ORIGIN OF MAN

Southland Times, Issue 21263, 9 December 1930, Page 16

ORIGIN OF MAN

UNTOLD CENTURIES AGO. ARCHAEOLOGIST'S DISCOVERIES. London, November 24. “Civilized man existed untold centuries ago,” said the Rev. Dr A. H. Sayce, a noted archaeologist, in delivering the Huxley Memorial lecture. “At a time which cannot be measured, even in millenniums, man made very great inventions, one of which was language, and became a firstclass artist.” Dr. Sayce described his discovery in Upper Egypt of rock drawings, chipped with flint tools, of elephants, giraffes and ostriches, all of which had ceased to exist in Egypt when hieroglyphic script was first known in its present form. Over some drawings had been cut hieroglyphic inscriptions of the 11th Dynasty, 4000 or 5000 years ago. These were as fresh as if they had been engraved yesterday. Sir Flinders Petrie, Egyptologist at University College, London, had found that huge granite blocks used in the Great Pyramid had been smoothed with tubular drills fitted with hard stone points. The world had waited till the Mont Cenis tunnel (between France and Italy) was built before similar implements were employed again.

After referring to recent discoveries in Babylonia and India, Dr. Sayce said the archaeologist, like the geologist, had to leave catastrophic theorizing to the literary amateur. A millennium was but a day in the life of civilized man. e . 11 — 1