Coordinates: 25°5′50″N 32°46′46″E

Nekhen
Nekhen (/ˈnɛkən/) or Hierakonpolis (/ˌhaɪərəˈkɒnpəlɪs/;
Nekhen
Ancient Greek: Ἱεράκων πόλις Hierakōn polis "Hawk City",[1]
(Hierakonpolis)
Egyptian Arabic: ‫اﻟﻜﻮم اﻷﺣﻤﺮ‬, romanized: el-Kōm el-Aḥmar,
lit. 'the Red Mound'[2]) was the religious and political capital
of Upper Egypt at the end of prehistoric Egypt (c. 3200–3100
BC) and probably also during the Early Dynastic Period (c.
3100–2686 BC).

Some authors suggest occupation dates that should begin

thousands of years earlier. The oldest known tomb with
painted decoration on its plaster walls is located in Nekhen
and is thought to date to ca. 3500-3200 BC. It shares
distinctive imagery with artifacts from the Gerzeh culture.

Shown within Egypt

Alternative name Hierakonpolis
Contents
Location Aswan
Horus cult center Governorate, Egypt
Possible ritual structures Coordinates 25°5′50″N
Oldest known Egyptian painted tomb 32°46′46″E
Oldest known zoo History
Continuous activity Material Possibly, oldest
Artifacts painted Ancient
Cylinder seals Egyptian tomb
Cosmetic palettes from Hierakonpolis
Maceheads
Notes
References or
External links

Nekhen
Horus cult center in hieroglyphs

Nekhen was the center of the cult of a hawk deity, Horus of Nekhen, which raised one
of the most ancient Egyptian temples in this city. It retained its importance as the cultic center for this
divine patron of the kings long after the site had otherwise declined.

The first settlement at Nekhen dates from either the predynastic Amratian culture (circa 4400 BC) or,
perhaps, during the late Badari culture (circa 5000 BC). At its height from about 3400 BC, Nekhen had at
least 5,000 and possibly, as many as 10,000 inhabitants.
The ruins of the city originally were excavated toward the end of the nineteenth century by the English
archaeologists James Quibell and Frederick W. Green.

Quibell and Green discovered the "Main Deposit", a foundation

deposit beneath the temple,[3] in 1894. Quibell originally was
trained under Flinders Petrie, the father of modern Egyptology,
however, he failed to follow Petrie's methods. The temple was a
difficult site to excavate to begin with, so his excavation was
poorly conducted and then poorly documented. Specifically, the
situational context of the items therein is poorly recorded and
often, the reports of Quibell and Green are in contradiction.[4]

The most famous artifact commonly associated with the main

deposit, the Narmer Palette, now is thought probably not to have
been in the main deposit at all. Quibell's report made in 1900 put
the palette in the deposit, but Green's report in 1902 put it about
one to two yards away. Green's version is substantiated by earlier
field notes (Quibell kept none), so it is now the accepted record
Hierakonpolis ivory objects
of events.[5]

The main deposit dates to the early Old Kingdom,[4] but the
artistic style of the objects in the deposit indicate that they were from Naqada III and were moved into
the deposit at a later date. The other important item in the deposit clearly dates to the late prehistoric.[6]
This object, the Scorpion Macehead, depicts a king known only by the ideogram for scorpion, now called
Scorpion II, participating in what seems to be a ritual irrigation ceremony.[7] Although the Narmer
Palette is more famous because it shows the first king to wear both the crowns of Upper and Lower
Egypt, the Scorpion Macehead also indicates some early military hostility with the north by showing
dead lapwings, the symbol of Lower Egypt, hung from standards.[7]

John Garstang excavated at Hierakonpolis in 1905-06. He initially hoped to excavate the town site but
encountered difficulties working there,[8] and soon turned his attention to the ‘fort’ of second dynasty
King Khasekhemwy instead. Beneath the ‘fort’, Garstang excavated a Predynastic cemetery consisting of
188 graves, which served the bulk of the city’s population during the late Predynastic and Early Dynastic
periods, revealing the burial practices of the non-elite Egyptians living at Hierakonpolis.[9]

More recently, the concession was excavated further by a multinational team of archaeologists,
Egyptologists, geologists, and members of other sciences, which was coordinated by Michael Hoffman
until his death in 1990, then by Barbara Adams of University College London and Dr. Renee Friedman
representing the University of California, Berkeley and the British Museum until Barbara Adams's death
in 2001,[10] and by Renée Friedman thereafter.

