Anth Assignment 1

Badarian Burials: Evidence of Social Inequality in Middle Egypt During the Early Predynastic Era Author(s): Wendy Anderson Source: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 29 (1992), pp. 51-66 Published by: American Research Center in Egypt Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40000484 Accessed: 13-04-2020 10:55 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide

range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and

facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at

https://about.jstor.org/terms

American Research Center in Egypt is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt

This content downloaded from 131.252.96.10 on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:55:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Badarian Burials: Evidence of Social Inequality in Middle Egypt During the Early Predynastic Era

Wendy Anderson

I. A Social Approach to the Study of Mortuary Data

Recent studies of predynastic Egyptian graves at Armant by Kathryn Bard demonstrate that by Nagada I times, Nile Valley populations were differentiated into two groups consisting of a large number of individuals with few burial goods and a smaller number of persons with large numbers of burial offerings. Prior to that time the situation is less clear. While some

archaeologists have suggested that earlier pre- dynastic Badarian peoples, who are currently regarded as the earliest food producers in Up- per Egypt, show no evidence of wealth or social differentiation, others have suggested the op- posite. Hoffman has argued that marked eco- nomic differences between members of this

population indicate that their social system was distinctly inegalitarian. In this paper I will review briefly current debates concerning the relevance of funerary data for understanding social organization and present the results of an analysis of the Badarian cemeteries that were excavated in the 1920s.

Largely under the influence of Kroeber, who believed burial practices to be unstable and rep- resentative of "fashions" rather than "social ex-

pression, objections to the use of mortuary data to infer social organization have been raised by several researchers. Thus, Hodder has argued that in a grave context the absence of differentiation based on sex, age, and status does not necessarily indicate the absence of social differentiation during life. He maintains that changes in social attitudes towards death can result in less differentiation in the burials of

hierarchically organized societies. As a result of such attitude changes "partial expressions and even inversions of what happens in social life" can take place. Mortuary studies should there- fore not expect to find that any systematic correspondence exists between the burial prac- tices and the social organization of a particular society. Similar observations have been made by Peter Ucko and reiterated by Sally Hum- phreys, who stressed the instability of mortuary practices and noted that representative samples of a population may not be present in cemetery sites, from which individuals may be excluded on the basis of age, sex, or social status. Hum- phreys also warned that burial practices may not be "closely correlated with other aspects of social structure or beliefs ..."

These arguments do not seem to be appro- priate for the Nile Valley, where practically all

1 Kathryn Bard, "A Quantitative Analysis of the Predynas- tic Burials in Armant Cemetery 1400-1 500, "Journal of Egyp- tian Archaeology 74 (1988), 55; An Analysis of the Predynastic Cemeteries of Nagada and Armant in Terms of Social Differentia- tion (University of Toronto, Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, 1987), 123-25.

Bruce G. Trigger, "The Rise of Egyptian Civilization," in Trigger, B. G., Kemp, B. J., O'Connor, D. and Lloyd, A. B., Ancient Egypt: a Social History (Cambridge, 1983), 27.

Michael Hoffman, Egypt Before the Pharaohs (London, 1984), 143.

4 Alfred L. Kroeber, "Disposal of the Dead," American An- thropologist 29 (1927), 312-15.

5 Ian Hodder, The Present Past: an Introduction to Anthro-

pology for Archaeologists (New York, 1982), 144-45. Peter Ucko, "Ethnography and Archaeological Inter-

pretation of Funerary Remains," World Archaeology 1 (1969), 273-74.

7 S. C. Humphreys, "Introduction: Comparative Perspec- tives on Death," in Humphreys, S. C. and King, Helen, eds., Mortality and Immortality: the Anthropology and Archaeology of Death (London, 1981), 4.

51

This content downloaded from 131.252.96.10 on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:55:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

52 JARCE XXIX (1992)

corpses were buried in cemeteries since the Mesolithic age; where there is ample evidence that grave goods were used as status markers throughout the Egyptian Dynastic era as well as during the preceding Gerzean and Amratian periods; where similar objects such as pottery, ivory artefacts, statuettes, jewelry, slate palettes, and other toilet articles are found as funerary equipment throughout the entire time span from the Badarian to the fourth century a.d.; and where socio-economic practices are known to have been closely intertwined with burial practices during the historic period. Further- more, the converse of Hodder's observation on

"inversions" is questionable, since it is unlikely that a society that lacks marked social differ- ences among the living would institute differ- entiation among its dead.

Other researchers have arrived at conclusions

that are fundamentally opposed to those of Kroeber and his recent disciples. The earliest use of mortuary data to infer social distinctions among ancient peoples can be traced to the activities of archaeologists whose discoveries of pyramids and nobles' tombs from the early civilizations of Egypt, China, Mesopotamia, and Mesoamerica led them to equate lavish burials with high rank. More recently, Binford has sug- gested that there is a strong correlation between the structural complexity of burial practices and the status system within any particular society because the "form and structure which charac-

terize the mortuary practices of any society are conditioned by the form and complexity of the organizational characteristics of the society it- self. Saxe has established the interconnection

that exists between resources, formal disposal areas, and corporate groups through compari- sons of ethnographic data from three socie- ties.10 O'Shea has documented the decrease in elaboration of Plains Indian burials that was as-

sociated with a corresponding simplification in

social organization. Chapman and Randsborg have suggested that the use of formal disposal areas, such as cemeteries, may be linked to con- trol over local resources by corporate groups who have acquired authority in those areas; 2 Tainter argues that energy expenditure in mor- tuary ritual is linked directly to rank grading and has asserted that ethnographic tests reveal that most corporate groups use formal disposal areas, and James Brown has claimed that emerging power groups tend to attach them- selves to specific burial locations that serve as symbols of their power base.14 These conclu- sions are all consistent with Binford's premise that a strong correlation should exist between the organizational complexity of a society and its mortuary system, and it is on this assumption that my analysis of Badarian burials was con- ducted. The greatest problem is involved in detecting incipient rather than highly devel- oped social inequality, because societies that are either highly egalitarian or characterized by well-developed hierarchical systems can usually be clearly identified in the archaeological record. It is far more difficult to recognize those that manifest rudimentary inegalitarianism, es- pecially when this condition must be inferred from mortuary data alone.

It has been suggested that the structural com- plexity of a particular society will be expressed by the amount of social differentiation in that society. Two dimensions of social differentia- tion, horizontal (such as sex and age) and verti- cal (social rank), have been conceptualized to measure variations in the degree of social com-

8 T. G. H. James, An Introduction to Ancient Egypt (New York, 1979), 248.

9 Lewis R. Binford, "Mortuary Practices: Their Study and Their Potential," in Binford, Lewis, R., ed. An Archaeo-

logical Perspective (New York, 1972), 236. A. Saxe, Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices (Univer-

sity of Michigan, Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Ann Arbor 1987), 119-21.

