Predynastic Rock Art Reveals Egypt's First Kings Claimed Divine Power

Revolutionary discoveries in Egypt’s Eastern Desert are rewriting our understanding of how the world’s earliest pharaohs established their authority over 5,000 years ago. Recent studies of ancient rock carvings near Aswan have unveiled a sophisticated system of visual propaganda that transformed remote desert wadis into canvases of royal power and divine legitimacy.

The groundbreaking research, led by Egyptologist Prof. Dr. Ludwig Morenz from the University of Bonn, focuses on hundreds of petroglyphs and hieroglyphic inscriptions scattered across the previously understudied landscape of Wadi el Malik, east of Aswan. These ancient markings, dating to the late fourth millennium BC, provide unprecedented insight into the emergence of the world’s first territorial state during Egypt’s predynastic period.