Gerzeh culture (Naqada II)

Gerzeh, also Girza or Jirzah, is a predynastic Egyptian cemetery located along the west bank of the Nile and today named after al-Girza, the nearby present day town in Egypt.

Gerzeh is situated only several miles due east of the lake of the Al Fayyum.

The Gerzean culture is a material culture identified by archaeologists.

The Gerzean is the second of three phases of the Naqada Culture, and so is called Naqada II.

It is preceded by the Amratian (Naqada I) and followed by the Protodynastic or Semainian (Naqada III).Though varying dates have historically been assigned by sundry authorities, Gerzean culture as used as follows distinguishes itself from the Amratian culture and begins circa 3500 BCE lasting through circa 3200 BCE or the end of the Naqada II period.

Accordingly some authorities place the onset of the Naqada I period coincident with the Amratian or Badarian cultures, i.e.

c.3800 BCE to 3650 BCE even though some Badarian artifacts may in fact date earlier (for example, see Badarian).

Nevertheless, because the Naqada sites were first divided by the British Egyptologist William Flinders Petrie, in 1894, into these Amratian (after the cemetery near El-Amrah) and Gerzean (after the cemetery near Gerzeh) sub-periods, the original convention is used in this text.

This era lasts through a period of time when the desertification of the Sahara had nearly reached its present state (see Sahara).The primary distinguishing feature between the earlier Amratian and the Gerzean culture is the extra decorative effort exhibited in the pottery of the period Artwork on Gerzean pottery features stylised animals and environment at a greater degree than earlier Amratian artwork Further, images of ostriches in the pottery artwork possibly indicate an inclination these early peoples may have felt to explore the desert of the Sahara.Some symbols on Gerzean pottery resemble traditional hieroglyph writing , contemporaneous to pre-cuneiform Sumerian script .

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