Badarian Period

Badarian Period

The Badarian Period is named from the site at el-Badari. It represents a period from around c5500 - c4000BC. The region of el-Badari is located on the east bank of the Nile at the edge of the Eastern Desert bewteen Akhmim and Asyut. Between 1922 and 1931 Flinders Petrie investigated a series of cemeteries and burial grounds recording around 7000 tombs.

The People

The people of this area were farmers, herding sheep and cattle and cultivated cereals such as emmer and barley as well as lentils and tubers. They also hunted and fished as suppliments to the diet.

Burial Practices

The dead were buried with their finest possessions, personal possessions and clothing for use in the next world. Badarians produced fine pottery and carved objects as well as acquiring turquoise and wood through trading. Green malachite ore, so important for the beautification of the eyes, was ground on cosmetic palettes.

In most of these communities the graves of the deceased where situated away from the living areas, the cultivated land, even at this early date, the decision to bury the dead in the desert had already been made.

The bodies of the deceased were buried facing south and the face, west in a fetal position, and wrapped in basketry skins, or linen. The fetal position evokes the idea of rebirth. The southward orientation of the body is in reference that the south is "the land of beginnings." The south is also "the land of the spirits," where the souls of ancestors dwell. The face pointing west reflects the belief of "the hidden land," where the soul of the departed journeys after it quits the body.

Artefacts

Objects found at Badarian sites include: beads, bone needles, copper pins, clay model boats, combs, mirrors, bracelets, ivory finger-rings, nose and ear studs, shells amulet-pendants, woven linen clothing, skins, ivory spoons, cooking pots, basket works, and arrow-heads.

Amulets

Amulets are objects generally kept on the person that are believed to confer some benefit to the wearer. They used amulets on themselves and on their dead.

Malachite
Malachite, was used by the Ancient Egyptians as a green pigment, which would be worn on the eyelids and was used by both men and women.
Green is an important colour in Ancient Egypt as it represented the symbol of renewing life.

Examples of Bardarian Period Artefacts

Top and Right: Badarian Black-topped earthenware

Left: Fertility Image