most ancient egypt - oriental institute - university of chicago

MOST ANCIENT EGYPT

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MOST ANCIE NTEGYPT

William C. Hayes

EDITED BY KEITH C. SEELE

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESSCHICAGO & LONDON

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Internet publication of this work was made possible with the generous support of Misty and Lewis Gruber

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 65-17294

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO & LONDON

The University of Toronto Press, Toronto 5, Canada

© 1964, 1965 by The University of Chicago. All rightsreserved. Published 1965. Printed in the United States of

America

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WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER HAYES1903-1963

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INTRODUCTION

WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER HAYES was on the day of his premature death

on July 10, 1963 the unrivaled chief of American Egyptologists. Though

only sixty years of age, he had published eight books and two book-length

articles, four chapters of the new revised edition of the Cambridge Ancient

History, thirty-six other articles, and numerous book reviews. He had also

served for nine years in Egypt on expeditions of the Metropolitan Museum

of Art, the institution to which he devoted his entire career, and more than

four years in the United States Navy in World War II, during which he

was wounded in action-both periods when scientific writing fell into the

background of his activity. He was presented by the President of the United

States with the bronze star medal and cited "for meritorious achievement

as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. VIGILANCE ... in the efficient and

expeditious sweeping of several hostile mine fields.., and contributing

materially to the successful clearing of approaches to Okinawa for our in-

vasion forces."Hayes' original intention was to work in the field of medieval arche-

ology. His first field experience, however, was with the University of Michi-

gan expedition digging the ruins of ancient Carthage. Thus archeology and

art engaged his attention early in life, and he had won an M.A. and an

M.F.A. at Princeton before he even dreamed of becoming an Egyptologist.

Already a member of the Metropolitan Museum's Egyptian expedition

at Deir el Bahri in 1927, Hayes found his place quickly and developed

rapidly. He began his hieroglyphic studies with the private study of Alan H.

Gardiner's epoch-making Egyptian Grammar (Oxford, 1927). This kindly

giant of Egyptology was his inspiration, and the veteran found in his young

disciple a kindred spirit, gave him personal instruction for several summers

in England, and held him in close friendship to the end. Ultimately the

older man was to outlive the younger by less than six months.

Hayes was endowed with a beautiful mind. The perfection of his work-

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INTRODUCTION

and he was ever a perfectionist-was well exemplified even in his firstbook, Royal Sarcophagi of the XVIII Dynasty (Princeton, 1935), whichin every respect was a model publication and one of the most useful Egypto-logical Ph.D. dissertations ever printed. Its preparation took him into theeerie darkness of those ancient labyrinths in the Valley of the Tombs ofthe Kings where, surrounded by painted gods, snakes, headless spirits, andwailing ghosts of the departed, he copied hieroglyphs and studied the de-veloping form and decorative style of the quartzite coffins, the resting placesof the Pharaohs. Thus he was able, in the tombs of the kings, to establishtheir chronological order, long disputed by the philologists and historians,by the style of their sarcophagi. Most of these wonderful monuments stilllie in the tombs because of the sheer impossibility-lacking a Belzoni-ofremoving the gigantic monoliths from the depths to which they were loweredat the royal funerals so long ago. But Hayes was strong and adroit anddetermined. He was already as adept at handling stone fragments weighinga ton as at piecing together with his tweezers the faience fragments ofbroken tiles from the palace of Ramesses II. He did this in his second book,Glazed Tiles from a Palace of Rameses II at Kan~tr (New York, 1937);several of his articles record the assembly of mighty statues and sphinxesof Queen Hatshepsut and the shattered sarcophagus of her favorite, theChief Steward Senmut. The ambitious Senmut possessed not one tomb buttwo in the Theban necropolis. One of these was discovered by the Metro-politan Museum expedition. The other was cleared by the expedition, andfrom some of the humblest and least glamorous objects which could possiblybe found in such an operation Hayes produced his remarkable book, Ostrakaand Name Stones from the Tomb of Sen-mut (No. 71) at Thebes (New York,1942). A portion of this book was devoted to the pictures and inscriptionsoften rather crudely sketched or written on limestone fragments (ostraka),yet significant and interesting because the author was able to demonstratethat they were preliminary drafts of scenes and texts which were to beexecuted on the walls of the tomb. Since the tomb is now a sadly demolishedwreck, some of the sketches provide the only surviving evidence of thenature of that noble funerary monument of ancient Thebes.

A second section of Ostraka and Name Stones is a penetrating analysisof some obscure words pertaining to building, masonry, etc., found in thework records written on ostraka from the tomb. Here Hayes appears as thelexicographer, and every student of hieroglyphic can transfer welcome newmeanings to his copy of the Egyptian Dictionary.

But Hayes' philological studies were by no means confined to a nar-row segment of the Egyptian language. At Lisht the Metropolitan Mu-seum had conducted extensive excavations, and he had a good volume toshow for his work there in The Texts in the Matabeh of Se'n-Wosret-ankh

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at Lisht (New York, 1937). It was a publication of some Twelfth Dynastycopies of the ancient Pyramid Texts. Among them he discovered a hithertounknown pyramid text, and he was likewise able to demonstrate that theMiddle Kingdom copies were derived from early originals though not actu-ally copied from the examples still preserved in the pyramids of the Fifthand Sixth Dynasties.

On his return from Egypt in 1936 Hayes had become Assistant Cura-tor of Egyptian Art. Henceforth he was to devote most of his energy tothe study of the Egyptian collections of the Metropolitan Museum. They arethe finest and most extensive in the western hemisphere. With the instinctof a born educator he set out to interpret them to the public and to revealtheir role in the development of civilization. He had already made a note-worthy contribution in this direction in one of his longest articles, his pop-ular "Daily Life in Ancient Egypt," illustrated in part with thirty-twoextraordinary paintings done under his direction by H. M. Herget. Thisremarkable work, published in 1941 in the National Geographic Magazine(and still available in book form), combined the intimate knowledge ofEgyptian art, crafts, industries, recreation, religion, and customs, whichHayes had by this time thoroughly mastered, with the artistic talents ofMr. Herget. A vast audience of National Geographic readers was thus givenby far the best picture of Egyptian life ever achieved by modern scholar-ship, with each interpreted detail based on precise archeological evidence.

It must be supposed that Hayes' mind was deeply preoccupied with thedesire to interpret Egyptian culture to his contemporaries and to utilizefor that purpose the rich collections of the great museum to which he wasdevoting his life. For within a year after his release from the United StatesNavy at the end of the war he had completed the manuscript of the firsthalf of what was to be his greatest achievement, which he modestly entitledThe Scepter of Egypt, a Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquitiesin the Metropolitan Museum of Art, though publication of the work wasdelayed for several years until 1953. The subtitles of the two volumes revealtheir actual historical character: Part I covered the period in Egypt Fromthe Earliest Times to the End of the Middle Kingdom, while the second volume(Part II) carried the story through The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom(New York, 1959). In these two rich volumes, sumptuously printed with amultitude of carefully chosen photographs, Hayes traced the history ofEgypt from the prehistoric beginnings to the end of the New Kingdom asthe story was illustrated by actual objects in the collections. While guidesand other handbooks to museum collections had been produced before-and some of them very good indeed-none was quite so ambitious as TheScepter of Egypt and none so fully and successfully enlightening to the user.

In a total of more than nine hundred pages of text and with over five hundred

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photographic reproductions, the Egyptian objects in the Metropolitan Mu-seum tell their story to the visitor in a manner unparalleled in the world.

But William C. Hayes' mind operated not only within the circle of hisown museum. His developing historical interest led him to delve whereverhe saw an opportunity to interpret the culture of ancient Egypt. Thus, be-tween the two parts of The Scepter of Egypt he produced a work of purescholarly research which probably ranks as his best scientific publication.The Brooklyn Museum possessed a tattered papyrus manuscript acquiredmore than fifty years previously by Charles Edwin Wilbour. It consisted offive to six hundred torn fragments, many of them exceedingly small, andthese were mingled in exasperating confusion with similar scraps of otherpapyri written in a virtually indistinguishable hand. Hayes undertook tosolve the hopeless puzzle and succeeded with the assistance of Mr. AnthonyGiambalvo-able preparator of the Brooklyn Museum-in piecing togetherthe multitude of hieratic fragments. Though his modesty led him to state"that any final commentary on it must necessarily be written by . .. spe-cialists . . . in the social, economic, legal, and political aspects of ancientcivilizations," there is little doubt that his study of the "seven odd feet ofancient writing paper" has produced its definitive interpretation. He foundin it "the criminal register of the late XIIth and early XIIIth Dynastiesand a series of mid-XIIIth Dynasty entries" which was intended "to estab-lish the right of a woman named Senebtisy to the ownership of ninety-fivehousehold servants." Hayes proceeds to an enlightening discussion of classesof labor in the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, the administrative and judiciaryorganization of the country, "the extent to which the activities and spheresof influence of the various departments of the government overlapped oneupon the other and the efficient and apparently frictionless manner in

which, for example, the Departments of Agriculture, Labor, and Justiceco6perated with one another and with the officials of the provincial admin-istration in the handling of problems and conditions germane to them all."Finally, from his study of the names of the "ninety-five household servants,"he is able to conclude that, in the early Second Intermediate Period ofEgyptian history, before the conquest of the Hyksos, "the Asiatic inhabit-ants of the country. . . must have been many times more numerous thanhas previously been supposed." He believes that a "brisk trade" in Asiaticslaves was carried on by the Asiatics themselves, with Egypt as the prin-cipal market for the trade, much as described in Genesis 37:28, 36 in theaccount of the sale of Joseph to the Ishmaelites.

The foregoing account of Hayes' Papyrus of the Late Middle Kingdomin the Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn, 1955) makes no pretense at an evalua-tion of his achievement; it is but an illustration of what a devoted scholar

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can recover from a body of seemingly hopeless material by the applicationof patience and unflagging industry.

Hayes had been Assistant Curator and Associate Curator of his de-partment at the Museum. The full curatorship came to him in 1952.There followed a period of hard work and disappointment. His work wascurtailed to some degree by a heart attack. Nevertheless, he accepted anassignment to prepare some of the chapters for the proposed revision ofthe Cambridge Ancient History. He contributed four of these, one on Egyp-tian chronology, the others dealing with the history of the Middle andNew Kingdoms. Already published in pamphlet form, they are the besttreatment of the topics in English.

By this time it was inevitable that Hayes' developing interest in Egyp-tian history should summon him to the logical goal of a complete "His-tory of Egypt." All his scientific work had been leading toward it. Hehad amassed voluminous notes and bibliographical records. Much of thepreliminary labor had been performed in the preparation of the Scepter.The "History" was in his files; he must fill in the gaps and carry it on tothe end. He envisaged a work in four volumes and thought that it mightbe issued by the Oxford Clarendon Press.

Probably the most difficult section of the "History" would be the be-ginning. It would be necessary to set forth what is known about thegeology and geography of Northeast Africa, relate it with other regions ofthe surrounding world, and trace early man into the ancient Valley of theNile. This was largely foreign territory to Hayes, but he undertook the taskwith his usual thoroughgoing ardor. He discovered at once that the pre-historians and geologists held widely divergent views, often quite unrecon-cilable, and furthermore that the literature was increasing with such rapidityand to such proportions as to require constant revision and reconsiderationof his results. In The Scepter of Egypt he had covered prehistoric and pre-dynastic Egypt-from the earliest times to the beginning of the First Dy-nasty-in approximately seventeen pages of text. As he proceeded with thenew work he was to require, in text and notes, more than a hundred andfifty. One chapter sufficed for the Scepter; he was well into the fourth chapterof the projected first volume, without reaching the end of the predynasticperiod, when he had to lay down his task forever.

Long before embarking upon the actual writing of his new "History,"Hayes had explored with this editor the feasibility of publishing at least aselection of the chapters in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, doubtlessat a stage of his thinking prior to his realization of the magnitude of thework. The plan was later abandoned in favor of direct publication in bookform. At the time of his death a draft of the first three chapters, with theirnotes, and even of the incomplete fourth chapter, were in the hands of the

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Clarendon Press. They were generously released by the editors, and theoriginal plan of publication, so sadly altered by circumstances, was resumed.Thus they have appeared first of all in JNES, XXIII (1964), 73-114, 145-92, and 217-74; however, the title selected for the fragment of Hayes' greatunfinished work, Most Ancient Egypt, is not his choice but merely the briefestpossible clue to his distinguished legacy.

It has already been stated that William C. Hayes was a perfectionist.That very quality may have led to occasional defects in these chapters ofMost Ancient Egypt. Yet it must be made perfectly clear that, if such bediscovered by the reader, they are to be attributed not to the author butto the editor. In his struggle for perfection, Hayes was engaged, near tothe time of his death, in a detailed revision of the form of the notes to thechapters. He had originally cast the references in normal bibliographicalstyle, including name of author, title of work, facts of publication, andpage numbers. In the interest of brevity, however, he had decided to adopta condensed style by citing only the author and date of his work-detailswould be given in full in the exhaustive bibliography at the end of the work,where each article or book cited would appear but once. This editor foundthe notes to chapter 1 in both forms, with a few additions in the brief style;those to chapter 2 were in normal form; and the notes to chapter 3 wereprepared in the brief style alone. Obviously, all the notes must be publisheduniformly in individually comprehensible form, since there would now beno general bibliography. Owing to the editor's absence in Nubia as directorof the Oriental Institute Nubian Expedition, the conversion of all notes touniformity was confronted with some difficulty. While every attempt wasmade to achieve the fullest accuracy, it is too much to hope that there hasbeen complete success. It is hoped that the reader will exercise a measureof indulgence when he fails to locate a given reference or detects a wrongone, realizing that the late author would have revised his manuscript forpublication better than any editor.

It will undoubtedly be universally recognized that William C. Hayes'Most Ancient Egypt is the best discussion of the beginning of civilization inthe Nile Valley. It is right and proper that the book, even though but afragment of the author's great plan, should be made available beyond thecircle of JNES readers. The editor is pleased to feel that in this final formthe volume may be regarded as another garland laid beside the monumentof his enduring fame.

KEITH C. SEELE

The Oriental Institute

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BIBLIOGRAPHYOF WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER HAYES

Review: DE PROROK, B. K., Digging for Lost African Gods, (1926), in The Amer-

ican Journal of Archaeology, 2d Series, XXX (1926), 199-200.Review: CONTENAU, G., La civilisation phenicienne, (1926), in The American

Journal of Archaeology, 2d Series, XXXI (1927), 137-39."An Engraved Glass Bowl in the Museo Cristiano of the Vatican Library,"

The American Journal of Archaeology, 2d Series, XXXII (1928), 23-32.

Review: PENDLEBURY, J. D. S., Aegyptiaca, a Catalogue of Egyptian Objects inthe Aegean Area, (1930), in The American Journal of Archaeology, 2d Series, XXXV(1931), 239-41.

"A Statue of the Herald Yamu-nedjeh in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, andSome Biographical Notes on Its Owner," Annales du Service des Antiquits del'Egypte, XXXIII (1933), 6-16.

"The Texts in the Burial Chamber of Se'n-Wosret-cankh," Bulletin of the Met-ropolitan Museum of Art, XXVIII (November 1933), Section II, 26-38.

"The Entrance Chapel of the Pyramid of Se'n-Wosret I," Bulletin of the Metro-politan Museum of Art, XXIX (November 1934), Section II, 9-26.

Royal Sarcophagi of the XVIII Dynasty ("Princeton Monographs in Art andArchaeology": Quarto Series, Vol. XIX). Princeton, 1935.

"The Tomb of Nefer-Khewet and His Family," Bulletin of the MetropolitanMuseum of Art, XXX (November 1935), Section II, 17-36.

Review: EDGERTON, WILLIAM F., and JOHN A. WILSON, Historical Records ofRamses III, in The American Journal of Archaeology, XL (1936), 558-59.

(With Ambrose Lansing) "The Museum's Excavations at Thebes," Bulletin ofthe Metropolitan Museum of Art, XXXII (January 1937), Section II, 4-39. Hayes'authorship applies to "The Tomb of Rac-mos and Ijat-nifer," pp. 12-39.

"An Egyptian Scribe's Palette," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,XXXII (June 1937), 157-58.

(With Ambrose Lansing) "Exploring an Egyptian Tomb," Science Digest, I(May 1937), 66-70.

Review: WEILL, RAYMOND, Le Champ des Roseaux et le Champ des Offrandes dans

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la religion fundraire et la religion genrale (1936), in The American Journal ofArchaeology, XLI (1937), 643.

Glazed Tiles from a Palace of Rameses II at Kantir (The Metropolitan Museumof Art, "Papers," No. 3). New York, 1937.

The Texts in the Magtabeh of Se'n-Wosret-cankh at Lisht ("Publications of theMetropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian Expedition," Vol. XII). New York, 1937.

(With Ambrose Lansing) "Ra-mose and Hat-nufer," Scientific American, CLVII-CLVIII (November 1937), 266-68; (December 1937), 332-34; (January 1938),14-16.

"Two Egyptian Statuettes," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, XXXIII(April 1938), 107-8.

"The Egyptian God of the Lotus: A Bronze Statuette," Bulletin of the Metro-politan Museum of Art, XXXIII (August 1938), 182-84.

"A Writing-Palette of the Chief Steward Amenlotpe and Some Notes on ItsOwner," Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, XXIV (1938), 9-24.

"A Fragment of a Prehistoric Egyptian Victory Monument," Bulletin of theMetropolitan Museum of Art, XXXIV (February 1939), 48-49.

The Burial Chamber of the Treasurer Sobk-most from er Rizeikdt (The MetropolitanMuseum of Art, "Papers," No. 9). New York, 1939.

Review: CALVERLEY, AMICE M., The Temple of King Sethos I at Abydos, Vol.III, The American Journal of Archaeology, XLIII (1939), 347-48.

Review: WAINWRIGHT, G. A., The Sky Religion in Egypt, in The American Journalof Archaeology, XLIII (1939), 522-23.

"Minor Art of the Egyptian New Kingdom. A Perfume Jar and a Pair of Cos-metic Boxes," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, XXXV (April 1940),81-82.

"The Lady on the Papyrus. A Late Egyptian Bronze," Bulletin of the Metro.politan Museum of Art, XXXV (September 1940), 176-78.

Review: ENOBERO, ROBERT M., The Hyksos Reconsidered, in Classical Weekly,XXXIII (1940), 159.

"Daily Life in Ancient Egypt," The National Geographic Magazine, LXXX(1941), 419-515. Reprinted in Everyday Life in Ancient Times. Highlights of theBeginnings of Western Civilization in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Na-tional Geographic Society, Washington, D.C., 1951.

Review: LANGTON, N. and B., The Cat in Ancient Egypt (1940), in The AmericanJournal of Archaeology, XLV (1941), 118.

Ostraka and Name Stones from the Tomb of Sen-mit (No. 71) at Thebes ("Publi-cations of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian Expedition," Vol. XV).New York, 1942.

"An Archaic Egyptian Statue," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,2d Series, IV (December 1945), 113-16.

"Portrait of King Amen-botpe I," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,2d Series, IV (January 1946), 140-42.

"Egyptian Tomb Reliefs of the Old Kingdom," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Mu-aeum of Art, 2d Series, IV (March 1946), 170-78.

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"A Painted Wooden Pectoral of King Rameses III," Bulletin of the MetropolitanMuseum of Art, 2d Series, V (October 1946), 67-69.

"Royal Portraits of the Twelfth Dynasty," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museumof Art, 2d Series, V (December 1946), 119-24.

"Royal Decrees from the Temple of Min at Coptus," The Journal of EgyptianArchaeology, XXXII (1946), 3-23.

Review: REISNER, GEORGE A., A History of the Giza Necropolis, Vol. I (1942),in The American Journal of Archaeology, L (1946), 422-23.

Review: SMITH, WILLIAM S., A History of Egyptian Sculpture and Painting inthe Old Kingdom (1946), in The American Journal of Archaeology, L (1946), 492-93.

"A Canopic Jar of King Nesu-Ba-neb-Dedet of Tanis," Bulletin of the Metropoli-tan Museum of Art, 2d Series, V (June 1947), 261-63.

"Manche en ivoire grav6, predynastique au Metropolitan Museum," Chroniqued'Egypte, XXII, No. 48 (1947), 220-22.

"Egyptian Sculpture: A Statue of the Lady Senewy," Art in America, XXXV(1947), 256-63.

"Horemkhacuef of Nekhen and His Trip to It-towe," The Journal of EgyptianArchaeology, XXXIII (1947), 3-11.

"A Much-copied Letter of the Early Middle Kingdom," Journal of Near East-ern Studies, VII (1948), 1-10.

"Minor Art and Family History in the Reign of Amun-Iiotpe III," Bulletin ofthe Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2d Series, VI (June 1948), 272-79.

"Recent Additions to the Egyptian Collection," Bulletin of the MetropolitanMuseum of Art, 2d Series, VII (October 1948), 60-63.

"Writing Palette of the High Priest of Amin, Smendes," The Journal of EgyptianArchaeology, XXXIV (1948), 47-50.

"A Foundation Plaque of Ptolemy IV," Brief Communication, The Journal ofEgyptian Archaeology, XXXIV (1948), 114-15.

"King Wadjkare c of Dynasty VIII," The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology,XXXIV (1948), 115-16.

"La 37e et la 38e ann6e de regne d'Amnophis III," Chronique d'4gypte, XXIV,No. 47 (1949), p. 96, Fig. 9. Corrigendum, p. 287; in consequence of a misprintthat could not be controlled by the author, the title originally read "La 36e et la37e anne ... ."

"Career of the Great Steward IUenenu under Nebbepetr c Mentul otpe," TheJournal of Egyptian Archaeology, XXXV (1949), 43-49.

Review: WERBROUCK, M., Le temple de Hatshepsout d Deir el Bahari (1949), inChronique d'Egypte, XXV, No. 49 (1950), 76-79.

Review: DAVIES, NORMAN DE G., Seven Private Tombs at Kurnah, in The AmericanJournal of Archaeology, LIV (1950), 82-83.

"The Sarcophagus of Sennemit," The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, XXXVI(1950), 19-23.

"Inscriptions from the Palace of Amenhotep III," Journal of Near EasternStudies, X (1951), 35-56, 82-111, 156-83, 231-42.

Review: ALLEN, T. GEORGE, Occurrences of Pyramid Texts with Cross Indexes of

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These and Other Egyptian Mortuary Texts (1950), in The American Journal ofArchaeology, LV (1951), 272-73.

Review: PARKER, R. A., The Calendars of Ancient Egypt (1950), in The AmericanJournal of Archaeology, LVI (1952), 83-84.

Review: DE BUCK, A., The Egyptian Cofin Texts IV: Texts of Spells 268-854(1951), in The American Journal of Archaeology, LVI (1952), 215-16.

Review: ELGOOD, P. G., The Later Dynasties of Egypt (1951), in The AmericanJournal of Archaeology, LVI (1952), 216-17.

The Scepter of Egypt, A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities inthe Metropolitan Museum of Art, Part I: From the Earliest Times to the End of theMiddle Kingdom. New York (Harper and Brothers in co-operation with the Metro-politan Museum of Art), 1953.

"Notes on the Government of Egypt in the Late Middle Kingdom," Journal ofNear Eastern Studies, XII, No. 1 (1953), 31-39.

Review: CATON-THOMPSON, G., Kharga Oasis in Prehistory (1952), in The Amer-ican Journal of Archaeology, LVII (1953), 117-19.

Review: KOEFOED-PETERSEN, OTTo, Catalogue des sarcophages et cercueils egyp-tiens (1951), in The American Journal of Archaeology, LVII (1953), 119.

Review: SMITH, WILLIAM S., Ancient Egypt as Represented in the Museum of

Fine Arts, Third edition (1952), in The American Journal of Archaeology, LVIII(1954), 159.

Review: CHAPMAN, SUZANNE E., and Dows DUNHAM, Decorated Chapels of theMeroitic Pyramids at Meroe and Barkal (1952), in The American Journal of Archaeology, LVIII (1954), 159-60.

A Papyrus of the Late Middle Kingdom in the Brooklyn Museum [Papyrus Brooklyn35. 1446]. Edited with Translation and Commentary. The Brooklyn Museum, 1955.

Review: VANDIER, J., Manuel d'archeologie egyptienne: Tome I: Les poques deformation (1952), in The American Journal of Archaeology, LIX (1955), 186-87.

Review: DE BUCK, A., The Egyptian Coffin Texts V: Texts of Spells 355-471(1954), in The American Journal of Archaeology, LX (1956), 289.

"Varia from the Time of Hatshepsut," Mitteilungen des deutschen archaologischenInstitute Abteilung Kairo, XV (1957), 78-90.

Review: DE BUCK, A., The Egyptian Coffin Texts VI: Texts of Spells 472-786(1956), in The American Journal of Archaeology, LXI (1957), 292.

Review: BRUNNER-TRAUT, EMMA, Die altagyptischen Scherbenbilder (Bildostraka)der deutschen Museen und Sammlungen (1956), in The American Journal of Archae-ology, LXI (1957), 291-92.

"Egyptian Art," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, XVII (1958-59),45-47.

The Scepter of Egypt, A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities inthe Metropolitan Museum of Art, Part II: The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom(1675-1080 B.C.). Cambridge, Massachusetts (Published for the Metropolitan Mu-seum of Art by Harvard University Press), 1959.

Review: Medinet Habu, Vol. V. The Temple Proper. Part I: The Portico, theTreasury, and Chapels Adjoining the First Hypostyle Hall with Marginal Material

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from the Forecourts, by the EPIGRAPHIC SURVEY (1957), in Journal of Near East-ern Studies, XVIII (1959), 75-77.

