358 DISCOVERY OF PALAEOLITHIC FLINT IMPLEMENTS IN UPPER EGYPT. 



ment upon the question after inspecting the localities, had been even more successful 

 than his predecessors, and had published an account of his discoveries in that country, 

 illustrated by several plates, one of which represents three implements that may fairly 

 be regarded as of the palaeolithic type. 



There has been a good deal of discussion in several scientific bodies in regard to 

 the legitimate conclusions to be drawn from these different discoveries, with the gen- 

 eral result, that, owing to the comparatively limited number and extent of such finds, 

 the existence in Egypt of the " stone age," and especially of the palaeolithic age, 

 has either been absolutely denied, or the question has been considered as a still 

 unsettled problem. This circumstance has been much dwelt upon by the opponents 

 of the belief in "the antiquity of man," who ask for an explanation of how it happens 

 that the " stone age " should fail to make its appearance in the oldest country, in 

 regard to which we possess direct historic information. 1 



In this condition of the question, I determined to take advantage of a visit to 

 Egypt, in the winter of 1877-78, to make a thorough investigation of the subject. 

 It was my good fortune soon to discover an atelier of worked flints in the desert a few 

 miles east of Cairo, not far from the Red Mountain, on the road to the " Petrified 

 Forest." Here I found a few examples of axes of the St. Acheul type, made from 

 water-worn flint pebbles, still retaining some portion of their original surface. Flint 

 does not occur in si/it in this locality. From this station I also secured quite a number 

 of scrapers, lance-heads, knives, etc. 



Afterwards I made several visits to the hot sulphur springs at Helouan, in the 

 desert, on the east bank of. the Nile, about fifteen miles south of Cairo. In this place, 

 Dr. Red, the director of the bathing establishment here situated, had discovered, in 

 1872, numerous worked flints, generally of minute size and of quite peculiar types. 

 Dr. Jukes Brown, in the winter of 1877, also discovered similar objects here, which he 

 described and figured in a communication to the Anthropological Institute on May 

 18, 1878. 2 At this place I, too, was fortunate enough to find numerous specimens of 

 the same types, which have been regarded as almost peculiar to this locality, since 

 they had never been met with elsewhere, with the exception of a few similar ones 

 discovered by M. Riviere in the caves of Mentone, in the south of France. 



Some weeks later I went up the Nile, and as a hotel had just been opened for the 

 first time at Luxor, the site of ancient Thebes, " of the hundred gates," I was able to 

 remain in that locality more than six weeks. This gave me the opportunity of making 



1 Southall, The Recent Origin of Man, pp. 20, 31. The Epoch of the Mamniouth, p. 4. 



2 Jour, of the Anthrop. Inst., Vol. VII. p. 396. 



