Intentional perforation and the “killing” of pots in the predynastic settlement of Maadi

The predynastic site of Maadi

The predynastic site of Maadi is situated approximately 10 km south of the city centre of Cairo. After its first localization by Bovier-Lapierre in 1925, who explored the area and collected prehistoric artefacts on the surface of a desert ridge,¹ the site was investigated from the 1930s onwards by M. Amer and O. Menghin, and later by I. Rizkana.² Until 1948, with interruptions due to the Second World War, around 40.000 m² of settlement area and a cemetery have been uncovered in the Eastern part of the site. Construction activities led to the discovery of another predynastic cemetery in Wadi Digla, which were followed upon by an excavation from 1951-1953. The results of these early excavations were published in four volumes by I. Rizkana and J. Seeher in the later 1980s.³

Excavations carried out by La Sapienza University, Rome, from 1977 to 1984 in Maadi-East⁴ uncovered further predynastic remains, which have been comprehensively published in 2017.⁵ During the 1980s, it was possible to undertake investigations of the predynastic settlement in the Western part of Maadi for the first time. Under the direction of F. A. Badawi several trenches were dug and a semi-subterranean oval-shaped stone house came to light.⁶

Facing the rapid city development, the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo (DAI) conducted excavations in Maadi-West from 1999-2002.⁷ Several test-trenches were laid out in order to gain more information on the extension of the predynastic remains within the area. Postholes, likely belonging to huts or fences built of wooden material, ashy discolorations of hearths, impressions of storage jars, storage pits, brownish remains of organic material and numerous pottery sherds as well as other artefacts testified to various settlement activities. The oval-shaped stone house that has been uncovered by Badawi in 1984 was re-examined to clarify its stratigraphic position in relation to the surrounding area. During a drilling survey, another subterranean building was discovered and has subsequently been excavated (fig. 1). This building consists of an entrance corridor leading from the surface to a domed subterranean room (see below), similar to structures that are already known from the excavations of the 1930s in Maadi-East.⁸ Subterranean structures represent a unique feature in Predynastic Egypt and have close parallels in the Chalcolithic period of the Southern Levant, where they were used as living quarters and storage rooms.⁹

Today, the Eastern part of the predynastic settlement is completely overbuilt. The Western part is endangered by further urban development. What remains is the extensive amount of finds from old and more recent excavations in Maadi, especially the numerous pottery vessels that are characteristic for the material culture of Lower Egypt of the first half of the 4th millennium BC.

The pottery of the predynastic settlement

The pottery inventory of the predynastic settlement of Maadi is exceptionally rich and, in addition to numerous sherds, also comprises many completely preserved vessels. Generally speaking, the morphological variance of vessel shapes in Maadi is very broad and the inventory has a variable appearance due to various surface finishings, including differently coloured coatings, methods of smoothing and burnishing and firing (e.g., fig. 3).¹⁰ Characteristics such as size, proportions and volume can be applied to distinguish functional groups of open and closed vessels, associated either with the production,¹¹ consumption or storage of goods.¹² A special feature of the Maadi-inventory is the high amount of closed vessels. Within the pottery inventory of the DAI-excavation in Maadi-West, the ratio between closed and open shapes is 4 to 1, in favour of the closed vessels.¹³ Similar ratios have been observed for the pottery inventory of the Italian excavations in Maadi-East.¹⁴ This may point to an increased need of such vessels for storage or transportation of specific goods. For example, a large number of worked pectoral spines of synodontis schall have been found in a globular burnished jar, which were probably intended for export.¹⁵ As an alternative for bowls the use of basketry and Chambardia rubens arcuata shells has been suggested.¹⁶ Regardless of the reason for its abundance, medium-sized jars and closed vessels in general are an important component of the settlement’s pottery assemblage. This is demonstrated by the numerous vessel-deposits found in various areas. Deposits of pots of small and medium sizes in storage pits and assemblages of storage jars already came to light during the excavations in Maadi-East conducted since the 1930s¹⁷ and during the Italian excavations.¹⁸ In the Western part of the settlement, several intact vessels have been found in the filling above the floor and within the near surroundings of the oval-shaped stone house during the excavations of Badawi in 1984.¹⁹ The excavations of the DAI Cairo revealed deposits of jars in the underground room of the subterranean building fig. 2), and the remains of an assemblage of storage jars in front of its entrance.²⁰ Intact jars have also been found in the test-trenches. They were placed into small pits, either individually or as assemblages²¹. However, none of these jars had a specific content.