Preface: G. POSENER, S. SAUNERON, J. YOYOTTE, Dictionary of Egyptian Civili-

zation (English edition)."A Selection of Tuthmoside Ostraca from Der el-Bahri," The Journal of Egyptian

Archaeology, XLVI (1960), 29-52.The Cambridge Ancient History, Revised Edition of Volumes I and II. Cambridge

University Press. Vol. I, Chapter VI. Chronology: Egypt to End of TwentiethDynasty. Cambridge, 1962. Vol. I, Chapter XX. The Middle Kingdom in Egypt:Internal History from the Rise of the Heracleopolitans to the Death of Ammenemes III.Cambridge, 1961. Vol. II, Chapter II. Egypt: From the Death of Ammenemes IIIto Seqenenre II. Cambridge, 1962. Vol. II, Chapter IX. Egypt: Internal Affairsfrom Tuthmosis I to the Death of Amenophis III, Parts I-II. Cambridge, 1962.

Most Ancient Egypt. Being Chaps. I-IV of a projected four-volume "History

of Egypt," in course of preparation at the author's death. Journal of Near EasternStudies, XXIII (1964), 73-114, 145-92, 217-74.

Most Ancient Egypt. Edited with an Introduction by Keith C. Seele. Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1965.

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CONTENTS

I. THE FORMATION OF THE LAND

The Egyptian Tableland : I, 30The Nile Valley : 2, 31

The Red Sea and the Red Sea Hills : 4, 32The Pliocene Gulf : 5, 32The River and Wadi Terraces : 5, 33"Recent" Developments in the Nile Valley : 8, 33Lower Egypt and the Delta of the Nile : xo, 35The Nubian Nile Valley and Its Cataracts : 14, 35The Fayum Lake Basin : 16, 36The Oases of the Libyan Desert : 18, 36Climate : zo, 37Chronology : 24,38

Egypt at the Beginning of Human Prehistory : 27, 40

2. PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

The "Abbevillians" : 43, 76

Growth and Development of the Acheulian Tradition : 49, 78The Middle Paleolithic Age : 54, 8oThe Cultures of Late Paleolithic Times : 59, 83The Final Paleolithic, or Mesolithic, Stage : 70, 87

3. THE NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES

OF NORTHERN EGYPT

Near Eastern Origins : 91, 137The Fayum Settlements : 93, 139The Oases of Siwa and Kharga : 99, 140The West Delta Settlement of Merimda Beni Salama : 103, 141

El Omari: Its Settlements and Cemeteries : I16, 143Maadi, Wadi Digla, Heliopolis, and Qasr Qarun : 122, 144

Character of the Northern Egyptian Communities : 134, 146

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4. THE PREDYNASTIC CULTURES OF UPPERAND MIDDLE EGYPT

Preliminary Survey : 147*

The Tasians and BadariansThe Naqada Culture: Initial PhasesTransitional Stage of the Naqada Culture: Change and DevelopmentFinal Stage of the Naqada Culture: The Juncture with HistoryThe Post-Paleolithic Prehistory of Nubia

* See p. 148, n. I.

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1THE FORMATION OF THE LAND

THE story of human activity inthe land now known as Egypt stretchesback some five hundred thousand years toan early stage of the present, or so-calledQuaternary, era in the history of theearth's surface. As elsewhere on that sur-face this scarcely conceivable span of timecovers only a minute fraction of the storyof the land itself, the more recent chaptersof which take us back approximately sixtymillion years, through a long chain ofgeological and climatic developments, tothe initial phases of the preceding Tertiaryera.

1. THE EGYPTIAN TABLELAND

Early in the Eocene period, the secondmajor division of the Tertiary, theMediterranean Sea extended in a deep bayover the northeast corner of the continentof Africa, its warm waters reaching south-ward to at least the twenty-third parallelof latitude and westward over the northernportion of what is now Libya. The bed ofthe bay and the land masses bordering iton the east and south were composed alikeof three principal types of rock super-imposed one above the other. At the baselay the metamorphic and igneous rocksof Archeozoic and Proterozoic origin-schists, gneisses, granites, diorites, andquartzes-now visible over a wide expansesouth of the Second Cataract of the Nileand in small, isolated areas further to thenorth, as at the First Cataract and in thehills bordering the Red Sea. On theserested the great layer of sandstone, ofUpper Mesozoic (Cretaceous) date, which

is encountered today all along the NubianNile between the Second Cataract and el-Sebaiya in southern Upper Egypt, in theoases of the Libyan desert, along thewestern slopes of the Red Sea hills, and,as an isolated extrusion, as far north asAbu Roash, near Cairo. At the top, abovethe sandstone, lay strata of UpperCretaceous limestones, shales, and clays,now much eroded over the limited areaswhere they remained exposed, but still tobe seen in the oases, on the west side ofthe Red Sea hills, and in the neighborhoodof Esna in Upper Egypt.

On the ancient sea bottom, so con-stituted, the waters of the Eocene baylaid down the massive strata of sedi-mentary rocks-principally limestones-ofwhich the Egyptian tableland is for themost part formed.

Toward the end of the Lower, or early,Eocene forces exerted on the earth's crustbegan to thrust this tableland upward andclear of the sea, a prolonged process whichcontinued, with occasional interruptions,throughout the bulk of the Eocene and thesucceeding Oligocene and Miocene periodsand which was therefore contemporaneousand probably associated with the crustal

movements responsible in Europe andAsia for the creation of such relativelyrecent mountain chains as the Alps, theCarpathians, and the Himalayas.

In the course of its elevation the tablewas tilted slightly downward from southto north, its southern portion emergingfirst, its central and northern sectionsremaining submerged beneath the waters

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FORMATION OF THE LAND

of the slowly receding bay or becoming re-submerged by occasional transgressions ofthe sea long enough to have superimposedupon them strata of limestone and othersediments characteristic of the Middle andUpper Eocene and subsequent phases ofthe Tertiary.

The results of this are discernible to thetraveler passing from Lower Egypt intoUpper Egypt and Nubia. At Cairo theLower Eocene strata are buried deep be-neath the marine and estuarine depositsof later geological periods and do notappear above the surface until one reachesa point halfway between Deirut andManfalut in Middle Egypt, whence south-ward they rise in the towering cliffscharacteristic of the section betweenAsyut and Luxor. South of Luxor erosionof the limestone plateau has laid bare themore ancient rocks which once formed theold sea bed-the shales of Esna, the sand-stone of Nubia, and the crystalline rocksof the cataracts and the region south ofWadi Halfa.

On the return trip from Upper Egypt toCairo the sequence is reversed, and we canfollow the stages of the marine regressionthrough the Eocene period by the changingnature of the surface strata along theedges of the Nile Valley. Between Deirutand Manfalut the Lower Eocene lime-stones dip beneath those of the MiddleEocene, and from Samalut the latter arereplaced by soft clays, the Nile cliffs thencenorthward giving way to flat, open countryrelieved here and there by small mesas. Onthe east of the river just south of Cairo thelimestones reappear in the high scarp ofthe Moqattam hills, but in the plains onthe west the Middle Eocene strata havelong since disappeared beneath variousUpper Eocene sediments, which after ashort distance are themselves covered bya blanket of Oligocene sands and gravels,the latter stretching from the region of

Cairo southwestward over the Libyandesert.

By Upper Eocene time the sea had with-drawn to about the latitude of the Fayumand the Oligocene period witnessed itsretreat still further to the north. When,following a phase of accentuated uplift inthe late Miocene period, the elevation ofthe tableland was arrested, the head of theancient bay of the Mediterranean lay nearthe apex of the present Delta or perhapsstill further to the north.

2. THE NnE VALLEY

All the while a factor of the utmostimportance was at work----erosion of therising tableland by rain water beatingdown upon it and draining in torrentsfrom the neighboring highlands. TheLower and Middle Tertiary were periodsof moderate to heavy rainfall, and the riveror system of rivers which flowed down thesloping plateau to the sea was of giganticvolume and force. Unlike its relativelypuny descendant, the modern Nile, thisancestral river system-the Urnil of theGerman geologists-was fed by numeroustributaries along almost the whole of itslength, a circumstance which evidentlymore than compensated for the fact that itseems not as yet to have established aconnection with the drainage system of theEast African Sudd and lake regions andonly to a very limited extent, if at all, withthat of the Abyssinian highlands.

The once prevalent belief that in Egyptthe main stream formerly followed acourse which lay somewhat to the west ofthe present river is no longer generallyheld. Traces of what have been thought tobe the Upper Eocene estuary of the"Urnil," however, are found to the westand north of the Fayum, and the vast tri-angle of sand and gravel which may haveformed its Oligocene delta can be traced

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from Deirut in Middle Egypt northwest tothe oasis of Moghara and, far to the north-east, over the northern end of the Red Seahills and the Gulf of Suez. The "PetrifiedForests," extending over the Libyandesert from the northern Fayum to theregion east of Cairo, are composed ofancient tree trunks and other silicifiedwood carried down by the huge streamand deposited around its mouth. Mixed inwith the Upper Eocene estuarine depositsand the Oligocene sands and gravels areshells of tropical fresh-water snails andturtles and bones of river fish, snakes,crocodiles, and large land animals in-cluding an early form of elephant and thestrange extinct beast, Arsinoitherium.

The cutting of the present EgyptianNile Valley commenced well back inMiocene times; but the bulk of its excava-tion was accomplished during the so-called Pontic Pluvial period, the intenselyrainy interval coming between Suess'sSecond and Third "Mediterranean" periodsand spanning the Upper Miocene andLower Pliocene ages. The course adoptedby the river was either dictated byrecently created undulations in the surfaceof the plateau or was simply the bed inwhich the ancestral Nile happened to finditself at the time the now accentuated up-lift of the tableland forced it to ceasemeandering. Once entrenched in the lime-stone there was no possibility of a majoralteration in the direction of the river, andthe great stream followed a generallynortherly course down the continuouslyrising tableland to the Mediterranean. Sorapid was the rise of the plateau that therewas no chance for any but vertical erosion.The result is a gorge six to nine miles wideand 1300 to 1600 feet deep, down thecenter of which the modern Nile, raisedhigh on its own alluvium, now flows. Thecutting of this gorge, intensified in UpperMiocene times by a marked increase in

the general elevation of the plateau, wascompleted by the early part of thePliocene period.

Whereas, in the main, the Nile Valleyand its tributary gorges are the productsof erosion, volcanic activity and crustalmovements of mid-Tertiary date wereresponsible for many of the strikingphysiographical features seen both in theValley itself and in the surroundingplateau surface. It was at this time thatthe belt of dolerite stretching from thenorth side of the Fayum toward Cairo,the "Black Hills" near el-Bahnasa, andthe prominence of Karat el-Soda, to thewest of Manfalut, were thrust to the sur-face as intrusions of molten rock, pen-etrating the rock formations of youngerdate, up to and including those of Oligo-cene origin. The sulphurous springs stillfound in various parts of Egypt, notablyat Helwan, were products of the sameigneous eruptions.

More important and far-reaching in theireffects than these small and isolatedvolcanic spasms were the crustal move-ments which in the Miocene period affectedthe surface of the plateau and gave rise inEgypt to two sets of folds, the first ex-tending from north to south, approxi-mately parallel to the Nile, the second-and perhaps the later-group runningdiagonally from northeast to southwestacross the course of the river. The first setof folds produced the Kharga oasis anti-dcline on the west of the Nile Valley andthat of the Wadi Qena on the east, thesecond group being responsible for suchnotable landmarks as Gebel Abu Roashand the Moqattam hills, Gebel Ataqa, theQallala hills, the Wadi Araba, and, far tothe south, the hills of the Thebaid. AtSilsila, forty miles north of the FirstCataract, transverse faulting left exposedacross the course of the river a barrier ofhard Nubian sandstone and just south of

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this opened the wide tectonic basin en-closing the Kom Ombo plain.

3. THE RED SEA AND THE RED SEA

HILLS

Before following the development of theNile Valley through the end of the Tertiaryand into the period of human occupationwe must not overlook one of the mostimportant events in the geohistory ofEgypt-the coming into being of the RedSea and, with it, the admission of thewaters of the Indian Ocean to the eastcoast of Egypt and the definitive separa-tion of the continents of Africa and Asia.

Unlike the Nile Valley, the Red Sea is ofrift origin, the result of a long and compli-cated tectonic process, which, startingback in Palaeozoic times and again inthe Middle Eocene, had accomplished thebulk of its task by the end of the Plioceneperiod. The process commenced with thevaulting upward of the region betweennortheastern Egypt and Sinai in a broadanticline, the crest of which lay in the lineof the present Gulf of Suez. Following ex-tensive erosion of this ridge, the lateralpressure was relieved by an in-folding of itsaxial region, and the creation thereby of along, narrow depression, or geo-syncline,between Asia and Africa, into which theMediterranean Sea forthwith intruded. Inthe course of succeeding geological periodsthe rift, thus inaugurated, expandedslowly southward and following renewedorogenetic movements in the Upper Plio-cene, spread at length to form the southernRed Sea and to open a connection with theIndian Ocean through the Bab el-Mandeb.By Upper Pliocene times, however, theGulf of Suez and hence the whole ofthe Red Sea had become cut off from theMediterranean by an upthrust barrierabout ten miles wide and originally oversix hundred feet in height, occupying part

of the present site of the Great Bitter Lakeand Gebel Gunaifa. This barrier apparentlyremained unbroken until modern timeswhen the two seas were once more unitedby means of the Suez Canal. It may, how-ever, have been submerged during thePleistocene epoch at moments of maximumhigh sea-level and overland communica-tion between Asia and Africa therebytemporarily severed.

Though of somewhat earlier origin thanthe Red Sea itself, the rugged chain ofmountains which rises along its westernshoreline and stretches northward intosouthern Sinai owes its existence largely tocrustal movements of mid-Tertiary date.This being so, we should expect and do, infact, find the same strata of Eocene lime-stone occurring in the Nile Valley inUpper Egypt banked against the east sideof the Red Sea hills, sloping down to thewater's edge beneath layers of youngerdeposits, gypsums and ancient coral reefs.Along the crests of the hills the sedi-mentary covering has long since dis-appeared, leaving the ancient metamorphicand plutonic formations exposed in a wildand jagged skyline which rises northwestof Safaga (Gebel el-Shayeb) to almost7,200 feet above sea level, and in southernSinai (Gebel Katharina) to more than8,600 feet. The slopes of the hills on eitherside are scarred by innumerable ancientwatercourses, those on the east drainingdirectly into the Red Sea, those on thewest running down into the plains east ofthe Nile and expanding there into asuccession of broad valleys along the east-ern rim of the main river gorge. One of thelargest and most important of thesevalleys is the Wadi Qena, a "sunkenplain" twelve and a half miles wide andone hundred and twenty-five miles longfrom north to south, which joins the UpperEgyptian Nile Valley at the apex of thebend between Luxor and Nag Hammadi.

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4. THE PLIOCENE GULF

In the Middle Pliocene, or ThirdMediterranean Period, the Nile Valley, itsprimary excavation now complete, waspassing into the second principal stage ofits development. Owing either to a generalsubsidence of the land masses borderingthe Mediterranean or to a rise in its watersthe sea at this time backed up into the Nilegorge, filling it to a depth of more than sixhundred feet and thus forming a long,narrow gulf extending from the headlandsof Gebel Abu Roash and Gebel el-Ahmarsouthward beyond Kom Ombo and per-haps as far as Aswan. On the east thewaters of the gulf spread up into the lateralvalleys mentioned in the preceding para-graph and on the west may possibly havebroken through the boundary of the valleyproper and flooded the low-lying grounddraining into the Great Oases of theLibyan Desert. The Nile, still a river offormidable volume, flowed into the south-ern end of the long bay a few miles northof its head, and all along its sides in-numerable tributary streams poured intoit the copious drainage from the wellwatered plateau. The nature of the sedi-ments laid down by the water of the gulfshows that only to about a hundred milesabove modern Cairo was it marine andsouth of this brackish or fresh, the fresh-water and estuarine zones progressing evernorthward with the slow return to fluvia-tile conditions at the end of the Plioceneperiod.

In the course of its prolonged Pliocenesubmergence the Pontic valley and itstributaries were gradually choked withclay, sand, and gravel deposits, which bythe beginning of the Pleistocene periodhad filled them to a height of at least 590feet above present sea level. The bed of thevalley had already become encumbered byhuge masses of Eocene limestone slipped

down from the precipitous side walls of thegorge. Over and around these the stillwaters of the gulf proper deposited layersof soft, clayey sediments, which in thenorthern reaches of the valley are found tobe rich in marine fossils. Far exceeding involume these fine, deep-water deposits,however, was the sandy and gravellydetritus brought from the south by themain river and swept down off the valleysides by its torrential tributaries. Althoughit is possible to distinguish definite stagesin the filling process, separated from oneanother by intervals of erosion, in mostplaces the various constituents of the fillare intermingled side by side in no readilyapparent chronological order. In general,the softer deposits occupy the center of thevalley, with the coarser material bankedagainst its sides and fanned out in screesaround the mouths of its tributaries.

The lateral portions of the Pliocene gulfdeposits, augmented by patches of Pleisto-cene gravels, sands, and silts, form Egypt's"low desert," that strip of now barrenterrain which in the middle and southernparts of the country separates each edgeof the Nile's alluvial plain from the rockywalls or eroded slopes of the high desertplateau and which since the Paleolithicage has provided men with a muchfrequented area of habitation.

5. THE RIVER AND WADI TERRACES

During the very long interval of transi-tion from the Pliocene to the Pleistoceneperiod-the so-called Plio-Pleistocene-the sea once more withdrew from Egypt,the waters of the gulf receded, and thebroad and swiftly flowing river streameddown to the Mediterranean over the mixeddeposits which choked its ancient valley.On these deposits the Nile and its tribu-taries spread sheets of coarse gravels,brought from afar: pebbles of Nubiansandstone, igneous and metamorphic rocks,

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and mixed gravels from the Red Sea hills.Still missing from its sediments, however,are those minerals (notably augite) whichwould indicate a substantial connectionwith the Blue Nile or the Atbara. Thoughthe upper reaches of the main stream mayalready have been receiving water fromthe Sobat and the Bahr el-Ghazal it is clearthat the hydrography of the Pliocene andearly Pleistocene Nile must have presenteda picture quite different from that of.thepresent day and that the annual summerinundation, now so important a factor, asyet played no essential role in the life ofthe river and its valley.

In common with many other of theworld's rivers the Nile during the Pleisto-cene period eroded its new bed anddeepened its channel, not in one long,continuous operation, but in sharplydefined stages separated from one anotherby periods of stability, during which newand distinctive types of gravel werespread out over the river bed. In northernEgypt these stages appear to have been toa large extent eustatically controlled, thatis, governed by and hence directly relatedto, alternate lowerings and raisings of thesea level of the Mediterranean. In thesouthern reaches of the valley, too remotefrom the sea to be affected by fluctuationsin its levels, changes in climate withaccompanying decreases or increases in thelocal precipitation and run-off seem tohave been the factors chiefly responsiblefor the alternating phases of aggradationand erosion entered into by the UpperEgyptian Nile and its tributaries. In bothareas the natural tendency of the river tomeander was to some extent checked bythe coarseness of the material along the oldvalley sides, and in general each new chan-nel was excavated in the soft and low-lyingdeposits along the center line of the fill.

The result was a series of gravel-coatedriver terraces, cut in the gulf deposits and

descending like flights of steps from bothsides of the old valley down to the river'sedge, each pair of terraces being thelateral portions of a former Nile bed, lefthigh and dry by a new deepening andnarrowing of the channel. Though ex-tensively eroded by subsequent meander-ings of the Nile itself and by the lateraltributaries within the main valley, re-mains of these terraces are still to be seenin Upper and Middle Egypt and in placeson both sides of the Delta. South ofAswan some of the higher terraces, cut inthe native sandstone of the Nubian valley,are well preserved. Nowhere, however,have more than two or three terraces of aseries survived in a single locality and thenusually on only one side of the river.Frequently-especially in Nubia andsouthern Upper Egypt-all that remainare eroded rock platforms from which thesand and gravel covering has been scouredaway. Further north the terrace structuresthemselves have often been demolished,leaving formless accumulations of sandsand gravels redeposited at lower levels andin some instances at considerable distancesdownstream.

As is customary elsewhere, the Nileterraces are designated according to theirindividual heights above the present floodplain of the river in the localities wherethey occur. The "100-foot terrace," forexample, comprises those sections ofgravel or rock platforms which are foundto be between 80 and 100 feet (25 to 30meters) above modern Nile level, regard-less of whether they belong to the pluvial(?)terrace series of Upper Egypt or to theeustatically controlled (and, presumably,not directly related) series of Middle andLower Egypt. Besides the successions ofterraces formed in the main valley thereare similar and corresponding sets in thelateral valleys, or wadis. These are of im-portance because they survive in sections

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of the country-notably in southernUpper Egypt-where the main riverterraces have been largely destroyed.

In the region of Saqqara and the Fayumdepression Plio-Pleistocene river gravelshave been noted to a height of 470 feetabove the Nile and near the apex of theDelta are preserved to a maximumpresent altitude of 765 feet; but the highestgravels describable as general features ofthe landscape are those at 320 and 255 feet(98 and 78 meters), segments of which arepreserved along the west side of the Nilefrom the southwest edge of the Delta tothe town of Mallawi in Middle Egypt. InUpper Egypt and Nubia the highestsurviving platform is the 300-foot terrace.This was succeeded, during the periodbridging the Upper Pliocene and LowerPleistocene by two terraces 200 and 150feet, respectively, above present river level.

The 100-foot terrace of Upper Egyptcarries us well down into the Pleistoceneperiod and-what is of considerablygreater interest-into the period of theearliest known human occupation ofEgypt, for incorporated in the gravels ofthis terrace are found the earliest stoneimplements which can with assurance beidentified as the handiwork of Man. Aterrace of similar height in Middle andLower Egypt appears to be composed, inpart at least, of redeposited sands andgravels of the 100-foot Upper Egyptianstage. As exemplified in the estuarinegravel deposits of Abbassiya, near Cairo,and in those of the Rus Channel, nearthe Fayum, it has been found to contain"rolled," or travel-worn, specimens of thesame early types of implements seen inthe south as well as unworn implements ofmore developed forms. That this terrace,in any case, is appreciably later in datethan its Upper Egyptian counterpart issuggested not only by the types or condi-tion of the implements found in it, but also

by its probable association with a datableMediterranean sea level (the Tyrrhenian).

The series is continued by terraces at 50and 30 feet in Upper Egypt and 33-50 feetin northern Egypt, in the gravels of whichoccur implements of progressively moreadvanced types. The 10-foot terrace, a lowgravel platform visible chiefly in thelateral wadis of Upper and Middle Egypt,belongs apparently to a period of aggrada-tion which followed by a considerableinterval the cutting of the face of the 30-foot terrace.

Soil profiles taken in the Nile terracesdisclose the formation, immediately fol-lowing the deposition of the gravelcappings, of calcareous brown soils evi-dently developed during phases of fairlyheavy local precipitation and cool tem-peratures. These phases were followed byunproductive intervals of aridity and thenby periods of warm, moist climate duringwhich sandy red earth made its appearanceand subtropical steppe conditions mayhave prevailed. The presence of augite inthe sediments of the 100-foot terrace ofLower Egypt suggests that the main riverwas now being fed by the Blue Nile andthe Atbara, though not to the extentcurrent in later Paleolithic times or atthe present day.

With the 100-foot terrace of UpperEgypt we abandon the broad dating bygeological periods and date this terraceand all subsequent milestones in the geo-history of Egypt in terms of humanactivities and human development. Inthese terms, the 100-foot and 50-footterraces belong to the Lower Paleolithic,or Early Old Stone Age of Man's devel-opment (Abbevillian and Acheulian), the30-foot terrace to the transition stagebetween Lower and Middle Paleolithic(Acheulio-Levalloisian), the 10-foot terraceof Upper Egypt and the earliest silts andfine gravels to the Middle Paleolithic

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(Levalloisian), the immediately subsequentphases of the river to the Upper, or Late,Paleolithic (Epi-Levalloisian), and so on.

6. "RECENT" DEVELOPMENTS IN THE

NILE VALLEY

The penultimate stage in Nile historymay be said to have begun in late MiddlePaleolithic times with a sharp decreasein the local rainfall and run-off and-coincidentally-with the establishment,chiefly through the Blue Nile and theAtbara, of a full-scale connection with thedrainage system of the Abyssinian high-lands. As a result the annual summerflood became for the first time a dominantfactor in the life of the river and thedeposition of coarse local sands andgravels was replaced in Nubia and UpperEgypt by the building up on the valleybottom of massive layers of finer, aliensediments-the so-called Sebilian, or basal,silts. These silts, brought from the EastAfrican uplands by the floodwaters of thenow relatively sluggish stream, reach aheight of 100 feet above the present riverlevel in the region of the Second Cataract,tapering down to 20 feet in the latitude ofLuxor in Upper Egypt and dipping be-neath the modern alluvium near NagHammadi. Thus, in the south the lowergravel terraces and platforms were over-lapped and partially covered up, andwith the rise of the river's bed, its watersspread out to form lakes and marshytracts along its course, as in the broad bayenclosing the Kom Ombo plain. In thebasal silts of Nubia and Upper Egyptoccur implements of Upper Levallois andearly Epi-Levallois types. Further northwhat would appear to be contemporaneousindustries, also of Levalloisian character,are represented in the 25-foot fine gravels,or silts-the so-called 8-meter terrace-ofLower and northern Middle Egypt, in thesub-alluvial "Sebilian" gravels of Middle

Egypt, in the ancient Fayum lake beachesat elevations of 112 and 92 feet above sea-level, and in the silts of the Wadi Tumilat,on the east of the Delta. Off to the westthe wadi gravels of the Kharga oasis scarphave been found to contain analogousindustries identified, respectively, as UpperLevalloisian and "Levalloiso-Khargan."Fossilized bones found in Sebilian depositsnear Kom Ombo and in association withsuch deposits at Qau and Asyut in MiddleEgypt reflect the existence at this periodof a rich and varied fauna, includingspecies of hyena, donkey, horse, hippo-potamus, pig, ox, lion, gazelle, bubalis,ostrich, crocodile, tortoise, two kinds offish, and numerous shellfish. Humanremains, believed by their finders to be ofPaleolithic date, resemble those of thepredynastic Upper Egyptians of a muchlater period.

