Excerpted and Updated from "The Firsts of the First Hundred years" Nekhen News 10, 1998.
Over one hundred years of scientific investigation at Hierakonpolis, the site of Egypt's first capital, has produced a large number of first, i.e., the first occurrence of objects, practices and styles that were destined typify Egyptian civilization, such as the first temple and first mummies. It has also produced a similar number of "onlys", that is, the only preserved examples, although other occurrences have been documented, but are no long preserved. There are also a few seconds and thirds just to round out the picture.
A comprehensive list is rather formidable, so here is just some of the fascinating firsts which have led (and are currently leading) to a new and fuller understanding of ancient Egypt at its beginnings. The first group of firsts derives from the excavations of over 100 years ago (1897-9) when the British Egyptologists John Quibell and Frederick Green came to salvage the site after the depredations of looters.
- The palette of Narmer. c. 3100 BC After the golden mask of King Tutankhamen, it is probably the most reproduced image from Ancient Egypt. Once called the oldest political document in history, this is no longer true, but its importance has not diminished.
- The oldest life-sized human statue: a courtier or priest from the temple of Horus.c.3000 BC
- The earliest painted tomb. The only tomb of the Predynastic period with painted decoration along its plastered walls. It depicts a floating funerary cortege and scenes of power and dominion, among them one of the earliest scenes of smiting, later to be a canonical pose of kings for the next 3000 years.
- The largest flint knives ever produced in Egypt, c. 3100 BC. Several of the votive offerings at the temple of Horus are gigantic versions of fine objects, like decorated votive maceheads and hard stone bowls, up to 10 times larger than normal and only found at Hierakonpolis.
- The only large-scale metal statuary to come down to us from remote antiquity in Egypt--the over life size copper statue of King Pepy of Dynasty 6 (c. 2200 BC) and the smaller statue of his son? Both have recently been conserved by the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, revealing both the exquisite workmanship and the remnants of gilding.
- The golden hawk head of the cult image of Horus. c. 2300 BC Unique for its beauty, it is also the oldest (known) cult image in existence.
r The oldest stone statue of a known and named personage; the two statues of King Khasekhemwy of Dynasty 2 (c. 2700 BC)
r The oldest free-standing structure in the world. c. 2700 BC, still preserved in places to its original 9m height. It is the ceremonial enclosure of King Khasekhemwy, the father of the first pyramid builder, Djoser, and a great builder in his own right, who embellished his massive structure with the first known granite architectural elements carved in the formal and characteristic Egyptian style.
Since 1969, the present Hierakonpolis Expedition has continued to investigate the site and each year has uncovered new firsts, by which the full significance and importance of the site can be understood. Here is a checklist to help you keep track.
p The earliest preserved house in Egypt. c 3600 BC. The house of a potter, it is preserved because the potter worked too close to where he lived and accidentally burnt it down while firing a load of pots.
p Egypt's earliest temple. c. 3400 BC. A large structure, originally fronted by huge (cedar?) timbers, it was to become the prototype for temple architecture for millennia to come.
p Egypt's first industrial breweries. c. 3600 BC. It is estimated that this brewery could produce about 300 gallons of beer a day. At the rate, it could supply a daily ration for over 200 people, and so far only a small fraction of this quarter has been investigated. The secret to Hierakonpolis greatness may have been the early development of the redistributive economy that later kept Egypt alive.
p The first Mummies. c. 3600 BC. Predynastic burials in which the hands and head area have been padded with linen bundles and then wrapped in bandages predating other examples by at least 400 years.
p Vanity at its origins? The first evidence for hair extensions/hair weaving to create an elaborate hair style and the oldest documented use of henna to cover grey hair, c. 3500 BC. This new discovery predates other evidence by 500 years
p The oldest preserved beard c. 3500 BC: A full male beard, well shaped and trimmed.
p The first and only known elephant burial. c. 3600 BC. perhaps in association with a hunting ritual for the next life. This burial occurs in a cemetery which contains many early animal burials, some for the first time: graves of baboons, dogs, sea shells, cattle including a triple interment of a bull, cow and calf, anticipating the family triads worshipped in most Egyptian temples. The burial of these animals gives us reason to suspect that at Hierakonpolis, the elite didn't just take their wealth with them, they took their entire world!
p Egypt's earliest masks. Made of pottery, they fit perfectly over a human face, but were they worn by the living or the dead?
p The first stone-cut tomb, c. 3100 BC, a huge, deep cutting into the underlying bedrock, with a side chamber sealed with a portcullis stone as would later be the case in the pyramids.
p The earliest preserved royal palace. c. 2900 BC. While the funerary enclosure was a palace for eternity, this building, ornamented with the same niched brick pattern, is the only known example of an early palace of the living.
p First evidence of popular religious practice in the form of a ritual deposit of ostrich feathers (c. 1500 BC), buried at a remote hillock covered in petroglyphs (rock carvings). The deposit helps to explain some of the obscure carved symbols as well as ambiguous statements in religious texts of millennia later.
p One of the only known rock-paintings in Egypt, north of the first cataract.