Predynastic Naqada, Gerzeh and Maadi (c. 4400-3100 BC)
Predynastic Egyptians in the Naqada I period traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the western desert to the west, and the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean to the east. They also imported obsidian from Ethiopia to shape blades and other objects. Charcoal samples found in the tombs of Nekhen, which were dated to the Naqada I and II periods, have been identified as cedar from Lebanon.
Evidence of Naqadan contacts include pottery and other artifacts from the Levant that have been found in ancient Egypt. Egyptian artifacts dating to this era have been found in Canaan and other regions of the Near East, including Tell Brak and Uruk and Susa in Mesopotamia.
Lapis lazuli trade, in the form of beads, from its only known prehistoric source – Badakshan, in northeastern Afghanistan – reached ancient Gerzeh.
By the first half of the 4th millennium BC, predynastic Egyptians in Maadi were importing pottery from Canaan.
Read more about this topic: Foreign Contacts Of Ancient Egypt