al-Hammamiya

The village of Hemamieh on the eastern bank of the Nile in Sohag Governorate is known in Egyptology almost exclusively for its prehistoric and pharaonic burial grounds. Between 1922 and 1931, British archaeologist Guy Brunton excavated nearly 10,000 graves across a 36-kilometre stretch from Qaw el-Kebir to Matmar, covering virtually every period of pre-Islamic Egyptian history. Among the most significant finds were burials associated with the Badarian culture — one of the earliest known farming cultures of Egypt, dating to the 5th millennium BCE — uncovered in smaller cemeteries close to the village itself. The site today holds little visible presence on the ground; its legacy lives in museum collections and the foundational stratigraphic record Brunton's excavations established.