11 John M. O'Shea, Mortuary Variability (Orlando, 1984), 273.

Robert Chapman in Chapman, Robert, Kinnes, Ian, and Randsborg, Klavs, eds., The Archaeology of Death (Cam- bridge, 1981), 80; Chapman and Randsborg in Chapman et al., op. cit., 17-19; T. W. Jacobsen and Tracey Cullen in Humphreys and King, op. cit., 90.

Joseph A. Tainter, "Mortuary Practices and the Study of Prehistoric Social Systems," in Schiffer, Michael B., ed. Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory 1 (New York, 1978), 124.

14 Brown, in Chapman et al., op. cit., 29. Randall H. McGuire, "Breaking Down Cultural Com-

plexity: Inequality and Heterogeneity," in Schiffer, Michael B., ed., Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory 6 (New York, 1983), 101.

This content downloaded from 131.252.96.10 on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:55:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

BADARIAN BURIALS 53

plexity exhibited by different societies; and Tainter has suggested that mortuary data are most suitable for assessing both of these dimen- sions. The variables that constitute the "level

of inequality" can be "assessed" by estimating economic differences between members of a

society. I therefore would propose that, if it can be established that a prehistoric community:

1. made use of formal disposal areas to which inclusion was granted on the basis of economic status, and that

2. some form of resource control was opera- tive that may have been vested in a heredi- tary authority, and that

3. horizontal social distinctions within the

society were cross-cut by vertical types of mortuary distinction, and that

4. the higher the status, the fewer were the number of individuals able to attain that

status,

it can be argued that some form of ranking had al- ready developed within the population.

II. The Badarian Problem

Material remains from the Badari region of the Nile Valley were first assigned to this ar- chaeological culture during the 1920s by Guy Brunton and Gertrude Caton-Thompson. Esti- mated dates for the Badarian culture period are from ca. 4,800 B.C. to 4,200 b.c.19 The early date of 5,500 B.C., obtained by the thermolumines- cence method on potsherds from Hemamieh is now believed to be inaccurate, and a time range beginning earlier than 3,850 b.c. is considered more acceptable. Hays has reported a cali-

brated radiocarbon date of 3,715 b.c. for the Ba- darian-like remains at El-Khattara.

In addition to the conflicting chronological estimates associated with Badarian remains,

some archaeologists have noted that the true relationship between the Badarian and other predynastic cultures has yet to be established. Some have argued that the claim for Badarian priority over Amratian may not apply in all lo- calities and that the Badarian and Amratian

cultures may have been "partly contempo- rary . . . for some typical Naqada I wares were found sealed off in Badarian levels at He-

mamieh where pure Naqada I was very poorly represented."23 Others have maintained that there may be a temporal overlap with the still later Gerzean;24 while still others have insisted that wherever it was encountered, the Badarian

predated the Amratian period.25 Thus, al- though it is possible that the Badarian may be (in whole or part) a subdivision of the Amratian or even the Gerzean, since no definitive chro-

nology of early predynastic cultures presently can be advanced, it will be assumed that the Ba-

darian represents a separate cultural period that pre- ceded the Amratian in time. It was decided that

the chronological issue need not be addressed further in this paper, which is primarily con- cerned with assessing the degree of social ine- quality characteristic of Badarian communities.

Brunton located Badarian villages and ceme- teries in the low desert along the east bank of the Nile from Matmar to Etmanieh and Caton-

Thompson excavated a stratified site at He- mamieh in which Badarian flint implements and potsherds were recovered from the lowest levels of the deposits. Unfortunately, Caton- Thompson's discoveries at Hemamieh provided little or no information about the Badarian way

16 Ibid., 93, 98. Joseph A. Tainter, "Modeling Change in Prehistoric

Social Systems," in Binford, Lewis R., ed. For Theory Building in Archaeology (New York, 1977), 329.

Guy Brunton and Gertrude Caton-Thompson, The Badarian Civilization and Predynastic Remains near Badari (London, 1928), 1.

19 David O'Connor, "The Earliest Pharaohs and the Uni- versity Museum - Old and New Excavations: 1900-1987," Expedition 29 (1987), 27-39.

* Diane L. Holmes, "The Predynastic Lithic Industries of Badari, Middle Egypt: New Perspectives and Inter- regional Relations," World Archaeology 20 (1988), 70.

21 T. R. Hays, "A Reappraisal of the Egyptian Predynas- tic," in Clark, J. Desmond and Brandt, Steven A., eds., From Hunters to Farmers (Berkeley, 1984), 72.

22 A. J. Arkell and Peter J. Ucko, "Review of Predynastic Development in the Nile Valley," Current Anthropology 6 (1965), 156.

16 Ibid., 152; Gertrude Caton-Thompson and E. Whittle, "Thermoluminescence Dating of the Badarian," Antiquity 49 (1975), 94-95.

^ Hays, op. cit., 73. Brunton and Caton-Thompson, op. cit., 1.

^ Ibid., 79-116; Caton-Thompson and Whittle, op. cit., 90.

This content downloaded from 131.252.96.10 on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:55:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

54 JARCE XXIX (1992)

of life. Reconstructions of Badarian culture are

therefore derived almost wholly from Brun- ton's interpretive reports of the cemetery data. The Badarians are usually depicted as semisedentary agriculturalists who inhabited flimsy dwellings, stored grain in deep clay bins, baked bread, made superb pottery, fashioned crude stone implements, herded goats and cattle, hunted game, and entombed grave goods with their dead. Recently, Trigger has suggested that they were probably engaged in pastoralism or a seasonal occupation of the floodplain combined with hunting and fishing in the wadis along the Nile. An economy of this type would certainly account for the nu- merous animal bones, fish bones, mussel shells,

apparent hunting equipment, and lack of farm- ing implements at the Badarian desert-village sites. In fact, little evidence for Badarian agri- culture exists. However, although there is no indication of grain storage at any of the known Badarian sites, some evidence for Badarian

agriculture is derived from a disturbed grave at Mostagedda from which Emmer wheat was re- covered. The animal domesticates identified

by Brunton consisted of a "quadruped," that may have been an ox, and "probably a sheep." Goats were mentioned but never identified pos- itively.31 Partly because of the inconclusive na- ture of this information, and partly because no systematic analysis of the data resulting from Brunton 's excavations was ever undertaken, re-

constructions of Badarian socio-economic sys- tems are often in considerable disagreement.

In an attempt to resolve whether socially significant differences existed within Badarian communities, I made a quantitative analysis of the excavated mortuary remains from several Badarian cemeteries. Grave sizes, the types of pottery discovered in tombs, the presence or ab- sence of luxury goods and the degree of grave disturbance encountered were among the cate- gories examined in order to determine whether significant differences in access to material

goods existed amongst these Nile Valley com- munities during the fifth and sixth millennia B.C.

