Early Dynastic-3rd Dynasty
General background:
WILKINSON, T. 1999 Early Dynastic Egypt, London and New York.
Spencer Early Egypt
For mortuary things: Ikram and Dodson The Tomb in Ancient Egypt
Early Dynastic royal sculpture before Khasekhemwy (this includes the possible Aha from Abydos and Nineter) - Peter
Burlington Fine Arts Club Catalogue of an Exhibition of Ancient Egyptian Art. London: 1922. 163. Print.
This Book just contains plates from the exhibition and was one of the only images I could find of an enigmatic statue head currenlty as UCL that is though to be contemporary to the Khasekhem statues
Emery, W. B. Archaic Egypt. Harmondworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1963. 98-99, 170-171. Print.
Briefly discusses sculpture from the period but just talks about the chronology of pieces instead of discussing the comonalities and traits that vary and are similar between them
Glanville, S. R. K. "An Archaic Statuette from Abydos." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 17.1/2 (1931): 65-66. Print.
A brief article which discusses the enigmatic statue excavated by Petrie. Published after it had been cleaned in the 30's and provides new information about the piece that Petrie did not touch.
Quibell, J. E. Hierakonpolis Part I. 1st ed. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1900. 11, pl. XXXIX-XLI. Print.
A book of plates that has the two statues of Khasekhem. Does discuss them briefly but not in depth at all
Simpson, W. K. "A Statuette of King Nyneter." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 42. (1956): 45-49. Print.
The most useful source which discusses the statuette of Nyneter and also lists other statuary that is thought to both precede and and come after it.
Wilkinson, Toby. Early Dynastic Egypt. 1st ed. USA: Routledge, 1999. 160. Print.
Talks about the statuette of Nyneter briefly but really only discusses the hqa-scepter
Overview of 1st Dynasty royal tombs (two people)
Petrie 1900 Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty, I, London.
Petrie 1901 Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties, II, London.
Dreyer et all in MDAIK volumes going back to 1982 (use for plans, objects and abstracts – too dense to read all the German in a week)
Wilkinson 1999 Early Dynastic Egypt, London and New York
Kemp 1966 Abydos and the Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty, JEA 52, 13-22.
Kemp 1967 The Egyptian 1st Dynasty royal cemetery, Antiqutiy 41, 22-32.
Early royal ivory and ebony labels -Amanda
This was especially helpful in my search for images and the British Museum's website includes brief but succinct articles about all of their artifacts, so some of the key points (dates, excavation, materials) of Den's labels were derived from here.
Spencer Early Egypt
While lamentably no one in Spencer's book addressed the ivory and ebony labels specifically, this was crucial in providing background information about kingship, festivals and royal iconography, I found the section on serekhs on incised pottery to be most comparable to the ivory labels, though using a different medium they both served as markers of royalty. The ivory and ebony labels tended to include more pictorial representations and the "h3t sp" sign, there are certainly parallels to be made between these royal identifiers.
Piquette “A Compositional Approach to a First Dynasty Inscribed Label Fragment from the Abydos Tomb Complex Ascribed to Qa′a” in ZÄS 2010
Though this was by far the most useful source on labels during the First Dynasty, Kathryn Piquette spends most of the article discussing her interpretations of the pictorial and graphic representations on the labels of King Qa'a, which she refers to as "Significant" and "Complex," and she takes a more linguistics-heavy approach at looking at these artifacts, which were a part from course from most of the discussion of festival depictions, figures and materials. She also featured relevant discussions on comparable labels from Aha and Den, and Djer, and much of her work centers upon the serekhs of the king's themselves and how they evolve. Some very nice pictures also came from this source.
Smith, William Stevenson. The art and architecture of ancient Egypt. 3rd Edition, New Haven : Yale University Press, 1998.
This was also included a very salient discussion of the ivory labels in his chapter on "Sculpture and Painting" and very detailed illustrations and a catalogue-esque breakdown of most of what is extant. He describes the festivals that are possibly depicted, where these were found and what kings actually have labels that are associated with them. He even included some of the lesser known labels, rather than simply discussing Aha's Nagada plaque and Den's ebony and ivory labels, and line-drawings were provided of these as well. Overall a very helpful text with detailed descriptions and fairly inclusive.
