32 



ARCHEOLOGY. (EGYPTIAN.) 



kin" wrestling with a hippopotamus and spear- 

 ing a crocodile. About 20 private tombstones 

 of this reign have also been recovered, with much 

 elaborately carved slate and bows and arrows. 

 The tomb' of Perabsen. of the secoiui dynasty, 

 vit-lded a large tombstone of the king carved in 

 Syenite, and the names of his three predecessors 

 iiotcp-ahaui. Jla-Ncb. and Neteron, the same as 

 they are given on the small granite statue No. 1, 

 at "the I'airo Museum carved on stone bowls. 

 PerabM-n appears, therefore, to have been the 

 fourth king of the dynasty, and his successor was 

 probably Kha-sekhemmi, whose tomb has been 

 mostly cleared. From it were recovered the royal 

 scepter, formed of cylinders of sard held together 

 by a copper rod in the axis, and with gold bands 

 at intervals; of which 2S inches in length remain, 

 while the lower end is lost: also 7 stone vases 

 with gold covers fastened on with twisted gold 

 wire. -2 gold bracelets, 20 copper dishes, dozens of 

 copjH-r models of tools, copper axes, fruit-knives, 

 and a perfect dish of diorite. 



'1 he ri-c and development of Egyptian civili- 

 zation and art have been more fully treated by 

 Prof. Pet rk in lectures on those subjects at the 

 Koyal Institution and before the Society of Arts. 

 From considerations based upon the rate of depo- 

 sition of the mud in the Nile valley, the au- 

 thor concludes that the end of paleolithic man 

 and the beginning of civilization in that region 

 t-an not have taken place earlier than about 7000 

 H. ( .. for previous to that period the valley was a 

 rocky gorge, and only wild beasts and a popula- 

 tion of hunters could have existed where there was 

 no possibility of agriculture. Evidence has been 

 found that paleolithic man was in the country 

 -down to a period when the Nile was nearly as 

 low as it is now. No attempt is made to esti- 

 mate how long he might have been there before 

 that. A scale of sequences has been drawn up 

 from a comparison of the contents of tombs and 

 rubbish heaps, especially of the pottery, compris- 

 ing fifty periods, to which it is possible to re- 

 fer the* objects found. By this means it has 



:T FROM THE ARM OF THE QUEEN OF ZER-TA, 

 4700 B. C. 



been possible to carry the research with tolerable 

 exactness during the period hitherto regarded as 

 mythical. The oldest graves known in Egypt are 

 tho^ of a settled pastoral people, and yield pot- 

 tery and small Quantities of copper. No trace 

 of the potter's wheel appeared in the whole pre- 

 historic period. The first steps in art were seen 

 in white clay paintings on red pottery vases 

 usually figures of goats, but sometimes of larger 

 animal* and human beings. The ivory and bone 

 carvings of the heads of camels were singular and 

 ingenious, and In-longed to the earlier period The 

 carving of slate palettes in animal forms Wan 

 at its best in almost the earliest graves, and then 

 underwent continued degradation. A bust of a 

 man about half through the prehistoric a^e shows 



the type of these peoples, with the forehead high, 

 the head pointed, and the general character 

 closely like that of the Libyo-Amorites. The 

 second civilization of the prehistoric age, as Prof. 

 Petrie defined it (from 6000 B.C. to 5000 B.C.), 

 was distinguished by high mechanical skill shown 

 in the marvelous working in flint, which was un- 

 equaled by any later race in its regularity and 

 perfect control. A like skill was shown in the 

 regular forms of the stone vases, and in the pot- 

 tery. Copper was increasing in use, and the forms 

 of tools were being evolved. The connection of 

 this second civilization with the East was hinted 

 at by the use of forehead pendants and probably 

 face veils, as with the Arabs, and by the introduc- 

 tion of amulets, unknown before, which are Sem- 

 itic rather than Libyan. The worship of these 

 people seems to have been that of the serpent, of 

 which several coiled images are known. The 

 games have been preserved in some tombs ; among 

 them a game of ninepins; one with four lions and 

 a hare; and games with balls and counters. 

 Certain paintings show that the people used large 

 ships ; and the foreign pottery imported shows that 

 they had intercourse with the rest of the Medi- 

 terranean. Carved slate palettes are among the 

 most important early monuments, or down to the 

 time of Narmer, who was just before Menes. The 

 animals represented upon them are interpreted as 

 emblems of tribes. In some instances towns are pic- 

 tured as attacked by these animals, some of which 

 are striking picks into the walls. Another slate 

 shows a long procession of warriors bearing dif- 

 ferent weapons. A slate, evidently one of the 

 latest of the series, assigned to the time of King 

 Narmer, presents the conventional grouping of 

 king and captive, already established in the same 

 form which lasted down to the Roman dominion. 

 The reverse shows that the united force of Egypt 

 was composed of three very different races the 

 long-haired, the bearded, and the usual shaven 

 Egyptian of late times. The triumph they cele- 

 brate is over a bearded people, who wore bulls' 

 skins and horns on the head. A strong contrast 

 was presented between prehistoric and dynastic 

 art. The former was at its best far inferior to the 

 rough work of the later people, while in mechan- 

 ical ability the later people showed no marked im- 

 provement, and in some respects, as in flint work, 

 they never reached the prehistoric level. The first 

 line of writing is on the tablets of the offerings at 

 the funeral of Mena. During the reigns before 

 his, no continuous inscriptions have been found, 

 and signs are only used sparingly to explain fig- 

 ures and scenes. By his time most of the con- 

 ventions were established, and under his suc- 

 cessor, Zer, the final crystallization of art took 

 place, and no essential change occurred till its 

 final decay, five thousand years later. In the 

 reign of King Zer the facility of design in a defi- 

 nite school became complete; and the seated fig- 

 ures of the king and the outline of the royal 

 hawk differ from all later works only by a severe 

 dignity, which was rapidly lost afterward. The 

 technical ability shown in the manufacture of the 

 jewelry lately discovered has never been exceeded 

 since. The linen of that age, as compared with 

 modern fine cambric, shows a finer thread and 

 a closer warp. The earliest statuary we have is 

 of this age, and shows a high proficiency and com- 

 pleteness of design which prove that we have yet 

 to recover many earlier stages. These arts suf- 

 fered decline afterward. 



The assignment of the four kings whom Prof. 

 Petrie calls predynastic, or of the "O dynasty," 

 as he designates 'it, to a period before Menes, has 

 not been accepted without question. M. Foucart 



