History of Ancient Egypt

[ Show/Hide ] Predynastic Period before c. 3100 BC Lower Egypt c. 6000–3100 BC Upper Egypt c. 7500–3100 BC Unification under Menes/Narmer, c. 3100 BC Early Dynastic Period c. 3100–2686 BC 1st Dynasty c. 3100–2890 BC 2nd Dynasty c. 2890–2686 BC Old Kingdom 2686–2181 BC 3rd Dynasty 2686–2613 BC 4th Dynasty 2613–2494 BC 5th Dynasty 2494–2345 BC 6th Dynasty 2345–2181 BC 1st Intermediate Period 2181–2055 BC 7th/8th Dynasty 2181–2160 BC 9th/10th Dynasty (Herakleopolis) 2160–2025 BC 11th Dynasty (Thebes) 2125–2055 BC Reunification under Mentuhotep II, c. 2055 BC Middle Kingdom 2055–1650 BC 11th Dynasty (all Egypt) 2055–1985 BC 12th Dynasty 1985–1773 BC 13th Dynasty 1773–after 1650 BC 14th Dynasty (concurrent, delta) 1773–1650 BC 2nd Intermediate Period c. 1650–1550 BC 15th Dynasty (Hyksos) 1650–1550 BC 16th Dynasty 1650–1580 BC 17th Dynasty (Thebes) 1580–1550 BC Hyksos (cont.) Theban resistance Ahmose I expels the Hyksos, c. 1550 BC New Kingdom c. 1550–1069 BC 18th Dynasty 1550–1295 BC 19th Dynasty 1295–1186 BC 20th Dynasty (Ramessid) 1186–1069 BC 3rd Intermediate Period 1069–664 BC 21st Dynasty (Tanis) 1069–945 BC 22nd Dynasty (Libyan/Bubastite) 945–715 BC 22nd (cont.) 23rd Dynasty 818–715 BC 24th Dynasty 727–715 BC 25th Dynasty (Nubian/Kushite) 747–656 BC Late Period 664–332 BC 26th Dynasty (Saite) under Assyrian suzerainty 664–525 BC 27th Dynasty (Persian Empire) 525–404 BC 28th Dynasty 404–399 BC 29th Dynasty 399–380 BC 30th Dynasty 380–343 BC 31st Dynasty (Persian Empire) 343–332 BC Hellenistic Period 332–30 BC Argead Dynasty (Alexander) 332–305 BC Ptolemaic Dynasty 305–30 BC Roman Period 30 BC – AD 642 Roman / Byzantine rule 30 BC – AD 642

The Predynastic Period is the earliest chapter of Egyptian history. It covers the time from the first signs of human civilization in Egypt around 5500 BC^[1] to the start of the Early Dynastic Period around 3100 BC, when Egypt became a unified kingdom.

The word "predynastic" means "before the dynasties," referring to the time before Egypt was ruled by a line of kings (called pharaohs in later periods). The exact end of the predynastic period is debated among scholars, because the shift from prehistoric villages to an organized kingdom happened very gradually rather than all at once. Because of this, some scholars use the term "Protodynastic Period" (sometimes called "Dynasty 0") to describe the fuzzy boundary between the predynastic and dynastic eras.

The predynastic period is divided into cultural phases, each named after the place where archaeologists first discovered that type of settlement. It is important to understand that these "cultures" are not completely separate civilizations. They blend into each other over time, and the labels exist mainly to help historians organize a very long stretch of history.

Most predynastic sites that archaeologists have studied are in Upper Egypt (the southern part of the country). This is because the Nile River deposited thick layers of mud and silt in the delta region of Lower Egypt (the north), burying most ancient settlements there deep underground.^[2] Lower Egypt likely had its own distinct culture, but because so few sites have been uncovered, very little is known about it.^[2]

Some of the earliest farming communities in the Nile region belonged to the Qadan culture, found at over twenty archaeological sites in upper Nubia (the area south of Egypt). These people ground grain and farmed along the Nile. They arrived in the Nile valley after the Sahara Desert began to dry out, forcing people who had been living in oases in what is now Libya to move closer to the river.^[3]

