{{Short description|Period before the First Dynasty of Egypt}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}} {{Infobox Former Country | conventional_long_name = Prehistoric Egypt / <br />Predynastic Egypt | era = Prehistory | government_type = | nation = | image_map = Predynastic collage (new version).jpg | link = | alt = | image_map_caption = Artifacts of Egypt from the Prehistoric period, from 4400 to 3100 BC. First row from top left: a Badarian ivory figurine, a Naqada jar, a [[Bat (goddess)|Bat]] figurine. Second row: a [[diorite]] vase, a [[Gebel el-Arak Knife|flint knife]], a [[cosmetic palette]]. | image_flag = | flag = | flag_type = | year_start = 300,000 BCE | year_end = 3100 BCE | p1 = | flag_p1 = | s1 = Early Dynastic Period (Egypt){{!}}Early Dynastic Period | flag_s1 = | capital = | common_languages = [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]] | religion = [[Ancient Egyptian religion#Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods|Proto religion]] | event_start = | event_end = [[Narmer#Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt|Unification]] | demonym = [[Ancient Egypt#Archaeogenetics|Egyptian]] | area_km2 = | area_rank = | GDP_PPP = | GDP_PPP_year = | HDI = | HDI_year = | today = [[Egypt]] }} {{History of Egypt}} '''Prehistoric Egypt''' and '''Predynastic Egypt''' was the period of time starting at the [[Peopling of Africa|first human occupation]] of the region and ending at the [[First Dynasty of Egypt]] around 3100 BC.
At the end of prehistory, "Predynastic Egypt" is traditionally defined as the period from the final part of the [[Neolithic]] period beginning c. 6210 BC to the end of the [[Naqada III]] period c. 3000 BC. The dates of the Predynastic period were first defined before widespread archaeological excavation of Egypt took place, and recent finds indicating a gradual Predynastic development have led to controversy over when exactly the Predynastic period ended. Thus, various terms such as "[[Protodynastic Period of Egypt|Protodynastic period]]", "Zero Dynasty" or "Dynasty 0"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Leprohon |first1=Ronald J. |title=The great name: ancient Egyptian royal titulary |date=2013 |publisher=Society of Biblical Literature |isbn=978-1-58983-735-5}}</ref> are used to name the part of the period which might be characterized as Predynastic by some and Early Dynastic by others.
The Predynastic period is generally divided into cultural eras, each named after the place where a certain type of Egyptian settlement was first discovered. However, the same gradual development that characterizes the Protodynastic period is present throughout the entire Predynastic period, and individual "cultures" must not be interpreted as separate entities but as largely subjective divisions used to facilitate study of the entire period.
The vast majority of Predynastic archaeological finds have been in [[Upper Egypt]], because the silt of the [[Nile River]] was more heavily deposited at the [[Nile Delta|Delta region]], completely burying most Delta sites long before modern times.<ref name="Redford 10">{{cite book|last1=Redford|first1=Donald B.|title=Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times|url=https://archive.org/details/egyptcanaanisrae00redf|url-access=registration|location=Princeton|publisher=University Press|date=1992|page=[https://archive.org/details/egyptcanaanisrae00redf/page/10 10]|isbn=978-0-691-03606-9}}</ref>
==Paleolithic== [[File:Nazlet Khater Skeleton.jpg|thumb|[[Nazlet Khater]] skeleton, Upper Paleolithic, 35,000 before present; National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, Cairo]] It is theorized that Egypt has been inhabited by humans (including [[archaic humans]]) for over a million (and probably over 2 million) years, though the evidence for early occupation of Egypt is sparse and fragmentary. The oldest archaeological finds in Egypt, stone tools belonging to the [[Oldowan industry]], are poorly dated. These tools are succeeded by those belonging to the [[Acheulean]] industry.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bakry |first1=Aboualhassan |last2=Saied |first2=Ahmed |last3=Ibrahim |first3=Doaa |date=2020-07-21 |title=The Oldowan in the Egyptian Nile Valley |journal=Journal of African Archaeology |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=229–241 |doi=10.1163/21915784-20200010 |issn=1612-1651}}</ref> The youngest Achulean sites in Egypt date to around 400,000{{Ndash}}300,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Michalec |first1=Grzegorz |last2=Cendrowska |first2=Marzena |last3=Andrieux |first3=Eric |last4=Armitage |first4=Simon J. |last5=Ehlert |first5=Maciej |last6=Kim |first6=Ju Yong |last7=Sohn |first7=Young Kwan |last8=Krupa-Kurzynowska |first8=Joanna |last9=Moska |first9=Piotr |last10=Szmit |first10=Marcin |last11=Masojć |first11=Mirosław |date=2021-11-17 |title=A Window into the Early–Middle Stone Age Transition in Northeastern Africa—A Marine Isotope Stage 7a/6 Late Acheulean Horizon from the EDAR 135 Site, Eastern Sahara (Sudan) |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00934690.2021.1993618 |journal=Journal of Field Archaeology |language=en |volume=46 |issue=8 |pages=513–533 |doi=10.1080/00934690.2021.1993618 |issn=0093-4690|hdl=11250/2977113 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
During the [[Late Pleistocene]], when Egypt was occupied by modern humans, several archaeological industries are recognised including the [[Silsilian]], [[Fakhurian]], [[Afian]], [[Kubbaniyan]], [[Idfuan-Shuwikhatian]], and the [[Isnan (Archaeology)|Isnan]] industries.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Leplongeon |first=Alice |date=2017-12-27 |editor-last=Pinhasi |editor-first=Ron |title=Technological variability in the Late Palaeolithic lithic industries of the Egyptian Nile Valley: The case of the Silsilian and Afian industries |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=12 |issue=12 |article-number=e0188824 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0188824 |doi-access=free |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=5744920 |pmid=29281660|bibcode=2017PLoSO..1288824L }}</ref>
===Wadi Halfa=== Some of the oldest known structures were discovered in Egypt by archaeologist [[Waldemar Chmielewski]] along the southern border near [[Wadi Halfa]], [[Sudan]], at the [[Arkin 8|Arkin 8]] site. Chmielewski dated the structures to 100,000 BC.<ref name="MSU" /> The remains of the structures are oval depressions about 30 cm deep and 2 × 1 meters across. Many are lined with flat sandstone slabs which served as tent rings supporting a dome-like shelter of skins or brush. This type of dwelling provided a place to live, but if necessary, could be taken down easily and transported. They were mobile structures—easily disassembled, moved, and reassembled—providing hunter-gatherers with semi-permanent habitation.<ref name="MSU" />
===Aterian industry=== {{main|Aterian}} [[File: Atérien (Djelfa).JPG|thumb|upright|Aterian point from Zaccar, Djelfa region, Algeria.]]
[[Aterian]] tool-making reached Egypt c. 42,000 BP.<ref name="MSU" />
===Khormusan industry=== The [[Khormusan]] industry in Egypt began between 42,000 and 32,000 BP.<ref name="MSU" /> Khormusans developed tools not only from [[Stone tool|stone]] but also from animal bones and [[hematite]].<ref name="MSU" /> They also developed small [[arrow head]]s resembling those of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]]s,<ref name="MSU" /> but no bows have been found.<ref name="MSU" /> The end of the Khormusan industry came around 16,000 B.C. with the appearance of other cultures in the region, including the [[Gemaian]].<ref>Nicolas-Christophe Grimal. ''A History of Ancient Egypt''. p. 20. Blackwell (1994). {{ISBN|0-631-19396-0}}</ref>
===Late Paleolithic=== The Late [[Paleolithic]] in Egypt started around 32,000 BP.<ref name="MSU">{{cite web|title=Ancient Egyptian Culture: Paleolithic Egypt|url=http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/egypt/history/paleolithic%20egypt.htm|work=Emuseum|publisher=[[Minnesota State University, Mankato|Minnesota State University]]|access-date=13 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100601171500/http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/egypt/history/paleolithic%20egypt.htm|archive-date=1 June 2010|location=Minnesota}}</ref> The [[Nazlet Khater]] skeleton was found in 1980 and given an age of 33,000 years in 1982, based on nine samples ranging between 35,100 and 30,360 years old.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://anthropology.osu.edu/DAA/back%20issues/DA_12_2-3.pdf |title=Dental Anthropology |publisher=Anthropology.osu.edu |access-date=2013-10-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029193741/http://anthropology.osu.edu/DAA/back%20issues/DA_12_2-3.pdf |archive-date=29 October 2013 }}</ref> This specimen is the only complete modern human skeleton so far found from the earliest Late Stone Age in Africa.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=L. |last1=Bouchneba |first2=I. |last2=Crevecoeur |title=The inner ear of Nazlet Khater 2 (Upper Paleolithic, Egypt) |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |volume=56 |issue=3 |year=2009 |pages=257–262 |doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.12.003 |pmid=19144388|bibcode=2009JHumE..56..257B }}</ref>
The Fakhurian late Paleolithic industry in Upper Egypt, showed that a homogenous population existed in the Nile-Valley during the late Pleistocene. Studies of the skeletal material showed they were in the range of variation found in the Wadi Halfa, Jebel Sahaba and fragments from the Kom Ombo populations.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lubell |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b3H7ugEACAAJ |title=The Fakhurian: A Late Paleolithic Industry from Upper Egypt |date=1974 |publisher=Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Wealth, Geological Survey of Egypt and Mining Authority |language=en}}</ref>
The site of [[Wadi Kubbaniya]] in Upper Egypt was inhabited during the Late Paleolithic. Archaeological excavations at the site have found the remains of a number of crops, including barley and wheat.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wendorf |first=Fred |last2=Schild |first2=Romuald |last3=El Hadidi |first3=Nabil |last4=Close |first4=Angela E. |last5=Kobusiewicz |first5=Michael |last6=Wieckowska |first6=Hanna |last7=Issawi |first7=Bahay |last8=Haas |first8=Herbert |date=1979 |title=Use of Barley in the Egyptian Late Paleolithic |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1748868 |journal=Science |volume=205 |issue=4413 |pages=1341–1347 |issn=0036-8075}}</ref> It is believed that the site was seasonally occupied, with the population responding to the annual inundation of the Nile River. The inhabitants of this settlement primarily lived around the dune field that dominates much of the landscape. A variety of plant remains, lithic tools, hearths, and grinding stones have all been uncovered during excavations at the site.<ref>Banks, Kimball M., Donatella Usai, J. Signe Snortland, Linda Scott Cummings, and Maria C. Gatto. "Food for thought: the Late Paleolithic of WK26 Site, Wadi Kubbaniya, Egypt." ''Desert and the Nile. Prehistory of the Nile Basin and the Sahara. Papers in honour of Fred Wendorf'' (2018): 95-103.</ref>
==Mesolithic (c. 20000 to 6000 BC)== ===Halfan and Kubbaniyan culture=== {{main|Halfan culture}} [[File:Qadan_Culture_Spread.png|thumb|Location of the Qadan culture]] The Halfan and Kubbaniyan, two closely related industries, flourished along the Upper [[Nile Valley]]. Halfan sites are found in the far north of Sudan, whereas Kubbaniyan sites are found in Upper Egypt. For the Halfan, only four radiocarbon dates have been produced. Schild and Wendorf (2014) discard the earliest and latest as erratic and conclude that the Halfan existed c. 22.5-22.0 ka cal BP (22,500-22,000 calibrated years before present).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|article=Late Palaeolithic Hunter-Gatherers in the Nile Valley of Nubia and Upper Egypt|author1=R. Schild|author2=F. Wendorf|pages=89–125|encyclopedia=South-Eastern Mediterranean Peoples Between 130,000 and 10,000 years ago|editor1=E A. A. Garcea|publisher=Oxbow Books|year=2014}}</ref> People survived on a diet of large herd animals and the Khormusan tradition of fishing. Greater concentrations of artifacts indicate that they were not bound to seasonal wandering, but settled for longer periods.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} The Halfan culture was derived in turn from the Khormusan,{{efn|name=Halfan2|The Khormusan is defined as a Middle Palaeolithic industry while the Halfan is defined as an Epipalaeolithic industry. According to scholarly opinion, the Khormusan and the Halfan are viewed as separate and distinct cultures.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://numibia.net/nubia/prehistory.htm |title=Prehistory of Nubia |publisher=Numibia.net |access-date=2013-10-25 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029194302/http://numibia.net/nubia/prehistory.htm |archive-date=29 October 2013 }}</ref>}}<ref>{{cite book|first1=Midant-Beatrix|last1=Reynes|title=The Prehistory of Egypt: From the First Egyptians to the First Pharohs|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |year=2000|isbn=0-631-21787-8}}</ref>{{page needed|date=June 2019}} which depended on specialized hunting, fishing, and collecting techniques for survival. The primary material remains of this culture are stone tools, flakes, and a multitude of rock paintings.
