Prepharaonic Egypt
Prepharaonic Egypt refers to the period of ancient Egyptian civilization that developed prior to the historical era marked by the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt around 3050 BCE. This era is characterized by the cultivation of the Nile Valley, which provided the essential resources that supported agriculture and settlement. Over thousands of years, inhabitants transitioned from nomadic lifestyles to established agricultural communities, particularly during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Ages. Noteworthy cultures, such as the Naqadah II, emerged, showcasing advanced pottery and tools, as well as trade connections with neighboring civilizations like Mesopotamia.
During this time, social structures began to evolve, leading to the formation of small administrative regions called nomes. The increasing complexity of these regions hinted at the eventual political unification of Egypt. The significance of Prepharaonic Egypt has been increasingly recognized by modern scholars, who now understand this period as crucial for laying the foundations of the later dynastic era. The eventual conquest of Lower Egypt by a king from Upper Egypt led to the establishment of a unified state and the beginning of recorded history in Egypt. This period is foundational for understanding the cultural and religious beliefs that would continue to influence Egyptian society for centuries.
Prepharaonic Egypt
Date: 8000-c. 3050 b.c.e.
Locale: Nile River Valley and Delta
Prepharaonic Egypt
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus observed that Egypt was “the gift of the Nile,” meaning that the development of civilization in Egypt, as well as the special flavor or character of that civilization, was the result of the life-giving waters of the great river that flowed through the midst of a desert wasteland. The essential characteristics of Egyptian culture developed sometime between 8000 and 3050 b.c.e. Because the people living in the Nile River Valley were surrounded by desert and therefore isolated from other cultures, they developed feelings of security and insulation. Because of the regular, yearly, predictable cycle of flooding along the Nile, they became a conservative, happy, optimistic people who enjoyed the present life enough to believe it should and would continue forever. During the period before 3050 b.c.e., the Egyptian people became obsessed with the quest for eternal life and came to believe in the goodness of their gods and the benevolence of the universe. These beliefs and concepts then continued to be represented in their art, architecture, and literature on and off for the next thirteen hundred years during the periods of the three Egyptian kingdoms (Old, Middle, and New).
Predynastic history
Historians and archaeologists recognize two main periods of Egypt’s prehistoric past—the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Ages—meaning, respectively, New Stone and Copper Stone Ages, and so called primarily on the basis of the kind of tools used by the inhabitants. Usually these two periods are lumped together and referred to simply as the predynastic period of ancient Egypt. Over several thousands of years, people began leaving their settlements in regions now part of the Sahara, and migrating to the Nile Valley as more and more areas turned into inhabitable desert following the end of the wet phases of the Paleolithic (Old Stone) Age and as the Nile Valley began to dry out, making it more hospitable. People lived primarily as nomadic hunters and gatherers until sometime around 5000 b.c.e., when settled agriculture took hold.
The earliest known Neolithic cultures have been found on the southwest edge of the Nile Delta region, and farther to the southwest in the region called the Fayum. The different phases of cultural development have been given names by anthropologists, usually based on the places where remains of material culture (pottery, tools, jewelry, rock drawings, burial remains) have been found. Important cultures found in Upper Egypt date from the late fifth millennium b.c.e. and are called Tasian and Badarian. The most important predynastic culture-type of ancient Egypt is called Naqadah II, also named Gerzean. It spread gradually throughout the land and is identified by a special type of pottery made of desert clay decorated in red with images of boats and certain animals. Ceremonial knives made of flint by craftspeople possessing tremendous skill were characteristic of this cultural phase, and they continued to be manufactured during later periods of Egyptian history.
During the late Naqadah II culture, contacts with other civilizations of the Near East, especially Mesopotamia, became more frequent and important. Although many details are not known about the political developments of Egypt during this time, it is likely that small districts, called nomes (after the Greek word for law), were evolving into administrative regions. At the same time (at least as Egyptians of later periods believed), the whole of Egypt coalesced into two larger areas eventually called the Two Kingdoms, each consisting of a confederation of nomes, and each ruled from a principal center of power. Upper Egypt in the south was controlled by a king from Naqadah, who wore the white crown and whose patron or tutelary deity was the god Seth. Lower Egypt in the north was ruled by a king from Behdet in the Delta, who wore the red crown, and whose tutelary deity was the now-famous falcon god Horus. As time went on, new capitals were established at Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt and Buto in the Delta. The names of the predynastic kings of the Two Lands were recorded on the Palermo stone, a fragmentary presentation of royal annals manufactured during the Fifth Dynasty (latter half of the Old Kingdom).
Early dynastic period
About 3050 b.c.e. (as historians reckon), the king of Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt and united the two kingdoms, becoming the King of the Two Lands. According to tradition, this ruler became the first king of the First Dynasty (the term pharaoh did not come into use as a designation for the king until the later reigns of the New Kingdom, c. 1570-c. 1085 b.c.e.) and was named Menes or Narmer (both are recorded). His conquest was graphically portrayed on the so-called Narmer palette. He is also credited with establishing united Egypt’s first capital, Memphis, on what was the border between the Two Lands.
Historians regard this conquest as the beginning of Egypt’s historical period, the time from which writing first seems to be in use, and the time from which the succession of Egypt’s thirty-one dynasties began to be measured. The king during this early historical period was regarded as the embodiment of a living god on earth—the Horus falcon. The last king of the First Dynasty apparently introduced the wearing of the double crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt as the symbol of the unified country. How the Second Dynasty began is not known, but it seems to have occurred around 2850 b.c.e. and lasted until the inauguration of the Old Kingdom under the leadership of the Third Dynasty in about 2700 b.c.e.
Current views
At one time, the scarcity of evidence and lack of historical records for this period, plus the fact that two and a half millennia of pharaonic culture followed it, tended to cause some students to regard it as only an unimportant preface to the “real” achievements of ancient Egypt. Such is not the case. As more archaeological fieldwork is being completed, advances in scholars’ understanding of the importance of this developmental period have been forthcoming. Also, archaeological evidence seems to indicate that the unification of ancient Egypt may have been more gradual than the traditional portrayals handed down from the Old Kingdom and later.
Bibliography
Hoffman, Michael A. Egypt Before the Pharaohs: The Prehistoric Foundations of Egyptian Civilization. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.
Kemp, B. J. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989.
Wilson, John A. The Culture of Ancient Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956.