Marcu 26, 1914] 
THE Sree POLOGICAL SURVEY OF 
NUBIA.} 
Ay eN it was decided to heighten the Aswan 
Dam, the Egyptian Government also made 
provision for the thorough examination of the 
whole tract of country that would be immersed 
in the enlarged reservoir south of the First 
Cataract. An account has already been given in 
Natvre (1911, vol. Ixxxvi., p. 283) of the surprising 
richness of the harvest of historical and archzo- 
logical results, which Dr. Reisner’s precise 
methods and skill in interpretation were able to 
rescue from this unpromising and poverty-stricken 
site during the first six months’ work in 1907-1908. 
For in that short time not only were the main 
outlines of Nubia’s chequered history and strange 
vicissitudes unveiled, but also, incidentally, con- 
siderable light was shed upon many points that 
Fic. 1.—Cemetery 87. sGroups of C-group superstructures. Grave 24, pottery in position at foot of 
superstructure. From ‘‘ The Archeological Survey of Nubia. 
hitherto had been obscure in the history of Egypt 
and the Sudan. 
So successfully was this work accomplished 
during the first season’s work of the Survey 
(where, fortunately, the materials brought to light 
in the neighbourhood of the First Cataract sup- 
plied a summary of the whole history of Nubia) 
that the other three seasons’ work could be de- 
voted to filling in the details of the story. 
It was very fortunate that it was possible to 
put together the historical framework at the very 
commencement of the work, for during the follow- 
ing season Dr. Reisner, who had organised the 
whole undertaking and set the high standard of 
scientific accuracy and thoroughness for his suc- 
cessor to live up to, had to relinquish the personal 
control of the survey in order to resume his work 
1 “The Archeological Survey of Nubia. Report for 1908-9. By C. M. 
Firth. Vol. i., part i., Report on the Work of the Season, 1908-9. Part ii., 
Catalogue of Graves and their Contents. Pp. vit-z09. Vol. ii., Plates and 
Plans accompanying vol. i. 
Cairo : Government 
Press, ror.) 
56 plates+xx plans. 
Price L..E. 2 (fo- the two volumes). 
NO. 2317, VOL. 93] 
NATURE 
85 
in Syria and at the Giza Pyramids for the Har- 
vard University and the Boston Museum. Hap- 
pily Mr. Cecil Firth, who had been intimately 
associated with Dr. Reisner for several years, was 
available to carry on the work in the spirit and 
with the thoroughness with which it was begun. 
In the volumes lately issued the results of the 
second season’s work (mainly Dr. Reisner’s) have 
been fully presented with a conciseness and 
lucidity distinctive of Mr. Firth’s writing. 
The district with which the first season’s work 
was concerned chanced to be especially rich in 
_ Predynastic and Early Dynastic remains, and thus 
enabled us at the outset to begin at the beginning 
and appreciate the condition of Lower Nubia when 
_it was ethnically and archzologically a part of 
| Egypt. 
The second season equally fortunately 
_ yielded most information concerning the succeed- 
Report for 1g08-9.’ 
ing period, when a distinctively Nubian culture 
was manifesting itself; and these 
data, which form the outstanding 
feature of the volumes before us, 
follow naturally upon the Early 
Dynastic and Egyptian phase of 
Nubia’s history. 
From the time of the Third 
Dynasty there was a rapid de- 
cline of Egyptian influence in 
Nubia, associated with a de- 
gradation of its essentially Proto- 
Egyptian culture and the infusion 
of negro blood into its popula- 
fous” ~*‘The. condition’ of -the 
country, owing to its isolation 
from Egypt, had reached a very 
low ebb, perhaps the lowest in its 
history, and it is not surprising 
to find it suddenly displaced by. 
or incorporated in, a new and 
vigorous barbaric civilisation 
which is very obviously southern 
in its origin, and in no way re- 
lated to that of contemporary 
Egypt. It would appear that 
there was a_ considerable  in- 
flux from the south of a slightly negroid 
population, which brought with it a_ peculiar 
culture and art which has very marked 
affinities with that of Predynastic Egypt in 
its earliest istage” a(ppe 13) .andé:14))% - The 
new and precise information concerning this people 
which suddenly made its appearance in Lower 
Nubia “at some time between the Old and the 
Middle Kingdoms,” i.e. roughly about 2500 B.c., 
is the outstanding distinctive feature of this report. 
Both in the physical characters of the people and 
the nature of their culture, which is so admirably 
described in these volumes, this Middle Nubian 
people is nearly akin to the earliest Predynastic 
” 
| Eovotians; but the two branches of the race 
became separated the one from the other, and 
developed independently, one in Egypt, the other 
further south under the influence of contact with 
the negro population of Africa. When the latter 
people, after a separation of perhaps nearly ten 
centuries, moved north and came into contact 
