Egypt–Mesopotamia relations
![A map of the Ancient Near East, showing a connection between Egypt and Mesopotamia](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/Mesopotamia-Egypt_trade_routes.jpg/220px-Mesopotamia-Egypt_trade_routes.jpg)
Egypt–Mesopotamia relations were the relations between the civilizations of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, in the Middle East. They seem to have developed from the 4th millennium BCE, starting in the Uruk period for Mesopotamia (circa 4000–3100 BCE) and the half a millennium younger Gerzean culture of Prehistoric Egypt (circa 3500–3200 BCE), and constituted a largely one way body of influences from Mesopotamia into Egypt.[3][4]
Prior to a specific Mesopotamian influence there had already been a longstanding influence from West Asia into Egypt, North Africa and even into some parts of the Horn of Africa and the Sahel in the form of the Neolithic Revolution which from circa 9000 BCE diffused advanced agricultural practices and technology, gene-flow, certain animals and crops and the likely spread of Proto-Afroasiatic language into the region.
Mesopotamian influences can be seen in the visual arts of Egypt, in architecture, in technology, weaponry, in imported products, religious imagery, in agriculture and livestock, in genetic input, and also in the likely transfer of writing from Mesopotamia to Egypt[4] and generated "deep-seated" parallels in the early stages of both cultures.[2]
Influences on Egyptian trade and art (3500–3200 BCE)
[edit](3300–3200 BCE)
There was generally a high-level of trade between Ancient Egypt and the Near East throughout the Pre-dynastic period of Egypt, during the Naqada II (3600–3350 BCE) and Naqada III (3350–2950 BCE) phases.[7] These were contemporary with the Late Uruk (3600–3100 BCE) and Jemdet Nasr (3100–2900 BCE) periods in Mesopotamia.[7] The main period of cultural influence, particularly consisting in the transfer of Mesopotamian imagery, symbols and technology to Egypt, is considered to have lasted about 250 years, during the Naqada II to Dynasty I periods.[8]
Designs and objects
[edit]Distinctly foreign objects and art forms entered Egypt during this period, indicating contacts with several parts of Western Asia. The designs that were emulated by Egyptian artists are numerous: the Uruk "priest-king" with his tunic and brimmed hat in the posture of the Master of animals, the serpopards , winged griffins, snakes around rosettes, boats with high prows, all characteristic of long established Mesopotamian art of the Late Uruk (Uruk IV, c. 3350–3200 BCE) period.[9][10] The same "Priest-King" is visible in several older Mesopotamian works of art of the end of the Uruk period, such as the Blau Monuments, cylinder seals and statues.[11] Objects such as the Gebel el-Arak knife handle, which has patently Mesopotamian relief carvings on it, have been found in Egypt,[3] and the silver which appears in this period can only have been obtained from Asia Minor.[12]
Mesopotamian-style pottery in Egypt (3500 BCE)
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/Evolution_of_Egyptian_prehistoric_pottery_styles%2C_from_Naqada_I_to_Naqada_II_and_Naqada_III%2C_with_Mesopotamian-style_Naqada_II_straight-spouted_jar%2C_circa_3500_BCE.jpg/220px-thumbnail.jpg)
Red-slipped spouted pottery items dating to around 3500 BCE (Naqada II C/D), which were probably used for pouring water, beer or wine, suggest that Egypt was in contact with and being influenced by Mesopotamia around that time.[13] This type of pottery was manufactured in Egypt, with Egyptian clay, but its shape, particularly the spout, is certainly Mesopotamian in origin.[13] Such vessels were new and rare in pre-Dynastic Egypt, but had been commonly manufactured in the Mesopotamian cities of Nippur and Uruk for centuries.[13] This indicated that Egyptians were familiar with Mesopotamian types of pottery.[13] The discovery of these vessels initially encouraged the development of the dynastic race theory, according to which Mesopotamians would have established the first Pharaonic line, but is now considered by many scholars to be simply indicative of cultural influence and borrowings circa 3500 BCE, although there is an established gene flow from Mesopotamia and West Asia into Egypt .[13]
Spouted jars of Mesopotamian design start to appear in Egypt in the Naqada II period.[7] Various Uruk pottery vases and containers have been found in Egypt in Naqada contexts, confirming that Mesopotamian finished goods were imported into Egypt, although the past contents of the jars have not been determined yet.[14] Scientific analysis of ancient wine jars in Abydos has shown there was some high-volume wine trade with the Levant and Mesopotamia during this period.[15]
