Pre- and Early Dynastic Egypt, in Vienna 10th to 15th of September 2017
“Predynastic finery in the funerary context in Adaïma”
In daily life, ornaments have for their primary function to be worn and seen. However, their uses in a funerary context are multiple. Using ornaments for funerals seems to have a wider purpose than simply embellishment. An exegesis of practices is needed to reveal the intentions behind the gestures. Discovering what is deposited and why is the key to understanding the functions of these funeral items. A multiscale analysis allows us to give meaning to the facts.
First, we need to define the typology of beads and ornaments used on the site. Then, we reconstruct the technical procedure used to manufacture beads. Finally, funerary archaeology allows us to reconstruct the gestures that led to the placing of the deceased and his belongings in the grave. Through use-wear analysis, it is possible to define whether the ornaments were household goods or if they were specifically made as funerary equipment.
The study of this cycle of manufacture and use of predynastic ornaments from Adaïma provides an approach to different societal domains: technical, aesthetic and functional. Each of these three socially entangled domains reveals an absence of standardization in the making, composition and use of ornaments. A small community open to influences from the Nagadian centres and the neighbouring Nubian region certainly experienced phenomena of cultural recombination. The inhabitants re-appropriate outside references: they innovate. At Adaima, such innovation in ornamentation seems essentially to serve to individualise the deceased.