Wenke, Robert J. The Ancient Egyptian State: The Origins of Egyptian Culture (c. 8000-2000 BC). New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009.
This included some background material which was useful to understanding the reign of Den and the flourishing of trade and foreign campaigns that factor heavily into the ivory and ebony labels and the objects that they were attached to. Scholars are of course still divided as to whether there are actual events depicted on these labels, but at least in the case of Den, it is believed that he did have Syro-Palestinian campaigns that could be related to the "smiting of the east" label. Royal iconography, such as it is, can hardly ever be trusted to depict "historic" events, rather the symbolic nature of the image is the often the more important factor, but it does give some food for thought.
Redford, Donald J. Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times. Princeton, 1992.
While he very briefly mentions the ivory labels, particularly in their connection to the Den campaigns in Syro-Palestine, this is where he proposed that the information on the royal labels with the "h3t sp" sign is an annals system and a more specific method for recording regnal years, as in the "year of King so-and-so's Sed-festival," this being more of a way of commemorating the specific event in a king' reign rather than a calendrical system.
Hemaka tomb and contents - Emily
Emery The Tomb of Hemaka
O’Connor 2006 “The Ownership of Elite Tombs at Saqqara in the First Dynasty”, in Z. HAWASS, S. BEDIER, K. DAOUD (eds.) Studies in Honor of Ali Radwan, Supplément aux Annales du Service des Antiquites de l’Égypte, Cahier 34, Cairo, 223-231.
Tell el-Farkha tombs and their contents (these are really important and very newly found) - Oren
Article on Tomb 100: 
Farkha grave 100.pdf
This article does a nice job of highlighting one of the more spectacular and very recent finds from Tell el-Farkha. It is very well-written and cogently articulates the importance of this particular burial, but of course is also very specific, dealing mainly with information specifically related to the tomb. For me at least, this article made significantly more of an impression when I reread it after having read some earlier preliminary site reports in ASAE 80 and MDAIK 58.
Bibliography and photographs generally available from the FB page (Farcha): http://www.facebook.com/#!/farkha.org
This website does a nice job of providing a broad background of the site. It's the first place I would look when trying to get a handle on information about Tell el-Farkha, and there are a lot of amazing images. Many of these are not particularly well labelled, but as I said, it's a nice place to start.
"Burial Customs" article in Egypt at its Origins II
In general, there is a wealth of information in Egypt at its Origins II on Tell el-Farkha. This article by J.Dębowska-Ludwin was very informative, but rather dry. It details the three main phases of most burial at the site: the impressive, larger Dynasty 0 graves, the smaller, less well-equipped Dynasty 1 burials, and the later, very simple pit graves. She attributes the decline in the wealth of the graves to the declining political importance of the sight.
I would also direct anyone who is interested in the sight towards the articles by Chlodnick and Cialowicz in the same volume: "The Nature of the Relationship between Lower and Upper Egypt in the Protodynastic Period. A view from Tell el-Farkha" by Cialowicz and "Trade and Exchange in the Predynastic and Early Dynastic Period in the Eastern Delta" by Chlodnicki. Both of these articles emphasize Tell el-Farkha's importance as a trading center. Cialowicz contends that the destruction of certain large architectural complexes at the site were the result of conflict between emerging centers of Upper Egyptian kingship, vying over control of an important trade route. He also suggests that the presence of Upper Egyptian Naqada III culture at and below the destruction layer informs us that this destruction was not the result of the Upper Egyptian conquest of Lower Egypt. I thought that he presented an intersting theory, and I'm inclined to accept aspects of it because he's dealt more with the site more than any other scholar. That said, I don't think the evidence he provides does enough to prove his theory: a destruction level at a faraway site at the time period when Abydos and Hierakonpolis were struggling to assert their dominance over Upper and Lower Egypt doesn't preclude natural disasters or local conflicts. Chlodnicki's article is perhaps less controversial, but more perhaps more informative about the site itself, as well as trade in this period. He suggests that seals and a preponderance of donkey bones on the site confirm Tell el-Farkha's importance as a trading entrepot between Upper Egypt and Palestine.
