery is that it appears to be a class of object least prone to theft, and in this respect the vessels found in a grave are likely to reflect most accurately the original date of burial. The seriation matrix was produced using the Bonn Seriation and Archaeological Statistics Package, which will be discussed more fully in chapters 3 and 4. All types have been given equal weighting, so that the program treats them as being of equal chronological significance. A further decision made in the methodology was to use the presence or absence of the artefacts rather than their frequencies, this decision was taken on account of the extremely limited number of graves which contained two or more pots of the same type. These limited numbers of graves are however noted and inferences regarding the popularity peak of particular types duly made. Finally, to ensure optimum reliability of the results, the cemetery data was seriated at least twice. The results of the separate runs were compared statistically and in all cases found to give a correlation coefficient of 1.0. That is, the results of the separate seriations were identical. It is beholden upon every researcher to give an informed interpretation of the significance of their findings, especially in terms of how this may potentially modify the present knowledge base; this informed interpretation is undertaken in the discussion. Much of the discussion on both the subsistence strategies and the social structure of the Badarians uses analogous parallels drawn from anthropological sources. It is important to note, however, that these sources are used to inform rather than to expedite the interpretation of the archaeological patterning recovered from this Predynastic culture. The discussion will open with an examination of the similarities and differences between the revised chronology and the provisional one formulated by Brunton. The work will then move on to examine what the revised chronology may be telling us about the structural evolution of the cemeteries and, by inference, their contributing populations. The findings of the preceding discussions will then be used to suggest if revisions are required to the current theories regarding the Badarian culture, such as their subsistence strategies and the hierarchical social structures postulated by Anderson (1992:51-66). A selection of current Nilotic cultures will be used as ethnographic parallels in the evidence-based analysis. 1.9 The potential importance of the research. Michael Hoffman was acutely aware of the problems faced by academics, when trying to appraise the origins and contributions of the early Predynastic, when he wrote that ‘the time has come to re-evaluate the Badarian and to search for important chronological divisions within the epoch (Hoffman 1991: 142). This sentiment continued to be reiterated throughout the remainder of the century (Holmes 1988: 80; Ginter and Kozlowski 1984: 247), and clearly illustrates that a mandate exists for a thorough reappraisal of the Badarian cultural complex. The revised relative chronology, in parallel with the reliable absolute dates now available, permits more sophisticated analysis of the Badarian culture to be undertaken. The discussion and the conclusion it reaches are it is hoped, just the beginning of such a process. The definition of certain words and terms, which in the archaeological literature often invoke a degree of ambiguity, such as ‘type’ and ‘pastoralist’, will be given in the appropriate sections. Similarly, the spelling of Egyptian place names, both ancient and modern, is a perennial problem to Egyptologists, as several variations can appear in the published literature. In order to gain some consistency in this work, the spellings I will use will come from a single source, namely the ‘Atlas of Ancient Egypt’(Baines and Malek 2000). Chapter 2 A synopsis of the Badarian culture 2.1 Introduction This chapter is only intended as an introduction to the published materials and theories concerning the chronology and nature of the Badarian culture. For a fuller account the reader is advised to read: ‘The Badarian Civilization’ (Brunton et al 1928), ‘Early farming cultures of the Nile: the Predynastic period in Egypt’ (Krzyzaniak 1977: 63-84) and, for a more contemporary introduction,’ The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt’ (Shaw 2000: 39-43). The word ‘culture’ will be found frequently throughout this dissertation and, in this context, is taken to mean: ‘a distinctive material assemblage used by a distinct ethnic group’ (Adams et al 1991: 224). The remains of the Badarian culture were first discovered by the British Egyptologists Guy Brunton and Gertrude Caton-Thompson, during a series of field explorations, between 1922 and 1925, along a 35km stretch of the east bank of the Nile, south of Assyut, in Egypt (see map 2.1). The excavations of the Badarian remains were carried out during the 1923-1931 seasons, mostly on the Late Pleistocene terrace, between the cultivated alluvial zone and the high cliffs of the rocky desert plateau. Within this area of low desert, Brunton found 41 cemeteries, containing some 600 graves and 40 habitation sites, all of which appeared to contain the material remains of a culture that had not previously been recognized. The villages and cemeteries of this ‘new’ culture were located near the modern villages of Qau, Badari, Mostagedda and Matmar. And it is from one of these sites, namely Badari that Brunton fashioned a name for his new culture: the Badarian civilization. The reports of their excavations were published in three volumes under the general title of “Qau and Badari”. The first of these volumes, namely, ‘The Badarian Civilization’ was published in 1928, and constitutes the ‘primary source’ from which the bulk of the research material used in this dissertation has been taken. In these volumes, both Brunton and Caton-Thompson made great strides in not only defining the typology and relative chronology of this new culture, but also in interpreting some of its more 'resilient' cultural characteristics. Regrettably, despite the fact that these publications were exemplary for the time, much of the material was published in an abbreviated form, which makes precise understanding and reconstruction of the sites virtually impossible (Ginter and Kozlowski 1984: 247). During the intervening years, a number of other sites containing Badarian artefacts have come to light. The first of these emerged in 1929 when the French archaeologist, S. Gabra, excavated what he described as a Badarian burial ground and settlement at Deir Tasa (see map2.1), but again, like Brunton and Caton-Thompson’s work, only a resume of it was published. (Gabra 1930: 147-158) Map 2.1 A topographic image of the Badari area For many years after the initial excavations at Badari and Deir Tasa, it was believed the Badarian Culture was restricted to Middle Egypt (Holmes 1988: 70-86, 1989: 15-19). However, the discovery of Badarian-like finds to the south of Badari at Armant (Mond et al 1937; Kaiser 1957: 69-77), Dendera (Hendrickx et al 2001), Elkab (Quibell 1898), El Khattara (Hays 1984:72), and Hierakonpolis (Hoffman 1982; Hassan et al 1980:29, 1989: 314; Hays 1976: 552, 1984: 72; Holmes 1989: 191-194), and to the east in the Wadi Hammamat (Debono 1951) and perhaps even on the Red Sea coast (Murray and Derry 1923; Resch 1964:119-21 ) suggest that this view is no longer tenable (see map 1.1). 2.2 Geography The Badari core area lies on the east bank of the Nile, some 30km south of Asyut (see maps 2.1 and 2.2). The Badari sites are situated along the strip of low desert overlooking the floodplain, under the cliffs of the high desert limestone plateau, along a 33km stretch of land between Wadi el Asyuti and Wadi Abu Shiya (Qau Bay). The desert in this area is interspersed by numerous small wadis draining from the limestone escarpments onto the floodplain. It is also generally very narrow, being in places no more than a series of steep talus slopes abutting the cliffs, but it can also range up to several hundred metres in width. Although most of the Predynastic sites Brunton found are located in the low desert, it is probably not a true reflection of the original settlement pattern. Many more sites were probably to be found on the flood plain itself, and as a consequence have been lost beneath the Nile alluvium, or destroyed by the agricultural activities of some four millennia. Central to life in the Nile Valley is the River Nile itself, which, before the construction of the Aswan Dam, would rise every summer with the added waters of the Ethiopia monsoons, and, around June, rise above its low water bed and spread over much of the flood plain. This event effectively turned the flood plain into an enormous lake which did not begin to recede until October (Hurst 1957: 241). However, many levees would remain above the floods, and it is here, certainly during the Dynastic Age, that numerous villages were built. Unquestionably, this seasonal event had a great impact upon the peoples who lived in the area (Butzer 1976: 62-9). During the inundation, camps or seasonal villages for herdsmen and hunting expeditions would accordingly have to be built on the low desert above the flood plain. It is therefore questionable that the so called Badarian ‘settlements’ on the low desert terraces can be viewed as being fully representative of Badarian settlement practices (see social structure below). 2.3 Chronology As with much appertaining to the Badarian culture, its chronology is complex and subject to a great deal of debate (Shaw 2000: 41-42). In 1975 Caton-Thompson and Whittle published a set of thermoluminescence dates obtained from pottery samples from the Ashmolean Museum (ibid: 89-97). The pottery types and the calculated dates are given in Table 2.31 below. Table 2.31 Caton-Thompson and Whittle thermoluminescence dates Cultural phase Lab code Date BC Early Nagada (polished red sherd) OX TL 131 b9 4330/355 Early Nagada (‘rippled’ sherd) OX TL 131 b19 4360/355 Badarian (‘rippled sherd) OX TL 131 b10 4450/365 Badarian (polished red sherd) OX TL 131 b12 4510/475 These dates are in good stratigraphic agreement but are considerably older than the dates obtained from modern radiocarbon determinations. This discrepancy could well be attributed to an error in estimating the environmental dose rate in the thermoluminescence samples. For this reason they are generally discarded, although regrettably not exclusively so, as many publications still use the TL dates to place the Badarian subculture around five hundred years older than present estimates would suggest. Spencer (1993: 24) and Wilkinson (2003: 62) still place the Badarian origins at Badari at around 5000 BC, whilst the British Museum inextricably quote a figure of 5500 BC in their Egyptian Predynastic exhibition space. The other anomaly is that highlighted by a set of radiocarbon dates obtained from ‘Badarian-like’ remains at el Khattara, where a range around 3700 BC were obtained (Hays, 1984: 72). A possible scenario for this anomaly is given in the discussion. In 1985 a total of 95 radiocarbon measurements was combined, evaluated and calibrated (Hassan, 1985b). From this data the Badarian phase was dated from ca. 4100 BC with a range of 4400-3800 BC (this range includes the enigmatic el Khattara dates). The c. 4400 to 4100 calBC dates obtained by Hedges (1994) and reproduced in table 2.32, accord well with the range obtained by Hassan and those of c.4400-4000 calBC obtained by Holmes and Friedman (1994: 105-142). Table 2.32 The calibrated dates from Badari References Site & Lab No BP calBC(CalPal) Hedges et al. 1994 Badari site 3400 OxA-4181. 5580 +/-80_ 4435 +/- 69 Hedges et al. 1994 Badari site 3400 OxA-4132 5450 +/- 85 4273 +/- 100 Holmes & Friedman 1994 Hemamiya TP2 Level 7 5440 +/- 60 4288 +/- 53 Holmes & Friedman 1994 Hemamiya TP2 Level 6 5300 +/- 60 4141 +/- 83 These findings strongly suggest that the Badarians were active in the area from approximately 4400 to 4000 BC, which confirms that the Badarian precedes the Nagada culture by several centuries, although a degree of overlap around the 4000 BC mark cannot be ruled out (Kaiser 1956: 96-7). A time-line for the Predynastic is given on page ix. The chronological position of the Badarian Culture as a precursor to the more recent Nagada Culture is now clearly established through the recent AMS dates and confirms the stratification and coring data at Hammamiya (Caton-Thompson 1928: 69-91), and Hierakonpolis (Hoffman 1986: 3-14), where Nagadan sherds were found above Badarian type pottery. The data from these sites also suggest a degree of overlap between the cultures. The later Predynastic culture shares many features with the earlier Badarians: they used similar surface-treatment of pottery, including black-topped red, polished red, and rough-faced wares; they shared some pottery forms, the use of cosmetic palettes and the manufacture of glazed stone beads. But, in every case, the objects they made are readily distinguishable (de Jesus 1984:282). Both cultures also often shared the same settlement sites, but never used the same cemeteries. The question of whether the one developed from the other (Kantor 1965:3-4) or shared a common background as suggested by Kaiser (1956: 95-97) is therefore far from resolved. 2.4 Climate The Badarians lived during a period of great environmental change in North Eastern Africa. Indeed, it is hard not to view these changes, beginning in earnest a few hundred years before 4000 BC (Nicholl 2001: 64), as the main driving force behind the Late Prehistoric cultural innovation, settlement, and migration for which we see so much evidence. These changes certainly caused a sustained drying period in the Western Desert which culminated in the so called ‘Exodus event’ in which humans migrated with their domesticated animals out of the desert, to more reliable watering sites (Malville et al., 1998: 488-491; Kobusiewicz 1992: 214). 2.5 Origins The origins of the Badarian culture and its peoples are still unknown (Wendorf et al., 1970; Shaw 2000: 42). Owing to the limited evidence of its pottery and grave goods, archaeologists cannot reach a consensus on whether the new culture was completely foreign to the Nile Valley or on whether it represents an adaptation of new ideas and technologies by the indigenous people. For those who believe that the Badarians were non indigenous to the Valley, all four cardinal points of the compass have been suggested at one time or another. Brunton and Caton-Thompson (1928) began the process by suggesting that the Badarians arrived from the east. This idea is still favoured by some Egyptologists today (Wilkinson 2003; Tutundzic 1989: 254-259), although in the 1950s and 60s a strong Near Eastern influence was considered possible (Frankfort, 1951; Kantor 1965). The presence of Red Sea shells and slate in many of the Badarian graves shows that some overland contact with the east was operative. The many petroglyphs scattered on the cliff faces of the wadi systems connecting the Red Sea to the Nile are also proof of substantial and long-term travel of people across the Eastern Desert. Other academics have favoured either a direct southern connection or one from the west with strong southern roots (Hassan et al 1980; Baumgartel, 1965; Arkell and Ucko, 1965; Kobusiewicz et al 2004: 569-571). This morass of conflicting views was tackled by Hays (1984: 217-218) who postulated that Badarian pottery styles developed from the Nubian terminal Abkan traditions, with whom they share black-topped burnished red pottery and rippled decoration (see discussion). Nevertheless, the bifacially retouched blades and hollow-based arrowheads used by the Badarians have a wide distribution over the Sahara, and were seen as a proof of a cultural connection with the Fayum Neolithic and Merimde cultures in Lower Egypt. (Arkell and Ucko 1965: 145-116). This question must however be tackled afresh as the continued work in the Eastern Desert by archaeologists such as Kobusiewicz (ibid) are finding cultural remains with marked similarities to the Badarians. 