H.—ANTHROPOLOGY. 191 
and on account of the numerous branches of the trunk it is impossible 
to cut it into boards more than a couple of feet in length. The palaces 
of the early kings of the Delta were built of coniferous wood hung with 
tapestry-woven mats. The tomb of Menes’ queen, Neith-hotep, at 
Naqada, was built of brick in imitation of one of these timber-con- 
structed palaces, and smaller tombs of the same kind are known from 
the Second and Third Dynasties, but not later. As early as the reign 
of King Den (First Dyn.) the palaces of this type were beginning to 
- be built of the native wattle-and-daub in combination with wood, ye) 
q 
by the end of the Pyramid Age the style disappears entirely, though the 
memory of it was preserved in the false-doors of the tombs and “stele. 
Brick buildings similar to those of the ‘ palace ’ style of Egypt are 
also known from early Babylonia, and they were at one time regarded as 
peculiarly characteristic of Sumerian architecture. These, obviously, 
must have been copied, like the Egyptian, from earlier timber forms. 
In Babylonia, as in Egypt, timber was scarce, and there are records 
that it was sometimes obtained from the coast of Syria. This was the 
region from which the Egyptians throughout historic times obtained 
their main supplies of wood, so it is not improbable that they, as well 
as the Sumerians, derived this particular style of architecture from 
Northern Syria. [I may observe in passing that in this ‘ palace’ style 
we have the transition form between the nomad’s tent and the permanent 
building of a settled people. The lack of native timber in Egypt is 
significant in another direction. Boats of considerable size are figured 
on many pre-dynastic monuments. They are long and narrow, and in 
the middle there is usually figured a reed or wicker-work cabin. bn! 
my view these boats were built, like many of those of later periods in 
Egypt, of bundles of papyrus reeds bound together with cord ; they were, 
in fact, great canoes, and, of course, were only for river traffic. They 
were not sailing boats, but were propelled by means of oars. No mast 
is ever figured with them, but they generally have a short pole amid- 
ships which is surmounted by a cult-object. On one pre-dynastic vase 
there is a figure of a sailing ship, but this is totally different in build 
from the canoes, and it has a very high bow and stern with its mast 
set far forward in the hull. Similar vessels are figured on the ivory 
knife-handle of pre-dynastic date from Gebel el Araq, but these vessels 
appear to be in port anid the sails are evidently iowered. I have already 
referred to the Great Port mentioned on the Palette of Menes. A port 
implies shipping and trade relations with people dwelling along the coast 
or across the sea. It may be that the people of the north-western 
_ Delta built wooden ships, but if they did they must have procured their 
timber from some foreign source. Coniferous wood was already being 
imported into the Nile Valley at the beginning of the First Dynasty 
from the Lebanon region, and it must be remembered that the Egyptian 
name for a sea-going ship was kbnyt, from Keben, ‘ Byblos,’ the port 
_ of the Lebanon, where these ships must have been built and from whence 
a) they sailed. ‘The sacred barks of the principal gods of Egypt in historic 
times were invariably built of coniferous wood from the Lebanon. 
_ Transport ships on the Nile were sometimes built of the native sint- 
wood, and Herodotus describes them as made of planks about two cubits 
1923 P 