Also in the same volume, M.A.Jucha's "The Corpus of "Potmarks" from the Graves at Tell el-Farkha" is the go to source for information on the potmarks found on some , where researchers have deciphered the names of Iry-Hor and Narmer, among others. There is also an article that addressses the importance of the brewery complex at the site, the oldest production site in Lower Egypt yet discovered, written by Kryzstof Cichowski- but I didn't have time to get through all of that one.
Helwan tombs and stelae - Kathryn
Wood, W. 'The Archaic Stone Tombs at Helwan', JEA 73 (1987). Wood's evidence was limited because she was relying on Saad's publication. She tries to argue that stone was used to build the tombs at Helwan because the deceased could not afford wood as was used in the royal tombs at Abydos. This seems an untenable position, in view both of the extreme technical difficulty of using huge blocks of limestone (ably demonstrated by Kohler 2005 and Birrell) and of the presence with some of the stone tombs of large wooden funerary boats (which appear on her plans).
Köhler, E. C. 'On the Origins of Memphis- the new excavations in the early dynastic necropolis at Helwan' in Egypt at its Origins I, 295-315. Discussion of the aims of the Helwan expedition and general discussion of the tombs.
Köhler, E. C. Helwan I: Excavations in the Early Dynastic Cemetery Season 1997/8. 2005. Great excavation report with really useful analysis and some good plans. The second volume of this report, on the ceilling stelae, appears to be missing from the library. Unfortunately, the second and third parts of the reports do not appear to have been published, despite being listed as 'forthcoming' in the bibloiography.
Saad Royal Excavations at Saqqara and Helwan (1941-1945), Cairo 1947 and Royal Excavations at Helwan (1945-1947), Cairo 1951. The archaeological discussion is very out of date and it's written in a very strange style, but there are copious photographs and plans that are very useful. These only cover the earlier seasons of Saad's work at Helwan.
Saad Ceiling stelae in second dynasty tombs from the excavations at Helwan. Cairo 1957. Full publication of the 'ceiling' stelae with description and good clear photographs. Dating is a little out of date and the description of the stelae as being found in the ceiling with accompanying photos is a little baffling.
Saad The Excavations at Helwan University of Oklahome Press 1969. Small book written for general audience. Written in Saad's interesting style and not very useful from a scholarly point of view but there are lots of really great photos at the back.
Wilkinson, T. 'A re-examination of the early dynastic necropolis at Helwan', MDAIK 52, 1996. Somewhat out of date (especially on the dating of the tombs) as written before the Helwan excavations restarted in 1997, but still has some good analysis on the social status of the people buried in the necropolis.
Birrell, M. 'Portcullis Stones: tomb security during the early dynastic period', BACE 11, 2000. Very interesting article discussing the portcullis stones at Helwan and other examples of this phenomenon from Saqqara and elsewhere. Some excellent diagrams and discussion of practical aspects of how they were used (some good arguments that could be used against Wood).
Hetepdjef statue
Raneb/Nebra stela - Oliver Weerasinghe
Fischer, Henry “An Egyptian Royal Stela of the Second Dynasty” in Artibus Asiae 24:1 (1961) Fischer recounts the discovery of the stela and the significance of the find, as well as briefly comparing it to other 1st and 2nd dynasty stelae.
Kahl, Jochem Ra is my lord: searching for the sun god at the dawn of Egyptian history Kahl argues that Raneb is the same king as Weneg, and that together these names support the notion of Ra worship as early as the second dynasty.
O’Brien, Alexandra “The serekh as an Aspect of the Iconography of Early Kingship” in JARCE 1996 dissection of the meaning or multiple meanings of the Serekh, use of the serekh, as well as the meaning of the "srh" words, and the significance of the Ka.
Shunet ez-Zebib and funerary enclosures (should be two people, split 1st and 2nd Dynasty; coordinate)
Kemp 1966 Abydos and the Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty, JEA 52, 13-22.
Kemp 1967 The Egyptian 1st Dynasty royal cemetery, Antiqutiy 41, 22-32.