2.6 Social structure The theories expounded on the Badarian socio-economic structures are often largely speculative and almost wholly derived from Brunton and Caton-Thompson’s unexpurgated excavation reports and findings. This speculation has unfortunately lead to a raft of theories which are often at variance with one another, with the Badarians being variously described as sedentary agriculturalists (Brunton 1937: 38,59, 68: Hussan: 1988: 154; Shaw 2000: 39, 42; Krzyzaniak 1977: 68), semi-sedentary herders/pastoralists (Hoffman 1984: 143; Wilkinson 2003: 184), egalitarians (Trigger 1983: 27) and, in direct opposition to the latter, possessors of an established hierarchical social system (Brunton 1928: 6; Hoffman 1984: 143; Anderson 1992: 65-66). Looking specifically at the evidence and theories regarding the Badarian subsistence strategies, that fishing was an important food is attested to at Hemamiah ( Caton –Thompson 1928: 94) and the finding of hippo tusks and iconography in Badarian graves may attest to the importance of this animal in the diet. The hunting of other non-aquatic animals is less easy to prove, although this has not stopped a certain amount of excessive speculation by some commentators, who have suggested the hunting of crocodile, hippo, giraffe, oryx, gazelle, cattle and barbary sheep (Krzyzaniak 1977: 69-70). The agricultural credentials of the Badarians are based on a few grains of Emmer wheat recovered in a disturbed context at Mostagedda (Brunton 1937: 38, 59) and grain husks and bread-like remains in the cemeteries at Badari (Brunton et al 1928: 13-14, 16-17). The bell-shaped pits are also often referred to as grain silos (Krzyzaniak 1977:68). The burial of cattle and sheep/goats (Brunton et al 1928: 38, 41) has also been used as proof of the domestication of these animals, but, as Holmes (1992:54, 80) has pointed out, there is little direct evidence to substantiate any of the suggested subsistence strategies in relation to agriculture and non-aquatic hunting practices. The Badarians are further described as having lived in wickiup-like tents or flimsy windbreaks, but as the ‘settlements’ are dominated by shallow middens, pits and hearths (Brunton et al 1928: 5-6; Spencer 1993: 25; Trigger et al 1983: 27) the lack of firm settlement data makes it impossible to demonstrate this theory with any confidence. The number and shallowness of areas identified by Brunton have, however, led some archaeologists to speculate that the Badarian and early Nagada sites are due to small settlements shifting laterally at intervals (Hassan 1988: 154). The later Predynastic and Dynastic practice of building settlements on the raised levees in the flood plain itself raises the possibility that the 40 settlements in the three sub-regional clusters at Badari, Mostagedda and Matmar may thus be seen as short-lived satellite camps, belonging to the larger settlements which have now been destroyed. The use of pottery and formal cemeteries must, I believe, favour the arguments in support of a largely, or even exclusively, sedentary lifestyle for at least a proportion of the Badarian population. Some of the theory and references in support of this proposal are supplied in the discussion and so will not be repeated here. Pottery The one aspect of Badarian cultural life in which we can have some confidence is in their manufacture and use of pottery. Indeed, their often outstandingly well-crafted ceramics are in many respects the corner stone of what we describe as Badarian. The most distinctive and easily recognized ceramics of the Badarian Period are the black-topped red and brown wares. Many examples of these wares are extremely thin-walled and well fired, which show levels of both aesthetic and technical accomplishment, which were probably never surpassed by the later ancient cultures of the Nile valley (Brunton 1928: 20-26). The clays are high quality and well prepared and contain a sand inclusion which may or may not have been deliberately added (Krzyzaniak 1977: 73). All the vessels were also handmade using the coil method (Brunton 1928: 20). The techniques used in the firing process are still unknown, but as no kiln has been found in association with Badarian cultural material, it is likely a form of open or pit firing was employed, although the fired fabric tends to be very hard indicating a high firing temperature. Brunton’s catalogue of the ceramics found at Badari show a high number of none repeat items. This, of course, may be due in part to the vagaries of archaeological excavation, but it does suggest that pots were made on an ad hoc basis with only a limited amount of local specialization. Most of the shapes are variations on a simple open bowl (Brunton el al 1928: 24). See plates 1.2 to 1.4, on page viii. Table 2.61 below lists the seven wares which Brunton identified in his Badarian ceramic corpus, on the basis of the divergence in the structure of the paste and the method of surface treatment (ibid). The bracketed figures are ware percentage from the total number of pots recorded in the 1928 publication. Table 2.61 Ware profile Abbreviation/ prefix Ware Numbers of recorded pots. BB Black topped brown 90 (25%) BR Black topped red 71 (20%) SB Smooth brown 41 (12%) RB Rough brown 94 (27%) PR Polished red 17 ( 5%) MS Miscellaneous 25 ( 7%) AB All black 16 ( 5%) It will be noted that the most numerous wares are BB BR and RB which, combined, make up over 70% of the ceramics, whilst the two least prevalent wares: PR and AB only total 10%. A photograph of a BB pot is reproduced in plate 2.1. Several finds at Hierakonpolis point to the irregular black rims of the Nagada black- topped wares being produced after the main firing (from Hierakonpolis web site visited June 2005). This is most likely to have been accomplished by placing the upturned pots into the hot embers of a fire, in order to produce the reducing and smoking conditions necessary for such an effect. This then points to a deliberate and methodical process in the production of the black tops rather than a serendipitous outcome of an open firing. It must be assumed at this stage that the production of Badarian black-topped wares underwent a similar process. A rippled/combed tracery is also noticeable on many of the pots (Brunton et al 1928: 20-21), and although its main purpose may have been to ‘plain’ down the walls of a vessel, there is little doubt it was also used as a decorative effect. Burnishing was also a much-used decorative technique. The thin, burnished, black-topped ripple ware, which is considered diagnostic of the Badarian, is closely paralleled by the Terminal Abkan of the Sudan (Hays 1984: 65-73). Rarely, pots were decorated with incised geometric designs such as palm fronds or six-rayed stars (Brunton ref). The rough wares are of a poorer technical quality, being made of a paste containing a temper of chopped straw or grass and badly fired: the surfaces are rarely painted. That this was a utility ware is evidenced by the soot marks on several of the recovered vessels. 2.7 Cemeteries The Badarian Culture is mostly known from its cemeteries which are situated in the low desert overlooking the flood plain.. The burials themselves were laid out within discreet and dedicated burial grounds near to the areas identified by Brunton as settlements. There are 41 identified burial grounds situated along the Badari-Mostagedda-Matmar floodplains from which some 520 graves were excavated. All the graves are simple pit burials, usually in gravelly ground, which contain a single contracted body, often placed on its left side and with the head to the south, so that the face looks west. This burial practice continued into Dynastic times. The grave often also contained a mat on which the body had been lain or wrapped, with a few graves, according to Brunton. equipped with a mat lining. The use of skins is less frequently found and the use of linen even less so, it is; however, impossible to say, at the present time, if this is due to different degrees of preservation within the cemeteries, or represents some form of social ranking. Burial goods including pottery, some copper objects, glazed steatite beads, slate palettes, ivory combs and spoons and female figurines were recovered by Brunton. The grave registers, descriptions and cemetery maps given by Brunton do not always tally. An exact number of graves containing inhumations is accordingly difficult to ascertain; the numbers in the tables below can however can be taken as very close approximations. The largest cemeteries at Badari probably contained around 100 graves each. Many of the cemeteries are, however, much smaller, and isolated graves and small groups are common within the general area of the cemeteries complex. The three main cemeteries at Badari, namely 5100, 53/400 and 5700, are reproduced in maps 2.4 to 2.6. Table 2.73 Badari cemetery grave totals Cemetery No Cemetery No Cemetery No Cemetery No 400 1 2000 1 5300 56 5800 16 500 2 4800 3 5400 52 6000 9 1400 4 5100 59 5500 6 7100 1 1900 1 5200 9 5700 71 Table 2.74 Mostagedda and Matmar cemetery grave totals Cemetery No Cemetery No Cemetery No Mostagedda 1200 39 Mostagedda 2200-3500 50 mostagedda 400 70 Matmar 2000 35 Matmar 2900 69 It was also noted that some graves were bigger and more richly equipped than others, suggesting that there were differences in wealth and status. This idea was taken up by Anderson who, with the use of statistics, proposed that the Badarian cemetery population did show a clear hierarchical structure (Anderson 1992: 53). Animal burials A small number of independent animal burials were found by Brunton within or on the perimeter of some of the human cemeteries. According to Brunton’s initial analysis, these animal graves contained cattle, dogs and sheep/goats (Brunton 1928 12). The body orientation and matting protecting the bodies appeared no different from the practices seen in the human burials. Traces of cloth were also reported in the grave of a sheep/goat (ibid). No grave goods were found in association with the animal bones. The significance of these animal burials is still unknown. 2.8 Tasian phenomena Between Dier Tasa and el Nazla el Mostagedda, Brunton found a number of graves and some settlement areas where the pottery was readily distinguishable from that found at Badari. This, Brunton decided, constituted a separate and earlier cultural phase, which he named the Tasian (Brunton 1937: 25-33). Brunton based his identification of the Tasian culture largely on the basis of a particular type of pottery which consisted of deep bowls with a small flattish base and angular sides narrowing towards the mouth. On re-examining the evidence, Elise Baumgartel concluded that ‘It was too early to speak of a Tasian civilization as distinct from the Badarian’ (Baumgartel 1955, 1970). Baumgartel’s proposal was made on the basis that the pottery had been the only indicator found by Brunton to suggest a separate culture. There was also both a lack of stratigraphic evidence and the clear mixing of Badarain and Tasain graves in the same cemeteries. Following on from Baumgartel’s arguments, the consensus amongst the archaeological community is that the so-called Tasian pottery is part of the normal range of Badarian artifacts. Kaiser (1985: 61-87) has however recently re-energised the argument by suggesting that the Tasian components of the Badarian sites do indeed belong to a separate tradition. One particular black beaker, with a flared mouth and incised decoration, considered by Brunton to be Tasian, was found in grave, Qau 569, along with Badarian pottery and a four-handled jar, considered by Amiran to be an import from Chalcolithic Palestine (Brunton 1928; Kantor 1965). Map 2.4 Cemetery 5100 Map 2.5 Cemetery 5300/5400 Scale not given Map 2.6 Cemetery 5700 All maps except for 2.2 are modifications of those given in the ‘Badarain Civilization’ 1928. Chapter 3 Seriation theory and techniques 3.1 Introduction Seriation is an inexpensive and relatively easy dating technique to use, and yet, since the wholesale adoption of absolute dating techniques, such as radiocarbon, by the archaeological community, it is now seldom used (O’Brien and Lyman 1999: 120). Darwin, in 1859, described seriation as a method for measuring time as a process of ‘descent with modification’. A fuller and more contemporary definition describes it as: ‘a descriptive analytic technique, the purpose of which is to arrange comparable units in a single dimension, such that the position of each unit reflects its similarity to other units.’ (Marquardt 1978: 258). As a practical methodology, this simply means ordering things into rows or columns on the basis of similarity. When applied to archaeology this ordinal scaling becomes a powerful tool for arranging phenomena into an inferential relative chronology, with the added benefit of being the only technique that allows time to be measured in something approximating a continuum. Sir Flinders Petrie (1899: 297; 1901) is credited as being the ‘inventor’ of seriation as a working technique, whilst its effectiveness for producing correct sequences was proved by later work using multivariate statistics (Kendall 1971). The theory of the technique works on the assumption that, in an array of types produced over a period of time, each sequential unit will resemble its predecessors and its successors in numerous ways. Seriation’s task is to re-establish these chronological links by arranging units and types in such a way that very similar units are close together, and, as the similarity decreases, so the distance between them increases. The final results are however invariably a compromise between the competing claims to closer proximity by all the different types (Rowe, 1961: 326; O’Brien and Lyman 1999: 60). 3.2 Assumptions Occurrence and frequency seriation entails various assumptions which are referred to collectively as the seriation model (O’Brien and Lyman 1999: 111) From the brief description given above, it will be appreciated that the key premise underpinning seriation as a chronological ordering tool is the related but distinct assumptions of heritable and historical continuity, in which similar forms will be of a similar age and occur as a result of transmission. Integral to this premise is also the need for every type to have both a beginning and an end (O’Brien and Lyman 1999:60, 108). Within this time frame the production of a type varies, but roughly speaking starts slowly then grows to a maximum, as the demand for it increases, and then, as demand becomes satisfied or taste changes, production drops off. This pattern of popularity can be fitted into a bell or unimodal curve and is the basis for frequency seriation (O’Brian and Lyman 1999: 111-114). It is also assumed that a style’s popularity will be broadly similar from site to site, within the same culture. Following these rules, an assemblage of objects can be placed into sequence so that sites with the most similar proportions of certain styles are always together. Figure 3.21 A unimodal or bell-shaped curve 3.3 Meeting the conditions of the seriation model For any seriation technique to work, time is assumed to be measured as a continuum rather than as discontinuous chunks and within this continuum there must never be a break in a type sequence (Cowgill, 1972:384). Several of the seriagraphs constructed during the initial stages of the present research had to be rejected because they failed to meet this condition of the seriation model. Another important consideration, in order for the seriation technique to work, is that the selected types must overlap with one another in such a way that that the whole assemblage is linked (O’Brien and Lyman 1999: 116-117). The types must also come from a single cultural tradition, namely one which reflects transmission, persistence and heritable continuity (O’Brien and Lyman 1999:118). The cultural tradition in this instance is the Badarian. It is also important that the assemblages come from the same local area, in order that any variations are more likely to be measures of time rather than space. The problem faced by myself was knowing where to draw the line around a local area, so that the formal variation within the boundary was minimal (Neff, 1992:151). It was decided, for the purposes of this dissertation, that the local space would be the Badari ‘core area’ (ibid), as Brunton’s Tasian pottery to the north, can be easily distinguished from the other ceramics found within it. Lastly, the frequency of the assemblage as a whole must be large enough to give reliable statistical inferences. A working sample should have a minimum of 50 units (Orton, personal communication), the present sample of some 60 units is therefore safely within this minimum. 