Everything about Hierakonopolis totally explained
» Hieraconpolis redirects here; for the ancient fortress in Egypt called Hieracon, see Hieracon
Nekhen, (
Greek: Ἱεράκων πόλις,
Strabo xvii. p. 817,
transliterated as
Hierakonpolis,
Hieraconpolis, or
Hieracompolis;
Kom El-Ahmar) was the religious and political capital of
Upper Egypt at the end of the
Predynastic period
(
c. 3200–3100 BC) and probably, also during the
Early Dynastic Period (
c. 3100–2686 BC).
Nekhen was the center of the cult of a hawk deity
Horus of Nekhen, which raised in this city one of the most ancient temples in Egypt, and it retained its importance as the cult center of this divine patron of the kings long after, otherwise, it had declined.
The original settlement on the Nekhen site dates from
Naqada I or the late
Badarian cultures. 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 E. Quibell and
F. W. Green. In the "
principal deposit" of the temple of Nekhen they found important ceremonial
Protodynastic artifacts such as the
Narmer Palette and the famous
macehead bearing the name of
King Scorpion.
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, and by
Renee Friedman thereafter.
"Fort"
The structure at Nekhen with the
misnomer, "fort", is a massive mud-brick enclosure, built by King
Khasekhemwy of the
Second Dynasty. It appears to be similar in structure and purpose as the 'forts' constructed at
Abydos, and has no 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.
The ritual structure was built on a Predynastic cemetery and excavations there, as well as the work of later brick robbers, have seriously undermined the walls and lead to the near collapse of the structure. For two years, during 2005 and 2006, the team lead by Renee Friedman was attempting to stabilize the existing structure and support the endangered areas of the structure with new mud-bricks.
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