of a perfect Flint Implement, dc. 49 
those built upon the borders of the desert where cultivation is 
impossible remain, except for the depredations of parts of these 
structures for common building materials. The border temples 
in many instances have been filled up and covered over with 
blown sand, or rubbish-heaps from the villages near, from which 
causes they have been largely protected as fields for modern 
research. 
The alluvial plain of Abydos, where the exhibits I wish to de- 
scribe were found, extends over eight miles inland from the Nile, 
and may possibly present about twenty square miles of agri- 
cultural surface. This area is entirely overflowed every summer 
by the rich muddy water of the Nile. At the back of the plain, 
from natural pools and artificial reservoirs, for a very long period 
_gufficient water has been held back for winter irrigation, when 
the land is cool and suitable for cultivation. Therefore it 
follows, when agriculture became an art, Abydos was eminently 
adapted to become a prosperous district or kingdom, which we 
know became historical. 
The universal evidence of ethnology shows that one of the 
earliest or lowest instincts special to humanity is the preservation 
of the dead, and, as this could only be done on the banks of the 
Nile by taking the deceased into the waste dry desert to escape 
the disturbance of the inundations, probably for all periods of 
civilization the borders of the desert were the burial-grounds of 
the people. In the desert, from the desiccated state of the land, 
there is little cause of decay ; therefore here we find not only the 
well-preserved tombs of the mighty, but also other well-defined 
spots which were very ancient or even prehistorical burial- 
grounds. Asthe grander pyramids or tombs gave richer spoil to 
the explorer, it is only in quite recent times that the earlier or 
prehistorical tombs have been opened carefully for research, par- 
ticularly by Brugsch Bey, Flinders Petrie, and Seton-Karr. 
The most beautiful flint implements as the work of the early 
people that have been discovered are those brought to light by 
the careful and methodical work of Flinders Petrie. A beautiful 
collection of these was exhibited at the British Association 
_ Meeting at Bristolin 1898. We have also an excellent collection 
_ by W. H. Seton-Karr added last year to the Egyptian Collection 
of the British Museum. This last is of special antiquarian 
interest. The flint implements come from the ancient desert 
_ tombs of Wadi Shekh, and give examples of the work of various 
periods extending from the remote paleolithic to that of the 
relatively recent, or that of the highest art of flint workmanship. 
This period is supposed to be not earlier than the first Egyptian 
dynasty, now estimated at nearly seven thousand years ago. It 
is of this period of perfect workmanship that the spear-head I 
_ have to show to our Society was wrought. This I infer, as I 
eo REP OBES 
Sn 