3.4 The verification of a temporal sequence Whether the seriation catalogues a temporal sequence is invariably an inference which must be tested with independent data. The independent data in the case of the present study comes in part from excavations of the superposed sediments by Caton-Thompson on the north spur at Hemamieh (Brunton and Caton-Thompson 1928: 69-116). The final proof regarding the chronological significance and direction remains therefore ‘in the spade’ (Kroeber 1916:20) 3.5 Phasing The principal product of the seriation process is the sequential ordering of the chosen units, in this case the Badarian graves and their contents. The seriation matrix will often also reveal an internal structure where, in this case, groups of graves are characterised by a similar assemblage of pottery types (Seidlmayer 1990: 34). If the cemetery sequence is read as being broadly representative of the chronological order, then it can be inferred that the grave groupings within it represent bona fide cultural phases, in which the development and duration of particular types and associations can be mapped. (Wilkinson 1996: 20). 3.6 Techniques There are several seriation techniques: evolutionary, frequency, occurrence and phyletic, the differences between them being fully reviewed in O’Brien and Lyman 1999. For a number of reasons, which are given below, the seriation technique used in the present study is occurrence. Occurrence seriation was probably first suggested as an alternative to frequency seriation in 1959 by Rowe, who stated that, ‘ it was preferable to avoid relying on frequencies for making chronological distinctions and depend instead on observations of presence and absence’ (1959: 321). As applied in the present study, the technique statistically manipulates the imputed presence/absence data in order to obtain the ideal ordering of the unit and type on the basis of shared characteristics. In short, the more types which are shared by a group of units the more similar they are, and thus the closer in time they are thought to be. All types have been given equal weighting; this means that the program treats them as being of equal chronological significance. This is important as, at this preliminary stage of the research, no particular types can be relied upon as being diagnostic of a particular phase. The weighting of types is also considered by statisticians to be an unsound practice (Scollar 1993:65). Only those graves containing at least two types could be included in the seriations, since a grave containing only one type will be excluded by the program. Similarly, if a seriation is to be effective, the occurrences of the selected types must be relatively frequent, otherwise connections between the units will be hard to make; those types occurring only once are therefore also excluded from the seriations (Seidlmayer 1990:35). This technique was chosen for a number of reasons: There are only a very small number of graves in the excavation reports in which a particular type occurs more than once. there would therefore be little or no merit in using frequency seriation . Presence /absence data is probably more sensitive in making chronological distinctions as it allows the often time sensitive low frequency types to be plotted (Rowe 1959: 321; Demsey and Baumhoff 1963: 498). The relative position of the pottery types depends, significantly, on the association they have with other types with which they are associated. From the combined cemeteries in the Badari Area only 75 of the 600 grave and town units contain two or more pots (Anderson calculates that there are 725 graves in Matmar, Mostagedda and Badari area). This small number of units distributed mostly amongst the six main cemeteries at Badari could, at first hand be seen as a major obstacle towards running a credible seriation. Fortunately, the area in question is relatively small, Qua is approximately 15km SE of Badari, whilst Mostagedda is approximately 10km NW of Badari. The 25 km from Qua to Mostagedda can be walked in a day and, of course, this journey would be easier and quicker by boat. I suggest therefore, that the use of all the pertinent cemetery data from this area is not contrary to good seriation practice. This view is strengthened by Brunton’s publications, which place a significant number of his pottery types in more than one cemetery. And due to the very thin and fragile nature of the fabric of these pots, it is, I think, a fair assumption to suggest that the pots would have been deposited in the graves soon after manufacture, which suggest either a very close synergy between the settlement potters or that pots from one settlement were moving freely between the different communities. 3.7 The Bonn seriation software package The Bonn Archaeological Software Package (BASP) is a facility containing statistics, seriation and mapping programs for archaeologists. It has been developed cooperatively since 1973 at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn. The seriation programme uses a modification of the Kammerer-Goldmann clustering algorithm, and was chosen for its 'stability, rapidity and its capacity to reach a single stable solution. Chapter 4 Typology 4.1 Introduction The first and arguably the most important step in the development of a seriation profile is the construction of a typology so that the chosen ‘variables’ and ‘units’ can be arrayed along the x and y axes. In this dissertation the ‘units’ will be the Badarian graves whilst the variables or types will be the ceramic and palette artefacts found within each grave unit. In more formal terms, a typology is a conceptual system made by separating a specified field of entities into a comprehensive set of mutually exclusive categories, called types, according to a common set of criteria, which is dictated by the analytical objectives of the typologist (Adams and Adams 1991: 91; Spaulding 1953: 305). In an archaeological context, ‘type’ is the basic unit of classification (Thomas 1998: 235) and accordingly, the most important element in the making of a typology is that the types should be classes of material which promise to be useful as tools in interpreting past material culture (Ford and Griffin 1938: 3). A typology then has no ideal all purpose form, but is rather, an idealized task-specific categorisation constructed to fit the aims and needs of the investigation (O’Brien and Lyman 1999:23). As long as the types can be shown to work for that purpose they do not require any abstract justification (Ford and Griffin 1938:3; Adams and Adams 1991: 8). In other words, if the results of the seriation are shown to have significance then the typological groupings are justified. The notion of relative dating through typology is based on several assumptions; the first is that the products of a given place have a recognizable ‘style’ or formal variation in material culture, which transmits information about personal and social identity (Wiessner 1983: 256). In order for the seriation to be effective the types within the style corpus must also occur relatively frequently and also change gradually, but often, over time, so that overlapping connections can be made. As already stated, the types used in the present study are made up of pottery and palettes. Pottery is particularly important because it is the most commonly found artefact in Predynastic burials. The relatively fragility of a ceramic vessel also makes it a good indicator of the original date of a burial, regardless of whether the pot was specially commissioned or was a house hold item before the internment. A clear assumption is also made that the deposition of a unit (grave) took place at a single point in time and for the purposes of seriation this must be maintained; the intrinsic worth of this assumption will however be debated in the discussion. The use of palettes, in combination with pottery, is perhaps a little controversial but the variations in palette shape have been found to be chronologically sensitive in the later Predynastic palette corpus. It has therefore been assumed by the author that the stylistic characteristics of the Badarian palettes are also chronologically sensitive. The only typology of Badarian pottery was made by Brunton in his 1928 publication (ibid), and closely mimics Petrie’s division of pots into wares using several different criteria , such as fabric, surface treatment and even relative chronological position (Petrie,1921: 5). This classification has several methodological inconsistencies, but, as both typologies have remained important and often quoted tools in the study of Egyptology (Needler, 1984: 69), it was felt necessary to maintain much of the terminology in the present classification. This decision poses further difficulties for the reader, as the literature on Ancient Egyptian pottery is unfortunately awash with inconsistent classifications and criteria. The first difficulty comes from the basic unit of classification itself, namely the type, which, even when looking back at the definition given above, helps little in distinguishing it from other words used in the Ancient Egyptian pottery classifications, such as form, class and ware. In both Petrie’ s and Brunton’s classifications (ibid) a pot could be defined as a type on the basis of a single find or as part of a broader group which could consist of a significant amount of variation. Brunton however, in his classification of the later Predyanstic pots at Matmar (Brunton 1948) and Mostagedda (Brunton 1937) further subdivided many of Petrie’s single type classifications into separate and discrete types, suggesting that his analysis of pottery was much more detailed than Petrie’s. In the context of Brunton and Petrie’s work, a type is accordingly a premeditated variation in a generalized shape or ‘form’ such as a bowl or a bottle. A ‘ware’ is classed as a group of pots, which share major structural and decorative features, an example of which would be the blacktopped brown pots. It will be evident that the same form can appear in more than one ware, whilst types, although similar in every other respect, will be different. The criterion for the classification of a type is accordingly that the elements within it must be both similar to each other and dissimilar to other types. The types must also be properly defined so that, if the work was repeated, the elements within the individual types would be the same and any new pot or palette which fits into the existing classification could be easily placed into one of the existing types (O’Brien and Lyman, 1999:28). 4.2 Specific attributes of the typology Pottery typologies can be predicated on such attributes as paste, shape, surface decoration and function. As the objective here is to construct a relative chronology of the Badarian grave units through seriation, the kind of characters required in this typology will be chronologically sensitive, in other words they must have ‘demonstrable historical meaning’ (Krieger, 1944: 272). It is recognized that pottery types based on technological and/or functional characteristics are apt to be poor chronological markers, whilst those based on stylistic features tend to be good ones (O’Brien and Lyman 1999: 38; O’Brien and Holland 1992). Petrie also noted that some types of Predynastic pottery passed through several different fabrics suggesting that form, in this period was more important than material (Petrie, 1899 300-301). Within the stylistic remit, surface decoration is recognised as changing more often than shape and is therefore the most chronologically sensitive marker to use for a typological sequence (Renfrew and Bahn 1991: 106). But colour, as an aspect of surface decoration must be used with caution, as there can be significant variations in colour in the same firing, especially if it is an open-firing event. 4.3 The sorting criteria As the criteria used for the present typology are primarily morphological in nature the formation of the types is based almost exclusively on the illustrations in Brunton’s original excavation reports. The pottery is published as line drawings at a scale of 1:6 in Brunton’s work and as individually scaled photographs from the Petrie Museum website. Brunton’s identification of these often subtle differences has allowed me to use the drawings with a degree of confidence, which, in turn, has allowed me to label several forms as separate types. This broadening of the number of types allows, it is hoped, for a greater chronological sensitivity. The intention was to include as many of the vessels as possible in the seriation, so a pragmatic stance was always taken in the typological process Sometimes the quality of the data can be improved by improving the definition of the ceramic types, so that they more closely reflect chronological change (Meighan 1977: 629). Different numbers and combinations of types were initially used to test Cowgills assumption that the more types included in a seriation the more difficult to produce a clear ordering (Cowgill 1968). In order to retain enough graves to make the seriation statistically viable it was necessary to class several of the pot variations as separate types An example of this can be seen in grave 5108 in figure 5.3. This grave contains two pots: BB5H and BB5F. These pots are remarkably similar and ordinarily would be classed as a single type. However, if BB5H and BB5F were classed as variations of a single type the seriation software would reject the grave from its calculations, on the basis that all graves must have two or more pots to be processed through its algorithm. This exclusion would have a major impact upon the comparative analysis of mine and Brunton’s sequence, as Brunton, on the basis of its position in cemetery 5100, places grave 5108 at the beginning of his sequence e.g. SD21. Indeed, it is not unrealistic to describe grave 5108 as pivotal in Brunton’s sequence construction. A table of Brunton’s sequence is given in section A1 of the appendix. This ‘mix and matching’ is legitimate as long as the resultant types form homogeneous groups which fulfil the first of the classification criteria, that is: which vessels in any one type bear more resemblances to each other than they do to vessels in another type. The types were selected on the basis of: Is the mouth of the vessel open or constricted; more specifically, when seen in cross-section, is the fabric of the mouth parallel to an imaginary line running vertically through the middle of the vessel or is it sloping towards or away from it (see figure 4.1 below) Figure 4.31. Side elevation of bowls with different mouth angles Is the vessel flat or round bottomed The overall size of the vessel. The surface decoration In order for the seriation computer software to work, a grave must contain two or more typed pots. The initial data trawl from Brunton’s cemetery registers (appendix XXX to XXXIII ) was accordingly directed to accommodate this requirement. Of the 237 pots in Brunton’s registry a little less than 30% fitted this criterion with the result that a total of sixty-three graves were identified as being potential candidates for the seriation; these graves are detailed in section A2 of the appendix. The rejection of several of type and grave units resulted in a final typological list of 47 types comprising of some 150 individual vessels divided amongst 60 graves. The grave content of the 60 selected graves is illustrated in figure 5.41, whilst the description of the pottery types is reproduced in section A3 of the appendix. Chapter 5 Presentation of the seriation and statistical Results 5.1 Introduction The results reproduced in this chapter are set out in three main sections: the first section describes the seriation matrix, whilst the second details and evaluates the tabulated results of the general population of pots and graves against the seriation sub-groups; much of the data from the tables is included for reference only. The third and last section compares the seriation results against Brunton’s sequence dates and reviews the merits both for and against any of the studied cemeteries possessing a structural growth based on a horizontal stratigraphy. 