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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1128 



Map showing Cultural Eoutes 



in India, Ceylon, Burma and the Malay- 

 Peninsula; in Indonesia and China; and 

 finally in Polynesia) ultimately reached the 

 Pacific coast of the Americas and leavened 

 the aboriginal population of the vast conti- 

 nent with the ferment of the ancient civili- 

 zations of the Old "World. 



During the thirty centuries from B.C. 

 4,000 onwards there was built up slowly in 

 Egypt, partly as the result of a natural and 

 logical development, but also in part by the 

 accidental addition of many foreign ele- 

 ments, a cultural fabric of a peculiarly 

 complex and artificial texture, the pattern 

 of which is so distinctive that it can be 

 identified wherever and under whatsoever 

 circumstances it occurs. 



A people who in b.c. 4,000 were already 

 acquainted with the art of weaving linen, 

 and who practised the curious rite of cir- 

 cumcision, a few centuries later learned to 

 appreciate the usefulness of metals and 

 invented the elements of the metallurgical 

 arts and crafts. It was the merest chance 

 that this particular group of people should 

 have been led by force of circumstances to 

 have been impelled to mummify their dead. 



But intimately interwoven with the devel- 

 opment of the art of embalming and casu- 

 ally related to it was the making of rock-cut 

 tombs and the building of stone super- 

 structures, the possibility of the making of 

 which was suggested by the use of metal 

 tools. The use of linen was also closely re- 

 lated to these developments. Thus the acci- 

 dental association of a series of naturally 

 disparate factors became welded about b.c. 

 3,000 into the nucleus of a peculiar culture 

 of which mummification, the making of 

 rock-cut tombs and a great variety of mega- 

 lithic monuments, the use of copper and 

 gold and the weaving of linen, and the 

 practise of the rite of circumcision, were 

 some of the outstanding features. 



In connection with the ritual associated 

 with mummification statues of the deceased 

 were made and a crop of curious beliefs and 

 rites developed. Thus originated the be- 

 lief in the indwelling of human beings in 

 stones, and the possibility of petrifying 

 men and animals, the rites of incense-burn- 

 ing and offering libations, and a whole 

 series of other bizarre practises and beliefs, 

 which later became so widespread as in 



