File:Ancient Egypt ((198-)) (18008599599).jpg

Title: Ancient Egypt
Identifier: ancientegypt00fiel (find matches)
Year: (198-) ((190s)
Authors: Field Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Egyptology
Publisher: Chicago : Field Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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12. Predynastic burial scene, reconstructed. This naturally dessicated "mummy" was purchased in Egypt by Edward E. Ayer and is here grouped with objects bought by Ayer and pottery escavated at Naqada by W.M.F. Petrie. The objects date to the beginning of the Naqada II period (ca. 3700 B.C.) and represent what a moderately wealthy grave group would contain.
growing importance of metal tools eclipsed the chipped-stone industry, but flint tools continued to be made throughout much of dynastic Egypt. Cereals, used in bread and beer, were the mainstay of the Egyptian diet and supplemented uath fruits and vegetables, both cultivated and wild. Cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats were domes- ticated, and fish and game were hunted in the marshes and in the desert. Analysis of the contents of the stomach of a predynastic Egyptian body has disclosed a last meal which included cereals, a rodent, and insects. Besides farming, some predynastic towns engaged in trade and others became ceremonial centers. Larger settlements such as Abvdos, Naqada, and Hierakonpolis must have exercised considerable influence, and indeed remained important rehgious centers throughout much of later Egv'ptian histon'. CommunitN' leaders and elites were buried in increasingly larger and more richly furnished tombs, indicating growing social stratification. As- sociated with some of these individuals were sym- bols later connected with the kingship in pharaonic Egv'pt, as for example the falcon, the red crown of lower Eg\pt, found at Naqada; and the white crown of Upper Eg\'pt, found at Hierakonpolis. Eventually these groups were unified into a single state, probably b\' the pharaoh Narmer, who chose the area around modern Cairo for his new capital, Memphis. The founding of Memphis marks the end of the predynastic period, the beginning of written history in Egj-pt, and the creation of the dynastic state.
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