It is at Abydos that the history of ancient Egypt begins. It is a place of beginnings, of returnings and of endings. Man tends to let himself be buried along with his forefathers and around 3000 b.c. in ancient Egypt it was no different. Though there probably existed a capital of sorts or a center for power; Nekhen, which has supplied some of the most important artifacts of the early dynastic days, it was at Abedjou that the first rulers of Kemet joined their forefathers on the so called Royal Burialground at Umm el-Qa´ab.But the story begins much earlier.

In the Beginning
If we talk about the Stone Age, from Paleolithicum to Neolithicum, in the Nile valley, we are talking hunters and food gatherers. Signs of these have been found in the form of primitive stone tools; handaxes and the like. such tools has been found at Nag Ahmed el-Khalifa south of Abydos, dating from ca 200.000 bc (mid-Pleistocene). If we make a great jump forward in time to ca 33.000 bc, we find that flint was mined from trenches ca 2 metres down into the ground south of Assiut. The stone quarried there was used for producing flaked flint tools, much more advanced than the earlier crude hand axes.

Evidence for human presence in the Nile valley is lacking between 11.000 and 8.000 bc but re-emerge at the end of this period. At this time most people lived in small tribes, wandering around, hunting and gathering. Earliest settlers in the Faiyum, Lower Egypt, dated to ca 5200 bc., still relied on hunting and fishing for survuval. The step towards formation of cities was still way ahead.

Predynastic Egypt
The Predynastic Period spans a period of 2500 years. During this time there was a slow, steady cultural progression from the Badarian (c 4400 bc.) through to the Early Dynastic (c 3100 bc.). While the earliest settled food-producing cultures from Upper Egypt, the Badarian, show cemeteries, the ones at Merimda Beni-Salama, Lower Egypt, are settlement remains. This makes comparison between them hazardous at best. The finds from Naqada I, II and III, located 26 km north of Luxor,

Naqada I
One of the largest Predynastic sites located some 26 km south of Luxor is dated from about 4000 bc. The culture here was similar to Badarian with hunting, fishing and farming. Fortified towns and a richer political organisation were a development. Around 3600 bc rapid changes began, leading into:

Naqada II.
The settlements are Naqada itself and Hierakonpolis (Nekhen) some 90 km to the south. Farming and flint, stone, metal and pottery fabrication were means of survival and houses were rectangular built of mud brick. This was a period of technological development, with a stratified society who could afford luxury items and have them made specifically for funerary use. The developments from this phase spread slowy into the Delta and moves us into the next phase:

Naqada III.
Noteworthy is that the term 'Protodynastic' is used by some archaeologist to denote the transition period from Naqada II (Gerzean) to the Early Dynastic, by Petrie called 'Semainean'. This was a shortlived period, only about two centuries (3250-3100). Now predynastic centers of power began to develop; Naqada, Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) and more elusively Thinis/This opposite Abedjou, a cult center of the god Anhur and a probable early center of power. During much of this period Egypt was probably ruled from Nekhen, but at the end of it the center of power shifted to Thinis and nearby Abedjou becoming the place where the kings chose to be buried.

Abedjou through History

Abedjou, or Abydos is situated in the 8th Nome of Upper Egypt, ca 300 miles (ca 500 km) south of Cairo. It is located on the western side of the Nile but about 9.5 miles (ca 15.30 km) inland, not by the river but just on the edge of cultivation. The area stretches from the north the modern village of Beni Mansur to el-Araba el-Madfuna in the south (also called Arabet-Abydos). The Temple of Seti I is situated between these two villages. Excavations in the 1970´s showed that the Early Dynastic-Old Kingdom settlement here covered some 5.6 hectares if not more. There are signs of a massive mudbrick enclosure from the Early dynastic Period in the southern part of the area, which may have surrounded a temple or even a palace. In the Old Kingdom it was incorporated into a larger structure of residential nature. This points at a close connection between Abedjou and the early rulers of Egypt. It is thought that the area was well situated both for agriculture and for trade in the Predynastic and Early dynastic Period. Population was probably more dense in the northern area than in the southern and the foundation of the town of Abedjou is dated to Naqada III, attracting scattered villages by its relative security and employment opportunites. From the Early Dynastic Period and throughout the first six dynasties the town developed and expanded, and the early temple to KhentiAmentiu shows traces of several rebuildings.

Legend: 1: Umm el-Qa´ab; Royal tombs of Dyn 0-1. 2: Shunet el-Zebib; Early Dynastic Funerary Enclosures 3: Kom el-Sultan; Temple of Wesir/Khenti-Amentiu & settlements. 4: Temple of Ramesses II. 5: Temple of Seti I and Osirerion 6: Modern village of el-Araba el-Madfuna. 7: Temple of Senwosert III 8: Middle and New Kingdom settlement. 9. Pyramid of Ahmose and temple of Ahmose Nefertari. 10: Cenotaph of Tetisheri. 11-12: Cenotaph and temple of Ahmose. 13: Cenotaph of Senwosret III.

Royal Funerals
The belief is that there was a shortlived period of political power at Thinis or 'This'(mentioned by Manetho) on the west bank some kilometers north of Abedjou. It is also mentioned as the place of origin of the god Anhur. No traces of it has been found however. But across the Nile, at Abedjou, the excavations of the Royal Funerary Enclosure at Umm el-Qa´ab revealed that the tombs of the 1st and 2nd Dynasties had been placed here. This was the beginning of a period of religious and ceremonial importance which went on except for some interruption in the 3rd-5th Dynasty, from the Predynastic Period until Christian days (c 4000 bc-ad 641).

