These folks are looking at the Palette of Narmer, commemorating Upper Egypt's (the southern part of the country - it's UPriver) conquest of Lower Egypt. It is from 3000 BC. To put this in perspective, if the 5000 years between when this made and today were a year and this was made in January and today were January of the following year, the last Egyptian dynasty ended in mid-July, the Fall of the Roman Empire would have occurred in mid-September, the Norman Invasion of Britain in October, the Renaissance in November, and the American revolution happened about two weeks ago. In other words, this artifact relates to a events much, much earlier than what we consider relevant cultural history.

© Monica & Mark Hughes 2000-02