Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic war film about the Vietnam War, produced and co-written by Francis Ford Coppola. It stars Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne and Dennis Hopper; the screenplay, co-written by Coppola and John Milius and narration written by Michael Herr, is a loose adaptation of the 1899 novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. The setting was changed from late 19th-century Congo to the Vietnam War, the years in which Green Beret Colonel Robert Rheault, commander of the 5th Special Forces Group, was indicted for murder and President Richard Nixon authorized the secret Cambodian Campaign. Coppola said; the voice-over narration of Captain Willard in the movie was written by war correspondent Herr, whose 1977 Vietnam memoir Dispatches brought him to the attention of Coppola. A major influence on the film was Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God, which features a river journey and an insane soldier.
The film is about a river journey from South Vietnam into Cambodia undertaken by Captain Benjamin L. Willard, on a secret mission to assassinate Colonel Kurtz, a renegade Army officer accused of murder and, presumed insane; the film has been noted for the problems encountered while making it, chronicled in the documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. These problems included Brando arriving on the set overweight and unprepared, expensive sets being destroyed by severe weather and Sheen having a breakdown and suffering a near-fatal heart attack while on location. Problems continued after production as the release was postponed several times while Coppola edited over a million feet of film. Apocalypse Now was honored with the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. Initial reviews were mixed. Apocalypse Now is today considered to be one of the greatest films made, it ranked No. 14 in Sight & Sound's greatest films poll in 2012.
In 2000, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally or aesthetically significant". In 1969, during the Vietnam War, United States Army Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz has gone insane. Colonel Lucas and General Corman concerned with Kurtz's vigilante operations, assign MACV-SOG Captain Benjamin L. Willard to "terminate" Kurtz with "extreme prejudice". Willard ambivalent, joins a United States Navy river patrol boat commanded by Chief, with crewmen Lance, "Chef", "Mr. Clean" to head upriver, they rendezvous with surfing enthusiast Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, 1st Cavalry commander, to discuss going up the Nùng. Kilgore scoffs but befriends Lance after discovering he is a famous surfer and agrees to escort them through the Nùng's Viet Cong–held coastal mouth; the helicopter squadron raids with Kilgore ordering a napalm strike on the local cadres. Willard gathers his men to the PBR and journeys upriver. Tension arises as Willard believes himself in command of the PBR while Chief prioritizes other objectives over Willard's.
Making their way upriver, Willard reveals his mission to the Chief to assuage his concerns about why his mission should proceed. As night falls, the PBR reaches the American Do Lung Bridge outpost on the Nùng River. Willard and Lance enter seeking information for. Unable to find the commander, Willard orders the Chief to continue as an unseen enemy launches an assault on the bridge; the next day, Willard learns from dispatch that another MACV-SOG operative, Captain Colby, was sent on an earlier mission identical to Willard's, had joined Kurtz. As the crew read letters from home, Lance activates a smoke grenade, attracting the attention of a camouflaged enemy, Mr. Clean is killed. Further upriver, Chief is impaled by a spear thrown by the natives and attempts to kill Willard by impaling him. Willard suffocates him and Lance buries Chief in the river. Willard reveals his mission to Chef, but despite Chef's anger towards the mission, he rejects Willard's offer for him to continue alone and insists that they complete the mission together.
The PBR arrives at Kurtz's outpost, the surviving crew are met by an American freelance photojournalist, who manically praises Kurtz's genius. As they wander through, they come across a near-catatonic Colby, along with other US servicemen now in Kurtz's renegade army. Returning to the PBR, Willard takes Lance with him, leaving Chef behind with orders to call in an airstrike on Kurtz's compound if they do not return. Kurtz kills Chef. In the camp, Willard is subdued and brought before Kurtz in a darkened temple. Tortured and imprisoned for several days, Willard is released and allowed to roam the compound. Kurtz lectures him on his theories of war, the human condition and civilization, while praising the ruthlessness and dedication of the Viet Cong. Kurtz asks that Willard tell his son about him after his death; that night, as the Montagnards ceremonially slaughter a water buffalo, Willard stealthily enters Kurtz's chamber as he is making a recording and attacks him with a machete. Mortally wounded, Kurtz utters "...