III. A Quantitative Analysis of Badarian Mortuary Remains

The eighteen cemeteries chosen for this analysis were all located on the east bank of the Nile in three adjacent regions: Matmar, Mo- stagedda and Badari. They contained a total of 725 Badarian burials. However, this discussion will be concerned mainly with the 262 burials in the seven cemeteries at Badari. All data were

compiled from information recorded in Brun- ton's site reports. Unlike many mortuary pop- ulations, the Badarian skeletal material on which this research is based is considered to be

quite representative of the past living popula- tions from which it was derived, since it was well

preserved and consisted of relatively large num- bers of specimens, including numerous sub- adults. Skeletal remains were only scarce in those badly plundered cemeteries from which bodies presumably had been removed by tomb robbers. In Brunton's report on the difficulties involved in determining the age and sex of skel- etal material, he notes that his relatively un- qualified "assistants" were responsible for the sex determinations that appear in the Tomb Registers.33 Unfortunately, it was not possible to estimate the level of error involved, which de-

pends both on the method used and the compe- tence of the analysts. In this case, the method is unknown. The results of a recent re-analysis of some of the skeletal material unearthed by Brunton suggested an error level of approxi- mately twenty-six percent. But these results are inapplicable to the Badarian remains, since only four of the 108 skulls studied were predy- nastic, and none of these is apparently Badar- ian. However, since the sex of 134 bodies and

the ages of 170 skeletons from Badari are also attributed to apparently independent estimates by Brenda N. Stoessiger of the Biometric Labo-

Brunton and Caton-Thompson, op. cit., 41. Trigger in Trigger et al., op. cit., 9-30. Guy Brunton, Mostagedda and the Tasian Culture (Lon-

don, 1937), 38, 59.

30 Brunton and Caton-Thompson, op. cit., 38. 51 Ibid., 41.

32 Brunton and Caton Thompson, op. cit. 55 Guy Brunton, E. W. Gardner and W. M. F. Petrie, Qau

and Badari (London, 1927), 5. 34 George E. Mann, "On the Accuracy of Sexing of

Skeletons in Archaeological Reports," Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 75 (1989), 246-49.

This content downloaded from 131.252.96.10 on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:55:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

BADARIAN BURIALS 55

ratory at University College London and by G. M. Morant,35 the published determinations are probably reasonably accurate.

Twelve major variables were utilized in the data analysis: sex, age, grave condition (undis- turbed, disturbed, and plundered), grave size, to- tal grave goods, pottery (polished, rippled, and rough), tools, shells, a residual class of "other objects" such as animal bones, and a category of luxury goods, including beads, slate palettes, and ivory. The term "subadult" has been used to in- dicate immature individuals of either sex, and

the "ages" assigned refer to the categories "sub- adult," "adult" and "old."

The first object of the analysis was to deter- mine the characteristics of the burial good dis- tribution in the Badarian cemeteries. It was

suggested that by adopting the hypothesis that the grave goods were dispersed at random, the apportionment of grave goods could be de- scribed by a statistical model called the multi- nomial distribution. "Distributed at random" is

used here to mean that every burial good has the same probability of occurring in every grave. It also means that the grave goods are in- dependently distributed. In other words, the placement of any grave good in a particular grave has no bearing on the placement of any other grave good in a grave.36 It was found that the hypothesis (that grave goods were distrib- uted at random) could be rejected for grave good dispersal among undisturbed subadult graves as well as those of adult females and males in all seven Badari cemeteries. In other

words, it was established that the burial goods were not distributed in a random fashion.

A preliminary analysis of Brunton's observa- tions from Badari revealed that 2,955 grave goods were distributed among 262 burials in seven cemeteries (Table 1 and Table 2). Ninety- eight percent of the total burial goods at Ba- dari occurred in three of the seven cemeteries.

These three cemeteries contained ninety-two percent of all the graves in the Badari area, and the greatest percentage of burial equipment occurred in the graves at Badari West. Sixty- seven percent of the burial offerings occurred

Table 1 . Descriptive statistics of Badarian burials near Badari

Total Total Mean % Grave No. of Goods/ of Grand

Goods Graves Grave Total

Subadults 856 42 20.38 28.97 Adults 1587 134 11.84 53.71

Old individuals 42 21 2.00 1.42

Individuals: missing 470 65 7.23 15.91 or age unknown

Males 1340 93 14.41 45.35

Females 295 60 4.92 9.98

Individuals: missing 1320 109 12.11 44.67 or sex unknown

Burials in all seven 2955 262 11.28 - cemeteries

(Percentages are based on the total number of grave goods [2955] at all seven Badari cemeteries). Note: Not all categories are con- tained in this table (e.g., graves in which the condition is unknown) and some of those listed are redundant or included more than once

(e.g., adults are males and females from the following types of graves: plundered, disturbed, undisturbed and those of unknown condition.)

in this cemetery, which had ninety-three graves. Twenty-one percent of the burial goods were found at Badari North, also with ninety-three graves, and ten percent at Badari South with fifty-four graves. The remaining 1.76 percent of the burial goods were distributed in tiny grave clusters, totalling twenty-two graves, at the other four cemeteries (Table 3).

In addition to the statistical tests that were

performed on raw counts of individual grave goods, wealth indices were computed for each cemetery. These were determined from aver- ages of the "total goods value" for individual cemeteries. Each wealth index (W), was calcu- lated as:

where Vj is the total value of burial goods in the ith grave, and TV is the number of graves in the particular sample being analysed. For each i, Vj was calculated from the formula

m

Vi = Lnkvk k=\

where m is the number of types or classes of burial objects in a grave, nk is the number of grave goods of type k, and v k is the value of a

35 G. M. Morant, in Brunton, op. cit., 63. 36 W. J. Anderson, personal communication.

This content downloaded from 131.252.96.10 on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:55:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

56 JARCE XXIX (1992)

Table 2. Descriptive statistics for grave goods from Badarian burials in all seven cemeteries at Badari

%of Grave No. of Mean/ Grand

Goods Graves Grave Total

Plundered graves: adult males 145 15 9.67 4.91 adult females 77 13 5.92 2.61 subadults 154 6 25.67 5.21

occupants of 408 54 7.56 13.81 unknown age

Disturbed graves: adult males 21 9 2.33 0.71 adult females 15 8 1.88 0.51

subadults 1 1 1.00 0.03

occupants of 47 4 11.75 1.59 unknown age

Undisturbed graves: adult males 1147 55 20.86 38.82 adult females 173 25 6.92 5.85 subadults 629 29 21.69 21.29

occupants of 4 2 2.00 0.14 unknown age

Total:1 subadults 856 42 20.38 28.96

adults 1587 134 11.84 53.70

old individuals 42 21 2.00 1.42

grave occupants 470 65 7.23 15.91 of unknown age

Grand total 2955 262 11.28 -

(Percentages are based on the total number of grave goods [2955] at all seven Badari cemeteries). 1 All categories of data (e.g., graves of unknown condi-

tion) are included in these totals.

grave good of type k. Because some items were characterized as "luxury goods" in terms of their exotic origin, their relative scarcity or the amount of effort expended on their manu- facture, they were given higher "values" than pots, which were all assigned a value of one. Wealth indices indicated that the average Badari wealth index was twenty-four. The wealth index of sixty-one, which was the highest obtained for a Badarian cemetery, occurred in the Badari South cemetery at Badari.

