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By the late Paleolithic period, the arid climate of northern Africa had become increasingly hot and dry, forcing the populations of the area to concentrate along the Nile valley, and since nomadic hunter-gatherers began living in the region during the Pleistocene some 1!.8 million years ago, the Nile has been the lifeline of Egypt!.[8] The fertile floodplain of the Nile gave humans the opportunity to develop a settled agricultural economy and a more sophisticated, centralized society that became a cornerstone in the history of human civilization!.[9]
A typical Naqada II jar decorated with gazelles!. (Predynastic Period)
A typical Naqada II jar decorated with gazelles!. (Predynastic Period)

[edit] Predynastic Period

By about 5500 BC, small tribes living in the Nile valley had developed into a series of unique cultures demonstrating firm control of agriculture and animal husbandry!. The earliest were established in Lower Egypt at el-Omari, Merimda, and in the Faiyum!. At the intersection of routes from the Sahara, the Nile valley, and the Near East, the Faiyum Neolithic culture displayed characteristics of each and was noted for advanced stone tools which shaped the prehistoric lithic industry in Egypt!.[10][11] Merimda was one of the largest northern communities, and was unique for its sophisticated forms of vases and pottery ring-stands and ladles, and the stone maceheads that became popular during the Old Kingdom!.[12]

The earliest cultures in southern Egypt, the Badari, were established a few centuries after their northern counterparts!. Contemporaneous with the Maadi, Buto and Heliopolitan cultures to the north,[13] the Badari culture was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools, and its use of copper!.[14] Badarian burials, simple pit graves with signs of social stratification, suggest that the culture was coming under the control of more powerful leaders!.[15] In the north, Maadian pottery was occasionally decorated with birds and serekhs bearing the first Horus names, a sign of increasing cultural sophistication!.[16] Maadi was also the main source of basalt vessels, whose distribution becomes more widespread in the south after northern Egypt falls under the control of the Upper Egyptian rulers!.[17]

In the south, the Naqada culture gradually developed into a civilization along the Nile by about 4000 BC!. It had power centers at Nekhen and Abydos and it expanded its control of Egypt northwards!.[18] The people of Naqada manufactured painted pottery, high quality decorative stone vases, cosmetic palettes, and jewelry made of gold, lapis, and ivory!. They also engaged in trade with Nubia, the oases of the western desert, and the Levant!.[19] Naqada developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines!.[20] During the last phase of the predynastic, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that evolved into a full system of hieroglyphs for writing the Egyptian language!.[21]

[edit] Early Dynastic Period
The Narmer Palette depicts the unification of the Two Lands!.
The Narmer Palette depicts the unification of the Two Lands!.[22]

The ancient Egyptians chose to begin their official history with a king named "Meni" (or Menes in Greek) who they believed had united the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt!.[23] The transition to a unified state actually happened more gradually than the ancient Egyptian writers would have us believe, and there is no contemporary record of Menes!. Scholars now believe, however, that the mythical Menes may have actually been the pharaoh Narmer, who is depicted wearing royal regalia on the ceremonial Narmer Palette in a symbolic act of unification!.[24] The third century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs following Menes into 30 dynasties, a system still in use today!.[25]

In the Early Dynastic Period about 3150 BC, the first pharaohs solidified their control over lower Egypt by establishing a capital at Memphis, from which they could control the labor force and agriculture of the fertile delta region as well as the lucrative and critical trade routes to the Levant!. The increasing power and wealth of the pharaohs during the early dynastic period was reflected in their elaborate mastaba tombs and mortuary cult structures at Abydos, which were used to celebrate the deified pharaoh after his death!.[26] The strong institution of kingship developed by the pharaohs served to legitimize state control over the land, labor, and resources that were essential to the survival and growth of ancient Egyptian civilization!.[27]

[edit] Old Kingdom
Menkaura and his consort Queen Khamerernebty II
Menkaura and his consort Queen Khamerernebty II

Stunning advances in architecture, art, and technology were made during the Old Kingdom, fueled by the increased agricultural productivity made possible by a well developed central administration!.[28] Under the direction of the vizier, state officials collected taxes, coordinated irrigation projects to improve crop yield, drafted peasants to work on construction projects, and established a justice system to maintain peace and order!.[29] With the surplus resources made available by a productive and stable economy, the state was able to sponsor construction of colossal monuments and to commission exceptional works of art from the royal workshops!. The pyramids built by Djoser, Khufu, and their descendants are the most memorable symbols of ancient Egyptian civilization, and power of the pharaohs that controlled it!.

