PREHISTORIC MAN IN EGYPT AND SYRIA.

Western Star, Issue 862, 23 July 1884, Page 4

PREHISTORIC MAN IN EGYPT AND SYRIA.

A gala meeting was held by. the Victoria' Philosophical Institute of London iii’ tbe second week in May, at which its members gave a worthy welcome 'to Vice-Chancellor Davyson, C.M.GV, of McGill University, Moi.’treat, a#\v!iose instance the British AssodiitH ri visits Canada this year. The- ■tS S LC»e!v of '• Arts kindly' lent its premi es.for ihe cocas on. and it< great theatre was crowded in every part lon _■ before the hour ol nn eling, The chair was iaken by Sir H. Barkly, G.C.M.G., K.C.8.,E.R.y., who —after the new members had been announced by Captain E. Petrie, the secretary —welcomed Dr. Dawson amid loud applause, and asked him-to deliver his Address. It was on “Prehistoric Man in Egypt and Syria,” and was illustrated jby large'diagrams, also flint implements and bones collected by Dr. Dawson himself on the spot during his winter tour indthe East; Professor BoydDavvkins, F.R.S., kindly assisted in the classification of the bones. In dealing with his subject, Dr. Dawson remarked that, Great interest attaches to any remains which, in countries historically so old,- may indicate the residence of man before 1 the dawn of history. In Egypt, nodules of flint are very abundant in- the Eocene limestones, arid, where these have been wasted away,

remain on the surface. In many places there is good evidence that the flint thus to be found everywhere has been, and still is, used for the manufacture of flakes, knives and other implements. These, as is well known, were used for many purposes by the ancient Egyptians, and in modern times gun-flipts and strike-lights still continue to be made. The debris of worked !flints found on the surface is thus of little value as an indication of any flint-folk preceding the old Egyptians. It would be other- * wise if flint implements could be "found in ; the older gravels of the country. Some of these are of Pleistocene age, and belong to a period of partial 3 submergence of the Nile Yalley. - Flint implements had been alleged to be found in these gravels, but tberer seemed to be no good evidenco to prove that they are other than the chips, broken by mechanical vio- „ leuce in the removal of gravel-by torrential In the Lebanon, numerous caverns exist. These were divided into two classes, with reference ; to their origin,-, some being watercaves or tunnels of subterranean rivers, others sea-caves, excavated by the waves when the country was at a lower level than at present. Both kinds have been occupied by man, and some of them undoubtedly at a time anterior to the Phoenician occupation of the country, and even at a time when the auimalinhabitantsand geographical features of the region were different from those of : the present day. They , were thus; of various ages, ranging from the post-Giacial or Antediluvian period to the time of Phoenician occupation. 0 Dr Dawson then remarked that many •■geologists in these days bad . an averv sion to using the word “ Antediluvian,” yon account of the nature of the work which, in years now gone by, unlearned people had attributed to the Flood described in ..Scripture, but as the aversion to the use of the word was, he thought, not called for in those days, he hoped it would pass away. Speaking as a geologist, from a purely geological-point of view, and from a thorough examination of the country around, there was no doubt but what there was conclusive evidence that between the time of the first occupation of these caves by men—and they were men of splendid physique—and the appearance of the early Phoenician inhabitants of the laud, there had been a vast submergence of land, and a great catastrophe, aye a stupendous one, in which even the Mediterranean had been altered from a small sea to its present size. In illustration of this, the caverns at the Pass of Nahr-el-Eelb and at Ant Elias w ere described in some detail, and also in connection with these, the occurrence of flint implements on the surface of modern sandstones at the Cape of Ras near Beyrouth these last were probably of much less antiquity than those, of the! more ancient caverns. A dispussiom ensued, which was taken parkin by-a number of of the Eoyal Society, including Sir H. Barkly, F.R.S., Wiltshire, E.E.S., Wanington "Smyth,_F.R.S., . Rupert' donefej-' F.R.S. j. -Colonel Herjphel, F.R.th. the-talented son. of the late Sir John Herschel *Rae, the Artie explorer-'D/ lfawaon r FiR.S.; Mr I). Howard* tme vice-presikent pf the -Chemical Institute, ‘and other gsologids.-YThe meeting afterwards adjourned A<\ the Museum, where refreshmeuts.-v\ere served.