Afrique : Archologie & Arts

12 | 2016

Varia

Predynastic Egyptian rock art as evidence for

early elites rite of passage

Lart rupestre et les rites de passage des lites naissantes au Prdynastique

gyptien
Francis David Lankester

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CNRS - UMR 7041 (Archologie et
Sciences de l'Antiquit - ArScAn)
Electronic version
URL: http://aaa.revues.org/920
ISSN: 2431-2045

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Date of publication: 15 dcembre 2016
Number of pages: 81-92
ISSN: 1634-3123
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December 2016. URL : http://aaa.revues.org/920

The text is a facsimile of the print edition.

CNRS - ArScAn. Cartographie daprs www.geoatlas.fr

Predynastic Egyptian rock art as

evidence for early elites rite of passage

Francis David Lankester

Abstract

Rsum

People express in ritual what moves them most,

and their ritual behaviour reveals what moves the
group. Rites of passage accompany almost every
change of place, state, social position and age (Van
Gennep 1909). In potentially identifying rites of
passage in prehistoric Egyptian rock art the role
of the liminal zone of the Eastern Desert is crucial.
In this area, betwixt and between the normally
ordered social world and the supernatural otherworld, the traveller engages with the transcendental, experiencing timelessness, sacralisation and
connecting with the sublimity of the cosmos in an
area overwhelming the human scale. It constitutes
a sacred domain where the usual rules are suspended and monstrous, minimised and/or exaggerated forms can be generated. We can place the
petroglyphs in the process by which early Egyptian
were legitimised by journeying out there into the
desert, returning as transformed and heroic figures.
Thus, we can explain exaggerated features in animal depictions and the unrealistic integration of
boats into hunting scenes.
Keywords: Egypt, Nile, Hierakonpolis, rock
art, elites, liminal desert, hunting, dancing, boats

Lart rupestre et les rites de passage des

lites naissantes au Prdynastique gyptien
Lart rupestre du Sahara gyptien, de la valle
du Nil et du dsert oriental a maintes fois t
interprt, de manire rtrospective, comme tant
li aux reprsentations pharaoniques par le biais
de lidologie, la religion et mme les composantes
des ftes pharaoniques telles que le Heb Sed
(ervek 1992-1993; Huyge 2002; Darnell 2009).
Poursuivant cette rflexion, des auteurs ont galement propos de considrer les origines de la
culture dpoque pharaonique comme descendant
de celle des pasteurs ayant migr vers la valle du
Nil pour fuir lenvironnement de plus en plus aride
des rgions sahariennes du Gilf Kebir et du Gebel
Uweinat (DHuy & Le Quellec 2009; Barta 2010;
Caldwell 2013). Cette qute dorigines spcifiques
semble ignorer les changements et dynamiques se
manifestant dans le processus de formation de
ltat en gypte et lors des premires dynasties.
Elle revient faire entrer de force les lments
bien structurs du rpertoire pharaonique dans
un scnario culturel encore en gestation (MidantReynes 2000).

Francis David Lankester frankfrankly101@gmail.com Durham University, The Castle Palace Green, Durham DH1
3RW (UK)

Afrique: Archologie & Arts - 12 - 2016: 81-92

81

Une approche fonde sur lanthropologie

sociale peut fournir un cadre dtude appropri
pour linterprtation de lart rupestre gyptien.
Les formes de rituels obissent des conventions
et des obligations telles, quelles rvlent les
valeurs profondes des acteurs impliqus (Turner
1995). Ces derniers expriment dans le rituel leurs
motivations premires, et leur comportement
rituel est le reflet des proccupations du groupe.
Les rituels les plus frquents, et galement les
plus largement partags, sont ceux qui sappliquent aux rites de passage. Ils marquent
chaque changement de lieu, dtat, de position
sociale et dge (Van Gennep 1909). Ce processus
est si universel quil suggre une logique culturelle unique pour russir la rencontre de lhomme
avec le supernaturel (Garwood 2011). Cependant,
en dehors de deux exceptions notables (Tilley
1999; Holl 2004), les rites de passage ont rarement t associs linterprtation de lart
rupestre et, plus tonnamment, larchologie en
gnral.
Dans la perspective didentifier potentiellement certaines scnes de rites de passage dans
lart rupestre prhistorique gyptien, il faut considrer le rle crucial de la zone liminale. Dans cette
zone, situe entre le monde norm de lordre social
et lau-del surnaturel, liniti sengage dans un

