Early Egypt (Room 64)

The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Gallery

3100 - 2600 BC

Rapid advances in the technology and social organisation of Egypt during the fifth millennium BC produced a material culture of increasing sophistication. Further innovations followed in about 3100 BC when the separate Predynastic peoples of upper and lower Egypt were united under a single ruler. The resulting increase in wealth and strong central control led to dramatic achievements in architecture, writing and fine goods, culminating in the building of the Great Pyramids of Giza in around 2600 BC.

Objects on display in Room 64 illustrate the cultural, technological and political development of early civilisation in Egypt throughout this period.

Image captions (clockwise from top left):

Ivory figure of a woman with incised features around 4000 BC

The Battlefield Palette around 3150 BC

Limestone relief slab from the tomb of Rehotep around 2600 BC

Ivory label for King Den's sandals around 2985 BC