Near East (4,365 – 2,638 BCE) Late Neolithic–Chalcolithic — Canal Gardens, Copper, and Maritime Aegean

Geographic and Environmental Context

• Anchors: the Nile Valley and Delta; Sinai–Negev–Arabah; the southern Levant (with Tyre as the sole Levantine node in this subregion); Hejaz–Asir–Tihāma on the Red Sea; Yemen’s western uplands/coast; southwestern Cyprus; western Anatolian littoral (Smyrna–Ephesus–Miletus–Halicarnassus–Xanthos; Troad).

Climate & Environment

• Flood variability increased; Delta marshes fluctuated; Aegean coasts stable; Arabian west slope drier, highlands stable.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Canal/levee fields in Nile Delta/Valley matured; orchard–garden mosaics; caprine herding in Sinai–Negev; mixed farming in Ionia–Lydia–Caria.

• Yemen western terraces in embryo; Hejaz oases (Ta’if-like) incipient.

Technology

• Copper metallurgy in Anatolia; advanced pottery; reed boats; early sails; improved qanat/terrace conceptions in Arabia highlands (proto-forms).

Corridors

• Nile–Delta–Mediterranean shipping; Anatolian maritime loops; overland Sinai/Negev into the southern Levant.

Symbolism

• Temple precincts (Egyptian cores outside our exact geography but influence strong); Aegean cape sanctuaries; ancestor cults.

Adaptation

• Canal/qanat + terraces hedged droughts; coastal fisheries stabilized diets.

A cuneiform script is in use in Sumer by 3200 BCE, by which time writing has spread from Mesopotamia to the Egyptians in the west and to the Elamites of southwestern Iran.

Village life has followed the domestication of plants and animals at Jericho and other sites in the Fertile Crescent, with the site of Byblos apparently taking the lead.

The growing city is evidently a wealthy one, and seems to have been an ally of "those who are on his waters" of Egypt for the next several centuries.

First Dynasty tombs use timbers from Byblos.

One of the oldest Egyptian words for an ocean going boat as "Byblos ship.”

The characteristic material culture of the Egyptian south has gradually spread in Naqada III times to replaces the once different one of northern Egypt.

Undecorated stone vases from Egypt's Gerzean period supersede vessels of the Amratian culture.

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 maceheads that appear in the late Gerzean and early Semainean are crafted in the Mesopotamian "pear-shaped" style, instead of the Egyptian native style.

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 by water.

A Mediterranean route, probably used by intermediaries through Byblos, is evidenced by the presence of Byblian objects in Egypt.

The fact that so many Gerzean sites are at the mouths of wadis that lead to the Red Sea is indicative of some amount of trade via the Red Sea (though Byblian trade could potentially cross the Sinai and resume sea travel as well).

Settlement in the region of Gaza dates back to 3300 BCE–3000 BCE at Tell as-Sakan, a site located south of the present-day city, which began as an Egyptian fortress built in Canaanite territory.

Tell as-Sakan prospers as Canaanite cities begin to trade agricultural goods with the Egyptians.

When Egypt's economic interests shift to the cedar trade with Lebanon, however, Gaza's role is reduced to that of a port for ships carrying goods and it declines economically.

The site is virtually abandoned and will remain so throughout the Early Bronze Age II.

Egypt’s Protodynastic Period, sometimes known as Dynasty 0 or the Late Predynastic Period and generally dated 3200 BCE to 3000 BCE, refers to the period of time at the very end of the Predynastic Period and is equivalent to the archaeological phase known as Naqada III, the last phase of the Naqadan period.

Egypt is undergoing the process of political unification that will lead to a unified state during the Early Dynastic Period.

The process of state formation, which had begun to take place in Naqada II, becomes highly visible, with kings heading powerful polities, their names inscribed in the form of serekhs on a variety of surfaces including pottery and tombs. (Although Naqada III is often referred to as Dynasty 0 to reflect the presence of kings at the head of influential states, the kings involved would not have been a part of a dynasty and more probably have been completely unrelated and very possibly in competition with each other.)

Moreover, it is during this time that the Egyptian language is first recorded in hieroglyphs.

There is also strong archaeological evidence of Egyptian settlements in southern Israel during the Protodynastic Period, which have been regarded as colonies or trading entrepôts.

During his reign in Upper Egypt, King Narmer defeats his enemies on the Delta and merges both the Kingdom of Upper and Lower Egypt under his single rule.

Narmer is shown on palettes a wearing the double crown, composed of the lotus flower and the papyrus reed—a sign of the unified rule of both parts of Egypt that will be followed by all succeeding rulers.

According to Manetho, the first king of the unified Upper and Lower Egypt was Menes.

