ANCIENT EGYPT.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 131, 29 November 1902, Page 13 (Supplement)

ANCIENT EGYPT.

"A History of Egypt, from the End of the Neolithic Period to the Death of Cleopatra VII., 30 8.C.," has been issued in eight volumes by Dr. Waliis Budge, keeper of Egyptian antiquities in the British Museum. It is published by Kegan Paul at 5s 6d a volume. The prehistoric Egyptians were, remarks The Times in its review, a fair-skinned race, with fair hair, and, judging by the fact that some of the figures of women found in tha later graves have lapis lazuli bends in the eyes, we «iay regard the eyes as blue. They wore the skins of animals, and had a fondness foi- beads. The men tatooed tie body, while, as M. de Morgan noticed, eye-paint was already in use. They lived by hunting and fishing, and, from the qHiaiility of ivory found in the graves, they seem to have bean able to tra-p and kill the elephant. They used no mstals, nor did they cultivate the cereals, a fact proved by M. de Morgan after most caref*! investigations to see if wheat and remains of agricultural tools were ever found together in the same grave ; he found that they were not. They do not appear to have known the art of weaving, but, judging from the patterns on the pottery, they were expert basket weavers. The prehistoric Egyptians were succeeded by the early dynastic race who conquered them. They introduced the art. of writing, especially, on soft stone and day; also the art of working copper and preparing the compound of bronze,, and the art of brick-making, pu\d the construction' of house tombs with thick external walls decorated with, buttresses similar to %c buildings of Chaldea, and, in some cases, as- in the great tomb at Naqada, having a similar orientation — witn U - angles to the points of the compass, as in Chaldea. Lastly, as we know from the numerous jar seaiings, they introduced that characteristic feature of Cbaklean arc — the cylinder seal. They brought also the cereais, and the wooden sickle with flint teeth similar to those of which enormous quantities were found in the prehistoric strata afc Su.sa ; and it must be remembered that the fertile plains around ths old capital of Elam in Apia have long been regarded by botanists as the indigenous home of wheat. As to the route by which the newcomers entered the Nile Valley, the evidence available, is most in favour of the XenttKosseir route. Mo--;t of what we know about the early Egyptians is derived from their burial grounds. Year after year discoveries of the greatest importance have been made in the Nile Valley, and from, the startling discovery of Hie Royal mummies in 1881 at Deir-cl-Bahori the sequence of a&lonishing finds seeais never to have ceased. The discovery of the prehistoric cemeteries at Balks and Naqada by Professor Petrie, and of t»he early Royal tombs hr MM. de Morgan and Amelioeau at Abvdos and Naqada, and the suly-equent labours, -of Profossor Petrie and his assistants, have produced a Tea.<s of records of the past and giTen to the history and story of Nileland a retrospective enlargement far e.vceeding the dreams of even the most romantic of Orientalists.