The Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods

Question 1

Predynastic Egypt

Answer 1

• peoples of predynastic Egypt were the successors of the Paleolithic inhabitants of northeastern Africa
• sometime after 5000 bce the raising of crops was introduced
• the basic symbol for the king, a falcon on a decorated palace facade, hardly varies, these objects are thought to have belonged to a single line of kings or a single state, not to a set of small states
• this symbol became the royal Horus name, the first element in a king’s titulary, which presented the reigning king as the manifestation of an aspect of the god Horus, the leading god of the country

Question 2

The 1st dynasty (c. 2925–c. 2775 bce)

Answer 2

• beginning of the historical period is characterized by the introduction of written records
• first king of Egyptian history, Menes
• in the late Predynastic period and the first half of the 1st dynasty, Egypt extended its influence into southern Palestine and probably Sinai and conducted a campaign as far as the Second Cataract
• between late predynastic times and the 4th dynasty—and probably early in the period—the Nubian A Group came to an end
• writing medium of papyrus was invented by the middle of the 1st dynasty
• during the 1st dynasty three titles were added to the royal Horus name: “Two Ladies,” an epithet presenting the king as making manifest an aspect of the protective goddesses of the south (Upper Egypt) and the north (Lower Egypt); “Golden Horus,” the precise meaning of which is unknown; and “Dual King,” a ranked pairing of the two basic words for king, later associated with Upper and Lower Egypt. These titles were followed by the king’s own birth name, which in later centuries was written in a cartouche.

Question 3

The 2nd dynasty (c. 2775–c. 2650 bce)

Answer 3

• From the end of the 1st dynasty, there is evidence of rival claimants to the throne. One line may have become the 2nd dynasty, whose first king’s Horus name, Hetepsekhemwy
• the second half of the dynasty was a time of conflict and rival lines of kings, some of whose names are preserved on stone vases from the 3rd-dynasty Step Pyramid at Ṣaqqārah or in king lists

Question 4

The 3rd dynasty (c. 2650–c. 2575 bce)

Answer 4

• links of kinship between Khasekhemwy and the 3rd dynasty, but the change between them is marked by a definitive shift of the royal burial place to Memphis
• organizational achievements of the 3rd dynasty are reflected in its principal monument, whose message of centralization and concentration of power is reinforced in a negative sense by the archaeological record