Bestock “The Early Dynastic Funerary Enclosures of Abydos” Archeo-Nil 18 (2008)
O’Connor and Adams “The Royal Mortuary Enclosures of Abydos and Hierakonpolis” in The Treasures of the Pyramids Hawass (ed)
Petrie 1925 Tombs of the Courtiers and Oxyrynkhos, London.
Hierakonpolis enclosure of Khasekhem - Julia
O’Connor and Adams “The Royal Mortuary Enclosures of Abydos and Hierakonpolis” in The Treasures of the Pyramids Hawass (ed)
Not in our library, will update when available.
Friedman in various Nekhen News issues (available online)
excellent source of general information and especially easy to read. See volume 11 (1999) and volume 12 (2000) in particular. Gives overview, but does not delve too deeply into issues or provide much evidence in support of the assertions presented. Meant for a general audience.
Friedman 2007. New observations on the fort at Hierakonpolis. The archaeology and art of ancient Egypt: Essays in honor of David B. O’Connor, Z. A. Hawass and J. Richards
This provides information similar to what is found in Nekhen News, but goes into more depth and provides evidence for assertions and discusses material in a more 'scholarly' fashion with additional references, etc. You would want to read this for citing information in a paper, and perhaps read Nekhen News if you only wanted a brief introduction to the topic.
Quibell, J.E. and F.W. Green (1902) Hierakonpolis II (Egypt Research Account 5).
Very brief introductory statements about Hierakonpolis enclosure. Only a few pages. But good resource for tracing development of ideas regarding the 'fort.'
Kemp, Barry J. (1963) "Excavations at Hierakonpolis Fort 1905: A Preliminary Note" in JEA 49: 24-28.
Discussion and re-evaluation of Garstang's work at Hierakonpolis. This article provides and in depth evaluation of the current state of the enclosure's architecture and associated finds. Kemp also includes in his discussion the predynastic cemetery that the enclosure sits partially on top of (excavated originally by Garstang).
Garstang, J (1907) "Excavations at Hierakonpolis, at Esna and in Nubia" in Annales du Service des Antiques de l'Egypte 8: 132-148.
Discussion of the excavated 188 graves from the cemetery under the enclosure of Khasekhem.
Lansing, A. (1935) "The Museum's Excavations at Hierakonpolis" Bulletin of the MET 30: 37-45.
short article describing finds of a 6 week season at the enclosure by the MET team. Details finds, discusses the nearby predynastic town site, only brief reference to the enclosure itself.
useful web resources o http://www.archaeology.org/interactive/hierakonpolis/field/fort06.html
o http://www.hierakonpolis-online.org/site/fort.html
O’Connor and Adams “The Royal Mortuary Enclosures of Abydos and Hierakonpolis” in The Treasures of the Pyramids Hawass (ed)
Friedman in various Nekhen News issues (available online)
Friedman 2007. New observations on the fort at Hierakonpolis. The archaeology and art of ancient Egypt: Essays in honor of David B. O’Connor, Z. A. Hawass and J. Richards
Do look at the original reports, too, references to which will be present in the above
Ankhwa statue
Tombs of Ninetjer and Hetepsekhemwy - Müge Durusu
Reader in JEA 2004 Reader, C. 2004. “On Pyramid Causeways,” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 90: 63-71. The major aim of the article is to demonstrate the view that the Early Dynastic burials at Saqqara were not viewed from the Nile Valley to the east, which is the modern road to be taken. On the contrary, Reader argues that the tombs were approached via Abusir wadi to the north, which was more extensively vegetated during the Early Dynastic Period. Reader interprets this phenomenon in conjunction with the conceptual dualities of Egypt, as the “Black Land” associated with Nile was seen as the land of the living; the “Red Land” of the desert was the realm of the dead. Within this framework, Reader sees the Abusir valley as a safe pass to the land of the dead. With the aridification of the climate during the Fifth Dynasty, Reader argues that Abusir leaves its place to the Pyramid Causeways and situates them as man-made passages into the realm of the dead. This article is concise and helpful from a specific viewpoint, with a very clear argument. However, I found it to be too much focused on the Abusir wadi and would like some cross-geographical comparisons from other sites.