===Sebilian culture=== {{main|Sebilian}} The [[Sebilian]] culture began around 13,000 BC and vanished around 10,000 BC.{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}} In Egypt, analyses of pollen found at archaeological sites indicate that the people of the Sebilian culture (also known as the Esna culture) were gathering grains,{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}} though domesticated seeds were not found.<ref name="Qadan"/> It has been hypothesized that the [[Sedentism|sedentary lifestyle]] practiced by these grain gatherers led to increased [[warfare]], which was detrimental to sedentary life and brought this period to an end.<ref name="Qadan"/>
===Qadan culture=== {{main|Qadan culture}} The Qadan culture (13,000–9,000 BC) was a [[Mesolithic]] [[archaeological culture|industry]] that, [[Archaeology|archaeological]] evidence suggests, originated in [[Upper Egypt]] (present-day south [[Egypt]]) approximately 15,000 years ago.<ref name="Phillipson">Phillipson, DW: ''African Archaeology'' p. 149. Cambridge University Press, 2005.</ref><ref name="Shaw">Shaw, I & Jameson, R: ''A Dictionary of Archaeology'', p. 136. Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2002.</ref> The Qadan subsistence mode is estimated to have persisted for approximately 4,000 years. It was characterized by [[hunting]], as well as a unique approach to food gathering that incorporated the preparation and consumption of wild grasses and [[Cereal|grains]].<ref name="Phillipson" /><ref name="Shaw" /> Systematic efforts were made by the Qadan people to water, care for, and harvest local plant life, but grains were not planted in ordered rows.<ref name="Darvill">Darvill, T: ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology'', Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Oxford University Press.</ref>
Around twenty archaeological sites in [[Upper Nubia]] give evidence for the existence of the Qadan culture's grain-grinding culture. Its makers also practiced wild grain harvesting along the [[Nile]] during the beginning of the Sahaba Daru Nile phase, when desiccation in the [[Sahara]] caused residents of the Libyan oases to retreat into the Nile valley.<ref name="Qadan">{{cite book|last1=Grimal|first1=Nicolas|title=A History of Ancient Egypt|page=21|publisher=Librairie Arthéme Fayard|date=1988}}</ref> Among the Qadan culture sites is the [[Jebel Sahaba]] cemetery, which has been dated to the Mesolithic.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kelly|first=Raymond|date=October 2005|title=The evolution of lethal intergroup violence|journal=PNAS|volume=102|issue=43|pages=24–29|doi=10.1073/pnas.0505955102|pmc=1266108|pmid=16129826|bibcode=2005PNAS..10215294K|doi-access=free}}</ref>
Qadan peoples were the first to develop [[sickle]]s and they also developed [[grinding stone]]s independently to aid in the collecting and processing of these plant foods prior to consumption.<ref name="MSU" /> However, there are no indications of the use of these tools after 10,000 BC, when hunter-gatherers replaced them.<ref name="MSU" />
==Pre-Dynastic Egypt (c. 6000-3000 BC)== {{Main|Population history of Egypt|North Africa|Northeast Africa}} The term "Pre-Dynastic" often cover the subsequent Neolithic as well as the Chalcolithic periods, starting circa 6000-5500 BC.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ward |first1=William A. |title=The Spirit of Ancient Egypt |date=1965 |publisher=Khayats |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3LpxAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA19 |language=en |quote=There is little trace in Egypt of the Mesolithic Age. Only a few scattered finds indicate that the Paleolithic beginnings continued with appropriate changes to mark the Middle Stone Age. It is with the subsequent period the Predynastic that we can give the first adequate picture of Egyptian culture. The Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures existed simultaneously in Egypt Neolithic in the north, Chalcolithic in the south hence, the term "Predynastic" which may conveniently be used to cover the whole complex of Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures along the Nile Valley.}}</ref>
===Neolithic (c. 6000-4000 BC)=== Early evidence for Neolithic cultures in the Nile Valley are generally located in the north of Egypt, exhibiting well-developed stages of Neolithic subsistence, including the cultivation of crops and sedentism, as well as pottery production from the late 6th Millennium BC onwards.<ref name=":0" />
====Neolithic anthropology==== The [[natural scientist]] Frederick Falkenburger in 1947, based on a sample set of around 1,800 prehistoric Egyptian crania, noted great heterogeneity amongst his samples. Falkenburger categorized them based on the nasal index, overall head and face form, taking into account width, eye socket structure, amongst other given indicators. He divided and characterized the skulls into four types: [[Cro-Magnon]] type, "[[Negroid]]" type, [[Mediterranean race|Mediterranean]] type, and mixed types resulting from the mixture of the aforementioned groups.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Boëtsch |first=Gilles |date=1995-12-31 |title=Noirs ou blancs: une histoire de l'anthropologie biologique de l'Égypte |url=https://journals.openedition.org/ema/643 |journal=Égypte/Monde arabe |language=fr |issue=24 |pages=113–138 |doi=10.4000/ema.643 |issn=1110-5097 |quote=Falkenburger also notes a great heterogeneity in the measurements taken on 1,800 Egyptian skulls. From indices expressing the shape of the face, nose and orbits, Falkenburger divides the ancient Egyptians into four types - Cro-Magnon type, Negroid type, Mediterranean type and mixed type, resulting from the mixture of the first three.}}</ref> Similarly, the [[Craniometry|craniometrics]] of early Egyptians were according to the physician and anthropologist Eugene Strouhal in 1971, designated as either Cro-Magnon of North Africa, Mediterranean, "Negroid" of East Africa, and intermediate/mixed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Strouhal |first=Eugen |date=1971-01-01 |title=Evidence of the early penetration of Negroes into prehistoric Egypt |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-african-history/article/abs/evidence-of-the-early-penetration-of-negroes-into-prehistoric-egypt/87FB120E902B86D7ABFC6EF9EE1FAE74 |journal=The Journal of African History |language=en |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=1–9 |doi=10.1017/S0021853700000037 |issn=1469-5138|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
According to professor [[Fekri Hassan|Fekhri A. Hassan]], the peopling of the Egyptian Nile Valley from archaeological and biological data, was the result of a complex interaction between coastal northern Africans, "neolithic" Saharans, Nilotic hunters, and riverine proto-Nubians with some influence and migration from the Levant (Hassan, 1988).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hassan |first=Fekri A. |date=1988-06-01 |title=The Predynastic of Egypt |journal=Journal of World Prehistory |language=en |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=135–185 |doi=10.1007/BF00975416 |issn=1573-7802}}</ref>
Egypt was one of the first areas to adopt the Neolithic package emerging from West Asia as early as the 6th millennium BCE.<ref name="MJ"/> In particular, goats and sheep, which are not indigenous to Africa, were introduced from the Neolithic [[Levant]] around 6000 BCE, probably through the [[Sinai Peninsula]], followed by a rapid spread.<ref name="PA">{{cite book |last1=Bollig |first1=Michael |last2=Schnegg |first2=Michael |last3=Wotzka |first3=Hans-Peter |title=Pastoralism in Africa: Past, Present and Future |date=1 July 2013 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-0-85745-909-1 |page=39 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ieTTAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA39 |language=en |quote=It is commonly accepted that goats and sheep were introduced from the Near East, as wild progenitors do not exist on the African continent}}</ref> Population genetics in the Nile Valley observed a marked change around this period, as shown by odontometric and dental tissue changes.<ref name="MJ"/> Cultural exchange and trade between the two regions, including [[Egypt-Mesopotamia relations]], then continued through the 4th millennium BCE, as shown by the transfer of Mesopotamian [[Uruk period|Late Uruk period]] features to the Nile Valley of the later [[Predynastic Period]].<ref name="MJ"/> Migration flows from Mesopotamia accompanied such cultural exchanges, possibly through the sea routes of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea or through yet un-sampled intermediaries in the Levant, which could explain the relative sparsity of genetic influence from known Chalcolithic/Bronze Age Levantine populations.<ref name="MJ"/>
====Lower Egypt==== =====Faiyum B, Qarunian culture ===== Faiyum B culture, also called Qarunian due to being of the Lake Qarun or Qaroun area is an Epipalaeolithic (also called Mesolithic) culture and predates Faiyum A culture. No pottery has been found, with blade types being both plain and microlithic blades. A set of gouges and arrow-heads suggests it may have had contact with the Sahara (c. 6500 to - 5190 BC).<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/fayum/fayumb.html | title = Fayum, Qarunian (Fayum B) (about 6700-5300 BC?) | website = Digital Egypt for Universities | publisher = University College London. | access-date = September 23, 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134374 | title = General history of Africa, abridged edition, v. 1: Methodology and African prehistory | last = Ki-Zerbo[editor] | first = Joseph | date = 1989 | website = UNESCO Digital Library | page = 281 | publisher = The University of California Press | access-date = September 23, 2024 | quote = }}</ref>
Maciej Henneberg (1989) documented a remote 8,000 year old female skull from the Qarunian. It showed closest affinity to Wadi Halfa, modern African groups and [[Aboriginal Australians]], being quite different from Epipalaeolithic materials of Northern Africa usually labelled as [[Mechta-Afalou]] (Paleo-Berber) or the later Proto-Mediterranean types (Capsian). The skull still had an intermediate position, being gracile, but possessing large teeth and a heavy set jaw.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Hendrickx |first1=Stan |last2=Claes |first2=Wouter |last3=Tristant |first3=Yann |title=IFAO - Bibliographie de l'Égypte des Origines: #2998 = The Early Neolithic, Qarunian burial from the Northern Fayum Desert (Egypt) |url=https://www.ifao.egnet.net/bases/beo/beo2998 |access-date=2024-09-24 |website=www.ifao.egnet.net |language=fr}}</ref> Similar results would later be found by a short report from SOY Keita in 2021, showing affinities with the Qarunian skull and the Teita series.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Keita |first=S.O.Y |date=2020-08-01 |title=Title: Short Report: Morphometric Affinity of the Qarunian Early Egyptian Skull Explored With Fordisc 3.0 |url=https://www.academia.edu/43955405 |journal=Academia.edu}}</ref>
=====Faiyum A culture===== [[File:Lower Egypt-en.png|thumb|Map of [[Lower Egypt]], and location of the [[Faiyum Oasis]]]] Dating to about 5600-4400 BC of the Faiyum Neolithic,<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Köhler |first=E. Christiana |date=2011 |title=Neolithic in the Nile Valley (Fayum A, Merimde, el-Omari, Badarian) |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/arnil_1161-0492_2011_num_21_1_1023 |journal=Archéo-Nil |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=17–20 |doi=10.3406/arnil.2011.1023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/fayum/fayumb.html | title = Fayum, Qarunian (Fayum B) (about 6000-5000 BC?) | website = Digital Egypt for Universities | publisher = University College London. | access-date = September 23, 2024 }}</ref> continued expansion of the desert forced the early ancestors of the [[Egyptians]] to settle around the [[Nile]] more permanently, adopting increasingly sedentary lifestyles. The Faiyum A industry is the earliest farming culture in the Nile Valley.<ref name=":0" /> Archaeological deposits that have been found are characterized by concave base projectile points and pottery. Around 6210 BC, Neolithic settlements appear all over Egypt.<ref name="Redford 6">{{cite book|last1=Redford|first1=Donald B|title=Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times|url=https://archive.org/details/egyptcanaanisrae00redf|url-access=registration|location=Princeton|publisher=University Press|date=1992|page=[https://archive.org/details/egyptcanaanisrae00redf/page/6 6]|isbn=978-0-691-03606-9}}</ref> Some studies based on [[Morphology (biology)|morphological]],<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Brace | first1 = C. Loring | last2 = Seguchi | first2 = Noriko | last3 = Quintyn | first3 = Conrad B. | last4 = Fox | first4 = Sherry C. | last5 = Nelson | first5 = A. Russell | last6 = Manolis | first6 = Sotiris K. | last7 = Qifeng | first7 = Pan | year = 2006 | title = The questionable contribution of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age to European craniofacial form | journal = [[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]] | volume = 103 | issue = 1| pages = 242–247 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.0509801102 | pmid=16371462 | pmc=1325007|bibcode = 2006PNAS..103..242B | doi-access = free }}</ref> [[Genetics|genetic]],<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Chicki | first1 = L | last2 = Nichols | first2 = RA | last3 = Barbujani | first3 = G | last4 = Beaumont | first4 = MA | year = 2002 | title = Y genetic data support the Neolithic demic diffusion model | journal = Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA | volume = 99 | issue = 17| pages = 11008–11013 | doi=10.1073/pnas.162158799|bibcode = 2002PNAS...9911008C | pmid=12167671 | pmc=123201| doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/21/7/1361/T03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311042315/http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/21/7/1361/T03 |archive-date=11 March 2007 |title=Estimating the Impact of Prehistoric Admixture on the Genome of Europeans, Dupanloup et al., 2004 |publisher=Mbe.oxfordjournals.org |access-date=1 May 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Origin, Diffusion, and Differentiation of Y-Chromosome Haplogroups E and J: Inferences on the Neolithization of Europe and Later Migratory Events in the Mediterranean Area, 2004 |date= May 2004|pmc=1181965 |pmid=15069642 |doi=10.1086/386295 |volume=74 |issue= 5|journal=Am. J. Hum. Genet. |pages=1023–34 | last1 = Semino | first1 = O | last2 = Magri | first2 = C | last3 = Benuzzi | first3 = G |display-authors=etal }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1715849&blobtype=pdf |title=Paleolithic and Neolithic lineages in the European mitochondrial gene pool|last1=Cavalli-Sforza|date=1997 |access-date=1 May 2012|pmc=1715849|pmid=9246011|doi=10.1016/S0002-9297(07)64303-1|volume=61|issue=1|journal=Am J Hum Genet|pages=247–54}}{{dead link|date=July 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Clines of nuclear DNA markers suggest a largely Neolithic ancestry of the European gene|last1=Chikhi|journal=PNAS| volume=95|pages=9053–9058|date=21 July 1998 |issue=15 |doi=10.1073/pnas.95.15.9053 |pmid=9671803 |pmc=21201|bibcode = 1998PNAS...95.9053C |doi-access=free}}</ref> and [[Archaeology|archaeological]] data<ref name="Bar Yosef pages 159">{{cite journal | last1 = Bar Yosef | first1 = Ofer | year = 1998 | title = The Natufian Culture in the Levant, Threshold to the Origins of Agriculture | journal = Evolutionary Anthropology | volume = 6 | issue = 5| pages = 159–177 | doi=10.1002/(sici)1520-6505(1998)6:5<159::aid-evan4>3.0.co;2-7| s2cid = 35814375 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=M.|last1=Zvelebil|title=Hunters in Transition: Mesolithic Societies and the Transition to Farming|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, UK|date=1986|pages=5–15, 167–188}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=P.|last1=Bellwood|title=First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies|publisher=Blackwell|location=Malden, MA|year=2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first1=M.|last1=Dokládal|first2=J.|last2=Brožek|title=Physical Anthropology in Czechoslovakia: Recent Developments|journal=Current Anthropology|volume=2|issue=5|date=1961|pages=455–477|doi=10.1086/200228|s2cid=161324951}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first1=M.|last1=Zvelebil|title=On the transition to farming in Europe, or what was spreading with the Neolithic: a reply to Ammerman (1989)|journal=Antiquity|year=1989|volume=63|issue=239|pages=379–383|doi=10.1017/S0003598X00076110|s2cid=162882505 }}</ref> have attributed these settlements to migrants from the [[Fertile Crescent]] in the [[Near East]] returning during the [[Neolithic Revolution|Egyptian and North African Neolithic]], bringing [[agriculture]] to the region.