In Egypt itself, pollen found at archaeological sites suggests that the Sebilian culture (also called the Esna culture) may have been growing wheat and barley. At the very least, wild versions of these plants existed in the area at the time.^[3] Some researchers believe that the shift to a farming lifestyle actually led to more conflict between groups over land and resources, which may have disrupted agriculture and ended this early farming period.^[3] Eventually, a different group of people who relied on hunting, fishing, and gathering with stone tools took their place.^{[citation needed]}

As the Sahara continued to dry out, the ancestors of the ancient Egyptians were pushed closer and closer to the Nile, where they began to settle permanently. The period between roughly 9,000 and 6,000 BC left behind very little evidence for archaeologists to study. However, by around 6,000 BC, small farming villages (called Neolithic settlements, meaning "New Stone Age") had appeared across Egypt.^[4]

The Faiyum A culture shows the earliest evidence of weaving in Egypt. One unusual feature of these communities is that they buried their dead very close to — or even inside — the places where they lived, which later Egyptians did not do.^[5]

Although physical remains from this time are scarce, the ancient Egyptian language itself offers clues. The various Egyptian words for "city" suggest that early settlements in Upper Egypt were built for different purposes: some served as trading posts, some were built on high ground to escape the Nile's annual floods, some protected livestock, and others were sacred places dedicated to gods.^[6]

The Tasian culture was the next major phase in Upper Egypt. It is named after Deir Tasa, a burial site on the east bank of the Nile between the towns of Asyut and Akhmim.

The Tasian people are best known for creating the earliest blacktop-ware — a style of red and brown pottery that was painted black on the top and inside.^[5] This pottery is extremely important to historians, because it helps date predynastic sites. Since no one can pin down exact calendar years for this period, the British archaeologist WMF Petrie invented a clever system called Sequence Dating (S.D.). It works by looking at the handles on pottery: early pottery had handles that were designed to be grabbed and used, but over time, the handles became purely decorative. By checking how functional or decorative the handles are, archaeologists can figure out the relative age of a site — that is, whether it is older or younger than another site, even without knowing exact dates.

Because Tasian and Badarian pottery look very similar, the Tasian culture overlaps heavily with the Badarian culture on Petrie's scale, both falling between S.D. 21 and 29.^[7] Starting in the Tasian period, Upper Egypt appears to have been increasingly influenced by the culture of Lower Egypt to the north.^[8]

The Badarian culture is named after el-Badari, an archaeological site near Deir Tasa. It followed the Tasian culture, though the two are so similar that many scholars treat them as a single phase.

Like the Tasians, the Badarians produced blacktop-ware pottery, though the quality was noticeably better. Their pottery also falls between S.D. 21 and 29 on Petrie's scale.^[7] The key difference between the two cultures is that the Badarians used copper tools in addition to stone ones. This makes the Badarian culture part of the Chalcolithic (or "Copper-Stone") Age, while the Tasians were still in the Neolithic (Stone Age).^[7]

The Badarians made sharper and more finely shaped flint tools than their predecessors, and they also produced the first faience — a type of glazed ceramic material that would become a hallmark of ancient Egyptian art.^[9] Badarian sites have been found in a stretch of the Nile valley from Nekhen (in the south) to just north of Abydos.^[10]

The Faiyum A culture and the Badarian/Tasian cultures existed at roughly the same time, but the Faiyum A people were less focused on farming and still used only stone tools.^[9]

The Amratian culture is named after el-Amrah, a site about 120 km south of Badari. El-Amrah was the first place where this culture was found without being mixed with later artifacts, but the nearby site of Naqada has more evidence, so this phase is also called Naqada I.^[9]

Blacktop-ware continued to be made, but a new style called white cross-line ware appeared. This pottery was decorated with sets of closely spaced white lines crossing over each other. The Amratian period falls between S.D. 30 and 39.^[11]

Trade between Upper and Lower Egypt began during this period. A stone vase from the north was found at el-Amrah, and materials like copper (likely imported from the Sinai Peninsula or Nubia), obsidian,^[12] and small amounts of gold^[11] were brought in from Nubia. Trade with the western desert oases was also likely.^[12]

New technologies began to appear as well. Mudbrick buildings — which would become widespread in the next period — were first used during the Amratian era, though on a small scale.^[13] Flat, oval-shaped cosmetic palettes (stone slabs used for grinding eye paint) also appeared, sometimes shaped like animals. However, these early palettes were still rough in quality and lacked the detailed carved artwork that later examples would become famous for.^[14]

The Battlefield Palette, a predynastic artifact showing the king as a lion trampling his enemies.

