The Predynastic online database, or Ponda for short, is a freely accessible, useful research tool dedicated to the Egyptian predynastic material culture, dating to of the fourth millenium BC.

The project aim is to publish extensive, currated corpora of artefacts. The objects are fully described, with special focus placed on linking them to the archaeological sites and/or contexts they come from, to their modern collecting and/or museum history, and to their publication history. References are listed chronologically instead of alphabetically in oder to better highlight the publication history of artefacts.

As a picture is worth a thousand words, images and drawings are included when available. This can include archival images, since they allow seeing modifications that happened to an object since its first publication – artefacts may have been lost, added to, mended, or conserved.

Each object is assigned a unique, permanent number, allowing for easy referencing to Ponda.org in publications. As research progresses, some artefacts are published in a large number of monographs, scientific articles, websites, digital catalogues, and so on. It is hoped that referring to Ponda.org will allow authors to  not necessarily include these often repetitive and lengthy lists of references.

Stan Hendrickx was a central figure in predynastic studies, who will be remembered by all for his passion, generosity, and kindness. We mourn his passing, at home in Belgium, as the year 2023 drew to a close.

It was always a pleasure to meet Stan at conferences, as much in lecture theatres, listening to his seminal presentations, as in the pub, debating over a beer or two on any topic you could think of. Many scholars – me included – benefited enormously from his advice and boundless knowledge during their studies and research.  He strongly believed in the necessity for data and information to be shared among colleagues, and he was always keen to give access to his vast lists of predynastic artefacts that he meticulously compiled over the years.

Writing articles with Stan was fascinating, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to experience it: he never failed to know the best and most interesting parallels to support his ideas, or what publication to cite, even the most obscure ones. And when all co-authors didn't agree with him on some detail or point of interpretation, he was happy to accept and acknowledge it.

Stan's work was so extensive that it cannot be easily summarised. It ranged from chronology – we owe him the Naqada phases chronology, used on ponda.org – to predynastic iconography and how to better understand its symbolic messages, to painstakingly compiling the annual Bibliography of the Prehistory and the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt and Northern Sudan that became its own comprehensive database hosted by the Institut français d'Archéologie orientale in Cairo. He was also active in the field, at el-Kab and Deir el-Bersha among other sites such as Hierakonpolis.

Stan was a keen supporter of the ponda.org platform since its creation, and we owe him the preparation of three corpora: bull head pendants, rhomboid palettes, and tusks and tags. The latter is yet to be created on the platform, while rhomboid palettes are still being processed and progressively made available; I will keep working on the mass of information that Stan wanted to share with all of you and cannot express enough how grateful I am for his selfless involvement.

Ma’a salama Stan, I will miss you.