I selected this reading for Blog #2 because I found it to be interesting information about the mortuary practices of predynastic cultures in Egypt as well as the argument of whether Egypt’s predynastic days were considered urbanized and civilized. I think initially that the conclusions of archaeologists in the late 19th and early 20th century were a little premature due to the difficulty of some of the site excavations. The fact that pottery and design seem to transplant itself as far away as modern-day Afghanistan indicates a successful trade relationship between these early urban sites and far distanced locations. This also indicates some form of government. Also, remains were found of buildings in multiple locations that had been used for mass storage of items. Someone had to control this, so another point to some form of government. Further evidence shows the progression of mortuary practices from less decorated in earlier cultures, such as the Buto-Ma’adi culture to often, elaborate in later cultures, such as the Naqada culture. This progression of change indicates growth and understanding; and shows the placing value on more important things.
Another aspect I found interesting were the religious practices of these earlier cultures. Archaeologists have been able to find evidence of ritual or cult type practices that included human sacrifice, decapitation, as well as animals being offered up in worship. These findings were most often found in building remains that archaeologists were able to identify as temples; however, the decapitated bodies were found in graves without any type of burial effects included. Although the readings don’t particularly explain it, all this information makes me wonder how much of this religion surrounded the everyday lives of the populous? Human sacrifice, to me, seems to be a practice that would mean a pretty devout society in whatever they believed in.
In conclusion, the reading made me scratch my head a few times on the proposed culture of these ancient people’s, but Ii was also able to see it from their point of view. The fact that all the excavations done, especially within recent years show that this was a form of a civilized and urban society, not an uncivilized nomadic society. Agriculture, animal husbandry, a form of organized religion, mass storage and the size of burial areas and their effects in evidence these societies were urban and large for their times. Sure, in today’s standard, they would be small in comparison to some of the current world’s urban areas, but at that time, there were a lot less people on the earth, maybe 15 million compared to the 7.6 billion today. That is a huge difference that should to be taken into consideration when determining whether a culture was urbanized or not.
Religious development and efficient use of farming and domesticated animals definitely point to an urbanized society in Ancient Egypt. I would like to add to your point in that the further emergence of writing would only be achievable in a civilization with some centralized organization which had a need for communication with the general public as well as other elites.
First of all, the development of writing ties in well with your point about religion because the more complex tombs (for the wealthy) contained writings of scripture and instructions for the after life, demonstrative of the importance of religion at the time. In addition, mortuary practices involving writing illuminate the link between the wealthy and the craftsmen because the majority of Ancient Egyptians were illiterate. I would argue that the educated craftsmen like scribes and priests formed an upper-middle class in the highly stratified society; they were more important than regular laborers but still not at the level of royalty.
Another way in which writing displays organization applies much more directly to most of the Ancient Egyptian population. Some of the most abundant examples of writing are found in artifacts called labels. These were used almost like bar code tags at a store, identifying what an item was, to whom it belonged, and how much it was worth. Labels were probably one of the few ways in which normal citizens (as opposed to the upper-class) would interact with writing on a regular basis.
In conclusion, the spread of writing as a means for documenting religion in a mortuary context and as a way to communicate ownership and worth also contributes to the idea that Ancient Egypt, during the early Dynastic Period, could be considered and urbanized civilization.