694 migration and population movements: Egypt Egypt fostered a mind-set of superiority to other cultures and nations Put simply, Egyptians looked down their noses at other countries and their people, so few had any real incentive to intermingle with them on their own territory With the exception of a small number of texts, only a few hints help identify Egyptians outside Egypt During the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Dynasties (1307–1070 b.c.e.), Egyptian and Egyptian-styled pottery is to be found in Canaan (Palestine) and shows cross-cultural relations between Egypt and its northwestern neighbors At the same time, fortified towns in Nubia had a fairly uniform design, for example, Amara West and Sesebi It can be assumed that Egyptians were living in such settlements Ancient Egypt was very much a crossroads Positioned as it was in the northeast sector of the African continent, it became a central hub, engaging in trade relations with the Near East, countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, and nations to the south Egypt became a beehive of activity, with builders, traders, farmers, diplomats, nomads, travelers, and others passing across its borders and moving about within the country Archaeological evidence suggests that late in the Predynastic Period (ca 3000 b.c.e.) many of these people came from such regions as Mesopotamia, bringing their science, literature, art, mathematics, and other cultural attributes with them Many of these people from other lands became the earliest Egyptians; later arrivals chose to remain in Egypt, primarily because it was the most advanced civilization of its time, providing opportunities for wealth, education, and social relationships In general, Egypt tended to welcome people from other lands, thinking of them as Egyptian as long as they made a point of acting like Egyptians The result was a swirl of population movement within Egypt, though this population movement was, in general, not organized, nor did it occur among masses of people COLONIZATION At all periods of Egyptian history transplantations of population, or inner colonization, apparently occurred The central government divided the Egyptian countryside into organized agricultural parts centered on larger settlements, the beginning of the organized nomes, or provinces, of later periods Some of these settlements were in sparsely populated regions The land was cultivated by peasants recruited from more populous regions During the Fourth Dynasty (ca 2575–2465 b.c.e.) a kind of colony program existed King Snefru, the first king of the Fourth Dynasty, brought captives from different campaigns in Nubia and possibly Libya to Egypt and settled them in newly founded manors in the eastern delta and in Upper Egypt In this period administration increased, and the great pyramid-building projects required a large number of new cultivated agricultural areas as economic support King Sesostris III (r 1878–1841? b.c.e.), the fi ft h king of the Twelft h Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom, constructed a full-scale model town called Wah-sut in connection with a cenotaph and the cult of the death god Osiris near Abydos Granite statue of Sesotris III, from Deir el-Bahri, Thebes, Egypt (ca 1850 b.c.e.); Sesostris constructed a town in northern Upper Egypt for the purpose of internal colonization (© The Trustees of the British Museum) in northern Upper Egypt Earlier model towns that suggest internal colonization included the modern Tell el-Dab’a in the eastern part of the Nile delta, known as Auaris at the beginning of the Twelft h Dynasty, and Kahun in the vicinity of modern El-Lahun from the reign of Sesostris II (r 1897– 1878 b.c.e.) Inner colonization also took the form of resettlement projects during the creation of new capitals like Akhetaten (presentday Tell el-‘Amârna) by Akhenaton (r 1353–1335 b.c.e.) in the Eighteenth Dynasty or Pi-Ramses by Ramses II (r 1290–1224 b.c.e.) during the Nineteenth Dynasty Often foreigners were involved in this effort A land register from the fourth regnal year of Ramses V (r 1156–1151 b.c.e.) lists Sherden men who were cultivating farmland that they probably obtained under