Publisher's Synopsis
Most of our evidence for the process of state formation in Egypt - as attested by increasing social complexity, changes in material culture, the intensification of trade, and political unification - derives from cemeteries excavated in the early years of the Twentieth Century. In order to do this, the present study seeks to apply new techniques of analysis to a representative sample of that cemetery data. Its aims are twofold: the refinement of the chronology of the late Predynastic to Early Dynastic transition, and the investigation of socio-economic change within Egyptian society during the period of state formation. By selecting sites throughout the Nile valley, it seeks to establish more sensitive, local chronologies for the late Predynastic to Early Dynastic transition. These can then be used as the framework for investigating the effects of state formation on individual communities and wider regions.
