Stevenson.] ^^ [March i20, 



exposure of tlie latter and the protected condition of the former. But 

 this is not sufficient to account for the marked differences. Moreover, 

 the shape of the plateau implements is distinctly " palseolithic." They 

 are not Intended to be hafted, but to be held in the hand when in use. 

 What is further noteworthy about them is that obviously both are adapted 

 to be held in the left hand only. So far as they go, they support the 

 theory advanced by some writers that primitive man was less right- 

 handed than later generations. 



The pottery and stone articles from the tombs of the so-called " new 

 race " near Abydos are good examples of their arts. I speak of this with 

 some knowledge, as early last August I examined with much care Prof. 

 Flinders-Petrie's immense collection in London, and had the advantage 

 of his personal explanations. The article that I published in reference to 

 it, in Science (August, 1895), was I believe the first original report on the 

 subject in any American periodical. That the "new race " was supposed 

 by Prof. Petrie to be Libyan, that is, Berber, attracted me, as the ethnog- 

 raphy of that stock has been a special study with me. 



This identification, I believe, will finally be established. If we examine 

 the configuration of the Nile valley and its surroundings, no other theory 

 is tenable, providing the Libyan stock extended that far south of the 

 Mediterranean at a date 8000 B.C. We know they did, and much earlier, 

 from their very early presence in east Africa. The invading " new race " 

 could not have come from the east. The natural highways from the Red 

 Sea to that portion of the Nile valley centime at Koptos, and there few or 

 no specimens of this peculiar art have been exhumed. They must neces- 

 sarily have entered from the west, and a study of the ancient and modern 

 caravan routes leads inevitabl}^ to the conclusion that their last previous 

 station must have been the so-called "Oasis magna" of the Libyan 

 desert. This consists of a series of arable depressions in the calcareous 

 Libyan plateau, which here rises to an average height of about 1200 feet. 

 The central portion of the Oasis is about 130 miles westerly from Abydos, 

 and to it a number of caravan routes converge from the north, south and 

 west. So far as history, archajology and linguistics teach us, this group of 

 cases, as well as the "Oasis parva," opposite the Fayoum, andthatof.Tupiter 

 Ammon, still farther north, have alwa3's been peopled by the Libyans. 

 This stock has not been shown to be connected in culture with the Neo- 

 lithic peoples of western Europe, and no positive traces of the Berber 

 language remain there, though it is probable that the word "Iberian" 

 (fromlberus) indicates their presence in the peninsula of that name. The 

 conclusion which I urge, therefore, is, that the correlatives of the art of 

 the "new race" will be found in the "Oasis magna." That some of 

 the tombs contain Egyptian and even ftlediterranean relics is readily ex- 

 plained by the commerce which it is evident from the figures of their 

 boats they soon established on the Nile. 