Adoption of Mesopotamian-style maceheads
[edit]Egyptians used traditional disk-shaped maceheads during the early phase of Naqada culture, circa 4000–3400 BCE. At the end of the period, the disk-shaped macehead was replaced by the militarily superior Mesopotamian-style pear-shaped macehead as seen on the Narmer Palette.[16] The Mesopotamian macehead was much heavier with a wider impact surface, and was capable of giving much more damaging blows than the original Egyptian disk-shaped macehead.[16]
Cylinder seals
[edit]It is generally thought that cylinder seals were introduced from Mesopotamia to Egypt during the Naqada II period.[17] Cylinder seals, some coming from Mesopotamia and also Elam in Ancient Iran, and some made locally in Egypt copying earlier Mesopotamian and Elamite designs in a stylized manner, have been discovered in the tombs of Upper Egypt dating to Naqada II and III, particularly in Hierakonpolis.[7][8] Mesopotamian cylinder seals have been found in the Gerzean context of Naqada II, in Naqada and Hiw, attesting to the expansion of the Mesopotamian Jemdet Nasr culture as far as Egypt at the end of the 4th millennium BCE.[18][17]
In Egypt, cylinder seals suddenly appear without any local antecedents from around Naqada II c-d (3500–3300 BCE).[19] The designs are similar to and clearly inspired by those of Mesopotamia, where they were invented during the early 4th millennium BCE, during the Uruk period, as an evolutionary step from various accounting systems and seals going back as early as the early 7th millennium BCE in Mesopotamia.[19] The earliest Egyptian cylinder seals are clearly similar to earlier and contemporary Uruk seals down to Naqada II-d (circa 3300 BCE), and may even have been manufactured by Mesopotamian craftsmen and subsequently sold to the Egyptians, but they start to diverge from circa 3300 BCE to become more Egyptian in character.[19]
Cylinder seals were made in Egypt as late as the Second Intermediate Period, but they were essentially replaced by scarabs from the time of the Middle Kingdom.[17]
Other objects and designs
[edit]Lapis lazuli was imported in great quantity by Egypt, and already used in many tombs of the Naqada II period. Lapis lazuli probably originated in what is today northern Afghanistan, as no other sources are known, and had to be transported across the Iranian plateau to Mesopotamia as part of the established Mesopotamian trade network with South and Central Asia, and from there sold on to Egypt by the Mesopotamians.[20][14]
In addition, Egyptian objects were created which clearly mimic Mesopotamian forms, although not slavishly.[21] Cylinder seals appear in Egypt, as well as recessed paneling architecture, the Egyptian reliefs on cosmetic palettes are clearly made in the same style as the earlier and contemporary Mesopotamian Uruk culture, and the ceremonial mace heads which turn up from the late Gerzean and early Semainean are crafted in the Mesopotamian "pear-shaped" style, instead of the Egyptian native style.[22] The first man/animal composite creatures in Egypt were directly copied from earlier Mesopotamian designs.[23] It is also considered as certain that the Egyptians adopted from Mesopotamia the practice of marking the sealing of jars with engraved cylinder seals for informational purposes.[24]
Temples and pyramids
[edit]Egyptian architecture also was influenced, as it adopted various elements of earlier Mesopotamian temple and civic architecture.[26]
Recessed niches in particular, which are characteristic of Mesopotamian temple architecture, were adopted for the design of false doors in the tombs of the First Dynasty and Second Dynasty, from the time of the Naqada III period (circa 3000 BCE).[26][27] It is unknown if the transfer of this design was the result of Mesopotamian builders and architects in Egypt, or if temple designs on imported Mesopotamian seals may have been a sufficient source of inspiration for Egyptian architects to manage themselves.[26]
The design of the ziggurat, which appeared in Mesopotamia in the late 5th millennium BCE, was clearly a precursor to and an influence on the Egyptian pyramids, especially the stepped designs of the oldest pyramids (step pyramid), the earliest of which (Pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara) dates to circa 2600 BCE, well over two thousand years younger than Mesopotamian ziggurats/step pyramids.[28] This again strongly suggests early cultural and technological influence on Egypt by Mesopotamia.[28]
Transmission
