Over the course of the three readings that we had to do for this week (Bard, Kohler, and Hoffman), I thought that it was incredibly interesting how often Hierakonpolis came up in regards to predynastic Egypt. I never thought too much about predynastic Egypt nor Hierakonpolis when I was in my Egypt phase as a child, mostly because I was not too interested (at the time) as to how Egypt actually became a unified country. I never gave much thought to Hierakonpolis because I was more interested in other cities like Thebes, Giza, Luxor, Memphis, and the likes. Because of this lack of background knowledge and general uninterest in Hierakonpolis, I was genuinely interested in learning a lot more about the city in these readings, and thought that it was fascinating how three totally different academic texts placed such an emphasis on it.
One of the most fascinating aspects to Bard’s text was the “cult centers of deities” that were discussed on pages 127 to 129. I have always been particularly interested in Egyptian mythology and religion, even as a little kid, and I was extremely excited to read about the religious aspects of predynastic Egypt. It is interesting how there are both local and state gods when it came to early cult centers (Bard 127) because I had not really considered local gods and goddesses, primarily thinking about the statewide religion. I was unsurprised to note that there were “[s]cenes of temples or shrines….found on inscribed labels from 1st-Dynasty tombs” (127). That clearly was a tradition continued throughout the rest of Ancient Egypt, which I found to be exciting because it means that there is a longer history of it than I had previously thought.
When it came to the Western Kom complex, I was wondering what sort of animals were carved in the hippopotamus ivory (127). I know that cats were incredibly important to the Egyptians (as cats are my favorite animal, so I am rather biased in knowing that), so I wonder if they were carved in the ivory. Were bulls or falcons carved into the ivory? Were hippopotamuses themselves carved into the ivory? Or were none of these traditional religious animals carved into the hippopotamus ivory?
I think it was also fascinating to see that Isis and, possibly, Min were being worshipped by at least the late Predynastic/Naqada III (127). These were a major god and goddess, and I thought that it was really neat to find out that they were being worshipped earlier than I had previously believed.
I totally agree with what you wrote in your post. I have always been interested in Egypt, but not until now I got interested in how Egypt became a single state. I guess I view this more for the archaeology like mummies and sites, but it is cool to know how life was working during this time. I agree that the articles did help give a better understanding of how Egypt started becoming a single state. Lots of the readings we did kind of gave factors to how this single state came about. I believe that most things that are said can count as factors, only if they make sense and correlate with each other. I, also, did find Bard aspects on mythology and religion interesting because I believe it takes a big part during the mummification process. The Egyptians are super religious and I felt that most things that did had a significant meaning to it, more importantly the mummification process. Additionally, I think that most animals of significance were carved from that ivory. Perhaps animals that were dear to the owner were carved or animals they enjoyed seeing were carved. I think further research would have to be done to see what kinds of animals were truly carved from this ivory. Lastly, I think we have similar interests when it comes to Egyptian history. It is truly fascinating on how detailed and complex Egypt was back then and they you have these pseudoarchaeologists truly to deny and debunk everything that is clearly in some archaeological record.