[[File:Al Fayum arrowheads.png|thumb|left|Arrowheads from Al Faiyum]] Studies in anthropology and post-cranial data has linked the earliest farming populations at Faiyum, Merimde, and El-Badari, to Near Eastern populations.<ref>Smith, P. (2002) The palaeo-biological evidence for admixture between populations in the southern Levant and Egypt in the fourth to third millennia BC. In: Egypt and the Levant: Interrelations from the 4th through the Early 3rd Millennium BC, London–New York: Leicester University Press, 118–128</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Keita | first1 = S.O.Y. | year = 2005 | title = Early Nile Valley Farmers from El-Badari: Aboriginals or "European" Agro-Nostratic Immigrants? Craniometric Affinities Considered With Other Data | journal = Journal of Black Studies | volume = 36 | issue = 2| pages = 191–208 | doi=10.1177/0021934704265912| s2cid = 144482802 }}</ref><ref>Kemp, B. 2005 "Ancient Egypt Anatomy of a Civilisation". Routledge. p. 52–60</ref> The archaeological data also suggests that Near Eastern domesticates were incorporated into a pre-existing foraging strategy and only slowly developed into a full-blown lifestyle.{{efn|name=FaiyumA1|Settler colonists from the Near East would most likely have merged with the indigenous cultures resulting in a mixed economy with the agricultural aspect of the economy increasing in frequency through time, which is what the archaeological record more precisely indicates. Both pottery, lithics, and economy with Near Eastern characteristics, and lithics with North African characteristics are present in the Fayum A culture.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Noriyuki|last1=Shirai|title=The Archaeology of the First Farmer-Herders in Egypt: New Insights into the Fayum Epipalaeolithic|series=Archaeological Studies Leiden University|publisher=Leiden University Press|date=2010}}</ref>}}<ref>{{cite book|first1=W.|last1=Wetterstrom|title=Archaeology of Africa|editor1-first=T.|editor1-last=Shaw|publisher=Routledge|location=London|year=1993|pages=165–226|display-editors=etal}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first1=N.|last1=Rahmani|title=Le Capsien typique et le Capsien supérieur|journal=Cambridge Monographs in Archaeology|issue=57|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|date=2003}}</ref> Finally, the names for the Near Eastern domesticates imported into Egypt were not Sumerian or [[Proto-Semitic]] loan words.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Keita | first1 = S. O. Y. | last2 = Boyce | first2 = A. J. | year = 2005 | title = Genetics, Egypt and History: Interpreting Geographical Patterns of a Y-Chromosome Variation | journal = History in Africa | volume = 32 | pages = 221–46 | doi=10.1353/hia.2005.0013| s2cid = 163020672 | url = https://muse.jhu.edu/article/187884 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Ehret | first1 = C | last2 = Keita | first2 = SOY | last3 = Newman | first3 = P | year = 2004 | title = The Origins of Afroasiatic a response to Diamond and Bellwood (2003) | journal = Science | volume = 306 | issue = 5702| page = 1680 | doi = 10.1126/science.306.5702.1680c | pmid=15576591| s2cid = 8057990 }}</ref>
However, some scholars have disputed this view and cited [[linguistic]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ehret |first1=Christopher |title=Ancient Africa: A Global History, to 300 CE |date=20 June 2023 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton |isbn=978-0-691-24409-9 |pages=82–85 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q5KjEAAAQBAJ&q=ancient+africa:+a+global+history,+to+300+ce+christopher+ehret |language=en}}</ref> [[biological anthropology|physical anthropological]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zakrzewski |first1=Sonia R. |title=Population continuity or population change: Formation of the ancient Egyptian state |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |date=April 2007 |volume=132 |issue=4 |pages=501–509 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.20569 |pmid=17295300 |bibcode=2007AJPA..132..501Z |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajpa.20569 |language=en|url-access=subscription }}</ref> archaeological<ref>"There is no evidence, no archaeological signal, for a mass migration (settler colonization) into Egypt from southwest Asia at the time of this writing. Core Egyptian culture was well established. A total peopling of Egypt at this time from the Near East would have meant the mass migration of Semitic speakers. The ancient Egyptian language – using the usual academic language taxonomy – is a branch within Afroasiatic with one member (not counting its temporal forms as separate languages): Afrasian's place of origin/''urheimat'' is within Africa, using standard linguistic criteria based on the locale of greatest diversity, deepest branches, and least moves accounting for its five or six branches or seven, if Ongota is counted". {{cite web |last1=Keita |first1=S. O. Y. |title=Ideas about 'Race' in Nile Valley Histories: A Consideration of 'Racial' Paradigms in Recent Presentations on Nile Valley Africa, from 'Black Pharaohs' to Mummy Genomest |url=https://egyptianexpedition.org/articles/ideas-about-race-in-nile-valley-histories-a-consideration-of-racial-paradigms-in-recent-presentations-on-nile-valley-africa-from-black-pharaohs/ |website=Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections|date=September 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wengrow |first1=David |last2=Dee |first2=Michael |last3=Foster |first3=Sarah |last4=Stevenson |first4=Alice |last5=Ramsey |first5=Christopher Bronk |title=Cultural convergence in the Neolithic of the Nile Valley: a prehistoric perspective on Egypt's place in Africa |journal=Antiquity |date=March 2014 |volume=88 |issue=339 |pages=95–111 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00050249 |s2cid=49229774 |language=en |issn=0003-598X|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Redford |first1=Donald |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt |date=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-510234-5 |pages=27–28}}</ref> and genetic data<ref>"[[Haplogroup E-P2|P2]] (PN2) marker, within the [[Haplogroup E-M96|E haplogroup]], connects the predominant Y chromosome lineage found in Africa overall after the modern human left Africa. P2/M215-55 is found from the Horn of Africa up through the Nile Valley and west to the Maghreb, and P2/V38/M2 is predominant in most of infra-Saharan tropical Africa". {{cite book |first1=Keita |last1=Shomarka|chapter=Ancient Egyptian 'Origins' and 'Identity' |title=Ancient Egyptian society: challenging assumptions, exploring approaches |date=2022 |location=Abingdon, Oxfordshire |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-367-43463-2 |pages=111–122}}</ref><ref>"Moreover, the available genetic evidence – relating in particular to the [[Haplogroup E-M35|M35]]/[[Haplogroup E-M215|215]] Y-chromosome lineage – also accords with just this kind of demographic history. This lineage had its origins broadly in the Horn of Africa and East Africa." {{cite book |last1=Ehret |first1=Christopher |title=Ancient Africa: A Global History, to 300 CE |date=20 June 2023 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-24410-5 |page=97 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S5KjEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=A new topology of the human Y chromosome haplogroup E1b1 (E-P2) revealed through the use of newly characterized binary polymorphisms |date=2011 |pmc=3017091 |last1=Trombetta |first1=B. |last2=Cruciani |first2=F. |last3=Sellitto |first3=D. |last4=Scozzari |first4=R. |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=6 |issue=1 |article-number=e16073 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0016073 |pmid=21253605 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2011PLoSO...616073T }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Fulvio |last=Cruciani |display-authors=etal |title=Tracing Past Human Male Movements in Northern/Eastern Africa and Western Eurasia: New Clues from Y-Chromosomal Haplogroups E-M78 and J-M12 |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |volume=24 |issue=6 |date=June 2007 |pages=1300–1311 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msm049 |pmid=17351267 |url=https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/24/6/1300/984002#77759391}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1= Anselin|first1=Alain H. |title=Egypt in its African context: proceedings of the conference held at the Manchester Museum, University of Manchester, 2-4 October 2009 |date=2011 |publisher=Archaeopress |location=Oxford |isbn=978-1-4073-0760-2 |pages=43–54}}</ref> which does not support the hypothesis of a mass migration from the Levant during the prehistoric period. According to historian William Stiebling and archaeologist Susan N. Helft, this view posits that the ancient Egyptians are the same original population group as [[Nubians]] and other [[Sahara]]n populations, with some genetic input from [[Arabia]]n, [[Levant]]ine, [[North Africa]]n, and [[Indo-European]] groups who have known to have settled in Egypt during its long history. On the other hand, Stiebling and Helft acknowledge that the genetic studies of North African populations generally suggest a big influx of Near Eastern populations during the Neolithic Period or earlier. They also added that there have only been a few studies on ancient Egyptian DNA to clarify these issues.<ref>{{cite book |first1=William H. Jr. |last1=Stiebing |last2=Helft |first2=Susan N. |title=Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture |date=3 July 2023 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-88066-3 |pages=209–212 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AUm7EAAAQBAJ&q=Gourdine+keita |language=en}}</ref>
[[Ian Shaw (Egyptologist)|Egyptologist Ian Shaw]] (2003) wrote that "anthropological studies suggest that the predynastic population included a mixture of racial types (Negroid, Mediterranean and European)", but it is the skeletal material at the beginning of the pharaonic period that has proven to be most controversial. He said according to some scholars there may have been a much slower period of demographic change, than previously hypothesized rapid conquests of people coming into Egypt from the East. It probably involved the gradual infiltration of a different physical type from [[Syria-Palestine]], via the eastern Delta.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shaw |first=Ian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-h4gJAlx8o0C |title=The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt |date=2003-10-23 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-160462-1 |page=309 |language=en}}</ref>
[[Weaving]] is evidenced for the first time during the Faiyum A Period. People of this period, unlike later Egyptians, buried their dead very close to, and sometimes inside, their settlements.<ref name="Gardiner 388">{{cite book|last1=Gardiner|first1=Alan|title=Egypt of the Pharaohs|location=Oxford|publisher=University Press|date=1964|page=388}}</ref>
[[File:Merimde clay head, Predynastic Period, Maadi Era, 4th millennium BCE.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Merimde culture]] clay head, circa 5,000 BC.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Josephson |first1=Jack |title=Naqada IId, Birth of an Empire |date=29 November 2015 |page=173 |url=https://www.academia.edu/19179915 |language=en}}</ref> This is one of the earliest known representations of a human head in Egypt.]] Although archaeological sites reveal very little about this time, an examination of the many Egyptian words for "city" provides a hypothetical list of causes of Egyptian sedentarism. In Upper Egypt, terminology indicates trade, protection of livestock, high ground for flood refuge, and sacred sites for deities.<ref name="Redford 8">{{cite book|last1=Redford|first1=Donald B.|title=Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times|url=https://archive.org/details/egyptcanaanisrae00redf|url-access=registration|location=Princeton|publisher=University Press|date=1992|page=[https://archive.org/details/egyptcanaanisrae00redf/page/8 8]|isbn=978-0-691-03606-9}}</ref>
=====Merimde culture===== {{main|Merimde culture}} From about 5000 to 4200 BC the Merimde culture, so far only known from [[Merimde Beni Salama]], a large settlement site at the edge of the Western Delta, flourished in Lower Egypt. The culture has strong connections to the Faiyum A culture as well as the Levant. People lived in small huts, produced a simple undecorated pottery and had stone tools. Cattle, sheep, goats and pigs were held. Wheat, sorghum and barley were planted. The Merimde people buried their dead within the settlement and produced clay figurines. The first life-sized Egyptian head made of clay comes from Merimde.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Josef|last1=Eiwanger|section=Merimde Beni-salame|title=Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaarch00bard|publisher=Routledge|url-access=limited|editor1-first=Kathryn A.|editor1-last=Bard|editor-link=Kathryn A. Bard |location=London/New York|date=1999|pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaarch00bard/page/n553 501]–505|isbn=978-0-415-18589-9}}</ref>
The community at Merimde Beni Salama was primarily sedentary. Archaeological stratification shows that the site had been continuously inhabited for several centuries, with people during that time conducting trade with regions outside of the Nile Valley.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Köhler |first=E. Christiana |date=2017 |title=The Development of Social Complexity in Early Egypt. a View from the Perspective of the Settlements and Material Culture of the Nile Valley |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26524907 |journal=Ägypten und Levante / Egypt and the Levant |volume=27 |pages=335–356 |issn=1015-5104}}</ref> The settlement itself was home to several large communal storage pits, and the inhabitants resided in sturdy structures that were constructed with mud slabs.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tassie |first=G. J. |last2=Lucarini |first2=Giulio |date=2021-01-01 |title=New Perspectives and Methods Applied to the 'Known' Settlement of Merimde Beni Salama, West Nile Delta |url=https://www.academia.edu/53256737/New_Perspectives_and_Methods_Applied_to_the_Known_Settlement_of_Merimde_Beni_Salama_West_Nile_Delta |journal=Revolutions. The Neolithisation of the Mediterranean Basin |doi=10.17171/3-68}}</ref> Not much is known about the details surrounding Merimde society, but the site provides little evidence to suggest a pronounced level of socioeconomic differentiation between individuals. Additionally, the culture’s stone tools appear to show a degree of standardization and organization, with the majority of lithics found at the site being classified as bifacially carved [[Lithic core|core tools]].<ref name=":1" />
=====El Omari culture===== The El Omari culture is known from a small settlement near modern Cairo. People seem to have lived in huts, but only postholes and pits survive. The pottery is undecorated. Stone tools include small flakes, axes and sickles. Metal was not yet known.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Bodil|last1=Mortensen|section=el-Omari|title=Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaarch00bard|publisher=Routledge|url-access=limited|editor1-first=Kathryn A.|editor1-last=Bard|location=London/New York|date=1999|pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaarch00bard/page/n644 592]–594|isbn=978-0-415-18589-9}}</ref> Their sites were occupied from 4000 BC to the Archaic Period (3,100 BC).<ref>{{cite web|title=El-Omari|url=http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/africa/elomari.html|website=EMuseum|publisher=Minnesota State University|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615231657/http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/africa/elomari.html|archive-date=15 June 2010|location=Mankato}}</ref>
=====Maadi culture===== [[File:Prisoners on the Battlefield Palette.jpg|thumb|upright|The prisoners on the [[Battlefield Palette]] may be the people of the Buto-Maadi culture subjugated by the Egyptian rulers of [[Naqada III]].<ref name="academia.edu">{{cite book |last1=Brovarski |first1=Edward |chapter=Reflections on the Battlefield and Libyan Booty Palettes |editor-last=Vandijk |editor-first=J. |title=Another Mouthful of Dust: Egyptological Studies in Honour of Geoffrey Thorndike Martin |location=Leiden |publisher=Peeters |pages=81–89 |date=2016 |url=https://www.academia.edu/28433861 |language=en}}</ref>]] {{main|Maadian culture}} The Maadi culture (also called Buto Maadi culture) is the most important Lower Egyptian prehistoric culture dated about 4000–3500 BC,<ref name="Maadi">"[https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/neolithic/maadi.html Maadi]", University College London.</ref> and contemporary with [[Naqada culture|Naqada]] I and II phases in Upper Egypt. The culture is best known from the site [[Maadi]] near Cairo, as well as the site of [[Buto]],<ref>"[https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/maadi/ Buto – Maadi Culture]", ''Ancient Egypt Online''.</ref> but is also attested in many other places in the Delta to the Faiyum region. This culture was marked by development in architecture and technology. It also followed its predecessor cultures when it comes to undecorated ceramics.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Predynastic_Period_in_Egypt/|title=Predynastic Period in Egypt|encyclopedia=[[World History Encyclopedia]] |first1=Joshua J. |last1=Mark |date=18 January 2016 |access-date=2017-11-14}}</ref>