The horror... the horror..." and dies
Last Tango in Paris
Last Tango in Paris is a 1972 erotic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci which portrays a widowed American who begins an anonymous sexual relationship with a young Parisian woman. It stars Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, Jean-Pierre Léaud; the film's raw portrayal of sexual violence and emotional turmoil led to international controversy and drew various levels of government censorship in different venues. Upon release in the United States, the most graphic scene was cut and the MPAA gave the film an X rating. After revisions were made to the MPAA ratings code, in 1997 the film was re-classified NC-17 for "some explicit sexual content". Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released a censored R-rated cut in 1981. Paul, a middle-aged American hotel owner mourning the suicide of his wife Rosa, meets a young, engaged Parisian woman named Jeanne at an apartment that both are interested in renting. Paul takes the apartment, he insists that neither of them must share any personal information given names. The affair continues until one day, Jeanne arrives at the apartment and finds that Paul has packed up and left without warning.
Paul meets Jeanne on the street and says he wants to renew the relationship. He tells her of the recent tragedy of his wife; as he tells his life story, they walk into a tango bar, where he continues telling her about himself. The loss of anonymity disillusions Jeanne about their relationship, she tells Paul. Paul, not wanting to let Jeanne go, chases her back to her apartment, where he tells her he loves her and wants to know her name. Jeanne takes a gun from a drawer, she shoots him. Paul staggers out onto the balcony, mortally wounded, collapses; as Paul dies, a dazed Jeanne mutters to herself that he was just a stranger who tried to rape her and she did not know who he was, as if in a rehearsal, preparing herself for questioning by the police. Bernardo Bertolucci developed the film from his sexual fantasies: "He once dreamed of seeing a beautiful nameless woman on the street and having sex with her without knowing who she was"; the screenplay was by Bertolucci, Franco Arcalli, Agnès Varda. It was adapted as a novel by Robert Alley.
The film was directed by Bertolucci with cinematography by Vittorio Storaro. Bertolucci intended to cast Dominique Sanda, who developed the idea with him, Jean-Louis Trintignant. Trintignant refused and, when Brando accepted, Sanda was pregnant and decided not to do the film. An art lover, Bertolucci drew inspiration from the works of the Irish-born British artist Francis Bacon for the opening sequence of cast and crew credits. According to American artist Andy Warhol, the Last Tango film was based on Warhol's own Blue Movie film released a few years earlier in 1969. After the film's release, criminal proceedings were brought in Italy against the film for "esasperato pansessualismo fine a se stesso"; the final judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered on 29 January 1976 ordered that the film be seized by the censorship commission and that all copies be destroyed. Scriptwriter Franco Arcalli, producer Alberto Grimaldi, director Bernardo Bertolucci, Marlon Brando were each given suspended sentences of two months imprisonment.
The film contains a scene in which Brando's character anally rapes Schneider's character using butter as a lubricant. In a 2006 interview, Schneider said that the scene was not in the script and that "when they told me, I had a burst of anger. Woo! I threw everything, and nobody can force someone to do something not in the script. But I didn't know that". In 2007, Schneider recounted feelings of sexual humiliation pertaining to the rape scene: They only told me about it before we had to film the scene and I was so angry. I should have called my agent or had my lawyer come to the set because you can't force someone to do something that isn't in the script, but at the time, I didn't know that. Marlon said to me:'Maria, don't worry, it's just a movie', but during the scene though what Marlon was doing wasn't real, I was crying real tears. I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Bertolucci. After the scene, Marlon didn't apologise. Thankfully, there was just one take. In 2011, Bertolucci denied that he "stole her youth", commented, "The girl wasn't mature enough to understand what was going on."
