HISTORY 26

Lecture Three:

Predynastic Egypt

Geography and Environment

“…and the land is a gift of the river.”-Herodotus, Histories 2.5

The Nile Valley

Upper and Lower Egypt

ta mehu

ta shemau

The Sources of the Nile

The Egyptian Year

Akhet (Inundation)

Peret (Cultivation)

Shemu (Harvest)

The Oases of the Western Desert

Beyond the Nile Oases of the

Western Desert Sinai Peninsula Ports on the Red

Sea– Punt

Lower Nubia (Wawat)

Upper Nubia (Kush)

Neolithic Wet Phase

c. 10000 - 5000 BC

Badarian Culture (c. 5000 - 4000)

Black-topped pottery Female Figurine (c. 4000)

Naqada I (Amratian)c. 4000 - 3500

Palettes Macehead

Naqada I (Amratian)c. 4000 - 3500

The “Moscow Bowl”

Naqada II (Gerzean)c. 3500 - 3200

Naqada II Objects Naqada II Pottery

Lower Egypt

Farmers, Herders, and Hunter-Gatherers

Few signs of social stratification

The Maadian Culture– Contact with the Sinai and Palestine

A slow process of cultural assimilation to Naqada II (Gerzean)