The Archaeology of Early Egypt: Social Transformations in
North-East Africa, c.10,000 to 2,650 BC, by David Wengrow
Cambridge University Press 2006, £50 (HB) £22.99 (PB), pp 366,
48 line diagrams 35 half-tone illustrations, 7 maps. ISBN 0521835860 (HB), ISBN
0521543746 (PB)
Reviewed by Steven Gregory
University of Birmingham
Perhaps you can judge a book by
its cover, the quality of which certainly reflects the high standards of
presentation maintained throughout The
Archaeology of Egypt, an edition in the Cambridge World Archaeology series.The bold image of an elaborately decorated ‘ceremonial’ cosmetic
palette certainly brings to mind the emergence of the dynastic state in ancient
Egypt (see here
for illustration).The palette genre includes (in Wengrow’s words) ‘one of
the best known artefacts of the ancient world’ (p. 41), the ‘Narmer
Palette’, the inscriptions upon which have come to symbolize traditions of
kingship and state power in dynastic Egypt, imagery which was to underpin
Pharaonic rule for some three millennia. Yet, on closer inspection, the palette
is not the ‘Narmer’ but an earlier example: the ‘Oxford’ or ‘Two
Dogs’ palette.This artefact
lacks the ordered appearance of the ‘Narmer’ instead portraying a confusion
of wild animals perhaps representative of the more uncertain times in which the
Egyptian state was formed.Some of
the motifs are indicative of foreign influences, making the ‘Two Dogs’
palette a more appropriate symbol of those influences pervading the cultural
cauldron in which ancient Egyptian kingship, one of the key themes of the book,
was brewed.
The promise of an in-depth study
of these cross-cultural stimuli is further implied by the broad spectrum of
scholarship cited in the extensive reference section, which extends to some 49
pages.The book itself fulfils all
such early expectations.
Use of the first person narrative
style in the introduction comfortably invites the reader into the core of the
subject, the complex matter of historical and archaeological philosophies which
have informed earlier studies.Wengrow
then sets out his own methodological approach which encapsulates a degree of
structuralist thought, and which relies much on a school of thought earlier
propounded by Henri Frankfort, the aim of the book being to demonstrate the
validity of the viewpoint that ‘hierarchy is a socially constructed, rather
than a natural, feature of the Middle East’s historical landscape’ (p. 5).This task is achieved by elucidation of the available evidence in order
to provide ‘a sustained interpretation of social and cultural change in Egypt
and neighbouring parts of Africa and Asia, spanning a period of more than seven
millennia between the onset of the Holocene and the early centuries of dynastic
rule that preceded the Old Kingdom’ (p. 5). In reaching this goal Wengrow
relies upon two principal areas of investigation: ‘the adoption of
domesticated animals and plants during the fifth millennium’ (p. 8) and the
subsequent ‘establishment of a unified territorial state under the centralised
rule of a sacred monarch’ (p. 8).
The following
chapters are divided into two parts, the first of which begins by setting the
scene of the Nilotic environment with regard to changes in climate and landscape
leading to ecological diversification and the constitution and maintenance of
social boundaries, with particular attention to the introduction and spread of
farming practices (pp. 14-30).From
the examination of the archaeological evidence, Wengrow then seeks to establish
the social foundations upon which the early Egyptian state was built and, in so
doing, challenges many preconceptions regarding mobile communities and
innovation in Neolithic societies.In particular he calls into question the view that mobile
pastoral societies were necessarily marginal to mainstream cultural development,
further arguing that, for the Nile Valley at least, it is the funerary rather
than the domestic context which provides the window into the nature of society;
the bodies of people and animals, not the house, providing the framework upon
which social experience of Neolithic pastoral cultures may be configured (pp.
31-71).Wengrow expands his theory
by discussing aspects of funerary culture which develop in the late Neolithic
Period and which influence the ideology of kingship into the Pharaonic Period
(pp. 72-98); here he emphasizes the relevance of trade in prestige goods and
technologies associated with funerary gifts as evident in graves from sites
throughout Egypt in the Naqada I - II Period.
In Part II Wengrow begins by
examining the temporal and spatial aspects of kingship, and the perception of
that office in Egyptian historiography – particularly historical distortion as
influenced by adherence to Manethonic tradition – before describing patterns
of both terrestrial and maritime trade between Egypt and neighbouring states
(pp. 135-150), which were focussed on the high status goods desired by the
controlling elite groups.He
concludes that the evolution of such large-scale networks ultimately created an
‘increasingly polarized society … centred upon the royal court’ (p. 142),
a process resulting in the reorganization of rural production whereby the
‘horizontal social networks’ of earlier Neolithic economies were transformed
into hierarchical relationships, a hierarchy ‘defined and experienced in
cosmological terms and made manifest through centrally organised ceremony and
ritual’ (p. 146).
The bookexamines the evidence from the material culture which attests to
both change and continuity as these social transformations evolve, with
particular emphasis on the rising artistic repertoire which encapsulates earlier
social tradition while proclaiming the emergent hierarchical elite as a
necessary ‘feature of human existence’ (p. 175).The author draws widely from associated disciplines,
including anthropological studies relating to cultures extant in the modern
world, to bring a holistic approach to the work from which it becomes apparent
that the relationship between the body of the mortal king and the eternal office
of kingship is fundamental to the study of ancient Egyptian culture at all
periods (pp. 257-269).
While
informative and enjoyable to read from cover to cover, the structure, with each
chapter divided into numbered and headed sub-sections, together with the
frequent written ‘signposts’ to related matters, in-text references and
appropriate and informative footnotes, make this book a useful aid to study.In addition, it includes a number of appendices, providing tabulated
information regarding relative ceramic chronologies and cultural sequences, and
the work benefits from a comprehensive index.Maps and illustrations are of an excellent quality and are well placed to
add suitable graphic support to the text.Here
a minor complaint is that there are occasions when toponyms highlighted in the
text are not shown on the relevant map – a perennial cause of mild irritation
– but this is of minor inconvenience!Overall
the book constitutes a reference work which will be invaluable to both scholars
and students of ancient Egyptian history and archaeology.The lack of unnecessary jargon, together with occasional explanation
accompanying more unusual terms – e.g. geziras = raised ground,
‘turtle-backs’; caliciform = ‘tulip-shaped’; zariba = animal
enclosures – also make the work attractive to the wider audience.
Perhaps
the true value of this book is that it removes the modern myth that the
political unification of ‘the Two Lands’ marked the birth of ‘eternal
Egypt’; it rather describes the gradual emergence of a state which remained
constantly in formation.While much
of the evidence discussed is well known, Wengrow offers a substantially
different interpretation and, by considering the psychological and philosophical
aspects which underlie processes of social and political change, convincingly
infers abstract concepts from the tangible remains so as to offer a wider
perspective on the period of transition from Neolithic to Dynastic Periods.As such, The Archaeology of Egypt
constitutes a substantial, and extremely well written, contribution to the study
of state formation in Egypt, and provides a template which will aid the study of
social, economic, and political history in general.
**Image shown courtesy of Cambridge University Press
