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Monday, February 8, 2021

Environmental change may have played a role at the dawn of Egyptian history - here's how (by Benjamin T. Pennington)

Title:
Environmental change may have played a role at the dawn of Egyptian history - here's how
 
Author:
Benjamin T. Pennington
Visiting Fellow in Geoarchaeology, University of Southhampton 

Published:
The Conversation, 4 February 2021

From the article:
Around 5,000 years ago (c. 3100 BC), what we know today as Ancient Egypt came into existence. A thousand years either side, and other such “primary states” had also arisen across the world, in Mesopotamia, North China, the Indus Valley and other locations.  
 
But why did human social dynamics change so dramatically in such a relatively short space of time? Why did we stop living in smaller communities and come together into cities and “civilisations”?