5.2 Interpretation of the seriation matrix The Bonn 2005 seriation matrix reproduced in table 5.21, is composed of 28 pottery types and 60 graves. The following two paragraphs contain general comments on interpreting the seriation matrix. To begin, it is important to reiterate that the direction of the serigraph, that is, the inferred chronological order, is a decision, which must be made by the analyst. Once that decision has been made the following format is standard: The numbers on the left and right of the matrix refer to the units (graves); these have been sorted so that what are believed to be the earliest graves are towards the top of the matrix with the later graves towards the bottom. The numbers at the top and bottom of the matrix refer to pottery types, similarly sorted into an approximate chronological order, so that the earlier types are to the left, and the later ones to the right. The types descend diagonally from the top left hand corner to the bottom right. Each marked square on the matrix represents the occurrence of a particular pottery type in a particular grave. Whilst the horizontal rows of marked squares show the overall pottery content of each grave. The vertical rows in consequence detail the lifespan of a particular type, from its earliest appearance nearer the top of the column to its final appearance at the bottom. 5.3 Further consideration In order to assess the significance of a number of pottery type profiles on the matrix, a number of seriations were produced in which one or more types were modified e.g. RB11t was moved between types 2 and 3. The minor variations found in the batch of seriations appear to demonstrate the robust nature of the typology. From this batch, the seriation reproduced in figure 5.21was selected as the most promising profile on the basis that it fulfils the requirements of the seriation model and the hypothesis that any Nagada I influences would be seen late in the sequence. The seriation can accordingly be seen to highlight a number of trends which may well be representative of the ‘historical’ reality. The positioning of the grave with the Predynastic vessel near the end of the serigraph also supports the supposition that the plot gives a relative chronology in which the bulk of the Badarian material predates the Nagada phase of the Predynastic (the ceramic typology is illustrated in appendix A3). 5.4 The analysis of the seriation The number of graves is 20% above the recommended minimum number of graves for a reliable seriation result (Orton, personal communication). Figure 5.41 illustrates the ceramic and slate goods in each of the seriated graves, in the order in which they appear in the matrix. The first points I would like to make are the related observations that there is, firstly, little morphological change throughout the sequence and, secondly, there is no simultaneous appearance and/or disappearance of several types which could be interpreted as marking significantly different cultural phases (Cowgill, 1972: 384). With the above proviso in place, the appearance of PR vessels, ‘bottles’, the Predynastic material and the ‘type B’ palettes does constitute important morphological and stylistic changes in the later half of the seriation. These observed changes have been used to divide the matrix into an early and late phase, which will henceforth be called phases 1 and 2 respectively. It will be observed that the seriation has placed the RB village forms into the first phase. I concede that this is unlikely to be a true reflection of the ceramic wares relative position, with a more even distribution amongst the two groups probably being more representative of its provenance. Excluding the town wares, each of the phases contains 29 grave/pottery deposits in which the first phase contains a total of 76 pots whilst phase two contains 66 pots. The average number of pots per grave in phase one was found to be 2.6 and in phase two a fraction lower at 2.3. The pottery average for the entire seriation sub group is thus 2.4, which is substantially more than the majority of Badarian graves in which approximately 80% of the entire population contain either one pot or no ceramic remains at all. The graves used in the seriation are therefore not representative of the ceramic wealth of the majority of the graves, but as the seriation has been used to establish a quantitative relative chronology, this bias is not considered important.;. The pottery data of each phase is set out in tables 5.41 and 5.42 with a fuller summary given in the paragraphs with follow. Table 5.41 gives the number of open and closed mouths and flat and round bases in each of the phases. Table 5.41 General ceramic morphology per phase Mouths Bases Phase Total Open Closed Flat Round 1 76 56 (74) 20 (26) 16 (21) 60 (79) 2 66 28 (42) 38 (58) 29 (44) 37 (56) The open figures give the number of ceramics in the morphological categories for each phase, whilst the bracketed figures give the means amongst the mouth and base sub-groups The one striking feature from Table 5.41 is that every described attribute in phase two is, approximately, either double or half the quantity given in phase one. This apparent shift, with the passage of time, to closed vessels with flat bases is an important observation, as the Badarian ceramic corpus is typified by Brunton as being dominated by simple round-bottomed bowls (1928:26), whilst the later Predynastic corpus has many more flat-bottomed and closed forms (Petrie 1921). The move by the Badarian potters to more Nagada I-like forms may therefore be seen as a further diffusion of the boundaries between the two sub-phases of the Predynastic. Table 5.42 below displays the ware numbers and percentages within each of the two phases. Table 5.42 Numbers and percentages of wares per phase Phase total BB BR SB PR RB 1 76 24 (32) 16 (21) 11 (14) 0 21 (28) 2 66 16 (24) 19 (29) 9 (14) 4 (6) 11 (17) totals 142 40 35 20 4 32 The figure outside the brackets is the number of vessels in the specified ware in each of the phases. The bracketed number is the ware as a percentage of the vessels in the entire phase. Table 5.42 shows that there is a decrease in phase two in the numbers and percentages of BB and RB vessels. There is also a slight increase in numbers of RB vessels in phase two. Although the differences between the phases in the numbers of BB and BR pots are marginal it is nevertheless suggestive, as previously observed in table 5.41, of a gradual move towards the stylist and morphological norms of the later Predynastic. Table 5.43 Age and sex distribution in phases one and two Phase 1 2 Total Children 3 3 6 Males 6 7 13 Females 2 4 6 Table 5.43 tabulates the recorded sex and age distribution in each of the phases. The data shows that the numbers of males, females and children are approximately the same in each of the phases, with twice as many remains identified as males than females. Adult males, accordingly, appear to dominate the seriation sub-groups. The overall number of grave goods per phase is 4.9 for phase 1 and 5.1 for phase 2, which strongly suggests that the wealth distribution has no major chronological determinant within it. The wealth between cemeteries is however significantly different; this is illustrated in Table 5.44 which gives the average number of grave goods (relative wealth) from each of the sub-groups in cemeteries 5100, 53/400 and 5700. Table 5.44 Relative wealth per sub-group Graves with: Cemetery 0-1 pots 2 or more pots Columns 1+ 2 5100 3 5.7 3.5 53/400 1.6 6.1 2.5 5700 2.3 2.6 2.4 The data clearly shows that the number of grave goods in 5100 is high whilst the number in 5700, relative to 5100, is low. The cemetery with both the lowest number of grave goods in column 2 and highest in column 3 is however 53/400. Another comparison of the relative wealth between the two phases can be made by looking at the graves volumes. The theory underpinning such an investigation is that the greater the expenditure in labour in the construction of a grave is often directly related to the wealth and/or standing of the individual in life (Binford, 1972: 236). The grave volume data in tables 5.45 and 5.46 shows that the graves are a little larger in phase 2, there is however a larger standard deviation in this phase, which is due to a few very large graves which may have accommodated simple ‘chest-like’ coffins. Overall then, the simple pit excavations, used by the Badarians as graves, are remarkably consistent throughout the seriation sequence. Table 5.45 Statistical data on grave volumes in phases 1 & 2. X Volume in metres3 Sum of volume X 2 Variance Standard deviation Phase 1 1.7 22.3 1.7 1.3 Phase 2 2.2 38.3 2.4 1.6 X stands for mean average Table 5.46 Stem and leaf plots of grave volumes in phases 1 and 2. Volume in m3 Stem and leaf plot Phase 1. Phase 2. Phase 1. Phase 2. Combined 1.97 2.14 5 - 5 3 3 1.0 1.52 4 5 4 6 65 2.82 2.75 3 8 3 7554 87554 4.46 3.4 2 98 2 81 9881 0.42 1.24 1 00228 1 55322 8553222200 3.8 3.49 0 77754 0 7544 777755444 0.69 0.36 0.54 5.3 0.69 1.23 1.0 0.39 2.87 4.6 0.63 0.5 1.22 3.7 1.22 0.74 3.49 1.48 1.16 Phase One Morphological overview Phase one is made up of a variety of open, closed, flat-bottomed and round-bottomed vessel forms, although, morphologically, the phase is dominated by open-mouthed, round-bottomed vessels. The surface decoration is also varied but does not contain any polished red material. One of the BR bowls is decorated with a two-frond shape design on its interior surface. Black-topped Brown Table 5.42 illustrates that 24 (32%) vessels belonging to the Black-topped brown ware are present in this phase. The forms in this ware are varied, ranging from simple bowls (e.g. BB57e), shallow-walled dishes (e.g.BB14m), beakers (e.g. BB52m) to more sophisticated shapes such as BB8h. This variety of forms suggests that the Black-topped brown style was the decorative norm in this phase, regardless of its intended function, The only exceptions to this universality are the cooking pots which were manufactured in the coarse-tempered clays of the RB ware. Black-topped Red Black-topped red wares are well represented in this phase, with some 16 vessels in all. Six of these vessels are a small round-bottomed, closed-mouth variety e.g.BR24h, which are not found in the BB ware. The shallow round-bottomed bowls such as BR16e are also restricted to this ware, whilst the deeper bowl BR3h is similar in size and shape to BB8h. There is accordingly some evidence that the BB and BR forms are generally different from each other. Polished Red There are no Polished red wares in this phase. Smooth Brown This ware makes up only some 14% of the total number of pots in this phase. The ware is divided up into a varied number of forms, from simple round-bottomed bowls such as SB5h to more sophisticated shapes such as the carinated SB9k. Rough Brown The Rough-brown ceramics, numbering 21 vessels, is the second most numerous ware in this phase. This number would of course be substantially increased if the town pots were incorporated into the survey. This ware consists primarily of large bee-hive shaped vessels with sharply decreasing profiles which terminate with a rounded or slightly flattened base. The smoke- blackened exteriors of some of the examples suggest they were used as cooking pots prior to being deposited in the graves. Palettes The two palettes found in this phase belong to the notched ‘A’ type. Sex Of those remains which could be sexed, six were identified as male and a further two as female. Age Only very generalized ages were given for the adult human remains. Three more graves were described as containing the remains of children. Relative wealth If a very simple count of grave contents is performed, in which every item is given a score of one, with collections of beads and shells counted as one item respectively then the wealthiest grave in phase 1 is 5403 with a score of 10. The mean for the measurable graves in this phase is 4.9, which is just over two items more than the average number of grave goods for the combined cemeteries complex. This seriation sub-group is accordingly richer in both pots and other items than the general population. Additional information A summary of some additional information is given in table 5.47 below. Table 5.47 Summary of additional data Bangles 5126 (x2), 5403, 5453(x2?), 5406 Beads 5403 (assorted), 5374 5140 5364 3097 Flint 5403 (10 flakes), 5406 (flakes, arrow) Palettes 5453 (A type) 5444 (A type) Shells 5712 (Ancillaria), 5406 (Oliva, Conus), 5403 (Spatha) Cemeteries 5100 (2 ) 5300-5400 (9) 5700 (5) Phase Two Morphological overview There is much more parity between the round and flat-bottomed vessels in this phase, numbering 44% and 56% respectively. This parity is also evident in the percentage of open and closed vessels, which is 42% and 57%. Necked vessels or bottles also make their first appearance in this phase, as well as the Nagada I type pottery. Black-topped Brown There is a small, but possibly significant, fall in the numbers and percentage of BB vessels in this phase, namely 16 or some 24% (see table 5.42 for further details). A number of the BB vessels (7) are however border line, regarding their inclusion in this ware, as most of their bodies are very dark/black in colour, these include BB 3d, BB5h/f and BB31m. Black-topped Red The Black-topped red vessels number 19 (29%) in this phase which is a slight increase on the 16 (21%) found in phase 1. Polished Red Polished-red vessels occur in this phase but, with only a total of four pots, this ware is accordingly still rare. It will also be noted all the vessels in this ware are carinated. Smooth Brown The percentage of Smooth-brown vessels in this phase remains at 14%, the same as encountered in phase 1 above. The vessel SB37e, is similar to forms found in the later Predynastic Corpus (Petrie 1921). Rough Brown The 11 Rough-brown vessels found in this phase represent a drop of approximately 10% from the previous phase. Palettes There are 3 palettes in this phase, all of which belong to the type ‘B’ design (see appendix A3). Sex The numbers of both sexed and aged remains from this phase is approximately the same as the previous phase (see table 5.43). Relative wealth The wealthiest grave in this phase is 5112 with a score of 20; the overall mean of 5 items is however the same as the earlier phase. Additional information A summary of some additional information is given in table 5.48 below. Table 5.48 Summary of additional data Bangles 5112 Flint 5112 (arrow) 5459(adze) Shells 5112 5397 Beads 5397 5115 5112 5399 Palettes 5429 (B type) 5399 5112 Cemeteries 5100 (4) 5300-5400 (8) 5700 (6) General comments and overview The move away from open to closed and from round to flat bases in the pottery has already been noted, its significance is however harder to analyse, but may have something to do with a move away from more mobile traditions where round bases would certainly be more useful in the desert. The apparent conservatism, as seen in the numbers of each ware in each of the two phases, is also somewhat deceptive, not just because of the introduction of the PR ware but also because the vessels in each of the wares in the later half of the seriation are often easily recognizable from the earlier phase. Children It is interesting to note that the small bottle type ceramics (SB46P and MS31) in phase 2 both come from the graves of children (graves 5769 and 3104 respectively). It is worth speculating that these pots were possibly specially manufactured for children as ‘trainers’. On a similar vein it will also be noted that the ‘miniature’ pots such as BB64c and RB 11t also tend to be found in the graves of children. 