Schneider never made up with Bertolucci. She claimed that Brando and Bertolucci "made a fortune" from the film while she made little money. Schneider died in 2011. In February 2013, Bertolucci spoke about the film's effect on Schneider on the Dutch television show College Tour. In the interview, Bertolucci clarified that although the rape scene was in the script, the detail of using butter as a lubricant was improvised the day of shooting and Schneider did not know about the use of the butter beforehand. Bertolucci said that "I feel guilty, but I don't regret it." In September 2013, Bertolucci spoke again about the scene at a retrospective at the Cinémathèque Française, claiming that the scene was in the script but the use of butter was not. Bertolucci said that he and Brando "decided not to say anything to Maria to get a more realistic response". In November 2016, a different version of the 2013 College Tour interview was uploaded to YouTube by the Spanish nonprofit El Mundo de Alycia on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, accompanied by a statement concluding that the scene "abused [Schne
Musician
A musician is a person who plays a musical instrument or is musically talented. Anyone who composes, conducts, or performs music is referred to as a musician. A musician who plays a musical instrument is known as an instrumentalist. Musicians can specialize in any musical style, some musicians play in a variety of different styles depending on cultures and background. Examples of a musician's possible skills include performing, singing, producing, composing and the orchestration of music. In the Middle Ages, instrumental musicians performed with soft ensembles inside and loud instruments outdoors. Many European musicians of this time catered to the Roman Catholic Church, they provided arrangements structured around Gregorian chant structure and Masses from church texts. Notable musicians Phillipe de Vitry Guillaume Dufay Guillaume de Machaut Hildegard of Bingen John Jenkins Beatritz de Dia Tyagaraja Purandara Dasa Bhimsen Joshi Bismillah Khan A. R. RAHMAN Renaissance musicians produced music that could be played during masses in churches and important chapels.
Vocal pieces were in Latin—the language of church texts of the time—and were Church-polyphonic or "made up of several simultaneous melodies." By the end of the 16th century, patronage split among many areas: the Catholic Church, Protestant churches, royal courts, wealthy amateurs, music printing—all provided income sources for composers. Notable musicians Giovanni Palestrina Giovanni Gabrieli Thomas Tallis Claudio Monteverdi Leonardo da Vinci The Baroque period introduced heavy use of counterpoint and basso continuo characteristics. Vocal and instrumental "color" became more important compared with the Renaissance style of music, emphasized much of the volume and pace of each piece. Notable musicians George Frideric Handel Johann Sebastian Bach Antonio Vivaldi Classical music was created by musicians who lived during a time of a rising middle class. Many middle-class inhabitants of France at the time lived under long-time absolute monarchies; because of this, much of the music was performed in environments that were more constrained compared with the flourishing times of the Renaissance and Baroque eras.
Notable musicians Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Joseph Haydn Ludwig Van Beethoven The foundation of Romantic period music coincides with what is called the age of revolutions, an age of upheavals in political, economic and military traditions. This age included the initial transformations of the Industrial Revolution. A revolutionary energy was at the core of Romanticism, which quite consciously set out to transform not only the theory and practice of poetry and art, but the common perception of the world; some major Romantic Period precepts survive, still affect modern culture. Notable musicians Ludwig van Beethoven Frédéric Chopin Franz Schubert Niccolò Paganini Franz Liszt Charles-Valentin Alkan Richard Wagner Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Johannes Brahms Johann Strauss II The world transitioned from 19th-century Romanticism to 20th century Modernism, bringing major musical changes. In 20th-century music and musicians rejected the emotion-dominated Romantic period, strove to represent the world the way they perceived it.
Musicians wrote to be"... objective. While past eras concentrated on spirituality, this new period placed emphasis on physicality and things that were concrete."The advent of audio recording and mass media in the 20th century caused a boom of all kinds of music—pop, dance, folk and all forms of classical music. Musicians can experience a number of health problems related to the practice and performance of music; these can include tinnitus and noise-induced hearing loss, which occurs and over a long period of time, most musicians do not seek help until they start to experience secondary symptoms such as tinnitus, distortion of sounds and hyperacusis. In addition, musicians are at increased risk for both musculoskeletal and vocal health problems when producing high sound levels on musical instruments. Increased biomechanical demands, whether at the hands, embouchure, or vocal cords, elevates the risks for occupational health problems like tendonitis, carpal tunnel, rupture of facial muscles, vocal cord malfunction.
