Pictures of the Periods of History in Ancient Egypt

By N.S. Gill, About.com Guide

Predynastic Egypt refers to the period before the pharaohs, before the unification of Egypt. Proto-Dynastic refers to the period of Egyptian history with pharaohs, but before the Old Kingdom period. At the end of the fourth millennium B.C., Upper and Lower Egypt were unified. Some evidence for this event comes from the Narmer Palette, named for the first known Egyptian king. The 64 cm high slate Narmer Palette was found at Hierakonpolis. The hieroglyphic symbol on the palette for Egyptian king Narmer is a catfish.

The culture of southern Egypt of the Predynastic period is described as Nagada; that of northern Egypt as Maadi. The earliest evidence of agriculture, which replaced the earlier hunting-gathering society in Egypt, comes from the north, at Fayum.

• Predynastic Egypt
• Narmer Palette

See:

• "The Egyptian Predynastic: A Review of the Evidence," by Kathryn A. Bard Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Autumn, 1994), pp. 265-288.
• "The Final Phase of Predynastic Culture Gerzean or Semainean(?)," by Helene J. Kantor. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Apr., 1944), pp. 110-136.
• "New Light on King Narmer and the Protodynastic Egyptian Presence in Canaan," by Thomas E. Levy, Edwin C. M. van den Brink, Yuval Goren and David Alon. The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Mar., 1995), pp. 26-35.