Ikram and Dodson The Tomb in Ancient Egypt (brief but good background and some decent plans) Dodson, A., and S. Ikram. 2008 “Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods” in The Tomb in Ancient Egypt. London: Thames and Hudson This book is a diachronic study of Egyptian mortuary beliefs and the natures of the tombs from the Predynastic period until the end of the Late Graeco-Roman periods in Egypt. Hence, should be useful to anyone studying on mortuary practices throughout the semester. The bibliography at the end of the book is also substantial. The chapter including 2nd Dynasty Tombs of Saqqara is “Predynastic and Early Periods”, through which it is possible to see the changes in mortuary practice after the 1st Dynasty. Useful comparisons between these two periods. Still to be treated as a textbook. Regulski, I. 2009. “Investigating a New Dynasty 2 Necropolis at South Saqqara,” British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan 13: 221-237. This article deals with the newly discovered necropolis at South Saqqara, which is dated to the end of the Second Dynasty on the basis of pottery and a seal impression of Khasekhemwy. Although dealing with a slightly later time period and a different necropolis, the introduction section of the article provides a larger context for Early Dynastic mortuary practice. The main value of the article, however, lies in its up-to-date bibliography and legible visuals.
Wilkinson, T. A. H. 2000. “Second Dynasty Saqqara,” in Early Dynastic Egypt. New York: Routledge I found the short bit about Saqqara Second Dynasty Tombs to be extremely useful, with a lot of packed information and a good overall plan showing the locations of the tombs.
Roth, A. M. 1993. “Social Change in the Fourth Dynasty: The Spatial Organization of Pyramids, Tombs, and Cemeteries,” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 30: 33-55. Although deals mainly with the 4th Dynasty, Roth’s article has important insights into the previous periods for the sake of a solid argument of social change during the 4th Dynasty. The major attitude of the article situates 1st-3rd Dynasty tombs within a tradition of recreating earthly life for the deceased, and hence structures mirroring residences. Although she pushes the material a little for situating the tomb of Hetepsekhemwy within this tradition, she makes valid points. This article should even be more useful for the discussions about the 4th Dynasty mortuary architecture. The major gap in the article is the lack of spatial analysis at practice. Although Roth discussess access analysis as a promising technique of evaluating space at the beginning, she does not explore the potential of this theory in the pages to come.
Lacher, C. 2008. “Das Grab des Hetepsechemui/Raneb in Saqqara: Ideen zur Baugeschichtlichen Entwicklung.” In E-M. Engel, V. Müller, and U. Hartung (eds.) Zeichen aus dem Sand: Streifliched aus Ägyptens Geschichte zu Ehren von Günter Dreyer. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 427-451. Extremely helpful. An up-to-date study of the tomb of Hetepsekhemwy and its stratigraphy, also revolving around the ideas monumentality and different building techniques. Lacher offers a detailed diachronic perspective for the evolution of complex tunnel complexes, as well as a diachronic study of the different building phases of the tomb of Hetepsekhemwy itself.
Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Abteilung Kairo Ründbriefe This semi-formal publication of DAI-Kairo is available online through DAI’s website at http://www.dainst.org . Issues 2005 up to present include G. Dreyer’s annual reports about the tomb of Ninetjer, written in a dry yet informative fashion (and of course in German). The more lengthy 2005 report is especially informative and includes the excavator’s viewpoint about the tomb of Ninetjer being a perfect mirroring of a residential setting.
Khasekhemwy statuettes - Rob
Smith “Two Archaic Egyptian Sculptures” in Boston Museum Bulletin (1967)
Lion imagery in the Early Dynastic (I'm thinking of that altar from Memphis, ivory game pieces from Abydos, etc)
Stone vessels from the Early Dynastic - Mike Bohl
the tell el Farkha FB page (http://www.facebook.com/#!/farkha.org) has GREAT pictures of theirs
Ashton, B. Ancient Egyptian Stone Vessels
This is basically the only book that covers the topic and it is more of an analysis of a previous analysis - if that makes sense. Ashton describes the different methods of dating stone vessels and then uses those methods to test the accuracy of a previous study. The book if very helpful when talking about materials and form, but doesn't get much into the function of the pots. There is another book in the library by Greene, but that turns out to be the exact same book published after the author (presumably) got married and changed her name.
