Some African History from 3000-2000BC

Late Period statue of Imhotep

Around the year 3000BC the desertification of the Sahara continued and only a few tiny oases remained of what had previously been a relatively lush savannah. The First Dynasty ruled in Egypt, having previously united the land over the previous centuries. The king Djet was the ruler of Egypt at this time, holding sway over the river down as far as the First Cataract and possibly slightly further south. Egyptian writing at this point was not as developed as it would later become, but at this point it was probably the most advanced writing system in the world, having surpassed cuneiform in terms of complexity. The first queen in history, Menteith, reigned after Djet and goes down in history as the first named powerful woman to lead a state.

Further south along the Nile was a settlement known as Qustul. This was inhabited by members of the A group culture from what is now Sudan. Qustul seems to have been a royal settlement contemporary with the First Dynasty kings and culturally was very similar to the Egyptian material culture of the time. This would suggest that there was state formation further south along the Nile and not just in Egypt.

Around the year 2890 the First Dynasty ended and was replaced by the Second Dynasty, which supposedly ruled from the old capital of Thinis until 2686. Almost nothing is known about the Second Dynasty and even the names of the kings are obscure. There are some things we suspect about this Dynasty. but there are a lot of elements that I suspect are incorrect. For one things the length of the reigns of the kings are improbably long, which is usually a good indicator that something is wrong with the historical record. There is a suspicion that there may have been religious strife towards the latter end of this period between the followers of the Horus and Seth, with the kings occasionally taking sides. This is of course debated, as is the possibility that Egypt was actually divided and had multiple simultaneous rulers. The truth is that at the moment we simply do not know much about the Second Dynasty.

Step Pyramid of Djoser

Around 2686 the Third Dynasty of Egypt came to power. This marks the beginning of what is referred to as the Old Kingdom in Egypt. Djoser was the first monarch of this dynasty and had a famed vizier named Imhotep. The capital was moved from Thinis to Memphis, which was now probably the largest city in the world. The kings of Egypt had been buried in elaborate tombs with grave goods (and in the case of the First Dynasty, human sacrifices), but Djoser’s tomb would be the most spectacular building in the world so far. The previous burials had been brick or stone mounds, known as mastabas. Imhotep, the vizier of Djoser, was probably the architect who decided to place these on top of each other to form the first Egyptian pyramid, now known as the step pyramid of Djoser and, standing at 62 metres, probably the tallest building of its day. Imhotep’s fame would grow until he was eventually deified centuries later as a god of wisdom and healing, and he is remembered today as possibly the first architect whose name is known to us.

Bent Pyramid of Sneferu in Dahshur

Djoser’s successors also tried to build pyramids, although most of them have been ruined over the course of the years. After Djoser the rulers of the Third Dynasty are not well attested but we know at least more than we do about the Second Dynasty. Around 2613 the Fourth Dynasty begins with King Sneferu ruling from Memphis. Sneferu was an extraordinary figure who was not content with simply building a pyramid, but decided to construct three pyramids. The first of these, the Meidum Pyramid, probably partially collapsed during construction. The second, the Bent Pyramid of Dahshur, changed angles mid-construction, probably to avert a similar collapse. The third, the Red Pyramid of Dahshur, is in some ways the first true pyramid and it paved the way for the true pyramids of the successors.

Sneferu was succeeded by Khufu. Sneferu had built three of the largest buildings in the world, but would be outdone by Khufu. Under Khufu’s reign the Great Pyramid of Giza was constructed. This would be later classed as one of the ancient wonders of the world and is the only one of these wonders to survive. It was the tallest man-made building in the world from the time of its completion (around 2560BC) until 1300AD. It is hard not to wax too lyrical about the Great Pyramid. It is truly one of the most spectacular buildings ever built. Many people today have some strange ideas that it was built by aliens or other nonsense. But this is clearly refuted by the fact that archaeologists have discovered, not just the village occupied by the Egyptians who built it, but that we have their records, including a document called the Diary of Merer, which gives some of the details of how this was built.

Great Pyramid of Giza with sphinx

After passing of Khufu, Khafre his son succeeded (though not directly) and also built a pyramid; but on a slightly smaller scale to his father. The Great Sphinx dates from around this time. Menkaure also completed a much smaller pyramid completing the triad of the pyramids now seen at Giza.