Since an initial frequency distribution of grave areas within all seven cemeteries at Badari indicated an unexpected variation in the sizes of graves from 0.19 to 4.34 square metres, and

Table 3. Burial goods from Badarian burials near Badari

Badari North Badari Far-North

No. % No. %

Total luxury goods 470 20.58 1 0.04 Shells 37 11.14 10 3.01

Pottery 76 36.54 4 1.92 Total grave goods 616 20.85 16 0.54

Badari West Badari East

No. % No. %

Total luxury goods 1624 71.10 1 0.04 Shells 252 75.90 0 0

Pottery 66 31.73 14 6.73 Total grave goods 1990 67.34 16 0.54

Badari South Badari Mid-South

No. % No. %

Total luxury goods 186 8.14 2 0.08 Shells 33 9.94 0 0

Pottery 36 17.30 4 1.92 Total grave goods 297 10.05 7 0.24

Badari Far-South

No. %

Total luxury goods 0 0 Shells 0 0

Pottery 8 3.85 Total grave goods 13 0.44

(Percentages are based on the total number of luxury goods [2284], shells [332], pottery [208], and grave goods [2955] at all seven Badari cemeteries). Note: Not all categories are contained in this table and some of those listed are redundant

or included more than once.

since it was immediately apparent that there was great diversity in the nature and number of grave goods present in the various tombs, the cemetery data were further examined in an attempt to establish whether there were any significant differences between cemeteries or within cemeteries in terms of the number and

type of burial goods recovered or of the extent of plundering reported. The data were also analysed to determine

whether there was any association between the occurrence of burial goods and the age or sex of the grave occupants. Cross-tabulation was em- ployed in each case, and the findings may be summarized as follows: In every instance, the null hypothesis states that there is no association

This content downloaded from 131.252.96.10 on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:55:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

BADARIAN BURIALS 57

Table 4. Badari cemeteries: grave goods and sex of grave occupant

DF: 3

Total Chi-square: 0.397 p: 0.9409 Contingency coefficient: 0.051

Cell freq. Male Female Totals

Goods = 0 Observed 27 19 46

Expected 27.96 18.04 46 Goods = 1 Observed 34 22 56

Expected 34.04 21.96 56 Goods = 2 Observed 14 7 21

Expected 12.76 8.24 21 Goods > 3 Observed 18 12 30

Expected 18.24 11.76 30

between the set of variables under study. This hy- pothesis could be rejected in three instances. The data indicate that there is some association

between grave goods and grave area; grave goods and grave condition; and between grave goods and the age status of a grave occupant. However, the data do not indicate any associa- tion between grave goods and the sex of a grave occupant (Table 4).

The positive association between grave goods and grave area is that more than the expected number of large graves contained three or more burial goods (Table 5); likewise, far more than the expected number of graves with more than three burial goods tend to be plundered (Table 6). Between grave goods and age status the positive association is that more than the expected number of subadults seem to have large numbers of burial goods, while more than the expected number of adults seem to have no burial goods. In other words, subadults have more grave offerings than adults (Table 7).

IV. An Interpretation of the Data Analysis

It has been suggested that it would be reason- able to infer something of Badarian socio- economic conditions from an analysis of their burial remains. Some archaeologists have argued that economic differences between members of

the Badarian population were small and their

Table 5. Badari cemeteries: grave goods and grave area

DF: 6

Total Chi-square: 18.186 p: 0.0058 Contingency coefficient: 0.279

Cell freq. Small Medium Large Totals

Goods = 0 Observed 23 7 3 33

Expected 15.2 11.05 6.75 33 Goods = 1 Observed 35 29 10 74

Expected 34.07 24.78 15.14 74 Goods = 2 Observed 15 11 6 32

Expected 14.73 10.72 6.55 32 Goods > 3 Observed 26 25 25 76

Expected 35 25.45 15.55 76

social system may have been basically egalitarian. They attribute the inclusion of grave goods with some burials but not with others to personal choice or to status differences achieved as the

result of personal effort or perhaps even to in- creases or decreases in the number of artefacts

that were deposited in tombs over time. It could be argued that some Badarian people simply chose to be buried with personal adornments while others did not. On the other hand, the

discovery that the grave goods in the predynas- tic cemeteries under consideration were not dis-

tributed in a random manner seems to require an explanation beyond that of personal choice on the part of the grave occupant or his or her kin group. At least one source to which a non- random dispersion of burial goods may perhaps be attributed is age.

( 1 ) Differences in economic status between grave occupants

The data indicate that there is an association

between the number of burial goods discovered in a particular tomb and the age status of its occupant. However, the nature of this associa- tion can only be further established through an interpretation of the cross-tabulation results.

37 Trigger in Trigger et al., op. cit., 27.

This content downloaded from 131.252.96.10 on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:55:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

58 JARCE XXIX (1992)

Table 6. Badari cemeteries:

grave goods and grave condition

DF: 6

Total Chi-square: 18.456 p: 0.0052 Contingency coefficient: 0.266

Cell fre- Plun- Undis- Dis- Totals

quencies dered turbed turbed

Goods = 0 Observed 9 32 1 42

Expected 15.45 22.74 3.82 42 Goods =1 Observed 28 49 11 88

Expected 32.36 47.64 8 88 Goods = 2 Observed 13 21 3 37

Expected 13.61 20.03 3.36 37 Goods > 3 Observed 39 29 7 75

Expected 27.58 40.6 6.82 75

Of the 197 individuals that comprise the three age categories present at Badari, adults comprise the largest number of persons (134) associated with grave goods. Only thirty-eight subadults and sixteen old individuals are associated with

burial goods (Table 7). This distribution of burial goods is quite con-

sistent with an interpretation of the Badarian socio-economic system as one that exhibits both a minimum of social complexity and mar- ginal differences in wealth between its mem- bers. Moreover, it has been observed that status differences in such societies are often found to

be age-dependent and also that these distinc- tions may be reflected in the society's mortuary practices. For example, Binford reports that in seven of eleven instances where status differen-

tiation within a society was based on age, separate burial locations were used for adults and children. Two patterns were recognized: house burials were reserved for children while

a cemetery was used for adults, or, children were buried on the outskirts of the settlement

while adults were buried within it. However,

although there is an apparent association be- tween grave goods and age status at Badari, there is no unmistakable evidence of differen-

tial treatment of individual grave occupants in terms of age-related burial location.

