FLINT IMPLEMENTS OF THE FA YUM, EGYPT. 



By Heywood Waltek Seton-Karr, 

 Of the British Military Service in Egypt. 



The province of the Fayum, in which the implements described 

 below were found, consists of a natural leaf-shape depression, sur- 

 rounded by the Libyan Hills, on the west of the Nile, and about fifty 

 miles southwest of Cairo. The Bah Yusuf (Joseph's canal) connects 

 the Fayum with the valley of the Nile, and in the northwest end of it 

 is the Lake Birket-el-Kurun ("Lake of Horns"). In ancient times 

 Lake Moeris .filled nearly the whole depression of. the province, and 

 the present Birket-el-Kurun is considered by some authorities to be its 

 shrunken representative. Here also was the celebrated "•' Labyrinth."" 



The district of the Fayum has yielded a great deal of material for 

 archeological and for historical research in the stricter sense in the 

 form of papyri and the celebrated Hellenistic encaustic portraits. 



Lake Birket-el-Kurun is salt, and drinking water has to be carried 

 to the neighborhood on camels. In ancient times the lake water was 

 potable, having been of considerable volume. 



The Arabs near Cairo have for some time been selling flint imple- 

 ments of new types from the Fayum; indeed, information came some 

 years ago from Schweinfurth, Sayce, Sturge, and Evans that they had 

 been found there in small numbers. Latterly H. J. Beadnell published 

 a short paper " with map and plates. The map was important as show- 

 ing roughly the supposed limits of the water. An outline is annexed, 

 based on Beadnell's map, with slight additions regarding implement- 

 iferous localities and the ancient border. The implements occur over 

 most parts of the surface above the ancient water level and where the 

 prevailing north wind removes the sand — such as the crests of undula- 

 tions. For, in some parts the hardened cla} T of the lake bottom is 

 barred with lines of small sand waves having clear spaces between; 

 stones and implements are on the bare parts, and few, if any, under 

 the sand. They appear to prevent the sand from settling. There 

 is practically nothing on the old lake floor, even where the deposit has 

 been weathered away to the bed-rock, excepting around the border. 



" Geological Magazine, February, 1903. 



747 



