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Naqada is a town on the west bank of the Nile
Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the List of rivers by length in the world.The Nile has two major tributary, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and silt, but the former being the longer of the two....
 in the Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
ian governorate of Qena. It was known in Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
 as Nubt and in classical antiquity
Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome....
 as Ombos. Its name derives from ancient Egyptian
Egyptian language

Egyptian is a branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages language family along with the Chadic languages, Berber languages, Semitic languages, Cushitic languages and possibly Omotic languages languages....
 nub, meaning gold, on account of the proximity of gold mines in the Eastern Desert
Eastern Desert

The Eastern Desert refers to the desert east of the Nile, between the Nile and the Red Sea. It extends from Egypt in the north to Eritrea in the south, and also comprises parts of Sudan and Ethiopia....
.

Naqada comprises some villages such as Tukh, Khatara, Danfiq and Zawayda. It stands near the site of a necropolis
Necropolis

A necropolis is a large cemetery or burial place . Apart from the occasional application of the word to modern cemeteries outside large towns, the term...
 from the prehistoric, pre-dynastic period
Predynastic Egypt

The Predynastic Period of Egypt is traditionally the period between the Early Neolithic and the beginning of the Pharaonic monarchy beginning with King Narmer....
 around 4400
5th millennium BC

The 5th millennium BC saw the spread of agriculture from the Near East throughout southern and central Europe.Urban cultures in Mesopotamia and Anatolia flourish, developing the wheel....
-3000 BC.






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Naqada is a town on the west bank of the Nile
Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the List of rivers by length in the world.The Nile has two major tributary, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and silt, but the former being the longer of the two....
 in the Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
ian governorate of Qena. It was known in Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
 as Nubt and in classical antiquity
Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome....
 as Ombos. Its name derives from ancient Egyptian
Egyptian language

Egyptian is a branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages language family along with the Chadic languages, Berber languages, Semitic languages, Cushitic languages and possibly Omotic languages languages....
 nub, meaning gold, on account of the proximity of gold mines in the Eastern Desert
Eastern Desert

The Eastern Desert refers to the desert east of the Nile, between the Nile and the Red Sea. It extends from Egypt in the north to Eritrea in the south, and also comprises parts of Sudan and Ethiopia....
.

Naqada comprises some villages such as Tukh, Khatara, Danfiq and Zawayda. It stands near the site of a necropolis
Necropolis

A necropolis is a large cemetery or burial place . Apart from the occasional application of the word to modern cemeteries outside large towns, the term...
 from the prehistoric, pre-dynastic period
Predynastic Egypt

The Predynastic Period of Egypt is traditionally the period between the Early Neolithic and the beginning of the Pharaonic monarchy beginning with King Narmer....
 around 4400
5th millennium BC

The 5th millennium BC saw the spread of agriculture from the Near East throughout southern and central Europe.Urban cultures in Mesopotamia and Anatolia flourish, developing the wheel....
-3000 BC. Naqada has given its name to the widespread Naqada culture that existed at the time, here, and at other sites including el Badari, Gerzeh
Gerzeh

Gerzeh, also Girza or Jirzah, was a Predynastic Egypt cemetery located along the west bank of the Nile and today named after al-Girza, the nearby present day town in Egypt....
, Nekhen
Nekhen

Nekhen, was the religious and political capitol of Upper Egypt at the end of the Predynastic Egypt period and probably, also during the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt ....
 (Hierakonopolis), and Qau. The large quantity of remains from Naqada have enabled the dating of the entire culture, throughout Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
 and environs. The modern town is located at: , while the ancient site is located at: .

Naqada dating scheme


Flinders Petrie

The Naqada period was first divided by the British Egyptologist William Flinders Petrie, who explored the site in 1894, into three sub-periods:
  • Amratian
    Amratian

    Amratian, or Naqada I, is an era during Predynastic Egypt that lasted from c.4000-3500 BCE.See:*Naqada*Predynastic_Egypt#Amratian_.28Naqada_I.29_Culture...
     (after the cemetery near El-Amrah)
  • Gerzean (after the cemetery near Gerzeh
    Gerzeh

    Gerzeh, also Girza or Jirzah, was a Predynastic Egypt cemetery located along the west bank of the Nile and today named after al-Girza, the nearby present day town in Egypt....
    )
  • Semainian (after the cemetery near Es-Semaina)


Werner Kaiser

Petrie's chronology was superseded by that of Werner Kaiser in 1957. Kaiser's chronology began c. 4000 BC, but the modern version begins slightly earlier, as follows:
  • Naqada I a-b-c (about 4400–3500 BCE)
    • black-topped and painted pottery
  • Naqada II a-b-c (about 3500–3200 BCE)
    • this culture represented throughout Egypt
    • first marl pottery, and metalworking
  • Naqada III
    Naqada III

    Naqada III is the last phase of the Naqadan period of ancient Egyptian history. It is the period during which the process of state formation, which had begun to take place in Naqada II, became highly visible, with named kings heading powerful polities....
     a-b-c (about 3200–3000 BCE)
    • more elaborate grave goods
      Grave goods

      Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body.They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods....
    • cylindrical jars
    • writing


Monuments & excavations

About three kilometers northwest of Naqada, on the edge of the Western Desert
Western Desert (North Africa)

The Western Desert is a desert region encompassing 600,000km? of land to the west of the Nile in Egypt and Libya. In most of Upper Egypt, the desert encroaches very near the Nile, with a flood plain only a few kilometers wide....
 is an early dynastic tomb found in 1897. It contained ivory tablets, vase fragments and clay sealings bearing the name of Pharaoh
Pharaoh

Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt, only during the New Kingdom, specifically, during the middle of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt....
 Hor-Aha
Hor-Aha

Hor-Aha is considered the second pharaoh of the First dynasty of Egypt of Ancient Egypt in current Egyptology. He lived around the 31st century BC....
 and his wife, Neithotep (also spelled Nithotep). The tomb probably belonged to a local administrator of the First dynasty
First dynasty of Egypt

The first dynasty of Ancient Egypt is often combined with the Second dynasty of Egypt under the group title, Early Dynastic Period of Egypt. At that time the capital was Thinis....
. Nearby cemeteries also produced a number of stelae of the end of the Old Kingdom
Old Kingdom

The Old Kingdom is the name commonly given to that period in the 3rd millennium BCE when Ancient Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization in complexity and achievement ? this was the first of three so-called "Kingdom" periods, which mark the high points of civilization in the lower Nile Valley ....
 and the First Intermediate Period
First Intermediate Period of Egypt

The First Intermediate Period, often described as a ?dark period? in ancient Egyptian history, spanned approximately three hundred years after the end of the Old Kingdom from ca....
. The necropolis belonged to the town of Qus
Qus

Qus is a city in the modern Qena Governorate, Egypt, located on the east bank of the Nile. Its modern name is one of many borrowings in Egyptian Arabic from Coptic language, the last living phase of Egyptian language....
, on the east bank of the Nile
Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the List of rivers by length in the world.The Nile has two major tributary, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and silt, but the former being the longer of the two....
.

The size of the cemeteries and settlements found in the area shows that Naqada, along with modern Tukh, must have been a very important town in the later Predynastic Period
Predynastic Egypt

The Predynastic Period of Egypt is traditionally the period between the Early Neolithic and the beginning of the Pharaonic monarchy beginning with King Narmer....
. The town's rise to prominence could have been caused by its proximity to the gold mines in the Eastern Desert
Eastern Desert

The Eastern Desert refers to the desert east of the Nile, between the Nile and the Red Sea. It extends from Egypt in the north to Eritrea in the south, and also comprises parts of Sudan and Ethiopia....
.

The local god of Naqada was Seth
Set (mythology)

In Ancient Egyptian religion, Set is an ancient god, who was originally the god of the desert, Storms, Darkness, and Chaos. Because of the developments in the Egyptian language over the 3,000 years that Set was worshipped, by the Greek period, the t in Seth was pronounced so indistinguishably from th that the Greeks spelled it a...
. A New Kingdom
New Kingdom

The New Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Egyptian Empire, is the period in ancient Egyptian History of Ancient Egypt between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt, and Twentieth dynasty of Egypt....
 temple dedicated to him was located, to which various kings of the 18th Dynasty
Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt

The Eighteenth Dynasty is perhaps the best known of all the dynasties of ancient Egypt. As well as a number of Egypt's most powerful pharaohs, it included Tutankhamun, whose tomb, uncovered by Howard Carter in 1922, was one of the greatest of all archaeological discoveries, being completely undisturbed by tomb robbers....
 (Thutmose I
Thutmose I

Thutmose I was the third Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt of History of Ancient Egypt. He was given the throne after the death of the previous king Amenhotep I....
, Thutmose III
Thutmose III

Thutmose III was the sixth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. During the first twenty-two years of Thutmose's reign he was co-regent with his aunt, Hatshepsut, who was named the pharaoh....
, Amenhotep II
Amenhotep II

Amenhotep II was the seventh Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt of History of Ancient Egypt. Amenhotep inherited a vast kingdom from his father Thutmose III, and held it by means of a few military campaigns in Syria; however, he fought much less than his father, and his reign saw the effective cessation of hostilities between Egypt a...
), as well as several Ramessids
Ramesses

Ramesses is the name conventionally given in English transliteration to eleven Ancient Egypt pharaohs of the later Conventional Egyptian chronology#New Kingdom period....
 contributed.

A small pyramid, known as the step pyramid of Ombos, is built of undressed stone, and dates to the end of the Third dynasty
Third dynasty of Egypt

Third Dynasty The Third Dynasty of ancient Egypt is the first dynasty of the Old Kingdom. Other dynasties of the Old Kingdom include the Fourth dynasty of Egypt, Fifth dynasty of Egypt and Sixth dynasty of Egypt....
.

See also

  • Tukh
  • Predynastic Egypt
    Predynastic Egypt

    The Predynastic Period of Egypt is traditionally the period between the Early Neolithic and the beginning of the Pharaonic monarchy beginning with King Narmer....