History of Egypt

INTRODUCTION

Egyptians history may have started in the Paleolithic era even thoughthat part of its history must consist en­tirely of hypotheses andsuppositions. At that period the valley of the Nile was very different from whatit is today. The river must have covered almost the whole region and this fact,together with a climate which was undoubtedly much more humid, would haveresulted in unlimited expanses of marshland stretching right up to the Delta.The climate started to change at the end of the Paleolithic period and thiscaused the Nile to change its course to that which it follows today.

The slowbut progressive change of the neighboring areas into desert led to human lifebeing concentrated along the fertile banks of the river. In the Neolithic periodwhose beginning can be taken to be about 10,000 B.C., there were already twodistinct ethnic groups originat­ing from two very different regions. A groupof Afri­can race from central Africa and a second group of Mediterraneanrace which had its origins in the heart of Asia. To these two must be added athird group, be­lieved to come from the legendary Atlantis, which must havearrived in the Nile valley via Libya. Two centers of civilization developed, onein the north of the country concentrated in the Delta where it created the firsturban centre Merimda, the other in the south around Tasa.

Thus the Egyptian population was divided into two even at this remoteperiod and not withstanding the subsequent unification of the country this hasleft its mark in the division into « hesep » or provinces which the Greekscalled « nomi », Upper Egypt having 22 and Lower Egypt 20. This was the dawn ofEgyptian civilization, the period which the Egyptians themselves called the «time of God » when Osiris sat on the throne of Egypt. This terrestrial reign isdescribed in documents known as The Pyramid Texts. Osiris, ac­cordingto legend, united the two parts of the popula­tion but the unity did notlast long. It is only from about 3200 B.C. that one can start to talk aboutEgyp­tian history in any serioussense