Singer Composer Tour manager Musicians' or'Hi-Fi' earplugs Media related to Musicians at Wikimedia Commons
Return to Forever
Return to Forever is a jazz fusion group founded and led by pianist Chick Corea. Through its existence, the band has had many members, with the only consistent bandmate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke. Along with Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever is cited as one of the core groups of the jazz-fusion movement of the 1970s. Several musicians, including Clarke, Flora Purim, Airto Moreira and Al Di Meola, first came to prominence through their performances on Return to Forever albums. After playing on Miles Davis's groundbreaking jazz-fusion albums In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, Corea formed an avant-garde jazz band called Circle with Dave Holland, Anthony Braxton and Barry Altschul. However, in 1972, after having become a member of Scientology, Corea decided that he wanted to better "communicate" with the audience; this translated into his performing a more popularly accessible style of music, since avant-garde jazz enjoyed a small audience. The first edition of Return to Forever performed Latin-oriented music.
This initial band consisted of singer Flora Purim, her husband Airto Moreira on drums and percussion, Corea's longtime musical co-worker Joe Farrell on saxophone and flute, the young Stanley Clarke on bass. Within this first line-up in particular, Clarke played acoustic double bass in addition to electric bass. Corea's electric piano formed the basis of this group's sound. Clarke and Farrell were given ample solo space themselves. While Purim's vocals lent some commercial appeal to the music, many of their compositions were instrumental and somewhat experimental in nature; the music was composed by Corea with the exception of the title track of the second album, written by Stanley Clarke. Lyrics were written by Corea's friend Neville Potter, were quite Scientology-themed. Clarke himself became involved in Scientology through Corea, but left the religion in the early 1980s, their first album, titled Return to Forever, was recorded for ECM Records in 1972 and was released only in Europe. This album featured La Fiesta.
Shortly afterwards, Airto and Tony Williams formed the band for Stan Getz's album Captain Marvel, which featured Corea's compositions, including some from the first and second Return to Forever albums. Their second album, Light as a Feather, was released by Polydor and included the song "Spain", which became quite well known. After the second album, Farrell and Moreira left the group to form their own band, guitarist Bill Connors, drummer Steve Gadd and percussionist Mingo Lewis were added. However, Gadd was unwilling to risk his job as an in-demand session drummer. Lenny White replaced Gadd and Lewis on drums and percussion, the group's third album, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, was rerecorded; the nature of the group's music had by now changed into jazz-rock, had evolved into a similar vein as to that the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, some progressive rock bands were performing at the time. Their music was still melodic, relying on strong themes, but the jazz element was by this time entirely absent, replaced by a more direct, rock oriented approach.
Over-driven, distorted guitar had become prominent in the band's new sound, Clarke had by switched completely to electric bass guitar. A replacement on vocals was not hired, all the songs were now instrumentals; this change did not lead to a decrease in the band's commercial fortunes however, Return to Forever's jazz rock albums instead found their way onto US pop album charts. In the September 1988 Down Beat magazine interview with Chick Corea by Josef Woodward, Josef says, "There is this general view... that... Miles crystallized electric jazz fusion and that he sent his emissaries out." Chick responds, "Nah. Miles is a leader... But there were other things that occurred that I thought were as important. What John McLaughlin did with the electric guitar set the world on its ear. No one heard an electric guitar played like that before, it inspired me.... John's band, more than my experience with Miles, led me to want to turn the volume up and write music, more dramatic and made your hair move."While their second jazz rock album, Where Have I Known You Before was similar in style to its immediate predecessor, Corea now played synthesizers in addition to electric keyboards, Clarke's playing had evolved considerably- now using flange and fuzz-tone effects, with his now signature style beginning to emerge.
