The cemeteries of the southern Egyptian Nile Valley have for a long time taken up a major role in the reconstruction of the emergence of social complexity during the 5 th and 4 th millennia and of the early territorial state of Pharaonic Egypt.
We’ll explore evidence of cultural linkages from settlements and cemeteries rock art, megalithic stonework and stellar orientations and trading networks that fed the desire for ancient forms of consumer “stuff.” We’ll also look at some of the ways this new evidence is changing our understanding of early Egyptian culture and how human civilizations evolve. Interdisciplinary teams of archeologists, anthropologists, geologists, paleobotanists, paleobiologists, archeoastronomers and climate scientists are painting a fascinating picture of cultural adaptation and displacement, as people responded to an accelerating set of environmental challenges before transplanting themselves to the Nile Valley. Where did those people come from? How did they become so civilized so fast? Modern excavations are providing the answer: the people came from the Western Desert, graduates of a climate-driven accelerated learning program. Early scholars were puzzled by the sudden appearance of civilization in the Nile Valley. Presentation to the Egyptian Study Society (Denver, Colorado), February 17, 2015.
