The Predynastic period of Egypt is the period that culminates in the rise of the Old Kingdom and the first of the thirty dynasties based on royal residences, by which Egyptologists divide the history of Pharaonic civilization, using a schedule laid out first by Manetho's Aegyptaica. While many authorities begin this prehistoric period with the Naqada culture, some place its beginnings in the Lower Paleolithic.
The structure of the nomes into which Egypt was divided, predates the First Dynasty, and there are inscriptions of pre-dynastic kings such as Narmer.
Early excavations of pre-dynastic sites were pursued in the 19th century at Naqada, Abydos, Coptos and Hierakonpolis .
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