748 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



About the year 2200 B. C. Amenemhat I began to bring the peri- 

 odical inflow from high Nile under control. It' a natural lake existed 

 long before, having broken in through the gap during some great 

 flood, its level also must have varied, not only by evaporation but 

 during cycles of low Nile, and also no water might have entered the 

 oasis for years in succession. 



The nodules of flint that occur all over this desert are of a tough 

 consistency, small, and very suitable for making arrow points and the 

 distinctive and peculiar Fayum implements. This may be the reason 

 why only two "coups-de-poing," or "drift" implements of Chelleen 

 or Acheuleen type were found. 



N 



Scale 



A 



300.000 

 HILLS (eocene) 



*4 ^ .. '--:"- 





u 



"-1 1 



/V ^AnAnA^,-'' 



F 



F 



The Fayum Lake 



BIRKET EL KURUN 



Ma i' of Fayum Desert. 



The dotted line shows approximately the shore of the ancient hike; F !•', implementiferons spots; 

 R, ruins of Qasr el Sagha. 



The implements from the Hint mines in the Eastern Desert are of a 

 cherty material, which occurs in masses and nodules of such shape and 

 consistency as to be suitable for making them, and they are found 

 only in that vicinity. Examples may now be seen in most of the 

 museums on the four continents from both these localities, as also of 

 those discovered by the writer in Somaliland. It is indeed probable 

 that peculiar types discovered in different parts of the world have 

 been evolved through the local material. For example, in the paleo- 

 lithic workshops in the Madras Province of India, which I discovered 