In Late Paleolithic times the Nile en-tered upon a new period of bed erosion, re-sinking its channel to a great depth in thesilt deposited during the preceding stageand leaving on its margins, in the formof fresh spreads of fine gravel, the concen-trated coarser elements from the erodedsilt. The fall of river level is marked bya descending series of shingle beaches,still visible in isolated localities in Nubiaand Upper Egypt; but even better seenin the descending shorelines of the sub-sidiary lakes and marshes referred toabove, which with the lowering of the riverwere gradually drained of their water. Inthe materials forming the ancient surfacesof these lake and river beaches are foundLate Paleolithic implements of the ad-vanced and diminutive types whichcharacterize the final stages of the Leval-lois tradition in Egypt (Epi-Levallois IIand III).

Approximately ten thousand years ago,in the period of transition between the OldStone Age and the Neolithic, or New

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Stone Age, the Nile, responding to an earlypostglacial rise in sea-level, began anew toaggrade its bed and choke its mouth withsediments of Abyssinian origin-first withmica-bearing sands, silts, and fine gravel,and then, beginning probably in earlyNeolithic times, with the silts, clays, andfine sands which form the present arableland of Egypt. This fertile, uppermostalluvium, brought from far to the southby a river which over the last sixteenhundred miles of its course is without atributary, has been aptly termed by aFrench geologist "la terre vegetale."Every year the summer inundation de-posits a new layer of this life-giving soilin the Egyptian Nile Valley and over thefiat alluvial plain of the Delta; and littleby little the accumulation has not onlychoked and buried the earlier channels ofthe river, but has crept up around themonuments of ancient man, sparing neitherprehistoric camp sites nor the more recentstructures of historic times. Borings takenin three zones between Aswan and Cairohave recorded silt at depths of 22, 28, and32 feet, and from such borings and otherobservations it has been estimated thatthe rate of silt deposition, before the con-struction of the modern dams and barrages,was 0.0405 inches a year or three and ahalf to four inches a century. Unfortu-nately for all such estimates, the rate ofdeposition, controlled by fluctuations inthe sea-level of the Mediterranean and inthe volume of the Blue Nile, appears tohave been far from uniform, varying con-siderably not only from one locality toanother, but from one period to another.It is, indeed, probable that 60 per cent ofthe total upper alluvium was laid down be-fore the beginning of the Old Kingdom (ca.2700 B.C.), 20-25 per cent during the last2500 years, and, by contrast, almost noneat all between the years 1960 and 900 B.C.

The horizontal development of the

Nile's alluvial plain has been less thor-oughly studied than its vertical growth;but it is evident that since early historictimes, and especially from the Hellenisticperiod onward, considerable lateral ex-pansion has taken place at the expenseof the adjoining low desert, particularlyin areas where the latter, dissected byformer wadi activity, slopes gently down-ward toward the valley floor. With theonset of each annual flood the coarser andheavier sediments (chiefly sands) broughtdown by the river are piled up along itsbanks, forming levees which rise above allbut the highest water levels and have thusformed favorable sites for human habita-tion. The rest of the flood plain, built upmore slowly of the finer and more widelydistributed elements in the river's load,falls away gently toward the sides of thevalley, forming basin lands, in the low-lying outer portions of which the ground-water remains visible throughout thegreater part of the year in the form ofsmall lakes and marshes. Networks oflateral waterways spilling over at highwater from the elevated river bed intothese basins have cut the levees up intoseries of hills, or islands, the tops of whichhave been raised still further by theaccumulated deposits of civilization.

The annual inundation of the Nile, aswe have seen, probably became a salientfeature in the life of Egypt at the time ofthe serious decline in the local rainfallwhich occurred during the latter part ofthe Middle Paleolithic period. Nowadaysthe yearly flood waters come chiefly fromthe late spring and summer rains aroundthe headwaters of the Blue Nile and theAtbara, the former of which joins theWhite Nile at Khartoum, the latter twohundred miles to the north. Some con-ception of the magnitude and force of theflood can be derived from the fact thatbetween the months of June and Sep-

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tember the volume of the Blue Nile mayincrease from a normal 7,000 cubic feet toover 350,000 cubic feet per second. AtKhartoum the initial rise of the river isusually discernible about the middle ofMay; at the First Cataract, on the south-ern boundary of Egypt proper, early inJune; and at Cairo, at the end of June orduring the first weeks of July. The time ofthe river's rise can, however, vary con-siderably from year to year, the intervalsbetween floods differing by as much aseighty days during a single generation.Before the end of September the inunda-tion has normally reached its height andthe swollen river has submerged the wholeof its alluvial plain and spilled over intolow-lying hollows along the desert's edge,transforming them into marshes or shal-low lagoons. Today part of the flood isheld in reserve by a series of modern damsand barrages; but until 1890, when thefirst of these was completed, the floodwaters drained unimpeded into the opensea, often leaving in their wake con-siderable damage to revetments, dikes,roadways, bridges, modern villages, andancient ruins. By the end of Novemberthe bulk of the water has receded from theland leaving the moist fields, covered witha thin layer of fresh silt, exposed andready for the annual planting. In MiddleEgypt the average difference between lowwater (May-June) and the height of theinundation (September) is twenty-twofeet; but here again there is a yearlyvariation depending more or less directlyon the volume of the equatorial rains. Aninundation four or five feet below theaverage is a "bad Nile" and in antiquity asuccession of these usually resulted incrop failures and famine. On the otherhand, an exceptionally high Nile (30 feetor over) was almost equally disastrousbecause of the widespread destructionwhich it wrought.

During the long and for the most partarid periods discussed in the foregoingparagraphs it is only natural that asecond agency, wind, should have playeda part in shaping the Egyptian landscape,not only by formidable feats of surfaceerosion, but also by the deposition of dry,sandy material either on or between layersof Nilotic sediments or in the form ofmarginal dunes along the western fringesof the valley. Wind-blown sand occurs, forexample, in the basal (Sebilian) silts ofUpper Egypt and both above and belowthe later alluvial deposits of sections ofMiddle Egypt. Fields of sand encroachupon the western margins of the alluvialplain between Gebel Deshasha and Deir el-Miharraq and constitute locally "a con-siderable hindrance to cultivation." Astudy of the marginal dunes suggests thatthey can be divided into two principalgroups-the Older Dunes, built up be-tween 2350 and 500 B.C., and the YoungerDunes which came into being between

A.D. 300 and the present day. Unlike the

mobile dunes of the desert plateau andthose which move across the Pleistocenegravels west of Beni Mazar, most ofthe marginal dunes are more or less an-chored in their places by the local vegeta-

tion.

7. LowEn EGYPT AND THE DELTA OF

THE NILE

When, in mid-Tertiary times, the Nileadopted its present course it flowed intothe gradually diminishing Mediterraneanby way of a broad bay or estuary, thehead of which lay, as we have seen, inthe neighborhood of modern Cairo and ismarked today by the prominences ofGebel Abu Roash and Gebel el-Ahmar,the ancient "gates of the Delta." The geo-history of Lower Egypt, insofar as it has abearing on Man's activities in this most

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important region, is the story of the build-ing up in this bay of a series of super-imposed deltas, which as time progressedcontracted laterally, but thrust steadilynorthward until by Late Paleolithic timesthe present coastline, some 110 miles northof Cairo, had been reached.

Though much of the prehistory andearly history of Lower Egypt lies buriedbeneath the silt of the present Delta,beyond the confines of the latter and in itssouthern and eastern portions are stillpreserved large expanses of those farolder deltas formed by the Nile before andduring the occupancy of earliest Man.Ancient deltaic deposits have been identi-fied as far south as Minya, 130 miles abovethe apex of the modern Delta; and wehave already traced the gravel spreads ofwhat well may be the Oligocene delta ofthe ancestral river system northwestacross the Libyan Desert as far as Mogharaand northeast across the Arabian Desertbeyond Suez.

Miocene deposits, unknown in the NileValley, not only stretch westward fromthe oasis of the Wadi el-Natrun, but arealso found in abundance in the muchfaulted region between Suez and the eastside of the Delta. Some of the drainagelines in the area between Cairo and theGulf of Suez probably date back to UpperMiocene times.

Estuarine beds of the Pliocene periodpreserved in the Wadi el-Natrun are ofspecial interest because of the rich andvaried fauna contained in them-a faunacomprising both aquatic and land animalswhose bones had been collected and sweptdown by the river, in some cases probablyfrom hundreds of miles upstream. Besidesfish, turtles, and crocodiles the aquaticfauna include a dwarf hippopotamus,three species of otter, and a sea cow.Among the bones of land animals werethose of a mastodon, an elephant, a

rhinoceros, a giraffe, a camel, an early formof horse, a boar, a hyena, a type of largecat, and three cynopithecoid apes.

Borings, sunk through the "terre veg6-tale" to depths of 267 feet at Cairo, 345feet at Zagazig, and 535 feet at Abuqir,have failed to reach solid rock or astratum of the Pliocene age or earlier; buthave penetrated three distinct layers ofloose material-silts, sands, and gravels-deposited successively between the Plio-Pleistocene interval and the Late Paleo-lithic phase of human development.

Pliocene gulf deposits and Plio-Pleisto-cene river gravels are well representedfrom the region of Cairo northwestwardand northeastward along both sides ofthe modern Delta, the gravels rising togreat heights above the present floodplain and descending toward it, as inUpper and Middle Egypt, in a series ofterraces. Especially noteworthy are theimplementiferous gravels of the 100-footterrace exposed near Cairo in the sand-pitsof Abbassiya and the successions ofterraces identified near el-Khatatba on thewest side of the Delta and, on its east side,just north of the Wadi el-Tumilat. Thelast-named feature, which appears itself tohave been formed during the 100-footterrace stage of Lower Egypt, is a formerNile arm linking the eastern Delta withthe Isthmus of Suez. It was destined tobecome, in later times, one of the principalroutes into northern Egypt from the eastand as such, to play an important role inEgyptian history.

As the sea is approached the rivergravels give way to submarine deposits ofdeltaic types, the well defined lines ofchange marking the ancient delta coastlines and enabling us to fix the positionsof the old delta mouths of the river. Wecan, for example, follow the coast of thePlio-Pleistocene delta eastward from theWadi el-Natrun to a point north of el-

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Khatatba at the western edge of the mod-ern delta and pick it up again on the eastside along the slopes which run from southof the Wadi el-Tumilat to the dunes andmarshes of the present coast. The high-level terraces, bearing off to the east andwest along the North African shoreline,pass ultimately into ancient MediterraneanSea beaches. Remains of eight to ten suchbeaches or marine bars, ranging in heightfrom more than 360 feet above sea-leveldown to sea-level, are to be seen to thewest of Alexandria to a distance oftwenty-four miles inland from the presentshoreline of Arabs Gulf and in places else-where along the coast between Abuqirand the Gulf of Sollum.

Large remnants of the Pleistocene deltaare still visible in the form of sandyislands, or "turtlebacks," which are distri-buted over an area of some two thousandsquare miles in the eastern and southernportions of the great triangular plain.These islands, capped with sands ofMiddle Paleolithic date, represent themore compact and resistant portions of thePlio-Pleistocene and Pleistocene deposits,between which the river arms during thelate Pleistocene period lowered their bedswith such rapidity that there was littleenergy left over for lateral erosion. Thesilt covering overlapping the gently slopingedges of the visible turtlebacks and con-cealing others completely from view isthin, and it is clear that even in fairlyrecent historic times these eminentlyhabitable expanses of elevated, dry landwere both more numerous and muchlarger in area than at the present day.

In addition to the capping of the turtle-backs fine gravel and silt deposits of theMiddle Paleolithic aggradation phase ofthe Pleistocene are found along thewestern edge of the Delta, covered withwind-blown surface sand and overlappingolder delta sands and terrace gravels.

These deposits occur also in the Wadi el-Tumilat and in a few places along theeastern edge of the Delta. Rising to amaximum height of thirty feet above thepresent level of the alluvium, they containimplements of more recent types thanthose found in the lower terraces of UpperEgypt, but similar to those in the MiddleEgyptian gravels which rise above fifteenfeet and to those occurring in deposits inthe Fayum basin and in the channel whichconnects the latter with the Nile.

In the later Paleolithic stage of humandevelopment the Nile, as we have seen,sank its channel not only deeply into thesilts piled up during the preceding stage,but far below the level of the modern floodplain. Naturally, no Nilotic deposits ofthis period are visible on the surface of theDelta, where borings have shown that theyounger of the two buried channels liesat least one hundred feet, and probablymore, below the surface of the modernalluvium. Later Paleolithic and pre-Neolithic implements, however, have beenfound in surface washes at the east end ofthe Wadi el-Tumilat, in the sand dunesnear el-Ismailiya, in the sites at Helwan,south of Cairo, and in surface sites on thewest side of the Delta. Though theseindicate people living on the slopes border-ing the Delta-a state of affairs whichcontinued during the Neolithic period-there can be little doubt that large areas ofthe Delta itself were at this time habitableand probably inhabited.

Between Cairo and the sea the deposi-tion of the upper alluvium followed asomewhat different pattern than in thevalley to the south. Not only was the areato be covered far broader, but the abilityof the river to transport and distribute itsload of silts and heavier sediments wasmuch reduced by its division into manyarms and by a marked diminution in itsgradient and, therefore, in its rate of flow.

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As a result the river embankments, orlevees, tend to be lower and narrower, thebasins deeper, and permanent swampsand lakes somewhat more numerous,especially in the northernmost portions ofthe plain. Nevertheless, with silt deposi-tion even in this area attested to a depthof more than thirty-six feet and the sea-level about 5000 B.C. more than thirty feetbelow its present position it is clear that inNeolithic and later prehistoric times muchof the Delta plain was seasonally dry asfar north as the brackish coastal lagoons,that is, as far north as the present 10-foot(3-meter) isohyp. It has been chiefly duringthe historic period that a gradually risingsea-level has compelled men to concen-trate their settlements on the sandy turtle-backs of the southern and eastern Delta,on the silt islands which once formedparts of the elevated river banks, and onthe fringe areas which now comprise thelow desert.

The present-day Delta is a flat alluvialplain, roughly triangular in shape, boundedon the northwest by Abuqir, on the north-east by Lake Menzala, and on the south byCairo. With an area of over nine thousandsquare miles, it represents two-thirds ofthe total arable land of Egypt. The altitudeof the modern cultivated land at the apexof the Delta is less than sixty-five feetabove sea-level, and the soil in the basinlands tends to be waterlogged at a shallowdepth below the surface. Owing to somesubsidence and compaction, but chiefly, itwould seem, to a rise in sea-level of sixand one-half to thirteen feet since classicaltimes much of the fertile triangle as wellas the coastal areas to the east and westare lower now in relation to the sea thanthey were in the Greco-Roman period. Asa result Hellenistic structures all alongthe coast from Cyrenaica to Lebanon havebecome partially submerged and in theregion of Alexandria a very marked

sinking appears to have taken place sinceRoman times.

The most striking feature of theMediterranean coastline of Egypt is theseries of shallow lakes or lagoons, whichextend from west to east across the sea-ward side of the Delta from Alexandria toPort Said and which in their present formsare of relatively recent origin. On the norththese coastal lakes are bounded by bars ofdiluvial marine limestone and in places byreefs, similar to pelagic coral reefs, and onthe south by low-lying marshy tracts,which separate the lagoons from thecultivated lands of the Delta. Of the fourprincipal lakes-Maryut, Edku, Burullus,and Menzala-only Lake Maryut, at theextreme northwest corner of the Delta, byAlexandria, is completely landlocked, thebars enclosing the other lakes havingbroken through at one or more places.Between the lagoons, at points where theriver debouches, or did debouch, intothe sea through its several delta mouths,Nilotic silt has overrun the marinebarriers and formed northward-projectingspurs, as at Abuqir, Rosetta, and Dam-ietta. The small tongue of land whichextends to the east from the Damiettamouth across the northern side of LakeMenzala is composed exclusively of Nilealluvium, precipitated into the sea andcarried to the east by the North Africancoastal current. Still further to the east,where the coast of Sinai bends northwardin a striking curve before turning up to-ward Palestine, another narrow tongue ofland encloses the long, narrow coastal lakeof Sirbonis, now called the Sabkhet el-Bardawil. The Egyptian shoreline to thewest of the Delta and the western part ofthe Delta coast itself are composed to agreat extent of ridges of soft oSlitic lime-stone which, in the words of Blanckenhorn,"run parallel with the coast and to thesouth climb stepwise to the high ground,

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but are separated from one another bylongitudinal valleys ... " These ridges andthe valleys between represent former off-shore marine bars and lagoons formed inthe course of the Pleistocene period by atleast eight marine transgressions abovemodern sea-level. Important Egyptianharbors, like those of Mirsa Matruh andAlexandria, owe their existence to thebreaking down, in comparatively recenttimes; of the outer of these coastal bars.

The courses of the Nile through its owndelta have been many and various. At thepresent day the river divides into its twoprincipal branches at Batn el-Baqar, tenmiles northwest of Cairo. The Rosettaarm winds off toward the northwest andpours its load of silt into the sea thirty-fivemiles east of Abuqir, between Lake Edkuand Lake Burullus. The Damietta branchbears away in a northerly and then north-easterly direction and flows into theMediterranean close beside the westernedge of Lake Menzala. Classical writers listseven principal Nile mouths, all namedafter important Delta towns and called, inorder from east to west, the Pelusiac,Tanitic, Mendesian, Phatnitic, Sebennytic,Bolbitinic, and Canopic mouths. ThePhatnitic and Bolbitinic arms appear tohave corresponded respectively with thestill existent Damietta and Rosettabranches. Of the other five-all now falleninto disuse-the Pelusiac mouth at the ex-treme eastern edge of the Delta and theCanopic mouth at its extreme westernedges were the most important.

8. THE NUBIAN NILE VALLEY AND ITS

CATARACTS

The narrow gorge through which theNile flows between the Sudan frontier andel-Sebaiya in southern Upper Egypt is ofmore recent origin than the Egyptian NileValley. The cutting of the latter duringthe Upper Miocene and Lower Pliocene

periods was accompanied in Nubia bygeneral erosion of the southern portion ofthe sedimentary tableland; and it was notuntil after the sandstone underlying theUpper Cretaceous and Eocene strata hadbeen laid bare that the Nubian riversystem converged into a single stream andadopted its present course. The excavationof the Nubian Nile Valley was, then, anevent of late Pliocene or post-Pliocenetimes.

Since the Pliocene gulf did not eKtendsouth of Aswan there are no deposits ofthis age in the Nubian valley; and the Plio-Pleistocene and Pleistocene river terraceshere are rock platforms carved in the sand-stone which forms the walls of the valleyand covered with spreads of gravel derivedfrom the sandstone plateau itself andbrought in for the most part by the lateraltributaries of the river. The 300- and 200-foot terraces are preserved only in places,as at Abu Simbel and near Korosko,where high cliffs rise on either side of theriver; but the 150-, 100-, and 50-footterraces are well represented all the waybetween Wadi Halfa and Aswan, the lasttwo, as in Egypt, containing in theirgravels implements of Lower Paleolithictypes. No traces of terraces below the 50-foot level have been observed, thoughMiddle Paleolithic implements of typesassociated in Egypt with the 30-footterrace and the 10-foot gravels have beenfound in surface sites and in the basalparts of the later river silt. The advent ofMiddle Paleolithic times appears to havebeen accompanied south of Aswan by areduction in rainfall-hence, in the volumeof the river and its tributaries-moremarked than in the north at this period;and it is probable that in Nubia the30-foot terrace and the 10-foot gravelplatform were never formed.

The Middle-Late Paleolithic phase of siltdeposition was followed, as in Egypt, by

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renewed erosion and cutting down of theriver bed-the difference being that inNubia this process of degradation has con-tinued without interruption from theLate Paleolithic period until the construc-tion of the modern dam at Shellal. Thus,while north of Aswan the Nile has sincepre-Neolithic times been building up itsbed, in Nubia it has been slowly cutting itdown, a process particularly noticeable inthe so-called cataracts and narrows of theriver.

These "cataracts" and narrows occuralong the Nubian Nile at places wherethe river while excavating its post-Pliocene valley, encountered at relativelyshallow depths below the surface of thesandstone outcrops of igneous and meta-morphic rocks, through which it has sub-sequently forced its way only withconsiderable difficulty and unaccustomedturbulence. In the region of the SecondCataract, south of Wadi Haifa, theancient rock formations were exposed bygeneral erosion of the thin southern rimof the sandstone plateau and are foundnot only along the river but over aconsiderable portion of the northernSudan. A hundred and sixty miles to thenorth they reappear in the form ofisolated spurs extending across the courseof the river first at Kalabsha and then fora distance of twenty-one miles south ofAswan.

The Second Cataract may be said toinclude a succession of rapids extendingalong the river for a distance of more thanthirty miles from above the Middle King-dom forts at Semna to a point some five orsix miles south of the modern town of WadiHalfa. The name Batn el-Hagar, "Belly ofStones," is now applied to the whole of theninety-mile stretch of river south of WadiHalfa; but above Semna the Nile haslowered its bed and cleared its channel inthe hard rock to an extent where, except at

Atiri, true cataract conditions can nolonger be said to exist. At Semna itself therock barrier has been cut down sometwenty-six feet during the last fourthousand years as indicated by Nile marksof the late Twelfth Dynasty at that heightabove the present river level. North of theSemna rapids the course of the river isobstructed here and there by smallislands; but it is not until the island ofShargandi, twelve miles upstream fromWadi Halfa, is reached that the cataractproper begins. Thence northward for sixmiles the Nile swirls and tumbles througha maze of rocky islets and giant bouldersuntil near the towering prominence ofAbusir it enters its silt-encumbered valleyin the Nubian sandstone and resumes itsnormally steady and placid rate of flow.

Were it not for the fact that the con-struction and subsequent heightening ofthe Aswan dam have caused most of Nubiafrom Shellal southward to be flooded, theFirst Cataract and its approaches wouldexhibit a generally similar pattern ofdevelopment. At Kalabsha, forty miles up-river from Aswan, the Nile has opened adeep though narrow gorge through thesouthern spur of the igneous and meta-morphic complex and eroded the granitesill to a point where it no longer constitutesa serious impediment to the river's flow.Between Dehmit and Shellal the channel,though hemmed in by hard rock walls, isstill relatively free of obstructions. This isfar from being the case over the six-milestretch occupied by the cataract itselfbetween the large island of el-Heisa, south-west of Shellal, and the historicallyimportant island of Elephantine, im-mediately opposite the town of Aswan.Here the Nile in its early struggles topenetrate the rocky barrier split intothree main channels. Through the western-most of these it still flows below themodern dam, whirling and twisting in

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countless smaller channels around and be-tween seven good-sized islands and in-numerable glistening black boulders. Thedry eastern channel, through which arailway line now runs, was blocked withsandstones, shales, and compacted silts(Pliocene?) and finally with gravels andsands of the 100-foot terrace stage andwas apparently abandoned in LowerPaleolithic times, the central channelfalling into disuse at a later date, followingthe silt-aggradation phase of the middle-late Paleolithic period. Coarse-grained redgranite, also called "syenite" from theancient Greek name of Aswan (Syene), isthe dominant surface rock in the region ofthe First Cataract, but grano-diorites anddiorites are also well represented, and themore ancient crystalline schists and gneis-ses are found "near the periphery of theoutcrop."

Geohistorically the First and SecondCataracts and the river narrows associatedwith them are among the more recentadditions to the physiography of the NileValley. Contact between the ancient riverand the granitic rock barrier was not, aswe have seen, established until late Plio-cene or post-Pliocene times; and most ofthe erosion which created the present-daygorges and rapids has undoubtedly takenplace within the memory of man-muchof it, indeed, since the beginning ofrecorded history.

For a distance of eighty miles below theFirst Cataract the Nile follows a narrowchannel in the sandstone similar incharacter to its Nubian valley aboveDehmit and exhibiting only in the vicinityof Kom Ombo features of special interestto the student of human history. Here,between Khannak and Kagug, crustaldisturbances of Miocene date opened, aswe have seen, a wide triangular basin, orsunken plain, bounded on the north by ahigh, east-west fault scarp of hard Nubian

sandstone. Flooded during the earlierphases of its existence not only by the mainriver, but by an important group oftributary streams flowing into it from theeast, the Kom Ombo basin in Late Paleo-lithic times still contained an extensive,though dwindling lake or swamp, on theshores of which are the remains of humanhabitations.

The river meanwhile, during its Lower-Middle Paleolithic stages of bed erosion,had cut two deep channels through thesandstone barrier forming the northernrim of the basin, one on either side of thehard massif known today as Gebel el-Silsila. Owing probably to a westerly shiftin the course of the river the easternchannel silted up and was subsequentlyabandoned; and from the end of the Paleo-lithic period on the Nile has flowed onlythrough the narrow western gorge, be-tween precipitous walls of sandstonewhich over a distance of almost a milecome directly down to the water's edge.

