Predynastic Egyptian Pottery Image courtesy of the Petrie Museum, UCL Predynastic Egyptian Pottery YourHistory AGripton2013
What is Predynastic Egypt? Essentially, it is Egypt before the time of the pyramids It was a collection of different cultures and provinces One culture would eventually dominate, helping Egypt to unify YourHistory AGripton2013
Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie “The Father of Egyptology” Worked in Predynastic cemeteries at Naqada Flinders Petrie established sequence dating He arranged pots in a relative chronological order (“classes”) based on the resemblances of the types. Each was assigned a number between 30 and 80. He started at 30 because he presumed that older pots would be found in the future. System still used by archaeologists today Image from GoogleMaps YourHistory AGripton2013
Petrie’s Pottery Classes White Cross‐lined (C) Black Top (B) Wavy Handled (W) Red Polished (P) Fancy (F) Black Incised (N) Decorated (D) Rough (R) YourHistory AGripton2013
Petrie & Me Look carefully at the following pictures Try to match each picture with one of Petrie’s ‘classes’ Explain why you think it is that class Try and put them in the right order of time/when they were made YourHistory AGripton2013
YourHistory AGripton2013
YourHistory AGripton2013
YourHistory AGripton2013
YourHistory AGripton2013
YourHistory AGripton2013
YourHistory AGripton2013
YourHistory AGripton2013
YourHistory AGripton2013
Why is pottery important in the Predynastic Period? YourHistory AGripton2013
What does pottery tell us about Predynastic Egyptian Society? YourHistory AGripton2013