Around 2500 the city of Kerma was established in present-day Sudan. Presumably Qustul was too close to the powerful Egyptian Old Kingdom and the cultural centres of the Kushites moved south. In between the Kerma culture and the Egyptians were a group known as the C-Group (as no writings survive giving their demonym). These were pastoralists and cattle-herders who traded with and occasionally allied with both of the two civilisations on the Nile. These tribal chieftains formed a buffer zone between the kingdoms of Memphis and Kerma.

Around the year 2498 Userkaf founded the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt, continuing the pyramid building traditions of his predecessors. He was succeeded by Sahure who championed expeditions to the Levant and to what became known as the Land of Punt. Punt was an area probably around the Horn of Africa, perhaps in contemporary Eritrea or Somalia. From here exotic trade goods were brought back to Egypt in great ceremony. It is not known exactly where this land was or how organised it was, but it was at least advanced enough to trade with the Egyptians, suggesting that there were at least three distinct civilisations in Africa at this time, Egypt, Kush and Punt.

Pyramid of Neferirkare

Sahure’s successor Neferirkare continued trade relations with the Levant and also with Nubia/Kush. He is remembered as being a kind ruler who relaxed some of the restrictions surrounding the royal person. There is an inscription from the tomb of an official called Rawer where Rawer records that the king pardoned him from death after an accidental infraction (he had accidentally touched the royal mace during a religious ceremony). This is a very minor incident, but I thought that records of human kindness should be remembered as well as achievements in building, trade and war.

A later Fifth Dynasty ruler known as Djedkare continued the traditions of empire building and trade, sending more expeditions to Punt, Nubia and the Levant. His reign is most notable however for his vizier Ptahhotep, who became known as a byword for wisdom. Later wisdom texts supposedly record his wisdom, the most notable being the Maxims of Ptahhotep. But these texts date from much later and are probably not contemporary with the sage himself.

Around 2345 Teti founded the Sixth Dynasty. The tradition of pyramid building continued but these pyramids were much smaller than the giant edifices of the Fourth Dynasty and have not survived well. One of the later Sixth Dynasty monarchs, Pepi II, is credited with having the longest reign in the history of the world, with a possible reign of 94 years, but this is rather unlikely. He was a long-lived Pharaoh, but the reign is more likely to have been around 60 years. During the reign of Pepi II the Old Kingdom began to split and collapse, with two viziers being appointed to govern Upper and Lower Egypt. In the early stages of his rule Pepi II had tried to mount expeditions to Nubia. The governor of Aswan, Harkhuf, sent an expedition that brought back trade items and a pygmy to the royal court. Harkhuf recorded the expedition on the walls of his tomb and this has been referred to as the world’s first travelogue. Harkhuf is sometimes recorded as the world’s first named explorer, which is possible but it’s not clear if Harkhuf went on the expedition himself. Following Pepi II were a number of short-lived rulers, at least one of which seems to have murdered his predecessor. Here the Old Kingdom ends and Egyptian history enters what is known as the First Intermediate Period.

Tomb image of Harhuf and his son

Come northward to the court immediately; [...] thou shalt bring this dwarf with thee, which thou bringest living, prosperous and healthy from the land of spirits, for the dances of the god, to rejoice and [gladden] the heart of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, (Pepi II) Neferkare, who lives forever. When he goes down with thee into the vessel, appoint excellent people, who shall be beside him on each side of the vessel; take care lest he fall into the water. When he sleeps at night appoint excellent people, who shall sleep beside him in his tent, inspect ten times a night. My majesty desires to see this dwarf more than the gifts of Sinai and of Punt. If thou arrivest at court this dwarf being with thee alive, prosperous and healthy, my majesty will do for thee a greater thing than that which was done for the treasurer of the god Burded in the time of Isesi, according to the heart's desire of my majesty to see the dwarf. 
Inscription from the Tomb of Harkhuf describing the king’s excitement to see the dwarf who had been found on a southern expedition. 

The Seventh Dynasty supposedly reigned at this time, around 2181BC, but this dynasty is probably mythical and no firm evidence has ever been found of it. The Eighth Dynasty was a similarly weak dynasty and their kings reigned for about 20 years before the Ninth Dynasty succeeded it around 2160. Even the names of the kings of the Ninth Dynasty are not fully known and the local rulers or nomarchs of the regions of Egypt must have been mostly independent.

