940 



NATURE 



[December 29, 1923 



Eg^ypt as a Field for Anthropological Research.^ 

 IJy Prof. P. E. Newberry, M.A., O.B.E. 



IT has often been stated tliat civilisation in Egypt 

 spread from the south, and considerable stress has 

 been laid upon the fact that many pre-dynastic and 

 early dynastic remains have been found in Upper 

 Egypt in the region between Edfu and Thinis, especially 

 at Hierakonpolis and Naqada, and north of Naqada, 

 in the neighlwurhood of Abydos. Opposite Edfu is a 

 desert route leading to the Red Sea ; at Kuft, opposite 

 Naqada, is the beginning of the road leading to Koser, 

 the jKirt on the Red Sea. It has been thought that the 

 people who brought culture to Egypt reached the Nile 

 Valley by one or by lx)th these routes from a " God's 

 Land " situated somewhere down the Red .Sea coast. 

 But throughout the whole history of Egypt, culture 

 has always come from the north, and spread southwards. 



From a study of the monuments of the First Dynasty 

 that had been found at Abydos and elsewhere in Upper 

 Egypt I ventured, nearly twenty years ago, to suggest 

 the existence in pre-dynastic times of a Delta civilisa- 

 tion which, in culture, was far advanced beyond that 

 of Upper Egypt, and I pointed out that it was probably 

 to a Delta civilisation that the Dynastic Eg\T)tians 

 owed their system of writing. I was led to this con- 

 clusion by the following facts. Although many pre- 

 dynastic cemeteries had been thoroughly explored in 

 Upper Egypt, no grave had yielded a single fragment 

 of hieroglyphic writing. The only inference that can 

 be drawn from this is that hieroglyphic writing was 

 unknown, or at all events unpractised, by the in- 

 habitants of Upper Egypt before Dynastic times. On 

 the other hand, the discoveries at Naqada, Hierakon- 

 polis, and Abydos had shown us that all the essential 

 features of the Egyptian system of writing were fully 

 developed at the beginning of the First Dynasty. 

 Hieroglyphic signs were already in full use as simple 

 phonograms, and their employment as phonetic 

 complements was well established. Determinative 

 signs are found beginning to appear in these early 

 writings, but, as Erman and Griffith have noticed, 

 even as late as the Fifth Dynasty their use was ver\' 

 restricted in the monumental inscriptions, although 

 they were common in the cursive and freely written 

 texts of the pyramids. At the very beginning of the 

 First Dynasty the numerical system was complete up 

 to millions, and the Eg>'ptians had already worked out 

 a solar year of 365 days. This was indeed a remarkable 

 achievement. 



These facts are of great significance, for it is clear 

 that the hieroglyphic system of writing, as we find it 

 at the beginning of the First Dynasty, must have been 

 the growth of many antecedent ages, and yet no trace 

 of the early stages of its evolution have been found on 

 Upper Egv^ptian soil. There is no clear evidence, 

 however, that the system was borrowed from any 

 country outside Egypt ; the fauna and flora of its 

 characters give it ever>- appearance of being indigenous. 

 It is apparent, therefore, that we must seek the cradle 

 of the Egyptian system of hieroglyphic writing else- 

 where than in Upper Egypt, and as the fauna and flora 

 of its characters are distinctly Egyptian, the pre- 



/ f '■on*. «he Presidential .\ddress delivered to Section H (Anthropologi) 

 of the British Association at Liverpool on September 17. 



NO. 2826, VOL. I 12] 



sumption is that it must l)e located in the I 

 important indication as to the original home > 

 writing is given by the signs which, in historic timetP 

 were used to designate the points of thf mmpass. 

 The sign for " east " was a drop-shap< 

 upon a sacred perch, and this was th< 

 clan living in pre-dynastic times in the Eastern Delta. 

 The sign for " west " was an ostrich feather placed in 

 a semicircular stand, and this was the cult-object of 

 the people of the Western Delta. The sign for *' south " 

 was a scirpus-reed ; this was the cult-object of a clan 

 which dwelt on the east bank of the Nile a little above 

 the modem village of Sharona in Middle Egypt. The 

 country south of the apex of the Delta was known as 

 Ta Shema, " Reed Land." It must, therefore, have 

 been at some point north of the apex of the Delta that 

 the scirpus-reed was first used to designate the south. 

 It must also have been somewhere in the Central Delta 

 that the cult-objects of the peoples of the Eastern and 

 Western Delta were first used to designate east and west. 



For the Delta being the early home of writin- 

 another fact has to be taken into consideration. Thot : 

 the Ibis-god, was to the Egyptians the god of writin. 

 and it was to him that they attributed its inventioi 

 The principal seat of his worship in historic times wa 

 Ilermopolis, in Middle Egypt. But Thoth's origiiia, 

 habitat was situated in the north-east comer of the 

 Delta, where, in pre-dynastic times, had resided an 

 Ibis clan. The tradition that named Thoth as tl' 

 god and inventor of writing would, therefore, poii.i 

 Delta-wards. This tradition is significant also in 

 another way. Although we cannot doubt that the 

 Egyptian system of writing was evolved in the Delta, 

 the germs of writing may have come into Eg)-pt from 

 Western Asia via this north-east comer of the countr\ . 

 In this connexion it may be pointed out that the 

 hieroglyphic signs for " right " and " left " were the 

 same as those for " west " and " east " ; the Egyptian 

 who evolved the hieroglyphic system of writin_ 

 orientated themselves facing south. 



It is remarkable that so little is known about tl < 

 early history of the Delta. Few excavations ha\ < 

 been carried out there, and nothing of pre-d)Tiasti< , 

 or early dynastic, times has, so far, been brought t 

 light from the country north of Cairo. We do Icnow . 

 however, that before the arrival of the Falcon-kin_ 

 from Hierakonpolis in the south, Middle and Lov( 

 Egypt had been, probably for many centuries, unitt ' 

 under one sceptre, and that before these two parts ( : 

 the country- were united there had been a Del:. 

 Kingdom which had had its capital at Sais. Tl - 

 names of some of these early kings are preser\ed c; 

 the Palermo fragment cf the famous Annals Tabkt. 

 and the list there given would alone be enough to pro\ < 

 how ancient the Delta civilisation must have beer.. 

 There was certainly nothing comparable with it in 

 Upper Egypt in those far-off days. 



What were the physical conditions prevailing in the 

 Delta and in the regions to the east and west of it 

 immediately preceding the arrival of Menes in Lower 

 Eg)-pt ? For the eastern side the evidence is exceed- 

 ingly scanty, but there is one fact which is significant. 