[edit]The route of this trade is difficult to determine, but direct Egyptian contact with Canaan in the Levant does not predate the early dynastic era, so it is usually assumed to have been by sea trade.[1] During the time when the dynastic race theory was still popular, it was proposed that Mesopotamian sailors circumnavigated Arabia, but a Mediterranean route, probably by middlemen through the Canaanite port of Byblos, is also likely, as evidenced by the presence of Canaanite Byblian objects in Egypt.[1] Glyptic art also seems to have played a key role, through the circulation of decorated cylinder seals across the Levant, a common hinterland of both empires, particularly Mesopotamia.[30]
The intensity of the exchanges suggest however that the contacts between Egypt and Mesopotamia were often direct, rather than merely through middlemen or through trade.[2] Uruk had known colonial outposts of as far as Habuba Kabira, in modern Syria, insuring their presence in the Levant.[31] Numerous Uruk cylinder seals have also been uncovered there.[31] There have been suggestions that Uruk may have had a colonial outpost and a form of colonial presence in northern Egypt.[31] The site of Buto in particular was suggested, but it has been rejected as a possible candidate.[26]
The fact that so many Gerzean sites are at the mouths of wadis which lead to the Red Sea may indicate some amount of trade via the Red Sea (though Byblian trade potentially could have crossed the Sinai and then be taken to the Red Sea).[32] Also, it is considered unlikely that something as complicated as recessed panel architecture could have worked its way into Egypt by proxy, and a possibly significant contingent of Mesopotamian migrants or settlers is often suspected.[1]
These early contacts probably acted as a sort of catalyst for the development of Egyptian culture, particularly in respect to the inception of writing, the codification of royal and vernacular imagery and architectural innovations.[2]
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Egyptian palettes, such as the Narmer Palette (3200–3000 BCE), borrow elements of Mesopotamian iconography, in particular the sauropod design of Uruk.[33]
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Beads of lapis lazuli and travertine, circa 3650–3100 BCE. Naqada II–Naqada III.
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Egyptian statuette, 3300–3000 BCE. The lapis lazuli material is thought to have been imported through Mesopotamia from Afghanistan. Ashmolean.[20][14]
Importance of local Egyptian developments
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Naqada_III_Egyptian_Cosmetic_Palette%2C_end_of_4th_millenium%2C_found_in_Ascalon%2C_Louvre_Museum_AO_5359.jpg/220px-Naqada_III_Egyptian_Cosmetic_Palette%2C_end_of_4th_millenium%2C_found_in_Ascalon%2C_Louvre_Museum_AO_5359.jpg)
While there is clear evidence the Naqada II culture borrowed abundantly from Mesopotamia, there is also a commonly held view that many of the achievements of the later First Dynasty were also the result of a long period of indigenous cultural and political development.[38] Such developments are much older than the Naqada II period,[39] the Naqada II period had a large degree of continuity with the Naqada I period,[40] and the changes which did happen during the Naqada periods happened over significant amounts of time.[41]
Although there are many examples of Mesopotamian influence in Egypt in the 4th millennium BCE, the reverse is not true, and there are no traces of Egyptian influence in Mesopotamia at any time, clearly indicating a one way flow of ideas.[42] Only very few Egyptian Naqada period object have been found beyond Egypt, and generally in its vicinity, such as a rare Naqada III Egyptian cosmetic palette in the shape of a fish, of the end of 4th millennium BCE, found in Ashkelon or Gaza.[43]
Early Egyptologists such as Flinders Petrie were proponents of the Dynastic race theory which hypothesised that the first Egyptian chieftains and rulers were themselves of Mesopotamian origin,[44] but this view has been abandoned among modern scholars.[45][46]
The current position of modern scholarship is that the Egyptian civilization was an indigenous Nile Valley development and that the archaeological evidence "strongly supports an African origin"[47] of the ancient Egyptians.[45][48][49][50]
Development of writing (3500–3200 BCE)
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/Development_of_writing.jpg/370px-Development_of_writing.jpg)
It is generally thought that Egyptian hieroglyphs "came into existence a century or so after Sumerian script, and were probably invented under the influence of the latter",[54] and that it is "probable that the general idea of expressing words of a language in writing was brought to Egypt from Sumerian Mesopotamia".[55][56] The two writing systems are in fact quite similar in their initial stages, relying heavily on pictographic forms and then evolving a parallel system for the expression of phonetic sounds.[2]