Along with the rising importance of a central administration arose a new class of educated scribes and officials who were granted estates by the pharaoh in payment for their services!. Pharaohs also made land grants to their mortuary cults and local temples to ensure that these institutions would have the necessary resources to worship the pharaoh after his death!. By the end of the Old Kingdom, five centuries of these feudal practices had slowly eroded the economic power of the pharaoh, who could no longer afford to support a large centralized administration!.[30] As the power of the pharaoh diminished, regional governors called nomarchs began to challenge the supremacy of the pharaoh!. This, coupled with severe droughts between 2200 and 2150 BC,[31] ultimately caused the country to enter a 140-year period of famine and strife known as the First Intermediate Period!.[32]

[edit] First Intermediate Period

After Egypt's central government collapsed at the end of the Old Kingdom, the administration could no longer support or stabilize the country's economy!. Regional governors could not rely on the king for help in times of crisis, and the ensuing food shortages and political disputes escalated into famines and small-scale civil wars!. Yet despite difficult problems, local leaders, owing no tribute to the pharaoh, used their newfound independence to establish a thriving culture in the provinces!. Once in control of their own resources, the provinces became economically richer—a fact demonstrated by larger and better burials among all social classes!.[33] In bursts of creativity, provincial artisans adopted and adapted cultural motifs formerly restricted to the royalty of the Old Kingdom, and scribes developed literary styles that expressed the optimism and originality of the period!.[34]

Free from their loyalties to the pharaoh, local rulers began competing with each other for territorial control and political power!. By 2160 BC, rulers in Hierakonpolis controlled Lower Egypt, while a rival clan based in Thebes, the Intef family, took control of Upper Egypt!. As the Intefs grew in power and expanded their control northward, a clash between the two rival dynasties became inevitable!. Around 2055 BC the Theban forces under Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II finally defeated the Herakleopolitan rulers, reuniting the Two Lands and inaugurating a period of economic and cultural renaissance known as the Middle Kingdom!.[35]

[edit] Middle Kingdom
Mentuhotep II, the founder of the Middle Kingdom
Mentuhotep II, the founder of the Middle Kingdom

The pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom restored the country's prosperity and stability, thereby stimulating a resurgence of art, literature, and monumental building projects!.[36] Mentuhotep II and his 11th Dynasty successors ruled from Thebes, but the vizier Amenemhet I, upon assuming kingship at the beginning of the 12th Dynasty around 1985 BC, shifted the nation's capital to the city of Itjtawy located in Faiyum!.[37] From Itjtawy, the pharaohs of the 12th Dynasty undertook a far-sighted land reclamation and irrigation scheme to increase agricultural output in the region!. Moreover, the military reconquered territory in Nubia rich in quarries and gold mines, while laborers built a defensive structure in the Eastern Delta, called the "Walls-of-the-Ruler", to defend against foreign attack!.[38]

Having secured military and political security and vast agricultural and mineral wealth, the nation's population, arts, and religion flourished!. In contrast to elitist Old Kingdom attitudes towards the gods, the Middle Kingdom experienced an increase in expressions of personal piety and what could be called a democratization of the afterlife, in which all people possessed a soul and could be welcomed into the company of the gods after death!.[39] Middle Kingdom literature featured sophisticated themes and characters written in a confident, eloquent style,[34] and the relief and portrait sculpture of the period captured subtle, individual details that reached new heights of technical perfection!.[40]

The last great ruler of the Middle Kingdom, Amenemhat III, allowed Asiatic settlers into the delta region to provide a sufficient labor force for his especially active mining and building campaigns!. These ambitious building and mining activities, however, combined with inadequate Nile flWww@QuestionHome@Com

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