December 29, 1923] 



NA TURE 



943 



the ingredients of the Ky phi-incense. Chaplets were 

 made of its twigs and leaves. The tree was sacred 

 to Hathor ; branches of it were offered by the Egyptian 

 kings to that goddess. In a Saite text it is mentioned 

 with three other trees, pine, yew, and juniper ; these 

 are all found in Northern S}Tia, where they grow 

 together with the cypress ; the tr.t tree may therefore 

 be the cypress. Evidence has been brought forward 

 to show that the sd-Xx^t is the horizontal-branched 

 cypress, which was believed to be a male tree, while 

 the tapering, flame-shaped cypress was believed to be 

 the female tree. The Ded-column was the symbol of 

 Osiris, and at Busiris a festival of raising this column 

 was celebrated. The ir.t tree was sacred to Hathor, 

 who is often identified with Isis, and there was a festival 

 of raising the tr.t tree that was celebrated on the 

 nineteenth day of the first month of the winter season. 

 It is not known where this festival was celebrated, 

 but it may well have been at Neter, the seat of the Isis 

 cult near Dedu-Busiris. The two tree-cults point 

 to Northern Syria as the country of their origin. 



In the architecture of ancient Egypt two distinct 

 styles can be recognised. One is founded on wattle- 

 and-daub, the other on wood construction. Wattle- 

 and-daub is the natural building material of the Nile 

 Valley and Delta, and the architectural forms derived 

 from it are certainly indigenous. Those styles derived 

 from wood construction, on the other hand, could 

 not have originated in Egypt ; they must have arisen 

 in a country where the necessary timber was ready at 

 hand. Egypt produces no coniferous trees and no 

 timber that is at all suitable for building purposes, or 

 indeed for carpenter's work of any description. The 

 wood of the sycomore-fig is very coarse-grained, and 

 no straight planks can be cut from it. The sunt-acacia 

 is so hard that it requires to be sawn while it is green ; 

 it is very irregular in texture, and on account of the 

 numerous branches of the trunk it is impossible to cut 

 it into boards more than a couple of feet in length. 

 The palaces of the early kings of the Delta were built 

 of coniferous wood hung with tapestry-woven mats. 

 The tomb of Menes' queen, Neith-hotep, at Naqada, 

 was built of brick in imitation of one of these timber- 

 constructed palaces, and smaller tombs of the same 

 kind are known from the Second and Third Dynasties, 

 but not later. As early as the reign of King Den 

 (First Dynasty) the palaces of this type were beginning 

 to be built of the native wattle-and-daub in combina- 

 tion with wood, and by the end of the Pyramid Age 

 the style disappears entirely, though the memory of 

 it was preserved in the false-doors of the tombs and 

 stelae. Brick buildings similar to those of the " palace " 

 style of Egypt are also known from early Babylonia, 

 and they were at one time regarded as peculiarly 

 characteristic of Sumerian architecture. These, ob- 

 viously, must have been copied, like the Egyptian, 

 from earlier timber forms. In Babylonia, as in Egypt, 

 timber was scarce, and there are records that it was 

 sometimes obtained from the coast of Syria. This 

 was the region from which the Egyptians throughout 

 hi.storic times obtained their main supplies of wood, so 

 it is not improbable that they, as well as the Sumerians, 

 derived this particular style of architecture from 

 Northern Syria. I may observe in passing that in 

 this " palace " style we have the transition form 



NO. 2826, VOL. I 12] 



between the nomad's tent and the permanent building 

 of a settled people. 



The lack of native timber in Egypt is significant 

 in another direction. Boats of considerable size are 

 figured on many pre-d\Tiastic monuments. They are 

 long and narrow, and in the middle there is usually 

 figured a reed or wicker-work cabin. In my view 

 these boats were built, like many of those of later 

 periods in Egypt, of bundles of papyrus reeds bound 

 together with cord ; they were, in fact, great canoes, 

 and, of course, were only for river traffic. They were 

 not sailing boats, but were propelled by means of oars. 

 No mast is ever figured with them, but they generally 

 have a short pole amidships which is surmounted by 

 a cult-object. On one pre-dynastic vase there is a 

 figure of a sailing ship, but this is totally different in 

 build from the canoes, and it has a very high bow and 

 stern with its mast set far forward in the hull. Similar 

 vessels are figured on the ivory knife-handle of pre- 

 dynastic date from Gebel el Araq, but these vessels 

 appear to be in port and the sails are evidently lowered. 



I have already referred to the Great Port mentioned 

 on the Palette of Menes. A port implies shipping and 

 trade relations with people dwelling along the coast or 

 across the sea. It may be that the people of the north- 

 western Delta built wooden ships, but if they did they 

 must have procured their timber from some foreign 

 source. Coniferous wood was already being imported 

 into the Nile Valley at the beginning of the First 

 Dynasty from the Lebanon region, and it must be 

 remembered that the Egyptian name for a sea-going 

 ship was khnyt, from Keben, *' By bios," the port of 

 the Lebanon, where these ships must have been built 

 and from whence they sailed. The sacred barks of 

 the principal gods of Egypt in historic times were 

 invariably built of coniferous wood from the Lebanon. 

 Transport ships on the Nile were sometimes built of 

 the native sunt-wood, and Herodotus describes them 

 as made of planks about two cubits long which were 

 put together " brick-fashion." No masts or sail- 

 yards, however, could possibly be cut from any native 

 Egyptian tree. In the Sudan at the present day masts 

 are sometimes made by splicing together a number 

 of small pieces of sunt and binding them with ox-hide, 

 but such masts are extremely liable to start in any 

 gale, and they would be useless for sea-going ships. 

 It may be doubted whether the art of building sea- 

 going ships originated in Egypt. 



It may be doubted also whether the custom of 

 burying the dead in wooden coffins originated in 

 Egypt. In countries where a tree is a rarity a plank 

 for a coffin is generally unknown. In the Admoni- 

 tions of an Egyptian Sage written some time before 

 2000 B.C., at a period when there was internal strife 

 in Egypt, the Sage laments that " Men do not sail 

 northwards to [Byb]-los to-day. What shall we do 

 for coniferous trees for our mummies, with the 

 produce of which priests are buried, and with the oil 

 of which [chiefs] are embalmed as far as Keftiu ? 

 They come no more." This ancient Sage raises another 

 anthropological question when he refers to the oil used 

 for embalming. The only oils produced by native 

 trees or shrubs in Egypt were olive oil, ben oil from 

 the moringa, and castor oil from the castor-oil plant. 

 The resins and oils used for embalming were principally 



