Holy War: Expansion of the Naqada Culture and State-Building in Egypt

Abstract

Archaeological research would make little substantial progress without transcending on occasion the obvious limits of its ‘technical’ routine for the greatest common factor: the genuinely interdisciplinary and all-inclusive domain of palaeopolitics. Mortuary consolidation backed by the powerful ‘ideology of an afterlife’ paved the way for the political consolidation of the Naqada culture. The ever-larger Upper Egyptian proto-state was spearheaded by the ultimate politico-religious leader: the divine king, the god on earth, incarnated Horus, accompanied by an increasing number of followers/believers. Every religion has its respective birthplace, i.e. an absolute geographic location (Nekhen for instance) to which its roots can be traced. The iconography of coercion, along with so-called powerfacts, is firmly established in southern Upper Egypt. Holy war in direct connection with state-building is a well-known narrative, a historical and modern phenomenon.

Keywords

• Naqada culture
• holy war
• state-building
• Horus
• god-king
• paleopolitics