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As readers of AE are well aware, William Flinders Petrie looms large in the story of archaeology in Egypt. He played a significant part in the development of Egyptology from what began as a hobby for wealthy, educated Europeans to the sophisticated scientific discipline it is today. Indeed, with his meticulous excavation methods and techniques, Petrie was ahead of his time, and his invention of sequence or seriation dating in pottery studies, which archaeologists still use today to date sites relatively (see ‘Milestones’ in AE 138), marks him out as a seminal figure not just of Egyptian archaeology, but of archaeology in general. It is thus not surprising that Petrie is alternatively referred to as the ‘Father of Egyptology’ or ‘Father of Scientific Archaeology’, while his Egyptian workmen named him Abu Bagousheh – ‘Father of Pots’ – because of his passion for ancient pottery.
However, a more fitting epithet for Flinders Petrie should perhaps be ‘Father of Predynastic Egypt’. Ancient stone tools had previously been found in the Nile Valley and Egyptian deserts, but the existence of an ‘Egypt before the pharaohs’ was a subject of debate among scholars. However, when Petrie discovered the vast cemetery at Naqada (ancient Nubt) in 1894, Egypt’s Predynastic past was proven, and Egyptian prehistory was ‘born’. At this ancient necropolis, Petrie and his workmen excavated more than 2,000 graves which were unlike anything that had ever been found before in Egypt. The dead were buried with numerous pottery vessels, many decorated with depictions of boats and human and animal figures, and a wide variety of other artefacts such as anthropomorphic clay and ivory figurines, stone cosmetic palettes, bone combs, bone needles and pins, fine flint knives, copper bracelets, and polished stone maceheads, either disc-shaped or conical, which were probably symbols of power and prestige. The graves clearly revealed a Naqadan belief in an afterlife, which, of course, was a fundamental aspect of religion in the succeeding Dynastic period. Some of the graves unearthed by Petrie and his team were also larger and more richly furnished with grave goods than others, probably being reserved for elite members of Naqadan society.
Following his excavations at the site, Petrie initially argued that the Naqada cemetery represented the burial ground of a ‘New Race’ who invaded Egypt from Elam (ancient Iran) during the First Intermediate Period (c.2181-2055) and subsequently became Egypt’s rulers. He later recognised that the necropolis was prehistoric, although he never abandoned the idea that ancient Egyptian civilisation was founded in the Predynastic Period by immigrants from the east. Whatever Flinders Petrie believed, his discovery at Naqada in 1894 was just the first of many subsequent discoveries relating to the Naqada culture, revealing that it laid the foundations for an ancient Egyptian state that would endure for some 3,000 years.
Julian Heath is an author, freelance illustrator, and regular contributor to AE magazine