Apart from considerations on functional aspects, the well-preserved pottery inventory of Maadi also allows us to identify post-firing manipulation on pots. The deliberate perforation of vessels is otherwise particularly difficult to visualise in the highly fragmented pottery material from settlements. The different execution of such perforations and their position on the vessel’s body suggest different intentions. Generally speaking, a practical reason such as repair or modified use is most likely for most of them. For some perforations, however, no obvious practical purpose can be found and alternative explanations such as the intentional breaking of pots as part of a ritual practice are conceivable.

Perforations for the repair of vessels

Perforations with a diameter < 0.5 cm are most common, which were drilled through the walls using a tool with a very narrow tip, in order to reattach a broken piece to the otherwise intact body of the vessel, presumably by binding it with a string.²² On well preserved vessels, the holes are often arranged in rows along the edges of the breaks. However, the excavations of the DAI in Maadi-West revealed numerous sherds with a single drilled hole, for which the interpretation as a repair hole is likely but cannot be verified. Repairs were typically carried out on bowls,²³ often on those with a large diameter of over 40 cm,²⁴ or large oval-shaped basins (fig. 4).²⁵ Several storage jars with rows of repair holes are known from the settlement in Maadi-East. In these cases, a single piece of the rim had obviously broken off and had to be fixed again.²⁶ Both, those vessels with a roughly wet-smoothed surface and those with a coloured coating and burnishing are documented, so apparently the quality of the finish did not play a major role in the decision for or against a repair. The size was obviously more important, which certainly has its reason in the effort required to manufacture large jars, bowls and basins, making a fast replacement of damaged large pots difficult. But not only large vessels were repaired. Some thin-walled sherds (wall-thickness < 1 cm) of jars with one or more drilled holes may indicate the repair of medium-sized and small vessels. Repaired vessels of different sizes can be regularly observed in pottery inventories of predynastic settlements in Lower and in Upper Egypt, such as Buto,²⁷ El Omari,²⁸ Merimde,²⁹ Sais,³⁰ Badari³¹ and Adaima.³²

Perforations with the intention of modified vessel use

In rare cases it can be assumed that perforations served to improve a specific function of the vessel, for example, if the jar was used for transportation. An imported Levantine jar found in Maadi-East has six perforations drilled in a row below the rim after firing.³³ Similarly, a sherd of a Levantine jar from the DAI excavations in Maadi-West has a small drilled hole with a diameter < 0.3 cm underneath its rim (fig. 5).³⁴ These perforations were most probably not intended for repair, but could have been used to attach a lid, e.g., made of organic material to it with a string to protect the vessel from losing the contents. Holes drilled close to the rim are also occasionally employed on holemouth jars found in Maadi³⁵ and other predynastic settlements, e.g., Merimde³⁶ and Adaima.³⁷ These, however, have a much larger rim-diameter, making their function as transport containers questionable.

