58 H. J. L. Beadnell — Flint Implements from Fayiim, Egypt. 



tombs, are based on insufficient evidence, and on faulty assumptions- 

 of Egyptologists as to the geological and meteorological conditions 

 in the Pleistocene and Eecent periods. For instance, Mr. Griffith ^ 

 writes : — " Egypt, as we know it, came into existence in the 

 Pleistocene epoch, and then began the alluvial deposit to which 

 the richness of the soil is due. But before the formation of 

 the Nile Valley Palaoolithic man was on the ground." Again, 

 Petrie^ writes: — "The valley of the Nile is cut down a depth of 

 1,400 feet through a limestone plateau, the edges of which are 

 deeply channelled with drainage valleys. . . . On the top of 

 the 1,400 feet plateau are great numbers of worked flints of 

 Paleolithic type. . . . That the high plateau was the home 

 of man in Palaeolithic times is shown by the worked flints lying 

 scattered around the centres where they were actually worked. 

 The Nile, being far higher then, left no mud flats as at present 

 for habitation, and the rainfall, as shown by the valley erosion and 

 waterfalls, must have caused an abundant vegetation on the plateau 

 where man would live and hunt his game." 



What evidence is there that Palgeolithic man was on the ground 

 before the formation of the Nile Valley ? In all probability the 

 valley came into existence even long before the earliest times of 

 European Palseolithic man. Again, the presence "of worked flints 

 lying scattered around the centi'es where they were actually worked " 

 does not necessarily prove that the plateau was inhabited by man. 

 If early man could obtain better material there than elsewhere,|as 

 was probably the case, he would naturally have manufactured his 

 implements there. Most or all these implements are found near 

 the edge of the plateau at no great distance from the valley, and 

 even under the present rigorous desert conditions I have frequently 

 found Fellahin from the valley up to thirty and forty miles inland, 

 remaining for days away from the habitable cultivation working 

 small veins of rock-salt or gathering bats' dung in caves. In 

 exactly the same way may early man have gone into the desert 

 fringe to obtain and work his flint. Again, do the " valley erosion 

 and waterfalls " prove a greater rainfall in the time of man ? 

 It seems to me that the greater part of the wadis may very well 

 have been carved out before man appeared on the scene ; while 

 it is doubtful if there was ever much erosion of the valley by 

 the Nile, the main part of the gorge probably having been formed 

 in Pliocene times largely by earth-movements. If the plateau 

 was really vegetated and habitable, how is it that no traces of 

 man are found at any distance from the Nile Valley ? I have 

 crossed the Libyan desert and traversed a good deal of the Eastern 

 plateau, but never met with any remains of early man or anything 

 to suggest that either plateau might have been habitable even in 

 very remote periods. 



I do not pronounce either for or against Palseolithic man in Egypt^^ 



^ Archaeological Eeport of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1896-7, p. 48. 

 ' Petrie & Quibell : " Naqada and Ballas," p. 49. 



