I’m interested in knowing more about the predynastic history of lower Egypt. While it was interesting to read about the excavations at Buto and Ma’adi, the overview of the culture uncovered seems lacking in comparison with the presentation of Naqada culture. Naqada culture is interesting because it is so closely related to later dynastic cultures, but Buto-Ma’adi are just as interesting because they aren’t. What exactly happened to the cultures of Buto-Ma’adi? Were they assimilated into the Naqada culture that is evidenced in the archeological record at Buto, or was there some kind of interaction between the two cultures? The evidence of domesticated donkeys at Ma’adi, reportedly the earliest evidence suggests, along with copper sources, that this culture was trading with Palestine. Did the Buto-Ma’adi culture move to the east through displacement by northern moving Naqada peoples? What exactly were the interactions between the Naqada people and the Buto-Ma’adi people as they began to interact. At the very least I’d imagine that the Naqada people adopted the donkey as a beast of burden, so it likely wasn’t a completely one-sided cultural interaction. It would be interesting though to look at the ceramic assemblage, as well as the evidence of tools and nutrition to see how culture changed in Buto with the presence of Naqada peoples, as well as to what extent this influence was taken back to Naqada people further up the river (maybe look at how donkey use moved along the river).

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The changing burial patterns at Naqada through time are a large indication of social complexity at the site during inhabitation.  In prehistoric and historic societies around the world, people with high social status were buried in a special way, usually with more grave goods such as pottery, jewelry, etc.  For example, complex Native American societies buried their elite in mounds and with a plethora of grave goods to show their status and help them travel better through the afterlife.  Early burials in the Great New Race Cemetery were small in size and only had a few grave goods.  These Naqada I burials do not represent significant social complexity because they do not differ much from each other and the small amount of grave goods does not represent any hierarchy.  However, burials from Naqada II appear to have more social complexity.

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There were a couple things that I found interesting from this week’s reading. One was the burial practices or the placement of the bodies. Upon reading that the bodies from Wadi Digla and Naqada were oriented in the same direction, but with the heads facing different directions; I wondered what side of the Nile each was settled and the map a couple pages earlier in the chapter shows that they are on opposite sides of the Nile. So it made sense that the bodies were oriented to the Nile’s beginning as well as facing it, they seem to be paying homage to the Nile because it was so important for their survival and development. I also found the fact that at Ma’adi only infant and stillborn burials were found. It made me wonder if the infant mortality rate was high or if that was normal during that time; if the infant mortality rate was unusually high I wonder why, could it possibly be from malnutrition/starvation or other diseases that are often seen when societies adopt agriculture and populations increase.

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Being that I am majoring in chemical engineering and computational chemistry, I find the methods used to date materials found in the archaeological sites fascinating.  Obviously, before there were any current scientific methods available, the dating was done logically.  Given that Flinders Petrie used his sequence dating on pottery, it ended up that he was fairly accurate.  However, with the current methods that are used, a much more accurate date can be assigned to specific sites.

I already knew about radiocarbon, 14C, dating and so it was no surprise to me that it was used to date the materials.  I did not realize though, that this method is intended only for organic matter.  Now with the variety of artifacts that are dug up in a site, it does seems unlikely that there would be nothing organic that was found on site.  Unfortunately, that is not always the case and there has to be other methods involved in calculating an accurate date.

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I really enjoyed learning about the different Predynastic cities, but Ma’adi was the one I found most interesting. I found this site interesting for several reasons. First of all, the fact that in present day the site is located in the middle of a thriving city center is fascinating to me. In 1930, when it was originally excavated, it was only desert. While the site is protected, I wonder how being in the middle of the city affects it and make it different than other archeological sites in the region. It must be more difficult to do the work of excavation in the middle of a busy city than it would be on the field where space would not be so limited. On the other hand, there are probably more creature comforts, such as beds and running water, associated with being close to the city.

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While I was reading the text for week two I noticed many similarities within the practices of the different regions discussed of Egypt.  Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt shared the idea of importing goods to their communities.  Both regions received imported goods like oil, wine, and beer in pottery containers.  As the time passes, the differences within pottery styles merges and Upper Egypt craftsmanship is used in Lower Egypt.  Along with the migration of pottery came that of burial rituals.  By the Naqada III times communities of Lower Egypt had began using burial techniques such as burying the dead with animals and physical objects that were thought of as luxuries.  This change in cultural makes sense with the Nile flowing as it does.

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Ethan (as per our Tweets!) mentioned in the introductory videos about order and chaos. Since then I have been thinking in those terms in reference to our readings and the videos.

The predynastic sites, Buto and Ma’adi, really stuck out to me as some of the first examples of how Egypt has this order/chaos motif. Buto seems to have to controlled chaos while Ma’adi is comparatively more ordered. I noticed this when the reading and the videos touched on ceramics. Lower Egypt (The majority of the Nile Delta & Buto) has ‘inferior ceramics’ which are unparalleled when they are compared to the ceramics of Upper Egypt. Ma’adi shows how they keep their materials and craftsmanship in line and thereby show how ordered they were as a society.

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As an anthropology major with a focus in archaeology and religion,  I have always been interested in how different groups of people bury their dead.  One question that I have wondered about again and again came up for me while doing this week’s reading.  How do archaeologists know that a burial is intentional without grave goods?  I would assume that they might determine this from body placement.  Perhaps the bodies have an intentional placement to them, such as arms across the chest, or perfectly straight down at their sides.  The other thing that may have indicated intentional burial, when grave goods were not present, could be the location of the grave inside of a cemetery or mortuary area.

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Hello. My name is Ben and I’m a senior anthropology major. This will be my third year at MSU and part of the reason I originally signed up for this class was to be able to graduate in December. I decided not to do that (I don’t really know why I was considering it in the first place), but decided to keep the class because it sounded interesting. I’m excited about learning more about archeology. Next year I’m taking a mix of anthropology classes with a couple of language classes thrown in for fun, but I’ve changed my schedule more times than I can count and probably will again. I enjoy learning about everything which is probably part of the problem. I don’t really know what I want to do with my life after I graduate, which is part of the reason I’m not ready to graduate, but I also want to do something other than just sitting in classes listening to lecture after lecture. I love anthropology, but I don’t really know what I’ll do with it. I’m hoping to join the Peace Corps after graduation, but I still have to go through the whole registration process, I’m planning on getting started on in within the next couple of weeks though (fingers crossed). After that, well I guess its up in the air. Maybe back to grad school or random jobs, I just want to be able to travel and see the world as well as keep going to school wherever I’m at, so whatever works for that.

For the first half of the summer I participated in the MSU Field School at Morton Village, run by Dr. O’Gorman. I’m not really sure that I want to go into archeology, but actually being able to get out of a classroom and participate in something (to get my hands dirty so to speak) was completely awesome. For the rest of the summer, I’m just planning on taking this class and relaxing a little. I’m hoping to do a little more archaeology volunteering later this summer and next summer as well. I also volunteer at the VA on an irregular basis, basically whenever my mother guilts me into it, which has happened every summer for the past 6? years. Otherwise I’m planning on just enjoying the weather and being outside as much as possible, fishing, boating, golfing, disc golfing!, biking, swimming, all those fun summer activities. I love reading and generally read at least a book a week and I’m also a fan of computer games (especially rts, tbs and rpg), luckily those can be enjoyed outside as well, albeit in the shade.

I’m looking forward to this class and learning more about Egyptian archaeology. I haven’t taken an entirely online course at MSU yet so I don’t have much to compare to, but so far I like the course layout much better than using Angel, especially the open nature of the course.