Copper was known, and some copper [[adze]]s have been found. The pottery is hand-made; it is simple and undecorated. Presence of [[Black-topped pottery|black-topped red pots]] indicate contact with the Naqada sites in the south. Many imported vessels from Palestine have also been found. Black basalt [[Stone vessels in Ancient Egypt|stone vessels]] were also used.<ref name="Maadi"/>
The culture primarily relied on the cultivation of crops such as wheat and barley, as well as herding animals such as cattle, sheep, and pigs.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bard |first=Kathryn A. |date=1994 |title=The Egyptian Predynastic: A Review of the Evidence |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/530331 |journal=Journal of Field Archaeology |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=265–288 |doi=10.2307/530331 |issn=0093-4690}}</ref> People lived in small huts, partly dug into the ground. The dead were buried in cemeteries, but with few burial goods. The Maadi culture was replaced by the Naqada III culture; whether this happened by conquest or infiltration is still an open question.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|first1=Jürgen|last1=Seeher|title=Ma'adi and Wadi Digla|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaarch00bard|publisher=Routledge|url-access=limited|editor1-first=Kathryn A.|editor1-last=Bard|location=London/New York|date=1999|pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaarch00bard/page/n507 455]–458|isbn=978-0-415-18589-9}}</ref>
The developments in Lower Egypt in the times previous to the unification of the country have been the subject of considerable disputes over the years. The recent excavations at {{ill|Tell el-Farkha|de|Tell el-Farcha}}, [[Sais, Egypt|Sais]], and [[Tell el-Iswid]] have clarified this picture to some extent. As a result, the Chalcolithic Lower Egyptian culture is now emerging as an important subject of study.<ref>{{cite web |first1=Agnieszka |last1=Mączyńska |date=2018 |url=https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeum/reader/download/830/830-30-92314-1-10-20210201.pdf |title=On the Transition Between the Neolithic and Chalcolithic in Lower Egypt and the Origins of the Lower Egyptian Culture: a Pottery Study |work=Desert and the Nile. Prehistory of the Nile Basin and the Sahara |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230327071018/https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeum/reader/download/830/830-30-92314-1-10-20210201.pdf |archive-date=March 27, 2023}}</ref>
===== Gallery ===== <gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4"> File:Egypte louvre 300.jpg|Clapper discovered in Maadi, Louvre Museum File:Ossos de bagre - Maadi.svg|Carved catfish bones, and jar discovered in Maadi File:Battlefield palette.jpg|Possible prisoners and wounded men of the Buto-Maadi culture devoured by animals, while one is led by a man in long dress, probably an Egyptian official (fragment, top right corner). [[Battlefield Palette]].<ref name="academia.edu"/><ref name="D264">{{cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Whitney |last2=Davis |first2=George C. |first3=Helen N. |last3=Pardee |title=Masking the Blow: The Scene of Representation in Late Prehistoric Egyptian Art |date=1992 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-07488-0 |page=264 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v6aSLhkqatYC&pg=PA264 |language=en}}</ref> </gallery>
====Upper Egypt==== =====Tasian culture===== {{main|Tasian culture}} [[File:Tasian vessel.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Tasian beaker, found in a Badarian grave at Qau; tomb 569, around 4000 BC; Upper Egypt; British Museum]] The Tasian culture appeared around 4500 BC in [[Upper Egypt]]. This culture group is named for the burials found at [[Der Tasa]], on the east bank of the Nile between [[Asyut]] and [[Akhmim]]. It is believed that the Tasian culture primary resided in the desert, and often interacted with other nearby cultures in the Nile Valley, such as the Badarian.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stevenson |first=Alice |date=2016 |title=The Egyptian Predynastic and State Formation |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44983878 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Research |volume=24 |issue=4 |pages=421–468 |issn=1059-0161}}</ref> The Tasian culture group is notable for producing the earliest [[Black-topped pottery|blacktop-ware]], a type of red and brown pottery that is colored black on the top portion and interior.<ref name="Gardiner 388"/> This pottery is vital to the dating of Predynastic Egypt. Because all dates for the Predynastic period are tenuous at best, [[William Matthew Flinders Petrie|WMF Petrie]] developed a system called [[sequence dating]] by which the relative date, if not the absolute date, of any given Predynastic site can be ascertained by examining its pottery.
As the Predynastic period progressed, the handles on pottery evolved from functional to ornamental. The degree to which any given archaeological site has functional or ornamental pottery can also be used to determine the relative date of the site. Since there is little difference between Tasian ceramics and Badarian pottery, the Tasian Culture overlaps the Badarian range significantly.<ref name="Gardiner 389">Gardiner, Alan, ''Egypt of the Pharaohs'' (Oxford: University Press, 1964), p. 389.</ref> From the Tasian period onward, it appears that Upper Egypt was influenced strongly by the culture of [[Lower Egypt]].<ref>Grimal, Nicolas. ''A History of Ancient Egypt.'' p.35. Librairie Arthéme Fayard, 1988.</ref> Archaeological evidence has suggested that "the Tasian and Badarian Nile Valley sites were a peripheral network of earlier African cultures of around which Badarian, Saharan, Nubian, and Nilotic peoples regularly circulated."<ref>{{cite book |last=Excell |first=Karen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G_v5tgAACAAJ |title=Egypt in its African context: proceedings of the conference held at the Manchester Museum, University of Manchester, 2–4 October 2009 |date=2011 |publisher=Archaeopress |isbn=978-1-4073-0760-2 |location=Oxford |pages=43–54}}</ref> Bruce Williams, Egyptologist, has argued that the Tasian culture was significantly related to the Sudanese-Saharan traditions from the Neolithic era which extended from regions north of Khartoum to locations near Dongola in Sudan.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Bruce |chapter=The Qustul Incense Burner and the Case for a Nubian Origin of Ancient Egyptian Kingship |title=Egypt in Africa |editor-last=Celenko |editor-first=Theodore |date=1996 |publisher=Indianapolis Museum of Art |location=Indianapolis, Indiana |isbn=978-0-936260-64-8 |pages=95–97}}</ref>
=====Badarian culture===== {{main|Badarian culture}} [[File:Woman-E 11887-IMG 9547-gradient.jpg|thumb|Ancient Badarian mortuary figurine of a woman, held at the [[Louvre]]]] The Badarian culture, from about 4400 to 4000 BC,<ref name="Shaw 479">{{cite book |editor-last=Shaw |editor-first=Ian |title=The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-815034-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordhisto00shaw/page/479 479] |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordhisto00shaw/page/479 }}</ref> is named for the [[El Badari, Egypt|Badari]] site near Der Tasa. It followed the Tasian culture, but was so similar that many consider them one continuous period. The Badarian Culture continued to produce the kind of pottery called blacktop-ware (albeit much improved in quality) and was assigned Sequence Dating numbers 21–29.<ref name="Gardiner 389"/> The primary difference that prevents scholars from merging the two periods is that Badarian sites use copper in addition to stone and are thus [[Chalcolithic]] settlements, while the [[Neolithic]] Tasian sites are still considered [[Stone Age]].<ref name="Gardiner 389"/>
Badarian flint tools continued to develop into sharper and more shapely blades, and the first [[Egyptian faience|faience]] was developed.<ref name="Grimal 24">Grimal, Nicolas. ''A History of Ancient Egypt.'' p.24. Librairie Arthéme Fayard, 1988</ref> Distinctly Badarian sites have been located from [[Nekhen]] to a little north of Abydos.<ref name="Gardiner 391">Gardiner, Alan, ''Egypt of the Pharaohs'' (Oxford: University Press, 1964), p. 391.</ref> It appears that the Faiyum A culture and the Badarian and Tasian Periods overlapped significantly; however, the Faiyum A culture was considerably less agricultural and was still Neolithic in nature.<ref name="Grimal 24"/><ref name="Newell">Newell, G. D. (2012). [https://www.academia.edu/2095635/A_Re_examination_of_the_Badarian_Culture "A re-examination of the Badarian Culture"]. MA thesis.</ref> Many [[biological anthropology|biological anthropological]] studies have shown strong biological affinities between the Badarians and other [[Northeast Africa]]n populations.<ref>"When Mahalanobis D2 was used, the Naqadan and Badarian Predynastic samples exhibited more similarity to Nubian, Tigrean, and some more southern series than to some mid- to late Dynasticseries from northern Egypt (Mukherjee et al., 1955). The Badarian have been found to be very similar to a Kerma sample (Kushite Sudanese), using both the Penrose statistic (Nutter, 1958) and DFA of males alone (Keita, 1990). Furthermore, Keita considered that Badarian males had a southern modal phenotype, and that together with a Naqada sample, they formed a southern Egyptian cluster as tropical variants together with a sample from Kerma". {{cite journal |last1=Zakrzewski |first1=Sonia R. |title=Population continuity or population change: Formation of the ancient Egyptian state |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |date=April 2007 |volume=132 |issue=4 |pages=501–509 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.20569 |pmid=17295300 |bibcode=2007AJPA..132..501Z |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajpa.20569 |language=en|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Keita |first1=S. O. Y. |title=Early Nile Valley Farmers From El-Badari: Aboriginals or 'European' Agro-Nostratic Immigrants? Craniometric Affinities Considered With Other Data |journal=Journal of Black Studies |date=2005 |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=191–208 |doi=10.1177/0021934704265912 |jstor=40034328 |s2cid=144482802 |issn=0021-9347}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Godde |first1=Kanya |title=A biological perspective of the relationship between Egypt, Nubia, and the Near East during the Predynastic period |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337001806 |access-date=20 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=S. O. Y. |first1=Keita |last2=A. J. |first2=Boyce |title=Temporal variation in phenetic affinity of early Upper Egyptian male cranial series |journal=Human Biology |date=2008 |volume=80 |issue=2 |pages=141–159 |doi=10.3378/1534-6617(2008)80[141:TVIPAO]2.0.CO;2 |pmid=18720900 |s2cid=25207756 |language=en |issn=0018-7143}}</ref><ref>"Keita (1992), using craniometrics, discovered that the Badarian series is distinctly different from the later Egyptian series, a conclusion that is mostly confirmed here. In the current analysis, the Badari sample more closely clusters with the Naqada sample and the Kerma sample". {{cite journal |last1=Godde |first1=K. |title=An examination of Nubian and Egyptian biological distances: support for biological diffusion or in situ development? |journal=Homo: Internationale Zeitschrift für die vergleichende Forschung am Menschen |date=2009 |volume=60 |issue=5 |pages=389–404 |doi=10.1016/j.jchb.2009.08.003 |pmid=19766993 |issn=1618-1301}}</ref><ref name="Princeton University Press">{{cite book |last1=Ehret |first1=Christopher |title=Ancient Africa: A Global History, to 300 CE |date=20 June 2023 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton |isbn=978-0-691-24409-9 |pages=84–85 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q5KjEAAAQBAJ&q=ancient+africa:+a+global+history,+to+300+ce+christopher+ehret |language=en}}</ref> However, according to Eugene Strouhal and other anthropologists, Predynastic Egyptians like the Badarians were similar to the Capsian culture of North Africa and to Berbers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Strohaul |first1=Eugene |title=Anthropology of the Egyptian Nubian Men - Strouhal - 2007 - ANTHROPOLOGIE |url=http://puvodni.mzm.cz/Anthropologie/downloads/articles/2007/Strouhal_2007_p105-245.pdf |journal=Puvodni.MZM.cz |page=115}}</ref>
In 2005, Keita examined Badarian crania from predynastic upper Egypt in comparison to various [[Europe]]an and [[tropical Africa]]n crania. He found that the predynastic Badarian series clustered much closer with the tropical African series. Although, no Asian or other North African samples were included in the study as the comparative series were selected based on "Brace et al.'s (1993) comments on the affinities of an upper Egyptian/Nubian epipaleolithic series". Keita further noted that additional analysis and material from [[Sudan]], late dynastic [[Lower Egypt|northern Egypt]] (Gizeh), Somalia, [[Asia]] and the [[Pacific Islands]] "show the Badarian series to be most similar to a series from the [[Northeast Africa|northeast]] quadrant of Africa and then to other Africans".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Keita |first1=S. O. Y. |title=Early Nile Valley Farmers From El-Badari: Aboriginals or 'European' Agro-Nostratic Immigrants? Craniometric Affinities Considered With Other Data |journal=Journal of Black Studies |date=November 2005 |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=191–208 |doi=10.1177/0021934704265912 |s2cid=144482802 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0021934704265912 |language=en |issn=0021-9347|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Dental trait analysis of Badarian fossils conducted in a thesis study found that they were closely related to both [[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic]]-speaking populations inhabiting [[Northeast Africa]], as well as the [[Maghreb]]. Among the ancient populations, the Badarians were nearest to other [[ancient Egypt]]ians ([[Naqada culture|Naqada]], Hierakonpolis, [[Abydos, Egypt|Abydos]] and [[Kharga Oasis|Kharga]] in [[Upper Egypt]]; [[Hawara]] in [[Lower Egypt]]), and [[C-Group culture|C-Group]] and Pharaonic era skeletons excavated in Lower Nubia, followed by the [[A-Group culture]] bearers of Lower Nubia, the [[Kerma Culture|Kerma]] and [[Kingdom of Kush|Kush]] populations in Upper Nubia, the [[Meroe|Meroitic]], [[X-Group]] and [[Christian era|Christian]] period inhabitants of Lower Nubia, and the [[Kellis]] population in the [[Dakhla Oasis]].<ref name=haddow>{{cite web|last1=Haddow|first1=Scott Donald|title=Dental Morphological Analysis of Roman Era Burials from the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt|date=January 2012 |url=https://www.academia.edu/10794263|publisher=Institute of Archaeology, University College London|access-date=2 June 2017}}</ref>{{rp|219–20}} Among the recent groups, the Badari markers were morphologically closest to the [[Chaoui people|Shawia]] and [[Kabyle people|Kabyle]] [[Berbers|Berber]] populations of Algeria as well as Bedouin groups in Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, followed by other Afroasiatic-speaking populations in the [[Horn of Africa]].<ref name=haddow/>{{rp|222–224}} The Late Roman era Badarian skeletons from Kellis were also phenotypically distinct from those belonging to other populations in [[Sub-Saharan Africa]].<ref name=haddow/>{{rp|231–32}}
===Chalcolithic (c. 4000-3000 BC)=== ====Naqada culture==== {{main|Naqada culture}} [[File:Chronological evolution of Egyptian prehistoric pottery styles, from Naqada I to Naqada III.jpg|thumb|Evolution of Egyptian prehistoric pottery styles, from Naqada I to Naqada II and Naqada III]]
The [[Naqada culture]] is an archaeological culture of [[Chalcolithic]] [[Predynastic Egypt]] (c. 4000–3000 BC), named for the town of [[Naqada]], [[Qena Governorate]]. It is divided in three sub-periods: Naqada I, II and III.