The Gerzean culture (also called Naqada II), named after the site of el-Gerzeh, represents a major leap forward in Egyptian civilization. It was during this period that the foundations for dynastic Egypt were laid.

The Gerzean culture grew directly out of the Amratian culture. It spread from the Nile Delta in the north southward through Upper Egypt, though it never fully replaced the Amratian culture in Nubia.^[15]

Gerzean pottery looks very different from earlier styles. It was painted mostly in dark red and featured pictures of animals, people, and boats, along with geometric patterns that seem to be simplified versions of animal drawings. The handles on Gerzean pots became "wavy" and were almost entirely decorative. This pottery falls between S.D. 40 and 62.^[11]

This period coincided with a significant decrease in rainfall,^[16] which made farming even more important as the main source of food.^[15] Paintings from this era show that hunting still took place, but it was no longer the primary way people fed themselves. With more reliable food supplies, villages grew into small cities of about 5,000 people.^[15] Egyptians stopped building homes from reeds and began using mudbricks on a large scale.^[15]

Stone tools were still used, but their construction became more advanced, shifting from simple bifacial (two-sided) shaping to the more refined ripple-flaked technique. Copper tools became common, and for the first time, copper was also used to make weapons.^[10] Silver, gold, lapis lazuli (a deep blue gemstone), and faience were used for jewelry and decoration.^[15] Cosmetic palettes began to feature detailed relief carvings.^[10] Tombs grew more elaborate too — they were designed to look like houses and sometimes had multiple rooms.^[12]

Most of these advances are thought to have originated in Lower Egypt and spread southward, though archaeological work in the delta is still far from complete.^[12]

During the Gerzean period, influences from Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) began to appear in Egypt. In the past, some historians believed this meant a Mesopotamian ruling class (called the "Dynastic Race") had conquered Upper Egypt, but this theory has been rejected by modern scholars.

Still, clearly foreign objects found their way into Egypt during this time, pointing to active trade with parts of western Asia. The Gebel el-Arak knife handle, for example, features carvings in a distinctly Mesopotamian style.^[17] Silver, which does not occur naturally in Egypt, could only have come from Asia Minor (modern Turkey).^[15] Some Egyptian-made objects from this period clearly imitate Mesopotamian designs, though they are not exact copies.^[18]

Other Mesopotamian influences include cylinder seals (small stone cylinders carved with designs that could be rolled onto wet clay), recessed panel architecture (a building style with alternating indented sections on walls), and pear-shaped ceremonial maceheads — a shape borrowed from the Mesopotamian Uruk culture, replacing the traditional Egyptian style.^[16]

How these foreign goods reached Egypt is still debated. Direct contact with the land of Canaan (roughly modern Israel and Palestine) does not appear until the Early Dynastic Period, so trade was probably carried out by sea.^[19] A Mediterranean sea route through the port city of Byblos (in modern Lebanon) is considered the most likely path, since Byblian goods have been found in Egypt.^[19] However, many Gerzean sites are located near wadis (dry riverbeds) that lead to the Red Sea, which suggests some trade may have also come through that route.^[20]

Some scholars also believe that a small group of migrants from Mesopotamia may have settled in Egypt, since complex architectural styles like recessed paneling are unlikely to have spread through trade alone.^[19] However, Egyptologists stress that the Gerzean culture remained overwhelmingly Egyptian in character. Foreign influences added new ideas, but they did not replace Egyptian traditions.