5.5 Further cemetery statistics It must be remembered that the morphology and ware percentages for each phase in table 5.42 come only from the seriated graves. These graves are accordingly a sub group which, in terms of pottery content, are not representative of the larger cemetery population. However, as this sub-group’s function is to produce a relative chronology, its non-representation with the rest of the population is not of critical importance. It was nevertheless decided that a fuller, but by no means complete, statistical analysis of the seriated graves, weighed against the general population, may produce useful time-sensitive cultural information. The data from this analysis is given below, and will be followed with a preliminary interpretation when considered appropriate. A more complete analysis of the data will be considered in Chapter 6. Total ware frequencies per cemetery The data given in table 5.51 gives the totals of the known frequencies and percentages of the ceramic wares in each of the Badarian cemeteries. This data allows us to compare and contrast the seriation sub groups firstly against each other, against their respective general cemetery populations and, finally, against the population within the overall cemetery complex. Separate columns for both the number of identified features and the number of confirmed graves is given because of the number of vessel remains recovered from the cemeteries which could not be ascribed to any particular grave. As it is unclear whether these pots are the result of weathering, grave fills, robbery or some other unspecified discard, it was felt prudent to enumerate all the excavation type features. Table 5.51 Frequency of Wares per cemetery (means given to the nearest whole number). The Miscellaneous and All-Black Wares have been excluded from the data set. Cemetery Total graves/holes No of identifiable graves Graves containing pots No of identifiable pots BB BR PR SB RB 5100 61 60 26 37 3513 21 3011 18 114 7 145 8 8 3 5 53/400 110 99 43 85 3227 25 2219 17 43 3 1614 13 2420 18 5700 71 60 22 55 1810 14 3017 24 21 1 2212 17 2514 20 Total 242 219 91 58 48 9 34 38 Mean 81 73 30 19 16 3 11 13 The central figure gives the frequency of a ware throughout the given cemetery The upper right figure gives the frequency of a ware as a percentage of the total number of graves/holes in the cemetery. The upper left gives the frequency of a ware as a percentage of the total number of identifiable pots in the cemetery Table 5.51 and graph 5.51 clearly show that the distribution of wares between the cemeteries is not the same. In raw percentage terms, the BB pots in 5100 make up 35% of the pottery assemblage whilst in cemetery 5700 the percentage is only 18%. The BB wares are, accordingly, twice as popular in 5100, the so-called elite cemetery. This pattern is repeated in the PR wares, with four vessels (11%) being found in 5100 whilst only a single example (2%) was found in 5700. The RB wares are correspondingly three times as popular in cemetery 5700 than they are in 5100. This data illustrates that major differences in the distribution of ware types between the cemeteries appears to be a real phenomenon. The data (including the seriation results) cannot however specify the causes of the differences, namely whether due to differences in social ranking between the two cemetery populations, a chronologically produced bias or, in the case of the RB wares in 5700, whether other cultural activities such as cooking in the cemetery area was responsible for the discard. Graph 5.51 Histogram of the percentage of wares in each of the selected cemeteries Table 5.52 Frequency of seriated wares per cemetery x2 BB BR PR SB RB 5100 8 88 7 54 11 20 50 4 36 7 11 25 2 50 3 5 13 1 20 2 3 38 3 100 5 8 53/400 16 8113 48 12 15 56 9 47 8 11 0 44 7 50 6 8 6310 50 9 12 5700 11 55 6 60 8 11 64 7 41 10 13 18 1100 1 2 36 4 33 6 7 36 4 29 6 7 Total 26 20 4 12 17 Table 5.52 shows the frequency and percentage of wares within the seriation sub group The upper left gives the central figure as a percentage of the graves with two or more pots in column 2 The central figures give number of pots from the sub/seriation group with that ware The upper right figure gives the central figure as a percentage of the total number of pots in that ware within the designated cemetery (given in table 5.9) e.g. the seven BB pots from cemetery 5100 used in the seriation represents 54% of the BB ware in that cemetery. The lower left case number is the ware expressed as a percentage of the number of graves/holes in the designated cemetery. The lower right case number is the ware expressed as a percentage of the total number of identifiable pots in the designated cemetery. Most of the data given in table 5.52 gives few new insights into the relationship between the sub groups with the main population, when they are analyzed with simple statistical techniques. The table is, accordingly, reproduced mainly for reference purpose only. A comparison of the sub-group ware percentages with the overall population numbers does, however, give similar profiles in most cases (see graph 5.52), which suggests that the sub groups choice of ceramic grave goods was not significantly different from the main cemetery population. The only major exception to this profile generalization is the sub group in cemetery 5100, in which graph 5.52 clearly shows the sub group favouring pottery from the BB ware. If this group is considered, purely on the basis of its greater numbers of grave goods (see map 5.61), as an elite within an elite then this preference for the BB ware is significant and counters the findings of Anderson who considered the ware to have little intrinsic value (1992:51-56). A more in-depth statistical analysis, which is outside the remit of this dissertation, is required to substantiate these findings. In graph 5.52 below, the columns designated as T1 are the total measured cemetery population whilst the front columns designated as T2 are the seriation sub-groups from each of the cemeteries In summary, the data in the tables and graphs given above suggest that the distribution of wares between the separate cemeteries is not the same. The distribution of the sub-groups within each cemetery does, however, show a similar ware profile with the measured general population from each of the cemeteries. Graph 5.52 Display of ware percentages between sub-group and total cemetery population. 5.6 Differences and similarities with Brunton’s sequence One of the most important questions regarding the present study is, namely, how does it compare with Brunton’s own preliminary findings? The answer to this question can be seen from the tables 5.61 and 5.62 given below, in which both sequences have been tabulated together. The data clearly illustrates that the present relative chronology differs substantially from Brunton’s own. Table 5.61 A schematic display of the SD and phase relationship Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 1 Phase 2 29 28 **** 27 26 29 * 28 27 * 26 25 **** 24 * 23 22 * 21 25 24 **** 23 * 22 *** 21 **** Table 5.62 The present relative chronology alongside Brunton’s sequence dates (SD) Phase 1 SD Phase 2 SD 5406 5419 5408 5140 6006a 5374 5769 5712 5453 5709 28 22 28 25 28 25 25 28 24 25 5429 5713 5399 5112 5750 569 5714 5365 5108 5290 5155 5349 5459 5436 5224 23 22 21 22 22 21 24 24 21 24 27 21 24 29 27 He sorted the pottery groups into a sequence which, to his mind, appeared most ‘reasonable’ (PP26), but he cautioned that it was ‘hardly practicable to attempt a sequencing of the Badarian graves by means of changes of style’. Brunton (ibid:26) stressed that his sequence was to be seen as ‘a beginning of a system, in order to have a basis for putting fresh facts in place to correct or to supplement what we already know’. The system he used was based on placing the types found ‘at the bottom of the settlement’ as early and those types connected stylistically with Petrie’s Predyanstic pottery corpus as late. Brunton’s system therefore assumes that the Badarian culture, at least in part, predates the early Predynastic. Regrettably, what Brunton meant by ‘the bottom of the settlement’ is not made clear, although an examination of the settlement data (ibid:5-6) suggests he was using non-contextual inches below the surface as his main sequential determinant. Brunton assigned 56 of the graves from the Badarian cemeteries, with sequence dates from SD 21 to SD 29 (pp xix). Accordingly, RB27t and 31h, which were both found together in one of the deeper deposits (30 inches below the surface: Brunton ibid:5 ) are designated as S.D. 22. A detailed explanation as to why a group of pots are given a particular sequence date rather than another is however, regrettably not detailed, making an analysis of his method virtually impossible. It will be noted that SD 23 and 29 have only three graves each assigned to them and SD 26 has none at all. Brunton does not discuss the reasons behind why he felt obliged to leave SD 26 empty, there does not however appear to be reasonable explanation, on stylistic continuity alone. Looking now at both chronologies together, it will be noted that there are only 10 of Brunton’s SD graves in the revised phase 1 and of these, four are designated by Brunton as belonging to SD 28. Another four are in SD 25 which can be considered a transitional zone between phases 1 and 2, although the assigned graves are distributed throughout phase 1. In phase 2 the table shows a substantial cluster of graves (12) in SD 21-24. My results then, are a near reciprocal of Brunton’s own sequence but, with the exception of BB12d, in reverse order. It appears that Brunton may have been strongly influenced in his choice of sequencing by what he believed was a clear horizontal chronology in cemetery 5100. Map 5.1 illustrates Brunton’s inferred chronological sequence of this cemetery. The sequence looks seductively clear and suggests the pivotal role this cemetery played in Brunton’s system. It will be noted that the carinated forms, PR9j, 9H, 9m and BB19p, which he associated with types within the Predynastic corpus, are situated exclusively in the northern areas of the cemetery. Conversely, the bulk of the open basins, such as BB5F and 5H, are in the southern end of the cemetery. The proposed phaseing othe the other cemteries is given in Maps 5.2 and 5. 3 5.7 The consequences of the chronological differences. The differences between Brunton’s and the current revised chronology must, I believe, lead us to re-evaluate our insights into the Badarian culture in two closely affiliated areas. Firstly, the order in which the bodies were interned within the individual cemeteries must now be redrawn. The major corollary from such an action is that the inferences, which others have made from Brunton’s relative chronology, must now be re-considered. The work of Wendy Anderson (1992), on the apparent social inequality of the Badarians is a case in point. Chapter 6 Discussion 6.1.1 The establishment of a relative and absolute chronology The first theme to be considered here, and the one upon which the subsequent discussion is predicated, is the establishment of a credible set of absolute and relative chronologies for the Badarian cultural complex. 6.1.2 The relative chronology from the seriation results It will be recalled from section 5.4 that the seriation results ordered all the Nagada I type ceramics at one end of the profile; this section was accordingly ranked at the end of the Badarian pottery sequence. Brunton does suggest that the BB wares are generally older than the BR wares (ibid: 26); this accords well with the seriation results. However, the appearance of some of Brunton’s ‘early’ pots such as BB5h/f (Brunton 1928: 26) in the late phase, does highlight that major discrepancies do nonetheless exist between the two chronologies. The differences in the two relative chronologies are most transparent when each data set is used in the analysis of a possible horizontal stratagraphic structure in the cemeteries. Using Brunton’s sequence (see map 5.1 ) the oldest graves in cemetery 5100 are in the southeast or bottom right of the figure, with the later graves being laid progressively along a rough diagonal to terminate with the most recent graves in the north. This apparent lateral succession may well have been noted by Brunton before he began work on his relative chronology, in which case it is hard to imagine him not being prejudiced against a number of pottery combinations, which ran counter to this sequence. The revised chronology brings the above point to the fore, as the unbiased seriation sequence places many of the graves in the southeast in the Late phase (see map 6.1). The succession in this case appears to spread from a generalized central area and ends with the later graves along the cemetery’s periphery. Future statistical tests may well revive the argument for a more sophisticated horizontal stratigraphy in cemetery 5100, but the revised chronology appears to be showing a growth, in all the cemeteries, based on little more than a generalized spread from a central area containing the earlier inhumations. A degree of clustering of social or family groups may be taking place in some areas, but again this will have to be tested at a later date. 6.1.3 Range of absolute dates. As already outlined in chapter 2, the most recent AMS dates for the Badarian culture’s chronological range (see section 2.3) give a series of calibrated dates from 4400 to 4000 BC. A preliminary set of AMS dates obtained from early Nagada I ceramics (Savage 1998:243-247) give a range of 4230-4040 and 3990-3790 B.C. respectively. The first of these Nagada ranges was obtained from the vessel type B25h, which is found in the first cohort of the Nagada I ceramics (Wilkinson 1996; Newell unpublished data). The beginning of the Nagada I phase is probably therefore a little earlier than 4050 BC. If little or no overlap between the two sub cultures is assumed then the Badarian must end around the same time, that is, the end of the 5th millennium BC. This set of dates accords reasonably well with those obtained by Hassan (1988: 138), which locates the Nagada I phase at c.4000 to 3900 B.C. If, as the evidence from both the relative and absolute chronologies suggests, the Badarian occupation of the Badari area began around 4400 BC and ended in the region of 4050 BC that gives a total occupation time in the area of some 350 years. The radiometric dates obtained from Badarian like artefacts from el Khattara (Hays 1984: 65-73 ) are, however, over 300 years later than this range. This discrepancy will be ignored in the remainder of the discussion for two important reasons, firstly, as the site is over 100kms to the south of Badari it is well outside the target area of this dissertation, and secondly, the Badarian provenance of the artefacts at el Khattara have been disputed (Hassan and Matson 1989: 314). Importantly, the relative and absolute data clearly show that there is no evidence to support the long held belief that the Badarians arrived in the Badari area as early as 5000 BC, that is, centuries before the final desiccation in the Western Desert (Wilkinson 2003: 178-179). Indeed, the arrival of the Badarians appears to coincide remarkably well with the rapid hydro climatic chances, which were making pastoralism in the Western Desert untenable (Close 1988; McDonald 1998, 2001; Malville et al 1998; Nicholl 2001). 