The Silsila gorge, at one time withoutmuch doubt a true cataract, was at anancient period in Egypt's history regarded,reasonably enough, as the gateway toNubia and was revered as one of thelegendary sources of the Nile. It marks, inany case, the remains of the last seriousbarrier encountered by the river in itscourse to the Mediterranean. At el-Sebaiya, forty miles to the north, the Nileleaves the sandstone behind and passesinto the softer shales and limestonescharacteristic of its Egyptian valley.

9. THE FAYUM LAKE BASIN

Outside of the valley and delta of theNile no part of Egypt has played a moreimportant role in the history and pre-history of the country than the Fayumbasin and its ancient lake.

A fertile, oasis-like depression in theLibyan desert sixty miles south of Cairo

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and only some fifteen miles to the west ofthe river, the Fayum measures thirty-fivemiles in width from north to south andalmost fifty miles in length from east towest. The lake which once filled it is todayrepresented by the Birket Qarun, arelatively small, brackish body of wateroccupying the low-lying northwesternportion of the depression and at presentused chiefly as a sump, its surface arti-ficially stabilized at 147 feet below meansea-level. For its water supply the old lakebasin has for centuries depended on theBahr Yusef, a brook which leaves the Nilefar to the south near Asyut, winds north-ward parallel to the river, and enters theFayum through the ancient Hawarachannel, between Gebel Sedment andGebel Lahun.

Geologists are not in complete agree-ment on the period when the Fayumdepression, as such, came into existenceor on the steps involved in its creation. Itis, however, the opinion of the majority ofobservers that, following some preliminaryshaping by tectonic and possibly fluviatileactivity, the present basin was largelyexcavated by wind erosion in earlyPleistocene times; and that a directhydrographic connection between theFayum and the Nile through the HawaraChannel had been established by the be-ginning of the Middle Paleolithic period.At that time the depression was occupiedby a vast, high-level lake, the surface ofwhich lay 131-138 feet above modern sea-level with storm beaches piled up along itseasterly, or lee, shore to a height of 144feet. The beach of this lake would seem tobe associated with the 50-foot riverterrace of northern Middle Egypt, whichat nearby Beni Suef stands at 142 feetabove sea-level. Though no implementshave been found in Situ in either theterrace gravels or the beach shingle it isprobable that both are of early Middle

Paleolithic (Lower Levalloisian) date. Sec-tions of gravel platforms extendingthrough the Hawara Channel show thatthe beach of a lake at 112 feet above sea-level is a continuation inside the Fayumof the Nile gravels of the 25-foot aggrada-tion phase, and in this case implements oflate Middle Paleolithic types common toboth the river gravels and the beachshingle confirm the association.

As the Nile in final Middle Paleolithicand Late Paleolithic times lowered its bedfrom one level to another the Fayum lakefell with it, first to 92 feet and then to 74feet above modern sea-level. Toward theend of the Paleolithic period the river hadsunk so low that its waters no longerflowed into the Fayum, and the lakedropped to 18 feet below sea-level andappears, indeed, to have dried up al-together. Wind erosion again took chargeand the dry lake basin was evidentlydeepened considerably at this time, sur-passing in all probability its presentmaximum depth of 174 feet below sea-level.

During the period of transition betweenthe Old and New Stone Ages the Nile, aswe have seen, entered upon its presentphase of bed aggradation and began oncemore to send its overflow through theHawara channel into the Fayum, re.establishing the lake and raising its surfaceto 59 feet above sea-level. Soon, however,the Hawara channel itself began to bechoked with silt, and this factor aloneappears to have been sufficient to reducethe amount of water received by theFayum basin below that which it losteach year through seepage and evapora-tion. In spite, therefore, of some local rain-fall the lake early in the Neolithic periodhad apparently already fallen to 43 feetand this was followed by a 33-foot lakeand in mid-Neolithic times by a lake only13 feet above sea-level. With the decline

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of the so-called Neolithic Wet Phase, orSub-pluvial, and the approach of semi-desert conditions the Fayum lake sankseven feet below sea-level, remaining atthis general level throughout the balanceof Egyptian prehistory and well down intohistoric times.

From time to time since the early yearsof the second millennium B.C. the levelof the lake has been artificially regulatedby the government of Egypt for purposesof flood control, irrigation, land reclama-tion, or drainage. In general the ancientlake, known in the New Kingdom as theLake of Miwer and in Greco-Roman timesas the Lake of Moeris, occupied a fargreater proportion of the Fayum depres-sion than it does now, not approaching itspresent restricted dimensions until the be-ginning of the Christian Era. In antiquitythe inhabited portions of the Fayumincluded, besides the old lake beaches andthe marginal areas of fertile lake bottomleft exposed by the descending waters, afan-shaped expanse of Nile silt extendingfrom the inner end of the Hawara channelover most of the southeastern part of thedepression. It is near the center of this"delta" that has always stood the Fayum'sprincipal town: the dynastic Shedet, theclassical Crocodilopolis (Arsinoe), and themodern Medinet el-Fayum.

10. THE OASES OF THE LIBYAN DESERT

Like the Fayum, the other habitabledepressions of the Libyan desert-theWadi el-Natrun and the oases of Siwa,Bahria, Farafra, Kharga, Dakhla, andothers-are immense basins scooped outof the softer portions of the plateau surfacechiefly by the powerful erosive action ofsand-laden winds. This excavatory work,the bulk of which appears to have beenaccomplished between later Tertiary andMiddle Pleistocene times, may have beenpreceded by "a vast primary marine

denudation as the anticlinal areas nowoccupied by the oases rose from beneaththe sea"; and it has been suggested thatcrustal movements of pre-Pliocene timesdetermined the lines along which thesofter strata were exposed to erosion and,hence, the positions and the generalshapes of the depressions. Mitwally be-lieves that "the depressions owe theirorigin to the action of erosion on areas offavourable geological structure and uponstrata possessing a differential resistanceto its power" and points out that "the posi-tion of all the depressions (Baharia andFayum excepted) coincide with the south-ern limits of major geological formations"-Kurkur, Kharga, and Farafra with theedge of the Eocene limestone, Dakhla withthe southern limit of the Cretaceous chalk,and Siwa with the southern limit of theMiocene formations. Said excludes the pos-sibility of a tectonic origin for the oasesand is of the opinion that they started aswater-filled minor depressions which be-came dust-bowls and were subsequentlydeflated by wind. According to him thedepth of their floors was "governed bythe ground water level which forms, in away, a base level for wind action." A fewgeologists still adhere to the belief thatfluviatile erosion by Libyan branches ofthe Upper Eocene-Oligocene "Urnil" riversystem also played an important part inthe initial formation of the basins of thecentral and southern groups.

The depressions themselves are for themost part long and narrow, extendingeither in a generally east-west direction,like the Wadi el-Natrun and the oases ofSiwa and Dakhla, or from north to south,like Bahria and Kharga; and are eitherwholly or partially surrounded by steepand often lofty escarpments. Ancienttorrents have furrowed the sides of thesescarps in many places, and inside thedepressions hard, resistant masses of rock

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have been left standing to form hills hereand there on their floors. The lowestportions of the Kharga depression descenda few feet below sea-level and more than1300 feet below the surface of the sur-rounding plateau, and, in the north,depths of seventy to eighty feet below sea-level have been recorded in the Wadiel-Natrun and in the oasis of Siwa. So faras actual size is concerned, the smallestand most recently formed of the depres-sions under consideration, the Wadi el-Natrun, has a length of about twenty-fivemiles and an average width of about sixmiles, while the largest, the oasis ofKharga, measures a hundred and fifteenmiles from north to south and reaches amaximum width of almost fifty miles.

From mid-Pleistocene times, when theoases appear first to have become habit-able, they have depended for their watersupply chiefly on natural springs bubblingout of the upper strata of sandstone whichform or underlie the floors of the depres-sions or (since the Sixth Century B.C.) onartesian wells sunk hundreds of feet intothe lower strata of the same stone. Thesubterranean water tapped by thesesprings and wells is believed to havetravelled through the sandstone for greatdistances, originating either in the NubianNile or far to the southwest in the rain-swept highlands of Chad or the Repub-lic of the Sudan. Almost no active springsare to be found nowadays in the oases; butat Kharga groups of large mounds distri-buted over the floor of the depression markthe positions of "fossil springs" once usedby prehistoric man and containing in theirdeposits implements of final Lower Paleo-lithic and later types similar to thosefound also in the wadi gravels of thedepression's eastern scarp. Within thebasins proper human activity appears tohave been largely concentrated aroundthese springs; and today-in contrast to

the Fayum, most of which is fertile-thearable land in the oases is confined torelatively small patches immediately sur-rounding the artesian wells and com-prising in the oasis of Kharga less thanone percent of the total area of thedepression. Outside of these fertile patchesthe floors of the depressions are often asbarren as the surrounding desert plateauand in places are heavily drifted over withwind-blown sand. Unlike the Wadi el-Natrun, the vast, uninhabited QattaraDepression, and other of the morenortherly depressions, the southern oasesdo not ever seem to have contained largelakes or extensive marshy tracts, certaindeposits in Kharga oasis, once thought tohave been lacustrine, being no longeraccepted as such.

A study of the eastern scarp of theKharga depression has disclosed thepresence here of two classes of tufa formedduring periods of relatively high humidity:the so-called Plateau Tufa, "unfossili-ferous, locally pre-human, and possiblyPlio-Pleistocene" in date; and the WadiTufa, "crammed with the impressions offossil plants and intimately associatedwith Paleolithic man." Like the depositsformed around the ancient springs onthe floor of the depression the fluviatilegravels underlying the layers of Wadi Tufain the passes of the scarp were found tocontain human artifacts ranging in datefrom late Lower Paleolithic (Upper Ach-eulian) down into local Neolithic. Evi-dences of post-Paleolithic and laterprehistoric habitations occur in the silt-pans and chert quarries of the adjoiningLibyan Plateau and in some of the siltybasins in the depression proper.

A glance at the geographic distributionof the Libyan oases will prove helpful inunderstanding their economic and culturalrelationships with one another and withEgypt, of which in antiquity they were not

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regarded as forming a part. This was trueeven of the Wadi el-Natrun which liesonly sixty miles north of the Fayum andless than forty miles from the western edgeof the Delta and from which the Egyptiansat an early period obtained a kind of soda,called natron, used extensively by themas a detergent and preservative. Siwa,lying some two hundred and seventy-fivemiles due west of the Fayum, near theboundary of modern Libya, is the mostremote and least "Egyptian" of all thefertile depressions, its affiliations until arelatively late period in Egyptian historyhaving been principally with Libya andthe Saharan and North African regions tothe west. In antiquity it appears to havebeen reached from the Nile Valley by wayof the oasis of Bahria, which lies a hundredand ten miles almost due southwest of theFayum and less than a hundred milesfrom the Nile opposite Samalut andMinya in Middle Egypt. Bahria, in turn, islinked with the southern group of oases bythe extensive, but historically unimport-ant, depression of Farafra, which stretchessouthward to within fifty miles or less ofthe western end of the Dakhla scarp, itsprincipal settlement, Qasr Farafra, fallingapproximately on the latitude of theUpper Egyptian city of Asyut. Dakhlaand Kharga form the two arms of a great

1]-shaped depression, the whole of whichwas in ancient times referred to as the"Southern Oasis" and later as "the GreatOasis." Kharga, the north-south arm ofthe 1, stretches from north of the latitudeof Luxor to about the latitude of Aswan,and is reached from the Nile Valley by adozen different caravan tracks, most ofthem converging on one or the other of itstwo principal villages, Kharga and Beris.The shortest and best of these routesacross the Libyan plateau to the GreatOasis is the one which leaves the NileValley near Girga, bears west-southwest

for about seventy-five miles and entersthe oasis by way of a lateral ravine knowntoday as the Abu Sighawal pass. FromAsyut the principal caravan route to theSudan runs almost due south acrossthe desert, passes lengthwise through theKharga depression, and proceeds thencesouthward to Darfur via the small Nubianoases of Bir el-Natrun and Selima. Thisis the famous Darb el- Arbain, or "Roadof the Forty (Days)," one of the mostancient and extensively used lines ofcommunication linking Egypt with theAfrican lands to the south.

Aside from their function as way-stations on the southern and westerntrade routes the oases have since Paleo-lithic times supported populations of theirown and have been known for theirproduction of wine, olive oil, dates, andother commodities. As outposts of theancient Libyans, as havens for politicalrefugees, and as places of exile for enemiesof the state they have from time to timeplayed a by no means negligible role inEgyptian history.

11. CLIMATE

Variations in Egypt's normally aridclimate from the beginning of the Tertiaryera to the present day are to a great extentreflected in the geological and bio-geographical developments outlined in theforegoing pages.

Every class of evidence-physiograph-ical, floral, and faunal-indicates that innortheastern Africa the Tertiary wascharacterized in large part by warmtemperatures and extended intervals ofmoderate to heavy rainfall, the latterreaching a peak toward the end of theOligocene period and again in middle andlate Pliocene times. Though during phasesof maximum precipitation the climateapparently achieved a tropical-monsoonalcharacter, made possible the growth of

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trees of considerable size, and supported afauna of sub-equatorial type, the rainfallwas clearly never sufficient to provide theEgyptian tableland with a thick coveringof forest. We think, rather, of grassyplains fringed here and there by clumps oftrees and deteriorating rapidly into tree-less steppe and even desert during theperiods of aridity which interruptedthe stretches of more favorable climate.

In Egypt, as in other portions of theSaharo-Arabian climatic zone, the Pleisto-cene epoch is now generally believed tohave comprised a succession of "pluvials,"or periods of relatively abundant annualrainfall, separated from one another byintervals of aridity, or "interpluvials,"with the former decreasing and the latterincreasing in intensity with the transitionto the succeeding Holocene, or recent,epoch. Investigations conducted by Pro-fessor Karl W. Butzer indicate that thePleistocene pluvials, though associatedmeteorologically and chronologically withthe advance of the glaciers in morenortherly latitudes, "are the direct con-sequence of primary changes in thegeneral circulation of the atmosphere andare not secondary effects of the presenceof continental glaciation."

Evidences of erosion and deposition asstudied both in the Nile Valley and on theeastern scarp of Kharga oasis have led onegroup of observers to limit the number ofPleistocene pluvials to two: a first, andmajor, pluvial extending from late Plio-cene or Plio-Pleistocene times to about themiddle of the Pleistocene period andwitnessing, in the river valley, the earlierLower Paleolithic stages of human pre-history; and a second and somewhat lesseffective pluvial beginning in later LowerPaleolithic times and reaching two orthree minor peaks of precipitation duringthe Middle Paleolithic stages of man'scultural development.

More recently, however, the sameevidence has been convincingly reinter-preted and four pluvial periods separatedfrom one another by three interpluvialshave been postulated for the late Lower toUpper Pleistocene, probably precededduring the earliest Pleistocene by stillanother pluvial and interpluvial. The fourmoist periods in question have beententatively designated as the MindelPluvial, the Riss Pluvial, the Early WirmPluvial, and the Main Wirm Pluvial, thenames being borrowed from the well-knownAlpine glacial phases with the early stagesof which these north African and south-west Asian pluvials are presumed to beassociated. In Egypt the Mindel and RissPluvials are thought to have produced thegravel cappings of the 100-, 50-, and 30-foot Nile terraces of the upper valley and,in terms of human activity, to haveembraced the whole of the Lower Paleo-lithic stage (Abbevillian and Acheulian),including the period of Man's first demon-strable occupation of the oasis of Kharga(Upper Acheulian) and the period oftransition to the Middle Paleolithic(Acheulio-Levalloisian). The 100-foot Nilegravels of northern Egypt (Acheulian) areassigned to the Mindel-Riss Interpluvialand the 50-foot gravels and 131-footFayum lake (Lower Levalloisian?) to theRiss-Wuirm Interpluvial. The Early WiirmPluvial would have witnessed the forma-tion of the 10-foot wadi gravels of UpperEgypt (Middle Paleolithic) and the suc-ceeding Interpluvial the commencementof Abyssinian silt deposition in the south,the building-up of the 25-foot fine gravelsand silts in the north, and the decline ofthe Fayum lake first to 112 and then to92 feet above sea-level (late MiddlePaleolithic-Late Paleolithic). It was ap-parently during the second and minor sub-maximum of the Wuirm Pluvial ("MainWarm") and during its increasingly arid

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final stage ("Late Wiirm") that the Nile inLate Paleolithic times degraded its bed togreat depths all the way from the SecondCataract to the seacoast and that, despitesome momentary increases in rainfall, theFayum lake sank gradually below presentsea-level and may have disappearedaltogether.

Fossil soil profiles and other dataderived from the river and wadi terracesof Egypt suggest the existence here of twotypes of Pleistocene pluvials and of twotypes of local climate occasioned by them.The sub-tropical, or Mediterranean, plu-vials, during which the terrace gravelswere deposited, appear to have beenassociated with the early, or advance,stages of the European glaciations. Theclimate during these relatively brief inter-vals was evidently moist and cool, with anannual rainfall exceeding eight inches anda landscape of moderate dry steppe oretesian steppe type with grasses, shrubs,succulents, thorny bushes, and acaciasgrowing on the surface of the plateau andclumps of trees, such as sycamores,willows, and tamarisks, occurring along thebanks of the river and its tributaries.There followed during the closing stagesof each pluvial and the first half of the suc-ceeding interpluvial an interval of climateas dry as that of the present day and per-haps even drier, when the Nile in UpperEgypt lowered its bed, the lateral wadisdried up, tree-life was confined to a fewundemanding species (acacias and tama-risks?) growing along the immediate fringesof the river, and human habitation waspossible only in the northernmost, coastalareas. The third climatic phase, charac-teristic of the late interpluvial periods, isbelieved to have been as warm as today'sclimate, but moister, with sandy red earthforming and the landscape assuming thenature of a sub-tropical steppe and sup-porting vegetation of thorn-savannah type

and a fauna which, as in Neolithic times,may have included such animals as theelephant. the rhinoceros, the giraffe, theostrich, the antelope, the gazelle, andseveral kinds of cat.

Relatively moist conditions seem tohave continued into the Middle Paleolithicage as attested by the occurrence ofimplements of Levalloisian types scatteredfar and wide over the surface of thepresent high desert. The precipitation,however, was growing slighter and morespasmodic and the plateau landscape waschanging gradually from thorn savannahto dry steppe to semi-desert. In the oasisof Kharga animal and plant remains of thisperiod are either confined to the vicinity ofthe ancient springs or are of types whichflourish today in regions of low rainfall,the only tree remains found in the scarpdeposits being those of fig-trees, date-palms, and the like.

The onset of aridity in late Pleistocenetimes was evidently a gradual process,desiccation spreading slowly northwardfrom Nubia into Upper and Middle Egypt.In Nubia the rainfall and surface run-offhad begun to fail in the Middle Paleolithicperiod and it is probable that here, asalready remarked, the 30- and 10-footgravel platforms were never formed. InUpper Egypt the mixed gravels of the 10-foot stage seem to have been laid down by"sporadic torrents" rather than by "evenlydistributed rainfall." By Late Paleolithictimes the rainfall had failed completelyabove the First Cataract and was con-siderably diminished farther to the north,as attested by the presence of blown sandin the basal silts of the first aggradationphase in Upper Egypt. Sand dunes hadalready begun their long, slow marchsouthward from the coastal region acrossthe. Libyan plateau, drift sand was be-ginning to accumulate around the springsin the Kharga depression, and a marked

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decrease in the already none too vigorousrainfall of the region of the oasis waspermitting silt to be deposited in the wadisof the eastern scarp. Though fleetingintervals of more favorable climate areattested during the Late Paleolithic periodmen and animals tended to confine theiractivities to the vicinity of the river, thegrassy wadi bottoms of the eastern plateau,and the springs and scarp ravines of theoases and to shun the now parched anduninviting expanses of the open plains,over which previously they had wanderedat will.

Conditions even more severe than thatof the present day were reached in FinalPaleolithic times during the first "post-pluvial" period following the end of theWiirm Pluvial. This phase, which isbelieved to have extended from about16,000 to 9500 B.c., was one of hightemperatures, severe wind erosion, andminimum rainfall, the last achieving itslow point in or about the twelfth millen-nium B.C. Following a brief respite in theform of a sub-pluvial of about a millen-nium's duration (ca. 9500-8500 B.C.) desertconditions again closed in and held swayuntil about 6500 B.c. when a rise in pre-cipitation reduced the extreme aridity ofthe land to its modern level.

Toward the end of the sixth millenniumB.C. Egypt and neighboring lands appearto have enjoyed another slight, buteffective increase in temperature andprecipitation and to have entered upon aprolonged sub-pluvial or relatively moistphase, extending from early Neolithictimes until late in the Old Kingdom (ca.5000-2350 B.C.). This era of actually rathervaried climate has been equated with theso-called Atlantic phase, or post-glacialClimatic Optimum, of northern Europe. InEgypt its rainfall seems to have exceededsix inches a yedr, reaching a peak early inthe Chalcolithic period and declining

sharply thereafter and again in earlyhistoric times, but maintaining, neverthe.less, a general level well above that of thepresent day. Though probably confined tooccasional thunder showers, the precipita.tion was sufficient to form pools of freshwater in the hollows of the Libyan plateau,to support for a while large herbivorousanimals like the rhinoceros and the ele-phant over broad stretches of the highdeserts, and to enable groves of small trees,seasonal pastures, and extensive humansettlements to grow up along the fringes ofthe Nile Valley in areas which had pre-viously been arid and which now compriseportions of the low desert. The river valleyand Delta in Neolithic, predynastic, andearly historic times evidently also showedthe effects of a somewhat more moistclimate, with papyrus and water-liliesgrowing along the waterways and in themarshy hollows of the basin-lands andaquatic animals and birds inhabiting theriver and its backwaters in greater pro-fusion than at the present day.

Since the end of the third millenniumB.C. the climate of Egypt has beengenerally similar to that of the present day.Between 2350 B.C. and A.D. 700 theaverage temperature seems to have been,if anything, a trifle above and the averagerainfall a little below the modern levels,but with at least two "quite moist" spells,one in late Ramesside times and oneabout 850 s.c.

Egypt's present climate, so frequentlyused as a basis of comparison in the fore-going paragraphs, is notoriously warm,dry, and clear. Mean temperatures rangefrom a January minimum of 50 ° Fahrenheitat Alexandria to a July maximum of 107 °

at Aswan, the range being far greater onthe desert plateau where the mercurysoars by day and on winter nights not in-frequently drops below the freezing point.The Delta coast enjoys an average annual

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rainfall of about eight inches, most of itduring the winter months, but Cairoreceives only about an inch a year, andUpper Egypt perhaps a single shower onceevery two or three years. Sporadic cloud-bursts over the Red Sea hills sustainpatches of green plant life and evenclumps of trees in some of the rockyvalleys of the Eastern Desert; and gazelles,hyenas, jackals, foxes, and jerboas inhabitthe fringes of the Libyan Desert near theNile Valley and in the vicinity of the oases.In dynastic times the presence in theseareas of a more abundant and diversifiedanimal life-lions, wild cattle, deer, andantelopes of many kinds-is evidently tobe attributed to causes other than a con-sistently more favorable climate, such, forexample, as a generally less efficientharassment of the wild life by humanagencies or the maintenance of extensivereserves artificially stocked with game forthe diversion of royal or noble huntsmen.With its rain-catching chain of mountainsand its deep valleys sheltered from sand-laden winds the Eastern, or Arabian,Desert has always been less austere thanthe open, rolling plains of the LibyanDesert which nowadays alternate betweenbare rock surfaces, vast spreads of gravel,and long, slowly moving lines of sanddunes. The prevailing northerly windswhich sweep across these desert plateauxand up the long, narrow river valley havedone much to shape not only the land itselfbut also the lives of its inhabitants,providing a blessed relief from the heat ofthe day and facilitating upstream naviga-tion on the Nile, but often driving earlyMan to seek shelter from their blastsbehind the walls of the valley and itslateral wadis or behind primitive sheltersof his own devising. In northern Egyptthe winds are more variable than in thesouth, and during the spring the hotsoutherly khamsin blows for days at a time

bringing stifling temperatures and fillingthe air with sand and dust.

12. CHRONOLOGY

Thanks to the successions of river andwadi terraces, lake beaches, and siltlayers, each with its incorporated orassociated fauna and human artifacts, therelative dating and approximate durationsof the successive stages in the Pleistoceneand early post-Pleistocene geohistory andprehistory of Egypt can be worked outfrom the local evidence alone. When, how-ever, we attempt to construct an absolutechronology of these same stages we findthat in Egypt, as in other lands lying inthe middle and lower latitudes of theearth's surface, our geochronologers haveas yet provided us with little or nothing togo on. We are therefore forced to fall backon the chronological correlations whichare generally presumed to exist betweenour local Egyptian stages and the succes-sive phases of the Great Ice Age asobserved in northern and central Europe,where prolonged study has produced anumber of more or less dependablemethods of dating these phases in termsof years before the present day.

We have already had occasion to referto the meteorological association ofEgypt's "pluvials" and "interpluvials"with the glacial and interglacial periods ofmore northerly latitudes. "The con-temporaneity of these lower middle lati-tude pluvials with the world-wideglaciations," says Butzer, "has been re-peatedly confirmed and accepted in thecontemporary literature .... Consequentlywe are free to refer to the last phase ofglaciation as the 'Last Pluvial' in the NearEast, and we may speak of a 'postpluvial'as well as a 'postglacial' period." Furtherinvestigation by the same authority tendsto indicate that the pluvial episodesduring which the implementiferous terrace

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gravels of the Nile and its wadis were laiddown were periods of relatively shortduration and that they coincided chrono-logically not with the whole of a Europeanglacial phase, but only-and more pre-cisely-with its initial stage, before the icesheet had reached its full-scale expansion.This would allow us to correlate thepluvial 100-foot terrace of southern Egyptand its contained implements with the on-set of the Mindel glaciation, the 50-foot ter-race with Riss I, the 30-foot wadi gravelswith Riss II, and the 10-foot gravels withEarly Wiirm, and to date these stages inthe Pleistocene history of the UpperEgyptian Nile Valley accordingly.

