Badarian civilization (circa 5,000 BC — circa 4,000 BC)

The Badarian culture is the first farming culture in Upper Egypt. The Badarian people already used metal and they produced the first glazed objects. They lived in small villages in Upper Egypt. Settlements seem to be occupied only for a short times.

The Badarian economy was based mostly on agriculture, fishing and animal husbandry. Tools included end-scrapers, perforators, axes, bifacial sickles and concave-base arrowheads.

There are the similarities of the Badarian lithic industries with those of the north, especially when considering the bifacial hollow-based arrowheads, sickles and axes, as well as the emerging specialized blade industry, which may have originated in the north. On the other hand, the Badarian can also be characterized by new technologies, such as the flake-blade industry of endscrapers, perforators and the like.

Evidence for craft specialization can already be found in the Badarian period, around 4400–3900 bc. At that time, some of the pottery was of such high quality that it seems beyond the possibility that it was produced at a household level.

Badarian civilization (circa 5,000 BC — circa 4,000 BC)