EGYPT AS A FIELD FOR 
ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH. 
ADDRESS TO SECTION H (ANTHROPOLOGY) BY 
Proressor P. E. NEWBERRY, M.A., O.B.E., 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION, 
Wuen I received the honour of an invitation to preside at the Anthropo- 
logical Section of the British Association my thoughts naturally turned 
to the subject of the Presidential Address, which, if I accepted the 
invitation, it would be my duty to prepare. On looking back over the 
Addresses of past Presidents of this Section since its institution in 
1884 I found that no one had dealt with Egypt as a field for anthropo- 
logical research. It was because of this that I decided to accept the 
Council’s invitation, and I am here to-day to bring before your notice 
some facts regarding the civilisation of the country with which I have 
long been associated, and in which I have spent many years of my life. 
In 1897, when the British Association last met in this great city on 
the Mersey-side, Sir Arthur Evans occupied the Presidential Chair of 
this Section, and the subject of his address was ‘ The Eastern Question 
in Anthropology.’ Surveying the early history of civilisation as far as 
it was then known, he insisted that the adequate recognition of the 
Eastern background was essential to the right understanding of the 
Aigean. He laid stress on the part which Crete had played in the 
first emancipation of the European genius, and pointed out that in 
Crete, far earlier than elsewhere, can be traced the vestiges of primeval 
intercourse with the Nile Valley. Nineteen years later, years that 
were extraordinarily prolific in archeological discovery in every part of 
the Near East, Sir Arthur occupied the Presidential Chair of the British 
Association at Newcastle. He then addressed us on ‘New Archeo- 
logical Lights on the Origins of Civilisation in Europe.’ Referring te 
his epoch-making discoveries in Crete he said, ‘ It is interesting to note 
that the first quickening impulse came to Crete from the Egyptian 
and not from the Oriental side; the Eastern factor in it is of compara- 
tively late appearance.’ By that time Sir Arthur’s researches had led 
him to the ‘ definite conclusion that cultural influences were already 
reaching Crete from beyond the Libyan Sea, before the beginning of 
the Egyptian Dynasties.” He further said ‘the impression of a very 
active agency indeed is so strong that the possibility of some actual 
immigration into the island of the older Egyptian element, due to the 
conquests of the first Pharaohs, cannot be excluded.’ 
I propose to-day to deal with some of the questions relating to the 
origins of the Egyptian civilisation, and incidentally shall touch upon 
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