(1) _The Pre-Dynastic Period_, which we suppose extended from about 5000 B. C., or earlier, until about 3400 B. C., is the period before that covered by Manetho’s dynasties. At the beginning of this period Egypt was divided into 42 districts, which the Egyptians called _spt_ or _ḥsp_, and which the Greeks afterwards called _nomes_. Each nome was occupied by a different tribe, which at the first lived in isolation from the other tribes. Each tribe had its god, to which an animal was sacred. This condition prevailed for so many centuries that the customs of this time became permanently fixed. The sacredness of these animals continued right down to Roman times. During this period the dead were buried on their sides with the knees drawn up to the chin; (see Fig. 8). The Egyptians of this period lived partly by hunting, partly by fishing, and partly by agriculture. From objects found in their tombs we infer that they used stone implements, wore a great many beads, made implements and combs of bone, made decorated pottery, constructed boats for use on the Nile and fitted sails to them, and each tribe had its own standard or emblem. Of course, during the centuries when Egypt was so politically divided there were many wars between nome and nome. After some centuries, through the conquest of one nome by another, these 42 nomes were consolidated into two kingdoms. The 20 nomes of the Delta formed the kingdom of Lower Egypt; the 22 nomes, which were ranged along the Nile from Cairo to the First Cataract, formed the kingdom of Upper Egypt. The symbol of Upper Egypt was a papyrus plant; that of Lower Egypt, the bee. The crown of Upper Egypt was a kind of tall helmet; that of Lower Egypt, a diadem of openwork; (see Figs. 2, 3, and 4). At what period this union of the nomes into two kingdoms occurred, we can only conjecture. Probably it was as early as 4200 or 4300 B. C. At all events, the two kingdoms existed separately for so long a time that their memory was ever afterward preserved. To the end of Egyptian history the kings bore the title, “king of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt.” Even in the Hebrew of the Old Testament the name for Egypt is literally “The two Egypts.” In this long pre-dynastic period the people were gradually emerging from savagery toward civilization. They were solving the initial problems of civilized life. According to Meyer and Breasted the people of Lower Egypt had progressed far enough before 4200 B. C. to invent a calendar which approximately coincided with the solar year.