RECENT YEARS OF EGYPTIAN EXPLORATION. 627 



vases entirely by hand. The principal type of these is the cylin- 

 der, with many smalj variations. Figures were carved in alabaster 

 and bone, and modeled in clay and paste; these are rude, but show 

 that the type of the race was fine, with a high forehead and pointed 

 beard. The use of marks denoting property was common, and 

 such marks seem to be the earliest stages of the system of signs 

 which developed later into the alphabet. This civilization had ap- 

 parently passed its best time, decoration had ceased on the pottery, 

 when a change came over all classes of work. 



The second prehistoric civilization seems to have belonged to 

 a people kindred to that of the first age, as much of the pottery 

 continued unchanged, and only gradually faded away. But a new 

 style arose of a hard, buff pottery, painted with patterns and sub- 

 jects in red outline. Ships are represented with cabins on them, 

 and rowed by a long bank of oars. The use of copper became more 

 general, and gold and silver appear also. Spoons of ivory, and 

 rarely of precious metals, were made, but hair combs, which were 

 common before, ceased to be worn. Stone vases were commonly 

 carved in a variety of hard and ornamental stones, but always 

 of the barrel outline and not the early c^dinder shapes. Flint- 

 working reached the highest stage ever known in any country, 

 the most perfect mastery of the material having been acquired. 

 Though this civilization was in many respects higher than that 

 which preceded it, yet it was lower artistically, the figures being 

 ruder and always flat, instead of in the round. Also the use of 

 signs was driven out, and disappeared in the later stage of this 

 second period. The separation of these two different ages has been 

 entirely reached by the classification of many hundreds of tombs, 

 the original order of which could be traced bj^the relation of their 

 contents. In this way a scale of sequence has been formed, which 

 enables the range of any form of pottery or other object to be 

 exactly stated, and every fact of connection discovered can be at 

 once reduced to a numerical scale as definite as a scale of years. 

 For the first time a regular system of notation has been devised 

 for prehistoric remains, and future research in each country will 

 be able to deal with such ages in as definite a manner as with his- 

 toric times. The material for this study has come entirely from 

 excavations of my own party at ISTagada (IS 9 5), Abadiyeh, and 

 Hu (1899); but great numbers of tombs of these same ages have 

 been opened without record by M. de Morgan (1896-97), and by 

 French and Arab speculators in antiquities. 



The connection between these prehistoric ages and the early 

 historic times of the dynastic kings of Egypt is yet obscure. The 

 cemeteries which would have cleared this have unhappily been 