Standard reconstructions of the development of writing generally place the development of the Sumerian proto-cuneiform script before the development of Egyptian hieroglyphs, with the strong suggestion the former influenced the latter.[51]
There is however a lack of direct evidence that Mesopotamian writing influenced Egyptian form, and "no definitive determination has been made as to the origin of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt".[57] Some scholars point out that "a very credible argument can also be made for the independent development of writing in Egypt..."[58] Since the 1990s, the discovery of glyphs on clay tags at Abydos, dated to between 3400 and 3200 BCE, may challenge the classical notion according to which the Mesopotamian symbol system predates the Egyptian one,[59][60][61] although perhaps tellingly, Egyptian writing does make a 'sudden' appearance at that time with no antecedents or precursors, while on the contrary Mesopotamia already had a long evolutionary history of sign usage in tokens dating back to circa 8000 BCE, followed by Proto-Cuneiform.[62][15] Pittman proposes that the Abydos clay tags are almost identical to contemporary clay tags from Uruk, Mesopotamia.[63]
Egyptian scholar Gamal Mokhtar argued that the inventory of hieroglyphic symbols derived from "fauna and flora used in the signs [which] are essentially African" and in "regards to writing, we have seen that a purely Nilotic, hence African origin not only is not excluded, but probably reflects the reality" although he acknowledged the geographical location of Egypt made it a receptacle for many influences.[64] According to Frank Yurco, "Egyptian writing arose in Naqadan Upper Egypt and A-Group Nubia, and not in the Delta cultures, where the direct Western Asian contact was made, further vitiates the Mesopotamian-influence argument".[65]
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Tablet with Mesopotamian proto-cuneiform pictographic characters (end of 4th millennium BCE), Uruk III.
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Mesopotamian pierced label, with symbol "EN" meaning "Master", the reverse of the plaque has the symbol for Goddess Inanna. Uruk circa 3000 BCE. Louvre Museum AO 7702
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Labels with some of the earliest Egyptian hieroglyphs from the tomb of Egyptian king Menes (3200–3000 BCE)
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Ivory plaque of Menes (3200–3000 BCE)
Egyptian influence on Mesopotamian art
[edit]After this early period of exchange, and the direct introduction of Mesopotamian components into Egyptian culture, Egypt soon started to assert its own style from the Early Dynastic Period (3150–2686 BCE), the Narmer palette being seen as a turning point.[68]
Egypt seems to have provided some artistic feedback to Mesopotamia at the time of the Early Dynastic Period of Mesopotamia (2900–2334 BCE).[67] This is especially the case with royal iconography: the figure of the king smiting his enemies with a mace, and the depiction of dead enemies being eaten by birds of prey appeared in Egypt from the time of the Narmer palette, and were then adopted centuries later (possibly from Egypt) by Mesopotamian rulers Eannatum and Sargon of Akkad.[67] This depiction appears to be part of an artistic system to promote "hegemonistic kingship".[67] Another example is the usage of decorated mace heads as a symbol of kingship.[67]
There is also a possibility that the depictions of the Mesopotamian king with a muscular, naked, upper body fighting his enemies in a quadrangular posture, as seen in the Stele of Naram-Sin or statues of Gudea (all circa 2000 BCE) were derived from Egyptian sculpture, which by that time had already been through its Golden Age during the Old Kingdom.[69]
Later periods
[edit]Trade of Indus goods through Mesopotamia
[edit]Etched carnelian beads
[edit]Rare etched carnelian bead have been found in Egypt, which are thought to have been imported from the Indus Valley civilization via Mesopotamian states of Sumer, Akkad and Assyria. This is related to the flourishing of the Indus Valley civilization, and the development of Indus-Mesopotamia relations from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE. Examples of etched carnelian beads found in Egypt typically date to the Late Middle Kingdom (c. 1800 BCE). They were found in tombs and represented luxury items, often as the centerpiece of jewelry.[70][71]
Hyksos period
[edit]Egypt records various exchanges with Semitic West Asian foreigners from around 1900 BCE, as in the paintings of the tomb of Khnumhotep II at Beni Hassan.
