A History of Ancient Egypt. Marc Van De Mieroop

with the term A‐Group. The emerging elites in late Predynastic Egypt desired luxury products, such as gold, ivory, and ebony, which they obtained from or through Lower Nubia in exchange for foods, including cheese, oil, and honey. The vessels used in the transport as well as some luxury objects, such as stone palettes and copper tools, ended up in the tombs of the Nubian elites. The tomb at Qustul with the royal incense burner seems to have been an extreme example of that trend. These trade relations gave way to hostilities, however, and the Egyptians began to portray the Nubians as enemies, stereotypically depicted as bound naked men overcome by Egyptian royal might. The disappearance of A‐Group material around the beginning of the 1st dynasty in Egypt is probably a result of this change in attitude.

       Late 4th‐millennium Palestine

To the north of Egypt, in Palestine people had developed an urban culture in the late 4th millennium. It is clear from objects in late Predynastic tombs – especially pottery – that the Egyptians imported wine, oil, and copper from that area. The trade does not seem to have required a permanent Egyptian presence, as we find no Egyptian archaeological remains in Palestine of the late Predynastic period. The situation changed in dynasties 0 and 1, when many archaeological sites in Palestine contained Egyptian materials, such as imported pottery. Some sites had typical Egyptian architecture as well as pots in Egyptian styles but made of local clay, which suggests that Egyptians had moved into the region and set up colonies. Yet the earliest Egyptian kings were militarily active in Palestine as well. Possibly even the Narmer Palette shows an attack on Palestinian settlements, and in the 1st dynasty originated images of kings defeating men whose depiction in later iconography became the stereotype for the hostile “Asiatic,” the term Egyptians used to refer to people from the Near East (and adopted as such in modern scholarship). Thus both in Palestine and Nubia the original trade relations with Egypt that had benefited local elites seem to have been replaced by Egyptian military aggression under dynasties 0 and 1. The growth of the Egyptian state with its economic and military powers thus had a great effect on its periphery.

      In the earlier 2nd dynasty the Egyptian presence in Palestine and the import of goods from that area declined strikingly. Instead, long‐distance overseas contacts with ports farther north commenced, especially with Byblos in Lebanon. There the Egyptians could obtain long beams of cedar wood as well as agricultural products, which could be shipped by boat. These long‐distance trade contacts would flourish in the Old Kingdom. Ports like Byblos also gave access to luxury items, such as lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, which previously reached Egypt through overland trade.

      Tomb U‐j, constructed at Abydos around 3250 BC, was the first of a long series of tombs in ancient Egypt whose occupants had a very special status. Although the tomb was a relatively small construction, it was filled with grave goods that came from all over Egypt and Palestine. The ability of one man to command these resources from far afield was the result of a centralization of power in Upper Egypt where early centers had joined together. The people of this region seem to have gradually extended their control over the rest of the country so that by 3000 a single king ruled Upper and Lower Egypt, thereby initiating Egypt’s dynastic history. The new state required new ideologies and methods of government and administration, which developed in parallel with kingship and included ideas about the gods and how to honor them, bureaucratic techniques, and writing. Their invention was a process that needed several centuries to be completed. Yet compared to many ancient cultures, it was rapid. By the end of the 2nd dynasty, around 2686 BC, Egypt had developed into a stable territorial state under a strong king and an effective administration. The basis for further developments was fully in place.

      NOTES

      1 1. Parkinson 1998 : 138, quoted by permission.

      2 2. Baines 2007 : 137.