7/21/2019 Egyptian of the First Dynasty

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Egyptian of the first dynasty

Egyptian of the first dynasty regarded his king as a demi-god to be actually deified after his death, andthis point of view was not changed throughout the stages of later Egyptian history. In point of art,

marvellous advances upon the skill of the prehistoric man had been made, probably in part underAsiatic influences, and that unique style of stilted yet expressive drawing had come into vogue, which

was to be remembered in after times as typically Egyptian. More important than all else, our Egyptianof the earliest historical period was in possession of the art of writing. He had begun to make thosespecific records which were impossible to the man of the Stone Age, and thus he had entered fully

upon the way of historical progress which, as already pointed out, has its very foundation in writtenrecords. From now on the deeds of individual kings could find specific record. It began to be possible

to fix the chronology of remote events with some accuracy; and with this same fixing of chronologiescame the advent of true history. The period which precedes what is usually spoken of as the first

dynasty in Egypt is one into which the present-day searcher is still able to see but darkly. The evidenceseems to suggest than an invasion of relatively cultured people from the East overthrew, and in time

supplanted, the Neolithic civilization of the Nile Valley. It is impossible to date this invasion

accurately, but it cannot well have been later than the year 5000 B.C., and it may have been a great

many centuries earlier than this. Be the exact dates what they may, we find the Egyptian of the fifthmillennium B.C. in full possession of a highly organized civilization.