Adaima

An early site in southern Upper Egypt, Adaima, possesses characteristics reminiscent of early Hierakonpolis but with important differences and particularities of its own. First identified by the French Egyptologist Henri de Morgan at the end of the nineteenth century Adaima is currently being excavated by another French team, working under the aegis of Institut Frangaise Archeologique Orientale. Its discoveries have been singular.

Adaima lies a few miles to the south of Esna, on the edge of the cultivable lands on the west bank of the Nile. It has an extensive cemetery, dating from Naqada I. It was always believed that there was no evidence of human sacrifice in predynastic times but this view has had to be reviewed in the light of the Adaima excavations. The settlement was a substantial one covering an area of some thirty-five hectares and it flourished in the late Naqada I—early Naqada II period, in the middle of the fourth millennium and then again a little later in Naqada III immediately prior to the First Dynasty. Some of the graves produced gruesome evidence of what looked like deliberate killings.35 Some of the dead had had their throats cut; in other cases corpses had been mutilated and one of the dead had been beheaded. An adolescent corpse had one of its arms sliced off. Half of a new born baby was found in another grave and a clay coffin contained the cut-up genitalia of an individual, along with the individual himself.36 Animal burials were also found, including the intact skeleton of a dog, wrapped in a mat.37

A new area of the cemetery complex has been excavated producing a large number of intact child burials ‘in an exceptional state of preservation’.38 A rich yield of one hundred and ten Naqada pots was recovered as well as ivory, shell and palettes. The children were all aged between six months and twelve years.