American Research Center in Egypt-Pennsylvania Chapter (ARCE-PA)
October 17, 2020
ARCE-PA Archaeology Day Lecture!
via Zoom
Dr. Jane Hill
Assistant Professor, Rowan University
“Primordial Gods of Upper Egypt: Local Cult in Egypt’s Predynastic Period”

Registration information is available at www.arce-pa.org or email at info@arce-pa.org

Abstract:
Deciphering the iconography of Late Predynastic Upper Egyptian D-Ware pottery has focused on interpretations of funerary processions and the afterlife journey to “The West” and the provisions the deceased required for sustenance upon arrival. An alternate interpretation proposde here is that D-Ware vessels act in the tomb of the deceased as a preliterate biography of deeds performed in service of local gods and making the performer worthy of favor in the afterlife. The relationship between the images of boats, shrines, and the standards carrying the symbols of different deities recognizable to us from the historic period coincides with the introduction of the long distance trade goods to Upper Egypt as the vessels themselves mimic foreign forms. It is likely that these vessels are records of festivals, exchanges and visitations between different Upper Egyptian shrines and commemorate the part that each vessel owner took in them.