Ancient Civilizations: Egypt

ANCIENT EGYPT

The first signs of “true” cultures have been found in the Qadan sites (13,000 - 9,000 BC) in Upper Egypt where there are traces of ritual burials and cemeteries. From the grinding stones found in the digs, it seems that agriculture was already being practised. The large number of remains of people who died violently seems to show that these were troubled times, when there was possibly a shortage of food, or an invasion.

By 5000 BC, Egypt was beginning to take on the appearance of the Ancient Egypt which most people know. People no longer lived mainly from hunting, but kept livestock, and grew wheat as well as barley in their fields.

Metal tools and leather were used. Ritual burials were common and the dead were buried in places away from the village and the fields, as if they were afraid of the dead. Food, artifacts and jewellery were put into the graves for the journey to the afterlife, and the bodies faced west towards the setting sun.        1     2     3