Until the 7^th-6^th millennium b.C. Egypt was characterized by a wet climate and a luxuriant subtropical vegetation

The areas covered with woods and hills (now subject to desertification), were a hunting ground. It took millenniums before the Nile, whose climate was originally  torrential , hollowed its bed carrying benefits to the Egyptian soil.

For a long time valleys had been definitely inhospitable and covered with lagoons and unhealthy swamps.

There are very few testimonies of the Palaeolithic Age.

About Mesolithic Age, period in which climate got drier, richer findings can be found , in Helwan, Kom Ombo and in the oasis of Laqueita.

The Sahara Plateau, apart from a few oasis, had become inhabitable, and this pushed the populations towards the Nile valley, which had slowly been taking its current look.

The findings in the areas of Merimda, Beni, Salama and Faiyum show that in the Neolithic Age economy was based on breeding and agriculture, and tombs had rich funerary outfits, amulets and ornamental objects.

Decorated ceramics, spears, smooth axes and arrows date back to the same period.

The Egyptian Eneolithic is usually divided into three main periods.

-          The Badarian Civilization, based on an agricultural and pastoral economy and characterized by the presence of tools made of stone, bone, shell and copper, and ceramics. Necropolis, in which female statuettes, vases and palettes have been found, lie far from villages.

-          The Age of Naquada I, in which not only Nubian influences, but also Asian ones, are evident. Some pictures of dogs might prove the worship of Seth, the first sarcophagi appear and, as in the Pharaohs Age, in the Upper Egypt bodies are buried with their head eastward.

-          The Age of Naqada II, in which the use of copper gets more and more silver and silver appears. The presence of Mesopotamian iconography elements on Egyptian objects let us suppose that Asian populations had invaded the Nile valley.