More Mistakes from the Museum of Art and Archeology, University of Missouri

From the wall next to the display at the Museum of Art and Archeology located in Columbia at the University of Missouri, the information on the exhibit states:

"During the Predynastic period (about 4,000-3000BC) the people of the Nile Valley posessed an advanced Neolithic culture that included monumental architecture, invention of metalworking, establishment of Egyptian artistic style, and the beginning of writing...{A}bout 3000BC...{Egypt} united into a kingdom under one ruler."

Let's dissect this, shall we?

One--Nubians were already mining gold and other materials and people from what we now call Egypt were raiding and/or trading with Nubians to get materials.

Two--Pottery began in Nubia. Pottery discovered as old as 8,000BC is found in Nubia. The Nubian pottery is significantly marked and easy to identify as Nubian. The artistic style mentioned above is really a Nubian influence even if it made its way to Naqada.

Three--Nubian and the Nubian A-group already had a structured civilization during this period.

The above arguments gain strength when you read other entries in this blog. Nonetheless, Dr. Larry Ross from Lincoln University is one of the sources I am citing for mumbers one and two.

The second paragraph is even more skewed:

"The Middle Kingdom (about 1540-1075BC) produced a flowering of Egyptian literature and Egypt's first imperialistic expansion into Nubia."

Before Egypt was Egypt, there was what I and a few other scholars call the 0 Dynasty. This is the time when Nubians joined the forces of the Scorpion King and others to unify Egypt into what we now know as Egypt. We're talking 3,500-3,150BC. Furthermore, the influence of the Nubians on Egypt is felt in a number of ways--from pottery to metalworking to the mining of gold to religion to opening trade routes from the central parts of Africa to the sites of what we know as modern Egypt.

Furthermore, Egypt needed the trade routes with Nubia for much of its supplies--including gold and other minerals.

In other words, the land we now know as Egypt was already involved in imperialistic acts towards Nubia for thousands of years. (Remember: the Nubians who joined the armies of the Scorpion King came from Nubia to help unify Egypt.)