Umm el-Qa´ab:
The name Umm el-Qa´ab, located in the desert between Abedjou and the mountains, is Arabic for 'Mother of Pots', which refers to the great amount of pot sherds still littering the area. These were smashed to the ground as offerings for Wesir (Osiris), mistakenly believed to be buried in the tomb of Djer.

This area, excavated by Petrie in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is divided into two cemeteries, U and B. Cemetery U is dated to the Predydnastic era and contains hundreds of tombs and offering pits. Here was also found the tomb U-j, a 12-chambered, bricklined structure, thought to have housed a prominent Predynastic king or ruler. Cemetery B is from the Early Dynastic Period, and was exclusively used by the royal family. Six kings and one queen from Dynasty I, and two kings from Dynasty II were buried here in large funerary structures, some surrounded by satellite burials for servants who had to accompay their masters into the Afterlife. The tombs, which are partly destroyed and deprived of most of their content, consist of large, square pits dug into the ground, and lined with mudbrick walls often surrounded by additional chambers. Early Dynastic wooden boat graves were found during excavations near the Shunet el-Zebib, which support a theory that these early funeral structures might have been the protptypes of the Old Kingdom pyramid complexes.

1st Dynasty Rulers: Iry-Hor - Tomb B1, B2 Ka - Tomb B7, B9 Narmer - Tomb B17, B18 Aha - Tomb B10, B15, B19 Djer - Tomb O Djet - Tomb Z Queen Meritnit - Tomb Y Den - Tomb T Anedjib - Tomb X Semerkhet - Tomb U Qaa - Tomb Q 2nd Dynasty Rulers: Peribsen - Tomb P Khasekhemwy - Tomb V

Shunet el-Zebib
The imposing funerary enclosure of Khasekhemwy was originally taken for a 'proto-pyramid' because of the sloping sides of the mudbrick mound in its center. Recent excavations revealed a 'fleet' of funerary boats in connection to the enclosure and show the gradual development of royal mortuary constructions from the Early Dynastic period as a prestage of the Pyramid period.

Kom el-Sultan, the Early Town
A little more than 0,6 miles (ca 1 km) northwest of the Temple of Seti I and east of Umm el-Qa´ab lies the ancient walled town called Kom el-Sultan. It is here where Petrie found the remains from the ancient brick-built temple to the canine deity Khentamentiu,(Foremost of the Westerners'), but the massive mudbrick wall is from the 30th Dynasty. Traces of an early settlement were found within it and in the close area. Remains, among them a fragmented vase with the serekh of Aha, show that the place was was in use already at the beginning of the 1st Dyn. and would remain more or less so throughout the Greco-Roman period. However, only a few blocks remain from the earliest temple, which show traces of repeated rebuildings and which from the 12th Dynasty was dedicated to Wesir.

Remains of buildings from the early settlements were found under ground level within the enclosure of the temple to KhentAmentiu. House grounds dating from the late Predynastic period to the 2nd Dynasty were also found outside the temple precinct, indicating that the early town might have extended further to the southwest. Some of the houses contained seal-impressions from the 1st and 2nd Dynasties. The nearby Cemetery M from the early 1st Dynasty probably served the early town of Abedjou, which is dated to Naqada III, corresponding to the period the state is believed to have been formed.

It lies close to hand to think of the early town consisting of simple mudbrick houses, as populated by craftsmen, farmers and tradesmen. There is belief that timber and herding might have been part of the economy, while farming must have been another basic for survival, due to the town´s location on the edge of the fertile cultivation. There was also another advantage as Abedjou is closer to the oases of the western desert than any other site, which made it excellent as a trade station for various kinds of goods. This however does not explain the apparent ritual importance shown by the number of royal funerals which were begun by Narmer, the assumed first ruler of a unified Egypt.

The Old Kingdom
This period is represented at Abedjou by chapels and tombs, among them the tomb of Weni, governor of Upper Egypt in the Sixth Dynasty. Finds at Kom el-Sultan of both housing and an industrial area with a faience workshop, compete with kiln, the earliest found in Egypt are also dated from this period and into the First Intermediate. The houses were mudbrick and consisted of 7-10 small rooms and courtyards. A narrow street was also found.

The Middle Kingdom
The 'Democratisation of the Afterlife' which began towards the end of the First Intermediate, made Abedjou the center for the worship of Wesir (Osiris). At this period the tomb of Djer was thought to be the tomb of Wesir. Many people set up steale and built small chapels here in the hope of being close to the god in the Afterlife. It also became the fashion to be buried at Abedjou, of which a vast cemetery bears witness. The annually Wesir Passion Plays began to be celebrated already in the 12th Dynasty and continued into the Christian era.

The New Kingdom
saw kings like Ahmose, Seti I and Ramesses II build temples and cenotaphs here. The most impressive of them is the Temple of Seti I, dedicated to himself and a line of deities; Osiris, Isis, Ptah-Sokar, Re-Horakhty, Horus and Nefertem. Abedjou is still the goal for pilgrimage and celebrations by kings and commoners alike during this period.

In the Third Intermediate and Late Period
the importance remains. Many viziers and high officials are buried here. One vizier Nespamedu was in Assyrian texts even called the 'king of Tanis'. In the 26th Dynasty, evidently some structures dependent on royal patronage had lapsed into decay as the emphasis as a cult center probably has moved to Akhmim but Ahmose II (Amasis) undertook a complete programme of restoration, though he himself was buried at Sais.

Animal burials from the Late Period of dog or jackal, ibis and falcon have been found here, showing the vast stretch of time during which Abedjou functioned as a sacred burial ground.