Badarian culture
Years: 4400BCE - 4000BCE
The Badarian culture provides the earliest direct evidence of agriculture in Upper Egypt during the Predynastic Era.
It flourished between 4400 and 4000 BCE, and might have already existed as far back as 5000 BCE.
It was first identified in El-Badari, Asyut.About forty settlements and six hundred graves have been located.
Social stratification has been inferred from the burying of more prosperous members of the community in a different part of the cemetery.
The Badarian economy was mostly based on agriculture, fishing and animal husbandry.
Tools included end-scrapers, perforators, axes, bifacial sickles and concave-base arrowheads.
Remains of cattle, dogs and sheep were found in the cemeteries.
Wheat, barley, lentils and tubers were consumed.The culture is known largely from cemeteries in the low desert.
The deceased were placed on mats and buried in pits with their heads usually laid to the south, looking west.
The pottery that was buried with them is the most characteristic element of the Badarian culture.
It had been given a distinctive, decorative rippled surface.
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Near East (4,365 – 2,638 BCE) Late Neolithic–Chalcolithic — Canal Gardens, Copper, and Maritime Aegean
Geographic and Environmental Context
The Near East includes Egypt, Sudan, Israel, most of Jordan, western Saudi Arabia, western Yemen, southwestern Cyprus, and western Turkey (Aeolis, Ionia, Doris, Lydia, Caria, Lycia, Troas) plus Tyre (extreme SW Lebanon).-
Anchors: the Nile Valley and Delta; Sinai–Negev–Arabah; the southern Levant (with Tyre as the sole Levantine node in this subregion); Hejaz–Asir–Tihāma on the Red Sea; Yemen’s western uplands/coast; southwestern Cyprus; western Anatolian littoral (Smyrna–Ephesus–Miletus–Halicarnassus–Xanthos; Troad).
Climate & Environment
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Flood variability increased; Delta marshes fluctuated; Aegean coasts stable; Arabian west slope drier, highlands stable.
Subsistence & Settlement
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Canal/levee fields in Nile Delta/Valley matured; orchard–garden mosaics; caprine herding in Sinai–Negev; mixed farming in Ionia–Lydia–Caria.
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Yemen western terraces in embryo; Hejaz oases (Ta’if-like) incipient.
Technology
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Copper metallurgy in Anatolia; advanced pottery; reed boats; early sails; improved qanat/terrace conceptions in Arabia highlands (proto-forms).
Corridors
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Nile–Delta–Mediterranean shipping; Anatolian maritime loops; overland Sinai/Negev into the southern Levant.
Symbolism
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Temple precincts (Egyptian cores outside our exact geography but influence strong); Aegean cape sanctuaries; ancestor cults.
Adaptation
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Canal/qanat + terraces hedged droughts; coastal fisheries stabilized diets.
Present Naqada, a town on the west bank of the Nile in the Egyptian governorate of Qena, that stands near the site of a necropolis from the prehistoric, pre-dynastic period around 4400-3000 BCE, has given its name to the widespread Naqada culture that exists at the time, here, and at other sites including …
…al-Badari, …
…Gerzeh, …
…Nekhen (Hierakonpolis), and …
…Qau.
The large quantity of remains from Naqada have enabled the dating of the entire culture, throughout Egypt and environs.
The Naqada period was first divided by the British Egyptologist William Flinders Petrie, who explored the site in 1894, into three sub-periods: Amratian (after the cemetery near El-Amrah), Gerzean (after the cemetery near Gerzeh), and Semainean (after the cemetery near Es-Semaina).
The first site where the so-called Amratian Culture group is found unmingled with the later Gerzean culture group is the site of el-Amra, about one hundred and twenty kilometers south of Badari, but because this period is better attested at the Naqada site, it is referred to also as the Naqada I culture.
The production of black-topped pottery continues; the production of white cross-line ware, decorated by close parallel white lines being crossed by another set of close parallel white lines, begins.
The Amratian culture trades with Nubia, Western Desert oases and the eastern Mediterranean, and obtains obsidian from Ethiopia.
Petrie's chronology was superseded by that of Werner Kaiser in 1957.
Kaiser's chronology began around 4000 BCE, but the modern version begins slightly earlier, as follows: Naqada I a-b-c (about 4400–3500 BCE), characterized by black-topped and painted pottery; Naqada II a-b-c (about 3500–3200 BCE), a culture represented throughout Egypt and characterized by the first marl pottery, and metalworking; and Naqada III a-b-c (about 3200–3000 BCE), characterized by more elaborate grave goods, cylindrical jars, and writing.
Trade between Upper and Lower Egypt is attested by excavated objects.
A stone vase from the north has been found at el-Amra, and copper, which is not present in Egypt, is apparently imported from the Sinai, or perhaps from Nubia.
Obsidian and an extremely small amount of gold are both definitively imported from Nubia.