dialogue avec le transcendantal ; il est alors

confront lintemporalit, la sacralisation, et
connect avec la sublimit du cosmos dans un
espace dpassant de loin lchelle humaine. Les
rgles habituelles sont suspendues dans le
domaine sacr et des formes monstrueuses, minimises et/ou exagres peuvent tre gnres.
Avant tout, un rite de passage est un rite de passage (Turner 1995). Lacteur peut sappuyer sur le
pouvoir du royaume liminal, effectuant sa transformation en r-entrant et en se r-insrant dans
un monde de normes sociales. Dans cet article,
lart rupestre de lgypte prhistorique et en
particulier du dsert oriental est prsent au
travers de ce spectre analytique. Les ptroglyphes
peuvent ainsi tre replacs dans le processus par
lequel les lites gyptiennes taient lgitimes
aprs un voyage au-del, revenant en figures
transformes et hroques. Par consquent, ils
peuvent tre analyss de manire synchronique;
un certain nombre de leurs caractristiques
comme les traits exagrs de quelques reprsentations animales et lintgration peu raliste de
bateaux dans des scnes de chasse trouvent
explication dans cette lecture.
Mots-cls : gypte, Nil, Hirakonpolis, art
rupestre, lites, dsert liminal, chasse, danse,
bateaux

Rites of Separation

Rites of Transformation
(Liminality)

Departure and disengagement from

the social world; expressions of
breach, separation, journey and
transition/transformation

Engagement with the

transcendental; experience/
expressions of otherness, sublimity,
order (cosmos), exaltation

Return to and re-engagement with

the social world; expressions of
return journey, sociality, vitality,
profanity

Sacralisation of social action:

increasing, solemnity, deference,
passivity and submission to sacred
authority

Communication/revelation of sacra,
esoteric knowledge, cosmology and
prominent display of symbols of
condensation

Domination/conquest of the social

by the sacred (expressions of
transcendence and often
rebounding violence)

Transition from linear time to

cyclical time/atemporality

Timelessness, deep time or

cyclicity emphasised

Transition to and reassertion of

linear time

Abandonment/symbolic negation of
former social persona/state of being
of the initiate

Transformation and sacralization

ofidentity/personhood (the
initiates)

Celebration and reification of the

social persona/state of being
attained by the initiated

Rites of Reaggregation

Table 1 The three steps of the rites of passage, after P. Garwood (2011: 262)

