qián wáng cháo shí qī shì '
āi jí wén míng de dì yī shí qī。
yuē qián 40
shì jì，
āi jí rén kāi shǐ zài gè dì jiàn lì chéng bāng，
dāng zhōng bāo kuò dǐ bǐ sī（ Thebes）、
mèng fěi sī（ Mempis）、
bù tuó（ Buto）、
xī lā kāng bō lì sī（ Hierakonpolis）、
è lè fēn tíng（ Elephantine）、
ā bài duō sī（ Abydos）、
tí ní sī（ Thinis）、
sài yī sī（ Sais）、
suǒ yī sī（ Xois）、
hè lì '
ào bō lì sī（ Heliopolis）、
bù bā sī tí sī（ Bubastis）、
tǎn ní sī（ Tanis），
qián wáng cháo shí dài rú shì kāi shǐ。
zhí zhì qián 31
shì jì měi ní sī tǒng yī shàng xià '
āi jí，
qián wáng cháo shí qī jié shù，
zǎo wáng cháo shí qī kāi shǐ。
In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was much less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates. Foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians and this is also the period during which many animals would have been first domesticated.
By about 5500 BC, small tribes living in the Nile valley had developed into a series of cultures demonstrating firm control of agriculture and animal husbandry, and identifiable by their pottery and personal items, such as combs, bracelets, and beads. The largest of these early cultures in upper Egypt, the Badari, was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools, and its use of copper.
In Northern Egypt, the Badari was followed by Amratian and Gerzian cultures which showed a number of technological improvements. In Gerzian times, early evidence exists of contact with Palestine and the Byblos coast.
In southern Egypt, the Naqada culture, similar to the Badari, began to expand along the Nile by about 4000 BC. As early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. Over a period of about 1000 years, the Naqada culture developed from a few small farming communities into a powerful civilization whose leaders were in complete control of the people and resources of the Nile valley. Establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile. They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the western desert to the west, and the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean to the east.
The Naqada culture manufactured a diverse array of material goods, reflective of the increasing power and wealth of the elite, which included painted pottery, high quality decorative stone vases, cosmetic palettes, and jewelry made of gold, lapis, and ivory. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols which would eventually evolve into a full system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language.
