Stone tools from the gravel beds of Upper Egypt attest to the presence of hunter-gathering hominids in the area over 250,000 years ago, when the Sahara was a savannah that supported zebras, elephants and other game. Drastic climatic changes late in the Paleolithic era (c.25,000 BC) caused widespread desertification , which compelled the nomadic tribes to settle around the Nile and the oases . While most still lived by hunting and fishing, a primitive pastoral and agricultural life emerged even before cereal cultivation, sheep and goat herding filtered through from the Near East (c.7000 BC).

 

During the Neolithic era, Middle Egypt and the Delta had settled communities that cultivated wheat and flax, herded flocks and wove linen. Although some reverted to a nomadic lifestyle after the rains of the Neolithic era checked the process of desertification, others remained to develop into agricultural societies.