Whilst the Hierakonpolis region seems to have been at the forefront of state formation, another site has emerged as the leading Upper Egyptian centre in earlier Predynastic times. This is Naqada, located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the entrance to the Wadi Hammamat. The wadi, ‘one of the relatively few direct and well watered accesses to the Red Sea coast’ (R. Friedman 1994:286), afforded easy access to the gold reserves of the eastern desert. Moreover, the bend in the Nile as it flows through the Naqada region ‘brings the river closer to the Red Sea than at any other point in its course’ (R. Friedman 1994:286). Both these geographic factors would have made Naqada (and Coptos, on the opposite bank of the Nile) an ideal centre for the Predynastic gold trade. After the early First Dynasty the major focus of population moved northwards to a new location, the town of Nubt. During the course of the Early Dynastic period, this too declined in importance, as Naqada was relegated to a position of provincial obscurity. The eclipse of Naqada was accompanied by the rise of Dendera, some 25 kilometres to the north, and perhaps of Thebes, a similar distance to the south. This is probably no coincidence, and may be part of a more widespread phenomenon in which the role of provincial capital was transferred from the traditional centre - in many cases an important Predynastic settlement—to a new town (Kemp 1989).
Coptos, Hu and the rise of Dendera
Just why Naqada—rather than Coptos, located directly at the mouth of the Wadi Hammamat—came to dominate the surrounding region in the Predynastic period is not clear. It is a curious fact that all the most important centres of late Predynastic and Early Dynastic Upper Egypt were located on the west bank of the river (with the possible exception of Elephantine, an island in the Nile). Whether this is pure coincidence, or whether the west bank had a natural advantage, is difficult to say. In Upper Egypt today, the expanse of floodplain is wider on the west bank than on the east bank, but this may not have been the case in the fourth millennium BC. The Coptos colossi indicate that this site was an important cult centre from late Predynastic times, and the symbols carved on these statues suggest that Coptos was a centre of long-distance trade in artefacts from the Red Sea coast; but it never seems to have become a major regional focus of population. At the beginning of the Old Kingdom, both Coptos and the neighbouring site of Hu/Abadiya (cf. Williams 1986:176) were displaced as important provincial centres by Dendera: the titles borne by the early Fourth Dynasty administrators of Dendera refer to a grouping of three adjacent districts, Coptos, Dendera and Hu (Fischer 1968). The centralisation of power which seems to have occurred at the beginning of the Old Kingdom—and which is most spectacularly attested by the pyramids of the Fourth Dynasty—was achieved partly by means of a fundamental reorganisation of economic and administrative structures. The evidence from sites such as Dendera suggests that another plank of this programme was a conscious policy to integrate the provinces of Upper Egypt by removing the reins of power from the hands of the traditional ruling families (which may have retained significant influence over their communities during the Early Dynastic period). Centres such as Hierakonpolis, Naqada, Coptos and Hu had risen to great prominence during the Predynastic period. Following the formation of the Egyptian state, regional capitals would have served as key nodes in the national administrative apparatus. The transfer of this role from traditional centres to new towns would have been an effective means of bypassing pre-existing regional power structures and exerting central control.
Smaller communities
A re-examination of the evidence has shown that, far from being isolated centres within an otherwise sparsely populated region, Naqada and Coptos were surrounded by an extensive network of smaller communities, all of which seem to have benefited from the region’s economic and political advantages (R. Friedman 1994:345, fig. 8.1; contra Patch 1991:353). Although settlement remains have only been identified at a few sites - Coptos, Naqada North Town and South Town, and Khattara—a larger number of cemeteries have been excavated in the Naqada region, pointing to a relatively dense settlement pattern. On the east bank of the Nile, the most significant site published to date is the Predynastic burial ground at Khozam, 25 kilometres south of Coptos (Hendrickx 1992). Here, a series of cemeteries seems to have been strung out along the desert edge, comprising many hundreds of burials ranging in date from the Badarian or Naqada I period to the threshold of the First Dynasty. The general picture at Khozam seems to parallel that in other regions of Upper Egypt: a series of small cemeteries spanned the entire duration of the Predynastic period, only to be abandoned at the beginning of the Early Dynastic period when the regional population moved to fewer, densely packed settlements, in this case Naqada and Coptos.
World History