However, the name "Menes" and the name "Narmer" may refer to the same person.

The earliest recorded king of the First Dynasty was Hor-Aha, and the first king to claim to have united the two lands was Narmer (the final king of the Protodynastic Period).

His name is known because it is written on a votive palette used for grinding minerals for kohl, used by ancient Egyptians to outline the eyes.

The representational conventions of the Narmer Palette, also known as the Great Hierakonpolis Palette or the Palette of Narmer, executed in the pharaonic style of Egyptian sculpture, emphasize authority.

The carved slate tablet, from Hierakonpolis, shows the king surveying slaughtered prisoners, striking a northern enemy, and wearing the crowns of both kingdoms.

Egyptian votive objects, tomb paintings, and palettes depict battles, ships, animals, and vase bearers.

The Egyptian language begins to be written in words instead of pictures, when a Egyptian scribes invent or adopt a writing system, based on hieroglyphics, around 3100 BCE.

Hieroglyphic script develops from the preliterate artistic traditions of Egypt, possibly influenced by trading contacts with Sumer, although the syllabic signs do not indicate differences in vowel sounds, as does the Sumerian script.

A hieroglyph can represent either a sound, an idea, or an identifying mark attached to another sign.

The earliest recognizable Egyptian hieroglyphics occur sparsely, as personal and place names, in narrative reliefs dating from this period.

The earliest known hieroglyphic inscription was for many years the Narmer Palette, found during excavations at Hierakonpolis (modern Kawm al-Ahmar) in the 1890s, which has been dated to about 3200 BCE.

A German archaeological team under Günter Dreyer excavating at Abydos (modern Umm el-Qa'ab) in 1998 will uncover tomb U-j of a Predynastic ruler, and recover three hundred clay labels inscribed with proto-hieroglyphs, dating to the early Naqada IIIA period.

Egyptian scribes, when using brush and ink, have adopted a cursive writing system known as hieratic.

First used during the Protodynastic Period, developing alongside the more formal hieroglyphic script, hieratic will continue to develop until it bears little resemblance to the hieroglyphic script.

Hieratic is not a derivative of hieroglyphic writing; true monumental hieroglyphs carved in stone do not appear until the First Dynasty, well after hieratic had been established as a scribal practice.

The two writing systems, therefore, are related, parallel developments, rather than a single linear one.

Various small city-states have arisen along the Nile.

Centuries of conquest have reduced Upper Egypt to three major states: Thinis, Naqada, and Nekhen.

Not much is known of Lower Egypt's political makeup but they may have shared in Naqada's Set cult while Thinis and Nekhen are part of the Horus cult.

Being sandwiched by Thinis and Nekhen, Naqada is the first to fall.

Thinis then conquers Lower Egypt.

Nekhen's relationship with Thinis is uncertain but these two states may have merged peacefully with the Thinite royal family ruling all of Egypt.

Thinis is attributed in Manetho's chronological list to being the home of the First and Second Dynastic kings, though no proof of this has been found.

The location of the ancient city of Thinis is unknown, but there is the possibility it was located near or under the modern town of Girga.

The Thinite kings are buried at Abydos in the Umm el-Qa'ab cemetery.

King Serket, translated as King Scorpion or sometimes The Scorpion King, refers to one or two kings of Upper Egypt during the Protodynastic Period.

His name may refer to the goddess Serket.

Believed to have lived just before or during the rule of Narmer at Thinis, the only pictorial evidence of his existence is a macehead found in the main deposit in a temple at Nekhen.

He may have been a local king of Nekhen who had nothing to do with the ruling house of Thinis or a rival from within that family; another theory makes him identical to Narmer as an alternate name.

It seems certain that Egypt became unified as a cultural and economic domain long before its first king ascended to the throne in the lower Egyptian city of Memphis where the dynastic period did originate.

Political unification has proceeded gradually, perhaps over a period of a century or so as local districts establish trading networks and the ability of their governments to organize agriculture labor on a larger scale increases.

Divine kingship may also have gained spiritual momentum as the cults of gods like Horus, Set, and Neith associated with living representatives become widespread in the country.

Some scholars suggest that Egypt most likely became unified through mutual need, developing cultural ties and trading partnerships, although the status of Memphis as the first capital of united Egypt is undisputed.

Narmer, thought to be the successor to the predynastic Serket, is considered by Most Egyptologists as the last king of the Protodynastic period as well as the so-called "Scorpion King(s)".

Some consider Narmer to be the founder of the First dynasty, and therefore the first pharaoh of all Egypt.

There is a growing consensus that Serket and Narmer are identical, but no identification with any early pharaoh can yet be definitively proven.

