The earliest representations of royalpower in Egypt: the rock drawingsof Nag el-Hamdulab (Aswan)Stan Hendrickx1, John Coleman Darnell2 & Maria Carmela Gatto2

The vivid engravings on vertical rocks at thedesert site of Nag el-Hamdulab west of theNile comprise a rock art gallery of exceptionalhistorical significance. The authors show thatthe images of boats with attendant prisoners,animals and the earliest representation of apharaoh offer a window on Dynasty 0, anddepict the moment that the religious processionof pre-Dynastic Egypt became the triumphanttour of a tax-collecting monarch.

Keywords: Egypt, pre-Dynastic, 3000 BC, boats, nautical procession, pharaonic kingship,rock art

IntroductionSometime during the early 1890s, Archibald H. Sayce (1845–1933) made a sketch copy of arock drawing at Gharb Aswan (Upper Egypt) that was subsequently included in a catalogueof inscriptions between Aswan and Kom Ombo published by de Morgan et al. (1894:203) (Figure 1). At that moment, hardly anything was known about the earliest history ofEgypt, and the Early Dynastic royal necropolis at Abydos would only be discovered a fewyears later. Famous documents such as the Narmer palette or the Scorpion mace head, bothfound at Hierakonpolis in 1898, had not yet been excavated. Consequently, Sayce had nodocumentation at his disposal that would have allowed him to recognise the early date ofthe scene, and he may not even have been aware that what he had copied was actually a veryearly royal representation. The brief description and rudimentary drawing of but a portion

1 Media, Arts & Design Faculty, Elfde Liniestraat 25, Hasselt, B-3118, Belgium (Author for correspondence,email: s.hendrickx@pandora.be)

2 Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Yale University, P.O. Box 208236, New Haven, CT06520–8236, USA (Email: john.darnell@yale.edu; maria.gatto@yale.edu)

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Figure 1. Documentation by A.H. Sayce of Nag el-Hamdulab site 7, made in the 1890s (de Morgan et al. 1894: 203).

of the overall imagery at the site remained unnoticed for over a century until, in 2008, NabilSwelim made available to one of the authors a photograph of a rock drawing (Figure 2),said to be from near Aswan (Hendrickx et al. 2009b). The photograph came from theunpublished documentation of the late Labib Habachi (1906–1984, see Kamil 2007), anda search of his archive kept at Chicago House in Luxor at the end of 2009 revealed a series ofrelated photographs. Meanwhile, Maria C. Gatto had rediscovered the site itself (Hendrickx& Gatto 2009), thereby revealing that Sayce’s imperfect hand copy did not concern a singlerock art scene, but was rather an excerpt from one of a number of scenes located at shortdistances from each other. More recently, while working in the local ancient quarries, theQuarryScapes project encountered some of those drawings (Storemyr 2009). The ensembleof the site, presented here for the first time, makes up the most important iconographicsource for the period of state formation in Egypt.

The rediscovered and newly discovered rock art sites that form the Nag el-Hamdulabensemble are located on the rocks confining a sandy plain west of the village of Nagel-Hamdulab, on the west bank of the Nile, about 6km north of Aswan (Figure 3).Unfortunately, several inscription areas at the site have been heavily damaged during thelast decades. At present, seven sites, most of them consisting of more than one tableau,are known at short distances from each other (Figure 4). Important portions of the lostor damaged tableaux—but unfortunately not all of the lost and damaged elements—maybe reconstructed on the basis of photographic documentation from the Labib Habachi

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Figure 2. Archival photograph of the royal scene at Nag el-Hamdulab site 7 (Labib Habachi Photographic Archives, ChicagoHouse, Luxor, with permission of the Epigraphic Survey, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago) (height of the king:29.8cm).

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Figure 3. Location of the Nag el-Hamdulab rock art sites (NH8 is an undecorated rockshelter).

Figure 4. Location of sites 2, 3 and 5 (photograph: Daniel Libens).

Archive. Stylistic and technical peculiarities suggest that all the main tableaux with humanfigures are the work of only one or two hands. All representations are pecked with a pointedimplement; the contour lines of the individual representations are clearly delineated but anumber of them were more elaborately worked by pecking the interior surface to achieve aflat, sunken surface (Figure 2).

