April 1, Day 74: Walk Like An Egyptian

Wow, it's been such a rush of activity! I just got back from an amazing weekend in the land of the Pyramids - it was wicked expensive, I almost got run over by a bus and on Friday I had a dash of heat poisoning but all in all what an experience!

But first, a little history:

The Prehistory of Egypt spans the period of earliest human settlement to the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt in ca. 3100 BC, starting with King Menes/Narmer.

The Predynastic Period is traditionally equivalent to the Neolithic period, beginning ca. 6000 BC and including the Protodynastic Period (Naqada III).

The dates of the Predynastic period were first defined before widespread archaeological excavation of Egypt took place, and recent finds indicating very gradual Predynastic development have led to controversy over when exactly the Predynastic period ended. Thus, the term "Protodynastic period," sometimes called "Dynasty 0," has been used by scholars 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 periods, 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 theNile River was more heavily deposited at the Delta region, completely burying most Delta sites long before modern times.^[1]

• Late Paleolithic, from 40th millennium BC
  • Aterian tool-making^[2]
  • Semi-permanent dwellings in Wadi Halfa^[2]
  • Tools made from animal bones, hematite, and other stones^[2]

• 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^[2]
  • 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 sacrificed cattle
  • c. 5000 BC: Archaeoastronomical stone megalith in Nabta Playa, world's earliest known astronomy^[51]
  • c. 5000 BC: Badarian; furniture, tableware, models of rectangular houses, pots, dishes, cups, bowls, vases, figurines, combs
  • c. 4400 BC: finely-woven linen fragment^[52]

• Inventing prevalent, from 4th millennium BC
  • By 3400 BC, the world's earliest-known:
    • Cosmetics
    • Donkey domestication
    • (Meteoric) iron works^[53]
    • Mortar (masonry)
  • c. 4000 BC:
    • early Naqadan trade^[54] (see Silk Road)
  • 4th millennium BC: Gerzean tomb-building, including underground rooms and burial of furniture and amulets
  • 4th millennium BC: Cedar imported from Lebanon^[55]
  • c. 3900 BC: An aridification event in the Sahara leads to human migration to the Nile Valley^[56]
  • c. 3500 BC: Lapis lazuli imported from Badakshan and / or Mesopotamia (see Silk Road)
  • c. 3300 BC: Double reed instruments and lyres (see Music of Egypt)
  • c. 3500 BC: Senet, world's oldest-(confirmed) board game
  • c. 3500 BC: Faience, world's earliest-known glazed ceramic beads
  • c. 3200 King Menes banded Upper and Lower Egypt together

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