436 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



led him to the "definite conclusion that cultural influences were 

 already reaching Crete from bej^ond the Libyan Sea, before the be- 

 ginning of the Egyptian Dynasties." He further said " the impres- 

 sion of a very active agency indeed is so strong that the possibility 

 of some actual immigration into the island of the older Egyptian 

 element due to the conquests of the first Pharaohs, can not be 

 excluded." 



I propose to-day to deal with some of the questions relating to the 

 origins of the Egyptian civilization, and incidentally shall touch 

 upon this Cretan problem. At the end of my address I shall very 

 briefly refer to the much neglected modern Egyptians, and to the 

 need there is to study them. Much has been written during the last 

 20 years about the origins of the Egyptian civilization, but there 

 are some facts which I think have either escaped notice or have not 

 been duly considered, and there are others upon which, in my opinion, 

 insufficient stress has been laid. I am not going to deal with the 

 physical characteristics of the people, for that is not my province. 

 I shall confine myself to certain inferences that I believe can be 

 drawn from the monuments of predynastic and dynastic times. 



It is generally agreed that the habits, modes of life, and occupa- 

 tions of all communities are immediately dependent upon the fea- 

 tures and products of the land in which they dwell. Any inquiry 

 into Egyptian origins ought, therefore, to begin Avith the question, 

 What were the physical conditions that prevailed in the Lower Nile 

 Valley immediately preceding and during the rise of its civiliza- 

 tion ? Until this question is answered I do not think that we are in 

 a position to deal with such important problems as, e. g.^ agriculture, 

 architecture, shipbuilding, tool-making, or weaving. The first thing 

 that we ought to laiow is what were the kinds of trees, plants, and 

 animals that were to be found in Egypt in the wild state, and what 

 was the economic value of the indigenous flora and fauna. We 

 ought, in fact, to knoAv w^hat the country was like in pre-agricultural 

 days. If there was no timber in the country, then it may, I think, 

 be confidently said that the art of the carpenter did not originate 

 in Egypt; that the architectural styles founded on wood construc- 

 tion could not have arisen there; that the art of shipbuilding (at 

 all events of building ships of wood) did not originate there. Simi- 

 larly, if there were no incense-bearing trees or shrubs in the country, 

 it is difficult to imagine that the ceremonial use of incense arose 

 there. Again, the art of weaving presupposes the presence of sheep 

 or goats for wool, or of flax for linen thread. All these kinds of 

 problems depend upon tlie natural products of a country, or they 

 did so depend in the early days of civilization. 



We are accustomed to regard Egypt as a paradise, as the most 

 fertile country in the Avorld, where, if we but scratch the soil and 



