Comparative Determinations of Some Figurines from Predynastic Egypt

Abstract Archaeological discoveries of the late 19th and early 20th centuries have brought to researchers attention a series of sites that indicates two civilizations, apparently unconnected to the dynastic periods of ancient Egypt. The collections of anthropomorphic figurines of the Badari and Naqada cultures offer the possibility of comparative anthropometric measurements, which highlight the evolution and diffusion process, as well as of new meanings for the archetypal corporeality that made figurines possible. The presence of the same golden disproportion in representations from both cultures and the optimization of Naqada anthropometric proportions over the centuries foreshadows the aesthetic norms of the dynastic period.