page_title: History of ancient Egypt
section_title: Prehistoric Egypt
hierarchical_section_title: History of ancient Egypt / Neolithic Egypt / Prehistoric Egypt
caption_attribution_description: Similar head.English: Mesopotamian king as Master of the Animals on the Gebel el-Arak Knife dated circa 3300-3200 BCE, Abydos, Egypt. Louvre Museum reference E 11517
context_page_description: The history of ancient Egypt spans the period from the early prehistoric settlements of the northern Nile valley to the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC. The pharaonic period, the period in which Egypt was ruled by a pharaoh, is dated from the 32nd century BC, when Upper and Lower Egypt were unified, until the country fell under Macedonian rule in 332 BC.
context_section_description: The Nile valley of Egypt was basically uninhabitable until the work of clearing and irrigating the land along the banks was started.  However, it appears that this clearance and irrigation was largely under way by the 6th millennium. By that time, Nile society was already engaged in organized agriculture and the construction of large buildings.
  At this time, Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle and also constructing large buildings. Mortar was in use by the 4th millennium. The people of the valley and the Nile Delta were self-sufficient and were raising barley and emmer, an early variety of wheat, and stored it in pits lined with reed mats.  They raised cattle, goats and pigs and they wove linen and baskets. Prehistory continues through this time, variously held to begin with the Amratian culture.
  Between 5500 BC and the 31st century BC, small settlements flourished along the Nile, whose delta empties into the Mediterranean Sea.
  The Tasian culture was the next to appear; it existed in Upper Egypt starting about 4500 BC. This group is named for the burials found at Deir Tasa, a site on the east bank of the Nile between Asyut and Akhmim. The Tasian culture is notable for producing the earliest blacktop-ware, a type of red and brown pottery painted black on its top and interior.
  The Badari culture, named for the Badari site near Deir Tasa, followed the Tasian; however, similarities cause many to avoid differentiating between them at all. The Badari culture continued to produce the kind of pottery called blacktop-ware (although its quality was much improved over previous specimens), and was assigned the sequence dating numbers between 21 and 29. The significant difference, however, between the Tasian and Badari, which prevents scholars from completely merging the two, is that Badari sites are Chalcolithic while the Tasian sites remained Neolithic and are thus considered technically part of the Stone Age.
  The Amratian culture is named after the site of el-Amreh, about 120 kilometres (75 mi) south of Badari. El-Amreh was the first site where this culture was found unmingled with the later Gerzeh culture. However, this period is better attested at Nagada, and so is also referred to as the "Naqada I" culture. Black-topped ware continued to be produced, but white cross-line ware, a type of pottery decorated with close parallel white lines crossed by another set of close parallel white lines, began to be produced during this time. The Amratian period falls between S.D. 30 and 39. Newly excavated objects indicate that trade between Upper and Lower Egypt existed at this time. A stone vase from the north was found at el-Amreh, and copper, which is not present in Egypt, was apparently imported from the Sinai Peninsula or perhaps Nubia. Obsidian and an extremely small amount of gold were both definitively imported from Nubia during this time. Trade with the oases was also likely.
caption: Mesopotamian king as Master of Animals on the Gebel el-Arak Knife, dated to the Naqada II period circa 3300-3200 BC, Abydos, Egypt. Louvre Museum, reference E 11517. This work of art both shows the influence of Mesopotamia on Egypt at an early date, and the state of Mesopotamian royal iconography during the Uruk period.[8][9]
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