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190 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. — 1915. 



been received from Dr. Eeisner; and, although most of this material 

 has now been photographed and measured, the investigation of it is not 

 yet sufficiently advanced to permit me to submit a final Report upon it. 

 It is of sufficient importance, however, to justify an interim Eeport. 



In the Bulletin of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, April 1914, 

 Professor Eeisner has published a very interesting and fully-illustrated 

 account of his excavations at Kerma, with a description of the circum- 

 stances under which the human remains were found and the nature 

 of the remarkable series of objects found with them. 



In this report the human remains are described as those of ' a 

 garrison which held the Northern Sudan in the Hyksos Period, about 

 1700 B.C.' To appreciate more fully the nature of the material with 

 which I have to deal 1 may be permitted to quote Dr. Eeisner's own 

 account of the problem he puts to me to solve for him. 



' By 2600 B.C. the Egyptian had already begun his exploitation of 

 the Upper Nile, and had been led in military force as far as the province 

 of Dongola, the richest area between the Assuan border of Egypt and 

 the tropical Sudan. Gold he certainly brought away and cattle ; ivory, 

 ostrich feathers and eggs, ebony, skins, resins, spices and incense — all 

 came through the province in trade if they were not produced here.' 

 Traces of the Old Empire fort and alabaster vessels bearing the name 

 of Pepy I. were found at Kerma. ' During the period of depression in 

 Egypt which followed the reign of Pepy II., it is probable that the 

 Nubian tribe went their own way undisturbed. In the Middle Empire, 

 however, the exploitation of Nubia by Egypt was resumed and placed 

 on a more secure footing. Sesostris III. set up a boundary-stone at 

 Kummeh, south of Haifa [Second Cataract] , forbidding any negro to 

 pass northwards by land or water except traders and official messengers. 

 This stone marked the southern border of Egypt, but, as a matter of 

 course, not the limits of Egyptian activity.' [Inscriptions with the 

 names of Sesostris I., Amenemhat I. and Amenemhat III., together 

 with fragments of perhaps twenty-five Middle Empire royal statuettes, 

 make it] ' quite clear that Kerma was held by the kings of Egypt 

 during the Middle Empire. 



' Thus we come to the Hyksos Period itself. Much has been written 

 about this period in Egypt, but our real knowledge is small. An un- 

 identified race came in, apparently from Asia, conquered and held Egypt 

 for perhaps a hundred years. But we do not know how far south they 

 held it . . . [at Kerma] in the Hyksos period [there have come to light 

 the remains of] a colony of men, not negro, and yet not using 

 Egyptian furniture nor Egyptian burial customs. They razed 

 *ihe buildings of the Egyptians of the Middle Empire; they 

 smashed the statues of Egyptian kings of the XII. Dynasty; 

 and they made their graves in the debris of an ancient mud- 

 brick structure. They were apparently a fierce and capable race. 

 Their pottery, manifestly made locally, is the finest and most beautiful 

 ever made in the Nile Valley. . . . Their burial customs are revolting 

 in their barbarity. On a carved bed in the middle of a big circular pit 

 the chief personage lies on his right side with his head east. Under 

 his head is a wooden pillow; between his legs a sword or dagger; beside 