Possible ritual structures

The structure at Nekhen known by the misnomer "fort" is a massive mud-brick enclosure built by
Pharaoh Khasekhemwy of the Second Dynasty.[11] It appears to be similar in structure and ritual purpose
as the similarly misidentified 'forts' constructed at Abydos, all without apparent military function. The
true function of these structures is unknown, but they seem to be related to the rituals of kingship and the
culture.[12] Religion was interwoven inexorably with kingship in Ancient Egypt.
The ritual structure was built on a prehistoric cemetery. The excavations there, as well as the work of
later brick robbers, have seriously undermined the walls and led to the near collapse of the structure. For
two years, during 2005 and 2006, the team led by Friedman was attempting to stabilize the existing
structure and support the endangered areas of the structure with new mudbricks.[13]

Oldest known Egyptian painted tomb

Other discoveries at Nekhen include Tomb
100, the oldest tomb with painted
decoration on its plaster walls. The
sepulchre is thought to date to the Gerzeh
culture (ca. 3500-3200 BC).
An ancient Nekhen tomb painting in plaster with barques,
The decoration shows presumed religious
staffs, goddesses, and animals - possibly the earliest example
scenes and images that include figures
featured in Egyptian culture for three
thousand years—a funerary procession of barques, presumably a goddess standing between two upright
lionesses, a wheel of various horned quadrupeds, several examples of a staff that became associated with
the deity of the earliest cattle culture and one being held up by a heavy-breasted goddess. Animals
depicted include onagers or zebras, ibexes, ostriches, lionesses, impalas, gazelles and cattle.

Oldest known zoo

The oldest known zoological collection was revealed during
excavations at Nekhen in 2009 of a menagerie that dates to ca.
3500 BC. The animals included hippopotami, hartebeest,
elephants, baboons and African wildcats.[14]

Continuous activity
There are later tombs at Nekhen, dating to the Middle Kingdom, Hierakonpolis objects at time of
Second Intermediate Period, and New Kingdom. In the painted discovery
tomb of Horemkhauef a biographical inscription reporting
Horemkhauef's journey to the capital was found. He lived during
the Second Intermediate Period. Because it had a strong association with Egyptian religious ideas about
kingship, the temple of Horus at Nekhen was used as late as the Ptolemaic Kingdom,[15] persisting as a
religious center throughout the thousands of years of Ancient Egyptian culture.

Artifacts
 Hierakonpolis revetment of Hierakonpolis cylindrical
Temple basement limestone vase (photograph
and drawing)

Limestone cylinder jar with

falcons, scorpions, bows and
birds in raised relief. From the
'Main Deposit' at Hierokonpolis.
E. 347. (Ashmolean).

Cylinder seals
Cylinders seals at Hierakonpolis include some of the first known scene of the Pharaoh smiting his
enemies with a mace.[16] Cylinder seals are generally thought to have been derived from Mesopotamian
examples.[17]
 Ivory cylinder seals discovered Hierakonpolis ivory cylinder
in Hierakonpolis with kneeling men, with
impression (drawing)

Hierakonpolis ivory cylinder

seal with impression
(drawing) [16]

Cosmetic palettes from Hierakonpolis

Several of the finest pre-Dynastic decorated palettes were discovered in Hierakonpolis. They often
display Mesopotamia-inspired animals such as the Serpopards, and also incorporate some of the first
hieroglyphs.
The Narmer Palette, with Cosmetic palette of the Two
Serpopards, Hierakonpolis[18] dogs, with Serpopards,
Hierakonpolis.[18]

