189(1,1 ^ ' [Stevenson. 



report has not yet appeared, and the only sources of information available 

 are a catalogue of the objects exhibited at University College in London 

 last July ; some short articles published by Mr. Flinders-Petrie in the 

 Times and in the London Academy and reproduced in the American 

 Journal of ArcJueology, and a leaflet issued by the " Egyptian Research 

 Account" as a brief preliminary report to its subscribers. These with 

 the private letters above referred to form the basis of this paper. 



You are aware that last winter Mr. Flinders-Petrie, whilst working in 

 the neighborhood of the villages of Dallas and Nagada— that is some 

 thirty miles north of Thebes (near the twenty-sixth parallel) on the 

 western bank of the river and on the edge of the desert — made some 

 remarkable discoveries. 



In this locality were some Mastaba-tombs of the old empire (IVth to 

 Vlth dynasties) and a ]\Iastaba-like pyramid, similar in form to that of 

 Sakkara, with a sepulchral chamber scooped out of the sand bed below, 

 but entirely constructed of natural blocks, selected for size, and in no 

 way tooled or even broken, and therefore probably one of the earliest of 

 such structures. 



The Mastaba-tombs likewise offered interesting peculiarities : access to 

 them was obtained through a stepped passage, which sloped down frqm 

 the north as in a pyramid. Nearly all these tombs had been anciently 

 plundered, and little, save a large number of stone and alabaster vases, 

 w^as found belonging to their original occupants. 



In some of these ancient tombs, however, were discovered burials of 

 strange intruders, the evidences of w^hose general culture, beliefs and 

 funeral customs show them to have been strangers :n the Nile valley. 

 Not a single detail of their culture did they hold in common with the 

 Egyptians. Moreover, their number, which was found to have spread 

 over a considerable portion of upper Egypt, from Abydos to Gebelen, 

 over one hundred miles, whilst their influence was observable from 

 Tenneh to Hieraconpolis, i. e., over three hundred and fifty miles, and 

 the absolute control of the region which they assumed and which is 

 shown by the total absence of any object recalling Egyptian civilization, 

 show them not only to have been invaders, but invaders Avho once had 

 swept over the region and who, settling down, had lived there for a con- 

 siderable period, borrowing little or nothing of the people whose land 

 they occupied. As Mr. Petrie wrote in the first outburst of enthusiasm 

 following upon his great discovery: They form "a grand new puzzle 

 and might as well have been found in Siberia or in France for aught of 

 their connection with regular Egyptian antiquities." 



This complete wiping out for a time of the Egyptian civilization is one 

 of the most striking features of this remarkable episode, and gives point to 

 Mr. Flinders-Petrie's discovery. In the large number of burials opened 

 "nota god, notascarab, not a hieroglyph, notan amulet, notan Egyptian 

 bead was found." These people were great potteiy manufacturers, and 

 yet, altliough they settled in a land where the potter's wheel had long 



PEOC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXXV. ir)0. H. PRINTED JUNE 5, 1890. 