Perforations with the intention of rendering the vessel “unusable”

The predynastic settlement of Maadi yielded a significant number of jars with a single, irregularly shaped hole cut roughly into the wall of the vessel’s body. Many jars are medium-sized with holes usually located in the centre of the vessel (fig. 6, right), more rarely in its lower part (fig.7) or on its shoulder (fig. 3, 2nd from left). On some vessels the hole seems to be unfinished,³⁸ and may give a clue to the modus operandi: in the first step a small hole was drilled through the wall with a pointed tool; in the second step the hole was carefully widened by 1-3 cm. Obviously, it was important to prevent the vessel from breaking, while no attention was payed to the shape of the hole itself. Medium-sized jars with an intentionally cut hole found during the excavations in Maadi-East have a globular shape with brown- and black-burnished surfaces.³⁹ Less frequently red- or orange-burnished ovoid vessels occur.⁴⁰ During the DAI excavations in Maadi-West such holes have been documented on long-ovoid jars with raised base and wet-smoothed or red-slipped surface –the most characteristic pottery type of Maadi– (fig. 6),⁴¹ and on ovoid black-burnished jars (fig. 7). Only in one case, a hole was observed underneath the rim of an otherwise intact red-burnished bowl. None of these perforations seem to have an obvious practical purpose and therefore, a deliberate destruction, a “killing”, that would make the vessels unusable for further usage is a reasonable explanation.

Intentionally cut holes are also attested on large storage jars measuring up to 90 cm in the settlement in Maadi-East,⁴² while only a single specimen was unearthed during the DAI excavations. In Maadi-West, however, only the lower parts of most of the storage jars remained in situ in their pits, while the upper parts have been removed by erosion or modern disturbance during the intensive use of the area in World War II. Storage jars with an intentionally cut hole are usually wet-smoothed or have a red-slipped surface. The holes vary between 3 cm and 6 cm in size and are often located on the shoulder, a few examples have a hole in the lower part of the vessel. The “rendering unusable” also is a likely explanation for these storage jars, as their holes are usually irregular and too small to fulfill a practical function. On the other hand, a practical function cannot be completely ruled out in every case. A large globular storage jar with two big rounded holes is exceptional. Each hole measures approx. 8 cm in diameter, and they have carefully been made next to each other on the jar’s shoulder (fig. 8); a circular incision indicates that a third hole was planned. The two holes are just big enough to reach through with a small hand, for example to extract small quantities of the content. Beyond that, however, its particular purpose remains unclear and cannot be explained by the find situation, as the vessel was not found in situ during the DAI excavations. It was located in the entrance area of the oval-shaped stone house, standing with its mouth pointing downwards in a pit that was filled with modern rubbish.⁴³ A similar vessel with a big roughly rectangular hole of 12 cm in size cut into the lower part⁴⁴ was found in Maadi-East and might have had a similar practical function.

Vessels with perforations in the archaeological context of the Maadi settlement

The find contexts of vessels with perforations from the excavations of the 1930s in Maadi-East are difficult to reconstruct today.⁴⁵ Their approximate find position can be determined on the general plan, but as none of the vessels was apparently found in a specific context, detailed drawings are not available. New information about the find context of vessels with intentionally cut, irregularly shaped holes, so-called “killing holes”, is provided by the excavations of the DAI Cairo in Maadi-West, where some of these vessels came to light in undisturbed deposits within the subterranean house and in concentrations of vessels on walking horizons in test-trench G34.

The subterranean house in Maadi-West (see fig. 1)⁴⁶ is accessible from the south via a stone-built staircase leading to a stone-lined and carefully plastered corridor, which was covered by a ceiling structure supported by four wooden posts. The corridor opens downwards into a domed room driven into the desert surface. Numerous pottery sherds, flint implements, stone vessel sherds, spindle whorls and exclusive artefacts, such as a bifacially retouched rhombic knife, indicate an intensive first phase of use on the ground floor of the room.⁴⁷ After a fire led to the collapse of the ceiling construction above the corridor, the room continued to be used as a kind of abri for some time. While the room was gradually filled with wind-blown sand, vessels were deposited in front of the arched northern wall, where access was difficult (fig. 2).⁴⁸ Among the numerous completely preserved pottery vessels, nine feature a “killing hole”, including four black-burnished ovoid vessels (fig. 7), four jars with raised base, three of which have a red-slipped surface, and one has a wet-smoothed surface (fig. 6), as well as one red-burnished bowl. These vessels belong to different deposits arranged in superimposed layers and therefore, it can be assumed that they were deposited at different times and on different occasions. The remaining pottery inventory of these deposits comprises further intact ovoid vessels of different size and jars with raised bases, as well as numerous fragments of bases and rims of the same vessel types, two beakers, a globular bottle, two miniature vessels, fragments of soot-covered cooking vessels, fragments of jars with incised decoration, fragments of bowls and of painted vessels, and fragments of Levantine jars. Alongside pottery vessels, other objects were also found in the deposits, including worked fishbones,⁴⁹ flint implements and several small limestone bowls (fig. 9) with soot-covered inner surfaces. The latter might have been used as lamps or for incense burning.⁵⁰ However, the individual composition of each deposit requires more analysis for a more detailed interpretation, which goes beyond the scope of this article.