ChronologyThe rock inscriptions at Nag el-Hamdulab comprise a series of discrete vignettes thatrepresent elements of an overall cycle of images involving hunting, warfare, nautical festivalevents, and the regalia of political authority. An anonymous king wearing the White Crownappears in three tableaux and defines the context for all the discrete portions of the overallsite.

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Figure 5. Details from the Scorpion mace head and the Narmer palette.

Before discussing individual tableaux, a consideration of the chronological position ofthe Nag el-Hamdulab rock art is fundamental for understanding the ensemble, and hasalready received some discussion (Hendrickx & Gatto 2009; Hendrickx et al. in press).The royal scene at site 7 (Figure 2) shows several similarities to the Scorpion mace head(Oxford AM E.3632), the Narmer mace head (Oxford AM E.3631), and the Narmerpalette (Cairo JdE. 32169) (here Figure 5). The Scorpion mace head slightly predates theNarmer monuments and starting from the Nag el-Hamdulab scenes, a striking increase insize difference between the king and his retinue can be observed. This accords with thedevelopment of the representation of Dynastic Egyptian conventions. Furthermore, the tipof the White Crown points straight upward at Nag el-Hamdulab, while that on the Scorpionmace head tilts slightly towards the back. On the Narmer palette, the crown is still slightlyfurther tilted and worn in the oblique position that will be standard throughout the rest ofEgyptian history. Finally, the representations of the standard and fan-bearers provide relevantinformation. At Nag el-Hamdulab the king is preceded by two standard-bearers and followedby a fan-bearer. On the Scorpion mace head, the king is preceded by two standard-bearersand followed by two fan-bearers. On the Narmer mace head, two fan-bearers stand besidethe high podium on which the king sits enthroned, while four standard-bearers advancetowards the king. On the Narmer palette, four standard-bearers are present, although thefan-bearers are lacking. The doubling of the fan and standard-bearers confirms that the Nagel-Hamdulab tableaux occupy a chronological position before the Scorpion mace head.

Boats form a characteristic element of the Nag el-Hamdulab tableaux and nearly all ofthem are of the so-called ‘sickle shaped’ type with ‘clubbed’ ends (Figures 6–9), alreadyoccurring frequently in rock art and on pre-Dynastic ‘Decorated’ pottery (Graff 2009: 171),the latter dating to the Naqada IIC-D period, c. 3600–3300 BC, although the prows andsterns of Nag el-Hamdulab boats turn up higher. Boats with high prows, but without the‘clubbed’ ends, occur during the late pre-Dynastic and Early Dynastic period (Huyge 2002:198), and the Nag el-Hamdulab boats seem to be at an intermediate position. The dogaccompanying the king appears to represent a late occurrence of the canid as a symbolof human organisation and the domination of chaotic forces (Hendrickx 2006; comparealso Darnell 2011: 1166–69), and speaks for an earlier date for the Hamdulab tableauxC© Antiquity Publications Ltd.

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Figure 6. Site 1, tableau 1b (W. 165cm).

during the period of transition between pre-Dynastic iconography and Dynastic imagerybecause the dog no longer occurs in this context on the Scorpion mace head or the Narmermonuments.

The form of the boat and the important parallels between the Nag el-Hamdulab tableauxand the Scorpion and Narmer documents suggest that a late Dynasty 0 date, c. 3200–3100BC, is most probable for the Nag el-Hamdulab tableaux, placing the ensemble at a highlyimportant moment in the process of state formation in Egypt.

The scenesThe uniformity in style and the interrelations between the sites and tableaux suggest thatthe Nag el-Hamdulab cycle of images is the result of a premeditated ‘grand scheme,’ ratherthan the consequence of artists adding scene upon scene over time. All of the tableaux areto be considered in the same context and are elements of the conceptualisation of the Nagel-Hamdulab landscape. Another important observation is that the artist(s) preferred rocksurfaces with straight, vertical faces. Several times, the drawings begin at the right-handedge of the rock edges, even when plenty of space is available to the left. Such organisationis exceptional for rock art, where the artists generally start from the centre of the availablesurface. For the Nag el-Hamdulab scenes, this could indicate that the artist(s) were normallyworking on other media; apparently they were accustomed to rectangular surfaces, on whichthey started working from the right edge. This fits very well with scribal practice—writing onfor example papyrus—and indicates that the artist(s) at Nag el-Hamdulab were professionals;at this very early moment in Egyptian history they must have been directly related to theroyal court.