Similar to the preceding Badarian culture, studies have found Naqada skeletal remains to have Northeast African affinities.<ref>"When Mahalanobis D2 was used, the Naqadan and Badarian Predynastic samples exhibited more similarity to Nubian, Tigrean, and some more southern series than to some mid- to late Dynasticseries from northern Egypt (Mukherjee et al., 1955). The Badarian have been found to be very similar to a Kerma sample (Kushite Sudanese), using both the Penrose statistic (Nutter, 1958) and DFA of males alone (Keita, 1990). Furthermore, Keita considered that Badarian males had a southern modal phenotype, and that together with a Naqada sample, they formed a southern Egyptian cluster as tropical variants together with a sample from Kerma". {{cite journal |last1=Zakrzewski |first1=Sonia R. |title=Population continuity or population change: Formation of the ancient Egyptian state |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |date=April 2007 |volume=132 |issue=4 |pages=501–509 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.20569 |pmid=17295300 |bibcode=2007AJPA..132..501Z |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajpa.20569 |language=en|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Keita |first1=S. O. Y. |title=Studies and Comments on Ancient Egyptian Biological Relationships |journal=History in Africa |date=1993 |volume=20 |pages=129–154 |doi=10.2307/3171969 |jstor=3171969 |s2cid=162330365 |issn=0361-5413}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Keita |first1=Shomarka |title=Analysis of Naqada Predynastic Crania: a brief report |year=1996 |url=https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeum/reader/download/180/180-30-76280-1-10-20161130.pdf |access-date=22 February 2022 |archive-date=5 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205163430/https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeum/reader/download/180/180-30-76280-1-10-20161130.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Godde |first1=K. |title=An examination of Nubian and Egyptian biological distances: support for biological diffusion or in situ development? |journal=Homo: Internationale Zeitschrift für die vergleichende Forschung am Menschen |date=2009 |volume=60 |issue=5 |pages=389–404 |doi=10.1016/j.jchb.2009.08.003 |pmid=19766993 |issn=1618-1301}}</ref><ref>{{cite conference |last1=Godde |first1=Kanya |title=A biological perspective of the relationship between Egypt, Nubia, and the Near East during the Predynastic period |conference=Egypt at its Origins 6: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference "Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt" |location=Vienna |orig-date=10–15 September 2017 |publisher=Peeters |year=2020 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337001806}}</ref><ref name="Princeton University Press"/> A study by Dr. Shormaka Keita found that Naqada remains were conforming almost equally to two local types, a southern Egyptian pattern (which shares closest resemblance with Kerma), and a northern Egyptian pattern (most similar to Coastal Maghreb).<ref>{{cite web |last1=Keita |first1=Shomarka |title=Analysis of Naqada Predynastic Crania: a brief report (1996) |url=https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeum/reader/download/180/180-30-76280-1-10-20161130.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205163430/https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeum/reader/download/180/180-30-76280-1-10-20161130.pdf |archive-date=2022-12-05 |access-date=2022-02-22}}</ref>
In 1996, Lovell and Prowse also reported the presence of individuals buried at Naqada in what they interpreted to be elite, high status tombs, showing them to be an endogamous ruling or elite segment of the local population at Naqada, which is more closely related to populations in northern Nubia (A-Group) than to neighbouring populations in southern Egypt. Specifically, they stated the Naqda samples were "more similar to the [[Lower Nubia]]n protodynastic sample than they are to the geographically more proximate southern Egyptian samples" in [[Qena]] and [[Badari]]. However, they found the skeletal samples from the Naqada cemeteries to be significantly different to protodynastic populations in northern Nubia and predynastic Egyptian samples from Badari and Qena, which were also significantly different to northern Nubian populations.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lovell |first1=Nancy |last2=Prowse |first2=Tracy |title=Concordance of cranial and dental morphological traits and evidence for endogamy in ancient Egypt |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=101 |issue=2 |date=October 1996 |pages=237–246 |doi=10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(199610)101:2<237::AID-AJPA8>3.0.CO;2-Z |pmid=8893087 |quote=Table 3 presents the MMD data for Badari, Qena, and Nubia in addition to Naqada and shows that these samples are all significantly different from each other. ... 1) the Naqada samples are more similar to each other than they are to the samples from the neighbouring Upper Egyptian or Lower Nubian sites and 2) the Naqada samples are more similar to the Lower Nubian protodynastic sample than they are to the geographically more proximate Egyptian samples.}}</ref> Overall, both the elite and nonelite individuals in the Naqada cemeteries were more similar to each other than they were to the samples in northern Nubia or to samples from Badari and Qena in southern Egypt.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lovell |first1=Nancy |last2=Prowse |first2=Tracy |title=Concordance of cranial and dental morphological traits and evidence for endogamy in ancient Egypt |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=101 |issue=2 |date=October 1996 |pages=237–246 |doi=10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(199610)101:2<237::AID-AJPA8>3.0.CO;2-Z |pmid=8893087 |quote=... the Naqada samples are more similar to each other than they are to the samples from the neighbouring Upper Egyptian or Lower Nubian sites ...}}</ref>
In 2023, [[Christopher Ehret]] reported that the physical anthropological findings from the "major burial sites of those founding locales of ancient Egypt in the fourth millennium BCE, notably El-Badari as well as Naqada, show no demographic indebtedness to the [[Levant]]". Ehret specified that these studies revealed cranial and dental affinities with "closest parallels" to other longtime populations in the surrounding areas of northeastern Africa "such as Nubia and the northern [[Horn of Africa]]". He further commented that "members of this population did not come from somewhere else but were descendants of the long-term inhabitants of these portions of Africa going back many millennia". Ehret also cited existing, [[archaeological]], [[linguistic]] and [[Genetics|genetic]] data which he argued supported the demographic history.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ehret |first1=Christopher |title=Ancient Africa: A Global History, to 300 CE |date=20 June 2023 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton |isbn=978-0-691-24409-9 |pages=82–85, 97 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q5KjEAAAQBAJ&q=ancient+africa:+a+global+history,+to+300+ce+christopher+ehret |language=en}}</ref>
=====Naqada I (Amratian culture)===== {{main|Naqada I}} [[File:Naqada black top.jpg|thumb|left|Ovoid Naqada I (Amratian) black-topped terracotta vase, (c. 3800–3500 BC).]] The Amratian culture lasted from about 4000 to 3500 BC.<ref name="Shaw 479"/> It is named after the site of [[Amratian culture|El-Amra]], about 120 km south of [[Badari]]. El-Amra is the first site where this culture group was found unmingled with the later Gerzean culture group, but this period is better attested at the Naqada site, so it also is referred to as the Naqada I culture.<ref name="Grimal 24"/> [[Black-topped pottery|Black-topped ware]] continues to appear, but white cross-line ware, a type of pottery which has been decorated with close parallel white lines being crossed by another set of close parallel white lines, is also found at this time. The Amratian period falls between S.D. 30 and 39 in Petrie's [[Sequence Dating]] system.<ref name="Gardiner 390">Gardiner, Alan, ''Egypt of the Pharaohs'' (Oxford: University Press, 1964), p. 390.</ref>
Newly excavated objects attest to increased trade between Upper and Lower Egypt at this time. A stone vase from the north was found at el-Amra, and copper, which is not mined in Egypt, was imported from the Sinai, or possibly Nubia. [[Obsidian]]<ref name="Grimal 28">Grimal, Nicolas. ''A History of Ancient Egypt''. p. 28. Librairie Arthéme Fayard, 1988</ref> and a small amount of [[gold]]<ref name="Gardiner 390"/> were both definitely imported from Nubia. Trade with the oases also was likely.<ref name="Grimal 28"/>
New innovations appeared in Amratian settlements as precursors to later cultural periods. For example, the mud-brick buildings for which the Gerzean period is known were first seen in Amratian times, but only in small numbers.<ref name="Redford 7">Redford, Donald B. (1992). ''Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times''. Princeton: University Press, p. 7.</ref> Additionally, oval and [[Zoomorphism|theriomorph]]ic [[cosmetic palette]]s appear in this period, but the workmanship is very rudimentary and the relief artwork for which they were later known is not yet present.<ref>Gardiner, Alan (1964), ''Egypt of the Pharaohs''. Oxford: University Press, p. 393.</ref><ref>Newell, G. D., "The Relative chronology of PNC I" (Academia.Edu: 2012)</ref>{{full citation needed|reason=academia.edu is not a source itself, it indicates there should be a URL with further info, but this title was not found on searching that website|date=April 2024}}
Later Amratian pottery and artwork often depicts various plants and animals. Pieces featuring fish, birds, elephants, crocodiles, and other animals have all been dated to the late Amratian. One small bowl depicts a man standing on a boat or raft while he appears to hunt a hippopotamus with a harpoon. The human figure is also commonly depicted on Amratian vessels. Jar E3002 in the [[Art & History Museum|Brussels Art & History Museum]] shows a group of eight men, two of which are wearing feathers and animal tails, while holding their arms above their heads. Additionally, bowl UC9547 in the [[Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology]] shows two men in a weaving scene, providing early evidence for textile production in Egypt.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Patch |first=Diana Craig |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Dawn_of_Egyptian_Art/tfkvlD4Pi20C?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover |title=Dawn of Egyptian Art |last2=Eaton-Krauss |first2=Marianne |last3=Allen |first3=Susan J. |date=2011 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn=978-1-58839-460-6 |language=en}}</ref>
=====Naqada II (Gerzean culture)===== {{main|Naqada II}} [[File:Female Figure, ca. 3500-3400 B.C.E..jpg|thumbnail|[[Naqada Culture|Naqada]] figure of a woman interpreted to represent the goddess [[Bat (goddess)|Bat]] with her inward curving horns. Another hypothesis is that the raised arms symbolize wings and that the figure is an early version of the white vulture goddess [[Nekhbet]],<ref>Christiansen, S. U.2023 ''What do the Figurines of "Bird Ladies" in Predynastic Egypt represent?'' (OAJAA)</ref> c. 3500–3400 B.C.E. terracotta, painted, {{cvt|11+1/2|x|5+1/2|x|2+1/4|in|cm}}, [[Brooklyn Museum]]]] The Gerzean culture, from about 3500 to 3200 BC,<ref name="Shaw 479"/> is named after the site of [[Gerzeh]]. It was the next stage in Egyptian cultural development, and it was during this time that the foundation of Dynastic Egypt was laid. Gerzean culture is largely an unbroken development out of Amratian Culture, starting in the delta and moving south through upper Egypt, but failing to dislodge Amratian culture in Nubia.<ref name="Redford 16">Redford, Donald B. ''Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times.'' (Princeton: University Press, 1992), p. 16.</ref> Gerzean pottery is assigned values from S.D. 40 through 62, and is distinctly different from Amratian white cross-lined wares or black-topped ware.<ref name="Gardiner 390"/> Gerzean pottery was painted mostly in dark red with pictures of animals, people, and ships, as well as geometric symbols that appear derived from animals.<ref name="Redford 16"/> Also, "wavy" handles, rare before this period (though occasionally found as early as S.D. 35) became more common and more elaborate until they were almost completely ornamental.<ref name="Gardiner 390"/>
Gerzean culture coincided with a [[African humid period|significant decline in rainfall]],<ref name="Redford 17">Redford, Donald B. ''Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times.'' (Princeton: University Press, 1992), p. 17.</ref> and farming along the Nile now produced the vast majority of food,<ref name="Redford 16"/> though contemporary paintings indicate that hunting was not entirely forgone. With increased food supplies, [[Egyptians]] adopted a much more sedentary lifestyle and cities grew as large as 5,000.<ref name="Redford 16"/>
It was in this time that Egyptian city dwellers stopped building with [[Reed (plant)|reeds]] and began mass-producing mud bricks, first found in the Amratian Period, to build their cities.<ref name="Redford 16"/>
Egyptian stone tools, while still in use, moved from [[biface|bifacial]] construction to ripple-flaked construction. Copper was used for all kinds of tools,<ref name="Redford 16"/> and the first copper weaponry appears here.<ref name="Gardiner 391"/> Silver, gold, lapis, and [[Egyptian faience|faience]] were used ornamentally,<ref name="Redford 16"/> and the grinding palettes used for eye-paint since the Badarian period began to be adorned with relief carvings.<ref name="Gardiner 391"/>
{{multiple image | align = left | caption_align = center | direction =horizontal | header=Gebel el-Arak knife (3450-3400 BC) | total_width=350 | image1 = Gebel_el-Arak_knife_(front_and_back).jpg | caption1 = Egyptian prehistoric [[Gebel el-Arak Knife]], [[Abydos, Egypt|Abydos]], [[Egypt]]. [[Louvre Museum]].<ref name="Site officiel du musée du Louvre">{{cite web |title=Site officiel du musée du Louvre |url=http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=668 |website=cartelfr.louvre.fr}}</ref> | image2 = Gebel el-Arak Knife ivory handle (front top part detail).jpg | caption2 = [[Mesopotamia]]n king as [[Master of Animals]] on the [[Gebel el-Arak Knife]]. This work of art both shows the influence of Mesopotamia on [[Egypt]] at an early date, during a period of [[Egypt-Mesopotamia relations]], and the state of Mesopotamian royal iconography during the Uruk period.<ref name="Site officiel du musée du Louvre"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cooper |first1=Jerrol S. |title=The Study of the Ancient Near East in the Twenty-first Century: The William Foxwell Albright Centennial Conference |date=1996 |publisher=Eisenbrauns |isbn=978-0-931464-96-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3hc1Yp0VcjoC&pg=PA10|pages=10–14 |language=en}}</ref> | footer= }}
The first tombs in classic Egyptian style were also built, modeled after ordinary houses and sometimes composed of multiple rooms.<ref name="Grimal 28"/> Although further excavations in the Delta are needed, this style is generally believed to originate there and not in Upper Egypt.<ref name="Grimal 28"/>
Although the Gerzean Culture is now clearly identified as being the continuation of the [[Amratian]] period, significant [[Mesopotamia]]n influence worked its way into Egypt during the [[Gerzean]], interpreted in previous years as evidence of a Mesopotamian ruling class, the so-called [[Dynastic race theory|dynastic race]], coming to power over [[Upper Egypt]]. This idea no longer attracts academic support.
