The Badarian cemeteries: burial before the dynasties

The explanations distinguish finds, interpretations and open questions. Sources appear at the end of the page.

What the source says

On the Met's timeline the Badarian Period is the first phase of the Predynastic Period, about 4500-3800 BCE. It is named after Nile valley sites in Middle Egypt in the vicinity of the modern town of Badari. According to the source, most sites of the period are cemeteries located in the low desert of the Nile valley proper; the largest known site of the time, by contrast, is Merimde Beni Salama in the Delta, the subject of a separate article. Source 1.

A burial program

The source writes that the numerous Badarian cemeteries reveal "a formal burial program" that includes constructing a tomb, positioning the body and supplying the deceased with equipment for an afterlife. The most common burial objects are finely made bowls of Nile clay in brown or red. Tombs occasionally contain jewellery, including, according to the source, the earliest glazed stone beads, and sometimes small human figures of ivory. Source 1.

What burial tells about society

The source draws no conclusion about rank or power from the Badarian graves. It offers such conclusions only for later phases: in Naqada I the burial program continues, with more ceramic vessels in the tombs; and in Naqada II (about 3650-3300 BCE) it identifies "substantial change in the social organization" from the size and arrangement of sites and the contents of tombs, and writes that some members of society seem to have had access to greater wealth, allowing them to build more elaborate tombs. For the Badarian Period, then, burial shows a shared and elaborate practice: a built tomb, a body placed in a deliberate position, and equipment for an afterlife. Differences between tombs in this period the source does not describe. Source 1.

What cannot be said

The source does not name the cemeteries one by one, gives no number of graves and does not say how many contained jewellery or ivory figures, only "occasionally" and "sometimes". Nor does it distinguish the burials of men, women and children. The question of what burial reveals about society before the dynasties is therefore answered only in part: it shows a settled burial custom, but anyone who wants to argue about the structure of Badarian society needs the excavation publications of the cemeteries themselves. Source 1.

Scope of reading: the Met's timeline page for Egypt, 8000-2000 BCE, was read on 24 October 2026. The excavation reports of the Badarian cemeteries were not read, so this page gives no cemetery names, grave counts or descriptions of any particular grave.