This confusion may or may not be tied into a century of climate change known as the 4.2 kiloyear event, meaning that it took place about 2200BC. This may have led to lower Nile floods and to pressures from Libyan nomads. It’s unclear what exactly happened in the First Intermediate Period. It seems that the power of the central state simply broke down and was replaced by local rulers, some of whom claimed kingship. The changed rainfall patterns do seem to have affected the civilisation across the Near East, but I am unsure if the collapse of the Old Kingdom can be attributed to this alone. By the year 2130 however the Ninth Dynasty collapsed and what is known as the Tenth Dynasty took their place.

The Tenth Dynasty has a bad reputation in later times, but this could simply be a reflection of the troubled times that they lived in. They were based in Herakleopolis and overthrew the Ninth Dynasty in Memphis. Around the same time Intef the Elder, a local official in Thebes, became effectively independent and is viewed as the founder of the Eleventh Dynasty. But he would not have seen himself as a king.

Mentuhotep II who reunited Egypt
and founded the Middle Kingdom

Around the year 2050, a member of the Eleventh Dynasty, known as Mentuhotep II came to power in Thebes and following a war with the kings of Herakleopolis, managed to reunite Egypt. This event brought the First Intermediate Period to an end and is referred to as the beginning of the Middle Kingdom. The reunited kingdom began sending expeditions to Nubia and Punt as had been done in the Old Kingdom and the renewed prosperity and stability would allow the flourishing of Egyptian literature.

This overview of African history has unfortunately been heavily centred on Egypt. This is unfortunate, but somewhat inevitable, as Egypt is the best documented place in the world for this millennium. Outside of Egypt there were sophisticated cultures in Nubia and Punt. The lower edge of the Sahara had seen the development of agriculture although there is no record of extensive bronze metalworking from this period. This is to be expected as tin was very scarce in the ancient world and there were no easy trade routes past the Sahara at this time.

Further south of the equator humans still lived as hunter-gatherers, as their distant ancestors had done for millennia. This was more to do with the sophistication of their hunting techniques than anything else. Unlike other parts of the world they had not had the need to develop agriculture and their culture was perfectly adapted to its surroundings. However, should farming groups arrive in the area from outside, this would change the balance of the environment and tip the scales in favour of the agricultural groups. Near the Niger Delta agriculture was being developed by speakers of what are now known as Proto-Bantu languages. This group would change the face of the continent when it began to expand.

Even while we have very limited information about Africa during this millennium it is fair to say that there are still a remarkable series of firsts and records, with the Egyptians repeatedly setting the records for the tallest construction in the world and attempting to explore and trade with other groups in Africa and beyond.

Related Blog Posts:
Some African History from 4000-3000BC
Some African History from 3000-2000BC
Some African History from 2000-1500BC
Some African History from 1500-1000BC
Some African History from 1000-750BC
Some African History from 750-500BC

Some African History from 4000-3000BC

The Battlefield Palette
from Naqada III Period in Egypt, c3200BC
showing defeated soldiers being eaten by beasts

This post is the first in the new series trying to describe the less-studied time periods in history. For this blog we will look at the history of the African continent from the year 4000-3000BC. In some ways this is a very difficult endeavour, as the history of one part of the continent often has almost nothing to do with other parts, but the same could be said for Europe, Asia or the Americas. Africa is more split than most though, with the Sahara creating a large natural barrier that sometimes cut the Mediterranean coast off from the lands south of the desert. But despite these difficulties we shall try our best.

African history is sometimes dismissed as being less interesting than that of other areas and it is true that it is understudied and sometimes suffers from lack of source materials. But Africa is also the birthplace of Egypt, possibly the world’s second oldest civilisation (if not the oldest) and cannot thus be treated as unimportant. The origins of Egyptian culture are distinctly African and considering that Africa is held to be the original birthplace of humanity and contains not only Egypt, but so much more, this continent is fully deserving of historical study. My hope is that the next decades will see great strides in our understanding of African history.