The present article summarises the most important tableaux, following their order fromnorth to south. Site 1 is located on a protruding rock, forming a highly visible orientationpoint at the intersection between the Wadi el-Faras and the Nag el-Hamdulab bay, almostas a ‘boundary stone’ (Figure 4). A boat dominates each of the two tableaux at this site, oncewith the representation of a prostrate, feather-wearing man—prisoner or allied foreigner—and once with three prisoners following the boat (Figure 6). The identification of the latter

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Figure 7. Site 2, tableau 2c (W. 142cm).

Figure 8. Site 2, tableau 2a (W. 156cm).

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Figure 9. Site 3, tableau 3c (Labib Habachi Photographic Archives, Chicago House, Luxor, with permission of the EpigraphicSurvey, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago/modified by Alberto Urcia).

as prisoners is not straightforward but results from comparison with other late pre-Dynasticand Early Dynastic documents on which prisoners are systematically identified by havingtheir arms bound behind the back, often being tied by a rope at their neck as well. Visually, a‘triangle’ or a curved line behind their back indicates the pinioned arms, with no indicationof arms in front of the prisoner’s chest. Especially relevant is the scene on the Qustul IncenseBurner (Chicago OIM.24069) showing a prisoner to the right of the boat with a lion(?) (theman does not greet the vessel; Hendrickx & Eyckerman 2010: 131). What might appearas a ‘raised arm’ is thinner than the arm behind the back, and gently curved in a mannermost unlikely for a real appendage, while the arm behind the back is bent at a suitableangle. The figure represents a prisoner attached to the boat, a motif appearing beyonddoubt on the Gebel Sheikh Suleiman relief (Murnane in Williams & Logan 1987: 282–84).The scenes from site 1 introduce two essential elements of the decoration scheme at Nagel-Hamdulab—boats and military domination. Although this combination may not seemlogical, none of the tableaux shows a narrative, and all of the groups are highly symbolic. Theidea of power receives expression not solely or even primarily through human representationsbut through the images of boats, which are the main elements of the nautical processionthat is essential for the interpretation of the Nag el-Hamdulab scenes (compare boats thatconvey symbolic, rather than narrative, information in rock art and on ‘Decorated Ware’ceramics—Huyge 2002; Graff 2009; Hendrickx & Eyckerman 2010).

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Sites 2 to 5 are located very close to each other, on the cliffs at the centre of the Nagel-Hamdulab plain (Figure 4). At site 2 the military theme is integrated into a socio-religiouscontext. The first of the two main tableaux at site 2 shows bowmen and prisoners next toa boat that has a figure on top of each of its two cabins (Figure 7). Both of these figureson the cabins hold a stick or staff, and may represent the occupants of the cabins, althoughtheir precise meaning—presumably religious and/or political—remains unclear. Betweenthe two bowmen behind the boat is a smaller person with one arm bent behind the backand the other upturned before the chest, in a manner unlike any other representation atNag el-Hamdulab. The best parallel is a prisoner on the recto of the Battlefield Palette,from whose neck hangs a type of weight (Spencer 1980: 79–80, no. 576). This provides astrong indication that the scene depicts a prisoner with his arms bound behind his back andattached by a rope to the bow. In front of the boat is a single person standing behind a verylarge bow. A close parallel occurs on a fragmentary knife handle from cemetery U at Abydos(Dreyer 1999: fig. 10b), and the bow is an element of power in itself, regularly appearingwithout human presence.