82

Afrique: Archologie & Arts - 12 - 2016: 81-92

Introduction: research
approaches for interpreting the
rock art of the Egyptian deserts
Attempts have been made to interpret prehistoric rock art in the Egyptian Sahara, the Nile
Valley and Eastern Desert within a framework
derived from the dynastic era. This involves identifying ideology, religion and even original components of pharaonic festivals such as the Heb Sed
through a retrospective approach (ervek 19921993, 1994; Huyge 2002; Wilkinson 2003; Darnell
2009, 2011). Moreover, some recent papers have
been published with the aim of locating the origins
of pharaonic era culture among the cattle herders
who migrated to the refuge of the Nile Valley from
an environmentally deteriorating Sahara (DHuy
& Le Quellec 2009; Brta 2010; Caldwell 2013).
The search for specific pharaonic origins ignores
the dynamic changes which took place in the state
formation and Early Dynastic periods. It has also
been mainly undertaken by scholars specialising in
the study of Dynastic Egypt. A large amount of
archaeological material is available to place
Egyptian petroglyphs in context. However, paradoxically, this has constituted both an opportunity
and an obstacle. It has led to a strong tendency to
retrospectively read back pharaonic motifs into the
Predynastic and look for their origins there, since
...extrapolating backwards in time is an entirely
admissible procedure for ancient Egyptian rock art
(Huyge 2002: 121). However, cautionary advice
that, we must be suspicious of such overt egyptological references and be careful not to force the
well-structured elements of the Pharaonic repertoire on to a cultural scenario which was still in its
early stages (Midant-Reynes 2000: 191) has often
not been heeded. This retrospective perspective
ought to be seen as a last, not a first, resort.
By contrast, an approach grounded in social
anthropology has the potential to provide a useful
framework for the interpretation of Egyptian rock
art. This is fundamentally because forms of rituals
are conventionalised and obligatory so that they
reveal peoples values at a deep level (Turner
1967, 1990). People express in ritual what moves
them most, and their ritual behaviour reveals
what moves the group. The most prevalent, indeed
almost ubiquitous, rituals are those which express
rites of passage. They accompany almost every
change of place, state, social position and age (Van
Gennep 1909). Indeed, so universal is this process
that it suggests a single cultural logic for

Predynastic Egyptian

managing human encounters with the supernatural and has been an important part of anthropologists examination of ritual, being widely applied
in examining a range of cultural contexts (Garwood
2011). However, with two notable exceptions
(Tilley 1999; Holl 2004), there has been little discussion of rites of passage relating to rock art or,
perhaps surprisingly, in archaeology in general.

Theoretical framework: the rites

of passage and the role of the
liminal zone
In potentially identifying rites of passage in
prehistoric Egyptian rock art, the role of the liminal zone is crucial. Betwixt and between the normally ordered social world and the supernatural
other/next world, the initiate engages with the
transcendental, experiencing timelessness, sacralisation and connecting with the sublimity of the
cosmos in an area overwhelming the human scale.
It constitutes a sacred domain where the usual
rules are suspended and monstrous, minimised
and/or exaggerated forms can be generated. Above
all, a rite of passage is fundamentally a rite of
passage (Turner 1990, 1995). Its subjects can draw
on the power of the liminal realm, and then complete their transformation on re-entering and reengaging with the normal social world in society
akin to a house with a series of rooms and corridors with potentially hazardous passage between
each (Garwood 2011: 262; tabl.1). Here it is proposed that this can be seen in Egyptian prehistoric
rock art of the Naqada culture period, and particularly in that of the Eastern Desert. We can place
the petroglyphs in the process by which early
Egyptian elites were legitimised by journeying
out there, returning as transformed and heroic
figures. Thus, they can be studied in a synchronic
manner and many of their features such as exaggerated features in animal depictions and the
unrealistic integration of boats into hunting
scenes, can potentially be explained.
On journeying out of the Nile Valley, travellers
entered the very different desert environment: from
wet to dry, green to grey/yellow, abundant fauna
and flora life to sparse life, flat and wide to constrained wadi routes. They represent opposing rhythms
of life, differing sensoria; including the essential
stillness, the potential for night terrors in the
midst of the desert far from the comfort of settlement life, and even different temporal spaces away