Distinctly foreign objects and art forms entered Egypt during this period, indicating contacts with several parts of Asia. Objects such as the [[Gebel el-Arak Knife|Gebel el-Arak knife]] handle, which has patently Mesopotamian relief carvings on it, have been found in Egypt,<ref>Shaw, Ian & Nicholson, Paul, ''The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt'' (London: British Museum Press, 1995), p. 109.</ref> and the silver which appears in this period can only have been obtained from [[Asia Minor]].<ref name="Redford 16"/>
In addition, Egyptian objects are created which clearly mimic Mesopotamian forms, although not slavishly.<ref name="Redford 18">Redford, Donald B. ''Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times.'' (Princeton: University Press, 1992), p. 18.</ref> Cylinder seals appear in Egypt, as well as recessed paneling architecture, the Egyptian reliefs on cosmetic palettes are clearly made in the same style as the contemporary Mesopotamian [[Uruk culture]], and the ceremonial mace heads which turn up from the late Gerzean and early Semainean are crafted in the Mesopotamian "pear-shaped" style, instead of the Egyptian native style.<ref name="Redford 17"/>
The route of this trade is difficult to determine, but contact with [[Canaan]] does not predate the early dynastic, so it is usually assumed to have been conducted over water.<ref name="Redford 22">Redford, Donald B. ''Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times.'' (Princeton: University Press, 1992), p. 22.</ref> During the time when the Dynastic Race Theory was still popular, it was theorized that Uruk sailors circumnavigated [[Arabia]], but a [[Mediterranean]] route, probably by middlemen through [[Byblos]], is more likely, as evidenced by the presence of [[Byblos|Byblian]] objects in Egypt.<ref name="Redford 22"/>
The fact that so many Gerzean sites are at the mouths of [[wadi]]s that lead to the Red Sea may indicate some amount of trade via the Red Sea (though Byblian trade potentially could have crossed the Sinai and then taken the Red Sea).<ref name="Redford 20">Redford, Donald B. ''Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times.'' (Princeton: University Press, 1992), p. 20.</ref> Also, it is considered unlikely that something so complicated as recessed panel architecture could have worked its way into Egypt by proxy, and at least a small contingent of migrants is often suspected.<ref name="Redford 22"/>
Despite this evidence of foreign influence, Egyptologists generally agree that the Gerzean Culture is still predominantly indigenous to Egypt.
=====Naqada III (Protodynastic Period)===== {{main|Naqada III}} {{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=300|caption_align=center | align = right | direction =horizontal | image1 = Tell el-Farkha golden figurine (60cm tall).jpg | image2 = Male figurine from Tell el-Farkha. Late Predynastic period (Naqada IIIB, c. 3200–3000 BCE). Egyptian Museum (Cairo). 30cm height (cropped).jpg | footer=Oldest known representations of ancient Egyptian rulers, from [[Tell el-Farkha]] (60 cm father left, 30cm son right). Late Predynastic period (Naqada III b, {{circa}} 3200–3000 BC). Egyptian Museum (Cairo).<ref name="MUS">{{cite web |title=tell el-farkha |url=https://egypt-museum.com/tag/tell-el-farkha/ |website=Egypt Museum}}</ref><ref name="PER">{{cite journal |last1=Ciałowicz |first1=Krzysztof M. |title=Votive figurines from Tell el-Farkha and their counterparts |journal=Archéo-Nil |date=2012 |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=88–90 |doi=10.3406/arnil.2012.1044 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/arnil_1161-0492_2012_num_22_1_1044}}</ref> }} The Naqada III period, from about 3200 to 3000 BC,<ref name="Shaw 479"/> is generally taken to be identical with the [[Protodynastic Period of Egypt|Protodynastic]] period, during which Egypt was unified.
Naqada III is notable for being the first era with [[hieroglyphs]] (though this is disputed by some), the first regular use of [[serekh]]s, the first irrigation, and the first appearance of royal cemeteries.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.faiyum.com/html/naqada_iii.html |title=Naqada III |publisher=Faiyum.com |access-date=1 May 2012}}</ref>
The relatively affluent [[Maadi]] suburb of Cairo is built over the original Naqada stronghold.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/neolithic/maadi.html|title=Maadi Culture|publisher=University College London|access-date=3 April 2018}}</ref>
[[Bioarchaeologist]] Nancy Lovell had stated that there is a sufficient body of morphological evidence to indicate that ancient southern Egyptians had physical characteristics "within the range of variation" of both ancient and modern indigenous peoples in the Sahara and tropical Africa. She summarised that "In general, the inhabitants of [[Upper Egypt]] and [[Nubia]] had the greatest biological affinity to people of the [[Sahara]] and more [[Tropical Africa|southerly areas]]",<ref>"There is now a sufficient body of evidence from modern studies of skeletal remains to indicate that the ancient Egyptians, especially southern Egyptians, exhibited physical characteristics that are within the range of variation for ancient and modern indigenous peoples of the Sahara and tropical Africa. The distribution of population characteristics seems to follow a clinal pattern from south to north, which may be explained by natural selection as well as gene flow between neighboring populations. In general, the inhabitants of Upper Egypt and Nubia had the greatest biological affinity to people of the Sahara and more southerly areas". {{cite encyclopedia |title=Egyptians, physical anthropology of |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt |publisher=Routledge |location=London |date=1999 |editor1-last=Bard |editor1-first=Kathryn A. |pages=328–331 |isbn=0-415-18589-0 |author-last=Lovell |author-first=Nancy C. |editor2-last=Shubert |editor2-first=Steven Blake}}</ref> but exhibited local variation in an African context.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Egyptians, physical anthropology of |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt |publisher=Routledge |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/EncyclopediaOfTheArchaeologyOfAncientEgypt |date=1999 |editor1-last=Bard |editor1-first=Kathryn A. |pages=328–331 |isbn=0-415-18589-0 |author-last=Lovell |author-first=Nancy C. |editor2-last=Shubert |editor2-first=Steven Blake}}</ref>
<gallery widths="200" heights="200" perrow="4"> File:Name of King Iry-Hor, Dynasty 0, Eastern Kom, Tell el-Farkha.jpg|Name of King [[Iry-Hor]], [[Dynasty 0]], Eastern Kom, [[Tell el-Farkha]].<ref name="CIA63">{{cite book |last1=Cialowicz |first1=Krzysztof M. |title=Before the pyramids: the origins of Egyptian civilization; [publ. in conjunction with the Exhibition Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization, March 28 - December 31, 2011] |date=2011 |publisher=The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago |location=Chicago, Ill |isbn=978-1-885923-82-0 |chapter=6. The Early-Dynastic/Pre-Dynastic period at Tell al-Fakrah |pages=63–64 |url=https://isac.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/shared/docs/Publications/OIMP/oimp33.pdf}}</ref> File:The Battlefield Palette 3100 BC - Joy of Museums.jpg|The [[Battlefield Palette]], possibly showing the subjection of the people of the [[Buto-Maadi culture]], by the Egyptian rulers of Naqada III, circa 3100 BC.<ref name="BR">{{cite book|last1=Brovarski|first1=Edward|title=REFLECTIONS ON THE BATTLEFIELD AND LIBYAN BOOTY PALETTES|page=89|url=https://www.academia.edu/28433861|language=en}}</ref> File:Fragment of a ceremonial palette illustrating a man and a type of staff circa 3200–3100 BCE Predynastic, Late Naqada III.jpg|Fragment of a ceremonial palette illustrating a man and a type of staff. Circa 3200–3100 BC, Predynastic, Late Naqada III. </gallery>
=====Genetics at the end of the Neolithic period===== {{main|Old Kingdom individual (NUE001)}} [[File:Extended Data Fig. 2 Facial reconstruction and depiction created from the Nuwayrat individual skull.jpg|thumb|Facial reconstruction and depiction created from the Nuwayrat Early Dynastic individual, carbon dated to 2855–2570 BCE, soon after the end of the Neolithic period.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Morez Jacobs |first1=Adeline |last2=Irish |first2=Joel D. |last3=Cooke |first3=Ashley |last4=Anastasiadou |first4=Kyriaki |last5=Barrington |first5=Christopher |last6=Gilardet |first6=Alexandre |last7=Kelly |first7=Monica |last8=Silva |first8=Marina |last9=Speidel |first9=Leo |last10=Tait |first10=Frankie |last11=Williams |first11=Mia |last12=Brucato |first12=Nicolas |last13=Ricaut |first13=Francois-Xavier |last14=Wilkinson |first14=Caroline |last15=Madgwick |first15=Richard |last16=Holt |first16=Emily |last17=Nederbragt |first17=Alexandra J. |last18=Inglis |first18=Edward |last19=Hajdinjak |first19=Mateja |last20=Skoglund |first20=Pontus |last21=Girdland-Flink |first21=Linus |title=Whole-genome ancestry of an Old Kingdom Egyptian |journal=Nature |date=2 July 2025 |doi=10.1038/s41586-025-09195-5 |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09195-5 |language=en |issn=1476-4687 |page=Extended Data Fig. 2 Facial reconstruction and depiction created from the Nuwayrat individual skull|pmid=40604286 |doi-access=free |pmc=12367555 }}</ref>]] For the first time in 2025, a study was able to give insights into the genetic background of Early Dynastic Egyptians, by sequencing the whole genome of an [[Old Kingdom of Egypt|Old Kingdom]] adult male Egyptian of relatively high-status, radiocarbon-dated to 2855–2570 BCE, which was excavated in Nuwayrat (Nuerat, نويرات), in a cliff 265 km south of Cairo.<ref name="MJ"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Strickland |first1=Ashley |title=The first genome sequenced from ancient Egypt reveals surprising ancestry, scientists say |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/02/science/ancient-egyptian-genome-sequenced |website=CNN |language=en |date=2 July 2025}}</ref> Before this study, whole-genome sequencing of ancient Egyptians from the early periods of Egyptian Dynastic history had not yet been accomplished, mainly because of the problematic DNA preservation conditions in Egypt.<ref name="MJ"/>
[[File:Ancestry model of Nuwayrat genome (2855-2570 cal. BCE).png|thumb|upright=0.55|left|Ancestry model of 3rd millennium Egyptian genome from Nuwayrat.<ref name="MJ"/>]] The corpse had been placed intact in a large circular clay pot without embalming, and then installed inside a cliff tomb, which accounts for the comparatively good level of conservation of the skeleton and its DNA.<ref name="MJ"/> Most of his genome was found to be associated with North African Neolithic ancestry, but about 20% of his genetic ancestry could be sourced to the eastern [[Fertile Crescent]], including [[Mesopotamia]].<ref name="MJ"/> The genetic profile was most closely represented by a two-source model, in which 77.6% ± 3.8% of the ancestry corresponded to genomes from the Middle Neolithic Moroccan site of Skhirat-Rouazi (dated to 4780–4230 BCE), which itself consists of predominantly (76.4 ± 4.0%) Levant Neolithic ancestry and (23.6 ± 4.0%) minor [[Iberomaurusian]] ancestry, while the remainder (22.4% ± 3.8%) was most closely related to known genomes from Neolithic [[Mesopotamia]] (dated to 9000-8000 BCE).<ref name="MJ"/><ref name=lgs>{{cite journal |last1=Simões |first1=Luciana G. |last2=Günther |first2=Torsten |last3=Martínez-Sánchez |first3=Rafael M. |last4=Vera-Rodríguez |first4=Juan Carlos |last5=Iriarte |first5=Eneko |last6=Rodríguez-Varela |first6=Ricardo |last7=Bokbot |first7=Youssef |last8=Valdiosera |first8=Cristina |last9=Jakobsson |first9=Mattias |title=Northwest African Neolithic initiated by migrants from Iberia and Levant |journal=Nature |date=7 June 2023 |volume=618 |issue=7965 |pages=550–556 |doi=10.1038/s41586-023-06166-6 |pmid=37286608 |pmc=10266975 |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06166-6 }}</ref> Genomes from the Neolithic/Chalcolithic Levant only appeared as a minor third-place component in three-source models.<ref name="MJ"/> A 2022 DNA study had already shown evidence of gene flow from the Mesopotamian and Zagros regions into surrounding areas, including Anatolia, during the Neolithic, but not as far as Egypt yet.<ref name=lgs/>
Overall, the 2025 study "provides direct evidence of genetic ancestry related to the eastern Fertile Crescent in ancient Egypt".<ref name="MJ"/> This genetic connection suggests that there had been ancient migration flows from the eastern Fertile Crescent to Egypt, in addition to the exchanges of objects and imagery (domesticated animals and plants, writing systems...) already observed.<ref name="MJ">{{cite journal |last1=Morez Jacobs |first1=Adeline |last2=Irish |first2=Joel D. |last3=Cooke |first3=Ashley |last4=Anastasiadou |first4=Kyriaki |last5=Barrington |first5=Christopher |last6=Gilardet |first6=Alexandre |last7=Kelly |first7=Monica |last8=Silva |first8=Marina |last9=Speidel |first9=Leo |last10=Tait |first10=Frankie |last11=Williams |first11=Mia |last12=Brucato |first12=Nicolas |last13=Ricaut |first13=Francois-Xavier |last14=Wilkinson |first14=Caroline |last15=Madgwick |first15=Richard |last16=Holt |first16=Emily |last17=Nederbragt |first17=Alexandra J. |last18=Inglis |first18=Edward |last19=Hajdinjak |first19=Mateja |last20=Skoglund |first20=Pontus |last21=Girdland-Flink |first21=Linus |title=Whole-genome ancestry of an Old Kingdom Egyptian |journal=Nature |date=2 July 2025 |pages=1–8 |doi=10.1038/s41586-025-09195-5 |pmid=40604286 |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09195-5 |language=en |issn=1476-4687|doi-access=free |pmc=12367555 }}</ref> This suggests a pattern of wide cultural and demographic expansion from the Mesopotamian region, which affected both Anatolia and Egypt during this period.<ref name="MJ"/>
The Mesopotamian ancestors of the Nuwayrat individual may have migrated to Egypt during the [[Neolithic]] period, or may have arrived in a recent period through a yet unknown migration through the Near-East, or alternatively through direct sea-routes in the Mediterranean or the [[Red Sea]].<ref name="MJ"/>