Africa is long held, by the majority of historians, to be the original cradle of the human race, so by the year 4000BC humans had been in Africa since time immemorial. Exact dates are not expected at this point in prehistory, but by 4000BC agriculture was in the Nile Valley and had spread across much of the northern belt of the rainforests in the centre of the continent.

Skull of a megatherium. These large beasts once roamed
the Saharan lands before going extinct

Around the year 3900BC a major climactic shift occurred in Northern Africa. The Neolithic Subpluvial began to end. The Neolithic Subpluvial was an epoch where nearly all of North Africa was fertile (or more strictly speaking, semi-arid) rather than desert. The lakes were vastly larger than they currently are.

Megafauna roamed across the savannahs and were prey to the Neolithic hunters of the region. The Nile and other rivers in the region all carried much more water and were probably higher than they now are today.

The Last Glacial Maximum began to recede, but was interrupted by the Younger Dryas period (which saw the warming planet temporarily cooled again) about 10,000BC according to current climate estimates. But the glaciers had now begun to disappear to their current proportions and this caused a change in climate that saw heavy rainfall across Africa, as the currents of the North Atlantic shifted with the changing climate.

This wet Sahara period was ended by what is known to us as the 5.9 Kiloyear Event (as in it happened roughly 5900 years before the present date). This saw the fertile and semi-arid lands of what was then the North African savannah begin to turn to desert. This desertification did not happen overnight, but did seem to happen more rapidly than could be entirely attributed to climate. It is a theoretical possibility that human hunting, gathering and subsistence agriculture in the region may have contributed in a small fashion to the creation of a climate loop that created the largest desert known today.

Rock art from Wadi Mathendous in Libya
showing meerkats

The change did not happen overnight, or even over the course of century, but from this time onwards the Sahara would begin to expand. The people in the area would have to migrate outwards, towards the coastlands, to the shrinking grasslands around Lake Chad, to oases such as Nabta Playa, southwards towards the rain belts of central Africa or towards the Nile Valley, which was now the only major river remaining in the region. The inhabitants of the Sahara have left few remnants, save for their artworks that were left in caves throughout the region. Here we can see humans interacting with extinct species and animals of the savannah, a memory of a lost landscape in the midst of desolation.

Naqada I sculpture
with lapis lazuli eyes,
evidence of trade

In Egypt, along the Nile Valley, Neolithic settlements had been in place for a long period. In Lower Egypt the Maadi culture flourished around this time. They traded with the Levant and seem to have imported some goods from that region. Even though they had copper workings, their primary tools remained stone. Their culture is not well known as many of their settlements throughout the Nile Delta have been covered by the Nile silt.

In Upper Egypt (higher along the Nile, hence in the south of the country) the Naqada I culture, also known as the Amratian culture, flourished. They traded obsidian, a hard volcanic rock used for tools, and gold, with the Nubian region further to the south. They also began to build in mud-brick, although nothing more than small settlements.

Reconstruction of a stone circle from Nabta Playa

Around this time as well, there seems to have been a civilisation building megalithic structures in Nabta Playa, an oasis in what is now the southern part of Egypt. A stone circle has been interpreted as a potential archeo-astronomical calendar that was possibly able to predict the seasons. Deep wells had also been dug here to access water during dryer periods and there is evidence of a sacrificial cult sacrificing bovines (although these may not have been domesticated). There are a number of relatively complex structures that seem in certain ways more advanced than their contemporaries on the Nile. But the drying of the land forced the abandonment of Nabta Playa over the next centuries.

Postage stamp commemorating
Bouar megaliths

In Central Africa, near Bouar in what is now the Central African Republic, there are a number of megalithic monuments that still stand today. They are clustered in this part of the region and not seen elsewhere, suggesting that the culture that built them was not widely diffused. The dates for the construction of the megaliths are somewhat confused, suggesting that they may be built around 5000-4500, and they were later reused about two millennia before our time, which confuses the dating somewhat. Nevertheless, for the millennia between 4-3000BC we can say with certainty that there was a megalithic culture, contemporary with the Neolithic and presumably having some form of agriculture. This culture has disappeared and left no other traces.

In Egypt, from c.3300BC onwards the Naqada III culture was predominant in both Upper and Lower Egypt. This period is also sometimes referred to as the Protodynastic period, as we know that there were attempts to unify the land of Egypt. This is also the point where Egypt, and by extension, Africa, enters history, as the hieroglyphic writing system was invented around this time.