rock art as evidence for early elites rite of passage

83

from normal time and routine in the valley. In this

context, the desert rock art which constitutes the
tools for making things sacred, and therefore effective, must in essence be strange and unusual in
order to work. Hunters depart from the normal
social world and out in the wilderness they experience timelessness, otherness, symbolic communication and sacralisation of identity (Turner 1967:
107, 290). The emphasis is on being outside everyday life and time. Here in the space between this
world and the next, the participants engage in a
series of intensely emotional and physical acts and
can achieve a sublimely real transformation of who
they are. The symbols they use, the petroglyphs, are
part of and represent this transformation. As a
result, those who undertake the journey return are
special and possess new power, which includes the
ability to dominate the normal/social world. This
then feeds in to their political power.
The predynastic petroglyphs which represent
the participants sacra and cosmology are mostly
distributed in an arc between Kom Ombo in the
south and Qena in the north (Judd 2009; Lankester
2013), with some west of the Nile (Darnell 2009).
The so-called Naqada cultural zone in the valley
adjacent to the area of the petroglyphs comprises
a dozen sites where elite burials, especially containing C and D (White Cross-Lined and Decorated)
Ware (Graff 2009), dated to the Naqada I and II
periods (c.a. 3800-3350 BC). The majority of the
petroglyphs, which record the activity of those
engaging in the rite of passage through journeying
into the desert, may be assigned to Naqada I/early
Naqada II (c.a. 3800-3500 BC; Lankester 2013).
This is the period where elites were consolidating
their power through prominent architecture and
elaborate burials at locations such as Hierakonpolis,
Mahasna, and Abydos (Friedman 2011). Hunting
imagery is found in the Central Eastern Desert
over millennia and in many dynastic tomb paintings. There are twelve examples of hunting hippopotami and crocodiles on the Naqada I-IIa C-Ware,
and twenty vessels portraying hunting with dogs
or by dogs alone (Graff 2009). This includes several
with the prey being grasped, as occurs in the desert
scenes. Dogs also occur quite frequently on later
ivories, but usually at the end of a neat row of animals seemingly controlling them, and also on
palettes and knife handles (Hendrickx 2011a).
A connection with the desert hunting petroglyphs can be found at Hierakonpolis in the elite cemetery at HK6 (Naqada IIa). Fifty-eight complete
animal burials have been located around the

84

perimeter of the T6 tomb complex with pillared

halls. Aurochs, elephants, hippopotami, a crocodile,
hartebeest, leopard, baboons, sheep/goats, and dogs
were present (Friedman 2011:39). The elephants
and aurochs were found wrapped in matting in
their own tombs. The hartebeest, a young elephant
and several baboons showed signs of healed fractures suggesting their maintenance in captivity for
some time. There are also ostrich eggshells and Red
Sea shells, perhaps constituting a votive deposit,
around a major tomb dated to Naqada IIa/b (c.a.
3650 BC) which is the period of some of the rock art
(Lankester 2013). In addition, the remains of more
than twenty ostrich eggs were recovered from the
precinct of originally pillared buildings, some of
which had been set up on display bases (Friedman
2005, 2007). They included one with a hunting
scene, along with flint arrowheads and flint animals of Barbary sheep and ibex (Friedman 2011:
41). The considerable faunal remains at the
NaqadaIIb/c HK29A complex suggest butchery and
feasting. They include the remains of cattle and
wild animals including hippopotami, crocodile and
large perch (Friedman 2009: 84). This prominence
of wild fauna stands in stark contrast to the unimportance of game in food consumption in predynastic Egypt generally. Faunal remains from HK29A
include 14.7% wild animals compared to 1.6% at
Hierakonpolis excluding HK29A (Linseele & Van
Neer 2009: 55). A similar ritual structure with
remains of wild animals deposited around it, akin
to that at Hierakonpolis, has been found at Mahasna
dated to early Naqada II (Friedman 2009: 84).

A gap between hunting imagery in

rock art and the faunal remains
in excavations
It must be noted that the frequency of desert
animal images does not necessarily match faunal
remains in the valley. For example, gazelles are
portrayed extremely rarely in the rock art, although
it was a popular food item (Linseele & Van Neer
2009: 51) and there are no ibex burials at
Hierakonpolis, despite the presence of over 500
petroglyphs of this animal in the desert (Lankester
2013). The gazelle does not have to drink from standing water, so hunters would have found it out in
the desert, but it is rarely depicted in the rock art.
On the other hand, ibex, the most common animal
in the rock art, is not present in the Nile Valley
burials. Many of the wild animals such as the single

Afrique: Archologie & Arts - 12 - 2016: 81-92

Figure 1 Hunting with dogs scene, Wadi Baramiya-9, Central Eastern Desert, Egypt. F. Lankester

