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The Predynastic Period, before 3050 BCE, is the time before any written records. We know that around 5000 BCE small settlements were developing around the Delta and along the fertile Nile Valley. People in these settlements began cultivating grain and domesticating wild animals.
From early times the land was divided into these two regions known as Upper Egypt in the north (Delta) and Lower Egypt in the south (from Memphis to Aswan). During the Predynastic Period these two areas developed along different lines with distinctive characteristics, but in c. 3000 BCE they were united under one king/pharaoh from the southern region. This is the beginning of the First Dynasty.
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 Predynastic ceramic vase with distinctive patterns. (c) Iziko Photo Archive |