For Lower and northern Middle Egyptthe most trustworthy link with theEuropean Ice Ages appears to be the suc-cession of Plio-Pleistocene and Pleistocenehigh sea-levels as established by Deperet,De Lamothe, and others from a study ofthe ancient "raised" beaches, or fossilshorelines, of the Mediterranean Sea,including a series of marine bars lyinginland from Arabs Gulf, a short distanceto the west of the present Nile Delta. It isgenerally conceded that these high sea-levels must have been reached duringperiods of minimum glaciation in the areasbordering the sea on the north-thus, atapproximately the mid-points of theEuropean interglacial phases. The highest,or so-called "Sicilian," level (295-330 feetabove present sea-level) is usually as-signed to the period preceding the Early,or Giinz, Glaciation; the "Milazzian" level(180-195 feet) to the Antepenultimate, orGiinz-Mindel, Interglacial; the "Tyrrhen-ian" level (100-115 feet) to the Penulti-mate, or Mindel-Riss, Interglacial; andthe two "Monastirian" levels (50-65 and16-33 feet) to the Last, or Riss-Wiirm,Interglacial. It is also generally agreed-and here is our link-that these same highsea-levels determined the maxlknum

heights (above flood plain) of the succes-sive gravel terraces formed in the lowercourses of all rivers flowing into theMediterranean Sea or into bodies of waterdirectly connected with it. In the case ofthe Nile there seem to be clear corre-spondences between the 320-foot terraceof northern Egypt and the Sicilian highsea-level, the 200-foot terrace and theMilazzian level, the 100-foot terrace andthe Tyrrhenian level, the 50-foot terraceand the Main Monastirian, and the 25-footgravels and the Late Monastirian. Pre.suming the correlations to be valid in bothof the foregoing steps, we may then assignthe 320-foot Nile terrace to pre-Glacialtimes, the 200-foot terrace to the Ginz-Mindel Interglacial, the 100-foot terrace tothe Mindel-Riss Interglacial, the 50-footterrace and the 131-foot Fayum lake tothe early part of the Riss-Wiirm Inter-glacial, and the 25-foot gravels and 112-and 92-foot Fayum lakes to the latter partof the same interglacial or, more probably,to the Gottweig Interstadial of the EarlyWiirm glaciation; and may apply to thesestages in Nile prehistory the absolute datesworked out for the corresponding sub-divisions of the European Ice Age.

The early stages of the Upper Pleistocene(Late Paleolithic) degradation phase inNile history, including the Fayum lakesat 74 feet and below, are probably to beassociated with the Main Wiirm marineregression (low sea-level); and its laterstages (evolved and Final Paleolithic),during which the Fayum appears to havebeen re-excavated by subaerial erosion, tothe Late Wiirm glacial stage and the finalretreat of the glaciers in Europe.

By making use of the dates for theEuropean glacial and interglacial phasesand Mediterranean high sea-levels derivedby Zeuner chiefly from Penck's geologicalestimates and the Milankovitch curves offluctuating solar radiation it is possible to

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draw up the following chronological tableof the terrace and early post-terracestages of Egyptian prehistory. In thistable the dates are given in years B.C. toconform to the practice followed through-out the rest of the book, no adjustmentsin Zeuner's round figures "B.P." (Before

Present) being thought necessary in thecase of dates of 100,000 years and over.The dates 90,000 B.c., 50,000 B.C., and

20,000 B.c. were obtained by interpolationand adjustment of the figures given byZeuner for the three phases of the LastGlaciation.

TABLE 1

PLIO-PLEISTOCENE AND PLEISTOCENE TERRACES

320-foot terrace of northern Egypt (barren)200-foot terrace of northern Egypt (barren?)100-foot pluvial terrace of southern Egypt (earlier Lower Paleolithic)100-foot terrace of northern Egypt (middle Lower Paleolithic)50-foot pluvial terrace of southern Egypt (later Lower Paleolithic)30-foot pluvial terrace of southern Egypt (Lower-Middle Paleolithic)50-foot Nile gravels of Middle Egypt and 131-foot Fayum beach (early

Middle Paleolithic?)

LATE PLEISTOCENE SILTS AND GRAVELS

Aggradation:

10-15 foot wadi gravels of southern Egypt (Middle Paleolithic)Aggradation silts of Upper Egypt, 25-foot gravels of northern Egypt,

and 112- and 92.foot Fayum beaches (late Middle Paleolithic-LatePaleolithic I)

Degradation:

74-foot Fayum beach (Late Paleolithic II)-18-foot Fayum beach (Late Paleolithic III)Subaerial erosion of Fayum basin

Unfortunately, there is a notable lack ofagreement between the last five datesgiven in this table and a series of probablysomewhat more accurate estimates ob-tained from late glacial and post-glacialorganic specimens by means of the radio-carbon, or "Carbon 14," method of agedetermination. These estimates give usdates of around 90,000-72,000 B.P. for apoint towards the end of the Last, or Riss-Worm, Interglacial, 70,000 B.P. for thebeginning of the Last, or Wirm, Glacia-tion, 43,000-29,000 B.P. for the Wiirm

I-II, or Gottweig, Interstadial, 18,250 B.C.for the maximum of Worm II, and11,500-10,500 B.C. for the Belling Oscilla-tion of the Gotiglacial Retreat. Adding tothese radiocarbon dates of 4430 and4134 B.C. for the Fayum Neolithic, 3783and 3658 s.c. for the early Chalcolithic(Nagada I), 3616 B.C. for the later Chalco-lithic (Nagada II), and the end-date of3100 B.C. for the beginning of the firsthistoric dynasty, and we arrive at a con-siderably lower dating for the late glacialand post-glacial prehistory of Egypt:

660,000 B.c.

500,000 B.C.

476,000 B.C.

270,000 B.C.

230,000 B.C.

187,000 B.C.150,000 B.C.

115,000 B.C.

90,000 B.C.

70,000 B.C.

50,000 B.C.

20,000 B.C.

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TABLE 2

Early Middle Paleolithic (10-footof southern Egypt)

Late Middle Paleolithic (aggradasilts of Upper Egypt, etc.)

Late Paleolithic (deep Nile degraLate Paleolithic (Epi-Levallois

Final Paleolithic, or MesolithicPresent Silt Aggradation Phase

Neolithic PeriodChalcolithic PeriodHistoric Period

13. EGYPT AT THE BEGINNING OF

HUMAN PREHISTORY

By way of a conclusion to the presentchapter and an introduction to those tofollow let us try to reconstruct a pictureof the land of Egypt as it may haveappeared, nearly half a million years ago,to its earliest known human inhabitants.

From the lofty chain of hills borderingthe Red Sea a grassy steppe, dotted hereand there with shrubs and thorny bushes,stretches away to the Mediterranean Seaon the north and, to the west and south,beyond the horizon. The Nile gorgewinding northward from the neighborhoodof modern Kom Ombo toward the ancientseacoast, some fifty miles below where thecity of Cairo now stands, divides the landinto two parts. On the east the relativelynarrow strip of plateau is dissected bynumerous broad valleys down whichoccasionally torrential streams pour intothe main valley from the western slopes ofthe Red Sea hills. On the west the tribu-taries of the river, though equally numer-ous, have neither the length nor thevolume of those on the east, the watershedon this side following the line of a low ridgewhich in Upper Egypt lies less than sixtymiles from the Nile and which catches afar less copious rainfall than the towering

Begins 70,000 B.P.

,, 43,000 B.P.

,, 30,000 B.P.,, 16,000 B.C.

,, 10,000 B.c.

,, 8750-3500 B.C.,, 5000 B.C.,, 4000 B.c.

,, 3100 B.C.

heights on the east. Farther west the grass-land gives way to poor steppe countryinterrupted by a series of huge and at themoment uninhabited depressions-thepresent-day oases-in the scarp valleysof which intermittent rainfall and run-offhave resulted in the formation of tufa. Analtogether similar basin, the Fayum, liesnot more than eighty miles from the sea-coast and less than twenty miles to thewest of the river valley, but the ridgewhich separates it from the Nile is ap-parently not yet broken through and itslake not yet fully formed. Along the edgesof the river and its tributaries, in the deepvalleys on the east, and around the poolsand waterholes of the Libyan plateau thevegetation resembles that of modernCyrenaica and includes clumps of treessuch as acacias, tamarisks, sycamores, andwillows. Here and there the plateau land-scape is relieved by such prominences asthe Moqattam Hills and Gebel Abu Roashnear Cairo, Gebel Ataqa and the Qallalahills to the east and southeast, themagnificent hills of the Thebaid in UpperEgypt, and far off to the west and souththe distant mountain peaks of Gilf Kebirand Uweinat. To the northeast, across theGulf of Suez, the mountains of southernSinai tower to impressive heights; andlooking southward from these along the

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coast of the Red Sea one notes thatthe ancient beaches are dissected in in-numerable places by terraced wadis drain-ing the eastern sides of the adjacent hills.

From southern Upper Egypt to theapex of the vast sand-and-gravel Delta ofthe river the valley of the Nile has notonly long ago been fully scoured out inthe Eocene limestone, but has sub-sequently become extensively choked bymixed deposits of the Pliocene gulf era.Southward, however, the Nubian valley isstill in the process of its primary excava-tion, the river having only relativelyrecently adopted a single course throughthe tawny sandstone of the region. AboveWadi Halfa rapids are forming where thestream has come into contact with hardcrystalline rock formations underlying thesandstone, and just above Aswan the riverhas split into three channels in its earlyattempts to force its way through asimilar barrier. Forty miles downstream,around Kom Ombo, the valley broadensout into a wide embayment, north ofwhich yet another cataract is forming asthe river has begun to scour out twochannels through the sandstone scarp atSilsila.

Since the end of the Pliocene period thehuge and swiftly flowing stream hasrepeatedly lowered and narrowed its bedin the sandstone of its Nubian valley andin the gulf deposits choking its Egyptianvalley, leaving on either side two series ofgravel-coated terraces at 300, 200, and150 feet above the flood plain of thepresent Nile in Upper Egypt and at 320,255, 200, and 150 feet above the same localdatum in Middle and Lower Egypt. Asthe mouth of the river is approached theterraces of the latter series swing outwardalong each side of the Delta and runeventually into the ancient shingle beachesof the Mediterranean Sea. Similar terraces,at corresponding heights, are to be seen

also in the lower reaches of the lateralvalleys, where the tributaries of the rivertraverse the gulf deposits on either side ofthe main stream.

At the moment with which we are con-cerned the bed of the Nile in Upper Egypt,having been cut down to perhaps seventyfeet above modern alluvium, is in the pro-cess of being built up to the 100-foot levelwith layers of sands and coarse gravelsbrought down by the great stream itselfand poured into it by its tributaries,especially by the powerful torrents rollingdown from the Red Sea hills. Here in thesouth the river flows in broad meanders,spreading and leveling its sandy andpebbly floor and cutting away portions ofthe next higher terrace which forms itsbank on either side. In summer, thanks toa gradually developing connection withthe Atbara and the Blue Nile, it maymomentarily overflow its banks, sweepingaway such surface debris as the lost or dis-carded implements of early Man. North-ward the sands and gravels taper off, andbelow Mallawi in Middle Egypt we findthe Nile at this period, not aggrading, buteroding its bed in response to a marineregression, or low sea-level, evidently alsocontemporaneous with the initial stages ofthe Mindel glaciation. Within the confinesof the river valley, the Delta, and thelower courses of the lateral tributaries,the soil is for the most part sandy andgravelly, with no traces of silt and little ofany other type of fine material. Thoughprobably supporting a gallery-forest typeof vegetation it can hardly have had anyspecial fertility of its own.

The climate is a trifle cooler than thatof the present day and considerably morehumid, the rainfall, as reflected in theevidently violent activity of the lateralwadis, almost certainly exceeding eightinches a year. This, combined with thepresence of the great river, would have

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been sufficient to attract and support afauna of both sub-equatorial and morenortherly types, including, as elsewhere innorth Africa at this time, such largeanimals as the elephant, the rhinoceros,the hippopotamus, and the buffalo. ThoughEgypt has as yet yielded no animal (orhuman) remains of early or middlePleistocene date, we may be sure that itsfauna and accompanying flora was at thisperiod as copious and diversified as inlater Paleolithic and Neolithic times, whenconditions in northeast Africa must havebeen, ecologically speaking, less favorable.

Here, then, for the time being was aportion of the earth's surface affordingevery advantage to primitive man in hisearly struggles for existence and in his firststeps toward the development of a civilizedmode of life-a region endowed with awarm but not oppressively hot climate,an adequate but not excessive rainfall,copious and easily obtainable supplies ofwater and of food, choice camp sites inprotected river valleys and lake basins,and all the natural materials needed tofashion simple tools and weapons, in-cluding abundant modules of chert andother hard stones lying ready to hand inthe rock formations of the plateau and inthe gravels of the river and its tribu-taries.

Here, too, was a land over most ofwhich men and animals could roam withalmost complete freedom and to whichthey could readily journey from otherparts of the Old World, unchecked by wideexpanses of open sea, trackless wastes, orice-capped mountains. From the souththe wandering bands could follow thebanks of the Nile and its tributariesnorthward from east or central Africa.On the east the Isthmus of Suez linkedthe Delta with western Asia and, ulti-mately, with the rest of that huge conti-nent, as well as with Eurasia and eastern

Europe. From the west the stone-agenomad (or his industries) could travel ineasy stages all the way across NorthAfrica, coming even from western Europeby way of the narrow strait of Gibraltarwhich, though apparently open at thistime, would have formed no insurmount-able obstacle to human passage.

Small wonder that Egypt because of itsnatural endowments, its accessibility, andits central position in the ancient worldwas an area much frequented by earliestMan. Even when, in the millenniums to

come, a failing rainfall deprived the landas a whole of many of the attributes whichhad first drawn men to it the Nile con-tinued to make its lower valley and deltaone of the most desirable regions on theearth's surface-a suitable cradle for oneof the basic civilizations in world history.

NOTES

CHAPTER I

GENERAL

For tabulations of the geological eras andperiods with their approximate dates see,among others, J. Laurence Kulp, "GeologicTime Scale: Isotopic age determinations onrocks of known stratigraphic age define anabsolute time scale for earth history,"Science, CXXXIII, No. 3459 (April 14, 1961),pp. 1105-14; and F. E. Zeuner, Dating thePast: An Introduction to Geochronology (4thed. [London, 1958]), Fig. 83 (opp. p. 310).

Much of the material presented in thischapter is drawn more or less directly fromRushdi Said's The Geology of Egypt(Amsterdam-New York, 1962); from K. W.Butzer's "Die Naturlandschaft Agyptenswiahrend der Vorgeschichte und der Dy.nastischen Zeit," Abhandlungen der Akademieder Wisenechaften und der Literatur, Math.-naturwiss. Klasse, 1959, Nr. 2 (Wiesbaden[1959]), pp. 45-122; from J. Ball's Contribu-tions to the Geography of Egypt (Ministry ofFinance, Egypt: Survey and Mines Depart.ment [Cairo, 1941]); from K. S. Sandfordand W. J. Arkell's Prehistoric Survey of Egyptand Western Asia, published in four volumesduring the years 1929-1939 by the OrientalInstitute of the University of Chicago

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("OIP" X, XVII, XVIII, XLVI); and fromthe same authors' "First Report on thePrehistoric Survey Expedition" in "OIC"No. 3, 1928. Extensive use was also made ofM. Blanckenhorn's Aegypten (Handbuch derregionalen Geologie, VII, 9, 23 [Heidelberg1921]) and of W. F. Hume's five-volumeGeology of Egypt (Ministry of Finance,Egypt: Survey of Egypt [Cairo, 1925-1948]).S. A. Huzayyin's The Place of Egypt inPrehistory ("MIE," XLIII [Cairo, 1941]),though devoted chiefly to a study of climatesand cultures, is rich in material on the geo-history, physiography, and biogeography ofEgypt and neighboring lands; containssummaries and assessments of the oftenconflicting views of geologists and pre-historians in regard to Egypt; and is providedwith a seventy-page bibliography of workspublished prior to 1941. The 1929 Englishedition of Karl Baedeker's handbook, Egyptand the Sitddn, offers good, short treatmentsof the geography and geology of Egypt(pp. xlviii ff.), descriptions of individual sitesand physiographical features, and an excellentseries of maps; and much useful informationis incorporated in the Encyclopaedia Britan-nica's article on "Egypt" (11th ed., IX,21 ff.). For a brief and interestingly writtensurvey of the geohistory of the ancient worldJ. L. Myre's "Primitive Man in GeologicalTime" (The Cambridge Ancient History,Vol. I [1924 ed.], Chap. I, pp. 1 ff.) is still tobe recommended.

In 1910 the Egyptian Government'sSurvey Department issued Geological Mapsof Egypt at scales of 1:2,000,000 and1:1,000,000; and, in 1928, an Atlas of Egyptcomprising "A Series of Maps with Descrip-tive Texts illustrating the Orography, Geo-logy, Meteorology and Economic Conditions."'Thanks to the same department contouredmaps of the whole or parts of Egypt at scalesranging from 1:500,000 to 1:1000 are alsonow available. Especially useful is the1:100,000 Topographic Series of the Surveyof Egypt and Department of Survey and Mines,Cairo (reprinted by the Army Map Service,Washington, D. C.). See also Rushdi Said,The Geology of Egypt, pp. 18 if.

Of many periodicals in the general fieldthe three most used by writers on the geologyand prehistory of Egypt are the Bulletin del'Institut d'A gypte (BIE [Cairo, 1859 if.]), theBulletin de la Soci t (Royale) de Gdographied'tgypte (BS[R]GE [Cairo, 1879 ff.]), and,more recently, the Bulletin de l'Institut(Fouad I) du Ddaert d'gypte (BIDE [Cairo,1951 ff.]). Impprtant articles on the samesubjects have appeared in The GeographicalJournal (GJ [London, 1893 ff.)], The Geo-

logical Magazine (GM [Hertford, 1864 ff.]),the Journal of the Royal AnthropologicalInstitute (JRAI [London, 1871 ff.]), Man(London, 1901 ff.), Erdkunde: Archiv ffirwissenschaftliche Geographie (Bonn, 1947 ff.),the Geologische Rundschau (GR [Leipzig,1910 ff.]), and the Zeitschrift der Deutschengeologischen Gesellschaft (ZDGG [Berlin, 1848ff.]). Several important monographs havebeen published in the Mdmoires de l'Institutd'4gypte (MIE [Cairo, 1862 ff.]). TheCompte rendu of the Congres International deGdographie (Cairo, 1925) (C.-R.CIG, 1925)and the Proceedings of the Pan-AfricanCongress on Prehistory (PPACP [Nairobi,1947; Algiers, 1952; etc.]) contain a numberof reports of interest and value.

Among the more useful lists of referencesis E. H. Keldani's A Bibliography of Geologyand Related Sciences concerning Egypt up tothe End of 1939 (Ministry of Finance, Egypt:Department of Survey and Mines [Cairo,1941]).

1. THE EGYPTIAN TABLELAND

This section is a shortened and simplifiedversion of the accounts of the formation,elevation, and physiography of the table-land given by Sandford and Arkell in their"First Report," pp. 5-6, and in their Pre-historic Survey, I, 5-7; II, 1-5; IV, 1-10, 93;and Sandford Prehistoric Survey, III, 1-2,121; Ball in his Contributions, pp. 13-28,presents brief and clear descriptions of thepre-Tertiary and Tertiary rock formationsof the Egyptian plateau and their presentdistribution, as does Butzer in his "DieNaturlandschaft Agyptens," pp. 51-55. Muchmore detailed descriptions will be found inHume's Geology, in Said's Geology, inBlanckenhorn's Aegypten, in K. S. Sand-ford's "Geological Observations on theNorthwest Frontiers of the Anglo-EgyptianSudan and the Adjoining Part of the South-ern Libyan Desert," The Quarterly Journalof the Geological Society of London (QJGS),XCI (1935), 323-81, and in numerousarticles devoted to individual formations,such as A. R. Gindy's "The Igneous andMetamorphic Rocks of the Aswin Area,Egypt," BIE, XXXVII, Fasc. 2 (1956),83-133; R. A. Higazy and H. M. Wasfy,"Petrogenesis of Granitic Rocks in theNeighborhood of Aswan," Egy. Bull. Inst.Desert VI (Egypt 1956) No. 1, pp. 209-48;A. Rittmann, "Some Remarks on the Geo-logy of Aswan," BIDE, III, No. 2 (July,1953), 35-64; N. M. Shukri and R. Said's"Contribution to the Geology of the NubianSandstone," BIE, XXVII (1946), 229-64,

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451; N. M. Shukri and M. K. El Ayouti, "TheMineralogy of the Nubian Sandstone inAswan," BIDE, III, No. 2 (1953), 65-88;S. E. Nakkady's "The Foraminiferal Faunaof the Esna Shales of Egypt," BIE, XXXI(1949), 209-47; G. Andrew's "The Grey-wackes of the Eastern Desert," BIE, XXI(1939), 153-90; etc.

On Gebel Abu Roash there is a definitivestudy by H. J. Beadnell ("The CretaceousRegion of Abu Roash, near the Pyramids ofGiza") in the Geological Survey Report for1900, Part II (Cairo, 1902). See also Said,Geology, pp. 197-201. Descriptions of theMoqattam Hills, where for millenniums theEgyptians have quarried the fine white lime-stone of Tura and Masaara, are given by Said(Geology, pp. 97, 136, 317), by Hume (Geo-logy, I, 7), by Blanckenhorn (Aegypten,pp. 81 ff.), by Sandford (Prehistoric Survey,III, 2, 4; IV, 4), and by many other writers.

The approximate positions of the Mediter-ranean shorelines of Egypt during successiveperiods of the Tertiary appear in mapsprepared by Ball (Contributions, Pl. VIII),Myres (Cambridge Ancient History [1924 ed.],I, Map 1, opp. p. 16), and Beadnell (Topo-graphy and Geology of the Faym Province,p. 67, fig. 6). On the Middle Miocene shore-line see also Blanckenhorn, Aegypten, p. 187;and on the shoreline "in the further courseof the late Tertiary," Butzer, "Die Natur-landschaft," p. 54. See also, more recently,K. W. Butzer, "On the Pleistocene ShoreLines of Arabs' Gulf, Egypt," The Journal ofGeology (Chicago), LXVIII (1960), 626-37,and "Pleistocene Stratigraphy and Pre-history in Egypt," Quaternaria, VI (Rome,1962), pp. 451-56.

In his presentation of the geology ofEgypt, Said divides the land into fourgeologic provinces: (1) the Arabo-Nubianmassif of igneous and metamorphic rockformations which comprises the Sinai Penin-sula and the area between the Nile and theRed Sea; (2) the Stable Shelf, adjoiningportions of this massif and characterized byminor faulting and doming, where theNubian sandstone and overlying rocks werelaid down in Cretaceous and early Tertiarytimes; (3) the Unstable Shelf, largely within150 miles of the Mediterranean coast, wheresubsidence and folding led to the accumula-tion of sediments of Carboniferous to Mioceneage up to 14,000 feet in thickness; and (4)the Gulf of Suez Taphrogeosyncline, where,in the paraphrasing of Conant, (1963), "exten-sive and irregular block faulting" "has per-mitted the accumulation of great thicknessesof sediments ranging in age from at leastthe Carboniferous to the present."

2. THE NILE VALLEY

Ball. (Contributions, pp. 74-84), is inclinedto believe that until Upper Paleolithic(Lower Sebilian) times the Nile systemconsisted, "not of a single river, but twoseparate rivers, one coming from LakeVictoria and ending in a lake to the south ofKhartoum, the other having the Atbara forits head-waters and discharging into the sea."According to G. Andrew (Agriculture and theSudan, p. 106) "it seems probable that theWhite Nile basin had no outlet north for aconsiderable time in the Pleistocene"; butthat conditions "around the juncture of theAtbara with the Nile" and "in the Khashmel girba area suggest a natural evolution ofthe Atbara river" by Lower Paleolithic("Chellean") times. A. J. Arkell (SudanAntiquities Service, Occasional Papers, No. 1,pp. 47, 48, 51) believes that, while "the BlueNile may be a comparatively recent river,"which probably came into existence "sincethe Lower Paleolithic, the drainage of theLake Tana area.., originally reached theNile via the Atbara" and that by Acheuliantimes "there must have been a considerableWhite Nile which was running at approxi-mately the present level to the Nile." Onthe same subject see also Butzer, "DieNaturlandschaft," pp. 55-56, 59, 62-63;Blanckenhorn, Aegypten, p. 187; Sandfordand Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, I, 7; II,23-24, 82.

