Abstract
We have tended to view predynastic Egypt as a dark and distant place where no writings illuminate the lives of these primitive peoples. In spite of this view, there exists a wealth of information about them encoded on the cultural products of painted pottery. The basic problem in interpreting the art of predynastic cultures in Egypt is that the painted scenes contain unfamiliar pictorial elements. This difficulty in decoding pictural details has led us to see a haphazard approach in the compositional construction of these scenes. However, the conservatism inherent in Egyptian art allows us to see that certain motifs and designs used in the pharaonic period have their origin in much earlier phases of Egypt's cultural history. Some of the scenes found on Amratian pottery (ca. 4100-3600 b.c.) seem to be the first recordings of organized artificial irrigation systems in Egypt; and if so, this would make its appearance perhaps a thousand years older than we currently believe.
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