6.2 A Demographic analysis of the human remains A major benefit from the acquisition of the relatively stable set of chronological parameters outlined above is that it allows the cemetery data to be analysed with far greater acuity. An important element of this re-analysis is that a sensible estimation of the contributing population of the cemetery complex can now be made. The number of graves recorded by Brunton at Badari was approximately 250 (1928: plates V-VIII). This number must however be seen as provisional as the heavy weathering of some parts of the site and its continued use as a burial ground into the modern era suggests that a number of Badarian graves have been lost. Although the modern developments in the area (Holmes 1992: 75-76) mean that the original number of graves will never be known, it is not unreasonable to suggest that the figure of 250 is around ¾ of the original number; this would set the original cemetery population at some 330 inhumations. Using the formulae below (figure 6.21), we now have all the values required to calculate the likely size of the cemetery complex’s contributing settlement, where d represents the given standard death rate per 1000 per annum for a pre industrial agricultural society, and t equals the time span with n representing the number of graves. Figure 6.21 The population estimation formulae (Belousky 1988) 1000 (dt/n) 1000 (30 x 350/330) = 31.3 The figure obtained from the formulae suggests the population of the contributing settlement was around 30 individuals at any one time. However, in a fully representative cemetery, around 50% of the graves should contain the remains of children between the ages of 0 and 9 (Bocquet-Appel and Masset 1982: 326). At Badari, only 39 of the 186 age labelled skeletons were identified as children, and only 15 of the 39 (12%) were described as belonging to the 0 to 9 age group. Accordingly, only some 12% of the age labelled group belong to small children, and, even when the differential destruction rates of adults and children’s bones are taken into consideration, the evidence strongly suggests that a major proportion of the Badarian children were not buried in these cemeteries. Although the evidence from the cemeteries is insufficient to corroborate the demographics, Brunton’s assurances that the core area was systematically investigated (Brunton 1928: chapter 1) suggests that a settlement structure of some 50 to 60 adults and children was the norm throughout the 350 years the site was occupied by the Badarians. The seriation results also point to the continual use of all the main cemetery fields throughout the Badarian occupation. From this, it is appealing to view the three main clusters: 5100, 53/400 and 57/800 as burial grounds for separate sub-groups. The probability that these sub groups were extended families in which certain ceramic styles may have been both family and time specific, would certainly explain why groups of ceramics e.g. SB5h, 9k and 44m, are often confined, not only to one cemetery, but also to a discrete area within it. Looking at the broader population figures from the combined cemeteries at Badari, Matmar and Mostagedda a figure of some 520 graves is obtained. If this figure is again taken to represent ¾ of the origin population then the revised figure is increased to approximately 700. When this figure is used in equation A a contributing population for the entire area of some 130 individuals is obtained. This larger unit is, nevertheless, still relatively small and, consequently probably functioned on the level of a small ‘clan’ of blood-related families. 6.3.1 Origins Chapter two has illustrated that, although the origin of the Badarians is still hotly debated, there has been, up to this juncture, a consensus that it was neither an indigenous development nor derived from a single source. The case has also been made (Kobusiewicz 1992: 215) that, to unlock the cultural origins and evolution of the Badarian people, depends to a considerable degree on a knowledge of the origins and the nature of the Nilotic and desert cultures, which both preceded and ran parallel to them. The new chronology permits, for the first time, the undertaking of a more refined and disciplined investigation into the lineage of the Badarian culture. 6.3.2 Southern links The proposition that the Badarian culture was a development of the Terminal Abkan (Hays 1984 217-18) can now be dismissed on the grounds that the radiometric dates available for the latter e.g. approximately 4900 and 5300 BP suggest that it was only culturally visible towards the end of the Badarian occupation of the Badari area. The dates do, however, support Hays’ further contention that the two cultures were contemporary with each other for at least a part of the Badarian cultural episode (1984: 216). 6.3.3 The Egyptian Western desert At Bunet el Ansam, in the Nabta Playa area of the Western Desert, Wendorf et al (1988: 108) discovered a north south alignment of large sandstone blocks, a circle of stones and several stone covered tumuli containing cattle remains. These structures have been attributed to the Final Neolithic. Close by, at a site designated as E-75-8, blacktopped pottery has been found in the early part of the Late Neolithic site (Nelson et al 2001:35) and given an uncalibrated date of 6500 BP (Schild and Wendorf 2001a: 36). In 2000 AD, the discovery of a habitation site and cemetery was made close to E75-8, in an area called Gebel Ramlah (Schild et al 2002) (E-01-2) and this has been dated to the same phase as the megalith builders, that is, the Late Neolithic. (Kobusiewicz et al 2004: 566-578). The cemetery consisted of 13 graves, 9 of which contained single, contracted inhumations whilst the remaining four contained multiple burials of up to five individuals. Some of the recovered skeletal material was disarticulated, which has been interpreted as evidence of secondary burials (Kobusiewicz et al 2004: 568). The burials themselves contained rich grave goods, many of which, like the black topped, rippled and tulip-shaped caliciform pots are similar to those found in Badarian grave contexts (Kobusiewicz et al 2004: 574). The caliciform pots in particular have been found in the Late Neolithic funerary rituals and burials in a very large area of North East Africa (Reinold 1987; Krzyzaniak 1991). Some of the graves at Gebel Ramlah also contained traces of matting, bracelets, palettes, shells from the Red Sea , beads and sheets of mica. The chronology of the site is based on three AMS dates from the samples designated Poz-459, Poz-460 and Poz-466, with uncalibrated dates of 5740 BP, 5610 BP and 5580 BP (The Badarian dates, it will be recalled are around 5400 BP). The bone sample Poz-466 is considered to date the site most accurately, leading to a belief that the cemetery was in use in the early to mid 5th millennium BC (Kobusiewicz et al 2004: 574). The report’s conclusion states that the Gebel Ramlah cemetery belonged to a complex and ‘wealthy’ community of pasturalists (Kobusiewicz et al 2004: 577). 6.3.4 The Eastern desert Similar artifacts to these found at Gebel Ramlah and dated to 4940-4455 BC (tulip pots, black topped pottery, palettes and slabs of mica) have been found in the Wadi Atulla, on the eastern side of the Nile (Friedman and Hobbs 2002: 178-191). These dates are earlier than those given to similar artefacts found in Badarian contexts in the Nile Valley, and suggest that cultural elements found in the Gebel Ramlah group were to be found both to the east and west of the Egyptian Nile Valley before the Badarians settled in the Badari area. This evidence points to an active network, across considerable areas of Northeast Africa, in materials from the Eastern Desert during the mid and late fifth millennium BC. Another intriguing feature of the eastern desert are the petroglyphs (see plate 6.2). Although it has proved impossible to date these images directly, provisional dates of around 4000BC can be given to some of them on stylistic grounds (Wilkinson 2003: 64). This early date and the eastern desert materials found in the Badarian graves certainly raises the possibility that some of the art is Badarian in origin. And if the Badarians were pasturalists/herders, there is also a strong case to be made for them having no option but to take their herds into the grasslands of the Eastern Desert during the inundation of the Nile. The importance of the Eastern Desert during the fifth and fourth Millennium BC is clear enough, but it is difficult to reconcile this with the contention that the evidence points to this area being the primary source of the Egyptian civilization (Wilkinson 2003: 193-5). The revised chronology effectively nullifies Wilkinson’s arguments against the Western Desert origins of the Badarians in which he argues that ‘ it would be surprising if cultural traditions were more successfully developed by people who had only just adopted them than by the very people among whom these traditions originated’ (2003:179) 6.3.5 Lower Egypt The assumption that the Badarians and the later Nagada cultures of Upper Egypt largely ignored the Lower Egyptian Neolithic cultures (Tutundzic, 1989) despite the excellent riverine links between the two areas, has recently been questioned (Kohler, 1993). In her radical reassessment Kohler has suggested that the Badari regional pottery has a close correspondence with several forms of Lower Egypt pottery (Kohler 1993: figs 28-34). She further postulates that, despite distinctive regional characteristics, a single over-arching cultural tradition was in force These findings have however been strongly rebutted by Kaiser (1995). Nevertheless, a picture seems to be emerging in which there was a greater degree of contact than previously thought, between the different communities along the Nile, during the fifth and forth Millennia BC. This line of enquiry, although potentially important in establishing more cultural minutiae on the Badarians, will not be discussed further. 6.3.6 Middle/Upper Egypt No Predynastic sites have yet been discovered along the 300km stretch of the Nile which begins at Matmar and ends in the Faiyum in the North (Hassan 1985:325-331). This is possibly due in part to Middle Egypt being the least archaeologically surveyed area along the Egyptian Nile Valley, so a note of caution must be exercised regarding the development and spread of the Badarian culture. Nevertheless, to date there is no evidence for an indigenous population being displaced, and the small number of known non-ceramic sites in Upper Egypt, dated prior to the Predynastic, show little relationship with the later and more numerous ceramic sites It is not unreasonable to suggest that the Badarians were first drawn to the Badari area because of their prior knowledge of the resources available in both the Nile Valley and of the grasslands and mineral assets of the Eastern Desert, accessed by the near-by system of wadis. 6.4 Subsistence strategies 6.4.1 Introduction Although Brunton describes areas 5500 and 6000 at Badari as Badarian towns (Brunton et al 1928: 5-6), and Caton - Thompson found more substantive settlement remains at Hammamiya (ibid: 69-70), they have, collectively, provided little information on the Badarian economic and subsistence strategies. It is therefore far from easy to attempt to define the socio-economics of a people, when so little reliable data is available from their settlement remains. Accordingly, the use of circumstantial evidence from the cemetery data and, more speculatively, from those cultures which have both a geographic and chronological proximity to the Badarians, is unavoidable. With these cautions in place, the discussion will begin with the working definitions for the terms pastoralism and herding. In this context, nomadic pastoralism is a mode of subsistence which is chiefly dependent upon cattle, and requires migratory existence by the majority of the human population in order to look after those cattle (Cribb 1993: 17; Khazanov 1982: 7). Pastoral specialists in a village-based, mixed economy are not considered nomadic, as this involves a clear division of labour within the same society, and as such the people involved in the day to day care of the cattle, within such a context, will be described as herdsman (Cribb 16). It is important at this stage to discuss Wilkinson’s contention that cattle keepers are invariably pastoralists (2003:111). As outlined above, herding communities are by definition village-based and, in the case of the Ancient Egyptians themselves, their records speak of herds which ran into many thousands of cattle. This is by no means improbable if the Egyptian Nile Valley is considered as a longitudinal oasis in which the waters of the River Nile are never more than a few hours journey from even its remotest alluvial pastures. So, during both the Predynastic and Dynastic periods, the only time the herds needed to be moved any distance from the Valley was during the 4 months of the inundation. During the seasonal floods the wadis in the Eastern Desert, watered by the summer rains, would have served as ideal re-locations for these herds. The petroglyphs in the Eastern Desert depicting the close, attendant relationship between ungulates and people are certainly proof of the wadi pastures were graved, and there is no reason, as far as I am aware, to doubt that some of these images were being crafted by the Badarians. It will be recalled from Section Two that the Badarians have been called everything from nomadic foragers and pastoralists to sedentary foragers and agriculturalists. All these lifestyles are chronologically and geographically feasible, as domesticated cattle are found in the Sahara around 6500BC and, in Lower Egypt, some domesticated species of emmer wheat and barley were being cultivated several centuries before the Badarian colonization of the Badari region (Wenke et al 1988: 48). Nevertheless, as it is improbable that all the speculations are true, it is evident that our knowledge and understanding of Badarians’ subsistence strategies are marginal. Although the artifactual data set has not been greatly enlarged, the revised chronology and the finds from the Western Desert (see section 6.3) give us an opportunity to re-examine the evidence afresh. The similarities in the burial practices and grave goods within great swathes of North East Africa during the 5th and 4th Millennia BC help the investigation to a point, as it suggestive of a super-regional, cultural tradition in which pastoralism is a dominant lifestyle (Wilkinson 2003: 112). It is therefore reasonable to suggest that the Badarians , with their close associations with both the Gebel Ramlah and Nagada groups, are the link between these cattle-dominated cultures. This is, in part, confirmed by the Badarian cattle graves in the human cemeteries, in which the animals were covered with the same matting found in the human burials This practice of burying cattle near humans went on into Nagada I culture and is characteristic of many cattle based cultures. A symbiotic relationship with cattle is seen in several Nilotic pastoralist cultures of today. Interestingly, many of these pastoralist and herding communities are based on a social structure which is essentially an egalitarian age-group type culture, where both the living and the dead of a lineage collectively own cattle - the main standard of wealth and status (Evans-Pritchard, 1940, 1987). Many of the present day cattle-based communities in Africa are run on male age-group systems in which the day to day supervision of the herds is carried out by young males in the lower