ANCIENT EGYPT, ASIA MINOR, AND CRETE 
Probably through these contacts, the prehistoric people 
of the Nile Valley became possessed of certain other domes- 
tic animals, the ox, the goat, and the sheep. After their 
introduction into Africa, however, these animals quickly 
spread over almost the whole continent, profoundly alter- 
ing the lives of its people. 
These prehistoric or predynastic Egyptians grew barley, 
millet, wheat, and a wide variety of vegetables. They 
knew, too, the 
crafts of the pot- 
ter and the car- 
penter, as well as 
how to make 
stone weapons 
and tools of beau- 
tiful workman- 
ship. Vessels hol- 
lowed out of the 
hardest stone are 
characteristic of 
early Egyptian 
craftsmanship. 
No other country, 
in fact, developed 
stone working to 
such a wonderful 
dearee-. The 
strong conservative spirit which dominated the Egyptians 
may have contributed to their preference for stone, but 
we find the main cause in the scarcity or total lack of 
most of the useful metals in Egypt itself. The country 
has no native copper, tin, iron, gold, or silver. And with- 
out at least copper and tin a native Bronze Age civiliza- 
tion could hardly spring .up. 
In time some copper was obtained from Sinai and more 
from the island of Cyprus, along with quantities of gold 
from the upper Nile. But copper displaced stone and bone 
[ 297 ] 
Fic. 1o1. Primitive Egyptian hoe, made from a 
forked branch. After Petrie 