Figure 2 Hunting tableau showing animal control Wadi Baramiya-9, Central Eastern Desert, Egypt.
F.Lankester

Predynastic Egyptian

rock art as evidence for early elites rite of passage

85

hartebeest and aurochs, the riverine hippopotami

and crocodile, in addition to the domestic dogs,
sheep and cattle could have been caught in or near
the Nile. The leopard and elephant buried at HK6
could have been traded up from Nubia. Therefore,
the only definite products, rather than images, of
the desert employed ritually are the ostrich eggs.
Additionally, figures wearing feathers, probably
from ostriches, are commonly seen on C and D-Ware
pottery, on palettes and in the rock art.
We have evidence of feasting from Hierakonpolis
and Mahasna, with some of the meat being provided by hunting gazelles at a distance from the Nile
Valley. Many rock art scenes record hunters with
bows and/or dogs which are often chase a combination of asses, ibex, antelope such as gerenuk,
ostriches and cattle. Dogs are portrayed hunting
in a pack and grasping prey such as wild ass
(fig.1). In the Baramiya-9 tableau both bovids and
a crocodile are controlled by a leash or lasso among
the chase scene (fig.2; Fuchs 1989).
At other sites dancing figures with arms raised
above the head and incurved appear to influence
wild animals. For example, at Umm Salam-35
figures standing amongst a mixed group of animals
exercise control both literally with a rope and by
the power of the dance (fig.3), whereas in real life
the animals would have scattered on their detection of humans approaching. However, we do not

see those animals which are chased or controlled

in the rock art, with the possible exception of cattle
(since wild and domestic bones can be confused),
echoed in faunal remains in the Nile Valley.
The hunters rarely appear to be successful in
capturing their quarry, either alive or dead, yet portray themselves, in petroglyphs and on pottery,
hunting, controlling and dominating a range of wild
animals. That the hunters are from the valley elite,
and not specialists, is suggested by their portrayal
often wearing plumes, their association with boats
and their standing in vessels. The so-called chieftains at Abu Wasil-10/RME-26 (fig.4) wear plumes,
hold bows in front of the chest and stand in a large
boat. This combination, in addition to representation in a larger scale compared to the other three
figures, suggests their importance. The Naqada
elite were not hunting specialists, so we should not
be surprised at the lack of successful hunt completions. The experience of hunting and the journey
out into the desert environment appears to have
been much more important than an actual kill. In
this regard, the rock art scenes never show the
hunts result, with not a single depiction of animals
being struck by missiles or lying dead. It is the
chase plus the attack and control of animals in the
context of a hunt which is shown, rather than
taking captured animals back to the Nile Valley.
Moreover, the scenes contain small groups of

Figure 3 Animal control scene Wadi Umm Salam-35, Central Eastern Desert, Egypt. F. Lankester

86

Afrique: Archologie & Arts - 12 - 2016: 81-92

Figure 4 Chieftains at RME-26/Wadi Abu Wasil-10, Central Eastern Desert, Egypt. F. Lankester

Figure 5 Boat involved in hunting, Wadi Baramiya-9, Central Eastern Desert, Egypt. F. Lankester

Predynastic Egyptian

rock art as evidence for early elites rite of passage

87

Figure 6 Giraffe with elongated tails and hooves, Wadi Umm Salam-14, Central Eastern Desert, Egypt.
F.Lankester

hunters. There are no depictions of support staff,

guides, supplies or transport by donkey train assisting the elite hunters. If there had been, rather
than staff and donkeys being dismissed as unimportant and therefore not noted, we would see the
result in faunal remains in the Nile Valley.

