Kinship, concentration of population and the emergence of the state in the Nile Valley

CAMPAGNO, MARCELO

Londres, Inglaterra

Congreso; Third International Colloquium “Egypt at its Origins. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt”; 2008

British Museum

On the motives for population concentration in Hierakonpolis, different reasons related to climatic conditions (increasing aridity), economy (emphasis in alluvium-based activities and riverine trade), wars (quest for security) and religion (the attraction of a local shrine) have been proposed. In this paper, all these reasons will be considered, as well as the impact of such an agglomeration of population in the process in which the state emerges, and the possible feedback between these dynamics and the intercommunity conflicts unleashed in the region from the second half of Naqada II onwards.