Gebel-el-arak knife from Naqada III
Egypt. The designs on the hilt are
Mesopotamian c3200BC

It is unclear if the writing was independently invented. There were earlier scripts in use in Mesopotamia at the time, but these were quite different from what Egyptian hieroglyphics would become. We know that the Mesopotamians had trade contacts with the Egyptians but it was probably not direct contact. My own theory is that the Egyptian writing was invented by the Egyptians themselves, but only after becoming aware of the existence of the Mesopotamian system. This enabled their script to bypass many of the stages of development that cuneiform had to undergo to become a full-fledged writing system. We will probably never know for sure, but considering how seldom writing is invented as a concept (possibly only occurring three or four times in human history) it would be strange that it would be invented nearly simultaneously and independently by two cultures already in contact with each other.

The Proto-Dynastic period, or Dynasty 0 as it is sometimes known, saw kingdoms form in Upper and Lower Egypt. In Lower Egypt kings bearing names such as Crocodile and Double Falcon reigned. In Upper Egypt there were three smaller kingdoms, Thinis, Naqada and Nekhen. Thinis was possibly ruled over by an early king called Scorpion. We’re not sure exactly how his name would have soundedm but it used the same sound as the early Egyptian word for Scorpion, so he is known to history as Scorpion. It is possible that Scorpion is the first named person known to history, although there are some other contenders from Mesopotamia.

Macehead showing King Scorpion, c.3150BC

The role of kings would grow, as their already elaborate tombs would be expanded. Warfare was a feature of life. While weapons could in theory be made of copper, it is probable that at this stage the warriors probably used stone weapons. Around the year 3100BC a king or tribal chieftain in Thinis would conquer Naqada in Upper Egypt before conquering Lower Egypt. Nekhen would later join the kingdom by either conquest or peaceful assimilation. This king was Narmer and he founded what can be justifiably said to be the first kingdom or state in the world.

Later Egyptian writers would credit the unification of Egypt to a king they called Menes, but this was probably just another name for Narmer, or one of the other Proto-Dynastic kings who was involved in the unification of Egypt. One interesting remnant of this time was the crowns that would be worn by the later Pharaohs. Upper Egyptian rulers wore a tall white crown, while Lower Egyptian rulers wore a low red crown. These were united by Narmer and his descendants into a single crown known as the Double Crown of Egypt.

Palette of Narmer, showing the
king wearing the white crown of
Upper Egypt and smiting a foe
c.3100BC

Narmer’s descendants would form what is known as the First Dynasty of Egypt. They continued solidifying the kingdom and were probably worshipped as gods by their subjects. Two generations after Narmer the Egyptian kings were already trying to expand their empire with expeditions into the Sinai. They were buried with great state in a cemetery near Abydos. When they died large numbers of their subjects were sacrificed and placed in their tombs to accompany the dead ruler to the afterlife. This practice was discontinued by the Second Dynasty and those who followed after. Instead of human sacrifices they would leave little statues of human workers, known as ushabtis to follow their master to the afterlife. This connection between early rulers and human sacrifices seems to have also occurred in Mesopotamia and China, as well as in the Americas and the fact that so many of these early cultures practiced human sacrifice should sober us when praising the birth of civilisation.

While Egypt was being unified under Narmer, the civilisation of Egypt was being paralleled in Nubia. This was a region to the south of Egypt, further upstream along the River Nile. From about 3800-3100BC the region had what was known as the A Group culture. While it does not appear that a fully-fledged kingdom emerged here at this point, their grave goods and the artefacts that remain seem to have been culturally very similar to the Egyptian developments and we know that the two regions traded with one another.

Rock art of Laas Geel

Around the Horn of Africa region we have some beautiful cave paintings from around 3000BC in the Laas Geel caves near the present-day city of Hargeisa in Somaliland. Later writings would refer to a wealthy kingdom in this region, but this was probably only developed in the following centuries.