Table 7. Badari cemeteries: grave goods and age status

DF: 6

Total Chi-square: 18.923 p: 0.0043 Contingency coefficient: 0.296

Cellfreq. Subadult Adult Old Totals

Goods = 0 Observed 4 41 5 50

Expected 10.66 34.01 5.33 50 Goods = 1 Observed 14 50 7 71

Expected 15.14 48.29 7.57 71 Goods = 2 Observed 3 17 4 24

Expected 5.12 16.32 2.56 24 Goods > 3 Observed 21 26 5 52

Expected 11.09 35.37 5.54 52

Furthermore, the data also show that nearly equal numbers of subadults and adults (twenty- one and twenty-six respectively), as opposed to only five old individuals, received more than three grave goods each. Also, almost twice the expected number of subadults received more than three burial offerings, and twice as many subadults as old people received at least one burial good. Four subadults were found to lack burial goods and five old individuals had been buried without offerings. Still, a larger percentage of old adults were found to lack burial offerings, since there were forty-two sub- adults and only twenty-one old adults in these cemeteries near Badari.

There are therefore several reasons why this particular association of age and grave goods cannot be interpreted as an indication that sta- tus differences within Badarian society were age-dependent or dependent on seniority. First of all, in the four cemeteries in which imma-

ture burials were discovered, the largest mean number of grave goods is found with subadults. Secondly, the largest number of grave goods is found with adults rather than with old individ-

uals, and thirdly, twenty-four percent of the old grave occupants, as opposed to thirty percent of the adults and ten percent of the subadults, had no grave offerings whatsoever. Besides, out of a total of fifty-four undisturbed graves at Badari North, eight were those of old individ- uals with a mean number of 0.75 grave goods deposited in their tombs. The mean number of 38 Binford, in Binford, ed., op. cit., 233-34.

This content downloaded from 131.252.96.10 on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:55:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

BADARIAN BURIALS 59

burial goods in the ten undisturbed subadult graves at the same cemetery was 12.60. At Badari West, it was found that, although almost equal numbers of subadults and old in- dividuals were likely to have no grave offerings or either one or two grave offerings, subadults were three times as likely as old adults to have three or more than three grave goods. At Badari South, the data did not indicate any association between the number of burial goods discovered in a given tomb and the age status of its grave occupant. Moreover, although ten per- cent of the total Badarian tomb offerings and forty-six percent of the total ivory goods were recovered from these burials, none of the grave occupants at this cemetery was listed as "old." It would therefore appear that the nature of the association between grave goods and age status within the Badari cemeteries consists of a high association of grave goods with subadults but not with old individuals. It can therefore be con-

cluded that the non-random distribution of Ba-

darian mortuary offerings cannot be attributed to status distinctions achieved solely as the re- sult of age.

Furthermore, a comparison of subadult burial offerings in the seven cemeteries shows that there was considerable variation in both the

quantity and quality of the grave goods depos- ited in the tombs. At Badari West the mean

number of goods in twenty-five subadult tombs was 26.64, while that in the twelve subadult

graves at Badari North was 10.67, and 14.75 was the mean for offerings in the burials of four subadults at Badari South. There were three

burial goods in the grave of the only child found at Badari East. Subadults were absent from the

remaining three cemeteries at Badari. In three undisturbed graves of subadults at Badari South, Badari North, and Badari West, the total num-

ber of grave offerings is four, one, and ten arte- facts respectively. The tomb at Badari North only contained locally made pottery; the others contained items made of both local and im-

ported materials. A fourth undisturbed child at Badari West had been buried with a single pot of local manufacture.

Both between cemeteries and within ceme-

teries, these differences in the quantity and quality of offerings may be interpreted as an

indication of an unequal distribution of mate- rial wealth amongst the grave occupants. How- ever, the discoveries of plentiful burial offerings in the graves of young children are necessary but insufficient evidence to demonstrate the ex-

istence of a rudimentary system of ranking among members of the Badarian population. Unless further evidence of economic inequality between members of Badarian communities can

be produced, their social system might be por- trayed as being basically egalitarian.

At Badari, a study of the distribution of luxury goods recovered from the graves revealed that:

1. Graves containing luxury goods tend to have areas that are larger than the mean grave area computed for all graves. For example, the mean grave size for all graves is 1.32 square metres. At Badari South, the disturbed grave (5151) from which five ivory objects were retrieved was 3.03 square metres in area. Another disturbed grave in the same cemetery that was 3.25 square metres in area contained seven ivory artefacts.

2. Graves containing luxury goods tend to have more grave goods than other graves. The mean number of burial goods found in the graves at Badari is 11.28; however, forty-four is the mean number of grave goods present in graves at Badari North that contain two ivory artefacts, and seventy-seven burial offerings were found in the Badari West grave with fifteen ivory artefacts. Even at Badari South, where only forty-four percent of the burials still con- tained luxury objects after plundering, forty grave offerings were discovered in the grave that contained seven ivory goods.

3. Graves containing luxury goods tend to be more "elaborate" than other graves. Brun- ton reported that in some burials "... the matting which surrounded the body was kept up by means of sticks, forming a sort of miniature tent." Moreover, while

Badarian corpses were usually wrapped in

39 Christopher S. Peebles and Susan M. Kus, "Some Archaeological Correlates of Ranked Societies," American Antiquity 42 (1977), 431.

This content downloaded from 131.252.96.10 on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:55:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

60 JARCE XXIX (1992)

matting in the most common form of burial, "hamper coffins" were identified in some instances. Some of these occurred in

graves that contained both luxury goods and large numbers of burial offerings. The burial at Badari West that is described as

the undisturbed tomb of a child "in a rush

coffin" contained gravegoods that included carnelian, blue glazed steatite beads, an ivory spoon, a slate palette, and a string of shells. "Hamper coffins" may also have been present in three other burials.

4. Graves containing luxury goods tend to be "disturbed." A brief account of the distri-

bution of ivory artefacts in the Badari cemeteries will serve to illustrate this

point. A total of seventy-eight ivory objects were retrieved from thirty-six tombs in three cemeteries. Fifty-four of these ivory artefacts were removed from plundered graves; twelve artefacts occurred in dis- turbed graves and nine artefacts were re- moved from undisturbed graves. Thus, of the thirty-six Badari graves that contained ivory objects, only seven were undisturbed. Two were listed as disturbed; the rest were

all plundered. It would appear to be highly significant that no ivory artefacts occurred in the undisturbed graves at Ba- dari South, whereas twelve ivory artefacts were found in two of the six disturbed

tombs and twenty-four ivory objects were retrieved from sixteen of the forty-four plundered tombs at this cemetery. More- over, cross-tabulation between grave con- dition and the presence or absence of ivory artefacts at all seven Badari cemeteries

showed that twice (twenty-seven) the ex- pected number (13.24) of graves that con- tained ivory were plundererd, while less than half (seven) the expected number (19.49) were undisturbed.

The data therefore suggest that certain highly visible graves were subject to plundering and also that such graves comprised a minority of the total burials in these cemeteries. Of the 262

graves at all seven Badari cemeteries, 131 (fifty percent) were recorded as undisturbed. Twenty-

two burials were listed as disturbed. The condi-

tion of twenty burials was described as un- known; the remaining eighty-nine were listed as plundered. Therefore, only thirty-four percent of the total number of burials were plundered.