(All dates are approximate)

• Neolithic, from 10th millennium BC
  • ca. 9500 BC: Farming along the Nile, grain-grinding culture creates world's earliest stone sickle blades
  • ca. 8000 BC: Herding world's earliest domesticated cattle, seasonal camps established in Nabta Playa; painted ceramics using combs
  • ca. 8000 BC: Migration of peoples to the Nile, developing a more centralized society and settled agricultural economy
• Shipping and Agriculture, from 8th millennium BC
  • ca. 7500 BC: Importing animals from Asia to Sahara
  • ca. 7000 BC: Agriculture — animal and cereal — in East Sahara
  • ca. 7000 BC: In Nabta Playa, deep year-round water wells dug, and large organized settlements designed in pre-planned arrangements
  • ca. 6000 BC: Rudimentary ships (rowed, single-sailed) depicted in Egyptian rock art
• Copper Age and large-scale Stone Construction, from 6th millennium BC
  • ca. 6th millennium BC: Metal replacing stone for farming/hunting equipment and jewelry; tanning animal skins; intricate basket-weaving
  • ca. 5500 BC: Stone-roofed subterranean chambers in Nabta Playa containing buried sacrificed cattle, thought to be a precursor to Hathor worship in Ancient Egypt
  • ca. 5000 BC: Archaeoastronomical stone megalith in Nabta Playa, world's earliest known astronomical monument
  • ca. 5000 BC: Badarian contacts with Syria; furniture, tableware, models of rectangular houses, pottery, figurines, combs
  • ca. 4500 BC: Geometric spatial designs adorning Naqada pottery
  • ca. 4400 BC: Earliest finely woven linen fragment
  • ca. 4300 BC: Beaker culture pottery, among the world's earliest known
• Inventing prevalent, from 4th millennium BC
  • By 4000 BC, the world's earliest known: cosmetics (antimony), donkey domestication, harps, mortar (masonry), pottery with hieroglyphic writing in Girza
  • ca. 4000 BC: Flutes, early medicine
  • 4th millennium BC: Gerzean tomb-building, including underground rooms and burial of furniture/amulets, thought to be a precursor to Osiris worship
  • 4th millennium BC: Cedar imported from Lebanon
  • ca. 3500 BC: Lapis lazuli imported from Badakshan and/or Mesopotamia
  • ca. 3500 BC: Double clarinets and lyres
  • ca. 3500 BC: Senet, the world's oldest confirmed board game
  • ca. 3500 BC: Faience, world's earliest known glazed ceramic beads

• Encyclopædia Britannica: "ship," from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service.
• Ancient Egyptian History — A comprehensive educational website covering all aspects of Ancient Egypt

1. Mertz, B. (2010). Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs. London: Constable & Robinson.
2. Redford, Donald B. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. (Princeton: University Press, 1992), p. 10.
3. Grimal, Nicolas. A History of Ancient Egypt. p.21. Librairie Arthéme Fayard, 1988.
4. Redford, Donald B. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. (Princeton: University Press, 1992), p. 6.
5. Gardiner, Alan, Egypt of the Pharaohs (Oxford: University Press, 1964), p. 388.
6. Redford, Donald B. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. (Princeton: University Press, 1992), p. 8.
7. Gardiner, Alan, Egypt of the Pharaohs (Oxford: University Press, 1964), p. 389.
8. Grimal, Nicolas. A History of Ancient Egypt. p.35. Librairie Arthéme Fayard, 1988.
9. Grimal, Nicolas. A History of Ancient Egypt. p.24. Librairie Arthéme Fayard, 1988.
10. Gardiner, Alan, Egypt of the Pharaohs (Oxford: University Press, 1964), p. 391.
11. Gardiner, Alan, Egypt of the Pharaohs (Oxford: University Press, 1964), p. 390.
12. Grimal, Nicolas. A History of Ancient Egypt. p.28. Librairie Arthéme Fayard, 1988.
13. Redford, Donald B. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. (Princeton: University Press, 1992), p. 7.
14. Gardiner, Alan, Egypt of the Pharaohs (Oxford: University Press, 1964), p. 393.
15. Redford, Donald B. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. (Princeton: University Press, 1992), p. 16.
16. Redford, Donald B. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. (Princeton: University Press, 1992), p. 17.
17. Shaw, Ian. & Nicholson, Paul, The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, (London: British Museum Press, 1995), p. 109.
18. Redford, Donald B. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. (Princeton: University Press, 1992), p. 18.
19. Redford, Donald B. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. (Princeton: University Press, 1992), p. 22.
20. Redford, Donald B. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. (Princeton: University Press, 1992), p. 20.