The Archaic or Early Dynastic Period of Egypt is the era following the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt c. 3100 BC. It is taken to include the First and Second Dynasties, lasting from the end of the Naqada III archaeological period until about 2686 BC, or the beginning of the Old Kingdom. With the First Dynasty, the capital moved from Thinis to Memphis with a unified Egypt ruled by an Egyptian god-king. Abydos remained the major holy land in the south; the hallmarks of ancient Egyptian civilization, such as art and many aspects of religion, took shape during the Early Dynastic period. Before the unification of Egypt, the land was settled with autonomous villages. With the early dynasties, for much of Egypt's history thereafter, the country came to be known as the Two Lands; the pharaohs established appointed royal governors. The buildings of the central government were open-air temples constructed of wood or sandstone; the earliest Egyptian hieroglyphs appear just before this period, though little is known of the spoken language they represent.

By about 3600 BC, Neolithic Egyptian societies along the Nile had based their culture on the raising of crops and the domestication of animals. Shortly after 3600 BC Egyptian society began to grow and advance toward refined civilization. A new and distinctive pottery, related to the pottery in the Southern Levant, appeared during this time. Extensive use of copper became common during this time; the Mesopotamian process of sun-dried bricks, architectural building principles—including the use of the arch and recessed walls for decorative effect—became popular during this time. Concurrent with these cultural advances, a process of unification of the societies and towns of the upper Nile River, or Upper Egypt, occurred. At the same time the societies of the Nile Delta, or Lower Egypt underwent a unification process. Warfare between Upper and Lower Egypt occurred often. During his reign in Upper Egypt, King Narmer defeated his enemies on the Delta and merged both the Kingdom of Upper and Lower Egypt under his single rule.

Narmer is shown on palettes wearing the double crown, composed of the lotus flower representing Upper Egypt and the papyrus reed representing Lower Egypt - a sign of the unified rule of both parts of Egypt, followed by all succeeding rulers. In mythology, the unification of Egypt is portrayed as the falcon-god, called Horus and identified with Lower Egypt, as conquering and subduing the god Set, identified with Upper Egypt. Divine kingship, which would persist in Egypt for the next three millennia, was established as the basis of Egypt's government; the unification of societies along the Nile has been linked to the end of the African humid period. Funeral practices for the peasants would have been the same as in predynastic times, but the rich demanded something more. Thus, the Egyptians began construction of the mastabas which became models for the Old Kingdom constructions such as the Step pyramid. Cereal agriculture and centralization contributed to the success of the state for the next 800 years.

It seems certain that Egypt became unified as a cultural and economic domain long before its first king ascended to the throne in the lower Egyptian city of Memphis where the dynastic period did originate. This would last for many centuries. Political unification proceeded perhaps over a period of a century or so as local districts established trading networks and the ability of their governments to organize agriculture labor on a larger scale increased, divine kingship may have gained spiritual momentum as the cults of gods like Horus and Neith associated with living representatives became widespread in the country, it was during this period that the Egyptian writing system was further developed. Egyptian writing had been composed of a few symbols denoting amounts of various substances. By the end of the 3rd dynasty it had been expanded to include more than 200 symbols, both phonograms and ideograms. According to Manetho, the first monarch of the unified Upper and Lower Egypt was Menes, now identified with Narmer.

Indeed, Narmer is the earliest recorded First Dynasty monarch: he appears first on the necropolis seal impressions of Den and Qa'a. This shows. Narmer is the earliest king associated to the symbols of power over the two lands and may therefore be the first king to achieve the unification; the current consensus is that "Menes" and "Narmer" refer to the same person. Alternative theories hold that Narmer was the final king of the Naqada III period and Hor-Aha is to be identified with "Menes". Egyptian settlement and colonisation is attested from about 3200 BC onward in the area of Gaza Strip and the Negev; the town of Tell El Sakan may have been the centre of this settlement. Shaw, Ian; the Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280458-7. Wilkinson, Toby. Early Dynastic Egypt: Strategies and Security. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-26011-6. Wengrow, David; the Archaeology of Early Egypt: Social Transformations in North-East Africa, c. 10,000 to 2,650 BC. New York: Cambridge University Press.

ISBN 0-521-83586-0. Narmer Palette

St Barnabas' Church is in Smithdown Place, Mossley Hill, Merseyside, England. It stands at the junction of Allerton Road, Smithdown Road, Penny Lane, it is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Liverpool South Childwall, the archdeaconry of Liverpool, the diocese of Liverpool. The benefice is united with those of St Matthew and St James, Mossley Hill, All Hallows, Allerton to form the Mossley Hill Team; the church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. St Barnabas' was built between 1900 and 1914, designed by the Liverpool architect James Francis Doyle. Before 1914 the congregation met in a temporary iron church; the architect died before the building was completed and the church was finished under the supervision of his brother Sydney W. Doyle; the church building cost £14,000 and, with the internal fittings, its total cost was about £25,000. In the 1960s pews were removed from the east end of the nave, a nave altar and communion rails were installed.

A small kitchen was added to the rear of the church in 1999, since more pews have been removed to create an open space at the west end of the nave. The church is built in specially moulded bricks of various sizes, with red sandstone dressings, the roof is of slate; the architectural style is Perpendicular. Inside, the columns are in Storeton stone; the plan of the church consists of a four-bay nave with a clerestory and south aisles under lean-to roofs, two south porches and south transepts, a chancel with a south chapel and a northeast vestry, a west tower. The tower has a west entrance, above, a three-light window; the bell openings are paired with louvres, above them is a cornice and an arcaded embattled parapet. The porches have embattled parapets; the windows along the sides of the aisles and the clerestory have three lights, those in the transepts and the chancel have five lights. The chapel windows have three lights, those in the vestry have two and three lights. Inside the church are five-bay arcades between the nave and aisles, a three-bay arcade between the chancel and the chapel, the latter being more ornate than the former.

In the east window is a war memorial in stained glass by H. G. Hiller; the two-manual pipe organ was built by Henry Willis & Sons, there have been alterations and repairs since. The organ case was designed by Sydney W. Doyle. There is a ring of eight bells installed in 2010: the six largest bells were transferred from St James, Waterfoot and the two smallest bells from elsewhere. Paul McCartney said on The Late Late Show with James Corden that he sang in the choir of St Barnabas' Church when he was young. A brass plate on the Choir stalls of the Church was installed to commemorate this. Grade II listed buildings in Liverpool-L18

The Siege of Querétaro was the culminating battle of the Second French intervention in Mexico and the Second Mexican Empire. It took place between Republican and Imperial armies from 6 March to 15 May 1867; the Republican victory at Querétaro ended the war of the Second French Intervention. Maximilian I of Mexico was captured and condemned to death by a court martial on June 14. On the morning of June 19 at the Cerro de las Campanas Maximilian, alongside his generals Miguel Miramón and Tomás Mejía, was executed by firing squad