DESERT DISCOVERY

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 19, 24 January 1938, Page 4

DESERT DISCOVERY

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SKULL

An archaeological problem of considerable importance has been raised by the discovery of a prehistoric man's skull in the Fayoum desert, 70 miles from Cairo, says the Caoiro correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph and Morning Post." The discovery was made by an English bank manager, Mr. C. Townsend, of Barclays Bank, Cairo. The Fayoum depression, in which is situated Lake Moeris, now, known as Lake Karoun, i^ considered to be the cradle of the world's earliest civilisations. Professor Junker, a German archaeologist, found traces of a prehistoric civilisation at Merimda, not far from here. Two Englishwomen, Miss Caton-Thompsori and Miss E. W. Gardner, while studying the geology of Lake Moeris in 1924-25, found other traces of a race of pastoral-agricul-tural people, possessed of a fullyevolved Neolithic culture, who are be ; lieved to have lived nearly 8000 years ago. Mr Townsend stumbled across the negroid skull half buried in the lacustrine clay near the former site of Miss Caton-Thompson's camp. It is almost certain that the man was either a member of a prehistoric tribe or a servant. The latter theory ■is the more probable since none of the prehistoric, skulls found by Professor Junker, or, the first dynasty skulls, is negroid. The Fayoum skull, therefore, points to the probability that these ancient forerunners of the world's civilisations had negro servants. LAKE WATERS RECEDE. The two central incisor teeth are missing, a wisdom tooth is also missing, and the third upper molar was found embedded in the clay. The skull is small and is that of a man possessing poorly developed mental faculties. He was apparently buried near te shore of ' Lake Moeris. In the last 8000 years the waters have receded, and Lake Karoun is now more than nine miles distant from his .burial place. , , The rest of the negro's skeleton was in too poorly-preserved a condition to be of any scientific value. Mr. Sidney Smith,- Keeper of Egyptian Antiquities at the British Museum, said to a representative of the "Daily Telegraph and Morning Post":— "The settlement found by Miss Caton-Thompson and Miss Gardner almost certainly dates back to early in the pre-dynastic period. Its inhabi-j tants must, therefore, have lived be-1 fore 4000 years ago, but to fix the; figure of 8000 is another matter. ■ ••The skull found by Mr. Townsend: may not have belonged to the same; period as the discoveries made by Mis.-; Caton-Thompson. Its presence near the. settlement mny be purely fortuitous." j