Archaeologists have uncovered ancient breweries at Sumerian archaeological sites, and historians have translated numerous Sumerian documents relating to brewing beer.

Computers and batteries were created thousands of years after the Sumerian language went extinct and its people were absorbed into other groups.

Although some of the oldest written fiction we have is Sumerian, storytelling existed in prehistory; prior to the advent of writing in ancient Sumer.

Paintings tens of thousands of years old can be found throughout the world; painting is originally a prehistoric art.

Basalt drinking vessels have been found in predynastic tombs throughout Egypt, but were mined from a single source near al-Maadi (south of modern Cairo), proof that the basalt was mined and shipped throughout Egypt.

While the details of the original conqueror and unifier of Egypt, Narmer, is heavily influenced by legend, what is clear is that southern Egypt conquered and merged with the north, so Narmer cannot be from al-Maadi.

Predynastic Egyptian artisans used many different kinds of materials.

While basalt was a luxury, Egyptians did not forgo the use of other materials.

Egypt was eventually unified under an imperial dynasty; predynastic Egypt, therefore, cannot be unified.

Predynastic Egyptian archaeological sites prove that even before Egypt was a unified empire, human settlements along the Nile traded for copper, timber, wine, and oils with Mesopotamia and the surrounding area.

The Sahara was a major impediment to trade with the interior of the African continent, and the Songhai empire existed in the late Middle Ages.

The Roman empire was ancient, but still thousands of years after predynastic Egypt.

Likewise, the Athenian empire was ancient but thousands of years after predynastic Egypt.

The Shang kingdom of China was thousands of years after Predynastic Egypt, and too far away to have any sustained trade with north Africa.

Throughout much of the ancient period, before the rise of Greece, Persia, and Rome, the ancient Phoenicians created an extensive commercial empire in the Mediterranean. They were able to dominate trade due to their sophisticated alphabet and their establishment of settlements throughout the Mediterranean.

The city-states of Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos were once all part of the Phoenician empire. The Phoenician empire was a wide-ranging commercial empire that controlled trade in the Mediterranean from about 1,300 BCE until 500 BCE.

Silk was first produced in China during the Shang Dynasty. For the next thousand years, China enjoyed an effective monopoly on silk production (as they were the only people who knew how to do it). This contributed to the growing wealth of the Chinese emperors as silk was traded extensively with empires in Europe (such as the Romans) and the Middle East (such as the Persians).

The ancient commercial empire of Phoenicia was established in modern-day Lebanon approximately 1,500 BCE.