(ORDO NEWS) — It seems to many that the history of Egypt is rooted in time immemorial. But exactly how old is ancient Egypt ?
To give an unambiguous answer to this question, it is necessary to clearly define what we mean by ancient Egypt.
The answer to that question depends on how you define ancient Egypt, said Aidan Dodson, professor of Egyptology at the University of Bristol in the UK.
“If you mean a civilization that included the reign of the pharaohs , a language that was written in hieroglyphs, and a religion that was finally replaced by Christianity, then it started around 3100 BC and ended around 400 AD”.
That is, according to the professor, the ancient Egyptian civilization existed for 3500 years .
Boston University Professor Emeritus of Archeology and Classical Studies Katherine Bard has suggested a similar date.
“The state of the pharaohs began around 3000 [BC],” However, people lived in Egypt long before 3000 BC.
“The oldest known human presence in the Nile Valley is [estimated] at about 400,000 years ago,” wrote Pierre Vermeersch, professor of geography at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), in his book Paleolithic Dwellings in Upper and Middle Egypt.
Agriculture in Egypt dates back to around 5000 BC, writes Sally Katari, a professor of Egyptology at Laurentian University in Ontario, in The Encyclopedia of Ancient History.
By 4100 B.C. in some parts of Egypt, permanent agricultural villages were established, operating all year round, Katari wrote.
Some permanent settlements eventually developed into cities.
Naqada and Hierakonpolis became important urban centers between 3500 and 3000 BC, writes Professor Emeritus of Egyptian Archeology at the University of Liverpool Stephen Snape in his book The Complete Cities of Ancient Egypt.
Around 3100 B.C. Egypt was united under the rule of the pharaoh, and a written language called hieroglyphs was created.
The Egyptian priest Manetho, who lived thousands of years later, around the third century BC, reported that the first ruler of a united Egypt was a king named Menes.
However, modern scholars debate the exact identity of Menes and the accuracy of Manetho’s claim.
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