Desert expeditions: the journey

out there
By Naqada I (c.a. 3800 BC) Nile Valley dwellers
were a settled community, and hunting had declined in importance from 10% of meat consumption
during the Badarian era to 1% in Naqada I
(Hendrickx 2011a: 237). However, images of hunting are noted on many artefacts from elite tombs
of the period (Hendrickx 2011b). Scenes on C and
D-Ware pottery are mirrored by the importance of
hunting in the desert rock art where men with
dogs and missile weapons, dogs alone, and even
boats combine to run down prey (fig.5). Often the
animals are portrayed very unrealistically:

88

elephants with ears above the head, asses with

free-flowing manes, ibex with exaggeratedly long
horns, and giraffe with elongated hooves and tufted tails (fig.6). Indeed, the petroglyph animals
are most often depicted in an unrealistic manner.
Why are the animals portrayals strange and unusual? Because to be effective in a liminal area they
must be out of the ordinary. The environment in
which they were made was very different from
their comforting, familiar riverside with the repeated rhythm of the seasons and the annual inundation, while the desert silence would have
presented a different sensorium. Modern travellers into the desert experience a dramatic dichotomy between noisy civilisation and the wilderness.
But we should not underestimate the contrast
that ancient people felt. The absolute silence of the
desert, in which a person could feel almost at one
with the environment, would have been punctuated by the excitement of the sudden sighting of the
quarry, followed by the adrenalin-pumped chase.
Hunting expeditions involved moving from one
realm, with the ordered activities of agricultural

Afrique: Archologie & Arts - 12 - 2016: 81-92

life, into another realm remote and outside the

regular temporality of life by the Nile. To the
sedentary valley inhabitants the desert would
have represented out there, an area of mystery
and wonder which was symbolically remote from
everyday life. The hunters departed from the normal social world and in the wilderness experienced
timelessness, otherness, symbolic communication
through the rock art, and sacralisation of their
identity as Hunting in sedentary societies
acquires value above and beyond its subsistence
role as transgression of boundaries (Hamilakis
2003: 240). Only a limited number of elite persons
would have dared and been permitted to undertake the journey. Both their departure and return
would probably have been publicly witnessed. This
return would have been calculated to impress and
instil wonder, with the hunters displaying new
feathers and prestige products from the desert,
quarry and distant sea.
The vast majority of predynastic Egyptians
were peasants tied to the yearly agricultural cycle
with evidence of exotic products and remains of
feasting only in elite contexts. Those who undertook
the journeys could be seen as completing superhuman tasks. The hunters returned as special persons; as heroes with power having overcome the
wild, and now with enhanced authority to dominate
the normal social, ordered world. Their return was
perhaps then celebrated with feasting, as seen from
faunal evidence from Mahasna and Hierakonpolis
which included wild desert and dangerous riverine
animals, plus large perch and catfish appropriate
to large-scale figures with appropriately god-like
appetites (Anderson 2006; Friedman 2011). The
resources, which could have included ostrich eggs,
carnelian, greywacke for palettes, and gold, as well
as live game, represented an ideological currency.
The possession of valuables indicating special skill
and therefore worthiness of respect could be spent
on rituals in sight of the mass of the population as
part of a process by which the authority of the elite
was produced, reproduced and legitimated. These
expeditions into another realm would also have
reinforced confidence and solidarity of the elites,
small in number, against the immensely greater
number of ordinary farming folk. With the precipitate decline in hunting from the Badarian period
and the mass of the population accustomed to life
in their village, this positioned the leaders even
further apart from the led, for now they claimed
power over the land of the wild, the dangerous and
the dead.

