[slurry]

4000 years old and it's already the Fifth Dynasty. In another professional life I was a classicist, and I thought I dealt with old stuff there, but Egypt is just so impossibly ancient it makes the Greeks look like a bunch of Johnny Come Latelies. Deep time...

[icxa]

Forgetting about the Minonian and Cycladic civilizations? Greek mainland didn't develop until later, naturally, but it started in the thousands of little islands, the Aegean archipelago, and the big one, Crete. The Minonians had established trade routes with the Egyptians during the 5th dynasty, IIRC. DNA evidence revealed they were there as early as 9000 B.C., with cultural influence between the Minonians and Egyptians going both ways.

[peter303]

Not until there was writing. The Egyptians had writing 5200 years ago compared to Linear A 3800 years ago.

[toyg]

It's all about the Big Rivers - Nile, Euphrates, Huang He... they fed complex human civilizations thousands of years before the rise of Mediterranean tribes.

[schrectacular]

And the Amazon! We just haven't discovered it yet.

[fit2rule]

Meh. Göbekli Tepe called, it wants the kids to learn how to cultivate a lawn, and then .. get off it.