From circa 1650 BCE, the Hyksos, Semitic foreigners of Canaanite Levantine origin, established the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt (1650–1550 BCE) based at the city of Avaris in the Nile delta, from where they ruled the northern part of the country.[75][76] Khyan, one of the Hyksos rulers, is known for his wide-ranging contacts, as objects in his name have been found at Knossos and Hattusha indicating diplomatic contacts with the Minoans of Crete and the Hittites and Hurrians of Anatolia, and a sphinx with his name was bought on the art market at Baghdad and might demonstrate diplomatic contacts with the Mesopotamian states of Assyria and Babylonia, possibly with the first Kassites ruler Gandash.[77][78][79]
Exchanges would again flourish between the two cultures from the period of the New Kingdom of Egypt (c. 1550 – c. 1069 BCE) and the Middle Assyrian Empire (c. 1392 – c. 1025 BCE) this time an exchange between two mature and well-established civilizations. These exchanges also included tributes of gold paid to Assyrian kings during the 16th and 15th centuries BCE, in an attempt to ellicit their support in Egypt's conflict with the Hittite and Hurrian-Mitanni empires.[citation needed] Assyria eventually annexed much of the territory of the former, and completely destroyed the latter, and the growing power of Assyria may have been a factor in Egypt withdrawing from their Levantine colonies, which were subsequently annexed by the Middle Assyrian Empire which came to dominate Western Asia and the East Mediterranean. In the 11th century BCE the Assyrian king Ashur-bel-kala is known to have received a tribute of exotic animals and plants from Egypt for his Zoological and Botanical gardens in Assur.[citation needed]
Neo-Assyrian Empire
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d9/Egypto-Assyrian_cylinder_seal.jpg/220px-Egypto-Assyrian_cylinder_seal.jpg)
In the last phase of historic exchanges during the Neo-Assyrian Empire (935 BC-605 BCE), the Assyrian conquest of Egypt occurred, and Assyrian rule and influence lasted till 655 BCE.[80][81] after Assyria had invaded and conquered Egypt with remarkable speed, defeating and driving out the Nubian Kushite Empire, the 25th Dynasty of Egypt, which had provoked Assyria by repeatedly but unsuccessfully attempting to gain an influence in the Southern Levant and Northern Arabian Peninsula by instigating and supporting rebellions by Israelites, Judeans, Moabites, Edomites, Phoenicians and Arabs against Assyrian rule during the reigns of Shalmaneser IV, Sargon II and Sennacherib.
The Egyptian 26th Dynasty had been installed in 663 BCE as native puppet rulers by the Assyrians after the destruction and deportation of the foreign Nubians of the 25th Dynasty by king Esarhaddon and then came under the dominion of his successors Ashurbanipal. However, during the fall of the Neo Assyrian Empire between 612 and 599 BCE, Egypt attempted to aid its former masters probably due to the fear that without a strong Assyrian buffer they too would be overrun, having already been raided by marauding Scythians. As a result, Egypt came into conflict with Assyria's fellow Mesopotamian state of Babylonia, which along with the Medes, Persians, Chaldeans, Cimmerians and Scythians, amongst others, were fighting to throw off Assyrian rule, and Pharaoh Necho II fought alongside the last Assyrian emperor Ashur-uballit II (612-c.605 BCE) against Nabopolassar, Cyaxares and their allies for a time. After the Assyrian Empire fell, Egypt engaged in a number of conflicts with Babylonia during the late 7th and early 6th century BCE in the Levant, before being driven from the region by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylonia.