age group ranks. The poor graves in the male-only locations at Badari are evidence of such a system, in which, perhaps, unmarried males are excluded from the mixed areas of the cemetery. The likelihood of a herding, as opposed to a pastoralist, lifestyle is further strengthened by the presence at Badari of Badarian cemeteries and pottery, which, both singularly and jointly, point to a sedentary lifestyle. Although the notion that foragers never manufactured pottery has been found to be false (Barnett, 1995), it is still clear that it is usually only sedentary groups who manufacture and use it. The reasoning behind such a convention is clear enough; pottery is bulky, heavy and susceptible to breakage, which makes it unsuited to a lifestyle of transient camps. However, pottery use in a sedentary group has many benefits, in that it permits potential foods to be processed, stored and cooked; consequently allowing a much a fuller exploitation of the environment. Work amongst present day hunter-gatherers has shown that formal disposal areas of the dead occur among sedentary groups and not among mobile hunter-gatherers (Brandt 1988). Agricultural communities in the past also used cemetery areas as territorial markers to broadcast their ownership of the land (Chapman and Randsborg 1981 17-19). The evidence described above points to the Badarians being sedentary herders, and yet aspects of the Badarian lifestyle do not conform to all the sedentary stereotypes such as population growth, increased socio-economic complexity and social hierarchies (Stiles 2001: 41-65). Taking ownership of the surrounding land is also an important antecedent to a sedentary economy, often leading to deadly force being used in territorial disputes. There is, however, a singular lack of recognizable weaponry and hunting materials, save for the rare finds of a flint arrow point or blade turning up in a grave e.g. 5112 and 569. If other weapons, such as spear sticks, were preferred and buried with the dead, it seems unlikely, given the level of preservation in some graves, that no trace of them would have been found. Another Badarian departure from the sedentary norms is suggested by the low levels of settlement debris found along the Nile Valley, at Armant, Maghara, and the Badari region. This low level of debris has been used to argue against fully-sedentary communities (Trigger, 1983: 9-30). The low levels of debris could also be due to the sites being seasonal camps for those Badarians engaged in herding, with the main settlements being in the alluvial plain. Another theory has however been posited which states that the earliest village dwellers retained much of the hunter-gatherer mentality, including having no formalized strategy for the disposal of their rubbish, thus forcing them to move short distances on a regular basis (Edwards et al 2004: 253-289). This hunter-gatherer mentality would also go some way to explain both the lack of apparent population growth. Fifty to sixty individuals is a relatively small community; although it is too large a number of individuals to be engaged collectively in a nomadic foraging lifestyle (Clarke 1971: 34-79). It is also possible that other cultural mechanisms were operating to limit or hide population growth. e.g. if a settlement was deemed to have a critical mass, the expanding population could be used to form another settlement. Such an incremental expansion could have taken part along the relatively unexplored 300 km long alluvial plain North of Asyut and south of the Faiyum. 6.4.2 Evidence for a riverine based substance strategy For the Badarians to be sedentary herders, another form of sustainable and abundant food resource is required, which would promote a fixed village-based economy. The Nile itself, with its potential for fishing, fowling, game hunting and foraging is the obvious candidate, and the importance of such a resource to a people who based their settlements along its shores appears self-evident; yet the degree to which the Badarians used this resource is by no means certain. This uncertainty is again due to both the lack of evidence from the Badarian settlements and cemeteries and to the continued debate around which important contributory factors could lead a culture to develop a subsistence economy based on aquatic food stocks. The two most developed themes regarding the latter have very different contributory factors, with one viewing large rivers, lakes and coastal areas as enormous food resources which promote a sedentary lifestyle (Binford 2001), whilst the other sees the use of aquatic resources as a strategy of last resort, which is forced upon a community because of environmental change (Yesner 1987: 285). Although environmental stresses have been identified as the possible cause behind the Badarian migration into the Valley, Yesner’s model (ibid) does not appear to work in this instance, as the herds of domesticates, usually the first commodity to be sacrificed in times of hardship, appear to remain the driving force behind the Badarian way of life. The main riparian-based activities available to the Badarians would have been fishing, fowling and, conceivably, the hunting of hippo. These resources would have been a rich and plentiful source of protein throughout the year. The evidence of hippo hunting from around this period comes from a variety of sources. The first to be described here are the petroglyphs of the harpooning of hippopotami in the wadi Barramiya in the Eastern Desert. As Wilkinson has pointed out (2003 page 64) this image bears a striking resemblance to that found on an Early Nagada I C-ware bowl from Mahasna. The importance of the hippopotamus to the Badarians can to some extent also be inferred from its occurrence in Badarian art and ornamentation, namely, a Bone hippo head was found in the child’s grave 5740 (Brunton 1928: 16), whilst hippo tusks were found in graves 5437 and 5719. There are also examples of hippo ivory being used in decorative items such as jewellery, spoons and figurines. Interestingly, the ethnographic evidence cited by Clarke (1984: 29) suggests that hippo hunting as the main source of food occurs in village units of around 50 individuals, which, it will be recalled, is approximately the size of a typical Badarian settlement inferred in this dissertation. The abundant fish remains at Hammamiya (Brunton ibid) attest to the importance of fish as a source of food, but there is little direct evidence as to how the fish were caught. Fish hooks have been recovered from graves 5164, 5213 and 5738, so we know a degree of line fishing was being employed but, as the late Paleolithic petroglyphs at el Hosh suggest, fish traps and nets may have been the main method of fishing. Unfortunately no studies on the fish remains have been carried out to identify the range and numbers of species which were being exploited. This data would help identify both the fishing techniques being employed and whether the fish stocks were being exploited seasonally or throughout the year. 6.4.3 Evidence in favour of Agriculture If agriculture was an economically important stratagem to the Badarians, there is very little evidence from either the settlement or cemetery remains to demonstrate this. It is unlikely, given the preservation of other organic materials, that no grain, supplied as either a food or as part of a ritualistic component of the funeral (e.g. as a symbol of rebirth), has survived in a contextually unambiguous Badarian milieu. The only identified grain is from disturbed contexts: grain husks in two RB pots standing on the old gebel surface in the cemetery area 5600 (Brunton 1928: 13) and ‘laying around’ in grave 5773 (Brunton 1928: 17). A disturbed grave at Mostagedda also contained what was described as Emmer wheat (Brunton 1937, 38, 59). The remnants of bread-like remains in graves 5709, 5716, 5738, 5770at Badari (Brunton 1928: 14-17) do, however, inform us that some milling of grasses was taking place. Quern-like stone tools have been recovered, but these tools do not on their own, constitute proof positive that the Badarians were practising agriculture, as they are also found in none agricultural contexts in North Eastern Africa where they were used to process plant foods like nuts and seeds (Shaw ed 2000: 28). It is a possibility, if the bread-like remains are eventually identified as Emmer bread, that the Badarians were obtaining the cereal from Lower Egypt through trade. 6.5. A reconstruction of the Badarian culture 6.5.1 Introduction The information accumulated from the chronological data can also be used to make useful inferences regarding the make-up of the Badarian culture itself. The following subsection is not intended to be viewed as an authoritative account but rather as a catalyst to provoke others into looking at the evidence afresh. 6.5.2 Burial practices Huntington and Metcalf state that the reaction to death is by no means random, rather it is both meaningful and expressive (1991:1) Binford expands on this idea by suggesting that ‘form and structure which characterize the mortuary practices of any society are conditioned by the form and complexity of the organizational characteristics of the society itself’ (Binford 1971). This ‘conditioning’ has often taken the form of cultures using their cemeteries as symbols of their ownership and control over an area’s resources (Chapman and Randborg 1981). The cemeteries at Badari may well be a case in point, but, as with all cemetery studies, some care and/or restraint needs to exercised. Many ethnographic studies have shown, for instance, that cemetery populations may not be representative of the living population, with some groups excluded from areas on the basis of age, sex or status (Ucho 1969, 273-274; Humphreys 1981). In extreme cases, burial practices may even be inversions of what actually happened in life (Hodder 1982, 144-145). To summarise, these authors are suggesting that it is not prudent to assume that systematic correlations exist in a society between how it treats the living and the dead. It is however clear, from as early as Nagada I and stretching throughout the entire span of Dynastic Egypt, that socio economic practices and status were largely preserved in the later Ancient Egyptian mortuary traditions. The first thing of note regarding the Badarian inhumations is that their contracted bodies tend to fit the grave dimensions (Brunton ibid IX). This suggests that the graves were both custom made and dug before rigor mortis had developed in the musculature of the deceased, since this would make the adjustment of the body within the confines of the grave impossible. The internment probably took place then, between the onset of clinical death and the beginnings of rigor mortis, which, in the hot ambient temperature of North East Africa, would begin in less than 12 hours. The relatively rapid burial would accordingly leave very little time for any formal funeral arrangements to take place; these, if they existed, may have taken place after the burial. There is some circumstantial evidence for this, in that a high proportion of graves have ceramic vessels placed in the fill above the body. The question of ‘secondary’ burials will be discussed again in the section on ‘plundered’ graves. 6.5.3 Cultural stability Although the overall percentage of datable graves is moderately small the data is nevertheless relatively constant throughout the time period. This observation, along with the lack of a ‘simultaneous’ appearance and/or disappearance of pottery types within the ceramic assemblage indicates that there were no significant changes within the Badarian culture during its tenure of the Badari area. The tables 5.45 and 5.46 display that the average grave volume from the combined relative time phases is just under 2 cubic metres. Although phase 2 has 6 graves with volumes of 3 cubic metres or above, as opposed to 2 graves in phase 1, there is nevertheless no substantive evidence to suggest a significant volumetric change through time. The average number of grave goods for the seriation group in both phase 1 and 2 is 5; this again demonstrates a cultural and/or a socio-economic stability throughout the Badarian tenure of the cemetery sites, which corroborates Anderson’s earlier findings that there was no apparent date-sensitive change in either the means or the overall ratios of ‘poor’ and ‘wealthy’ graves (1992: 65) . 6.5.4 ‘Plundered’ graves Brunton’s excavation reports of the so-called ‘disturbed’ or ‘robbed’ graves suggests that the ‘robbers’ have an intimate knowledge of the grave contents. There are however problems with the ‘robbed’ status as there are just too many instances of disturbed graves being left with large numbers of intact goods. It is not inconceivable that the robbers were after rare and intrinsically valuable items such as copper, a material only found twice within the cemeteries complex, but, the work at Hierakonpolis and the Western Desert suggests that something other than theft may be responsible for the grave disturbances (Friedman 1999b). The activity of ‘disturbing’ the grave may accordingly be part of the normal rites of death in which items are removed or replaced perhaps as part of the rituals of ancestor worship. 6.5.5 Grave side meals Brunton, on finding cooking pots and traces of ash between some of the graves in cemetery 5200 suggested that the Badarians to have been cooking in the cemetery (Brunton et al 1928: 9). Some of the pots even contained the remains of animal bones, charcoal and vegetable matter (ibid). There are also many holes in this and other cemeteries which are too small to be used as graves, but were also found to contain artefacts, including pots. Many of the pots recovered from the Badarian graves were also found in the fill above the body. These phenomena have certain similarities with the ancient Egyptian practices of both burying objects used in the funeral and the periodic food offerings given to maintain the soul in the afterlife. The Badarian practices may then, be the precursors of the Dynastic traditions (Krzyzaniak 1977: 84). 6.5.6 Critique of Anderson’s conclusions Much of the quantitative analysis on the Badarian social make up was published in 1992 by Wendy Anderson, in which the author’s arguments for social inequality were clearly and elegantly stated (Anderson 1992: 61, 65-6). A quantifiable association was found between the number of grave goods, the grave area, the estimated age of the skeletal remains and whether the grave was likely to have been disturbed or not (ibid: 55 -58). Anderson also argues that the clustering of graves (ibid: 62), which is often indicative of the presence of individual corporate groups, had taken place (Tainter (1978:123). Inclusion into these ‘corporate’ areas, she continues, was predicated chiefly on the basis of status rather than other variables such as age or sex (1992: 58-9, 65) e.g. a significant number of children and females also possessed rich burials Despite highlighting the unreliability of the chronology upon which Anderson’s findings were based, the present work corroborates her conclusion that the differences within and between cemeteries was not based on changes through time. I do not however necessarily concur with her assessment that the Badarians were essentially a non-egalitarian society. Some consideration I feel, must be given to other possibilities which would produce similar archaeological patterns. 6.5.7 Elite commodities Anderson’s calculations are also based, in part, upon value judgements regarding what was and was not considered of special value to the Badarians. She also assumes that these ‘added value items’, or what Anderson describes as ‘luxury goods’ such as ivory and carnelian objets d’art were obtained and/or made outside of the family unit through an agency such as long distance trade or tribute giving. These ‘high value commodities’ could however, just as easily have been obtained by the clan members involved in annual cattle drives from one set of grasslands to the next. This does not mean off course that the items would not have intrinsic value which would be sought after by an elite, it simply means that deliberate trading expeditions organised by an elite in order to obtain the commodities is by no means essential. 