The second important tableau of site 2 consists of two boats, one roughly above the other(Figure 8). Both boats have many oars and an oarsman on the stern, in contrast to mostof the other Nag el-Hamdulab boats, indications already of the importance of the scene.The lower boat is of the regular ‘sickle shaped’ type but has as a remarkable element, a bullstandard, on its prow. The upper boat has a very high prow and stern, both of which are verynarrow, and a single, very low cabin on which stands a king wearing the White Crown. Infront of the ruler is a standard with Wepwaout, ‘Opener of the Ways’, a canid god related towarfare and hunting. This second type of boat occurs only once more at Nag el-Hamdulab,where it carries a shrine, indicating that a divine boat is intended (see below, Figure 11).Therefore, the Nag el-Hamdulab cycle introduces the king as a religious concept rather thanas a representation of actual military or political power.

The most important tableaux from site 3 have been destroyed and are only (incompletely)known through archival photographs. In two scenes, the king appeared in a ceremonialprocession with his retinue, including a number of prisoners. A boat appears in one of thetableaux (Figure 9), forming a link to the other sites. But despite this symbolic element,the king now clearly appears as an actual ruler, the religious context being of but secondaryimportance. The only preserved tableau of site 3 shows a man leading a (wild?) bull andcalf. Behind this is the image of a large knife, indicating that the group concerns sacrificialanimals—the ceremony central to the Nag el-Hamdulab cycle is now placed in the contextof meat offering, probably wild animals.

The site 4 tableau is a small but very direct and therefore important addition in which theactual feast on occasion of the festival is referenced through the representation of brewing,and a person sitting and drinking. Next to this, and on a larger scale, is a person apparentlyidentified as a Nubian by a particular type of bow depicted in front of him. Nubia wasknown as the ‘Land of the Bow’, the frontier of which was at the First Cataract, immediatelysouth of Nag el-Hamdulab. Recent research has shown an important presence of Nubians inthe Aswan region during pre-Dynastic times (Gatto 2011) and the Nubian in the Hamdulabtableau may represent a chieftain or military commander of the Nubian denizens of theHamdulab region, or another area immediately to the south thereof.C© Antiquity Publications Ltd.

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Figure 10. Site 6 (W. 139cm).

Site 5 is located left of the entrance of the only rockshelter present at Nag el-Hamdulab.The small tableau is heavily damaged by more recent drawings and inscriptions which are,however, no part of the recent vandalism. The tableau consists of a bull’s head and a femaledancer. The latter can easily be identified by the long hair braid ending in an oval shapethat represents one of the rounded weights (discs or balls?) attached to the braided hair offemale dancers during the Old Kingdom (e.g. Graves-Brown 2010: 93). The combinationof a bull’s head and a female dancer is not as strange as it may seem at first view because thecombination of hunting, butchering, music and dance is known from the early Old Kingdomonwards through the Ladies of the Acacia House (Hendrickx et al. 2009a: 212–14). Thisritual context combines well with the reference to the actual feast at site 4.

Site 6 is located on an isolated hill at the southern end of the Nag el-Hamdulab sandybay, relatively close to the alluvial plain, and comprises only one tableau, consisting ofthree registers showing cattle controlled by humans and dogs (Figure 10). Two possibleinterpretations of the scene present themselves, and the proper understanding of the grouphinges on the wild or domesticated nature of the animals represented. The theme ofcatching and bringing up wild animals is most important for pre-Dynastic times (Hendrickx2010; Graff et al. 2011). Although archaeozoological studies show that hunting wasonly of marginal economic importance during pre-Dynastic times (Linseele & Van Neer

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Figure 11. Site 7, tableau 7a (W. 290cm).

Figure 12. Site 7, tableau 7b (W. 122cm).

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2009), hunting scenes are nevertheless an important element of pre-Dynastic iconography.Hunting was part of the elite lifestyle, and slaughtering wild animals on the occasionof religious festivals or elite burials (Friedman 2008, 2009; Linseele et al. 2009) allowedthe upper echelons of society to show their importance in real life, confirmed throughvisual representations which contributed to the establishment of hierarchic structures andultimately state formation (Hendrickx 2010). Alternatively, the animals may represent thewealth of local, probably Nubian, cattle-herding groups (for a Nubian presence in the FirstCataract area and beyond see Gatto 2006, 2011), perhaps the economic basis for the powerof the subjugated and/or allied Nubian ruler appearing in a scene at site 1. In the lattercase, the dog atop the back of the uppermost bovid is not attacking, but rather symbolicallydominating, the beast (for canids doing both in a single tableau, see Darnell 2011: 1166–69).

