Closest Contact. Probably the area of the ancient Near East to which the Egyptians traveled most often was Syria-Palestine, their neighbor to the immediate northeast. Inhabitants of this region were constantly coming into Egypt as well. Many of these people were nomads who were attracted to Egypt during times when climatic or political conditions in Syria-Palestine made life there difficult.

Earliest Contacts. It seems clear that contacts with Syria-Palestine began before the pharaoh Narmer created a united Egyptian state. The lower Egyptian site of Maadi (named for a nearby suburb of modern Cairo) showed that between 3600 and 3000 B.C.E., Lower Egyptians were heavily involved in trade with both Sinai and southern Palestine. Remains of houses at Maadi suggest that the buildings were similar to houses built in southern Palestine and point to the possibility that foreign traders lived there. Ceramics from...