626 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



little is seen of them. Now that the prehistoric has become fash- 

 ionable, it is everywhere to be seen, . The. earlier diggers were daz- 

 zled by the polished colossi, the massive buildings, the brilliant 

 sculptures of the well-known historic times, and they had no eyes 

 for small graves, containing only a few jars or, at best, a flint knife. 



The present position of the prehistory of Egypt is that we can 

 noAv distinguish two separate cultures before the beginning of the 

 Egyptian dynasties, and we can clearly trace a sequence of manu- 

 factures and art throughout long ages before the pyramid builders, 

 or from say 6000 b. c, giving a continuous history of eight thou- 

 sand years for man in Egypt. Continuous I say advisedly, for 

 some of the prehistoric ways are those kept up to the present time. 



In the earliest stage of this prehistoric culture metal was al- 

 ready used and pottery made. Why no ruder stages are found is 

 perhaps explained by the fact that the alluvial deposits of the Nile 

 do not seem to be much older than eight thousand years. The 

 rate of deposit is well known — very closely one metre in a thou- 

 sand years — and borings show only eight metres thick of Nile mud 

 in the valley. Before that the country had enough rain to keep 

 up the volume of the river, and it did not drop its mud. It must 

 have run as a rapid stream through a barren land of sand and stones, 

 which could not support any population except paleolithic hunters. 

 With the further drying of the climate, the river lost so much 

 velocity that its mud was deposited, and the fertile mud flats made 

 cultivation and a higher civilization possible. At this point a peo- 

 ple already using copper came into the country. Their bodies were 

 buried in shallow, circular pit-graA''es, covered with goat skins, 

 which were fastened rarely by a copper pin; before the face was 

 placed a simple bowl of red and black pottery, and some of the 

 valued malachite was placed in the hands. The body was sharply 

 contracted, often with the knees almost touching the face, and the 

 hands were usually in front of the face. 



Very soon they developed their pottery into varied and grace- 

 ful forms, and decorated it with patterns in white clay applied to 

 the dark-red surface, but it continued to be entirely hand-made, 

 without the use of the potter's wheel. The patterns, usually copied 

 from basketwork, show the source of the forms of the cups and 

 vases. The modern Kabyle, in the highlands of Algeria, has kept 

 up the same patterns on hand-made pottery, and the same use of 

 white clay on a red base. It is probably to a Libyan people that 

 this civilization is first duo, and the skulls of these prehistoric Egyp- 

 tians are identical with those of the prehistoric Algerians from the 

 dolmens and the modern Algerians. This first growth of the civi- 

 lization not only developed pottery, l)ut also the carving of stone 