The expression Urnil, "Primeval Nile,"and the concept of a huge predecessor ofthe present river flowing through what isnow the Libyan desert were originated byBlanckenhorn in two articles called "DieGeschichte der Nilstroms in der Tertiar- undQuartairperiode..." published in the Zeit-schrift der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde (Berlin)for 1902 (pp. 694-722, 753-62). T. Arldt in1915 ("Aus der Entwicklungsgeschichte derLandenge von Suez und ihrer Nachbarge-biets," Naturen (Bergen), X, 287) andagain in 1918 ("Zur Palaographie desNillandes in Kreide und Tertiir," Geo-logische Rundschau, 1918, pp. 47, 104)elaborated upon Blanckenhorn's thesis andattempted to trace the course of the Urnilfrom the Sudan northward through the lineof Libyan oases (cf. also R. Uhden, Geol.Rundschau, XX [1929], 180-86; M. Pfan-nenstiel, Abh. Akad. Wiss. Liter. Math..naturw. Kl., 1953, Nr. 7, pp. 369 f.). Beliefin the existence of an ancient Libyan Nilewith a course well to the west of the presentriver was subsequently reaffirmed byBlanckenhorn in 1921 (Aegypten, pp. 186-87); and has been shared by other geologists

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including Beadnell (Topography... of theFayum Province [1905], p. 67, Fig. 6), andSaid (Geology [1962]): but was firmly rejectedby Ball (The Geographical Journal, LXX[1927], 28-32) and by Sandford and Arkell(Prehistoric Survey, IV [19391, 17). The word"Urnil," however, has been retained here,as elsewhere, as a convenient term fordescribing the Upper Eocene and Oligoceneancestor of the present Nile.

A theory that the wood which comprisesthe "Petrified Forests" was silicified beforebeing carried downstream by the river isadvanced by M. M. Ibrahim, and N. M.Shukri, in BIE, XXV (1943), 159-82; XXVI(1944), 71-75; and XXXIV (1951-52), 317-19. See, however, Said, The Geology of Egypt(1962), p. 220.

The animal remains recovered from theUpper Eocene estuarine and Oligocene deltadeposits are discussed by Blanckenhorn inAegypten, pp. 103-105, 110-11. To thenumerous references cited by Blanckenhornmay be added C. W. Andrews, "Notes on anExpedition to the Fayim, Egypt, withDescription of some New Mammals," TheGeological Magazine, X (1903), 337-43; Y. S.Moustafa, "An Interpretation of Arsinoe-therium," BIE, XXXVI (1955), 111-18;and "The Fayum Fossil Bone Field," Ibid.,pp. 119-27. See also Keldani, Bibliography,Nos. 44-72, 713, 760, 1761-65, 1798, 1978-90.

Blanckenhorn (Aegypten, pp. 187-90) wasalso one of the principal proponents of thetheory that the present Nile Valley is oftectonic, or rift, origin. This theory wascontested by Ball and Hume in The Geo.logical Magazine for 1910, pp. 71-76, 385-89(see also Hume, BSRGE, XVII [1929], 1-11);and is rejected by Sandford and Arkell inthe introductory chapters to the fourvolumes of their Prehistoric Survey. Thoughnot subscribing to the rift theory, Huzayyin(Place of Egypt, p. 150) has suggested thatthe erosion of the Lower Nile Valley "mighthave worked along some favorable line (orlines) of structural weakness," and thisappears to be admitted also by Sandford inPrehistoric Survey, III, 2, 4-8. According toSaid (The Geology of Egypt [1962], p. 26)"available evidence shows that the courseof the river was largely governed by acrustal disturbance," and (p. 87) that "theNile was probably eroded on a line offaulting and rifting." An interesting explana-tion of the manner in which the cutting ofthe Egyptian Nile Valley may have beeninaugurated is given by Sandford and Arkellin their "First Report," pp. 6-7, and, inslightly modified forms, in the successivevolumes of the Prehistoric Survey. See also,

more recently, Butzer, "Naturlandschaft,"pp. 54-56, 58, 60; Science, CXXXII (1960),1618.

The periods, or stages, in the geohistoryof the Mediterranean area ("Mediterran-stufe") as drawn up by Edward Suess forthe latter half of the Tertiary period aredefined by him in the first volume (pp. 363 ff.)of his classic work, Das Antlitz der Erde (3ded. 5 vols. [Leipzig, 1885-1909])-availablealso in an English translation by H. G. E.Sollas: The Face of the Earth (5 vols. [Oxford,1904-1909]).

The mid-Tertiary crustal movements andthe resulting physiographical features inEgypt are discussed, with ample references,by Arkell and Sandford in PrehistoricSurvey, IV, 4-10. See also Sandford, Pre-historic Survey, III, 3-8. For a description ofthe hot springs at Helwan see Hume,Geology, I, 138 if.

3. THE RED SEA AND THE RED SEA HILLS

The material presented in this section isdrawn chiefly from Blanckenhorn, Aegypten,pp. 143 (the Red Sea), 191-94 (the EasternDesert and the Red Sea Hills), and 194-96(Sinai); and from Sandford and Arkell, Pre-hi8toric Survey, IV, 7-10 (on the Red Sea,see especially pp. 8-10), 22-36, 45-46, 60-67,92-96, and 98; and from Said, Geology,pp. 15-16, 35-36, 107-26, 151 f.). Excellentdescriptions of Egypt's Eastern Desert andits chain of mountains will be found inthe first volume of Hume's Geology (pp. 5-6,84-87, 108); and for a detailed study of alarge part of the region the reader mayconsult T. Barron and W. F. Hume, Topo.graphy and Geology of the Eastern Desert ofEgypt, Central Portion (Survey Department,Public Works Ministry: Geological SurveyReport [Cairo, 1902]); Shukri, BIDE III;No. 2 (1953), and Gindy, BIE, XXXVII,Fasc. 2 (1956).

4. THE PLIOCENE GULF

This subject is thoroughly dealt with bySandford and Arkell in the chapters devotedto the Pliocene period in the four volumes ofthe Prehistoric Survey. The extent of thewaters of the gulf to the south, east, andwest and the possibilities of a connection atthis time between the Nile Valley and theoasis of Kharga are discussed in Vol. II,pp. 6 if. On the Pliocene gulf deposits ingeneral and the formation of the low desertin particular see also Butzer, "Naturland.schaft," pp. 55 if.

Among the detached masses of Eocenelimestone slipped down from the valley sides

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is the great rock of Gebelein, a prominentfeature of the river landscape some seventeenmiles upstream from Luxor.

5. THE RIVER AND WADI TERRACES

Here again the principal reference isSandford and Arkell's Prehistoric Survey,the greater part of which is devoted to astudy of the Plio-Pleistocene and Pleistoceneterraces and to the Paleolithic implementsfound in the 100-foot and lower terraces. Ashort account of the terraces and of theproblems connected with them, couched innon-technical language, is given by the sameauthors in their "First Report," pp. 10-17(see also pp. 18-24) and includes on p. 12(Fig. 7) a diagrammatic cross-section of theNile Valley showing the relationship ofthe terraces to one another and to thepresent alluvial plain (see also Ball, Contribu-tions, pp. 41 ff., fig. 3). An article publishedin 1929 by Sandford in The Quarterly Journalof the Geological Society of London (LXXXV,493-548) deals in some detail with "ThePliocene and Pleistocene Deposits of WadiQena and of the Nile Valley between Luxorand Assiut (Qau)"-that is, with the pre-terrace, terrace, and post-terrace develop-ments of that particular region.

Since the appearance of these publications,however, it has become clear that importantrevisions must be made in their over-simplified picture of a single eustaticallycontrolled series of terraces extending fromthe Second Cataract to the sea and in theircorrelation of the Paleolithic industries ofEgypt with the successive terraces (Pre-historic Survey, III, 126) and Mediterraneansea-levels. See, for example, H. Alimen, ThePrehistory of Africa (London, 1957), pp. 80-82; C. B. M. McBurney, The Stone Age ofNorthern Africa (Pelican Books, A 342[Harmondsworth, 1960]), pp. 127-28; W. B.Wright, Tools and the Man (London, 1939),pp. 157-58, 213-14; Huzayyin, Place ofEgypt, pp. 153 if. In 1941 Huzayyin (loc.cit.) felt that local climatic changes mayhave played a more important role in theformation of the terraces than is concededby Sandford and Arkell; and in 1946G. Caton-Thompson presented a somewhatrevised picture of the industries and chrono-logy of the 30-foot terrace and the ensuingphases of Egyptian prehistory ("The Leval-loisian Industries of Egypt," Proceedings ofthe Prehistoric Society [Cambridge], newseries, XII, No. 4, 57-120, see especiallypp. 68-84). Alimen (loc. cit.) expressed thebelief that "only the terraces in LowerEgypt can be reasonably equated with

variations in sea-level"; and McBurney(p. 128) summed up the situation as follows:"If the older chronology for Europe andNorth-West Africa be adopted, then we arevirtually compelled to reject the Nileevidence at its face value; either the correla-tion between the upper and lower reaches isdefective, or else that between the lowerreaches and the former sea-levels. On thewhole the latter seems to be the more likelyalternative."

The clearest and most convincing solutionof the problems presented by the Nileterraces-and the one adopted here-is thatgiven by K. W. Butzer in his important"Contributions to the Pleistocene Geologyof the Nile Valley," in Erdkunde, XIII(1959), 46-67. See also the same author'sQuaternary Stratigraphy and Climate in theNear East (Bonner Geographieche Abhand-lungen, Heft 24 [Bonn, 1958]), pp. 60-64, 75,97-98, and "Naturlandschaft Agyptens,"pp. 56 f.; "Pleistocene Stratigraphy andPrehistory in Egypt," Quaternaria, VI(1962, Rome), 456-65.

The implementiferous gravels of theballast-pits of Abbassiya are published byP. Bovier-Lapierre ("Le Paldolithique stratifiddes environs du Caire," L'Anthropologie[Paris], XXXV [1925], 37-46; "Les gisementspaldolithiques de la plaine de l'Abassieh,"BIE, n.s. VIII (1926), 257-72) and are dis-cussed by numerous writers including Sand-ford and Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, I, 29;II, 14, 28, 73; III, 42, 55, 110; IV, passim(see especially p. 95); Huzayyin, Place ofEgypt, pp. 182-85, 192, Pls. VI-VIII;Butzer, Erdkunde, XIII, 49-51, cf. 53,55, 65; Butzer, Quaternaria, VI, 465-66;Alimen, Prehistory, pp. 80-81, 88-92;McBurney, Stone Age, pp. 125-26.

The fossil soil profiles of the Pleistoceneterraces are described, with ample references,by Butzer in Erdkunde, XIII, 61-65, and inhis "Naturlandschaft," pp. 61-62; Quater-naria, VI, 460-65 and the occurrence ofaugite in the 100-foot terrace deposits ofnorthern Egypt is noted (again with ref-erences) by the same author on p. 55 of thefirst of these three publications.

6. "RECENT" DEVELOPMENTS IN

THE NILE VALLEY

In the last three volumes of their Pre-historic Survey Sandford and Arkell deal inconsiderable detail with the "post-terrace"phases of silt deposition and erosion as thesephases were observed and studied by themin successive sections of the lower NileValley: Nubia and southern Upper Egypt

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(Vol. II, Chap. V-VII); Upper and MiddleEgypt, Sandford (Vol. III, Chap. VII,VIII); and Lower Egypt, Sandford andArkell (Vol. IV, Chap. V, VI). The samephases and their chronological, geographical,and climatic relationships one to another aresummarized by Sandford in AJSL, XLVIII(1932), 174-83 (see especially the diagram ofpp. 182-83), by Ball (Contributions, p. 45);by Huzayyin (Place of Egypt, pp. 152-54,157); and more recently and from a sig.nificantly fresh point of view by Butzer("Naturlandschaft," pp. 57-58, 60, 62-66;Erdkunde, XIII, 55, 66; Quaternaria, VI,459 ff.).

The contemporaneous storm beaches ofthe Fayum lake and the scarp deposits ofKharga Oasis have been studied at length byG. Caton-Thompson, E. W. Gardner, H. J.L. Beadnell, and others (see below, underthe sections devoted to "The Fayum LakeBasin" and "The Oases of the LibyanDesert").

The term "Sebilian," used as a con-venient, if somewhat loose, designation ofthe industries, fauna, and deposits of finalMiddle Paleolithic and Late Paleolithic timesin Egypt, is derived from the name of amodern settlement (Ezbet el-Sebil) in theKom Ombo basin, near which culturalremains regarded as particularly charac-teristic of this period were found (E. Vignard,"Une nouvelle industrie lithique, le 'Sdbi-lien,' " BIFAO, XXII (1923), 1-104; etc.).

On the late Pleistocene (Sebilian) fauna ofthe Kom Ombo basin and the secondarydeposits of Qau and Asyut see especially C.Gaillard, "Contribution k l'6tude de la fauneprdhistorique de l'IEgypte," Arch. Mus. hist.nat. Lyon, XIV (1934), 1-125 (see pp. 3-58);Sandford, Prehistoric Survey, III, 84-87;Huzayyin, Place of Egypt, p. 81; and Butzer,"Naturlandschaft," pp. 63-64.

Naturally enough, neither aggradation nordegradation were uniform at any one timeover the whole stretch of the river from theSecond Cataract to the sea, bed erosion con-tinuing in the north long after silt depositionhad commenced in the south, and vice versa.We find, for example, that until the construc-tion of the modern dam at Shellal the Nilewas still degrading its channel in Nubia,though north of the First Cataract siltaggradation has been in progress for approxi-mately ten thousand years.

A lucid and interesting picture of thislatest aggradation phase is presented byButzer in "Die Naturlandschaft," pp. 65-71,and in The Geographical Journal, CXXV(1959), 75-79 ("Some Recent GeologicalDeposits in the Egyptian Nile Valley").

Butzer's well supported contention that therate of silt deposition was anything but con-stant over the whole of the period involvedinvalidates to a great extent the use of thisrate as a time scale, as proposed, for example,by J. H. Breasted in his article on "TheOrigins of Civilization" in The ScientificMonthly, IX (1919), 306-308 (cf. Ball,Contributions, p. 176). Butzer in "DieNaturlandschaft," p. 68, n. 1, and Geogr.Journ., CXXV, 78, n. 6, also casts seriousdoubts on the evidence advanced by Huzay-yin (Place of Egypt, pp. 153, n. 2, 158-59,322-23. Cf. I. Rizkana, Bull. Inst. Desert,II, 2 [1952], 117-30) for an interval of highaggradation followed by degradation inNeolithic and early Chalcolithic times, theevidence in question being the presence ofFinal Paleolithic or Pre-Neolithic implementsbeneath a deposit of "Abyssinian silt" risingto a height of 50 ft. above present alluviumin the neighborhood of Maadi.

The expression "terre vegdtale" was coinedby R. Fourtau, whose "Contribution &l'6tude des dep6ts nilotiques" (MIE, VIII[1915], 57-94) is outstanding among theworks devoted to the study of the currentsilt-deposition stage in Nile history. Thechemical composition and other charac-teristics of the silts are discussed also byS. Passarge in Die Urlandschaft Agyptens(Halle, 1940), pp. 13-15 (87-89), and theirmineralogical content by N. M. Shukri andN. Azer, "Mineralogy of Pliocene and MoreRecent Sediments in the Fayum," Bull. Inst.Desert, II, 1 (1952), 10-53. Chaps. V-VII ofBall's Contributions provide valuable, de-tailed descriptions and discussions of "TheSolid Matter Transported. . . by the Nile"and "The Alluvial Land of Egypt."

The early history of the Nile inundation,with special reference to the initial establish-ment of communication between the lowerNile and the Abyssinian and equatorial riversystems, is discussed by Passarge, Urland-schaft, pp. 11 (85), 20 (94), 22 (96); byButzer, "Naturlandschaft," pp. 55-57, 59,60, 62-64, 66; Geogr. Journ., CXXV, 77;Erdkunde, XIII, 55; and by Ball, Contribu-tions, pp. 74-84. Valuable data on the samesubject is incorporated in the works of A. J.Arkell and others on the prehistory of theAnglo-Egyptian Sudan (see, for example,Arkell, Sudan Antiquities Service, OccasionalPapers, No. 1 [1949], pp. 47, 48, 51; Andrew,Agriculture in the Sudan, p. 106; Sandford,Geological Magazine, LXXXVI [1949], 97 ff.;Geogr. Rev., XXVI, 67-76). The present-dayrelationships of these systems to the mainriver may be studied in H. G. Lyons' ThePhysiography of the River Nile and its Basin

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(Survey Department: Finance Ministry,Egypt [Cairo, 1906]) (see also Passarge,Urlandschaft, pp. 8-10 [82-84]). To the sameauthor we owe a brief, but valuable, accountof the inundation contributed to the 1929edition of Baedeker's Egypt and the Suddn(pp. lxvi-lxvii). Additional information onthe subject will be found in abundance in, forexample, H. E. Hurst, The Nile (London,1957) F. R. Cana's article on the "Nile" inthe 11th edition of the EncyclopaediaBritannica, XIX, 695-96; A. Reim's article,"Nilschwelle," in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopeidie der class. Alterumswissenschaft,XVII, 1 (1936), Cols. 571-90; Passarge'sUrlandschaft, pp. 11-12 (85-86); Breasted'sHistory of Egypt, pp. 7-8; C. E. P. Brooks'Climate throughout the Ages (rev. ed., 1949),pp. 329-33; and W. Pietsch's Das Abflussge-biet des Nils (Dr. Phil. Dissertation. Berlin,1910).

On the late and post-Pleistocene aeoliandeposits of the Egyptian Nile Valley ourprincipal reference is Butzer, The Geo.graphical Journal, CXXV (1959), 75-77.

7. LOWER EGYPT AND THE DELTA OF THE NILE

Our picture of the geohistory and physio-graphy of Lower Egypt in late Tertiary,Pleistocene, and post-Pleistocene times isdrawn to a very great extent from Sandfordand Arkell's Paleolithic Man and the NileValley in Lower Egypt-the fourth and lastvolume of their Prehistoric Survey (OIP,vol. XLVI [Chicago, 1939])-; from Said'sGeology, pp. 151-225 passim; and fromButzer's "Die Naturlandschaft Agyptens,"pp. 71-78 (see also pp. 53-58, 61-62, 66;Erdkunde, XIII, 47, 50, 52-55). To thesehave been added data on Egypt's Mediter-ranean coast given by Blanckenhorn in hisAegypten, pp. 13-14; and information onthe modern Delta provided by J. Lozach inLe Delta du Nil, a publication of the Soci6teRoyale de G6ographie d'1gypte (Cairo, 1935).

A theory on the growth of the Deltaadvanced by Ball (Contributions, pp. 51 ff.)has been challenged by Zeuner (Dating thePast, p. 233) who, in describing the ancientmarine bars of Arabs Gulf, notes that thepositions of these bars "indicate clearly thatthe shoreline has advanced relatively little"and that "the size of the delta, therefore, hasincreased but moderately since early Pleisto-cene times." On the Pleistocene shorelines ofEgypt's Mediterranean coast see especiallyShukri, Philip and Said (1956), Butzer inQuaternary Stratigraphy and Climate in theNear East (Bonner Geographische Abhand-lungen, Heft 24. Bonn, 1958); pp. 36-38;

also by the same author, "On the PleistoceneShorelines of Arabs' Gulf, Egypt," TheJournal of Geology, Chicago LXVIII (1960),and Quaternaria VI (Rome, 1962) 451-56.

Among the classical writers who list anddiscuss the ancient mouths of the Nile areHerodotus (II. 17), Diodorus Siculus (I.xxxiii. 8-9), Strabo (XVII. i. 4), and Plinythe Elder (Hist. Nat., V. 10). See J. Ball,Egypt in the Classical Geographers (Cairo,1942), pp. 22-28, 48-49, 57-59, 69-70, 74-76;0. Toussoun, Mimoire sur les anciennesbranches du Nil (MIE, IV [Cairo, 1922]); andMdmoire sur l'histoire du Nil (MIE, VIII[Cairo, 1925]), Chap. VIII.

On the vertebrate fauna of the Pliocenebeds of the Wadi el-Natrun the basicreference is E. Stromer, "Mitteilungen fiberdie Wirbeltierreste aus dem Mittelpliociindes Natrontales," Zeitschrift der DeutschenGeologischen Gesellschaft, LXV (1913), 350-72; LXVI (1914), 1-33, 420-25.

8. THE NUBIAN NILE VALLEYAND ITS CATARACTS

Besides Sandford and Arkell's PaleolithicMan and the Nile Valley in Nubia and UpperEgypt (Prehistoric Survey, Vol. II: "OIP,"Vol. XVII [Chicago, 1933]) the principalworks consulted in the preparation of thissection were J. Ball's The Semna Cataract orRapid of the Nile: A Study in River Erosion(London, 1903); the same author's ADescription of the First or Aswan Cataract ofthe Nile (Cairo, 1907); 0. H. Little and M. I.Attia's The Development of Aswan Districtwith Notes on South Eastern Egypt (GeologicalSurvey of Egypt [Cairo, 1944-45]); reportsby Ball and H. J. L. Beadnell on the Kalab.sha and Silsila gorges and the Kom Omboplain in The Quarterly Journal of the Geo.logical Society, Vols. LIX (p. 75) and LXI(pp. 670-71); Said's Geology, pp. 9, 50-54,88 if., 129 ff.; and Hume's Geology, Vol. II,Part II, pp. 589 if., 604 (also I, 8). A goodbrief account of the geology of the Aswanregion, with a useful bibliography, is incor.porated in the Report on the Safeguarding ofthe Philae Monuments, prepared for UNESCOby order of the Netherlands Government(November, 1960. See pp. 19-24).

A. Rittmann in "Some Remarks on theGeology of Aswan" (Bull. Inst. Desert, III,No. 2 (July 1953), 35-64) disagrees withprevious authorities in contending that thecoarse-grained granite and the dioritic rocksof the Aswan area are not of plutonic, but ofmetamorphic origin; and in this he is joinedby A. R. Gindy (BIE, XXVII, Fasc. 2, 83-120), N. W. Shukri, and others. See, how.

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36 FORMATION OF THE LAND

ever, more recently, Butzer, "Naturland-schaft," pp. 51-52.

The relatively late period to whichSandford and Arkell (op. cit., pp. 7-8, 23-24,26, 54-59) assign the cutting of the NubianNile Valley and the river's initial encounterwith the granite barrier of the First Cataractdisposes of the old and frequently expressedtheory that the so-called "rupture" of thisbarrier determined the course of the Egyp-tian Nile and led to the cutting of its valley(see, for example, J. de Morgan, Recherchessur 1e8 origine8 de l'Agypte, I, 22-23;P. Bovier-Lapierre in Preci8 de l'histoired'fIgypte, I, 11; I-. Drioton and J. Vandier,L'Egypte ["Clio," I, II], p. 1).

9. THE FAYUM LAKE BASIN

The observations made and views heldduring the last seventy years by leadinggeologists and prehistorians in connectionwith the origin and development of theFayum and its lake may be studied in thefollowing publications, listed here in chrono-logical order:Brown, R H., The Payim and Lake Moeris

(London, 1892).Beadnell, H. J. L., The Topography and Geology

of the Fayum Province of Egypt (Survey ofEgypt) (Cairo, 1905).

Blanckenhorn, M., Aegypten (1921), pp. 182-83.Caton-Thompson, G., and Gardner, E. W., "The

Recent Geology and Neolithic Industry of theNorthern Fayum Desert," Journal of theRoyal Anthropological Institute, LVI (1926),pp. 301-32.

- "The Recent Geology of the NorthernFayum Desert," Geological Magazine, LXIV(1927), 386-410.-"Recent Work on the Problem of LakeMoeris," The Geographical Journal, LXXIII(1929), 20-60.

Sandford, K. S., and Arkell, W. J., PaleolithicMan and the Nile-Faiyum Divide (= Pre-historic Survey, vol. I) (Chicago, 1929).

Gardner, E. W., "The Origin of the FaiyumDepression: A Critical Commentary on a NewView of its Origin," The Geographical Journal,LXXIV (1929), 371-83.

Sandford, K. S., and Arkell, W. J., "The Originof the Faiyum Depression : The Faiyum andUganda," The Geographical Journal, LXXIV(1929), 578-84.

Caton-Thompson, G., and Gardner, E. W., TheDesert Fayum (Royal Anthropological In-stitute). 2 vols. (London, 1934).

Little, 0. H., "Recent Geological Work in theFaiyukm and in the Adjoining Portion of theNile Valley," BI E, XVIII (1936), 201-40.

Caton-Thompson, G., Gardner, E. W., andHuzayyin, S. A., "Lake Moeris: Re-investiga-tions and Some Comments," DIE, XIX(1937), 243-303.

Sandford, K. S., and Arkell, W. J., Prehistoric.aSursyTV;(Chiagon939)%99

Ball, J., Contributions to the Geography of Egypt(Cairo, 1939), pp. 178-289.

Huzayyin, S. A., The Place of Egypt in Prehistory(Cairo, 1941), pp. 82-88.

Caton-Thompson, G., "The Levalloisian In-dustries of Egypt," Proceedings of the Pre-historic Society, new series, XII, No. 4 (1946),pp. 75, 83, 90, 97, 100 if.

Huzayyin, S. A., "Le depression de Fayyoum:un exemple d'erosion eolienne," C.R. Congr..It. Geogr. (Lisbon, 1949), pp. 731-33.

Caton-Thompson, G., Kharga Oasis in Prehistory(London, 1952), pp. 18-19, 33, 143.

Pfannenstiel, M., "Die Entstehung der agyp-tischen Oasendepressionen. Das Quartar derLevante II," Abh. Akad. Wiss. Liter. Math.-Naturw. Kl., 1953, Nr. 7, pp. 344-406 passim.

Butzer, K. W., Quaternary Stratigraphy andClimate in the Near East (Bonner GeographischeAbhandlungen, Heft 24. Bonn, 1958), pp. 68-71, 75, 99.

Forde-Johnston, J. L., Neolithic Cultures ofNorth Africa (Liverpool, 1959), p. 7.

McBurney, C. B. M., The Stone Age of NorthernAfrica (Harmondsworth, 1960), pp. 78-80,125, 145-49, 233-40.

Said, R., The Geology of Egypt (Amsterdam-NewYork, 1962), pp. 14, 99-106.