The authors acknowledged limitations of the 2025 study, such as their reliance on a single Egyptian genome for analysis, and known limitations in predicting the above-referenced phenotypic traits in understudied populations.<ref name="Whole-genome ancestry of an Old Kin">{{cite journal | doi=10.1038/s41586-025-09195-5 | title=Whole-genome ancestry of an Old Kingdom Egyptian | date=2025 | last1=Morez Jacobs | first1=Adeline | last2=Irish | first2=Joel D. | last3=Cooke | first3=Ashley | last4=Anastasiadou | first4=Kyriaki | last5=Barrington | first5=Christopher | last6=Gilardet | first6=Alexandre | last7=Kelly | first7=Monica | last8=Silva | first8=Marina | last9=Speidel | first9=Leo | last10=Tait | first10=Frankie | last11=Williams | first11=Mia | last12=Brucato | first12=Nicolas | last13=Ricaut | first13=Francois-Xavier | last14=Wilkinson | first14=Caroline | last15=Madgwick | first15=Richard | last16=Holt | first16=Emily | last17=Nederbragt | first17=Alexandra J. | last18=Inglis | first18=Edward | last19=Hajdinjak | first19=Mateja | last20=Skoglund | first20=Pontus | last21=Girdland-Flink | first21=Linus | journal=Nature | volume=644 | issue=8077 | pages=714–721 | pmid=40604286 | doi-access=free | pmc=12367555 | bibcode=2025Natur.644..714M }}</ref> Analyses excluded any substantial ancestry in the Nuwayrat genome related to a previously published 4,500-year-old hunter-gatherer genome from the Mota cave in Ethiopia, or other individuals in central, eastern, or southern Africa.<ref name="Whole-genome ancestry of an Old Kin"/>
Regarding the supplement facial reconstruction, the researchers noted that while the DNA analysis is indicative of population origin, there was no physical evidence of any particular skin colour, eye colour, or hair colour, and therefore, the reconstruction was produced in black and white without head hair or facial hair.<ref name="Whole-genome ancestry of an Old Kin"/>
=====International Scholarship===== [[File:E1b1b.png|thumb|right|E1b1b is the most common paternal haplogroup across much of Africa, including Egypt, "Haplogroup E is defined by the M96 SNP (and others), for which a cautious reading of all of the evidence would indicate an eastern tropical African origin (Cruciani, 2007; Gomes et al., 2010; Trombetta et al., 2015)".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Holl |first1=Augustin |title=General history of Africa, IX: General history of Africa revisited |pages=511–531, 723–731|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000396045?posInSet=1&queryId=N-EXPLORE-612fe50c-9ec6-4256-8bd3-7b7ec50033a7}}</ref>]]
In 2025, the [[General History of Africa|UNESCO International Scientific Committee]] published a review of their 1974 Symposium which discussed the Peopling of Ancient Egypt and featured [[interdisciplinary|multidisciplinary]] views on the population formation of Egypt.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Holl |first1=Augustin |title=General history of Africa, IX: General history of Africa revisited |pages=468–470|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000396045?posInSet=1&queryId=N-EXPLORE-612fe50c-9ec6-4256-8bd3-7b7ec50033a7}}</ref> UNESCO International Scientific Committee Chair Augustin Holl stated that Egypt was situated in an intersection between Africa and Eurasia but affirmed "Egypt is African" with "a fluctuating distribution of African and Eurasian populations depending on historical circumstances".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Holl |first1=Augustin |title=General history of Africa, IX: General history of Africa revisited |page=LVIII |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000396045?posInSet=1&queryId=N-EXPLORE-612fe50c-9ec6-4256-8bd3-7b7ec50033a7}}</ref>
According to anthropologist Alain Anselin, reviewer of the 1974 symposium, the weight of recent evidence had repositioned Upper Egypt as the origin centre for pharaonic unification and the "migration of peoples of the Sahara and groups from the South to the valley - something confirmed by research over the last thirty years".<ref name="unesdoc.unesco.org">{{cite book |last1=Holl |first1=Augustin |title=General history of Africa, IX: General history of Africa revisited |pages=355–375, 669–687, 723–741 375|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000396045?posInSet=1&queryId=N-EXPLORE-612fe50c-9ec6-4256-8bd3-7b7ec50033a7}}</ref> Anselin referenced a range of specialist studies ([[anthropology]], [[linguistics]], [[population genetics]] and [[archaeology]]) presented at a triennial conference in 2005 which he stated was a continuation of the 1974 recommendations. This included a genetic study which quantified the "key impact" of Sub-Saharan populations and showed that the early pre-dynastic population of the Berber people of the Siwa Oasis in north-western Egypt had close demographic links with people of [[Northeast Africa|North-East Africa]]. He further described the value of other studies such as a Crubezy study which "traced the boundaries of the ancient Khoisan settlement to Upper Egypt, where its faint traces remain identifiable and Keita’s work, as the most groundbreaking", and that Cerny's team had identified close genetic and linguistic links between the peoples of Upper Egypt, North [[Cameroon]] (some of whom spoke Chadic languages) and Ethiopia (some of whom spoke Kushitic languages).<ref name="unesdoc.unesco.org"/> Genetic analysis of a modern Upper Egyptian population had "confirmed the presence of ancient DNA related to current sub-Saharan populations", with 71% of the sampled cases carrying E1b1 haplogroup and 3% carrying the L0f mitochondrial haplogroup.<ref name="General history of Africa, IX: Gene">{{cite book |last1=Holl |first1=Augustin |title=General history of Africa, IX: General history of Africa revisited |pages=728|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000396045?posInSet=1&queryId=N-EXPLORE-612fe50c-9ec6-4256-8bd3-7b7ec50033a7}}</ref> A secondary review published in 2025 noted the results were preliminary and need to be confirmed by other laboratories with new sequencing methods.<ref name="General history of Africa, IX: Gene"/> The genetic marker [[Haplogroup E-P2|E1b1]] was identified to have wide distribution across Egypt, with "P2/215/M35.1 (E1b1b), for short [[E-M5|M35]], likely also originated in eastern tropical Africa, and is predominantly distributed in an arc from the Horn of Africa up through Egypt".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Holl |first1=Augustin |title=General history of Africa, IX: General history of Africa revisited |pages=525|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000396045?posInSet=1&queryId=N-EXPLORE-612fe50c-9ec6-4256-8bd3-7b7ec50033a7}}</ref>
Mainstream scholars have situated the ethnicity and the origins of predynastic, southern Egypt as a foundational community primarily in northeast Africa which included [[the Sudan]], [[Afrotropical realm|tropical Africa]] and [[the Sahara]] whilst recognising the population variability that became characteristic of the pharaonic period.<ref>"There is now a sufficient body of evidence from modern studies of skeletal remains to indicate that the ancient Egyptians, especially southern Egyptians, exhibited physical characteristics that are within the range of variation for ancient and modern indigenous peoples of the Sahara and tropical Africa. The distribution of population characteristics seems to follow a clinal pattern from south to north, which may be explained by natural selection as well as gene flow between neighboring populations. In general, the inhabitants of Upper Egypt and Nubia had the greatest biological affinity to people of the Sahara and more southerly areas.”{{cite encyclopedia |last=Lovell |first=Nancy C. |chapter=Egyptians, physical anthropology of |title=Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt |editor1-last=Bard |editor1-first=Kathryn A. |editor1-link=Kathryn A. Bard |editor2-last=Shubert |editor2-first=Steven Blake |date=1999 |location=London |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0415185890 |pages=328–331}}</ref><ref>“The data clearly suggests that the population in southern Egypt became more diverse as the society more complex (Keita 1992). Egyptian society seems never to have been “closed”, and it is hard to believe that the modal phenotype could have remain unchanged, especially if social and sexual collection were operating. However, it is important to emphasize that, while the biology changed with increasing local social complexity, the ethnicity of Niloto-Saharo-Sudanese origins did not change. The cultural morays, ritual formulae, and symbols used in writing, as far as can be ascertained, remained true to their southern origins”.{{cite journal |last1=Keita |first1=S. O. Y. |title=Studies and Comments on Ancient Egyptian Biological Relationships |journal=History in Africa |date=1993 |volume=20 |pages=129–154 |doi=10.2307/3171969 |jstor=3171969 |s2cid=162330365 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3171969 |issn=0361-5413}}</ref><ref>p.85–“The physical anthropological findings from the major burial sites of those founding locales of ancient Egypt in the millennium BCE, notably El-Badari as well as Naqada, show no demographic indebtedness to the Levant. They reveal instead a population with cranial and dental features with closest parallels of those of other longtime populations of the surrounding areas of northeastern Africa, such as Nubia and the northern Horn of Africa. Members of this population did not come from somewhere else but were descendants of the long-term inhabitants of these portions of Africa going back many millennia.”{{cite book |last1=Ehret |first1=Christopher |title=Ancient Africa: A Global History, to 300 CE |date=20 June 2023 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton |isbn=978-0-691-24409-9 |pages=83–86, 97, 167–169 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q5KjEAAAQBAJ&q=ancient+africa:+a+global+history,+to+300+ce+christopher+ehret |language=en |access-date=20 March 2023 |archive-date=22 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230322125442/https://books.google.com/books?id=Q5KjEAAAQBAJ&q=ancient+africa:+a+global+history,+to+300+ce+christopher+ehret |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>p.355 - “The importance of iconographic sources was emphasized in the main. Säve-Söderbergh and Leclant stressed that the links indicated by cave paintings between the vast expanses of the Sahara and the banks of the Nile nodded to a migration of peoples of the Sahara and groups from the South to the valley –something confirmed by research over the last thirty years. Diop set out to return Egypt to its southern African hinterland by systematically using Pharaonic statues and art to support his point of view. Although a debate on the north-south orientation of a ‘civilizing’ wave of peoples in the valley had prevailed up to that point, the avalanche of new data now made this idea redundant, suggesting instead the image of a growing and unifying political movement in the valley from south to north that repositioned its starting point back in time: in Upper Egypt, digs at the Uj tomb of King Scorpion at the Abydos necropolis push back the origin of the first Horus back to circa 3250 BCE, and the resumption of excavations at Nekhen led to the exhumation of the famous ‘Elephant Kings’ of Hierakonpolis (Nekhen) which have no inscriptions and date back even further to circa 3700 BCE.” <br /> p.356 - “It quantified the key impact of sub-Saharan populations and found a clear link between the Siwi and the peoples of North-East Africa. We could continue with work by Zakrzewski on the predynastic population of Nekhen, investigations by Crubezy which traced the boundaries of the ancient Khoisan settlement to Upper Egypt, where its faint traces remain identifiable, and Keita’s work, as the most groundbreaking.”'<br />p.356 - “Hence the work by Cerny’s team highlighting the close links between the peoples of Upper Egypt, North Cameroon and Ethiopia – the Cameroon people living in the Mandara mountains speaking Chadic languages, and the Ethiopians speaking Kushitic languages, prior to Ge’ez being spread throughout the region during the Aksumite period. This broadens the linguistic debate to include language families that had been little studied or used in comparisons that have long focused on the East.” {{cite book |last1=Anselin|first1=Alain |title= "Review of Ancient Civilizations of Africa: General History of Africa Volume II " in (General history of Africa, IX: General history of Africa revisited |pages=355–75|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000396045?posInSet=1&queryId=N-EXPLORE-612fe50c-9ec6-4256-8bd3-7b7ec50033a7}}</ref> Pharaonic Egypt featured a physical [[cline (biology)|gradation]] across the regional populations, with Upper Egyptians having shared more biological affinities with [[Sudanese]] and [[Sub Saharan Africa|southernly African populations]], whereas Lower Egyptians had closer genetic links with [[the Levant|Levantine]] and [[Mediterranean]] populations.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zakrzewski |first1=Sonia R. |title=Population continuity or population change: Formation of the ancient Egyptian state |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |date=April 2007 |volume=132 |issue=4 |pages=501–509 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.20569 |pmid=17295300 |bibcode=2007AJPA..132..501Z |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.20569 |language=en |quote=When Mahalanobis D2 was used, the Naqadan and Badarian Predynastic samples exhibited more similarity to Nubian, Tigrean, and some more southern series than to some mid- to late Dynasticseries from northern Egypt (Mukherjee et al., 1955). The Badarian have been found to be very similar to a Kerma sample (Kushite Sudanese), using both the Penrose statistic (Nutter, 1958) and DFA of males alone (Keita,1990). Furthermore, Keita considered that Badarian males had a southern modal phenotype, and that together with a Naqada sample, they formed a southern Egyptian cluster as tropical variants together with a sample from Kerma|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>"Southern Egypt and Nubia are geographically co-extensive, with populations grading into each other. The absorption of Qustul’s people would have reinforced this. There is biological overlap of these populations in origin, but ongoing admixture is also apparent."{{cite web |last1=Keita |first1=S. O. Y. |title=Ideas about "Race" in Nile Valley Histories: A Consideration of "Racial" Paradigms in Recent Presentations on Nile Valley Africa, from "Black Pharaohs" to Mummy Genomest |url=https://egyptianexpedition.org/articles/ideas-about-race-in-nile-valley-histories-a-consideration-of-racial-paradigms-in-recent-presentations-on-nile-valley-africa-from-black-pharaohs/ |website=Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections|date=September 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Hassan|first1=Fekri|title=The African Dimension of Egyptian Origins (May 2021) |url=https://nilevalleycollective.org/african-dimension-of-egyptian-origins/}}</ref>
==Lower Nubia== [[File:Calendar aswan.JPG|thumb|Nabta Playa "calendar circle", reconstructed at Aswan Nubia museum.]]