I have not mentioned anything so far from the southern part of the vast continent of Africa. The reason for this is that there is not much to say. We know that the area was inhabited with hunter-gatherers who possibly resembled the San peoples in South Africa today and almost certainly spoke different languages to the ones spoken today. These hunter-gatherers, living either in rainforests or arid lands, lacked the resources to erect substantial monuments or leave many material remains. There are cave paintings from the region, but they are hard to date, as many of them are much more recent. As agriculture became more significant in the north and west of Africa the pastoralists and farmers would expand southwards, but around 3000BC hunter-gathering was probably the most sensible method of survival in these regions. So, while acknowledging that the area was inhabited, there is sadly not much that we can say with certainty about it at this time.

King Den of Egypt striking an Asian foe, c.3000BC

There is one thing that I have omitted that I would like to clarify before continuing. If one checks online about South African early history there will be a lot of articles about stone circles, which are supposedly aeons old. However, if you research these further you find that these theories and dates are almost all from a single source, a non-archaeologist by the name of Michael Tellinger, who claims that these circles are archeo-astronomical in nature and that they are hundreds of thousands years old. This is almost certainly false. These circles certainly exist but they are probably built within the last millennia by the peoples in the region. Michael Tellinger speaks of aliens and all sorts of other nonsense mostly lifted from the works of Erich von Daniken. It is sad that he is taken so seriously, while there are so many other parts of African history that are worth exploring and learning more about.

So, after traversing the thousand years between 4000-3000BC in Africa we have seen the rebirth of the world’s largest desert and the mass migrations and extinctions of those who fled from this devouring wasteland. We have looked at what is possibly the world’s oldest ancient astronomical megalithic site, as well as the foundation of the world’s first real state known to history, the invention of the world’s second-oldest script and possibly the first names known to history.

Related Blog Posts:
Some African History from 4000-3000BC
Some African History from 3000-2000BC
Some African History from 2000-1500BC
Some African History from 1500-1000BC
Some African History from 1000-750BC
Some African History from 750-500BC

A new type of blog post coming soon

Poulnabrone Dolmen

We’ve covered a lot of history over the years. In particular we’ve looked at the civilisations of the ancient Middle East and Greece in great detail. The blog posts on these will continue next year in full detail and I have already began to prepare for these. But there is something that has been weighing on my mind.

To some extent this blog is beginning to constitute a minor history of the world. It definitely has errors and flaws, but I have enjoyed writing it. Chinese and Indian civilisations have been mentioned in earlier blog posts, as have the South American and Mesoamerican civilisations. The earlier blog posts are considerably less detailed than perhaps they should be. Possibly I may revise them at some stage, but I am more worried about other omissions.

Slieve Gullion Passage Tomb

I love writing about ancient history, but there is a tendency for historians to focus on their pet areas. I personally love Mesopotamian history so I often gravitate to writing about that. But in writing about the so-called Greek Dark Ages I have noticed how few resources there are. Writers will speak of the fall of the Mycenaean civilisation, mention a few facts about Archaic Pottery and a dark age and then boom, we’ve skipped straight to Homer. A few more sentences, or maybe even a page, mentioning Hesiod, Sparta, tyrants and maybe Sappho and Thales and boom, we’ve reached the Battle of Marathon, happily skipping over centuries of development. This is troubling. All of history is important, not just the few centuries that historians like writing about.

To properly understand a historical civilisation we need to know something about why they arose and who came before them, in the same way we study those civilisations to understand ourselves. So, I will spend some time over the next few years interrupting my normal blogs to give context to what is happening all over the world from the years 4000-500BC.

I will break these up into sections for better understanding. So, the first blog will probably be about what is happening in Africa or Europe for the years 4000-3000BC. This will hopefully keep things manageable.

Silbury Hill

I make no claims to be an expert on these areas or anything even close to it. I have never studied history as a discipline properly at a college level, but I do have a degree in Greek and Roman Civilisation and have studied Biblical and Mesopotamian history as an amateur since I was a small child. So, while not an expert, I can at least talk with some confidence about these time periods. But Stone Age Japan or Central Asia in the Bronze Age are just not things that I know. There is honestly no one in the world qualified as a full expert in the prehistory of the entire world, so this is a humbling and daunting task. It will be a challenging experiment. But it will be an interesting challenge and hopefully a fun one.

So, if you’re a follower of this blog and you notice that the series on Near Eastern history is discontinued for a while, don’t worry, it will return. But we’ll try and explore some new times and places first. I hope that you will enjoy this dive into lesser known history as much as I will!