After Bill Connors left the band to concentrate on his solo career, the group hired new guitarists. Although Earl Klugh played guitar for some of the group's live performances, he was soon replaced by the 19-year-old guitar prodigy Al Di Meola, who had played on the album recording sessions, their following album, No Mystery, was recorded with the same line-up as "Where Have I Known You Before", but the style of music had become more varied. The first side of the record consisted of jazz-funk, while the second side featured Corea's acoustic title track and a long composition with a strong Spanish influence. On this and the following album, each member of the group composed at least one of the tracks. No Mystery went on to win the Grammy Award for Best
Bitches Brew
Bitches Brew is a studio double album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released on March 30, 1970, on Columbia Records. It continued his experimentation with electric instruments featured on his critically acclaimed album In a Silent Way. With the use of these instruments, such as the electric piano and guitar, Davis rejected traditional jazz rhythms in favor of a looser, rock-influenced improvisational style, it received a mixed response, due to the album's unconventional style and experimental sound, but became Davis's first gold record, selling more than half a million copies. In subsequent years, Bitches Brew gained recognition as one of jazz's greatest albums and a progenitor of the jazz rock genre, as well as a major influence on rock and funk musicians; the album won a Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 1971. In 1998, Columbia Records released The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions, a four-disc box set that included the original album as well as the studio sessions through February 1970.
Recording sessions took place at Columbia's Studio B over the course of three days in August 1969. Davis called the musicians to the recording studio at short notice. A few pieces on Bitches Brew were rehearsed before the recording sessions, but at other times the musicians had little or no idea what they were to record. Once in the recording studio, the players were given only a few instructions: a tempo count, a few chords or a hint of melody, suggestions as to mood or tone. Davis liked to work this way. On the quieter moments of "Bitches Brew", for example, Davis's voice is audible, giving instructions to the musicians: snapping his fingers to indicate tempo, or, in his distinctive whisper, saying, "Keep it tight" or telling individuals when to solo. Despite his reputation as a "cool", melodic improviser, much of Davis's playing on this album is aggressive and explosive playing fast runs and venturing into the upper register of the trumpet, his closing solo on "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" is noteworthy in this regard.
Davis did not perform on the short piece "John McLaughlin". Significant editing was made to the recorded music. Short sections were spliced together to create longer pieces, various effects were applied to the recordings. Paul Tingen reports: Bitches Brew pioneered the application of the studio as a musical instrument, featuring stacks of edits and studio effects that were an integral part of the music. Miles and his producer, Teo Macero, used the recording studio in radical new ways in the title track and the opening track, "Pharaoh's Dance". There were like tape loops, tape delays, reverb chambers and echo effects. Through intensive tape editing, Macero concocted many new musical structures that were imitated by the band in live concerts. Macero, who has a classical education and was most inspired by'50s and'60s French musique concrète experiments, used tape editing as a form of arranging and composition. "Pharaoh's Dance" contains 19 edits – its famous stop-start opening is constructed in the studio, using repeat loops of certain sections.
On in the track there are several micro-edits: for example, a one-second-long fragment that first appears at 8:39 is repeated five times between 8:54 and 8:59. The title track contains 15 edits, again with several short tape loops of, in this case, five seconds. Therefore, Bitches Brew not only became a controversial classic of musical innovation, it became renowned for its pioneering use of studio technology. Though Bitches Brew was in many ways revolutionary its most important innovation was rhythmic; the rhythm section for this recording consists of two bassists, two to three drummers, two to three electric piano players, a percussionist, all playing at the same time. As Paul Tanner, Maurice Gerow, David Megill explain, "like rock groups, Davis gives the rhythm section a central role in the ensemble's activities, his use of such a large rhythm section offers the soloists wide but active expanses for their solos." Tanner and Megill further explain that "the harmonies used in this recording move slowly and function modally rather than in a more tonal fashion typical of mainstream jazz....
