War and peace in predynastic and early dynastic Egypt

The process of formation of the first state in ancient Egypt was very long. From chiefdoms to regional, and then all-Egyptian kings, the entire predynastic period took place, from the 4th millennium B.C., when the Nagada culture developed in Southern Egypt. The largest were local territories in Hierakonpolis, Nagada and Abydos. Already in the Nagada I phase, there were social elites under a leader - in chiefdoms, and in the Nagada II phase, institutions of regional kings arose in social property societies. In protodynastic times, during the Nagada III phase, significant changes occurred. The leaders of Hierakonpolis, Nagada and Abydos became the collectors of all Egyptian lands, assimilating the Lower Nile. For a long time in Egyptology, it was believed that already in early times there were two kingdoms in Egypt: The Northern in Lower Egypt and the Southern in the Nile Valley. The Palermo Stone depicts the red-crowned kings of Lower Egypt. And in a fragment from the Cairo Museum, they are already wearing a double crown: the white crown of Southern Egypt is inserted into the red crown of the Lower. And this is evidence of the unification of Egypt into a single kingdom. But who were these first Egyptian kings? Modern archaeological excavations in combination with long-known artifacts allow us to reinterpret these dark pages of the creation of the first dual state. It is believed that the Lower Egypt was annexed to Upper Egypt in protodynastic times. In this article, the author hypothesizes that from late predynastic times, the Northern Kingdom was headed by elites who were appointed by the king of a united Egypt.