Traditions and innovations in funeral rites for the social elite in predynastic and early dynastic Egypt

Elite necropolises are the most important sources for studying the process of the formation of early states. In Ancient Egypt, this process took place over a long period of development of the sedentary culture Naqada, which developed in the 4th millennium BC, from its early phases to the final stages, when the political unification of Egypt took shape. Analysis of the burial architecture of elite burials from Hierakonpolis and Abydos, iconography, motifs and images depicted on ritual objects from tombs of the Late Dynastic and Early Dynastic times continue the scenes of hunting and battles characteristic of the earlier phases of the Naqada culture. However, their style is changing. The motives associated with the king as the protector of society, a successful warrior responsible for the stability and prosperity of Egypt come to the fore. Traditions and innovations, being oppositions, nevertheless work in an integral field, a kind of cultural and historical unity. And in terms of the socio-cultural development of Egypt, the elite necropolises of the Predynastic and Early dynastic periods provide extremely important and objective information about the formation of the first state in Egypt.