9/23/25
Wealth in Things (Egypt)
Who dies with the most wins.
Wealth in People (Sudan)
Accumulating people who are beholden to you (gift-exchange)
Large Political organization 3 tiers
Leadership at household
Leadership at village (400)
Regional governors (10-20k)
Paramount Chief!
What were the Egyptians trading?
Wood, spices, leather from Ethiopia (Egypt sent to mediterranean-
intermediary positions)
Ideas!
Most life near nile and delta, but resources taken from interior.
Path designed to take materials from Ethiopia to mediterranean
Cataracts: dry sholes that are difficult to navigate with a barge
Egypt took advantage of moving through cataracts for trade advantage
Transition between sedentary and urban lifestyles
6000 bc neolithic culture- agricultural revolution established in Nile
valley
Early archaeological “culture”, often referred to as badarian (some
consider the precursor of dynastic Egypt.
Merimda: earliest known lower Egyptian sites, predates Badarian by
about seven hundred years.
Merimda
Located on western Delta Margin
Settled c. 6000-4800 ad
Mixed fishing and hunting economy
, Shifting from scared settlements to subterranean houses c. 4300 bc
Granaries integrated into villages by c. 4300 bc
Tell sites: human-made hill caused by rebuilding seasonally flooded houses
year after year.
Goes from rebuilding every year, to building when patriarch dies.
Burials take place in house, layers of dna
Protodynastic Period
Ca. 3200-3000 BC
Period of political unification, leading to the early dynastic period
Naquada pottery records hieroglyphics from this period
Political Organization: small city states; Thinis, Naqada, Nekhan
Early Pottery and Stone Vessels
Given as gifts for exchange
Early forms of hieroglyphics explain who the gifts may be from
Scorpion King on the macehead Vessel
Narmer Palettes for eye makeup
Old Kingdom
Unified kingdom founded ca. 3050 under King Menes
Tawy: “two lands, Kemet: “black land”
Ca. 3000-2200 bc
Menes unified upper and lower Egypt ca 3000 bc
Pyramids of gaza constructed ca. 2600-2500 bc
Extreme consolidation of political authority
Pyramids first created to reference the Sudanese mountain.
Mummification also mimics Sudanese mountain burials.
Pyramid at Khufu: marvel of building
Old kingdom: only a few are embalmed, sent to afterlife
As time goes on, more formal burials occur.
So much material used for burial, could have caused collapsed
Wealth in Things (Egypt)
Who dies with the most wins.
Wealth in People (Sudan)
Accumulating people who are beholden to you (gift-exchange)
Large Political organization 3 tiers
Leadership at household
Leadership at village (400)
Regional governors (10-20k)
Paramount Chief!
What were the Egyptians trading?
Wood, spices, leather from Ethiopia (Egypt sent to mediterranean-
intermediary positions)
Ideas!
Most life near nile and delta, but resources taken from interior.
Path designed to take materials from Ethiopia to mediterranean
Cataracts: dry sholes that are difficult to navigate with a barge
Egypt took advantage of moving through cataracts for trade advantage
Transition between sedentary and urban lifestyles
6000 bc neolithic culture- agricultural revolution established in Nile
valley
Early archaeological “culture”, often referred to as badarian (some
consider the precursor of dynastic Egypt.
Merimda: earliest known lower Egyptian sites, predates Badarian by
about seven hundred years.
Merimda
Located on western Delta Margin
Settled c. 6000-4800 ad
Mixed fishing and hunting economy
, Shifting from scared settlements to subterranean houses c. 4300 bc
Granaries integrated into villages by c. 4300 bc
Tell sites: human-made hill caused by rebuilding seasonally flooded houses
year after year.
Goes from rebuilding every year, to building when patriarch dies.
Burials take place in house, layers of dna
Protodynastic Period
Ca. 3200-3000 BC
Period of political unification, leading to the early dynastic period
Naquada pottery records hieroglyphics from this period
Political Organization: small city states; Thinis, Naqada, Nekhan
Early Pottery and Stone Vessels
Given as gifts for exchange
Early forms of hieroglyphics explain who the gifts may be from
Scorpion King on the macehead Vessel
Narmer Palettes for eye makeup
Old Kingdom
Unified kingdom founded ca. 3050 under King Menes
Tawy: “two lands, Kemet: “black land”
Ca. 3000-2200 bc
Menes unified upper and lower Egypt ca 3000 bc
Pyramids of gaza constructed ca. 2600-2500 bc
Extreme consolidation of political authority
Pyramids first created to reference the Sudanese mountain.
Mummification also mimics Sudanese mountain burials.
Pyramid at Khufu: marvel of building
Old kingdom: only a few are embalmed, sent to afterlife
As time goes on, more formal burials occur.
So much material used for burial, could have caused collapsed