Maceheads
 The Narmer macehead Content of the Narmer
macehead (drawing)

Scorpion Macehead Remains of a carved serpentine

mace-head

Notes
1. Strabo xvii. p. 817
2. Richardson 2003, p. 429.
3. Shaw 2000, p. 197.
4. Shaw 2003, p. 32.
5. Shaw 2003, p. 33.
6. Shaw 2000, p. 254.
7. Gardiner 1961, p. 403.
8. Adams, B. (1995). Ancient Nekhen : Garstang in the city of Hierakonpolis. Surrey [England]:
SIA Pub. ISBN 1872561039. OCLC 34165351 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/34165351).
9. Adams, B. (1987). The fort cemetery at Hierakonpolis : excavated by John Garstang.
London: KPI. ISBN 0710302754. OCLC 18268735 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1826873
5).
10. Smith, Harry (13 July 2002). "Obituary" (https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/jul/13/gua
rdianobituaries.obituaries?INTCMP=SRCH). The Guardian. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
11. "Interactive Dig Hierakonpolis - Fixing the Fort" (http://www.archaeology.org/interactive/hiera
konpolis/fort.html). www.archaeology.org.
12. Friedman 2006, p. 31.
13. Friedman 2006, p. 36.
14. World's First Zoo - Hierakonpolis, Egypt, Archaeology Magazine,
http://www.archaeology.org/1001/topten/egypt.html
15. Hoffman, Michael Allen; Hamroush, Hany A.; Allen, Ralph O. (1 January 1986). "A Model of
Urban Development for the Hierakonpolis Region from Predynastic through Old Kingdom
Times". Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt. 23: 186. doi:10.2307/40001098
(https://doi.org/10.2307%2F40001098). JSTOR 40001098 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/4000
1098).
16. Bommas, Martin (2011). Cultural Memory and Identity in Ancient Societies (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=ey2ppBNa51IC&pg=PA13). A&C Black. p. 13. ISBN 9781441187475.
17. Wilkinson, Toby (2007). The Egyptian World (https://books.google.com/books?id=RSSfdYb
ZihsC&pg=PT484). Routledge. p. 484. ISBN 9781136753763.
18. Davis, Whitney; Davis, George C. and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Art Historyancient
Modern & Theory Whitney; Davis, Whitney M. (1992). Masking the Blow: The Scene of
Representation in Late Prehistoric Egyptian Art (https://books.google.com/books?id=v6aSL
hkqatYC&pg=PA17). University of California Press. p. 17. ISBN 9780520074880.

References
Friedman, Renee (2006). "The Fort at Hierakonpolis". Ancient Egypt. 6 (6).
Gardiner, Alan (1961). Egypt of the Pharaohs (https://archive.org/details/egyptofpharaohsa0
0gard). Oxford University Press.
Richardson, Dan (2003). Egypt (https://books.google.com/books?id=uL86PAq-eHMC&lpg=P
A851&dq=Kom%20al-Ahmar%20Necropolis&pg=PA429#v=onepage&q=Kom%20al-Ahmar
&f=false). London: Rough Guides. ISBN 9781843530503. Retrieved February 19, 2014.
Shaw, Ian (2000). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (https://archive.org/details/oxfordhist
o00shaw). Oxford University Press.
Shaw, Ian (2003). Exploring Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press.

External links
Interactive Dig: Hierakonpolis (http://www.archaeology.org/interactive/hierakonpolis/index.ht
ml)
Hierakonpolis Online (http://www.hierakonpolis-online.org/)
Leopards, hippos, and cats, oh my! The World's First Zoo (http://daily.jstor.org/leopards-hipp
os-cats-oh-worlds-first-zoo/) by Lorraine Boissoneault, November 12, 2015
A complete narrative of the events portrayed on the mural of Tomb 100 in Hierakonpolis. (htt
p://sumerianshakespeare.com/748301/855901.html)

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