People in Ancient Egypt would have measured time in Dynasties, so the historians of today do likewise when looking at Ancient Egypt. It began with the first dynasty in approximately 3000 BCE. This is not an exact date because the Egyptians obviously did not use our calendar and it is difficult to transfer time from one of these systems into another.
| Here are the major periods in Egyptian Art. | |
| Before c. 3150 BCE | Pre-dynastic Period |
| c. 3150 - 2700 BCE | Early Dynastic Period (1,2 Dynasties) |
| c. 2700 - 2190 BCE | Old Kingdom (Dynasties 3-6) |
| c. 2040 - 1674 BCE | Middle Kingdom ( Dynasties 11,12) |
| c. 1552 - 1069 BCE | New Kingdom (Dynasties 18 -20) |
Remember there were occasionally periods of great turmoil in Egypt which occurred between some of these periods, so there is the occasional gap in the timeline.