Please note: This program will start at 10:00 am and NOT our usual start time.

Elaborate Endings: Early Egyptian Funerary Practices and the Afterlife at Hierakonpolis

In the predynastic period, the local rulers of Hierakonpolis went to the next life in style. Buried in sizable tombs stocked with supplies for eternity, they were also surrounded by ranks of retainers and an intriguing array of animals, attesting to the maintenance of a veritable royal menagerie as well as testaments to their wealth and power. At their height from about 3600 BC, with the coming of the Dynastic period (ca. 3100 BC), different modes and badges of power emerged. Recent excavations in the elite cemetery at Hierakonpolis are revealing changes in the burial practices that give insight into the new political and ecological landscape at this formative time and allows us to examine how the Hierakonpolis elite transformed their old ways into potent symbols of enduring and recurring importance.

Funerary Feasting: Logistics and Location in Predynastic Hierakonpolis

Feasting was no doubt an important part of funerals and remembrance throughout ancient Egypt’s long history. The size of the feast was commensurate with the status of the deceased, or at least that is how it appears at Hierakonpolis in the predynastic period. Ongoing excavations near the cemetery of Hierakonpolis' ruling elite have revealed a special zone where beer, meat, and fish were prepared on an intensive scale well beyond domestic. Given their location, these industries must be linked with the cemetery, but where exactly their output was consumed had remained elusive. However, a recent geophysical survey, revealing several large structures, gives us not only a glimpse at what was on the menu, but also allows us to consider how sumptuous feasting promoted developments in logistics, administration, and craft specialization that led to the rise of the Dynastic Egyptian state.