m. 



Discovery of Palceoliihic Flint Implements in Upper Egypt. 

 BY PROF. HENRY W. HAYNES. 



Presented January 12, 1881. 



Henry Brugsch, in the last edition of his " History of Egypt under the Pha- 

 raohs," which has appeared during the present year, asserts that " Egypt throws 

 scorn upon the assumed periods of the three ages of stone, of bronze, and of iron." 1 

 So also the late Aug. Mariette, 2 the successful explorer of the antiquities of Egypt, 

 and M. Chabas, 3 one of the most eminent of their interpreters, while admitting that 

 flints bearing evident traces of human workmanship have been found in that country, 

 alike deny that such objects must necessarily be assigned to a very remote period, 

 claiming that stone implements were used by its inhabitants during historic times. 

 Lepsius, 4 the most eminent living Egyptologist, even goes so far as to refuse to 

 allow the human origin of the numerous broken flints found in that country, main- 

 taining that they have been produced solely by natural causes. These eminent 

 authorities have persisted in their incredulity, notwithstanding the fact that M. Ar- 

 celin, 5 so far back as February, 1869, had announced that he had discovered in the 

 Nile Valley flint implements resembling those found in Western Europe ; and later 

 in the same year Dr. Hamy 6 and M. Lenormant, and subsequently the Abbe Richard, 7 

 had reported similar discoveries in the same region. Sir John Lubbock, 8 also, who had 

 made a journey to Egypt in 1873, for the purpose of forming an independent judg- 



1 History of Egypt, chap. iii. 



2 Notice des Prin. Mon. du Musee a Boulaq, p. 81. Materiaux pour l'Hist Prim. — et Nat. de l'Homme, Vol. IX. p. 17, 

 and Vol. XIV. p. 43. 



8 Etudes sur l'Ant. Hist. d'Apres les Sources Egypt., pp. 330, 337. 



4 Materiaux, Vol. IX. p. 16. Zeitschrift f. Aegypt. Sprache & Alt. 1870, pp. 89, 113. 



6 Materiaux, Vol. V. p. 136. L'Industrie Prim, en Egypte, Rapp. au Min. destruction, Juin 26, 1869. 



6 Materiaux, Vol. VI. p. 27. ' Ibid., p. 248. 



B Jour, of the Anthrop. Inst, of Great Britain, Vol. IV. p. 215. 



vol. x. 46 



