The Earliest Example of Pharaonic Iconography

— by Stan Hendrickx

One of the many remarkable finds made by Barbara Adams original content cannot be defined, it seems pretty clear that
during her excavations at HK6 was a fragmentary Polished- the bowl had no actual household function. Therefore, the
red bowl from the fill around Tomb 16. It was most proba- vessel must be an expression of status, be it as an item of lux-
bly part of the inventory of the original tomb, which judging ury, religion, or a combination of both.
from other finds Bowls with
dates to the early untreated interi-
Naqada II period ors are very rare
(see page 13). The among Polished-red
bowl has flaring walls ware, but they do occur
and a flat base, closely occasionally in White Cross-
resembling Petrie’s type lined pottery where the interior
P15 b/d, which is characteristic decoration is limited to the pol-
for the late Naqada I – early ished part below the rim. The
Naqada II period. absence of interior slip and polish is
The bowl is slipped and polished also observed on a few very exceptional
on the outside, but only just below vessels with applied decoration on the
the rim on the inside. Although the rim, like those with snakes and female
rest of the interior is carefully figures found by the German mission
smoothed, it is rough in appearance. Polished-red bowl from Tomb 16 with in cemetery U at Abydos. The fact that
Considering that this is where the pot-marks projected on the surface. it is mainly bowls with decoration that
content would have been held, one are finished in this way corroborates the
would expect it to be finished at least as carefully as the rest elite function of such vessels.
of the vessel. Yet this part of the interior shows no traces of It is indeed the decoration that makes the vessel from HK6
use and looks as if it has come straight from the potter’s really exceptional, although it is neither painted nor applied.
hands, despite the The bowl has two pot-marks on it, both of them incised after
fact that there are firing. One, on the exterior, represents a highly stylised
Photo: J. Rossiter

signs of wear on the quadruped. Although the head is slightly damaged, it looks
exterior. Presumably as if it were never fully indicated. The long tail and other
the bowl contained appendages suggest that a bull may have been intended,
something that filled although the absence of horns is strange. Alternatively, it
the interior but did could be a running dog, because of the curved back, but such
not leave any traces. a long tail is rare for Predynastic or Early Dynastic repre-
A liquid is not very sentations of dogs. A preliminary search for parallels among
likely, because the pot-marks and rock-art did not yield any useful results, but
absence of slip and the zoological identifica-
polish leaves the ves- tion was apparently not
sel walls rather important to the artist any-
porous. As the vessel way; for him, the symmet-
was used at least rical aspect of the drawing
occasionally, the con- seems to dominate.
tent must have been The second pot-mark
something stable, is within the slipped and
but not very heavy or polished area on the inside
rough. One could rim. Unfortunately, only
suggest (dried) flow- half of the drawing is pre-
ers or herbs, but this served, but there is no
remains mere specu- doubt about its identifica-
The Bat pot-mark. lation. Although the tion. When completed The pot-mark reconstructed.

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2005
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 symmetrically, it obvi- It is most remarkable that while these two very early
ously represents the examples of pharaonic iconography come from
emblem of the cow god- Hierakonpolis, similar finds have not been made at Abydos
dess Bat, with the char- in the elite U cemetery. The Naqada IID–IIIA phase of the
acteristic angular face, U cemetery is certainly to be considered the direct prede-
protruding ears and tall cessor of the Dynasty 0 and I royal tombs at Umm el-Qaab,
incurving horns. but whether the early Naqada II tombs in this cemetery also
This is not the first contain the burials of the most important people of this time
example of the Bat now needs to be questioned. Both the size and complexity
emblem found at of HK6 Tombs 16 and 23 and the ‘Bat connection’ put the
The goddess Bat on the ostracon
Hierakonpolis, but it spotlight on Hierakonpolis in early Naqada II.
from the temple at HK29A. may well be the oldest, Our two very early attestations of the Bat emblem both
predating by a number appear in contexts that can be linked with the recurrent idea
of years the example found in the predynastic temple at of ‘order over chaos’ and (divine) royal power at
HK29A (see Nekhen News 15:8–9). This new find again Hierakonpolis. That the emblem continued to be used in this
connects the elite cemetery at HK6 with the temple at way, even after the center of royal power shifted to Abydos,
HK29A, but also, and more importantly, it provides us may be an additional argument for some sort of diplomatic
with a direct link to the dynastic style of representing Bat. accommodation rather than war between Abydos and
This little drawing is in fact the oldest for which exact par- Hierakonpolis during the final stage of state formation, as
allels can be found in pharaonic iconography. The impor- already suggested (see Hendrickx & Friedman 2003, Göttiger
tance of the goddess Bat during the Late Predynastic and Miszellen 196: 95–109).
Early Dynastic period is well known from the Gerzeh and Returning finally to the vessel under discussion, although
Narmer palettes, among others. While it comes as no real the two pot-marks may initially seem to be only rather ‘hum-
surprise that the canonical form of her emblem is the ear- ble’ intellectual expressions, it is most tempting to recognise
liest to appear, only a few years ago no one expected that already at this early stage the difference between what Barry
any direct iconographic links could be made with the early Kemp (Anatomy of a Civilization, 1989) has called formal and
Naqada II period. pre-formal art. *

The Goddess Bat

Even before the recent discoveries at Hierakonpolis, Bat was an utterance (506) in the
known to be a goddess of great antiquity and importance in the Pyramid Texts, where the
early period of Egypt's history. Her name is thought to be the king identifies himself as
feminine form of the word b3 meaning ‘spirit’ or ‘soul’. As a ‘Bat with her two faces’.
celestial cow goddess she is shown with stars surrounding her
head on the Gerzeh palette and a recently discovered seal Because of similarities in
impression from Abydos (Tomb U-210, dated Naqada IID). In this appearance, Bat has been
guise she again appears, perhaps not coincidently, on the rim of a largely confused in modern
large First Dynasty stone vessel found scattered around the temple times with the goddess
area at Nekhen, on which she may also be explicitly named by the Hathor, another protective
carving of a stork, the hieroglyphic writing of her name. cow goddess not explicitly Narmer’s Bat.
attested until the Fourth
At the same time, she can be shown without her astral attrib- Dynasty. Yet, even in antiquity, the connection between the two
utes, and on both deities was close. In the Middle Kingdom Hathor begins to take
sides of the Narmer over Bat's cult and attributes, and by the New Kingdom this process
palette she takes on of assimilation is complete.
the human face she
will retain through- Although Bat is an obscure goddess today, her emblem with its
out Dynastic times. distinctive incurving horns is actually well-known. It is common
Heightening her pro- on protective amuletic jewelry, and it has also been suggested
tective abilities, she that it is her face, not Hathor’s, that decorates the elaborate
may have been con- ceremonial rattles or sistra used to worship the gods from the
ceived as a double- Middle Kingdom down to the end of dynastic times — long
Emblem of Bat from the Middle faced Janus-type after this once important and very ancient goddess had been
Kingdom and her name in hieroglyphs. figure according to sadly forgotten.

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