Achaemenid Empire
[edit]The Achaemenid Empire, though Iranic and not Mesopotamian, was heavily influenced by Mesopotamia in its art, architecture, written script and civil administration, the Persians having previously been subjects of Assyria for centuries, invaded Egypt and established satrapies, founding the Achaemenid Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt (525–404 BCE) and Thirty-first Dynasty of Egypt (343–332 BCE).
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Egyptian statue of Darius I
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Darius as Pharaoh of Egypt at the Temple of Hibis
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Jar of Xerxes I, with his name in hieroglyphs and cuneiform
See also
[edit]- Indus–Mesopotamia relations
- Ancient Egypt
- Fertile Crescent
- Mesopotamia
- Neolithic Revolution
- Sumer
- Assyria
- Babylonia
- Archaeogenetics of the Near East
References
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- ^ a b Mitchell, Larkin. "Earliest Egyptian Glyphs". Archaeology. Archaeological Institute of America. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
- ^ a b "Site officiel du musée du Louvre". cartelfr.louvre.fr.
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- ^ a b Conference, William Foxwell Albright Centennial (1996). The Study of the Ancient Near East in the Twenty-first Century: The William Foxwell Albright Centennial Conference. Eisenbrauns. p. 14. ISBN 9780931464966.
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- ^ "Because the reverse is not true, namely there is no trace of an Egyptian presence in Mesopotamia at that time, all seems to point to a flow of ideas from Mesopotamia to Egypt." "Earliest Egyptian Glyphs – Archaeology Magazine Archive". archive.archaeology.org.
- ^ Louvre Museum AO 5359 Miroschedji, Pierre de. Une palette égyptienne prédynastique du sud de la plaine côtière d'Israël.
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- ^ *Pg84-85 "major burial sites of those founding locales of ancient Egypt in the fourth millennium BCE, notably El-Badari as well as Naqada, show no demographic indebtedness to the Levant. They reveal instead a population with cranial and dental features with closest parallels to those of other longtime populations of the surrounding areas of northeastern Africa, such as Nubia and the northern Horn of Africa".Ehret, Christopher (20 June 2023). Ancient Africa: A Global History, to 300 CE. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 83–86, 167–169. ISBN 978-0-691-24409-9.
- ^ Smith, Stuart Tyson (2001). Redford, Donald (ed.). The Oxford encyclopedia of ancient Egypt. Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. pp. 27–28.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Zakrzewski, Sonia R. (2003). Population continuity or population change: Formation of the ancient Egyptian state. Highfield, Southampton: Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton.
- ^ Shomarka Keita and A.J. Boyce "The Geographic and Origins and Population Relationships of Early Ancient Egyptians". Celenko Theodore (ed). (1996). Egypt in Africa. Indianapolis, Ind.: Indianapolis Museum of Art. pp. 20–33. ISBN 0936260645.
- ^ a b Barraclough, Geoffrey; Stone, Norman (1989). The Times Atlas of World History. Hammond Incorporated. p. 53. ISBN 9780723003045.
- ^ Senner, Wayne M. (1991). The Origins of Writing. University of Nebraska Press. p. 77. ISBN 9780803291676.
- ^ Boudreau, Vincent (2004). The First Writing: Script Invention as History and Process. Cambridge University Press. p. 71. ISBN 9780521838610.
- ^ Geoffrey Sampson (1 January 1990). Writing Systems: A Linguistic Introduction. Stanford University Press. pp. 78–. ISBN 978-0-8047-1756-4. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
- ^ Geoffrey W. Bromiley (June 1995). The international standard Bible encyclopedia. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 1150–. ISBN 978-0-8028-3784-4. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
- ^ Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards, et al., The Cambridge Ancient History (3d ed. 1970) pp. 43–44.
- ^ Robert E. Krebs; Carolyn A. Krebs (December 2003). Groundbreaking scientific experiments, inventions, and discoveries of the ancient world. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 91–. ISBN 978-0-313-31342-4. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
- ^ Simson Najovits, Egypt, Trunk of the Tree: A Modern Survey of an Ancient Land, Algora Publishing, 2004, pp. 55–56.