Site 7, already seen by Sayce at the end of the nineteenth century, is the most importantin size and can be considered the culmination of the concept behind the Nag el-Hamdulabcycle. Located south of the Nag el-Hamdulab sandy bay, in a narrow gulch in the rockcliff, the site consists of four tableaux, among which two are particularly large. The first ofthese is visible with some difficulty from a distance and is not really in a ‘hidden’ position,unlike the second large tableau that can only be seen from inside the bay. The first tableau isthe largest at Nag el-Hamdulab, and is already for that reason of primary importance. Thescene is organised around five boats, four of which are grouped in a row, slanting slightlyupwards to the right, while the fifth is placed at a higher position (Figure 11). Despite thesize and the importance of the boats, the focal element of the tableau is the representation ofa ruler, followed by a fan-bearer and preceded by a dog and two standard-bearers, situatedabove the only boat with an elaborately decorated cabin. The king wears the White Crownand holds a long prototypical heqa-sceptre. Four of the five boats are of the regular ‘sickleshaped’ type. On the most elaborately drawn, not by coincidence below the king, a falconstandard can be seen, while three of the boats have a standard with bull horns. Both the falconand the bull are royal symbols, emphasising the royal character of the boats. The fifth boat isplaced rather awkwardly at the bottom of the tableau, beneath the ‘royal boat’. The prow andstern are not broad and rounded, but the prow is narrow and makes a hook while the sternends in a straight top line. The boat has only a single domed or vaulted cabin, the decorationof which represents a door with the rolled up door curtain, identical to the false doors on OldKingdom funerary monuments. An important number of parallel representations indicatethat the cabin represents a shrine, transforming the vessel into a ‘divine boat’ and placing thetableau in a religious context. In front of the ‘royal boat’ are four bearded persons, their armsbeside their bodies, holding a horizontal line representing a rope. Although the rope does nottouch the boat, the men most likely represent people towing the boat, a theme that occursregularly in rock art. The whole of the tableau allows an exceptional view on the idea of a boatprocession. The ritual event is under the direct supervision of the king and his retinue andthe general idea is that of a display of royal power in the religious context of a boat procession.The boats and the king with his retinue face towards Elephantine, perhaps—given the site’simportance during the Early Dynastic period as border town controlling the First Cataract—the ultimate destination of the procession. The reality of such an event is confirmed by a smalltableau to the left of the one under discussion, in which a small boat appears below a long rowof small vertical lines—approximately 56—that may represent an aid to counting strokes.

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The final element of the first tableau at site 7 is a four-sign hieroglyphic inscriptionimmediately behind the stern of the uppermost boat and above the prow of the final vessel(Figure 11). The hieroglyphs are fully pecked in the style of the images of the tableaux, possessthe same degree of patination, and are certainly elements of the tableau. Palaeographically ofEarly Dynastic date, the annotation refers to a ‘nautical following’ and appears to label theimagery—and apparently the entirety of the Nag el-Hamdulab cycle—as ultimately relatedto the royal and ritual event known as the ‘Following of Horus’, the biennial judicial andtax-collecting perambulation of the royal court as demonstration of royal authority, herefurther related to a toponym that unfortunately cannot be located (cf. Wilkinson 1999:220–21).

