80 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



date in Syria, and general in the north. Yet it is rare, and 

 probably foreign, in Egypt, and unknown in the Mediterranean. 

 The girdle knife (fig. 19) is common in the West and in Asia ; 

 the flamboyant-blade hunting-knife (fig. 14) was usual in Italy, 

 and spread into the north ; the sword was the staple weapon in 

 the North. Yet none of these were adopted by Egypt, and 

 very few swords have been found there, nearly all foreign. In 

 all these cases Egypt did not require a loan from the other 

 lands. 



This sharp separation between countries endured for 

 thousands of years, while they were trading in food, materials, 

 and manufacture continually. We can only conclude that 

 each country already had, in these respects, what best suited it. 



We now turn to the other historical point of view, the 

 forms which are widely spread, because they were required. In 

 Egypt at about 5,500 B.C. there suddenly appeared a very large 

 wide-splayed adze (fig. 38), different from all that came before or 

 developed later. The same large splayed adze (fig. 37) appears 

 in Cyprus ; it evidently came from there to Egypt, or both lands 

 drew on a common source elsewhere. About 4,200 B.C. the axe 

 with two large scollops in the back edge (fig. 40), leaving three 

 points of attachment, suddenly appears in Egypt ; a thousand 

 years later it is far more advanced in Syria (fig. 39) than in 

 Egypt, and it probably originated there, and spread also to 

 Greece. About 3,000 B.C. a very strange drawing of a sickle 

 appears in Egypt (fig. 42) unlike any other there ; this is 

 closely like a Swiss form (fig. 41). At the same time small 

 daggers with notched tangs appear both in Switzerland (fig. 43) 

 and in Cyprus (fig. 44). Here are links from the European 

 copper age to the East. The same line of connection appears 

 later, about 1,200 B.C., when the pruning-hook (figs. 45, 46) 

 from Noricum (the modern mines of Styria) appears in Egypt 

 (fig. 47) ; the rhombic arrow-head of Greece and Italy is found 

 also in Egypt, the bronze hoe of Cyprus (fig. 49) and Egypt 

 (fig. 48) spread northward in the Iron Age, and the European 

 sword was rarely brought into Egypt. 



An interesting confirmation of history is seen in the knives 

 with straight parallel blades and turned-over ends. These are 

 characteristic of the Siculi in Sicily (fig. 51), and just at the 

 time when the Shakal people were attacking Egypt the same 

 knife (fig. 50) is figured in an Egyptian tomb, and a specimen 