Lower Nubia is located within the borders of modern-day Egypt but is south of the border of Ancient Egypt, which was located at the [[First Cataract|first cataract]] of the Nile.
=====Nabta Playa===== {{main|Nabta Playa}}
[[Nabta Playa]] was once a large [[Endorheic basin|internally drained basin]] in the [[Nubian Desert]], located approximately 800 kilometers south of modern-day [[Cairo]]<ref name="nubia">{{Citation | last = Slayman | first = Andrew L. | title = Neolithic Skywatchers | publisher = [[Archaeological Institute of America]] | date = May 27, 1998 | url = http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/nubia.html }}</ref> or about 100 kilometers west of [[Abu Simbel]] in southern [[Egypt]],<ref name="WendorfSAA98">{{Citation | last1 = Wendorf | first1 = Fred | author-link = Fred Wendorf | last2 = Schild | first2 = Romuald | author2-link = Romuald Schild | title = Late Neolithic megalithic structures at Nabta Playa (Sahara), southwestern Egypt | publisher = Comparative Archaeology Web | date = November 26, 2000 | url = http://www.comp-archaeology.org/WendorfSAA98.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110806140123/http://www.comp-archaeology.org/WendorfSAA98.html | archive-date = August 6, 2011 }}</ref> 22.51° north, 30.73° east.<ref name="brophy1">{{cite journal|url=http://www.rhodes.aegean.gr/maa_journal/issues/past%20issues/volume%205%20no1%20june%202005/brophy.pdf |last1=Brophy |first1=T. G. |last2=Rosen |first2=P. A. |title=Satellite Imagery Measures of the Astronomically Aligned Megaliths at Nabta Playa |journal=Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry |volume=5 |issue=1 |year=2005 |pages=15–24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080229170244/http://www.rhodes.aegean.gr/maa_journal/issues/past%20issues/volume%205%20no1%20june%202005/brophy.pdf |archive-date=February 29, 2008 }}</ref> Today the region is characterized by numerous [[archaeological]] sites.<ref name="WendorfSAA98"/> The Nabta Playa archaeological site, one of the earliest of the Egyptian Neolithic Period, is dated to circa 7500 BC.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Margueron |first1=Jean-Claude |title=Le Proche-Orient et l'Égypte antiques |date=2012 |publisher=Hachette Éducation |isbn=978-2-01-140096-3 |page=380 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sju7HyZjbIoC&pg=PA380 |language=fr}}</ref><ref name="FW">{{cite book |last1=Wendorf |first1=Fred |last2=Schild |first2=Romuald |title=Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara: Volume 1: The Archaeology of Nabta Playa |date=2013 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-1-4615-0653-9 |pages=51–53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R0buBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA52 |language=en}}</ref> Also, excavations from Nabta Playa, located about 100 km west of Abu Simbel for example, suggest that the Neolithic inhabitants of the region included migrants from both Sub-Saharan Africa and the Mediterranean area.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wendorf |first1=Fred |title=Holocene settlement of the Egyptian Sahara |date=2001 |publisher=Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers |location=New York |isbn=978-0-306-46612-0 |pages=489–502}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.academia.edu/36832284 |title=Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy |chapter=Astronomy at Nabta Playa, Southern Egypt |date=2015 |publisher=Springer |pages=1080–1090 |doi=10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_101 |last1=McKim Malville |first1=J. |isbn=978-1-4614-6140-1 }}</ref> According to [[Christopher Ehret]], the material cultural indicators correspond with the conclusion that the inhabitants of the wider Nabta Playa region were a [[Nilo-Saharan]]-speaking population.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ehret |first1=Christopher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q5KjEAAAQBAJ |title=Ancient Africa: A Global History, to 300 CE |date=20 June 2023 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-24409-9 |page=107 |language=en}}</ref>
Egyptian historian H. A. A. Ibrahim examined the megalithic complex of Nabta Playa, Upper Egypt to understand the cultural and population influences of the Holocene on pre-dynastic Egypt. She cited an anthropological study confirming the appearance of a Sub-Saharan high status child in a ceremonial center and concluded that the megalithic structures had close resemblance to comparable structures in the [[Sahelian]] and Sub-Saharan regions of Africa.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Holl |first1=Augustin |title=General history of Africa, IX: General history of Africa revisited |pages=469, 705-722|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000396045?posInSet=1&queryId=N-EXPLORE-612fe50c-9ec6-4256-8bd3-7b7ec50033a7}}</ref>
==Timeline== {{hatnote|All dates are approximate}} [[File:Chronology of state formation in Ancient Egypt.png|thumb|Chronology of state formation in Ancient Egypt.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kemp |first1=Barry John |title=Ancient Egypt: anatomy of a civilization |quote=Early in the developmental sequence of kingship is tomb 100 (the 'Decorated Tomb'), probably the tomb of an early king of Hierakonpolis of the Nagada IIC phase (c. 3400–3300 BC).|date=2018 |publisher=Routledge |location=New-York (NY) |isbn=978-0-415-82726-3 |page=14/44, Fig.2.6 |edition=3rd}}</ref>]] * Late [[Paleolithic]], from 40th millennium BC ** [[Aterian]] tool-making<ref name="MSU" /> ** Semi-permanent dwellings in [[Wadi Halfa]]<ref name="MSU" /> ** Tools made from animal bones, [[hematite]], and other stones<ref name="MSU" /> * [[Neolithic]], from 11th millennium BC ** c. 10,500 BC: Wild grain harvesting along the [[Nile]], grain-grinding culture creates world's earliest stone [[sickle]] blades<ref name="MSU" /> roughly at end of [[Pleistocene]] ** c. 8000 BC: Migration of peoples to the Nile, developing a more centralized society and settled agricultural economy ** c. 7500 BC: Importing animals from Asia to Sahara ** c. 7000 BC: Agriculture—animal and cereal—in East Sahara ** c. 7000 BC: in [[Nabta Playa]] deep year-round water wells dug, and large organized settlements designed in planned arrangements ** c. 6000 BC: Rudimentary ships (rowed, single-sailed) depicted in Egyptian [[rock art]] ** c. 5500 BC: Stone-roofed subterranean chambers and other subterranean complexes in [[Nabta Playa]] containing buried [[sacrifice]]d cattle ** c. 5000 BC: Alleged [[Archaeoastronomy|archaeoastronomical]] stone [[megalith]] in [[Nabta Playa]].<ref>{{Citation|last=Malville|first=J. McKim|editor-last=Ruggles|editor-first=C.L.N.|editor-link=Clive Ruggles|title=Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy|place=New York|publisher=Springer Science+Business Media|volume=2| year=2015|chapter=Astronomy at Nabta Playa, Egypt|pages=1079–1091|isbn=978-1-4614-6140-1}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|first=Juan Antonio|last=Belmonte|editor-last=Ruggles|editor-first=Clive|editor-link=Clive Ruggles|editor2-last=Cotte|editor2-first=Michel| chapter=Ancient Egypt|title=Heritage Sites of Astronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the context of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention: A Thematic Study|year=2010|pages=119–129|place=Paris|publisher=[[International Council on Monuments and Sites]]/[[International Astronomical Union]]|isbn=978-2-918086-07-9}}</ref> ** c. 5000 BC: [[Badari culture|Badarian]]: furniture, tableware, models of rectangular houses, pots, dishes, cups, bowls, vases, figurines, combs ** c. 4400 BC: finely-woven [[linen]] fragment<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/fayum/uc72770.html |title=linen fragment |publisher=Digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk |access-date=1 May 2012}}</ref> * From 4th millennium BC, [[Invention|inventing]] has become prevalent ** c. 4000 BC: early Naqadan trade<ref>Shaw (2000), p. 61</ref> ** 4th millennium BC: [[Gerzean]] tomb-building, including underground rooms and burial of furniture and amulets ** 4th millennium BC: [[Cedrus libani|Cedar]] imported from [[Lebanon]]{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} ** c. 3900 BC: An [[5.9 kiloyear event|aridification event]] in the Sahara leads to human migration to the Nile Valley<ref name="Brooks2006">{{cite journal | last = Brooks | first = Nick | year = 2006 | title = Cultural responses to aridity in the Middle Holocene and increased social complexity | journal = Quaternary International | volume = 151 | issue = 1 | pages = 29–49 | doi = 10.1016/j.quaint.2006.01.013 |bibcode = 2006QuInt.151...29B }}</ref> ** c. 3500 BC: [[Lapis lazuli]] imported from [[Badakshan]] and / or [[Mesopotamia]] ** c. 3500 BC: [[Senet]], world's oldest (confirmed) [[board game]] ** c. 3500 BC: [[Egyptian faience|Faience]], world's earliest-known glazed ceramic beads{{Citation needed|date=October 2012}} ** c. 3400 BC: [[Cosmetics]],{{Citation needed|date=October 2012}} donkey domestication,{{Citation needed|date=October 2012}} (meteoric) iron works,<ref>"Iron beads were worn in Egypt as early as 4000 B.C., but these were of meteoric iron, evidently shaped by the rubbing process used in shaping implements of stone", quoted under the heading "Columbia Encyclopedia: Iron Age" at ''[http://www.answers.com/topic/iron-age Iron Age, Answers.com].'' Also, see [[History of ferrous metallurgy#Meteoric iron]]—"Around 4000 BC small items, such as the tips of spears and ornaments, were being fashioned from iron recovered from meteorites" – attributed to R. F. Tylecote, ''A History of Metallurgy'' (2nd edition, 1992), p. 3.</ref> [[mortar (masonry)]] ** c. 3300 BC: [[Double reed]] instruments and [[lyre]]s (see [[Music of Egypt]]) ** c. 3100 BC: Pharaoh [[Narmer]], or [[Menes]], or possibly [[Hor-Aha]] unified Upper and Lower Egypt
==Relative chronology== {{Near East Neolithic}}
==See also== * [[5.9 kiloyear event]] * [[Prehistoric Arabia]] * [[Prehistoric North Africa]]
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20200614023242/https://unseendestination.com/north-africa/egypt-travel-guide/ Information about Ancient Egyptian History]}}: from This Is Egypt | Information about Ancient Egyptian History * [http://www.mysteries-in-stone.co.uk/ Ancient Egyptian History] - A comprehensive and concise educational website focusing on the basic and the advanced in all aspects of Ancient Egypt * [https://isac.uchicago.edu/research/publications/oimp/oimp-33-pyramids-origins-egyptian-civilization Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization - Oriental Institute]
{{Ancient Egypt topics| state=expanded}} {{Prehistoric technology| state=expanded}} {{Egypt topics}} {{Asia topic |Prehistory of}}
[[Category:Prehistoric Egypt| ]] [[Category:Predynastic Egypt| ]] [[Category:Archaeological cultures of the Near East]] [[Category:Prehistoric Africa|Egypt]] [[Category:Archaeological cultures of West Asia]] [[Category:Prehistory by country|Egypt]]