Hierakonpolis (modern Nekhen) is a large predynastic town site located between two dry riverbeds (wadis). It is the largest pre- and proto-dynastic site discovered to date, extending some 1.5 kilometers. Building remains at the site consist of complex settlements, with dwellings, temples, and cemeteries. The Predynastic occupation of the site dates between about 3800 and 2890 BC, including the Nagada I-III periods and the first dynasty of Old Kingdom Egypt.
Buildings at Hierakonpolis
The most famous building in the "City of the Hawk," is an elaborate Gerzean period tomb (3500-3200 BC), called "the Painted Tomb". This tomb is cut into the ground, lined with adobe mud brick and the walls were then elaborately painted--this represents the earliest example of painted walls known to date in Egypt. On the tomb walls are images of Mesopotamian-like boats, attesting to Predynastic contacts with the eastern Mediterranean. The Painted Tomb likely represents the burial place of a proto-pharaoh.
More typical structures at Hierakonpolis are partly intact mudbrick-constructed pottery kilns and post/wattle-construction houses. One particular rectangular Amratian house excavated in the 1970s was built of posts with wattle and daub walls. This dwelling is small and semi-subterranean, measuring roughly 4x3.5 meters.
The famous Narmer palette was found in the foundation of an ancient temple at Hierakonpolis, and is thought to have been a dedicatory offering. A life-sized hollow copper statue of Pepi I, the last ruler of the 6th Dynasty Old Kingdom, was discovered buried beneath the floor of a chapel, and is illustrated in the photograph.
Cemeteries
The cemetery at Locality 6 in Hierakonpolis contains a wide variety of animal burials, including wild baboon, elephant, hartebeest, hippopotamus and auroch, as well as domesticated donkey and cat. Some of these (including the donkey and cat burials) were buried as complete animals; others are represented by butchered parts.
Some of the other cemeteries at Hierakonpolis were used for burying elite personages between the Amratian through Protodynastic periods, a consistent use of almost 700 years.
Hierakonpolis and Archaeology
Hierakonpolis was first excavated in the 1970s and 1980s by the American Museum of Natural History and Vassar College under the direction of Walter Fairservis. Most recently, an international team led by Renee Friedman has been working at the site, detailed in Archaeology magazine's Interactive Dig.
Sources
For more on the predynastic period of Egypt, see the Predynastic Egypt Timeline and Definition.
An excellent source for information about Hierakonpolis is the Hierakonpolis Online website, from the Friends of Nekhen. The chronology of the Predynastic period is detailed in the Egyptian Predynastic timeline.
Hoffman, Michael A. 1980 A Rectangular Amratian House from Hierakonpolis and Its Significance for Predynastic Research. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 39(2):119-137.
Linseele, Veerle, Wim Van Neer, and Stan Hendrickx 2007 Evidence for early cat taming in Egypt. Journal of Archaeological Science 34(12):2081-2090.
Savage, Stephen H. 1997 Descent group competition and economic strategies in Predynastic Egypt. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 16(3):226-268.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.
