34 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [DcC. 9, 



one of the smaller caves, careMly examined by my friend Mr. J. K. 

 Lord, the floor was covered to a considerable depth with a coating 

 of impalpable dust, which, when disturbed, rose in suffocating clouds. 

 On sifting this, numerous fragments of stone hammers and pieces of 

 wood, some partially carbonized, but which had evidently been 

 fashioned into tools, were found. The latter form segments of cy- 

 lindrical blocks, with roughly conical points (that have evidently 

 been shaped with a blunt or imperfectly cutting tool) with a thickened 

 head, notched round underneath as if to receive a withe or cord. 

 The head bears evident marks of having been subjected to repeated 

 blows. Although only a single segment of any degree of perfec- 

 tion was found, there can be little doubt that these were used as 

 mountings for the flint chisels employed by the ancient miners. 

 Without something of the kind, it would be difficult to work vrith 

 the flakes, owing to their tendency to break across when not struck 

 fairly on the top. 



The hammers found in the workings are mostly of a very rude 

 kind ; in many cases rough natural fragments of dolorite, taken from 

 the flow capping the adjacent hills, have been used, only a pair of 

 holes on opposite sides, produced by the action of sand pressed upon 

 the surface by the thumb and forefinger, being apparent. Some, 

 however, show a little more work, having a gi'oove, to receive a withe 

 handle, cut round them, like the so-called Aztec hammers found in 

 the aboriginal workings in the Lake Superior copper-mines. Most 

 of them are broken at the ends, and can only be regarded as spoiled 

 and waste tools. The same seems to be the case with the wooden 

 fragments, many of which are partially carbonized, as though they 

 had been used for making fires when no longer serviceable as tools ; 

 and the same remark also applies to the flint flakes. The period 

 over which the working of the mines of Wady Maghara extends, ac- 

 cording to the evidence of the numerous hieroglyphic tablets cover- 

 ing the face of the cliff, as interpreted by Egyptologists, extends 

 from the 3rd to the 13th Manethonian dynasties, corresponding to 

 an interval of about 1600 years. As far as mining and stone- 

 cutting are concerned, there does not appear to have been much 

 progress during this time, the older tablets being much more per- 

 fectly sculptured than those of later date. The use of flints was 

 continued up to the last, as is shown by a blank tablet, dressed 

 smooth to receive an inscription, near the northern end of the work- 

 ings, which was never finished. This has evidently been done with 

 a flint tool, the proper face being obtained by the use of flakes of 

 small size. The same sort of tools were used at Sarabut el Khadem, 

 where the workings are of later date ; but there the hammers appear 

 to be of a somewhat more advanced type. 



That the mines of Wady Maghara were worked for turquoises, 

 and not for copper-ores, may be assumed from the absence of all 

 traces of slag-heaps like those of Nash. In the old town, on the hill 

 dividing Wady Maghara from Ghenneh, a shot of copper was found 

 in the bottom of a broken earthenware pot. This was probably ac- 

 cidental, and owing to the presence of a fragment of some easily 