The hieroglyphic sign for a catfish (n'r) and that of a chisel (mr) represent Narmer's name phonetically.

Modern variants of his name include "Narmeru" or "Merunar,” but convention uses "Narmer.” Both sides of the large (around sixty-four centimeters/twenty-four inches tall), shield-shaped, ceremonial Narmer Palette, also known as the Great Hierakonpolis Palette or the Palette of Narmer, are decorated, carved in raised relief from a single piece of flat, soft green siltstone.

The famous palette, discovered in 1898 in Hierakonpolis, shows Narmer displaying the insignia of both Upper and Lower Egypt, giving rise to the theory that he unified the two kingdoms.

Menes is traditionally credited with this unification, and he is listed as being the first pharaoh in Manetho's list of kings, so this find has caused some controversy.

Some Egyptologists hold that Menes and Narmer are the same person; some hold that Menes is the same person as Hor-Aha and that he had inherited an already-unified Egypt from Narmer; others hold that Narmer began the process of unification but either did not succeed or succeeded only partially, leaving it to Menes to complete.

Arguments have been made that Narmer is Menes because of his appearance on several ostraca in conjunction with the gameboard hieroglyph, Mn, which appears to be a contemporary record to the otherwise mythical king.

There are, however, inconsistencies within every ostracon that mentions Menes, precluding any definitive proof to his identity.

Menes, an Egyptian pharaoh of the First dynasty, is to some authors the founder of this dynasty, to others he is the founder of the Second.

Memphis, the ancient capital of Aneb-Hetch, the first nome of Lower Egypt, becomes the first capital of the new Egyptian state, unified through warfare.

Menes, the first pharaoh to unite Egypt's Two Lands, establishes his capital on the banks of the Nile by diverting the river with dikes, according to a legend recorded by the Egyptian priest Manetho, writing in the third century BCE.

Meni, the Egyptian form of the pharoah's name, is taken from the Turin and Abydos king lists (dated Dynasty XIX).

The name Menes means "He who endures".

Rather than a particular person, the name may conceal collectively the protodynastic pharaohs Ka, Scorpion and Narmer.

The archaeological record for the Early Dynastic Period refers to the pharaohs by their Horus-names, while the historical record, as evidenced in the Turin and Abydos king lists, uses an alternative royal titulary, the nebty-name.

The different titular elements of a pharaoh's name are often used in isolation, for brevity's sake, although the choice varied according to circumstance and period.

Mainstream Egyptological consensus follows the findings of Flinders Petrie in reconciling the two records and connects Hor-Aha (archaeological) with the nebty-name Ity (historical).

The same process has led to the identification of the historical Menes (a nebty-name) with the Narmer (a Horus-name) evidenced in the archaeological record (both figures are credited with the unification of Egypt and as the first pharaoh of Dynasty I) as the predecessor of Hor-Aha (the second pharaoh).

The commonly used name Hor-Aha is a rendering of the pharaoh's Horus-name, an element of the royal titulary associated with the god Horus, and is more fully given as Horus-Aha.

There has been some controversy about Hor-Aha.

Some believe him to be the same individual as the legendary Menes and that he was the one to unify all of Egypt.

Others claim he was the son of Narmer, the pharaoh who unified Egypt.

Narmer and Menes may have been one pharaoh, referred to with more than one name.

Regardless, considerable historical evidence from the period points to Narmer as the pharaoh who first unified Egypt (see Narmer Palette) and to Hor-Aha as his son and heir.

Legend has it that Hor-Aha was carried away by a hippopotamus, the embodiment of the deity Seth.

Provided that Hor-Aha was the legendary Menes, another story has it that Hor-Aha was killed by a hippopotamus while hunting.

Hor-Aha's chief wife was Benerib, whose name was "written alongside his on a number of [historical] pieces, in particular, from tomb B14 at Abydos, Egypt".

Tomb B14 is located directly adjacent to Hor-Aha's sepulcher.

Hor-Aha also had another wife, Khenthap, with whom he became father of Djer.

She is mentioned as Djer's mother on the Cairo Annals Stone.

If Menes or Narmer and Hor-Aha were separate rulers, this would make Djer the third pharaoh in the dynasty.

The Abydos King List lists the second pharaoh as Teti, the Turin Canon lists Iteti, while Manetho lists Athothis.

Djer's Horus name means "Horus who succors".

Manetho indicates that the First Dynasty ruled from Memphis—and indeed Herneith, one of Djer’s wives, was buried nearby at Saqqara.

Manetho also claimed that Athothis, who is sometimes identified as Djer, had written a treatise on anatomy that still existed in his own day, nearly three millennia later.