Naqada
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the Egyptian village. See also Naqahdah for the fictional element from the Stargate setting.
Naqada is a district and town about 30km north of Luxor on the west bank of the Nile in southern Egypt (Upper Egypt), and includes some villages such as Toukh, Khatara, Danfiq and Zawayda. It stands near the site of a necropolis from the prehistoric, pre-dynastic period around 4400-3000 BCE. Naqada has given its name to the widespread Naqada culture that existed at the time, here, and at other sites including Badari, Gerzeh, Hierakonopolis (or Nekhen), and Qau. The large quantity of remains from Naqada have enabled the dating of the entire culture, throughout Egypt and environs.
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[edit] Naqada dating scheme
[edit] Flinders Petrie
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)
- Semainian (after the cemetery near Es-Semaina)
[edit] Modern
Petrie's chronology was superseded by that of Werner Kaiser in 1957. Kaiser's chronology began c. 4000 BC, but the modern version begins slightly earlier, as follows:
- Naqada I a-b-c (about 4400–3500 BCE)
- black-topped and painted pottery
- Naqada II a-b-c (about 3500–3200 BCE)
- this culture represented throughout Egypt
- first marl pottery, and metalworking
- Naqada III a-b-c (about 3200–3000 BCE)
- more elaborate grave goods
- cylindrical jars
- writing
[edit] Naqada in Popular Culture
The name Naqada, phonetically written as Naqahdah (also spelled "Naquahdah" or "Naquadah") [ˈnækwɪdʌ], was appropriated by the television series Stargate SG-1 as the name of a fictional substance. Naqahdah is a fictional, superheavy metal. It is also in the original Stargate movie, though never named, only described as a quartzite-like material.
[edit] See also
