} 

AGE OF SURFACE FLINT IMPLEMENTS OF EGYPT AND SOMALILAND. 53 
“As you know, ‘prehistoric’ flint tools have been found in large quan- 
tities in the tombs of the Kings of the Ist and IInd Dynasties at ‘Abydos. 
Four years ago a flint bracelet was discovered at Neqada with a hier elyphic 
inscription on it of the same date. 
“ But between these ‘prehistoric’ flints and the paleoliths found on the 
plateau there is a very marked difference, and neither M. Legrain nor myself 
have ever come across any types on the plateau which can be justly identified 
with those of the ‘ prehistoric’ races. As M. Legrain has shown, the plateau 
paleoliths are usually found on the site of a manufactory of tools at the 
mouth of an aqaba. See his Ltude sur les agabahs, in the Bulletin de U Institut 
égyptien, 1898. 

Fic. 3. 
IMPLEMENT IN THE MAayrR MUSEUM, FROM THE SrtTon-Karr COLLECTION. 
“T have myself discovered palzoliths embedded in the breccia on the top 
of the plateau above El-Kab ; they are figured in de Morgan’s Recherches I. 
p. 4. 
“To sum up: my own belief is that 
“(1) Stone tools were used by the aboriginal tribes of Egypt as late as 
the age of the [Vth and possibly of the VIth Dynasty ; but after 
that date they were not employed by the settled population except 
in an ordinary way. 
“(2) The plateau paleoliths go back to a time when the desert was 
still covered by streams which formed breccias. 
“ (3) Mr. Seton-Karr’s galleries probably belong to the prehistoric period, 
i.e., from a time anterior to the entrance of the Pharaonic Egyptians 
into the valley of the Nile down to the age of the IVth Dynasty. 
“Tn the Birmingham Museum there is a fair collection of plateau flints 
siven to it by Mr. W. Myres.” 
g J y 
Professor A. H. Keane writes me, under date of 17th February, 1900 :— 
“Tam in complete accord with your criticism of Sir J. Evans’ inference (p. 114) 
and with your general conclusion that such identical types of palzeoliths were, 
as you say, found out independently by early man in different regions. They 
prove no necessary contact or mutual influences, but give strong support to 
my views regarding the unity of the human family, its dispersion from a 
common centre, and the independent evolution of early races and cultures in 
different geographical areas. I have worked out these views in Ethnology, 
and more fully in Man, Past and Present (Chap. L).. 2.2 >. Tf you@esre 
to look up my references you will find strong support given to your conclu- 
sions, and also at pp. 478-9 some data on the climate (rainfall) of Egypt in 
