The Levantine cities of the Bronze Age were not merely passive intermediaries but active participants in the trade networks, controlling the sea routes of the eastern Mediterranean and the overland routes that connected the major civilizations.

The archaeological evidence for contact between Egypt and Mesopotamia in the late Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods is extensive.

Beyond the cylinder seals and niched architecture mentioned earlier, excavations at the early Egyptian site of Abydos — one of the most important burial centers of the Early Dynastic period — have revealed pottery from Mesopotamia and artifacts showing Mesopotamian stylistic influence.

The site of Tell es-Sakan in the southern Levant has been interpreted as possibly having served as an intermediate point in Egyptian-Mesopotamian contact during this period.

The routes by which people and goods moved between Egypt and Mesopotamia were multiple.