Thinite Confederacy

Thinite Confederacy
Thinite Confederacy;
	?–c. 3150 BC
Status	Tribal confederation
Capital	Thinis
Common languages	Egyptian
Religion	Ancient Egyptian
Tribal chief
Historical era	Prehistoric Egypt
• Established	?
• Disestablished	c. 3150 BC
• Unification of Egypt	c. 3100 BC
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Naqada III
Early Dynastic Period (Egypt)

Short description: Hypothesized tribal confederation of ancient Egypt

The Thinite Confederacy is an Egyptological term for a hypothesized tribal confederation in ancient Egypt. It is thought to have preceded the full unification of Upper Egypt c. 3100 BC. The leaders of the Thinite Confederacy were most likely tribal nobles. Based at the city of Thinis, the Thinite Confederacy would later be incorporated into the combined state known as "Upper and Lower Egypt".

The evidence of the "Thinite Confederacy" is mostly speculative and in part relies on Manetho. Modern Egyptologists have a number of competing hypotheses to explain conjectured "proto-dynastic" events that presumably led to the unification under the First Dynasty. Many scholars today mention evidence for a "Dynasty 0" that preceded the First Dynasty I. The term "Dynasty 00" is also used for the period preceding Dynasty 0 in connection with the Abydos-Thinis area and may correspond to a theoretical "Thinite Confederacy".^[2] The terms "Dynasty 0" and especially "Dynasty 00" are widely seen as playful, but are frequently used nonetheless in absence of a more agreed-upon term.

In archaeological terms, this is referred to as "Naqada III".

It makes an appearance in the PC game Pharaoh.