2. Until the completion of the Aswan Dam (1968), the Nile always flooded yearly, creating floodplains and leaving alluvial mineral deposits in the downstream soil which made it very fertile for growing a variety of crops.
3. Agriculture, first and foremost, presented the Egyptian and Nubian societies with the best chance not only of survival, but of flourishing and developing into the regional powers they eventually would become. …show more content…
4. and 5.
Ruling Styles – Early Egyptian society (inclusive of the Nubians) was comprised of small kingdoms, most likely ruled by what were perceived to be divine or semi-divine rulers. In the latter half of the fourth millennium B.C.E., mostly via a series of land-grabbing skirmishes and wars, many of these small kingdoms (exclusive of Nubia) were absorbed into larger controlled territories, which were eventually unified into a single entity. This is thought to have been accomplished primarily by the conqueror Menes in about 3100 B.C.E. He, and those who came after him, established a pharaonic state. The concept of divinity of the kingship – a pharaoh was considered to be a god, both a symbol on Earth of the sun-god Amon and eventually, in death, a part of the god which would return to it in the afterlife – likely arose from the aforementioned belief system which probably existed among the post-Sudanic peoples. In Egypt this constituted the primacy of the Old Kingdom, which lasted until its decline and eventual disappearance between …show more content…
Of particular interest to me was the part you mentioned about more recent DNA testing, and how it has indicated that he not only was the product of an incestuous union, but also likely participated in one with his own half-sister. I 'll have to read more up on that, as I hadn 't heard anything about it