6.5.8 Body orientation The tendency to face in a western direction, as described in chapter 2 was held by several cultures in the Nile Valley, including the Nagada people, the Nubian ‘A’ and the earlier groups living in or around the Nabta Playa. In view of the probable origins of the Badarians it is not unreasonable to suggest that this practice of positioning the dead to face west was part of the cultural package brought into the Nile Valley from the Western Desert. 6.5.9 Body wrappings Several of the bodies at Badari appear to have had the head wrapped in linen (Brunton 1928: 19). A more elaborate form of this practice is attested to a few hundred years later (c. 3600BC) in the working class cemetery HK43 at Hierakonpolis, in which the head and hands of some of the bodies had been wrapped with pads of linen (Nekhen News: on-line expedition reports 1997). This treatment of a number of the dead at Badari, does not appear to be as elaborate as that practiced at Hierakonpolis, nevertheless, if the latter are considered to be early mummies it seems reasonable to class those at Badari as an early precursor of the practice. Accordingly, although Brunton writes that he felt there was no evidence that attempts had been made to preserve the body (1928: 19), some serous considerations must now be given to the proposition that the first mummies in Ancient Egypt were Badarian. 6.5.10 Hamper type coffins Digging a bigger grave will not result in a bigger marker or mound if the only objects displacing the fill are the body and a few grave goods. The extra labour involved in digging the bigger graves at Badari would accordingly be unproductive, unless the bigger pit was required to accommodate something other than the body. As traces of matting and sticks have been found lining the perimeter of some of the larger graves e.g. grave 5716 (Brunton 1928: 14), the possibility that matt hurdling was used as either a retaining wall or rudimentary ‘hamper’ coffin cannot be discounted. Again, as in the case of the body wrapping described above, the evidence for coffins and/or hurdle walls shows a level of sophistication in grave architecture which had not been found in the Nile Valley or surrounding areas prior to the Badarian cultural complex. Although it is hard to see how this question can now ever be resolved, it is worth re-iterating that, if this matting was used in the construction of hamper type coffins, this would mark the first recorded coffin burials in the Nile Valley. 6.5.11 Arguments for and against an elite cemetery The question of an elite cemetery was first raised by Brunton when he suggested that 5100 belonged to just such a Badarian elite (1928: 6). This assertion was born from the observation that 5100 is different from the other cemeteries in a number of intriguing ways. To begin, it has both the largest average grave volume of all the cemeteries and also the greatest average number of grave goods. 5100 also has the remains of 13 stick-hurdle or hamper type ‘coffins’ whilst 5700 has 3 and 43/400 none. Finally, 5100 does not appear to contain a males only area. The use of specific cemeteries by emerging or nascent elites has been well documented (Brown in Chapman 1981: 29), and working on the premise that the simplest explanation is often the correct one, there seems little doubt that an elite group of some sort was buried here. The nature of that elite status is however still elusive as Brunton’s head men are found in cemetery 5700 (graves 5705 and 5735) These male skeletons were singled out by Brunton as leaders on account of the beaded belt like garments found in their graves, which accounted for nearly 50% of the beads found in the entire cemetery complex, although in other respects the graves were not particularly rich in grave goods. Some clans, even in ostensibly egalitarian societies can have a higher status, perhaps as hereditary priests and/or the descendants of important ancestors, as in the Nuur culture (Evans-Pritchard 1940). In view of the population size and subsistence strategy of the Badarians, if any individual or lineage wielded more formal authority than another, it was probably of the highly restricted (and frequently elective) sort which is exemplified today by the 'rain chiefs' of the Upper Nilotic tribes (Stewart 1977:62). The status of important elders or headmen may well have been marked through the display of special insignia such as the bead belts. In time, this special status may well have evolved into real political and economic power, such as is evidenced in the later Nagada I phase of the Predyanstic. 6.5.12 Children As I have already proposed above, the lack of children in the cemeteries strongly suggests that they were disposed of differently from the adults. The finding of some wealthy child burials have however been interpreted as illustrative of inherited prestige from high status lineages. And although hereditary authority and wealth was one of the hallmarks of both Proto and Dynastic Egypt, it is a mistake I think to assume this was necessarily the case at the very beginnings of the Predynastic period, as the richly furnished child graves can still be interpreted as belonging to a largely egalitarian social system. In such a scenario a child could be elevated, by default, into the position of a tribal elder when all other close male relatives in a lineage are dead. Such a default system is not uncommon in some African group systems (see Stewart 1977). It is therefore not inconceivable that the death of a child elder, in a culture which treated the deaths of its elders with greater funerary privileges, would be accorded the same treatment as other lineage heads. One of the many interesting points about such a scenario is that it would be easy for an archaeologist to fail to identify such a cultures robust egalitarian credentials. 6.5.13 Cenotaphs The empty ‘graves’ in the cemetery complex are something of an enigma, but they may, in part, be explained as symbolic graves or cenotaphs of people who died away from the community, Likewise, the disturbed bodies may be the retrieved remains of people who had also died away from the settlement. In both cases, the importance of place would have to be very strong in the Badarian mind set, this is, however, not uncommon in sedentary communities. The boat petroglyphs in the Eastern Desert may also have been cenotaphs. The idea that each decorated rock face or wadi belonged to a single lineage or family, whilst the individual boat petroglyphs themselves served as a cenotaphs to a single individual has been posited by Wilkinson (2003: 159). Of course, Wilkinson argues that many of the boat images are Nagadan in origin, but, as already argued above, there is no bar to this tradition being adopted first by the Badarians, or earlier still, by the Nabta Playa groups. 6.5.14 Male-only clusters The division into male only and mixed area found in the Badarian cemeteries is strongly suggestive of behaviours seen in modern pastoral cultures in Africa, in which male age groups and their rites of passage dominate the social order. This type of age dependent status was first explored in depth by Binford (1972: 233-34) who showed that such systems often have separate burial locations for the different groups especially in the case of adults and children. The observation that the all-male areas within the cemetery complex, all tend be poorly furnished and generally undisturbed may be a reflection of their low status, with the passage to an adult or elder rank perhaps only obtained through marriage and cattle dowries. The lack of children can also be explained in a similar manner: in the Nuur a child is not considered part of the community until they can properly tend the family herds (Evens-Pritchard, 1940). . 6.5.15 Animal burials The Badarians, like the Western Desert pasturalists before them, buried some of their cattle in grave pits. In the case of the Badarians these mixed bovine and caprid burials were, although separated from the inhumation, still within the same cemetery complex, and were covered with the same matting ‘shrouds’ as given to the Badarians themselves. A further interesting feature regarding the cattle burials is that they skirt the mixed rather than the male only areas; this segregation may be informing us about the ‘ownership’ of the cattle. But, regardless of the interpretive minutiae given for the animal burials, there can be little doubt of the close relationship which must have existed between the Badarians and their animals. 6.6 Conclusion The results from the seriation suggest that the Badarian material and social structure was both relatively stable and conservative throughout the community’s tenure at Badari. The relative and absolute chronologies suggest that this occupation lasted from about 4400 BC to 4050 BC, which in turn informs us that much of the cultural traditions associated with the Badarians probably arrived en masse as a result of demic migrations. The most conspicuous motives for such a move would be the prolonged hyper aridity in the Western Desert. Current research in the Western Desert is showing that its influence on the Egyptian Predynastic is overwhelming. As it is here, within the geography of the desert, that we find the evidence for settlements, cemeteries, monumental architecture, the socio-economic dependence on cattle and the ceramics which show nascent or direct parallels with the Badarian culture. In this respect, the earlier Western Desert Gebel Ramlah group shows an unparalleled parity with the Badarian. The evidence is therefore greatly in favour of the greater Gebel Ramlah culture being the direct ancestors of the Badarians. Wilkinson’s argument that the ‘missing link in the evolution of ancient Egypt is in the Eastern Desert (2003: 187) is accordingly rejected. The cultural links with the pastoralists of the Western Desert and with the later traditions of the Nagada and dynastic cultures suggest that cattle were an especially important element in the Badarian socio economic structure. These cattle would invariably have to be moved into the adjacent pasturelands of the Eastern Desert during the annual inundation of the Nile Valley. The fact that the Badarians were not willing to abandon this lifestyle, despite the abundant food resources within and adjacent to the Nile Valley also suggests that the importance of cattle within their culture did not appear to diminish with their change of environment. Cattle were thus more than just a source of food; they were important elements in the Badarian psyche. The evidence points to a mixed subsistence economy based on herding, fishing and possibly some dry farming or foraging. The population lived in relatively small sedentary communities based on a male age group system, in which the young males engaged in a semi nomadic herding practices during the summer months. A strong social hierarchy appears to have been an important element within the age-group system. The evidence from the cemeteries clearly shows a degree of premeditated planning and structure in which both male and female graves with moderate to rich grave goods are found adjacent to poor male only areas in cemeteries 53/400 and 5700. Each of the main cemeteries investigated in this dissertation are, however, subtly different in their layouts and grave contents. The differences may be due to time sensitive changes that the seriation is unable to differentiate. The absence of infants in the cemeteries is also telling. If the ethnographic evidence from other Nilotic pastoralist cultures is taken into consideration then the majority of infants would have little or no social status, with the next tier being made up of unmarried males. In combination, all of the above factors points to a transitional culture between the mind sets of pastoralists and those taking ownership of the land around them. A generalized categorization of the Badarians is accordingly unrealistic. The cause of the apparent disappearance of the Badarian culture from Egypt is still not known, but its disappearance is all the more intriguing because there is no palpable cultural decline before it happens. 6.7 The future of Badarian studies This section on the future of Badarian studies is not intended to be exhaustive; it is instead a resume of ways in which the present study could, in the future, be advanced. Indeed, despite the extensive destruction of many of the sites, much remains to be found out about the Badarians from a modern scientific analysis of their artefacts. The subsistence and dietary stresses of the Badarians is arguably now the most pressing information we need to understand. This information would resolve much of the current controversy regarding the Badarian culture and could be undertaken from the analysis of their bone, hair and teeth as well from the food residues on their pottery. The analysis of the ‘bread’ like remains could again open up the debate regarding the agricultural credentials of the Badarians, as well as develop a fuller understanding regarding their relationship with sites such as Hierakonpolis where similar remains and funerary customs have been found. The study of the fish remains may also give important clues as to whether fishing was a seasonal or year round activity. A comprehensive and analytical study of the pottery is also an important area of study, which must be undertaken. Such a study would be invaluable in assessing the relationships between the different settlements and cemeteries, and with the ceramic technology and traditions around them. It is also perhaps pertinent at this juncture to mention other avenues of analysing and re thinking the mortuary data, which have belatedly begun to be applied to the Predynastic. Questioning the data in terms of ethnicity and ideology have certainly been around for some time (see Bard 1992) but in terms of post processual narratives Stevenson (2005 and 2009) is an important source. Other areas of research are also being addressed in terms of aesthetics (Gosden 2004, Stevenson 2007) and gender (Hassan and Smith, 2002). The possibilities of re-interrogating the data is terms of ideology, religion, ethnicity, cultural and social sub-group and cult affiliations, to name but a few, make this area an exiting and academically profitable area for future research. The only problem to date, with all of these important and often innovative approaches, in the context of the Nagada culture of the Predynastic, is that they all use versions of Kaisers relative chronology, in which demonstrable and long standing problems exist (see Hendrickx 1996 and Savage 1998 for a review of the subject). This problem needs to be addressed as the stufen system in its present form may be hiding or distorting important socio cultural narratives. In conclusion, it is perhaps pertinent to provide some criticism of my own work. Possibly the most serious shortcoming is that my analyses concentrate almost exclusively on the published results. Although this was in many respects unavoidable, I would have liked to examine the collections of Badarian artefacts, especially at the Petrie Museum at UCL, in order to familiarize myself more fully with the material and hopefully, in so doing, resolve some of the catalogued discrepancies and issues of uncertain identification. I therefore have little doubt that the conclusions I have presented here will in time be subject to numerous revisions and amendments. References JARCE - Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt. Boston. MDAIK - Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts -Kairo. Wiesbaden. 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