Predynastic Egyptian

Associations of hunting, boats

and dancing figures
Notably, at 67 of the 106 sites (65%) where human
figures are clearly engaged in hunting there is also
a close relationship with boats. Therefore, there is a
strong correlation between hunting images and
those of boats specifically, and animal images and
boats generally. In addition, the dancing figure-with
arms raised above the head and incurved, is seen at
27 (25% of Predynastic sites, Lankester 2013),
almost always associated with animal petroglyphs,
and present particularly at the largest predynastic
sites. At only three sites boat images are not in the
scene with the dancing figures, although they may
be present at the site or nearby. Both the C and
D-Ware ceramics combine boats with desert-based
animals and examples of hunting/control. Although
the images on the C-Ware are mainly of plants, riverine animals and hunting, desert fauna are additionally well represented. There are also half a dozen
pottery vessels with boats. Five of the latter have
animal depictions, four of them showing desert species (Graff 2009). In addition, the Ashmolean redpolished clay box with charcoal drawings, dated to
Naqada Ic/IIa, combines a two frond boat with crocodile on one side, hippopotamus and possibly
giraffes or antelope on the other (Randall-MacIver
& Mace 1902: pl. XII, 10-13).
Images of boats are present at 187 sites (76%)
in the Central Eastern Desert and most of the main
wadis have boat images at three-quarters or more
sites (Lankester 2013: 70). Boat petroglyphs dated
to the predynastic are almost always shown without any visible means of propulsion, and crew
which are rarely shown, are indicated by short lines
(op. cit.: 72). Boats are often portrayed in a completely unrealistic context integrated into hunting
scenes and intermixed with human hunters, dogs
and their quarry. Vessels are also seen being dragged by human figures or with a tow rope, but with
nobody manning it. Usually the number of draggers
would be insufficient to pull a real boat on water or
land (fig.7). Many more are portrayed in the desert
rather than near the River Nile, whereas we might
expect a greater number by the cataracts and areas
of shoals (op. cit.: 81) . The presence of boats in the
desert as part of the dominant hunting motif and
their ability to move through the desert suggest
that they perform an important liminal function.
On the much more formalised D-ware pottery
we have only five apparent desert hunting scenes,
all involving only dog(s), in addition to three

rock art as evidence for early elites rite of passage

89

Figure 7 Large boat with over seventy crew being dragged by seven stick figures, Wadi Baramiya-9, Central
Eastern Desert, Egypt. F. Lankester

showing a riverine hunt (Graff 2009: 254, 256, 303,

346, 379-382). But it is only the manner of depiction which has changed from the earlier C-Ware
and not the theme. There are 36 examples of men
with throw-sticks, in addition to desert animals
such as the ostrich, ibex and addax.
Moreover, a pot from Abydos has a male figure
standing behind a row of animals, appearing to shepherd them forward (op. cit.: 278), while in four cases
a figure actually touches an addax and can be said
to be in control of animals (op. cit.: 256, 258, 286,
297). An example from Gebelein has a male figure
in front of a row of antelope holding a halter on the
lead animal (op. cit.: 362). In addition, 145 of the
D-Ware pots have depictions of desert animals. This
suggests a continuation of the strong link between
valley and desert influencing the work of the artists
(op. cit.) and connects the D-Ware grave pottery with
the desert petroglyph scenes. D-Ware pots show a
restricted, extremely formalised repertoire, probably
being made in a small number of locations (op. cit.).
In this period only one (Sickle-hulled) boat type was
considered appropriate for illustration on the pots,
in contrast to the much more diverse representation
on C-Ware and among much of the rock art. However,
the importance of elite hunting expressed in the
images on the pottery and by the petroglyphs remained highly significant.
So-called Dancing figures in the rock art, with
the unique arms raised above the head and incurved stance, are often integrated into the animal

90

and hunting scenes. The power of dance communicates in a multisensory, emotional, and symbolic
manner and is a vehicle which incorporates
inchoate ideas in a visible human form, appropriate to the liminal zone. It is a multisensory
activity, framing and prolonging communication.
The sight of performers moving in time and space,
the sounds of physical movement, the smell of physical exertion, the feeling of kinaesthetic activity
or empathy, the touch of body to body or performing area, and the proxemic sense has the unique
potential of going beyond many other audio-visual
media of persuasion (Garfinkel 2003: 59). Once
the dance is over the participant feels restored and
refreshed with inner tensions released (op. cit.:
59). We can suggest that early Naqada Egyptians
connected the power of dance with control over the
wild, represented by desert fauna as well as the
crocodile and the hippopotamus, and with river
vessels. These were included in the assemblages
of necessary equipment for the elite deceased.
On this theme, dancing appears as an integral
part of predynastic funerary practice as well as
being present among the Eastern Desert petroglyphs. There are dancing figures on C-Ware pottery
in graves, including three scenes on provenanced
pots from cemetery U at Abydos, one figure with
arms raised (Graff 2009: 245, 247) and two unprovenanced pots having figures with arms raised
from University College London and Brussels (op.
cit.: 242, 243). There is also a Naqada IIc C-Ware