The static harmonies and rhythm section's collective embellishment create a open arena for improvisation. The musical result flows from basic rock patterns to hard bop textures, at times passages that are more characteristic of free jazz." The solo voices heard most prominently on this album are the trumpet and the soprano saxophone of Miles and Wayne Shorter. Notable is Bennie Maupin's bass clarinet present on four tracks; the technology of recording, analog tape, disc mastering and inherent recording time constraints had, by the late sixties, expanded beyond previous limitations and sonic range for the stereo, vinyl album and Bitches Brew reflects this. In it are found long-form performances which encompass entire improvised suites with rubato sections, tempo changes or the long, slow crescendo more common to a symphonic orchestral piece or Indian raga form than the three-minute rock song. Starting in 1969, Davis' concerts included some of the material. Reviewing for Rolling Stone in 1970, Langdon Winner said Bitches Brew shows Davis' music expanding in "beauty and sheer magnificence", finding it "so rich in its form and substance that it permits and encourages soaring flights of imagination by anyone who listens".
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Egypt
Egypt the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, across the Red Sea lies Saudi Arabia, across the Mediterranean lie Greece and Cyprus, although none share a land border with Egypt. Egypt has one of the longest histories of any country, tracing its heritage back to the 6th–4th millennia BCE. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt saw some of the earliest developments of writing, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. Iconic monuments such as the Giza Necropolis and its Great Sphinx, as well the ruins of Memphis, Thebes and the Valley of the Kings, reflect this legacy and remain a significant focus of scientific and popular interest. Egypt's long and rich cultural heritage is an integral part of its national identity, which has endured, assimilated, various foreign influences, including Greek, Roman, Ottoman Turkish, Nubian.
Egypt was an early and important centre of Christianity, but was Islamised in the seventh century and remains a predominantly Muslim country, albeit with a significant Christian minority. From the 16th to the beginning of the 20th century, Egypt was ruled by foreign imperial powers: The Ottoman Empire and the British Empire. Modern Egypt dates back to 1922, when it gained nominal independence from the British Empire as a monarchy. However, British military occupation of Egypt continued, many Egyptians believed that the monarchy was an instrument of British colonialism. Following the 1952 revolution, Egypt expelled British soldiers and bureaucrats and ended British occupation, nationalized the British-held Suez Canal, exiled King Farouk and his family, declared itself a republic. In 1958 it merged with Syria to form the United Arab Republic, which dissolved in 1961. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, Egypt endured social and religious strife and political instability, fighting several armed conflicts with Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, occupying the Gaza Strip intermittently until 1967.
In 1978, Egypt signed the Camp David Accords withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and recognising Israel. The country continues to face challenges, from political unrest, including the recent 2011 revolution and its aftermath, to terrorism and economic underdevelopment. Egypt's current government is a presidential republic headed by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, described by a number of watchdogs as authoritarian. Islam is the official religion of Egypt and Arabic is its official language. With over 95 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa, the Middle East, the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, the fifteenth-most populous in the world; the great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, where the only arable land is found. The large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypt's territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo and other major cities in the Nile Delta.
The sovereign state of Egypt is a transcontinental country considered to be a regional power in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world, a middle power worldwide. Egypt's economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, is projected to become one of the largest in the world in the 21st century. In 2016, Egypt became Africa's second largest economy. Egypt is a founding member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. "Miṣr" is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern official name of Egypt, while "Maṣr" is the local pronunciation in Egyptian Arabic. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew "מִצְרַיִם"; the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian "mi-iṣ-ru" related to miṣru/miṣirru/miṣaru, meaning "border" or "frontier". There is evidence of rock carvings in desert oases. In the 10th millennium BCE, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers was replaced by a grain-grinding culture.
Climate changes or overgrazing around 8000 BCE began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara. Early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralised society. By about 6000 BCE, a Neolithic culture rooted in the Nile Valley. During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt; the Badarian culture and the successor Naqada series are regarded as precursors to dynastic Egypt. The earliest known Lower Egyptian site, predates the Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining culturally distinct, but maintaining frequent contact through trade; the earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BCE. A unified kingdom was founded c. 3150 BCE
