At some point in the predynastic history of Egypt chieftains first emerged. By late in the Naqada II period (t,3300BC) a handsome grave at Hierakon-polis, the most important centre of southern predynastic government at the time, shows a degree of furnishing and design not previously encountered in the Valley. This, the celebrated Tomb 100, is one of the crucial pieces of evidence in the evolution of Egyptian political, perhaps also of religious, structures.
Tomb 100 was a large pit with a primitive superstructure, and, more important and so far uniquely, with plastered and painted walls; unhappily it is long since destroyed. It was discovered in 1898.34 The scenes painted on its walls are of hunting and the mastery of animals, fights between small groups of men, a sacrifice, and several boats including a very un-Egyptian, unmistakably Mesopotamian vessel.
The Hierakonpolis tomb shows that certain individuals were already distinguished from their contemporaries, even in death; indeed the long succession of Egyptian royal tombs seems to have its beginning here. It makes clear, also, how very ancient the tradition of mural painting was, which was destined to be one of the glories of Egyptian art.
From the time before the accession of the first kings Tomb 100 was for long the most elaborate known, lying in a cemetery of rich burials. Certain brick-built structures had been attributed to the last predynastic kings but without real assurance until the excavations of a group of large predynastic tombs at Abydos by the German Archaeological Expedition. That attributed to the first King Scorpion is now recognized as the largest tomb in the Valley from predynastic times.
World History
