Before The Egyptians: The Gradeschool Book

Before The Egyptians

By Graeme Boyce

Before The Egyptians Once upon a time, during our last Ice Age, about 65 million years after the dinosaurs had disappeared, many people lived around the Earth’s lush and fertile equatorial belt.

Before The Egyptians They lived together in coastal communities, communities and explored, settled and traded across the continents for thousands of years before disaster changed everything.

Before The Egyptians The huge glaciers that had slowly covered the Northern and Southern hemispheres for a hundred thousand years one day began to suddenly melt. melt

Before The Egyptians This mysterious global catastrophe also caused the overnight extinction of large mammals like the Sabre Tooth Cat, Giant Ground Sloth and Wooly Mammoth. Mammoth

Before The Egyptians People who had once lived happily together exploring their bodies, their world and their universe now had to move – again and again – in order to survive.

Before The Egyptians As volcanoes, earthquakes and tidal waves continued to devastate their lands, survivors among them knew they must adapt without the benefit of progress once enjoyed by all.

Before The Egyptians The remaining intelligentsia, who had been previously mapping the revolving skies for many generations, warned of greater destruction in the years to come.

Before The Egyptians Entrusted travelers were sent to notify any other survivors and ensure that the human race would not suffer the same fate caused by celestial objects both aligning and impacting.

Before The Egyptians Some searched high ground and some took to the sea, sea disappearing over the horizon in the hopes of one day finding stability.

Before The Egyptians A knowledge of astronomy enabled messengers to circumnavigate the world, world but as leaders vanished, so did their accumulated knowledge of the arts and sciences. sciences

Before The Egyptians Over several generations the melting Ice Age caused ocean levels to rise globally and people would find no coast safe. safe

Before The Egyptians While living in caves, caves children would hear stories of a great past, about wonderful cities of buildings, gods and palaces. palaces

Before The Egyptians They all chipped stone to make the most rudimentary but effective tools and weapons, weapons and to keep their fires burning brightly day and night.

Before The Egyptians Eventually sons and daughters bundled reeds together and sat atop logs to float across water, water one day harnessing the powerful wind and currents.

Before The Egyptians Many millennia after the Ice Age had begun to recede, Ice Dams that retained massive glacial lakes finally collapsed. collapsed

Before The Egyptians Without warning, violently and quickly, enormous floods swept away anything in their paths, leaving nothing alive in their wake. Only the very lucky survived. survived

Before The Egyptians For many centuries those who did survive foraged and fought for food, food shelter and knowledge; some found evidence of their former civilizations along the way.

Before The Egyptians Eventually, they began to manage other people, people as people do, and new cities were raised and new economies born.

Before The Egyptians Some farmed, farmed some fished and some hunted to feed their growing communities; their best taught, and their leaders became kings. kings

Before The Egyptians Administrators and ambassadors alike spread their vision and expertise far and wide, developing loyal citizens and feared armies to enforce their expansionist interests.

Before The Egyptians There are many individual stories of pain and bravery, of love and sacrifice, brutality and fanaticism; but mostly of luck and timing. timing

Before The Egyptians Among the “list of suddenlies” that appear in the human record are: alphabets, alphabets language, laws and literature; pigments and paintings, paintings sculpture and architecture; architecture threads, sewing weaving and fabrics; fabrics irrigation, farming and agriculture; agriculture mining, smelting and jewelry; jewelry mythology, history and religion; arithmetic, geometry and commerce; navigation and astronomy.

Before The Egyptians The ancient Egyptians revered gods who had found and brought forward the wisdom of the long-ago ages before the first Pharaoh was crowned, perhaps one day while beachcombing or chasing a rabbit. rabbit