Butzer, K. W., "Pleistocene Stratigraphy andPrehistory in Egypt," Quaternaria VI (Rome,1962) 467.

10. THE OASES OF THE LIBYAN DESERT

Among the more comprehensive andvaluable general works on the LibyanDesert and its oases is the three-volumereport of the Rohlfs Expedition of 1873-74:G. Rohlfs, P. Ascherson, W. Jordan, andK. A. Zittel, Expedition zur Erforschung derlibyschen Wuste (Cassel, 1875-1883. See alsoZittel, "Beitriige zur Geologie und Palaeonto-logie der Likyschen Wuiste ...," Palaeonto-graphica, XXX [1883], 1-238). Of morerecent date are E. Stromer's "Geograph-ische Beobachtungen in der WulstenAgyptens," Mitteilungen F. von Richthofen,1913 (Berlin, 1914) and his Ergebnisse derForschungsreioen Prof. E. Stromers in denWusten Agyptens (3 parts. Munich, 1914-19);portions of Said's Geology (pp. 11-14, 67-86,197--215) and of the first volume of Hume'sGeology (pp. 4, 7, 36, 73-74, 83); J. Ball's"Problems of the Libyan Desert," TheGeographical Journal, LXX (1927), 21-38,105-28, 209-24; K. S.' Sandford's "Geologyand Geomorphology of the Southern LibyanDesert," The Geographical Journal, LXXXII(1933), 213-19 (see also pp. 219-22); H.Schmitthenner's "Die Stufenlandschaft am

Nil und in der Libyschen Wicaste," Geogr.Zeitschrift (Leipzig), XXXVII (1931), 526-40; and M. Pfannenstiel's "Die Entstehungder agyptisehen Oasendepressionen. DasQuart~r der Lea-unte II.," Abh. Ak ad. Wiss.

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Liter. Math.-Naturw. Kl., 1953, Nr. 7,pp. 337-411. The opinions quoted in the firstparagraph of the text of this section regard-ing the origin of the oases are those of Hume(Geology, I, p. 73). The most recent exponentof early fluviatile ("Urnil") erosion as animportant factor in the formation of theFayum, Bahria, and the southern group ofoases is Pfannenstiel (op. cit. See especiallypp. 361-62, 367-79, 382, 403-405. See alsoR. Uhden, "Der libysche Urnil in Oberigyp-ten," Geol. Rundschau, XX [1929], 180-86;Blanckenhorn, Aegypten [1921], pp. 186-87;Beadnell, Topography . . . of the FayumProvince [1905], p. 67; and cf. Ball, op. cit.,p. 32).

On five of the individual oases-Kharga,Dakhla, Farafra, Bahria, and Kukur-thereare excellent topographical and geologicalreports drawn up by H. J. L. Beadnell and/orJ. Ball and published by the Survey Depart-ment of the Public Works Ministry of Egyptduring the years 1900-1903. Beadnell's wellknown book, An Egyptian Oasis. An Accountof the Oasis of Kharga in the Libyan Desert,etc. made its appearance a few years later(London, 1909). H. E. Winlock's Ed DakhlehOasis (New York, 1936), though chieflytaken up with the journal of a camel tripmade to the oasis in 1908, contains much ofinterest to the geographer and prehistorian(e.g., pp. 53 ff.).

In 1930-31, 1931-32, and 1932-33 thegeography, geology, hydrography, paleonto-logy, and prehistory of Kharga oasis werere-examined by G. Caton-Thompson andE. W: Gardner, Kharga Oasis in Prehistory(London, 1952, quoted in the fourth para-graph of this section) and in a succession ofarticles in Antiquity (V [1931], 221-26), TheGeographical Journal (LXXX [1932] 396-409; LXXXI [1933], 134-39, 528-30), TheGeological Magazine (LXIX [ 1932], 386-421),Man (XXXI [1931], 77-84; XXXII [1932],129-59; XXXIII [1933], 178-80; and TheQuarterly Journal of the Geological Society ofLondon (XCI [1935], 479-518). Differencesbetween the findings of Caton-Thompsonand Gardner and those of Beadnell (notably,as regards the evidence for the existence ornon-existence of a great prehistoric lake orlakes inside the depression) drew some"Remarks" by the latter in The GeographicalJournal, LXXXI (1933), 128-34. "FurtherRemarks on the Kharga Oasis" were contri-buted to the same periodical (LXXXI[1933], 526-32) by O. H. Little, E. W.Gardner, K. S. Sandford, and J. Ball. Theproblems involved in these discussions areconveniently summarized by Huzayyin,Place of Egypt, pp. 89-94. Subsequent

statements by Caton-Thompson concerningthe oasis of Kharga will be found in twoarticles published in 1946 and cited in thenotes to our succeeding section on Climate.

The topography and geology of the Wadiel-Natrun are discussed by Blanckenhorn(Aegypten, pp. 181-82), Hume (Geology, I,161 ff.), and Sandford and Arkell (Pre.historic Survey, IV, 17, 92, etc.); and thoseof the oasis of Siwa by R. H. Forbes, "SiwaOasis: Geology, Water Supply, Soils, etc.,"Cairo Scientific Journal, X (1921), 1-8. Seealso M. A. Azadian, "L'Oasis de Siouah et sessources," BIE, IX (1927), 105-14.

Blanckenhorn's treatment of the oases(Aegypten, pp. 180-82) is colored by hisbelief that the depressions are primarily theproducts of faulting-a view not held bymost of the geologists who have studiedthem.

A series of books and articles on the Wadiel-Natrun and the oases of Siwa, Bahria, andFarafra prepared by A. Fakhry and pub-lished by the Service des Antiquitds del'1igypte deal chiefly with the dynastic andlater histories, antiquities, and modernaspects of the depressions.

11. CLIMATE

Since 1900 when Lt.-Col. James A. Grant("Grant Bey") published his frequently citedarticle, "The Climate of Egypt in Geological,Prehistoric, and Ancient Times" (VictoriaInstitute, Journal of Transactions, XXXII,87-105) a wealth of new evidence on Egypt'sclimate during the Pleistocene epoch andthe periods preceding and following it hasbeen brought to light, both in the Nile Valleyitself and in other portions of the Egyptiantableland. The bulk of this material will befound collected and discussed in S. A.Huzayyin's The Place of Egypt in Pre-history: A Correlated Study of Climate andCultures in the Old World (MIE, Vol. XLIII[Cairo, 1941]); less recently, but in somewhatmore concise form in the same author's "ThePlace of the Saharo-Arabian Area in thePalaeolithic Culture-Sequence of the OldWorld: A Synoptic Review of Recent Data"(BIE, XX [1938], ..263-95); in S. Passarge'sDie Urlandschaft Agyptens und die Lokalisie-rung der Wiege der altagyptischen Kultur(Nova Acta Leopoldina: Abhandlungen derKaiserlich Leopolidinisch-Carolinisch Deut-schen Akademie der Naturforscher, neueFolge, Band 9, No. 58 [Halle, 1940], pp. 75-152 [1-78]); and in G. W. Murray's "TheEgyptian Climate: an Historical Outline,"Geogr. Journ., CXVII (1951), 422-34.

Since 1957 past climatic developments in

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Egypt, the Saharan region, and the NearEast in general have been re-studied by KarlW. Butzer and his findings-on which ourpresent section is to a great extent based-have been published in a series of importantarticles and monographs: "MediterraneanPluvials and the General Circulation of thePleistocene," Geograftska Annaler [Stock-holm], XXXIX (1957), 48-53; "The RecentClimatic Fluctuations in Lower Latitudesand the General Circulation of the Pleisto-cene," ibid., pp. 105-13; "Late Glacial andPostglacial Climatic Variation in the NearEast," Erdkunde, XI (1957), 21-35; "Dasokologische Problem der neolithischen Fels-bilder der ostlichen Sahara," Abh. Akad.Wise. Liter. Math.-naturw. Kl., 1958, Nr. 1,pp. 20-49; Quaternary Stratigraphy andClimate in the Near East (Bonner Geo-graphiche Abhandlungen, Heft 24. Bonn,1958); "Contributions to the PleistoceneGeology of the Nile Valley," Erdkunde, XIII(1959), 46-67 (see especially pp. 61-66);"Some Recent Geological Deposits in theEgyptian Nile Valley," The GeographicalJournal, CXXV (1959), 75-79; "Die Natur-landschaft Agyptens," pp. 56, 57, 59, 61-65,78-116; "Environment and Human Ecologyin Egypt during Predynastic and EarlyDynastic Times," Bulletin de la Socidtd deGdographie d'4gypt, XXXII (1959), 43-87;and "Archaeology and Geology in AncientEgypt," Science, CXXXII (1960), 1617-24(see especially pp. 1619, 1620, 1624); "Pleisto-cene Stratigraphy and Prehistory in Egypt,"Quaternaria, VI (1962, Rome) 456-65; "ThePleistocene Sequence in Egypt and ItsImplication for Pluvial Glacial Correlationin the Sahara," Acts. Fourth Pan AfricanCongress on Prehistory (1962). The wordsquoted in our third paragraph are fromQuaternary Stratigraphy, p. 138.

The development of Egypt's climate asreconstructed by G. Caton-Thompson andE. W. Gardner from their work in the Fayumand in the oasis of Kharga is discussed bythem in the works cited in the notes to thetwo preceding sections of this chapter and isreferred to again by Miss Caton-Thompsonin her article on "The Aterian Industry: ItsPlace and Significance in the PalaeolithicWorld," The Journal of the Royal Anthropo-logical Institute of Great Britain and Ireland,LXXVI (1946), 87-130 (see especiallypp. 103 ff.). See also Caton-Thompson, KhargaOasis in Prehistory, pp. 14-21.

The Pleistocene rainfall on the Khargascarp was believed by Gardner in 1932 (Geol.Mag., LXIX, 405) to have been "small inamount and seasonal in type during theperiods of tufa formation, increasing in the

intervening periods of erosion, but neverreaching the amount typical of a Mediter-ranean climate" (see, however, Butzer,Bonn. Geogr. Abh., XXIV, p. 73). In thesame year (Geogr. Journ., LXXX, 400)Caton-Thompson and Gardner together feltthat "in Kharga there were no 'pluvialperiods' except in a strictly limited sense,the area remaining throughout prehistorictimes an arid region varying from full desertto poor steppe," but with "moist periods atintervals in the Paleolithic." In 1946, how-ever, Caton-Thompson (Proc. Preh. Soc.,XII, 58, 60) represented the Pleistoceneclimate of the oasis scarp as embracing afirst, and major, pluvial and a secondpluvial, separated from one another by aperiod of aridity.

Climatic developments in the lower NileValley from Pliocene times onward havebeen discussed in some detail by Sandfordand Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, I, 72; II, 85-86; III, 125-26; IV, 97-98. See also Sand-ford, AJSL, XLVIII (1932), 178-79; and"Past Climate and Early Man in the SouthernLibyan Desert," The Geographical Journal,LXXXII (1933), 219-22. It is Sandford andArkell who most stoutly refuse to recognize thealternation here of Pleistocene "pluvial" and"interpluvial" phases. See, for example,Sandford's concluding remarks on "Climate"in his Prehistoric Survey, III, 126.

Huzayyin (Place of Egypt [1941]), on theother hand, finds evidence in Egypt for theexistence of a First, and major, Pluvialextending from late Pliocene times to the endof the Lower Paleolithic stage of humandevelopment, an Interpluvial spanning theend of the Lower and the beginning of theMiddle Paleolithic periods, and a SecondPluvial, of Middle Paleolithic date, embracingtwo or three sub-maxima and one or two"intrapluvials" (see also Blanckenhorn,Aegypten, pp. 152, 241-42). These phases heregards as sufficiently well established topermit an approximate correlation, not onlywith the pluvials and interpluvials observedin other parts of Africa and in western Asia,but also with the glacial and interglacialperiods of the Great Ice Age in Europe.Thus, he is inclined to extend his EgyptianFirst Pluvial over both the Alpine Mindeland Riss glaciations including the Mindel-Riss Interglacial, to correlate the Interpluvialin Egypt and Palestine with the Riss-WirmInterglacial, and to distribute the successivesub-phases of the Second Pluvial over thelast glaciation (Wirm) and the early stagesof the Late Glacial period (Achen, Bikhl, etc.).The post-pluvial dry phase would then fallin the latter part of the Late Glacial period

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FORMATION OF THE IAND

and the Neolithic Wet Phase of the Saharo-Arabian belt would correspond to the post-Glacial warm phase of Europe.

In the fourth edition of his Dating the Past(1958) F. E. Zeuner felt (p. 232) that thePleistocene chronology of Egypt is "still notclear" and (p. 229) that: "Among thecountries bordering the Mediterranean onthe south, Palestine stands out as the onlyone where, up to the present, thorough workhas established a sequence of pluvial phaseswith which the succession of prehistoricindustries can be correlated."

Interesting discussions of the climaticdevelopments in other portions of NorthAfrica and in the Saharan belt as a wholewill be found in Zeuner, op. cit., pp. 246 if.,423; L. Balout, Prdhistoire de l'Afrique duNord (Arts et Matiers Graphiques [Paris,1955]), pp. 37 ff., 76-82, 185; Alimen, Prd.histoire de l'Afrique (Paris, 1955), pp. 63,105 ff., 112, 203-205, etc.; J. L. Forde-Johnston, Neolithic Cultures of North Africa(Liverpool, 1959), pp. 7-12; O. Davies,"African Pleistocene Pluvials," Man, LIX(1959), 100-101; and McBurney, The StoneAge of Northern Africa (1960), pp. 16, 21, 24,47-48, 57, 76, 165.

A useful general treatment of ancientclimate the world over is given by C. E. P.Brooks in the revised edition of his Climatethrough the Ages. A Study of the ClimaticFactors and their Variations (New York andToronto, 1949). For Butzer's unfavorablecomment on the 1926 edition of this worksee Erdkunde, XI (1957), 21.

12. CHRONOLOGY

The general conclusions and much of thematerial presented in this section are takenfrom the works of K. W. Butzer cited inthe notes to the preceding section on Climateand from the fourth edition of F. E. Zeuner'sDating the Past. An Introduction to Geo-chronology (London, 1958)--see especiallypp. 128 (fig. 46), 133 (fig. 47), 134-45, 229,232-35, 246-48, 292, 341-46, 410 if., 421-22,423, 425, and the Bibliographies, pp. 433-90.Some additional details will be found in thefirst edition of the latter work, published inApril 1946, and in Zeuner's The PleistocenePeriod. Its Climate, Chronology, and FaunalSuccessions (London, 1945). See also Brooks,Climate through the Ages, pp. 95, 263-65,269-71, 273, 276-77.

Our correlation of Egyptian and Europeanphases follows Butzer (see especially Quater-nary Stratigraph , pp. 36-38, 41, 52 if.,Tables IV, VIII, and IX; "Naturlandschaft,"

p. 60); "On the Pleistocene Shore Lines ofArabs' Gulf, Egypt," The Journal of Geology(Chicago) LXVIII (1960); "PleistoceneStratigraphy and Prehistory in Egypt,"Quaternaria, VI (Rome, 1960) while theabsolute dates are in part those of Zeuner(see especially Dating the Past,4 "Table ofDates," p. 145) and in part those of Butzer(see Quaternary Stratigraphy, pp. 14-18;"Naturlandschaft," p. 60), emended on thebasis of a recent article by H. L. Movius inCurrent Anthropology, I (1960), 355 ff. (seebelow).

The astronomical method of dating thephases of the Ice Age is based on periodicalperturbations in the orbit of the earth asreflected in fluctuations "in the amount ofradiation received by the earth from thesun." As formulated by M. Milankovitchand his predecessors its value has beenquestioned by M. Schwarzbach (1950),P. Woldstedt (1954), and others (see Butzer,op. cit., pp. 14, 138); but has been reaffirmedby Zeuner in the most recent edition (1958)of his Dating the Past (pp. 412-15).

Although Huzayyin's correlation of hisEgyptian "pluvials" and "interpluvials"with the European glacial phases has notbeen accepted by Zeuner, Butzer, and otherstudents of Pleistocene geochronology, thedating of the 50-foot and earlier terracesobtainable from Huzayyin's reconstruction(Place of Egypt, pp. 156 if. See also pp. 186-89) does not differ materially from thatderived from Zeuner's tables (Dating thePast, pp. 145 and 235). It is with the 30-footterrace, which Zeuner assigns to the LastInterglacial and Huzayyin to the First Stageof the Last Glaciation, that the differences ofdating between the two systems begin tobecome striking.

Other, often widely divergent, views ofthe alternation of Mediterranean high andlow sea-levels, the alternation of Africanpluvials and interpluvials, and their relation-ships to the glacials and interglacials ofEurope and to the various Paleolithic humanindustries are given by Blanckenhorn,Aegypten (1921), pp. 152, 241-42; by R.Neuville and A. Ruhlmann, "La place duPaldolithique ancien dans le Quaternairemarocain," Coll. He8peris (Inst. des HautesItudes marocains), No. VIII (1941), p. 124(marine transgression = glacial period; ma-rine regression = interglacial! See, however,Butzer, Geografiska Annaler, XXXIX [1957],110); by L. Balout, Prdhistoire de l'Afriquedu Nord (1955), pp. 30 if., 35-37, 76-82, 178,486; and by O. Menghin in his Weltgeschichteder Steinzeit (Vienna, 1931), pp. 21 if. (seeespecially p. 24); and an interesting discus.

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sion of the absolute chronology of thePaleolithic and succeeding periods will befound on pp. 42 if. of the last-named volume.Also of interest are the chronologies of theIce Age and early post-glacial times drawnup by R. Turner, The Great Cultural Tradi-tions, vol. I (New York and London, 1941),opp. p. 44; and by B. A. Proosdij, "Kennenen Erkennen onze houding tegenover dePraehistorie," Jaarbericht . . . "Ex OrienteLux," No. 13 (1953-1954), pp. 271-72.

Besides its treatment by Zeuner in Datingthe Past, the important subject of therelationship of the Nile terraces to theMediterranean high sea-levels of Plio-Pleistocene and Pleistocene date is discussedat some length by Ball in his Contributions tothe Geography of Egypt, pp. 46 if., fig. 16; bySandford in Prehistoric Survey, III, 43, 51-52(fig. 13), 57; and Sandford and Arkell, Pre-historic Survey, I, 26-27, 31; IV, 39 (fig. 9),46-47, 53, 59-60; and by Huzayyin, Placeof Egypt, pp. 48 ff., 55-56. For our presentunderstanding of the extent of this relation-ship see Butzer, Erdkunde, XIII (1959),pp. 52-53; The Journal of Geology (Chicago,1960); Quaternaria, VI (Rome, 1962) and"The Pleistocene Sequence in Egypt and ItsImplication for Pluvial Glacial Correlationin the Sahara," Acts Fourth Pan AfricanCongress of Prehistory (1962).

The late Pleistocene chronology of Egypthas been carefully studied by G. Caton-Thompson in her article on "The LevalloisianIndustries of Egypt," Proceedings of the Pre-historic Society, new series, vol. XII (1946),57-120 (see especially pp. 68-84 and thetable on p. 97). See also Journ. Roy. Anthr.Inst., LXXVI (1946), 104, 107, 116; Butzer,Quaternaria, VI, 459, 462.

The radiocarbon method of age determina-tion is based on the slow disintegration inorganic matter of a radioactive carbon ofatomic weight 14 (C1 4 ) and a known half-lifeof about 5700 (5568 or 5800) years. Themethod is described and lists of radiocarbondates are given by W. F. Libby, Radio-carbon Dating (2d ed [Chicago, 1959]);"Radiocarbon Dates," Science, vols. CXIII(1951)-CXX (1955); "Radiocarbon Dating,"ibid., CXXXIII (1961), 621-29; and F. E.Zeuner, Dating the Past (4th ed., 1958),pp. 341-46, 426-27. Of the many other workson the subject the following are of specialinterest: H. L. Movius, "Radiocarbon Datesand Upper Palaeolithic Archaeology inCentral and Western Europe," CurrentAnthropology, I (1960), 355-91; H. Godwin,R. P. Suggate, and E. H. Willis, "Radio.carbon Dating of the Eustatic Rise in OceanLevel," Nature, CLXXXI (1958), 1518-19;

C. B. M. McBurney, "Radio-carbon Readingsand the Spread of the Upper Palaeolithic inEurope and the Mediterranean Basin," Pro.I. N. Qu. A. (Madrid, 1957); The Stone Ageof Northern Africa (1960), pp. 51-52, 168,203-204, 234; F. Johnson, "RadiocarbonDating," American Antiquity, XVII, Part II(July, 1951), 1-63; R. J. Braidwood, "tberdie Anwendung der Radio-Karbon-Chrono.logie fiir das Verstandnis der erstenDorfkultur-Gemeinschaften in Sildwest-Asien," Anzeiger der Osterr. Akademie d.Wissenschaften, 1958, Nr. 19; H. Junker,"Die Geisteshaltung der Agypter in derFriihzeit," Sitzungsberichte der Osterr. Aka-demie der Wissenschaften, 237. Band, 1.Abhandlung (Vienna, 1961), pp. 1-148 (seepp. 55-60); E. L. Kohler, and E. K. Ralph,"C-14 Dates for Sites in the MediterraneanArea," AJA, LXV (1961), 357-67. See alsoA. J. Arkell, Shaheinab (London, 1953),p. 107; Bibliotheca Orientalis, XIII (1956),123, 126; R. Pittioni, "Der Beitrag derRadiokarbon Methode zur absoluten Datie-rung Urzeitlichen Quellen", Forschungenand Fortschritte, XXXI (1957), 357-64.J. Leclant, Kush, V (1957), 95. For the limita-tions and shortcomings of the method seeespecially W. S. Broecker and J. L. Kulp-"The Radiocarbon Method of Age Deter,mination," American Antiquity, XXII (1956),1-11; and E. K. Ralph, "Double Trouble,"Expedition (Bulletin of the University Museumof the University of Pennsylvania), I (1959),No. 3, 24-25, and for an examination of itsaccuracy see W. F. Libby, Science, CXXXX(1963) 278.

The date 3100 B.c. for the beginning ofthe historic period is based largely ondocumentary evidence of historic time andcan be explained to greater advantage in alater chapter.

13. EGYPT AT THE BEGINNINGOF HUMAN PREHISTORY

The reconstruction attempted here isdrawn in large part from the studies ofS. Passarge (Die Urlandschaft Agyptens [ 1940])and, above all, from those of K. W. Butzer("Die Naturlandschaft Agyptens" [1959),see especially pp. 47, 56-65; Erdkunde, XIII[1959], 47-67, see especially pp. 61-66, etc.[see the references listed above under"Climate"]). Also consulted were the worksof Sandford, Caton-Thompson, Ball, andHuzayyin cited in the notes to the precedingsections. To these may be added J. Bar-thoux's "Palboglographie de l'Egypte," apaper read in Cairo in 1925 at the Congres

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FORMATION OF THE LANDInternational de G6ographie and publishedin the Compte rendu of the congress, Vol. III,pp. 68-100.

The levels of precipitation required by"four indicative species" of vertebrate faunaare listed by Butzer in Abh. Akad. Wins.Liter. Math.-naturw. KI., 1958, Nr. 1, pp. 20,34-35. On the Pleistocene fauna of northernAfrica and adjoining areas in general seeHuzayyin, Place of Egypt, pp. 62, 64 if., 72-73, 99-102, and the references cited there.See also L. S. B. Leakey, Stone Age Africa,pp. 22-25; A. S. Romer, "Pleistocene Mam-mals of Algeria," Bulletin of the Beloit

College, XXVI (1928), No. 5; V. G. Childe,New Light on the Moat Ancient East, pp. 24ff.;McBurney, The Stone Age of Northern Africa(1960), pp. 16, 20, 73, 82, 88-94, 275 if.

On pp. 172-74 of his Place of EgyptHuzayyin discusses the question of Pleisto-cene land-bridges between Africa and Europe,with special reference on p. 174 to the Straitof Gibraltar (see also Ball, Contributions,pp. 39-40, 62-64; Leakey, Stone Age Africa,p. 5); and on pp. 201-12 presents a case infavor of the Saharo-Arabian area, includingEgypt, having been the principal "kernel.zone" of Lower Paleolithic culture.

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2PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

1. THE "ABBEVILLIANS"

THE rather sudden appearance oftool-making man in the region of the lowerNile at a period believed to have coincidedwith the beginning of the second, orMindel, glaciation is attested by thepresence in the lower sands and gravels ofthe 100-foot wadi and river terraces ofUpper Egypt and Nubia of an impressiveseries of primitive hand-axes, flake-tools,and "cores" resembling in their typologyand technology those of the well-knownLower Paleolithic river gravels of Abbevilleand Chelles in northern France and ofClacton-on-Sea in Essex. Without imply-ing a derivation from or other directassociation with their French and English

counterparts it has become the general

practice to designate the earliest Egyptiancore-tools as Abbevillian or Chellean and

the accompanying flake-tools as Clactonianand to extend the use of these names, in avery broad and loose sense, to the group

or groups of hominids responsible for theirproduction and use. Essentially the sameprimitive types of implements are foundat this or a slightly earlier period (Giinz-Mindel Interglacial) in many other partsof Africa and western Asia, notably, alongthe Lebanese littoral, near Oran in Algeriaand Casablanca in Morocco, in the Niloticgravels of the Republic of the Sudan, andin Bed II of the famous Olduvai Gorgedeposits in northern Tanganyika, where,

as on a number of other African sites, theyare preceded by even more primitive"pebble-tool" industries, the so-calledKafuan and Oldowan.

