Egyptians

A revolution had occurred in food production sometime during the final Paleolithic period and the Neolithic era.

Meat has ceased to be the chief article of diet and has been replaced by plants such as wheat and barley grown extensively as crops and not gathered at random in the wild.

The relatively egalitarian tribal structure of the Nile Valley breaks down because of the need to manage and control the new agricultural economy and the surplus it generates.

Groups of people still using stone tools but with knowledge of agriculture reach the Aegean from Anatolia or farther east and settle in parts of the mainland and in Crete.

Because of a lack of written records, estimates of Cretan chronology are based on well-established Aegean and Ancient Near Eastern pottery styles, so that Cretan timelines have been made by seeking Cretan artifacts traded with other civilizations (such as the Egyptians)—a well established occurrence.

For the earlier times, radiocarbon dating of organic remains and charcoal offers independent dates.

Based on this, it is thought that Crete was inhabited from the seventh millennium BCE onward.

The first human settlement in Crete dates to the aceramic Neolithic.

There have been some claims for Paleolithic remains, none of them very convincing.

The native fauna of Crete included pygmy hippo, pygmy elephant, dwarf deer (Praemegaceros cretensis), giant rodents and insectivores as well as badger, beech marten and a kind of terrestrial otter.

Large carnivores were lacking.

Most of these animals died out at the end of the last ice age.

Humans played a part in this extinction, which occurred on other medium to large Mediterranean islands as well, for example on Cyprus, Sicily and Majorca.

A group of the first people to land in Crete at the end of the seventh millennium BCE settles a hill west of the Kairatos stream; the settlement’s remains will be found under the Bronze Age palace at Knossos (layer X).

The first settlers introduce cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and dogs, as well as domesticated cereals and legumes.

Up to now, Knossos remains the only aceramic site.

The settlement covers approximately three hundred and fifty thousand square meters.

The sparse animal bones contain the above-mentioned domestic species as well as deer, badger, marten and mouse: the extinction of the local megafauna had not left much game behind.

Egyptians, according to ancient histories and other writings, use copper along with gold, silver, and lead as by 5000 BCE, when there are signs of copper smelting: the refining of copper from simple copper compounds such as malachite or azurite.

Africa has entered a dry phase by 5000 BCE, and the climate of the Sahara region has gradually become drier.

The population has trekked out of the Sahara region in all directions, including towards the Nile Valley below the Second Cataract, where they make permanent or semi-permanent settlements, thereby laying the groundwork for the rise of Egyptian civilization.

A major climatic recession occurs, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in central and eastern Africa.

Dry conditions will prevail in eastern Africa from this time forward.

Irrigation is practiced in Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, and Ancient Persia (modern day Iran) as far back as the sixth millennium BCE, where barley is grown in areas where the natural rainfall is insufficient to support such a crop.

Egyptians may practice irrigation as early as 5000 along the banks of the Nile, by digging channels to extend the area covered by the flood, and by erecting dikes to trap water on the land after the river had subsided.

The Egyptians also begin to use balances, and hunt animals by coursing—the pursuit of game with animals that track by sight rather than smell.

People first begin to settle along the banks of the Nile (Nahr an Nil) and to evolve from hunters and gatherers to settled, subsistence agriculturalists, developing the written language, religion, and institutions that make Egypt the world's first organized society.

Through pharaonic Egypt, Africa claims to be the cradle of one of the earliest and most spectacular civilizations of antiquity.

One of the unique features of ancient Egyptian civilization is the bond between the Nile and the Egyptian people and their institutions.

The Nile causes the great productivity of the soil, for it annually brings a copious deposit of rich silt from the monsoon-swept tableland of Ethiopia.

Each July, the level of the Nile begins to rise, and by the end of August, the flood reaches its full height.

At the end of October, the flood begins to recede, leaving behind a fairly uniform deposit of silt as well as lagoons and streams that become natural reservoirs for fish.

By April, the Nile is at its lowest level.

Vegetation starts to diminish, seasonal pools dry out, and game begins to move south.

In July, the Nile rises again, and the cycle is repeated.

Because of the fall and rise of the river, one can understand why the Egyptians were the first people to believe in life after death.

The rise and fall of the flood waters mean that the "death" of the land will be followed each year by the "rebirth" of the crops.

Thus, rebirth is seen as a natural sequence to death.

Like the sun, which "dies" when it sinks on the western horizon and is "reborn" in the eastern sky on the following morning, humans will also rise and live again.

Human settlement is confined to the Nile valley and its fringes and the western lands become arid deserts as rainfall decreases in Egypt, especially after 4000 BCE.

Two cultures exist in southern Egypt by around 4000 BCE: the Tasian, influenced by the north, and the Badarian, which originated in the eastern desert.

The former, identified by phases labeled Naqada I (Amratian) and II (Gerzean), has evolved into a material culture very different from that of the north.

In the south, among other differences, pottery is more varied in fabric, often has a black top, and favors painted decoration (white on red and red on light-colored desert clays).

There is archaeological evidence of date cultivation in eastern Arabia in 6000 BCE.

The date palm is believed to have originated around the Persian Gulf, and have been cultivated since ancient times from Mesopotamia to prehistoric Egypt, possibly as early as 4000 BCE.

The Egyptians use the fruits to be made into date wine, and eat them at harvest.

Copper is first worked in Egypt (and Mesopotamia) around 4000; Copper pins dating to 4000 BCE have been found in Egypt.

The ancestors of the modern donkey are the Nubian and Somalian subspecies of African wild ass, which is domesticated around 4000 BCE.

The donkey becomes an important pack animal for people living in the Egyptian and Nubian regions as they can easily carry twenty to thirty percent of their own body weight and can also be used as a farming and dairy animal.

Decorated ivory and bone combs appear around 3500 BCE.

Proto-writing enters a transitional stage, developing towards writing proper.