448 EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP. xm. 



almost a thing of yesterday. The history of Egypt, 

 beginning about 4000 years B.C. with the reign of 

 Menes, 1 is' the starting-point of the Historic period in 

 the Mediterranean, and is therefore thrice as long as 

 that covered by the records of this country. 



Egypt from the very first was the great centre of 

 light in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, on which 

 all eyes were fixed, and it was a mart in which the pro- 

 ducts of the far east and the far west met together, and 

 into which flowed the merchandise of three continents. 

 As far back as twenty-eight centuries B.C. the Egyptians 

 possessed powerful fleets for purposes of defence and 

 attack ; and we read of a naval engagement in the reign 

 of Papi, B.C. 2800. 2 They are said to have taught the 

 Phoenicians how to make glass, and to have instructed 

 the early Greeks in the sciences. 



Of their knowledge of the arts every museum is 

 eloquent. It is impossible to walk through the Egypt- 

 ian courts in the national collections in London, or in 

 the Louvre, or in the Vatican, without carrying away a 

 deep impression of their power and their skill. Yet 

 their high position was achieved without the knowledge 

 of steel. 3 They were acquainted with iron ; bronze they 

 used extensively, not merely for ornaments but for 

 daggers and axes of the simple types usually considered 

 characteristic of the early bronze civilisation north of the 

 Alps. Flint knives were sometimes used for religious 

 purposes, beautifully fashioned, and flint daggers such 

 as that in the British Museum with a wooden handle. 

 Pointed splinters of flint also were employed for cut- 



1 Chabas, p. 16. Lepsius fixes the date of Menes at 3892 B.C.; 

 Mariette at 5004 B.C. ; Brugsch at 5004 B.C. 2 Chabas, p. 174. 



3 Steel is not found in any of the older tombs. 



