This book explores the human past in Egypt's 'capital zone': the nexus of social activity located at the junction of the Nile valley and the Nile delta, the archaeology of which is a template through time for the development of Nile valley civilization as a whole. Instead of a linear narrative, the volume takes a wider four-dimensional approach, considering ecology and climate change, the Nile regime and human response to it over time, the cognitive aspects of the environment; and instead of insisting on a compartmentalised division based on a dynasty-led system of time parcels, it argues for natural and social continuity in a broader context over 5000 years or more.