Trade with the oases is also likely.
The Near East (4077–3934 BCE): Environmental Changes and Cultural Diversification
Environmental Transformation
Human settlement became increasingly confined to the Nile valley and its immediate fringes, as declining rainfall transformed surrounding lands into arid deserts after 4000 BCE.
Tasian and Badarian Cultures
Around 4000 BCE, two distinct cultures emerged in southern Egypt: the northern-influenced Tasian culture, evolving through phases labeled Naqada I (Amratian) and Naqada II (Gerzean), and the eastern desert-originated Badarian culture. Tasian pottery, often black-topped and painted, displayed diverse fabrics and decorations.
Early Domestication and Metallurgy
The domestication of date palms around 4000 BCE in eastern Arabia significantly impacted diets and economies. Copper metallurgy also appeared around this time, with evidence found in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The domestication of the donkey from Nubian and Somalian wild ass species provided essential pack and farming animals, enhancing transportation and agriculture throughout Egypt and Nubia.
Human settlement is confined to the Nile valley and its fringes and the western lands become arid deserts as rainfall decreases in Egypt, especially after 4000 BCE.
Two cultures exist in southern Egypt by around 4000 BCE: the Tasian, influenced by the north, and the Badarian, which originated in the eastern desert.
The former, identified by phases labeled Naqada I (Amratian) and II (Gerzean), has evolved into a material culture very different from that of the north.
In the south, among other differences, pottery is more varied in fabric, often has a black top, and favors painted decoration (white on red and red on light-colored desert clays).
There is archaeological evidence of date cultivation in eastern Arabia in 6000 BCE.
The date palm is believed to have originated around the Persian Gulf, and have been cultivated since ancient times from Mesopotamia to prehistoric Egypt, possibly as early as 4000 BCE.
The Egyptians use the fruits to be made into date wine, and eat them at harvest.
Copper is first worked in Egypt (and Mesopotamia) around 4000; Copper pins dating to 4000 BCE have been found in Egypt.
The ancestors of the modern donkey are the Nubian and Somalian subspecies of African wild ass, which is domesticated around 4000 BCE.
The donkey becomes an important pack animal for people living in the Egyptian and Nubian regions as they can easily carry twenty to thirty percent of their own body weight and can also be used as a farming and dairy animal.
The Near East (3933–3790 BCE): Societal Complexity and Saharan Aridification
Nabta Playa and Archaeoastronomical Innovation
In the Nubian Desert, at a site known as Nabta Playa, once a flourishing lakeside settlement, remarkable megalithic structures have been erected. These stone monuments predate Stonehenge by roughly one thousand years and are among the world's earliest known archaeoastronomical devices. Current archaeological interpretations suggest these megaliths functioned as a prehistoric calendar, specifically designed to mark the summer solstice, highlighting a sophisticated understanding of astronomical phenomena by these Neolithic societies.
Neolithic Societal Complexity
Communities around Nabta Playa, established just prior to the region's extensive desertification, participate fully in the Neolithic revolution. These groups adopt a settled or semi-nomadic lifestyle, centered around domesticated plants and animals, indicative of considerable agricultural and pastoral development. Significantly, the level of sociocultural complexity observed at Nabta Playa—characterized by organized leadership, hierarchical authority, and structured societal arrangements—suggests foundational influences that will later shape both the local Neolithic societies and, subsequently, the early dynastic structures of Egypt’s Old Kingdom.
Advanced Settlement Patterns and Infrastructure
Compared to contemporaneous Nile Valley societies, the Nabta Playa settlements demonstrate advanced infrastructural and social organization. Their settlements include elaborate above-ground and subterranean stone constructions, systematically arranged village layouts, and deep wells designed for year-round water storage. Evidence indicates, however, that Nabta Playa was primarily occupied seasonally, with inhabitants migrating into the area mainly during summer months when the local lake provided sufficient water and grazing opportunities for cattle. Analysis of human remains indicates migration from sub-Saharan Africa, underscoring dynamic population movements triggered by changing climatic conditions.
Cultural Innovations of Gerzean Egypt
In Egypt, the Gerzean period sees continued cultural innovation and continuity. Mudbrick architecture becomes prominent, though not yet widespread in application as it will become in subsequent eras. Additionally, cosmetic palettes—both oval and theriomorphic (animal-shaped)—emerge during this period. Although rudimentary in execution and lacking the detailed relief artistry they will exhibit in later periods, these palettes indicate developing ceremonial and decorative practices within Egyptian society.
Human Migration Triggered by Saharan Aridification
Around 3900 BCE, significant aridification of the Sahara region forces extensive human migration toward the Nile Valley, dramatically reshaping demographic and settlement patterns. This climatic shift plays a pivotal role in driving societal evolution, encouraging increased population density and social complexity along the fertile Nile, laying the groundwork for subsequent developments in Egyptian civilization.