550 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
hypothesis of an Asiatic origin, however attractive it may seem, is 
somewhat difficult to maintain. The bulk of the Egyptian popula- 
tion presents the characteristics of those white races which have been 
found established from all antiquity, on the Mediterranean slope of 
the Libyan continent.” ¢ 
Since M. Maspero wrote these lines, the excavations of MM. Petrie, 
Morgan, Amélineau, followed by several other explorers, have re- 
vealed to us the primitive state of the Egyptians—a degree of cul- 
ture which had not gone beyond the stone age. The tombs discov- 
ered in various places have preserved not only the bodies of their 
primitive inhabitants, but also their implements, their tools, what I 
consider to be their idols, and pottery, the painted decoration of 
which shows their mode of life and their occupations. 
These tombs caused great astonishment to the explorers who first 
opened them. The idea of an Egyptian burial was, till then, so inti- 
mately connected with mummification that it seemed strange to un- 
earth small tombs of oval or rectangular form, in which the body lies 
without any trace of mummification. The skeleton is folded, the 
knees being against the chest, and the hands holding the knees or 
being at the height of the mouth. This has been called the embryonic 
position. It is not the only form of burial. Sometimes the body has 
been broken in pieces immediately after death; in other cases there 
is what is called a secondary burial. After the flesh had been de- 
stroyed, the bones have been gathered; occasionally an attempt has 
been made to give them the embryonic posture, or they have been 
jumbled together in the tomb; bones belonging to various bodies have 
been mixed, so that Mr. Petrie believed at first that those burials 
showed us the remains of feasts of cannibals. With the body pot- 
tery of different colors is found in the tombs, and also vases of hard 
stones, remarkably well made and finished, a few rude human figures, 
some of them characterized by the steatopyga which exists in other 
countries, and with distinct traces of tattooing, tools of ivory, flint 
instruments, of exquisite workmanship, and a great number of slate 
palettes. Sometimes the latter have the forms of animals, chiefly 
birds and fishes; others are mere lozenges. The purpose of these 
slates has not yet been clearly recognized. I am inclined to think 
that they are the images of food offerings, when they are in the 
hand of the deceased, who holds them up to his mouth, or they may 
be amulets or images of divinities. 
That is a short description of what are called the prehistoric or 
predynastic tombs of the old Egyptians.2. They were first discovered 
“Pawn of Civilization, p. 45. P 
+> Capart, ‘“ Les rites funéraires des Egyptiens préhistoriques,”’ Annales de la 
Société Scientifique de Bruxelles, f, XXIV. 
