Approximately 3,500 years ago, the Egyptian city of Hierakonpolis flourished between the present cities of Cairo and Aswan. Hierakonpolis, Greek for City of the Hawk, is an archaeological discovery covering over 144 square miles of rich archaeological sites making it a very valuable find.
During Napoleon's expedition to Egypt in 1798, his scholarly associate, Vivant Denon, discovered the edge of an ancient temple. Throughout the next one hundred years, various visitors described other monuments in the area, though little extensive research was completed. It wasn't until the arrival of Quibell and Green in 1897 that proper research would be done on the area. Through their exploration, they discovered a very domesticated Predynastic site. They were not excited about their dull finds however, and nicknamed the area a "Predynastic Cemetery". While researching an area that a temple had been removed from, the two men joyously discovered the earliest large-scale metal statues from antiquity. A large gold and copper statue of the Hawk god, Horus, was found, as well as a life-size statue of King Pepi I, which was opened to unveil a statue of his son encased within. During their further exploration of this town mound, they found heaps of other artifacts such as pottery, figurines, weapons and statues. These finds confirmed the ancient traditions of the ancient site which may have been associated with being a very early unified state.
Along with the City of the Hawk, Green also discovered numerous temples at the southern end of the desert's rich site. After Green left Hierakonpolis, few people bothered with excavating the site which remained intact and untouched under a fog of disregard until 1967. From here, several archaeologists worked on the various sites, uncovering more pottery, figurines and architecture that would help us visualize the past life of the ancient Egyptians.
Another major discovery at Hierakonpolis was the predynastic burial sites. The subjects of the burial sites resembled a form of the beginnings of mummification. Renee Friedman and her team have found bodies whose hands and heads were wrapped with pads and strips of linen. This is significant as it predates the earliest evidence of mummification by over 500 years. However, this early form of mummification seemed restricted on the female members of the society. The specific use of padding and binding did not seem to serve to preserve the remains as later mummies would, but rather to preserve the subject's articulation.
The spoils of Hierakonpolis are vast. The burial mounds, pottery, elaborate masks and other art work, massive gold and bronze statues, weapons, animal remains and architecture have allowed archaeologists to see further into the Egypt's past and to hypothesize the great advances made up until the infamous time of the Pharaoh's. This serves to give us a clue to the evolution of ancient civilization as seen in ancient Egypt.
