728 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 



perhaps also invaders, not to mention the slow but steady percolation into Egypt 

 of a negroid element resulting from the secular intermingling of neighbouring 

 peoples. Thus began that graduation of racial characters in the Nile valley, 

 ranging from the Levantine white population of Alexandria to the negro of the 

 Sudan, which has persisted until the present day, and is displayed even in the 

 measurements of thirty thousand modern Egyptian men, which are now being 

 examined by Mr. J. I. Craig. 



It is not yet possible to express a positive opinion as to the source of the white 

 immigration into the Delta, which first reached significant proportions in the 

 times of the Third and Fourth Dynasties; but, from evidence which I have 

 recently collected, it seems probable that the bulk of it came from the Levant. 

 It is most likely, however, that there was a steady influx into the Delta of people 

 coming both from east and west, and that their percolation into Egypt was so 

 gradual as not to disturb violently the even flow of the evolution of the 

 distinctive Egyptian civilisation. Nevertheless, it is perhaps not without signifi- 

 cance, especially when we take into account the simple-minded, unprogressive. 

 and extremely conservative character of the real Egyptian, to note that none of 

 the greatest monuments were constructed nor the most noteworthy advances made 

 in the arts of the Egyptian civilisation, except on the initiative of an aristocracy, 

 in the composition of which there was a considerable infusion of non- Egyptian 

 blood. From the times of the Pyramid builders until the present day Egypt's 

 rulers have probably never been of undiluted Egyptian origin. 



3. The Excavations at Memphis. 

 By Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L., F.R.S. 



4. A Neolithic Site in the Southern Sudan. 1 By C. G. Seligmann, M.D. 



The country between the White and the Blue Niles south of Gezireh consists 

 of a level plain from which project isolated masses of rock. In the dry season 

 water is scarce, springs being confined to the Hanks and feet of the hills. 

 Jebel Gule, which lies about fifty miles due west of Renk, on the White Nile, 

 is over 1,000 feet high and perhaps three or four miles in circumference, and in 

 the old days it was the governing centre of a considerable population. 



At its foot there are two settlements of people who call themselves Fung, but 

 are generally known to their neighbours as Hamegj they profess Islam and 

 speak Arabic, but keep up a number of non-Muslim customs, and the majority 

 of them still speak a language which they say they all spoke before the sixteenth 

 century — the date which they give for their conversion to the Faith. 



Worked stone implements, which show that three industries were carried on, 

 were found at Jebel Gule. These include (1) a neolithic adze-head and hammer- 

 stone, both of black basalt, while many grooves on the rock show where tools 

 such as the adze-head had been ground. There does not, however, appear to be 

 any basalt on the hill. (2) A large number of pygmy implements, which for the 

 most part consisted of one of the varieties of quartz. A few of horn-stone were 

 also found. (3) A large number of implements of horn-stone or of a horn-stone 

 breccia cemented with chalcedony. These are for the most part scrapers, but 

 blades and discs were also found, the latter resembling the palaeolithic imple- 

 ments found in Suffolk and elsewhere. There is also a single specimen of an 

 implement which might be considered a small palaeolithic coup de poing. 



All these implements were picked up on the surface, or covered only with a 

 thin layer of blown sand, and there is therefore no certain indication of their age. 

 But in spite of the palaeolithic form of some of the specimens, the nature of 

 the site and the small amount of weathering are in favour of their being neolithic. 

 In any case, they are of an entirely different type from the worked stones 

 which have hitherto been found in the Sudan in association with Meroitic or other 

 historic civilisations. 



1 Published in Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute vol. xl., part 1,. January 

 to June 1910. 