- ^ "And recent finds at Abydos that have pushed back the date of writing in Egypt, making it contemporaneous with the Mesopotamian invention, further undermine the old assumption that writing arose in Egypt under Sumerian influence."Woods, Christopher (2010). Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond. Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. p. 16.
- ^ "“The world’s earliest known writing systems emerged at more or less the same time, around 3300 bc, in Egypt and Mesopotamia (today’s Iraq).”"Teeter, Emily (2011). Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization. Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. p. 99.
- ^ "Although it was once thought that the idea of writing came to Egypt from Mesopotamia, recent discoveries indicate that writing arose first in Egypt."Allen, James P. (2010). Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs. Cambridge University Press. p. 2. ISBN 9781139486354.
- ^ a b "The seal impressions, from various tombs, date even further back, to 3400 B.C. These dates challenge the commonly held belief that early logographs, pictographic symbols representing a specific place, object, or quantity, first evolved into more complex phonetic symbols in Mesopotamia." Mitchell, Larkin. "Earliest Egyptian Glyphs". Archaeology. Archaeological Institute of America. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
- ^ Conference, William Foxwell Albright Centennial (1996). The Study of the Ancient Near East in the Twenty-first Century: The William Foxwell Albright Centennial Conference. Eisenbrauns. p. –24–25. ISBN 9780931464966.
- ^ Ancient Civilizations of Africa Vol 2 (Unesco General History of Africa (abridged)) (Abridged ed.). London [England]: J. Currey. 1990. pp. 11–12. ISBN 0852550928.
- ^ Frank J.Yurco (1996). "The Origin and Development of Ancient Nile Valley Writing," in Egypt in Africa, Theodore Celenko (ed). Indianapolis, Ind.: Indianapolis Museum of Art. pp. 34–35. ISBN 0-936260-64-5.
- ^ Conference, William Foxwell Albright Centennial (1996). The Study of the Ancient Near East in the Twenty-first Century: The William Foxwell Albright Centennial Conference. Eisenbrauns. p. –24–25. ISBN 9780931464966.
- ^ a b c d e f Hartwig, Melinda K. (2014). A Companion to Ancient Egyptian Art. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 428–429. ISBN 9781444333503.
- ^ Hartwig, Melinda K. (2014). A Companion to Ancient Egyptian Art. John Wiley & Sons. p. 428. ISBN 9781444333503.
- ^ Hartwig, Melinda K. (2014). A Companion to Ancient Egyptian Art. John Wiley & Sons. p. 430. ISBN 9781444333503.
- ^ Grajetzki, Wolfram (2014). "Tomb 197 at Abydos, Further Evidence for Long Distance Trade in the Middle Kingdom". Ägypten und Levante / Egypt and the Levant. 24: 159–170. doi:10.1553/s159. JSTOR 43553796.
- ^ Stevenson, Alice (2015). Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology: Characters and Collections. UCL Press. p. 54. ISBN 9781910634042.
- ^ Van de Mieroop, Marc (2011). A History of Ancient Egypt. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 131. ISBN 9781405160704.
- ^ Bard 2015, p. 188.
- ^ Kamrin, Janice (2009). "The Aamu of Shu in the Tomb of Khnumhotep II at Beni Hassan". Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections. 1 (3). S2CID 199601200.
- ^ Mieroop, Marc Van De (2010). A History of Ancient Egypt. John Wiley & Sons. p. 131. ISBN 978-1-4051-6070-4.
- ^ Bard, Kathryn A. (2015). An Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. John Wiley & Sons. p. 188. ISBN 978-1-118-89611-2.
- ^ Rohl, David (2010). The Lords Of Avaris. Random House. p. 216. ISBN 978-1-4070-1092-2.
- ^ Weigall, Arthur E. P. Brome (2016). A History of the Pharaohs. Cambridge University Press. p. 188. ISBN 978-1-108-08291-4.
- ^ "Statue British Museum". The British Museum.
- ^ Roux, Georges (1992). Ancient Iraq (Third ed.). London: Penguin book. p. 332. ISBN 978-0-14-012523-8.
- ^ "The Late period (664–332 BCE)".