In the Beginning was the War. Conflict and the Emergence of the Egyptian State.

CAMPAGNO, MARCELO

Egypt at its Origins. Studies in Memory of Barbara Adams

Peeters

Lugar: Lovaina; Año: 2004; p. 689 - 703

The rock drawings recently discovered at Gebel Tjauti (Darnell 2002) show - among other figures - an armed man leading a bound captive and the motif of a stork with a serpent in its mouth (probably meaning “victory”). This allows us to pose again the question of the relationship between conflict and the process of the emergence of the state in the Egyptian Nile Valley. Certainly, such a relationship has been under consideration from the time of Petrie’s Dynastic Race (Petrie 1912: 3-4; Emery 1961: 38-42) and Sethe’s Predynastic Kingdoms theories (Sethe 1930; Pirenne 1961: 49-86). In current theoretical approaches, war is usually seen as one of the factors leading to the Egyptian state; considering the territorial expansion produced after the emergence of the first state centres in Upper Egypt, many researchers admit that such a process might be related (partially, at least) to the continuation of the warlike conflicts. However, the specific status of the relationship between these conflicts and that process still seems unclear. In the following pages, we will present some thoughts about the possible place of war in the process of the emergence and initial consolidation of the state in Ancient Egypt.