Afrique: Archologie & Arts - 12 - 2016: 81-92

bowl from Mahasna showing two dancers with

outstretched arms associated with hippopotamus
harpooning (op. cit.: 226). Different kinds of dancing are thus indicated in late Naqada I through
IIc apart from the formalised D-Ware. On the
D-Ware the large arms raised figures have a
variety of arm positions. This is also evident in
(provenanced) figurines over a long period starting
from Naqada I and perhaps earlier (Ucko 1968).
We can observe that there is not an exact correspondence in the presence of the dancing figures and
their association with boats between the Nile Valley
and the Central Eastern Desert. On Naqada I
C-Ware pottery, none of the few dancing figures are
associated with, let alone stand in, a boat. The
Ashmolean clay box with the two fronds boat came
from Mahasna, north-west of Abydos, while at
Hierakonpolis, which is on the West Bank nearly
opposite the entrance to Wadi Abbad/Kanais/
Baramiya, there are frond boats, but no arms
raised figures among the petroglyphs. Nor have any
D-Ware pots with such figures been found there. The
Naqada IIc T100 painting has sickle-shaped Type
I vessels (Lankester 2013: 10), animal control and
dancers, albeit not with their arms raised and incurved above the head. Gebelein is located opposite the
north-central part of the survey area and is the
source of the linen found in an elite tomb which has
hippopotamus hunting, boats, and a row of arms
raised figures among a group of other dancers.
These not only suggests a communal dance, but are
associated with boats, the presence of animals and
their hunting. Most of the later D-Ware pots on
which the mainly female large figures are illustrated come from archaeological sites south-east of, but
near to, the Wadi Hammamat; such as Naqada, or
to the north-east in the case of El Amrah, Semainah
and Abydos (Graff 2009). The evidence for group
dancing is sparse. But the Gebelein Linen, T100
painting from Hierakonpolis, some groups of female
figures holding hands on D-Ware (Graff 2009) and
the El Kab petroglyphs suggest that this was done,
mainly by females, in the valley as a counterpart to
the mostly male single figures in the desert rock art.

Conclusion: a new interpretation

for the symbolic expressions of
the empowerment of elites
It is the subject matter rather than the existence of rock art in the Eastern Desert which
excites comment. The presence of hunting scenes
dating from a moister time period is not surprising, but their subject matter is. Rather than realistically showing wild animals being hunted, the
petroglyphs most often depict fauna unrealistically and many times in association with, or integrated into, tableau containing boats and the
dancing figure. Not found in the Nile Valley outside of El Kab-the gate to the wilderness, the
integrated scenes and associations appear different to rock art near to settlements. These more
commonly show cattle, and boats without the association to hunting (Judd 2009). The apparent
strangeness and unrealistic nature of the petroglyphs can be explained as showing the liminal
zone between this world and the next.
In utilising the liminal space members of the
valley elites could go out there to engage in hunting far away from the everyday environment.
There they mastered the conditions and fauna,
and probably sourced magical products such
shells, ostrich eggs and feathers, greywacke for
palettes, and gold (Lankester 2013). They returned to the valley settlements as heroic figures
with supernatural power separating them even
more in political stature from the mass of ordinary peasants. It is noteworthy that many of the
images in the rock art are also shown, sometimes
in different form rather than theme, on pottery
found in graves in the Nile Valley. It is therefore
likely that the desert was seen as the land of the
dead as well as that of the wild. The power gained through the journey out there could be taken
with the elites when they died and were buried
with grave goods representing the combination
of the desert and riverine motifs found in the
rock art.

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