Continuing from the first tableau at site 7 into the bay, the rock surface slopes backwardsand exhibits too many irregularities for decoration. After this comes another flat surface,bearing the second large tableau (Figure 12), which consists of six animals, to which anEighteenth Dynasty text was added afterwards. Starting in the lower left corner are twoostriches close to each other with a large ibex above them; to the right of the ostriches is alarge bull, next to which are two enigmatic animals, one above the other. The animals (withthe exception of the bull) face into the gulch, contrary to the orientation of the first tableau.The two peculiar animals to the right have bodies that look rather like those of dogs or lionsbut their ‘heads’ bear no comparison to that of any known animal. Each ‘head’ consists offive or six lines, the uppermost of which is shorter and parallel with a similar line formed bythe backline of the animal; there is no indication at all of mouth, eyes or nose. Furthermore,the animals have extremely long tails, making an elongated ‘S’ above their back. The imagesappear to depict a non-existent, ‘mythological’ animal, a well-known aspect of late pre-Dynastic iconography (Huyge 2004). Already the mere presence of these animals indicatesthat symbolism plays an important role for interpreting the tableau. Also, the orientation isof primary importance. The animals face to the right, into the gulch, with the exception ofthe bull, which is the only animal in the group that faces in the same direction as the kingin the other tableau. As the bull is a royal symbol, this allows one to consider the animalas a parallel for the king in tableau 1a (not illustrated) and as ‘dominating’ the animalsaround it. As desert animals, the ibex and ostriches are chaotic elements as confirmed by thetwo mythological animals that represent even more explicit aspects of chaos. Furthermore,these occur at the end of the gulch, which as the most remote/hidden location also refers tochaos. The ultimate meaning of the tableau is the royal, human assurance of control, thetriumph of order over chaos on a cosmic level, referring eventually also to regeneration. Thelink between site 7 and those previously described is not only made by the royal image, theboats, and the concept of ritual processions, but also by a small—and unfortunately poorlypreserved—hunting scene close to the royal boat procession.

Concluding remarksThe combination of a boat procession, hunting, solar symbolism, and the general theme oforder over chaos fits very well with the concept of the ‘Greater Pharaonic Cycle’ as definedby Williams and Logan (1987), especially when considering that the theme of militaryvictory occurs at other Nag el-Hamdulab rock art sites. In the Hamdulab cycle also appearsC© Antiquity Publications Ltd.

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the image of a prostrate man with a feather, arms stretched before him, an apparent visualreference to royal domination of potentially chaotic humans, a ritual manifestation of themore bellicose and physical expression of the same domination of human disorder appearingelsewhere at Hamdulab in the scene of two bowmen with a prisoner between them. Thetheme of military domination of human chaos, parallel to hunting as the ordering of thepotentially chaotic, natural world, is very much part of the overall scheme of the Hamdulabimagery.

The Nag el-Hamdulab cycle is unique and bridges the iconographic worlds of the pre-Dynastic and Dynastic Jubilee images; it is a hybrid of the two. Whereas pre-Dynasticscenes are either one long illustration, a fluid blending of the events, or represent individualvignettes from the cycle (Darnell 2009), the Dynastic scenes—from Narmer forward—are more often broken up by the key events, divided into registers, just as the Hamdulabtableaux appear to separate certain events, and assign particular symbolism and meaning toeach tableau of the greater cycle. The Nag el-Hamdulab scenes stress the nautical aspect,the pre-Dynastic focus of the event, but divide the event into distinct sequences. The Nagel-Hamdulab cycle is the earliest group of complex images of religious activity incorporatingthe king wearing a recognisable crown of pharaonic regalia, and the last of the large, nauticalJubilee cycles of the Naqada II period. Whereas earlier the concept of kingship was animportant element, beginning with the Nag el-Hamdulab cycle, the presence of the physicalking presiding over the events takes precedence over symbolism alluding to royalty. The Nagel-Hamdulab cycle may be said to show the emergence of the ruler as supreme human priestand incarnate manifestation of human and divine power. The Nag el-Hamdulab cycle is alsothe first complex iconographic composition with accompanying hieroglyphic annotation.That text refers to the ‘Nautical Following (of Horus)’, the biennial progress of the royalcourt on a perambulating judicial and tax-collecting visit to demonstrate royal authoritythroughout the land, and may therefore be the earliest record of tax collection we have fromEgypt, and the first expression of royal economic control over Egypt and most probably alsoNubia.

AcknowledgementsWe thank W.R. Johnson for access to the Labib Habachi archive in Chicago House, Luxor, and permission topublish Figures 2 and 9. We want to thank Tina Di Cerbo for her help in accessing the Habachi Archive. Specialthanks to Morgan De Dapper and Ilka Klose for the geomorphological study; Antonio Curci and Alberto Urciafor the digital documentation; Giandaniele Castangia, Stefano Caruso, Hannah Joris and Merel Eyckerman forthe drawings; and Daniel Libens for the photography.

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Received: 16 September 2011; Accepted: 23 January 2012; Revised: 26 March 2012

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