Copper objects have been found not uncommonly in tombs of the second predynastic period in Egypt, and sometimes in those of the first.
Moreover, the evidence obtained by excavation on early sites certainly appeared to show a distinct break between the predynastic and early dynastic cultures of Egypt.
Some of the latter have been held to bear a certain likeness to designs which occur upon the later pottery of the predynastic age in Egypt, and it is mainly on the strength of such points of resemblance that M.
A knowledge of copper has always been credited to the later predynastic Egyptians, and it is now possible to trace the gradual steps by which the invention of a practical method of working it was attained.
Elliot Smith of the Khedivial School of Medicine in collaboration with the Hearst Expedition, has demonstrated the lineal descent of the dynastic from the predynastic Egyptians.
But if the predynastic cylinder of Egypt is to be regarded as ultimately derived from Asia, the connection is to be set at a period anterior to the earliest Sumerian settlements that have yet been identified.
The kings of the predynastic and early dynastic periods are called "worshipers of Horus," a title that was adopted by succeeding monarchs, who had each his "Horus name.
From the earliest Predynastic times in Egypt it had been the custom to make extensive use of resinous material as an essential ingredient (what a pharmacist would call the adhesive "vehicle") of cosmetics.
The association of the direction of the deceased's head with the position of the original homeland and the eventual home of the dead would have made the south a "divine" region in Predynastic times.
They are supposed to be late predynastic representations of the god Min.
It is probable that in one form or another many of the Chapters were in existence in the predynastic period,[1] but no copies of such primitive versions, if they ever existed, have come down to us.
The beginnings, or the prehistoric, prephonetic and predynasticperiod of libraries, lie therefore back of the phonetic writing of 3400 B.
We have seen that in Egypt a new fragment of the Palermo Stele has confirmed in a remarkable way the tradition of the predynastic period which was incorporated in his history by Manetho.
Quite recently, too, as I mentioned just now, a fresh literary record of these early predynastic periods has been recovered, on a fragment of the famous Palermo Stele, our most valuable monument for early Egyptian history and chronology.
We shall see that the earliest section of its record has an important bearing on our knowledge of Egyptian predynastic history and on the traditions of that remote period which have come down to us from the history of Manetho.
We have then to do with kings of Upper Egypt, not the Delta, and it is no longer possible to suppose that the predynasticrulers of the Palermo Stele were confined to those of Lower Egypt, as reflecting northern tradition.
From the fragment of the stele preserved at Palermo we already knew that its record went back beyond the Ist Dynasty into predynastic times.
The predynastic Egyptians may well have adopted similar means for preserving a remembrance of their past history.
Moreover, by a strange coincidence, there has also been published in Egypt since the beginning of the war a record referring to the reigns of predynastic rulers in the Nile Valley.
Wainwright and Bushe Fox in a predynastic grave, and where a piece of this metal, possibly a tool, was found in the masonry of the great pyramid.
The ethnic history of Northeast Africa would seem, therefore, to have been this: predynastic Egypt was settled by Negroes from Ethiopia.
Perhaps we have here the best racial picture of what ancient Egyptian and upper Nile regions were in predynastic times and later.
There can be no doubt whatever that the predynastic boats were not seagoing galleys.
Of these predynastic kingdoms we know very little, except from legendary sources.
Petrie thinks otherwise, and would see in the boats painted on the predynastic Egyptian vases (see Chapter I) the identical galleys by which, in late Neolithic times, commerce between Crete and Egypt was carried on across the Mediterranean.
The chief feature of the most ancient temple seems to have been a circular mound, revetted by a wall of sandstone blocks, which was apparently erected about the end of the predynastic period.
Morgan, who excavated sites of the early dynastic as well as of the predynastic age.
Currelly attempted to excavate at Buto, in order to find traces of the predynastic kingdom, but owing to the infiltration of water his efforts were unsuccessful.
The contracted bodies are skeletons, as in the case of most of the predynastic bodies.
At the period of transition from the predynastic to the dynastic age we have the great mastaba of Aha at Nakâda, and the simplest chamber-tombs at Abydos.
This dualism of course often led to actual division and reversion to the predynasticorder of things, as, for instance, in the time of the XXIst Dynasty.
Among the most interesting are burials in pots, which have also been found by Mr. Garstang in a predynastic necropolis at Ragagna, north of Abydos.
There is little or no change in this underlying belief to be observed in the burial customs of the Egyptians during the late predynastic period.
This position becomes the custom, with very few exceptions, during the late predynastic period and the first three dynasties.
In the late predynastic and the early dynastic periods, when the great development began, this primitive race had become modified by an infiltration of broad-headed people from the north.
In other words, beginning in thepredynastic period with a burial position which may be called natural and primitive, the Egyptian gradually adopted a position which imitated the form of the dead Osiris, the god of the dead.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "predynastic" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