Five of these plundered graves were discov- ered at Badari West and thirty-three were found at Badari North. At Badari South, forty-four burials, or eighty-one percent of the cemetery total, were plundered. The scale on which the business of grave robbing was conducted there- fore varied from cemetery to cemetery. It is also perhaps significant that the largest amount of ivory was recovered from Badari South, the same cemetery for which the highest rate of plundering is recorded (Table 8).

On the other hand, a study of the distribu- tion of Badarian pottery suggests that pottery was consistently ignored by tomb robbers. Rippled pottery tended to be found in undisturbed graves. Polished pottery tended to be found in the wealthier graves, even after plundering. Thus, plunderers were apparently primarily en- gaged in removing luxury goods or "sociotech- nic" artefacts (those that served to symbolize social rank or vertical social differentiation) from the Badarian tombs.

Brunton's data show that in many cases im- ported materials were found in the tombs. In the plundered graves, only the broken parts of the presumably more valued articles were usually left behind. Even so, imported goods are more often found in the disturbed or plun- dered burials. Locally made artefacts usually tend to predominate in the undisturbed graves. Krzyzaniak reports that the clay which was uti- lized in the manufacture of Badarian pottery was found locally, whereas ivory was probably imported from the south.41 The steatite, cop- per, turquoise, carnelian, slate, and malachite found in some graves were all imported and assumed by Brunton to be evidence of trade.42 The origin of the carnelian may have been either the Western or the Eastern Desert or

Lech Krzyzaniak, Early Farming Cultures on the Lower Nile (Warsaw, 1977), 32.

41 Brunton and Caton-Thompson, op. cit., 41. 1 Brunton and Caton-Thompson, op. cit., 41-42; Krzyz-

aniak, op. cit., 32-33.

This content downloaded from 131.252.96.10 on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:55:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

BADARIAN BURIALS 61

Nubia; the slate must have been obtained from the Eastern Desert and the malachite was ob-

tained from either the Sinai or the Eastern

Desert.43 However obtained, the evidence indi- cates that these "luxury goods" were dispersed in a minority of the Badarian graves, and also that plundering of these graves actually took place during the Badarian period. At Badari South, Burial 5162 is reported to be undisturbed. The corpse, that of an adult male, was wrapped in matting and unaccompanied by burial goods. Nineteen inches (0.48 metres) under this grave, Brunton discovered Burial 5163, the plundered tomb of an adult female. Eight grave goods in- cluding an Ancillaria shell of Red Sea origin, malachite, a shell bead, four slate beads, and a

carnelian bead remained in the plundered grave. These burial offerings were all imports.

The discovery that the dispersion of grave goods amongst the Badarian graves is non- random; the finding that thirty-five of the grave occupants had been entombed with more than ten grave goods each, while ninety had received only one burial offering and fifty-one had re- ceived none; the discovery that there was an as- sociation between the number of burial goods recovered from the various tombs and (a) the sizes of graves, (b) the condition of graves, and (c) grave occupants listed as "subadults"; the finding that the data do not indicate an associa- tion between the sex of a grave occupant and the number of grave goods retrieved from any particular grave; the detection of differences in the quantity and quality of grave offerings both between and within cemeteries; the detection that

the most richly furnished graves were restricted to a minority of the mortuary population, and furthermore that such tombs were subject to plundering - all may be interpreted as a mani- festation of the unequal distribution of material wealth amongst the grave occupants and thus an indication of differential access to resources

by members the same Badarian community. Another indication that both social and eco-

nomic differences existed amongst Badarian groups is provided by the observation that, apart

Table 8. Burial characteristics of Badarian

burials near Badari

Badari North Badari Far-North

No. % No. %

Total burials 93 3

Graves without 18 19.36 0 0

goods Graves with 1 burial 41 44.09 1 33.33

good Graves with 11 to 9 9.68 - -

115 goods Burials with ivory 12 12.90 1 33.33 Burials with palettes 6 6.45 0 0 Burials with beads 13 13.98 0 0

Burials with pottery 53 56.99 3 100.00 Plundered burials 33 35.48 2 66.67 Undisturbed burials 54 58.07 1 33.33 Wealth index 29 - 5 -

Badari West Badari East

No. % No. %

Total burials 93 9

Graves without 23 24.73 0 0

goods Graves with 1 burial 27 29.03 5 55.56

good Graves with 11 to 18 19.35 - -

511 goods Burials with ivory 7 7.53 0 0 Burials with palettes 8 8.60 1 11.11 Burials with beads 19 20.43 0 0

Burials with pottery 50 53.76 9 100.00 Plundered burials 5 5.38 4 44.44

Undisturbed burials 63 67.74 3 33.33 Wealth index 36 - 22 -

Badari South Badari Mid-South

No. % No. %

Total burials 54 5

Graves without 8 14.82 1 20.00

goods Graves with 1 burial 14 25.93 1 20.00

good Graves with 11 to 8 14.82 - -

55 goods Burials with ivory 16 29.63 0 0 Burials with palettes 3 5.56 1 20.00 Burials with beads 14 25.93 1 20.00

Burials with pottery 25 46.30 3 60.00 Plundered burials 44 81.48 1 20.00

Undisturbed burials 4 7.41 4 80.00

Wealth index 61 - 12 -

Note: Many of the categories contained in this table are redundant or included more than once.

43 Krzyzaniak, op. cit., 32-33. Brunton and Caton-Thompson, op. cit., 38.

This content downloaded from 131.252.96.10 on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:55:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

62 JARCE XXIX (1992)

from those undisturbed graves that contained no grave offerings, at least four different "types" of burial appeared to exist at Badari:

1. Wealthy interments that contained objects made specifically for burial and with no evi- dence of use constitute 3.4 percent of the Badari burials. These tombs usually con- tained non-utilitarian objects often made of exotic materials and pottery types that were almost never recovered from "village" deposits.

2. Wealthy interments with possibly used ar- ticles, such as the occasional worn slate

palette or ivory cosmetic vase that still con- tained traces of malachite paste. Five per- cent of the Badari graves can be assigned to this category of burials.

3. Burials that were similar to the "wealthy" burials in every respect but substituted products manufactured from local materi- als. The nonutilitarian burial goods in tombs of this type, which accounted for 4.6 percent of the Badari burials, were fash- ioned of bone or clay rather than of ivory.

4. Burials that contained only used domestic objects, such as repaired or smoke black- ened pots, accounted for eight percent of the total burials at Badari.

Given the thesis that the burial status of a

particular individual will correspond to the so- cial position occupied by the deceased during his or her lifetime,45 the identification of major categorical differences between the burials at Badari suggests the existence of several differ- ent burial statuses symbolizing several different social positions. The economic differences be- tween the burials, and thus between the social

positions symbolized, further imply the exis- tence of unequal access to resources by mem- bers of Badarian society.

