444 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



tian system of hieroglypric writing elsewhere than in Upper Egypt, 

 and as the fauna and flora of its characters are distinctly Egyptian 

 the presumption is that it must be located to the Delta. An import- 

 ant indication as to the original home of Egyptian writing is given 

 by the signs which, in historic times, were used to designate the 

 points of the compass. The sign for "east" was a drop-shajDed ingot 

 of metal upon a sacred perch, and this was the cult object of a clan 

 living in predynastic times in the Eastern Delta. The sign for 

 "west" was an ostrich feather placed in a semicircular stand, and this 

 was the cult object of the people of the Western Delta. The sign 

 for "south" was a scirpus reed; this was the cult object of a clan 

 which dwelt on the east bank of the Nile a little above the modern 

 village of Sharona, in Middle Egypt. The country south of the 

 apex of the Delta was known as Ta Shema, "Reed Land." It must, 

 therefore, have been at some point north of the apex of the Delta that 

 the scirpus reed was first used to designate the south. It must also 

 liave been somewhere in the Central Delta that the cult objects of the 

 peoples of the Eastern and Western Delta were first used to designate 

 "east" and "west." 



For the Delta being the early home of writing another fact has to 

 be taken into consideration. Thoth, the Ibis god, was to the Egyp- 

 tians the god of writing, and it was to him that they attributed its 

 invention. The principal seat of his worship in historic times was 

 Hermopolis, in Middle Egypt. But Thoth's original habitat was 

 situated in the northeast corner of the Delta, where, in pre- 

 dynastic times, had resided an Ibis clan. The tradition that named 

 Thoth as the god and inventor of writing would, therefore, point 

 Deltawards. This tradition is significant also in another way. 

 Although we can not doubt that the Egyptian system of writing was 

 evolved in the Delta, the germs of writing may have come into Egypt 

 from Western Asia ina this northeast corner of the country. In this 

 connection it may be pointed out that the hieroglyphic signs for 

 "right" and "left" were the same as those for "west" and "east" ; the 

 Egyptians who evolved the hieroglyphic system of writing orientated 

 themselves facing south. 



It is remarkable that so little is laiown about the early history of 

 the Delta. But few excavations have been carried out there, and noth- 

 ing of predynastic, or early dynastic, times, has, so far, been brought 

 to light from the country north of Cairo. We do Imow, however, 

 that before the arrival of the Falcon kings from Hierakonpolis in 

 the south. Middle and Lower Egypt had been, probably for many 

 centuries, united under one scepter, and that before these two parts 

 of the country were united there had been a Delta Kingdom which 

 had had its capital at Sais. The names of some of these early kings 

 are preserved on the Palermo fragment of the famous Annals Tablet, 



