El Badari

El Badari is a town in the Asyut Governorate, Upper Egypt, located between Matmar and Qaw El Kebir. Its older name was Berdanis or Badarnos, which Timm derives from Anba Darius. The area holds an archaeological site with numerous Predynastic cemeteries, notably Mostagedda, Deir Tasa and the cemetery of El Badari itself, as well as at least one early Predynastic settlement at Hammamia. The site stretches for 30 kilometres along the east bank of the Nile and was first excavated by Guy Brunton and Gertrude Caton-Thompson between 1922 and 1931. The finds from El Badari form the original basis for the Badarian culture, dated about 5500 to 4000 BC, the earliest phase of the Upper Egyptian Predynastic period.