Here and there, but not everywhere: predynastic zoomorphic figurines as regionally diverse objects during the early-mid fourth millennium BCE

Zoomorphic figurines have been excavated in small quantities from domestic and funerary contexts across Middle and Upper Egypt, dating between Naqada IA and Naqada IID. When examined together, it is clear that there is a wide diversity in the material and visual properties of the evidence, which demonstrates possible nuances within this corpus of figurative objects. However, the possibility that they were a regionally diverse product is important and has not yet been discussed in depth. When the temporal and spatial contexts of zoomorphic figurines are considered, it is possible to argue that they were a regionally specific artefact rather than an object that was universally adopted by Predynastic populations. The author revisits the assumption that zoomorphic figurines should be studied as a homogenous group of artefacts that continued to be produced in small quantities throughout the fourth millennium BC in light of a close analysis of spatio-temporal data.