The claim of unequal resource use among these communities was also supported by the discovery that economic differences were ex- pressed in the spatial patterning produced by the placement of graves within certain ceme- teries as well as by the location of particular

cemeteries. Thus, an analysis of the graves at Badari North demonstrated that burials were

grouped in two spatially distinct areas. Al- though there was one child in the western part of the cemetery who had been interred with sixty objects, the thirty-seven graves in this sec- tion normally contained only one offering in each burial along with the remains of mainly undisturbed males and subadults. Luxury goods were restricted to the burials in the eastern half of the cemetery. Twelve burials contained ivory and six contained palettes. One contained a carved ibex head, one contained copper beads, while turquoise beads were recovered from another. None of these materials was found in graves in the western area.

(2) Resource control vested in a hereditary authority

It has been established that, at those Badarian

cemeteries for which grave plans were available, the most notable aspect of burial placement was the tendency to separate burials into distinct clusters in various sections of the same ceme-

tery. Following a review of the ethnographic evi- dence from thirty societies, Tainter suggested that the "presence of formal disposal areas will strongly indicate that the archaeologist has iso- lated individual corporate groups . . . The tendency to place burials in clusters within cem- eteries might, therefore, reflect the existence of Badarian family or clan groups.

Moreover, it would appear that some burial offerings may have been regarded as "sumptu- ary" items that served to mark differences in rank and to which restricted access was socially sanctioned. A spatial analysis of the cemetery plots at Badari North, Badari West and Badari South did indeed suggest that certain burial items, such as ivory objects and carnelian beads, tended to cluster in specific areas.

At Badari South the grave plot distribution revealed that burials were grouped in three sec- tions. Roughly equal numbers of burials were located in each section. Graves were first cate-

gorized in terms of the presence or absence of ivory. Although some ivory bearing tombs were

45 O'Shea, op. cit., 10. 46 Tainter in Schiffer, op. cit., 123. 47 Bard, op. cit. (1987), 121.

This content downloaded from 131.252.96.10 on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:55:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

BADARIAN BURIALS 63

situated in both the north-western and south-

western areas, ten graves containing ivory were clustered in the south-western portion of the cemetery. Among these were tombs that con- tained an elaborate statuette of elephant ivory, a knobbed ivory bracelet, and fancy ivory combs as well as spoons. Only four graves in the south- eastern part of the cemetery contained ivory, and ivory occurred in only two graves in the north-west portion. Ivory was discovered in a dozen Badari North graves and in seven tombs at Badari West.

Of the three burials at Badari South that con-

tained carnelian beads, two (Burials 5111 and 5132) were located within the orbit of the ivory bearing tombs. At Badari West, carnelian was recovered from two burials (5710 and 5718), both situated in the cluster of tombs that con-

tained luxury objects. Five burials in the east- ern section of the cemetery at Badari North also contained carnelian (5397, 5399, 5403, 5413 and 5449).

Brunton's excavations established that access

to carnelian was probably even more restricted than access to ivory, since only seventeen of the total number of Badarian burials unearthed con-

tained objects manufactured from carnelian. Ten of these tombs were located at Badari.

Both "rich" and "poor" burials were also present at Badari West, where graves contain- ing luxury goods tended to be concentrated in the southern part of the cemetery. Thus, 5705 is spatially close to 5735, and both are the un- disturbed graves of adult males in which "bead belts," fashioned from masses of green glazed steatite beads, had been placed. Forty-six per- cent of the beads from Badari were discovered

in these two tombs. A "large number" of green glazed steatite beads was also found in Burial 5721.

The apparent restriction of bead belts to the graves of adult males suggests that these belts may have been symbolic of high status and au- thority. At Armant, bed burials were inter- preted by Kathryn Bard as symbols of high status and authority. Since it is quite likely

that glazed bead belts were associated with a type of "bed" burial in some Badarian graves,50 then bead belts may also have been indicative of authority, and Burials 5705 and 5735 at Badari West may have been symbolically similar to those at Armant.

Thus, at Badari West, both 5705 and 5735 may have been the tombs of group leaders. Other nearby burials included 5710, a child en- dowed with ivory and carnelian; 5740, the plun- dered grave of a child who still retained seventy-seven artefacts, including fifteen ivory objects and three turquoise beads; 5745, a very old female who had been given an elaborate bird-headed ivory spoon; and several large graves, such as 5716, which measured 3.25 square metres and contained a hamper coffin as well as the remains of an adult male. More-

over, although Brunton reported that the area between the two cemeteries was "barren," the

close location of "wealthy" Badari West and Ba- dari South graves on the same desert spur may be a reflection of the appropriation of a burial plot by an emerging power group at Badari.

In spite of the fact that a strong case for the existence of group leaders has been presented, it should be noted that since Badarian inequal- ity appears to have been incipiently developed, it is possible that the placement of burial goods in some graves and not in others may have been motivated by the recognition of inherited pres- tige within an egalitarian context. James Brown has suggested that it is necessary to distinguish between "inherited prestige" (based on the rec- ognition of ranked, high status lineages) and "inherited authority" (based on the presence of specific authority symbols such as crowns), since both conditions can be symbolized by the presence of "lavish" burial offerings in the graves of subadults.53 It was suggested that bead belts may have functioned as symbols of authority amongst the Badarians, but other classes of luxury goods were lacking from two (5721 and 5735) of the three graves in which bead belts were discovered. Unless items that

48 Brunton, op. cit., 52; Guy Brunton Matmar (London, 1948), 10.

49 Bard, op. cit. (1987), 121.

50 Brunton, op. cit., 36-37, 46-47. Brunton and Caton-Thompson, op. cit., 13.

bl Brown in Chapman et al., op. cit., 29. 53 Brown in Chapman et al., op. cit., 29-30.

This content downloaded from 131.252.96.10 on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:55:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

64 JARCE XXIX (1992)

specifically symbolize authority are discovered, the existence of formally inherited authority as opposed to inherited prestige amongst the Ba- darians cannot be assumed. However, Brown

has cautioned that the absence of authority symbols "may not indicate the absence of in- herited authority.'

Brown has also claimed that in instances

where social ranking is poorly developed, grave wealth will be minimal, but age and sex distinc- tions, as well as social deviance and the manner

of death, will tend to be symbolized. Statistical tests indicate that two groupings of Badarian tombs can be distinguished by the placement of particular classes of burial goods with specific age or sex categories. Cross-tabulations be- tween the presence of tools and both the age and sex of grave occupants in all Badarian ceme- teries revealed that there is an association be-

tween tools and both variables. Tools are more

likely to be found with adults and males than with subadults or females; the reverse is true of

shells. It could not be demonstrated that any other categories of burial offerings had been distributed along either age or sex lines.

