subject: Birth Of The Gods [print this page] the genesis of the Egyptian gods goes far back into prehistoric times. These earliest beginnings occurred long before Egypts existence as a nation state and the invention of writing, so we are forced to work with only non-written evidence often from relatively uncertain contexts and settings. Although scholars of anthropology, prehistory and religion have struggled to analyze this formative stage in Egyptian religion, the available evidence remains difficult to interpret and is subject to differing opinions. Nevertheless, it would seem to suggest the presence of the concept of the sacred in the existence of apparent cult objects, in human and animal burials, and in areas where formal rituals appear to Have been enacted. Whether such artifacts and sites actually reflect belief in a divine being or beings is unknown but, as various scholars have stressed, the care with which the dead were buried in the prehistoric period, and the afterlife belief implied by that care, certainly suggests that the necessstry intellectual sophistication was present for such belief. Spirit, fetish, totem and god like most early humans the prehistoric peoples who dwelt around the Nile seem to have been reverential towards the powers of the natural world both animate and inanimate. The former seem to have taken precedence in Egypt, although therecur- rent star images found on the Gerzeh Palette and other artifacts from the later Neolithic Period (3600-3300 bc) may indicate that an astral cult developed early in Egypt. However, the first clear divinities we find in Egypts archaeological record are in most cases animal deities such as the cow and the falcon: gods which represented aspects of the cosmos, yet which doubtless were believed to hold sway over human occupations and lives.
By the late prehistoric period we find evidence of animals especially dogs (or jackals), gazelles, cattle and rams which were buried in what appear to have been ritual contexts, snd also representations of animals which may signify some kind of animism or fetishism (the idea that animals, like humans, possessed spirits which must be respected and propitiated). If these zoomorphic images are not merely totems of tribal groups and do signify manifestations of the divine in some way, they represent a significant stage in the development of the Egyptian gods. The idea that the divine might be manifest- in animal form is a vital prerequisite for the animals which are shown acting in entirely human ways and which are the major representations of the Egyptian gods at the end of the Predynastic Period. The celebrated Narmer Palette which dates to this time of transition (c. 3000 bc) provides clear examples of this situation.
On its reverse the palette shows a falcon holding a captive and on the obverse a bull reaking down a city wall and trampling an enemy figure. Long-necked mythical serpopards are also depicted, and on both sides doubtless indicating their importance twin images of a cow-headed deity fusing human and bovine features surmount these scenes. Here and in other artifacts of this period we doubtless have zoomorphic deities, and it would seem that a good many were already extant. On the other hand, it is disputed whether deities. in human form appeared in this early period or later. Crudely formed anthropomorphic figures of clay or ivory are found in the archaeological record of the Naqada Period and even earlier, but although they have been interpreted as deities, extensive study by Peter J. Ucko showed that a wide variety of uses and meanings of these figures is likely and none can be certainly accepted as representing a cleity.
By the beginning of the historical period we do have evidence of deities such as Min and Neith being worshipped in human form, although the concept of anthropomorphic deities seems to have been adopted only slowly in Egypt and was, an one sense, never complete, as Egyptian gods and goddesses frequently were viewed as hybrid forms with the heads or bodies of animals throughout Egyptian history. The goddess Hathor, for example, appears to have been one of the iirst deities to be given anthropomorphic form, but even she retained the horns of her sacred animal, the cow, and was frequently depicted in bovine form milleinia after her appearance. Primal and political needs The development of the concept of individualized deities who held power over specific events and natural conditions is usually seen as concurrent with the development of the desire to gain some kind of control over the world and human -vulnerability. In this the needs of early human societies were the same everywhere and did not particularly change throughout history though the immediate vulnerability of ancient humans to attacks by wild animals and the forces of nature may have gradually given-way to the awareness of longer-term needs such as freedom from pain and want. Once a central government arose around 3000 bc, perceived and real needs may have changed rapidly for the ancient population of the Nile Valley. National deities came into existence as well as the cult of the divine king; and as John Baines has Pointed out, the emergence of monarchy and the cult of the divine king; and as John Baines has pointed out, the emergence of monarchy and the resultant origin of the Egyptian state effectively transformed ancient religion by providing a new focus which unified its different goals and needs. Indeed, it might be said that from this point forward, the infancy of Egypts deities had ended and more than 3,000 years of subsequent historical development would fail to radically change the underlying nature of Egyptian religion.