The time frame of the placement of the deposits is unknown, but even after the complete collapse of the ceiling above the subterranean room the storage activities continued. The last phase of activities is evidenced by two red-slipped storage jars that have been found not far from a fireplace in the shallow depression within the uppermost filling-layer of the house, ca. 4 m above the ground floor of the subterranean room.⁵¹ One of these storage jars has a “killing hole” in the centre of the vessel’s body.

Additionally, another red-slipped jar with raised base rendered unusable by a “killing hole” (fig. 3) was found in trench G34⁵² in the settlement debris, without any association to a specific context.

Discussion

Textual evidence for rituals associated with the intentional breaking of pots is attested in Egypt since the Old Kingdom.⁵³ Archaeological evidence is primarily found in funerary contexts, and many examples are known dating to the New Kingdom and to the Late period especially.⁵⁴ Examples of deliberately broken pots are rarely found in deposits and offering pits within settlements.⁵⁵ However, the individual archaeological attestations vary considerably and differ from the textual evidence, making it very difficult to characterise specific rituals in more detail.⁵⁶ Generally speaking, there are apparently two basic types of archaeological attestations for the intentional breaking of pots in pharaonic Egypt: Firstly, the “killing” of vessels is frequently documented, which is achieved by piercing the wall to create a “killing hole”, most probably with the intention of preventing further use of the pot in everyday life.⁵⁷ Secondly, for the ritual of the “Breaking of the red pots” vessels have to be smashed completely.⁵⁸ This ritual is closely related to funerary ceremonies with the red pots becoming a substitute for enemies.⁵⁹ While a wide variety of vessel types with various surface colours is used to perform the “killing” in the first case, the red colour of the vessel seems to be of primary importance in the second case, giving the ritual an apotropaic character.⁶⁰

In the predynastic settlement at Maadi-West only vessels with a “killing hole” are attested with certainty. Although some of the broken jars that were found in the deposits of the subterranean house could be restored, it is impossible to say whether these are deliberately smashed vessels or whether they were merely crushed by the weight of the overlying sand, and the intentional destruction of pots was limited to the perforation of the walls. About half of the vessels with a “killing hole” in Maadi-West have a red coating: the red-burnished bowl, four red-slipped vessels with raised base and the red-slipped storage jar. One jar with raised base and a “killing hole” has a wet-smoothed surface and all other vessels with a “killing hole” are ovoid-shaped and have a black-burnished surface. Similarly, in Maadi-East, only about half of the vessels with a “killing hole” have a red slip, including some large storage jars.⁶¹ An association with the ritual of the “Breaking of the red pots” is therefore rather unlikely. On the other hand, interestingly, many jars with raised base that have been found in the subterranean house –not only within the deposit, but also in the filling and the close surrounding– have a red-slipped surface. This means, that many of the vessels which are associated with this building have a particular affiliation to the colour red (fig. 6).⁶² This could simply have a practical background: the colour red is reminiscent of blood⁶³ and red jars could therefore be related to the storage of meat in a cool underground place.⁶⁴ Likewise, a high percentage of sherds with red-slipped surface is attested for the oval-shaped stone house in Maadi-West,⁶⁵ indicating a possible similar use of the two buildings. Also, in test-trench G34 the number of sherds with red-slipped surface is rather high, including the jar with raised base and with a “killing hole” (fig. 3). However, the find context in G34 provides no further evidence for a subterranean house, although remains of a stone structure came to light there.

