lease, turning them from enemies into loyal peaceful foreign-
ers. Other examples of colonization are to be found outside
Egypt. In Nubia forts with citadels were built, including Buhen
or Semna, and Egyptians were settled there, mainly during the
Middle Kingdom (2040–1640 b.c.e.).
Th e ancient Egyptians were able administrators. While
Egypt’s power and wealth declined during certain periods, in
general Egypt’s pharaohs recruited a capable bureaucracy for
administering the aff airs of the nation, including tax collec-
tion, land surveying, construction supervision, water man-
agement, and the like. Th ese activities required small armies
of trained and educated functionaries to move about the
country, establishing settlements, organizing the administra-
tive aff airs of the nomes, overseeing activities in village and
settlements, importing labor forces (including slaves), and
similar activities.
MIGRATION IN THE PREDYNASTIC PERIOD
Th e development of Egypt cannot be adequately compre-
hended without a view to its changing position within sev-
eral existing networks, especially communication and trade
with large areas of the ancient world, including northeast Af-
rica, southwest Asia, and the eastern Mediterranean. At all
times—especially during periods when Egypt’s power was at
its height and the state was highly organized, Egypt acted like
a magnet on its neighbors. Th e direction of this eff ect varied,
but the pull was strong.
Contacts with other areas began in the fi ft h millennium
b.c.e. At that time Egypt was not unifi ed into the states of
Upper and Lower Egypt. Upper Egypt toward Middle Egypt
formed a unit around modern-day Khartoum, while Lower
Egypt had a diff erent social and cultural structure. Th e
distinction between the Nile Valley and Lower Egypt was
more salient than that between the Nile Valley and Sudan.
Whether there were large-scale migrations between the Nile
Valley and the eastern and western desert is not certain, but
large amounts of products and resources from the desert ar-
eas found in the valley suggest regular networks of exchange,
possibly combined with migration movements.
Such intensive contacts through trade and cultural ex-
change provided advantages to nomads, who continued to
populate the region. Th e clearest evidence for these con-
tacts derives from Neolithic burials rather than settlements.
Such fi ndings provided the earliest clear images of art that
can be dated as well as ritual treatments of human and ani-
mal bodies. Around 3500 b.c.e. close trade contacts existed
between South Canaan and the Lower Egyptian culture of
Maadi-Buto, followed by settlements of these people in each
other’s cultural area. Locally produced Egyptian pottery has
been found in South Canaan, while Canaan houses have been
found in Egypt.
With the start of the age of pyramid building begin-
ning with Djoser in the Th ird Dynasty (2630–2611 b.c.e.),
the number of men recruited to build visible signs of dra-
matically improved knowledge, better organization, and cen-
tralization of the state increased enormously. Th e infl ux of
more and more foreigners aft er the end of the Th ird Dynasty
brought cheap manpower. Settlements of Nubians during the
Fourth Dynasty can be demonstrated. Th ere is less informa-
tion available for the Old Kingdom (2575–2134 b.c.e.) than
for later periods.
Climate change played a marked role in the movement of
ancient Egyptian peoples. For the past 5,000 years the Sahara
has been a harsh, forbidding desert, unsuitable for farming
and supporting only a very small population of nomads and
herders. Running through this desert is the Nile River, a thin
but fertile lifeline. Th e Sahara, though, has not always been
this way. Until about 3000 b.c.e. large portions of the Sahara
were savanna grassland. Th is grassland supported a relatively
large population of herders and farmers. As the land became
dryer, perhaps in part the result of overgrazing and too much
cultivation, the desert began to expand. Large numbers of
people could no longer make a living in the relentlessly ex-
panding desert. While many of these people moved south or
relocated to the northern coast of Africa, many others moved
into the Nile River valley, which provided them with fertile
alluvial soil that supported agriculture. In this way, the popu-
lation of ancient Egypt became more concentrated in a nar-
row strip of land bordering the river.
Th is early movement of peoples raises a larger question:
Who, really, could claim to be “Egyptian” at that time? Being
Egyptian was not a matter of race. Th e people who inhabited
the Nile Valley during the Dynastic Period were for the most
part not indigenous people who had lived in the area from
time immemorial. Rather, ancient Egypt was a melting pot
of peoples from around the larger region: nomadic herders
and traders from the desert, people from the countries of the
Near East and Mesopotamia, and Africans from other parts
of the continent.EGYPT AND NUBIA
Any discussion of population movements of Egyptians has to
include Egypt’s relations with Nubia to Egypt’s south. While
the Nubians technically were not Egyptian, the close contact
that developed over time “Egyptianized” the Nubians to the
e x t e nt t h at it wou ld h ave b e e n d i ffi cult to distinguish a Nubian
from an Egyptian. During one portion of its history, Egypt
was ruled by pharaohs from Nubia, and many of Nubia’s cul-
tural institutions, including government, art, pyramids, and
funerary practices, were virtually indistinguishable from
those of Egypt. In time, the cultural contacts between Egypt
and Nubia became so extensive that Nubia and Egypt became
essentially one. Th at process, though, took time.
Th roughout much of its early history Egypt existed in
relative isolation from its neighbors. Th e Nile Valley was bor-
dered on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, and marshland
imposed an obstacle to access to the sea. On the east and west
the fertile valley was bordered by desert. Th e only direction in
which Egyptians showed any inclination to move was to the
south, into the interior of the African continent.migration and population movements: Egypt 695