The emergence of kings was the result of increase in settlement size from bands to tribes to chiefdoms and finally city-states. The supremacy of kings resulted from the hierarchical organization that became more complex as settlement populations grew. The physical power of king depended on loyal, privileged elites who surrounded him and conveyed his wishes to lower levels of the social order. But the ultimate, incontestable authority and power of kings came from the embedding of his person in a separate realm that defined him as divinely appointed or as a presence of the divine on earth.

While the narrative of divine kingship was unfolding in the Mesopotamian river valleys in West Asia, similar attributions were developing in Northeast Africa in the valley of the Nile River. In The Culture of Ancient Egypt (1951, 45) John Wilson referred to “the central doctrine of the Egyptian state in all its aspects, the doctrine of the god-king,” adding that “the pharaoh ruled as the god who was upon earth and among mortals.” The effect of this on the population of Egypt was clearly profound for it commanded the allegiance and devotion of the people for several millennia.

The sequence from early animal husbandry to agricultural settlements and ultimately the unified state is easily seen in prehistoric Egypt. Archaeological evidence suggests that nomadic herding of animals in lush lands of western Egypt in the early fifth millennium BCE was gradually brought to an end by diminishing rainfall patterns. As they migrated from encroaching desert lands, herdsmen who had been organized around tribal leaders and chieftains brought their skills to farming-based settlements along the Nile. The result was a fusion that created a diverse village life founded on agriculture and animal husbandry and thus control of stable food sources, the foundational conditions for increasing population, specialization of occupation, and the necessary emergence of more powerful leaders. The groundwork was thus laid for a powerful narrative centered on the emerging institution of kingship. Summarizing this era in his magisterial Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt (2010, 15), Toby Wilkinson confirmed this observation: “If there is one defining feature of this period, it is the ideology of divine kingship.”

This period of prehistoric settlement in Egypt (5000–3000 BCE)—from the first appearance of villages along the Nile to the founding of the dynasties—has left no documentary evidence.