So far, no comparable deposits are known from predynastic settlement sites in Egypt. On the other hand, the subterranean building in Maadi provides excellent conditions for preservation, in contrast to the regular settlement remains of the 4th millennium BC in Egypt consisting of discolorations in the ground and pits belonging to light huts and fences.

A pot-breaking ceremony of a completely different kind becomes visible only in the Late Predynastic period, when the first mud-brick architecture appears. In late predynastic Lower Egyptian settlements occasionally small jars with two intentional holes cut into the vessel’s body are found in the lower layers of mud-brick walls. The two holes give these jars a somewhat face-like appearance, perhaps attributing an apotropaic character to them.⁶⁶ This example refers to the ambivalence of such pot-breaking ceremonies which are obviously not restricted to a single ritual and can have different objectives.⁶⁷

Vessels with a “killing hole“ are not only known from the settlement in Maadi. Occasionally, jars with a “killing hole” are also attested in Lower Egyptian cemeteries: a black-burnished jar in the cemetery of Wadi Digla,⁶⁸ a brown-burnished jar in the cemetery of Heliopolis⁶⁹ and a brown-burnished jar at the Delta-site of Kom el-Khilgan.⁷⁰ Evidence for “killing holes” in funerary contexts also comes from predynastic Upper Egypt: in cemetery U at Abydos a Blacktopped vessel from a Naqada I tomb as well as a small wet-smoothed jar and a Blacktopped jar from two different Naqada IID tombs have been recorded.⁷¹ The three tombs in cemetery U were disturbed, with the pottery found in the filling of the pit. Also, the tomb in Wadi Digla was heavily disturbed. The jars with a “killing hole” from Kom el-Khilgan and Heliopolis come from undisturbed contexts and were found amidst other pots as part of the regular tomb equipment. No conclusions can therefore be drawn from their find position about their specific significance in a funerary context.

Concluding remarks

In comparison to the comprehensive evidence from pharaonic contexts, the number of records of “killing holes” at predynastic sites is of course rather low. One reason may be a lack of data due to inadequate sources: many predynastic cemeteries were excavated at the beginning of the 20th century and such individual details may not have been recorded and published. Nevertheless, data from recently published cemeteries indicate, that the deposition of vessels with a “killing hole” as a grave good was apparently not a widespread practice in Predynastic Egypt. In predynastic settlements, the heavy fragmentation usually prevents the identification of such vessels. With regard to this limited evidence, it is therefore not possible to draw any conclusions about temporal and spatial aspects of the phenomenon in predynastic times. The distinction between the breaking as a ritual act and the post-ritual breaking has already been pointed out.⁷² In the case of the vessels with a “killing hole” in Maadi, however, it is impossible to say whether the execution has a purely performative character or whether it is preceded by an action that for some reason required the subsequent destruction of the vessel, as the events behind the deposition can no longer be traced today. The same is true for finds of vessels with a “killing hole” in predynastic cemeteries. Apart from the few examples of “killed” pots, it was apparently common to break grave goods that were considered dangerous, as for example in cemetery U at Abydos several flint knives and a red-slipped hippopotamus figurine found in grave U-239 displaying a cut to the neck.⁷³

Additional research, especially on material from old excavations, will be necessary to clarify the general picture and to find patterns in the distribution of vessels with a “killing hole”. Nevertheless, the evidence from the predynastic settlement of Maadi, and corresponding attestations from funerary contexts in contemporary Lower and Upper Egypt, indicate that the origin of specific pot-breaking ceremonies, which are firmly embedded in Egyptian pharaonic culture since the Old Kingdom, can be traced back to the first half of the 4th millennium BC.