THE PREHISTORIC EAST 173 



harrow armed with rude flints, and may have used 

 flint flakes for cutting wood or for pointing his 

 arrows. Yet he was a member of a civilised and 

 highly-organised nation, which could execute great 

 works of canalisation and embankment, and could 

 construct tombs and temples that have not since 

 been surpassed. Can we doubt that the common 

 people in Palestine and other neighbouring countries 

 were equally in the flint age, or be surprised that, 

 somewhat later, Joshua used flint knives to circum- 

 cise the Israelites ? l How remarkable are these links 

 of connection between early Eastern civilisation and 

 the stone age ! and they relate to mere flakes, such 

 as if found separately might be styled * palaeolithic.' 



In accordance with all this, when we examine the 

 tenants of the oldest Egyptian tombs, who are known 

 to us by their sculptured statues and their carved and 

 painted portraits, we find them to be the same with 

 the Egyptians of historic times, and not very dis- 

 similar from the modern Copts, and we also find that 

 their arts and civilisation were not very unlike those 

 of comparatively late date. 



There are, however, some points in which the early 

 condition of even historic Egypt was different from 

 the present or from anything recorded in written 

 history. 



I have elsewhere endeavoured, with the aid of my 

 friend Dr. Schweinfurth, to restore the appearance of 

 the Nile valley when first visited by man in the post- 



1 Joshua v. 2, marginal reading. 



