CHAPTER XV 
DISCOVERIES OF ANCIENT MAN IN AFRICA AND JAVA 
Up to this point our attempts to follow man's history 
into the remote past have been confined to Europe. We 
propose now to see what was happening to ancient man 
in the rest of the world during the advance and retreat 
of the ice sheet in Europe. We must confess at once 
that as yet we know very little of ancient man outside 
Europe, but nothing is more certain than that the coming 
generation will make good the blanks in our knowledge 
and explain many of the puzzling events of ancient 
Europe — such as the sudden appearance of men of the 
modern type in the Aurignacian period. 
Only a generation ago, when early or ancient man was 
spoken of, our thoughts and minds turned involuntarily 
to Babylonia or Egypt. As knowledge increased, these 
ancient places moved gradually from the background to 
the foreground of time. Behind ancient Egypt lie other 
and more ancient Egypts, and it is in the valley of the 
Nile we shall commence our survey. A rapid journey 
from Cairo to Capetown will provide an opportunity of 
judging what is known of the antiquity of man in Africa. 
Students of Egyptian history are now generally agreed 
that settled rule, under a dynasty of kings, commenced 
in the lower valley of the Nile about 3500 b.c. In the 
opening decade of the present century, archaeologists 
began to recognise that certain graves and cemeteries 
were older than the First Dynasty — were " predynastic." 
They presently were able to distinguish " late," " middle," 
and " early " predynastic interments. The people buried 