(3) Horizontal social distinctions cross-cut by vertical social distinctions

O'Shea has suggested that "horizontal social distinctions (such as age and sex) will be ex- pressed through attributes of relatively equal energy intensity . . . such as varying grave orien- tation, posture, or spatial separation." In addi- tion, when vertical social distinctions exist in a

society, the various kinds of horizontal social differentiation present should be crosscut by other types of mortuary distinction.

Although energy expenditure on tomb con- struction or the manufacture of burial offerings is difficult to assess, the occurrence of a large number of rather elaborately carved ivory ob- jects as well as the presence of turquoise, jas- per, and carnelian beads, all evidence of the existence of trading networks and possible local craft specialization, indicate that considerable

wealth had been concentrated in some tombs,

especially those at Badari South, and moreover, that those members of the community with the most access to ivory (and possibly the "wealthi- est") tended to be buried in the south-western portion of the cemetery. Although Brunton dis- covered that a large number of these plun- dered tombs lacked bodies, enough skeletal material remained to provide evidence that the cemetery had been used for both adults and subadults from the more economically advantaged segment of the population. Ten bodies remained in the north-west area of the cemetery, seven in the south-west and five in the south-eastern sec-

tion. Throughout the cemetery, luxury goods, such as slate palettes, malachite, blue glazed steatite beads, and occasionally even ivory, were found in the burials of adult males (5155, 5115, 5128, 5150), adult females (5151, 5163) and subadults (5119). A great deal of wealth had also been concentrated in the tombs of both

adults and subadults at Badari North and Ba-

dari West. Moreover, it was established that the

more economically advantaged members of the community tended to be buried in restricted portions of the cemeteries.

Thus, in addition to the previously established characteristics of the Badari mortuary data, the evidence that different social categories were probably symbolized through the employment of different grave furnishings, and that certain burial locations were mostly composed of the tombs of males, females, and subadults whose grave offerings consisted of materials to which the majority of the population had little or no access, all indicate that some form of social

hierarchy existed and was recognized within Badarian society.

(4) Identification of graves attributed to individuals of high status

A general analysis of the data resulting from Brunton 's excavations of Badarian cemeteries

revealed that the dispersion of goods at all eighteen cemeteries was bimodal. This reflected the division of Badarian graves into a large group (ninety-two percent) of "poor" burials containing less than thirty-five objects each, and a smaller group (eight percent) of "wealthy"

54 Ibid., 30. 55 Ibid., 29. 56 O'Shea, op. cit., 43-47.

This content downloaded from 131.252.96.10 on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:55:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

BADARIAN BURIALS 65

tombs, each of which contained more than

thirty-five objects. This grouping of graves suggests a corresponding social division of the Badarian population.

V. The Elimination of Temporal Trends as a Factor in the Dispersal of Burial Goods

A study of the sequence dates that Petrie assigned to pottery from the Badarian graves re- vealed that a small sample of graves from each cemetery falls into the period represented by each sequence date. This permits us to test for the possibility that the observed non-random dispersal of burial goods amongst Badarian tombs is the result of changes over time in "egalitarian" burial practices that encouraged a general increase in the number of offerings that accompanied the dead. If larger numbers of artefacts were being equally distributed in all graves at each period in time, no social differ- entiation may have occurred throughout the Badarian era. "Dates" were available for five

percent (thirty-seven) of the 725 Badarian graves. A further analysis of these "dated" graves revealed that those burials containing the highest number of grave goods tended to cluster at the end of the sequence designated by Petrie as the latest in time. However, although many of these "later" graves (thirty-eight per- cent of those dated between S.D. 25 and

S.D. 30) also contained larger numbers of lux- ury offerings than those earlier in the series, there appeared to be no correlation between either ivory artefacts, or palettes, and a "late" sequence date. For example, the sequence dates for seven Badari West graves span the period from S.D. 21 to S.D. 28. The condition of one burial was not reported; the rest (eighty- six percent) were undisturbed. There was a definite increase in the total number of goods deposited in these graves over time: one item during S.D. 21, three at S.D. 24 and twelve at S.D. 28. However, of the graves assigned to S.D. 25, one contained four pots and another three, while the third contained four beads,

three shells and a pot. These differences suggest that even during the same time period, there were differences in the types of burial offerings placed in graves.

Likewise, of the graves assigned to S.D. 27, one undisturbed grave in the "poorer" western section at Badari North contained one rippled pot while one plundered grave from the "richer" eastern section of the same cemetery contained a shell, 103 beads, a polished pot and a rippled pot. The remaining S.D. 27 graves were located at Badari North and South. That in the eastern

section at Badari North contained a polished pot; that at Badari South contained ten beads and two rippled pots. Both had been plun- dered. These differences indicate that during the same time period, there were differences in the types of burial offerings that were placed in the graves of different cemeteries. Because such differences are evident from the "earliest" time periods, it would appear that social status and thus grave location rather than "date" was the primary fac- tor that determined both the number and types of artefacts that tended to be placed within a particular grave.

VI. Conclusions

The data employed in this analysis indicate an association between the number of burial goods recovered from the various tombs and (i) the sizes of graves; (ii) the condition of graves and (iii) grave occupants designated "subadults." However, they do not indicate an association between the sex of the grave occupants and the number of grave goods retrieved from any par- ticular grave. Moreover, it was discovered that plundered graves tended to be those which con- tained most grave offerings and most luxury goods, as well as those that were slightly larger and more "elaborate" than average. In addition, the spatial analysis of these data indicates that: 1) Badarian communities made use of formal disposal areas to which inclusion was granted on the basis of economic status rather than age or sex, and 2) that some form of resource con- trol was operative and that this control may have been vested in a hereditary authority.

It is therefore likely that the two-tier social system identified from the Badarian mortuary remains reflects the burials of "economically" distinct groups amongst whom social ranking developed as the result of corporate group con- trol over highly valued resources.

This content downloaded from 131.252.96.10 on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:55:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

66 JARCE XXIX (1992)

The results of this analysis therefore indicate that the burials of some Badarian adults and

subadults are evidence of "greater energy ex- penditure" than those of other adults and sub- adults. Such individuals were in the minority and were presumably those who held a different and higher status in relation to the majority of individuals within Badarian society. The tombs of these individuals who were accorded separate status and more lavish burial offerings contain some types of grave goods that are not shared by other members of the society. Thus, the findings of this analysis are inconsistent with the portrayal of Badarian society as "egalitarian"

or lacking in social complexity. It therefore appears that "differential access to resources is demonstrated by the very unequal distribution of grave goods, and, moreover, that because economic differences between members of the

Badarian community were striking, their social system must be considered to have been inegal- itarian. Although it was not demonstrated that such differential access included "the basic re-

sources that sustain life, this seems highly likely as well.

McGill University

57 Peebles and Kus, op. cit., 431.

58 Bard, op. cit. (1987), 46. 59 Morton Fried, The Evolution of Political Society (New

York, 1967), 186.

This content downloaded from 131.252.96.10 on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:55:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms