adjective
definition
Before the time of a dynasty
Examples of predynastic in a Sentence
We find an illustration of this in the fact that a red and black pottery, obviously akin to the predynastic Egyptian, but of finer make, was manufactured in Nubia in the time of the XII.
Elliot Smith has shown 7 the existence of the two racial stocks in Egypt, the predynastic Nilotic and the invading "Armenoid " from Asia, the man of higher cranial capacity to whom the blossoming of the Egyptian civilization and art out of primitive African barbarism is to be ascribed.
The object is of Egyptian workmanship, representing this powerful deity of the foreign sea people with whom the predynastic Nilotes no doubt often fought.
Flint and chert were employed for knives, etc., but with none of the marvellous skill and artistry of the predynastic Egyptian flint-knapper; the early Babylonian used comparatively simple flakes and the wonderful serration of the Egyptian knives was unknown to him though he made the saw-blades.
An important piece of evidence on this point has recently come to light in the shape of the carved hippopotamus-tusk handle of an Egyptian predynastic stone knife, said to have been found in the Wadi el 'Araq, on the right bank of the Nile opposite Nag`Hamadi, and now in the Louvre.23 On this remarkable object, which is certainly of predynastic Egyptian date (before 3500 B.C.), we see representations of early Egyptians and perhaps other tribes fighting, with ships, some like those represented on the Egyptian predynastic pots and others different, with high prows and sterns, and we also see a strange deity of Babylonian aspect.
Reisner & Firth have shown that the early culture of Nubia was closely akin to that of the predynastic Egyptians, which no doubt came from the south.