September 2, 1895. 



KNOV/ LEDGE. 



197 



the hands were in front of the face, and the knees were 

 drawn up to the elbows. Tomb after tomb was opened, 

 and the position of the body was always the same. It was 

 clear that we had to do with some non-Egyptian people. 

 Soon a better class of tomb was found, with pottery grouped 

 round the body. The pottery was mainly of two types ; a 

 black and red smooth-faced ware of simple and well-shaped 

 forms, and a coarser variety with wavy ledge handles. 

 Neither of these was known to be Egyptian. The red and 

 black pots had been often seen in dealers' hands, but to 

 what period they should be attributed was not known. 

 Those with handles we did not know in Egypt, but frag- 

 ments of similar vases had been found in Palestine, at 

 pre-.Judiic levels, by Prof. Petrie, and had been attributed 

 to the Amorites. 



Slates, too, were found, often shaped to resemble a fish. 

 These were always placed in front of the face ; sometimes 

 they retained stains of green, and near the slate would be a 

 smooth brown pebble, also with a trace of green. The 

 green was malachite, and the slates seemed to be palettes 

 for grindiug face paint. 



These slates, again, were well knov.n— specimens had 

 been often bought from dealers, and are to be found in 



Fig. 1. — Finely 



woi'lied Fliufs and Irorv 

 newlv-found Eace. 



Combs mude by the 



various museums, but they are labelled merely " from 

 Egypt " ; whether they belonged to natives or to foreigners, 

 whether they were made in 4000 b.c. or 400 a.d., was totally 

 unknown. 



Two more classes of objects were found which had 



hitherto been unobserved in situ by any European, viz., 

 stone vases with horizontally pierced handles, and flmts of 

 exceptionally beautiful workmanship. These last are the 

 finest specimens of such work known in any age. The 

 flaking is of machine-like accuracy and precision, surpassing 

 even the finest Scandinavian examples. The use of the 

 fish-tailed shape {lidc Eig. 1) can only be guessed. It was 

 attached to a wooden handle and used perhaps for spearing 

 antelopes. 



The size of the tombs varied considerably. Some were 

 but two feet deep and barely large enough to contain the 

 crouching body and a single vase, while others were fifteen 

 feet by eight, and eight feet deep, and contained as many as 

 eighty pots, besides small objects, stone vases, beads, or 

 flints. 



Most of the pots were empty, but certain large coarse 

 jars were filled with ashes. Ashes of what ? For the 

 bodies were not burnt. No sign of fire was on the bones. 



Other jars were found containing mud. This was very 

 puzzling until one of the lumps of mud was found to smell 

 strongly, and then another was discovered with some 

 aromatic fat under the mud, then another with pure fat. 

 The mud had been, no doubt, an audacious adulteration 

 or a pious substitute. This fat seemed to smell of cocoa- 

 nut, but it has been proved on analysis not to be cocoa-nut 

 oil, though what it is has yet to be determined. 



They must have been a tall and powerful race, as is 

 apparent from the great thickness of their thigh bones 

 and their massive jaws. In the early part of their sojourn 

 in Egypt mutilation of the dead was certainly practised 

 by this newly-discovered race. Of the first eight 

 hundred graves cleared, only two contained bodies with 

 skulls attached, in all the other cases the head was 

 tither mi?sing or more usually detached from the body 

 and lying at a higher level than the rest of the skeleton. 

 It is possible that the head was removed on death and 

 kept in the house for a year, as is the practice to this day 

 with some races, and afterwards, if it could be foimd, it 

 was buried. But there is no sign of mutilation in some 

 of the later graves ; and the body is strangely dried and 

 the flesh wonderfully preserved, as may be seen from 

 the skull depicted in Fig. 2. The hair and part of the 

 scalp is still attached, while the dried ear may be plainly 

 seen. The tendons, too, were so strong that a body 

 could almost be lifted out from the grave entire. This 

 points to a change in burial customs during the residence 

 in Egypt. 



Altogether nearly three thousand graves were cleared 

 and recorded. In 'this work a man and boy were always 

 employed together. The man digs with a kind of adze, 

 and fills a basket, which the boy carries and ernpties. 

 When the bones and pottery appear the adze is laid 

 aside, and with a broken potsherd the man carefully 

 clears away the remaining gravel, leaving each bone and 

 object in its place, but clearly visible. Then the observer 

 comes, and, standing above the tomb's edge, sketches 

 what he sees, descending usually to clear something 

 more completely with his own hands. Then he marks 

 with the tomb number every object which has to be 

 kept, and sometimes even himself packs the men's baskets 

 that all the finds may be safely carried to the hut. A 

 single observer can thus clear and record with some care 

 about eight tombs in a day. In the two sites together, 

 those of Prof. Petrie and of the Research Account, 

 there were generally four observers employed, and the 

 stack of skeletons before the doors of the hut and the 

 regiments of pots which stretched out in front of them 

 grew rapidly. 