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PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

In Egypt, as elsewhere, the lithic tool-kit and armory of Abbevillian Manconsisted in the main of a single multiple-purpose implement variously known todayas a hand-axe, a fist-wedge, a cleaver, acoup-de-poing, a core-biface, and aBoucher, the last in honour of the Nine-teenth Century French prehistorian,Boucher de Perthes, who himself called ita "hache diluvienne." As First encounteredin the lower levels of the 100-foot Nilegravels it is a thick triangular or ellipsoidalimplement, lenticular or triangular incross-section and some five to ten inchesin length, provided around the greaterpart of its perimeter with a serviceable, ifsomewhat wavy, working edge and endingin a more or less pronounced point-more,in fact, like an edged pick than what weshould normally describe as an axe.Basically the tool is a natural nodule orchunk of flint, chert, quartzite, or other,usually siliceous, stone, worked to shapeon both faces by the removal from itsmargins-evidently by direct blows froma hammerstone-of a few short, massiveflakes, the marginal flake-scars on one sidefalling between those on the other side soas to produce the characteristic zigzagworking edge already referred to. Often onthese early hand-axes the butt-end of thenodule is left unworked to provide acomfortable, rounded grip for the user'shand. The shaping of the implementsdepended almost entirely on simple, butskillful, primary flaking, and there areonly rarely any signs of secondary working,or retouching, of the points or edges. Theirexact forms were determined primarily bythe shapes of the nodules or chunks ofstone selected, some being long trihedronswith prominent rounded butts, others bi-facial and more pear-shaped or oval inoutline. There appears to be little basis forthe belief that the trihedral hand-axes arean earlier and more primitive form than

their lenticular mates and no reason forapplying to them the name Chalossian,derived from a doubtfully dated group ofimplements found at La Chalosse in south-western France. "Marked recesses" in theedges of a few of the early hand-axes havesuggested the possibility of their havingbeen lashed to a wooden haft, but as ageneral rule there is no evidence of hafting.On the contrary, a major advantage of theimplement is that it can be held in the handin several different ways and so made toperform a variety of different tasks. Itsuses, in any case, were evidently manyand various-cleaving, chopping, digging,scraping, sawing, skinning, crushing, andstabbing-and it is not surprising that inEgypt it remained throughout the wholeof the Lower Paleolithic period Man'sfavorite tool and weapon.

It was not, however, his only stone toolnor was the technique which produced itthe only one employed by the earliestEgyptian tool-makers. Not only were theflakes sheared off in the process of pro-ducing the hand-axes themselves used asimplements, but similar flakes were pro-duced for their own sakes from coreswhich were subsequently either discardedor retained as reserves of raw material. Inthe early, "block-on-block," or Clactonianmethod of flake-tool production the flakeswere simply struck from the margins ofnatural, unworked cores, probably bystriking the latter against the edge of alarge anvil-stone, the flake-scars left onone side of the core serving as the "striking-platforms" for the flakes removed fromthe opposite side. The resulting, for themost part unretouched, tools, thoughcapable of performing tasks for which themassive hand-axe was unsuited, areusually clumsy and irregularly shapedand the Clactonian technique in general isprimitive and wasteful of raw material.Less copiously represented in the 100-foot

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Nile gravels than the hand-axes withwhich they occur, the flake-tools representat this time a subsidiary, though byno means negligible, Lower Paleolithicindustry.

From the cultural point of view themost significant aspect of both the hand-axes and the flake-tools is that they werepredetermined forms made in accordancewith set traditions which we have nodifficulty in identifying and relating tothose followed in other parts of the ancientworld. As such they reflect a definite andwidely recognized step forward in Man'searly struggles toward developing a civil-ized mode of existence. This is not the casewith the so-called eoliths, or "dawn-stones," alleged predecessors of thePaleolithic implements, which in the NileValley, as elsewhere, appear for the mostpart to have been produced by purelynatural agencies, such as "thermal flakingor abrasion against their neighbors."Even if it were possible to substantiatethe claims that these "haphazardly flakedstones" were used by an ancestor ofPaleolithic Man, the infinite and aimlessvariety of their forms and their presencein deposits of almost every conceivabledate make them of little value as docu-ments in the story of human progress.

The expansion of the makers of theClacto-Abbevillian implements throughoutthe Egyptian area is to some extentreflected by the geographic distribution oftheir artifacts. From Tumas in middleNubia to Beni Adi, near Asyut, the latterhave been found in situ in the 100-footNile and wadi gravels and in rolled condi-tion in the 50-foot terrace. At Ashkeit, onthe east side of the river, just north ofWadi Halfa, 50-foot wadi gravels containnumerous well rolled Abbevillian hand.-axes, presumably derived originally from ahigher level. The fluviatile deposits of theRepublic of the Sudan from Wadi Halfa

to beyond Khartoum have produced afine series of Clacto-Abbevillian (Pre-Chellean and Chellean) implements, no-tably in the stratified gravels of the KhorAbu Anga, an ancient tributary whichjoins the main river a short distancebelow the confluence of the Blue and WhiteNiles. Also reported are "rough flakeartifacts in situ" in the 150-foot terracenear Wadi Halfa "with pebble tools ofPre-Chelles-Acheul type on the surface"and "a little above present high river"near the mouth of the Atbara. From northof Mallawi in Middle Egypt to the tip ofthe Delta Abbevillian hand-axes andClactonian flakes and cores occur inheavily rolled condition in redepositedsands and gravels of the 100-foot UpperEgyptian stage which in the Rus Channel,beside the Fayum, have been built upeustatically to a level of 70-85 feet abovemodern alluvium and in the plain ofAbbassiya, east of Cairo, to a maximumheight of 104 feet. Since, however, theseimplements and the deposits containingthem appear to have been carried downby the river at a later time and fromconsiderable distances upstream they arenot in themselves evidence that Abbevil-lian Man ever reached northern Egypt.

That he did is indicated by numeroussurface finds of Abbevillian and Clactonianimplements, usually mixed with those oflater date, in both the Libyan and EasternDeserts in the region of Cairo. Such finds,often described as "stations," occur on theslopes of the Gebel el-Ahmar, in the WadiLablab, on the crest of the Gebel Moqat-tam, and in the Wadi el-Tih, east of Tura,and, on the west side of the Nile, betweenSaqqara and Abu Roash, including astretch of desert surface north of thepyramids of Giza. Collections of flintimplements picked up on the desertfringes along the east and west sidesof the Delta by members of the Deutsches

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Institut fuir iigyptische Altertumskunde inCairo include hand-axes of "Chellean"and "Chalossian" type. In Upper EgyptAbbevillian and later Lower Paleolithicimplements, often deeply patinated bylong exposure to the elements, litter thesurfaces of the valley sides and the heightsabove. They are particularly numerous inwestern Thebes, where Arcelin, Schwein-furth, Seton-Karr, Currelly, and othershave identified a number of "stations"-some perhaps halting places of earlyPaleolithic Man, others undoubtedlydumps of implements abandoned bymodern peasant flint-collectors. SeveralLower Paleolithic surface groups havebeen recorded by Vignard near NagHammadi, including, on the slopes of theeastern cliffs opposite Khoderat, what hecalls a "Chelleo-Acheulean encampment."Bovier-Lapierre describes a Clactonian"atelier" and both he and Schweinfurthhave noted several stations with crudehand-axes of quartz and quartzite to thesouth and east of Aswan. Among thenumerous finds of Lower Paleolithicimplements in the Eastern Desert mentionmay be made of groups of Chellean hand-axes discovered not many years ago onthe heights around the wells of Laqeita.The spread of Abbevillian Man over whatis now the Libyan Desert is attested byfinds of his implements and those of hissuccessors not only scattered throughoutthe broad area between the Nile and theGreat Oases, but also in the wadis leadingfrom the river to the Nubian oasis ofKurkur, in the Wadi Abu el-Agag, northof Aswan, around the springs of Dalla,west of the oasis of Farafra, betweenthe northern oases of Bahria and Siwa,and westward all the way to GebelUweinat. Huzayyin's map showing thedistribution of the early hand-axe in-dustries over the present-day desertsconfirms Hume's statement that "Worked

stone implements are found over a vastarea extending from the sand-massesbeyond the western confines of the mostdistant oases to the barren shores ofthe Red Sea."

Much of our story of the earliestrecognizable human inhabitants of theEgyptian tableland and its river valleymust at present be based on what weknow of their contemporaries in other por-tions of the Old World, for until LatePaleolithic times all that has survived ofthese ancient sojourners on the Lower Nileare their stone implements. Even thelatter, as we have just seen, have beenfound only in geological deposits orscattered over the surfaces of the riverterraces and the high desert withoutculturally significant groupings or con-texts which would permit them to bespoken of as "assemblages" or "in-dustries."

Lacking skeletal remains, graves, habita-tion sites, works of art, and all tools andweapons save only those made of flint andother hard stones, the task of drawing asignificant and trustworthy picture ofthe Nilotic peoples of the early Old StoneAge would seem to be well nigh hopeless.The stone implements themselves, how-ever, tell us much of the men who madeand used them. Furthermore, the simi-larity of these implements in type andtechnique of manufacture to those of earlyPaleolithic sites in other parts of Africa, inwestern Europe, and southwestern andsouth central Asia suggests that in allthese areas we are dealing with menendowed with similar mental capacity andsimilar manual dexterity, standing atmuch the same level of cultural develop-ment, and adhering to the same generalhabits of life. Add to these clues the in-dications which we possess concerning thenatural conditions amid which the pri-maeval "Egyptian" lived-the type of

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country, the climate, the probable faunaand flora-and we find that we have stillanother means of reconstructing with somedegree of accuracy the nature of hisexistence.

Though there is no local evidence, thereis some probability that the Lower Paleo-lithic inhabitants of northeastern Africa-the creatures whose stone artifacts arefound imbedded in the gravels of the100-foot Nile terrace-closely resembled,if, indeed, they were not identical with,the so-called "Chellean Man" of northernTanganyika, a sub-human contemporaryof Java Man (Pithecanthropus erectus) andPekin Man (Sinanthropus pekinensis), butwith a larger head and somewhat lessape-like appearance than these early fareastern hominids. The upper part of askull of this predecessor of Homo sapiens,found in Bed II of the Olduvai Gorgedeposits in association with implements ofChellean (Abbevillian) type, shows him tohave had a "wide forehead," an "im.mense" brow ridge, and a "relativelystraight" face without the projectingmuzzle characteristic of the so-calledape-men. A thick neck and massive jaware suggested "by the formation of theskull at the points of attachment" forthe jaw and neck muscles, and twogigantic milk teeth belonging to a child ofthe same species show that he "must havehad permanent dentition of huge dimen-sions." Rabat Man, another near-contemporary and likely relative of ourEgypto-Abbevillian tool-maker, is repre-sented by a mandible and a fragmentarymaxilla found near Rabat in the coastalarea of Morocco in a geological depositdatable to the period of the Post-Sicilian(Mindel) Regression. Though in this casethere was no directly associated industry,implements of Chelleo-Acheulian andTayacian types were discovered at thesame general level. An archaic type

characterized by a receding chin andenormous teeth, Rabat Man has also beenlinked with the Sinanthropus-Pithecanthro-pus group and with the slightly laterAtlanthropus mauritanicus of Morocco andAlgeria.

In common with their contemporariesthe world over these earliest tool-makinginhabitants of Egypt and Nubia un-questionably possessed the power of ex-changing ideas through some form ofspeech and perhaps the ability to control,if not actually to produce, fire. Otherwisethey appear to have lived in a state ofsavagery not far above that of some of theother species of animals. Like all Paleo-lithic peoples they were certainly incapableof producing their own food supply andwere-to borrow Professor Childe's ex-pression-merely "food-gatherers." Thismeans that they depended for theirsustenance entirely upon what they couldfind and collect among the wild plant andanimal life about them; and that when forany reason these sources failed or wereexhausted in the locality which theyhappened to be occupying it was necessaryfor them to move on to another part of thecountry or even to another part of theworld. Other causes aside from imminentstarvation could also have prompted theirwanderings, such as influxes of largenumbers of dangerous, predatory animalsagainst which their primitive weaponswould have afforded them little or noprotection.

Within the pluvial periods which wit-nessed the formation of the Pleistoceneriver terraces of Upper Egypt the varia-tions in the generally warm and pleasantclimate of northeastern Africa wouldprobably have been insufficient to occasionwholesale emigrations of men and animalsfrom the area; and the population of thispart of the world during the early stagesof the European glaciations, though

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nomadic, was presumably fairly constant.There is every probability that, as else-where in these early times, it was alsoextremely sparse. The hunter and food-gatherer requires a large foraging area inwhich to live, and a few relatively smallgroups of such people can, and un-doubtedly did, occupy a very considerableamount of territory. Though thousands ofAbbevillian and Clactonian stone imple-ments have been found in Egypt andNubia, these may well represent an averageoutput by each inhabitant of as many asthree or four implements a week over aperiod of some sixty thousand years.

The equipment of the earlier Old StoneAge people of Egypt almost certainlycomprised, besides their stone tools,weapons and implements made of woodand of the bones of antelopes and otherlarge animals. These would have includedthe pointed wooden throwing-spear, amost effective weapon in the hands of anexpert, and formidable clubs made of theshoulderblades and thigh bones of someof the bigger animals, as well as smallerand more delicate implements of the samematerials. By "mid-Chellean" times thepeople of Olduvai in northern Tanganyikaseem to have developed the bola, a missileweapon used to entangle the legs of fast-moving animals and comprising roughstone balls tied together in groups of twoor three by lengths of sinew or hide.

Provided with such an armory andwith a cunning and ability to plan andorganize superior to those of other animals,it is probable that the Clacto-Abbevillianswere fairly successful as hunters, capableon occasion of laying low even such beastsas the huge and dangerous elephant andthe fleet and wary antelope. Operating onfoot without long-range missile weaponswe may suppose, however, that their dailybag was for the most part small and un-certain and consisted chiefly of easily

caught and relatively defenseless types ofanimals or of young, aged, or sick in-dividuals of the more formidable orelusive species. In the case of a bigcarnivorous beast like the lion it is prob-able that Man was not infrequently thequarry rather than the hunter. Thus,though meat may have been the PaleolithicEgyptian's favorite food, it would seemthat a substantial part of his diet musthave consisted of fruits, nuts, and berrieswhich he---or, more likely, his womenfolk-gathered from trees and shrubs, tubersand grubs dug out of the ground, eggsstolen from birds' nests, shell-fish, andperhaps other types of fish caught in theshallows of the river and its subsidiarystreams and lakes. Happily for him he hadfound a region which for the time beingappears to have been richly endowed withnatural foods of many different kinds, andwas, like his modern descendants, practi-cally omnivorous.

Blessed during Pleistocene times with awarm and never excessively rainy climateit is unlikely that the Paleolithic in-habitants of northern Africa ever felt theneed for clothing or for covered sheltersin which to live, but went about "in a stateof nature" and camped for the most partunder the open sky. Though natural cavesare fairly numerous in the cliffs borderingthe Nile, in the Red Sea hills, and in otherparts of Egypt and Nubia none of thesehas as yet yielded any evidence of pre-historic human occupancy. To escape thestrong winds of the plateau and to haveready access to supplies of water the earlycamps were probably more often than notpitched in the lee of the rocky scarpswhich fringe the valley of the Nile andthose of its ancient tributaries, on shelteredlake or sea beaches, or in the rain-pansand larger depressions which dotted thesurface of the tableland. It is, in any case,along the river valley and its lateral

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wadis and, later, around the Fayum andother ancient lake basins and in thevicinity of the fossil springs in the oasesthat the greater number of Paleolithicstone implements have been found. Thepresence of Abbevillian hand-axes andClactonian flakes and cores in what werethen the subaqueous bottom gravels of theNile and its tributaries indicates a popula-tion living immediately along the banksof the river and the lateral streams, wellwithin the confines of their shelteringvalleys, and evidently venturing fre-quently into their shallows. Similar arti-facts scattered far and wide over openand featureless terrain show, however,that during the earlier Paleolithic phasesof his existence Man did not confine hisactivities to specific localities, but withthe changing seasons ranged as freely overthe grassy uplands as the herds of wildgame which he hunted.

For protection and for greater successin hunting and other pursuits calling forco-operation and concerted action Paleo-lithic Man in this part of the world, aselsewhere, undoubtedly lived and traveledin groups which have been variouslydescribed as tribes, clans, hordes, packs,and even herds. Whatever the exactnature of these primitive social units it isgenerally believed that by Lower Paleo-lithic times they were already larger andmore complicated than the simple family;and were probably composed of a numberof families related by blood or drawn to-gether by mutual interests or mutualfears. We know nothing of the internalorganization of these units or of theirgroup or tribal customs and beliefs. It is,for example, entirely uncertain whetherLower Paleolithic Man buried his dead or,like most other animals, left them to bedisposed of by nature's scavengers.

During the period of aridity precedingthe onset of the Mindel Pluvial it is prob-

able that northeastern Africa, except forthe coastal area, was uninhabited andthat tool-making Man first entered theregion in early Mindel times bringing withhim already standardized methods of pro-ducing implements and weapons of hardstone. Whence he came is of course un-certain, but investigations of recent yearspoint more and more clearly to EastAfrica (Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika)as the "kernel zone" and dispersal pointof the hand-axe industry and of one group,at least, of its earliest users. From thegreat lakes in the center of this areathe Albert and White Niles must haveprovided, even in those remote times, analmost unbroken thoroughfare to thenorth, along which men and animals couldhave traveled with relative ease. In Egyptthe apparently greater concentration ofAbbevillian and Clactonian implements inthe southern portions of the country mayalso be indicative of the direction fromwhich their originators came, though hereallowances must be made for the con-tinued denudation and less extensiveexploration of early Paleolithic sites in thenorth. It is significant, in any case, thatthe earliest stone implements found in situin the Egypto-Nubian area occur in thegravels of the 150-foot terrace near WadiHalfa, at the extreme southern limit ofthat area.

2. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF

THE ACHEULIAN TRADITION

In the course of the Mindel Pluvial, aperiod involving tens of thousands ofyears, Paleolithic Man in the Nile Valleyfollowed a pattern of development dis-cernible in many other parts of the OldWorld and passed very gradually fromthe initial Abbevillian level into a slightlymore advanced cultural stage. For us thisadvance is evidenced chiefly by improve-ments and refinements in the form of his

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principal stone tool, the hand-axe, which,thanks to a growing sense of design and anincreased use of secondary flaking, or re-touching, became more symmetrical inshape, straighter edged, and somewhatthinner in cross-section-in general ahandsomer and more efficient implement.As the Nile and its tributaries in UpperEgypt and Nubia slowly aggraded theirbeds to the 100-foot level, this develop-ment of the hand-axe can be followedthrough transitional stages which pre-historians classify as evolved Abbevillian,or Chellean, Chelleo-Acheulian, and,finally, early, or Lower, Acheulian.

Named for the type-site of St. Acheulon the Somme near Amiens, the Acheuliantradition was destined to cover "by farthe longest time span of any of the variousPaleolithic subdivisions," surviving inEgypt for approximately 300,000 years,from the latter part of the Mindel Pluvialuntil the final stage of the Riss Pluvial andbeing represented in the 100-, 50-, and 30-foot terraces of Upper Egypt, the 100-footgravels of the north, the Wadi el-Natrun,the Fayum lake basin, the spring, andscarp deposits of Kharga Oasis, andnumerous surface finds in both the easternand western deserts. It is characterized ingeneral by the use of two additionaltechniques in the finishing of core-tools,namely, the flaking of the edges of theroughed-out tool "in order to build uppreliminary striking platforms set at thecorrect angle to the face to be flaked" andthe use of a baton of hard wood, bone, orhorn, which, being of softer material thanstone, could be "struck directly againstthe edge of the nodule without crushingit." The flakes detached in this manner arelong and shallow and the resultingimplement is straight-edged, thin in cross-section, and evenly tapered. "Some of thelater Acheulian bifaces," says JacquesBordaz, "are the most perfect expressions

of the core-tool concept," and a number ofthose found in the Nile terraces have beendescribed by Sandford and Arkell as of"beautiful workmanship and symmetry,"showing "a real mastery" of the craft and"complete mastery of the material," or as"beautiful example(s) of Acheulean skill,"recalling "some of the more highlydeveloped forms of Europe." Clearly thePaleolithic tool-maker had reached thestage where he was interested not only inthe functional efficiency of his implements,but also in their appearance-had, indeed,achieved an aesthetic approach to hisproduct which allows us to see in the crea-tion of these superb artifacts the begin-nings of world art. Writers on prehistorydo not hesitate to refer to some of theAcheulian core-tools and even to some oftheir evolved Abbevillian predecessors as"works of art," and to this the majorityof their readers will probably not takeexception.

By no means all Lower Paleolithic bi-faces were made from pebbles, nodules, ornuclei of flint. Where these were not avail-able tabular chert was used (Kharga) orsimply rough chunks of stone brokenaway from the standing rock and-especially in Upper Acheulian times-there was a tendency to fashion the small,thin hand-axes out of large flakes. Besidesflint and chert the materials used invarious parts of the Egyptian area includequartz (near el-Kab), quartzite (Gebelel-Ahmar, Aswan), and ferricrete sand-stone, or ironstone (Republic of the Su-dan), the last being an exceedinglydifficult stone to work.

The Chelleo-Acheulian and earliestAcheulian implements of the 100-foot wadiand river terraces of Upper Egypt consistchiefly of plano-convex hand-axes, stillrather coarse in appearance, but showingdefinite efforts to straighten the edges,develop the point, and achieve bilateral

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symmetry of shape by secondary flakingof Acheulian type. With these were foundsomewhat more advanced almond-shaped,ovate, and semi-ovate (chopper) formswith lenticular cross-sections and oneextraordinary three-sided "pick" whichhas been compared with the so-called"anvils" of the upper gravels of Abbas-siya. Occasionally the heels, or butts, ofthe hand-axes are left unworked, a carry-over from Abbevillian times. This stage isbest represented in the gravels of the WadiQena, at Bir Arras, between Abydos andSohag, and at Beni Adi, near Manfalut.

The capping of the 100-foot terrace inUpper Egypt was followed, as we haveseen, by a prolonged interpluvial, or aridperiod, during which the Nile eroded itsbed in the south and, under the influenceof the Mindel-Riss, or Tyrrhenian, highsea-level, redeposited the same imple-mentiferous gravels in the north to levelsof 70 feet and more above modern al-luvium, notably in the Rus Channel andat Abbassiya. Above these ancient gravelswith their heavily rolled Abbevillian,Chelleo-Acheulian, and early Acheulianartifacts lie wadi and river deposits ofmore recent (Mindel-Riss) origin con-taining fresh or only slightly rolledimplements of typical Lower and evenMiddle Acheulian forms. These forms,which indicate an Acheulian date for the70-100-foot terrace of northern Egypt,include symmetrically pointed ovates withslightly sinuous edges and thin, evenlytapered cross-sections, which are describedby their finders as "rare examples ofbeautiful Acheulean work" bringing "usto a fairly advanced stage of Acheuleanculture." To the same stage probably alsobelongs a somewhat elongated hand-axewith a reverse S-twist from the floor of theWadi el-Natrun near Bir Hooker.

It was during the formation of the 50-foot terrace of Upper Egypt and Nubia,

probably in early Riss times, that theAcheulian tradition in Egypt reached itsfull expression. In the gravels of thisterrace from Ashkeit on the Sudanfrontier to Beni Adi, north of Asyut, occursa rich variety of developed Acheulian bi-facial implements-ovates, limandes, disks,waisted points, and miniature hand-axes-exhibiting the remarkably thin sections,the sharp, straight edges, the completebilateral symmetry, the fine "fish-scale"flaking, and the meticulous retouchingcharacteristic of good "evolved" Acheuleanwork the world over.

The Upper Acheulian industry is bestrepresented and best recorded in KhargaOasis and constitutes there the earliestevidence of human occupation of the greatdepression. An "assemblage" of UpperAcheulian implements in the deposits of afossil mound-spring on the floor of thedepression comprises a great variety offorms, among which lanceolate and pear-shaped bifaces predominate, followed inorder of frequency by limandes, "V-shapebutted" tools, and triangular hand-axes.The mound-spring referred to (KO 10)probably represents a "home site, towhich the large majority of the hand-axeswere brought ready-made," but the Acheu-lian finds around the other mound-springsand in the gravel-silt-tufa deposits of thepasses of the eastern scarp consist chieflyof flaking sites with cores and "wasteparings" forming a high percentage of thematerial and finished implements beingrelatively few in number. Here, as in theearlier stages of the Acheulian in Egypt,the hand-axes and other bifacial tools areaccompanied by small and rather thickflake-tools (scrapers, piercers, notchedblades) still produced by the old block-on-block, or Clactonian, method, but showingoccasionally extensive re-woirking of thepoints and edges. In this Upper Acheulianhorizon we also encounter a few specimens

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with traces of incipient Levallois, or"faceted platform," technique, an ad-vanced method of flake-tool productionwhich, as we shall see, dominates theindustries of the Middle and Late Paleo-lithic phases of Egyptian prehistory.

The Upper Acheulian of Kharga hasbeen compared with that of Tabun inPalestine; but Miss Caton-Thompson, whomakes the comparison, also insists that"Egypt's palaeolithic sequence is an auto-chthonous, auto-generic development, par-taking of certain generalised Africancharacteristics in its earlier stages, butbecoming increasingly Nilotic in a specificsense later on; untroubled by rival dis-coveries and inventions by eastern neigh-bours . .. " Huzayyin, on the other hand,has this to say: "A comparative study ofthis industry and the Up. Acheulean ofPalestine (especially that of the UmmQatafa Cave) reveals a remarkable degreeof similarity between the two. Apart fromordinary similarities in the technique, themost characteristic (new) feature of thetwo industries is the coup de burin on someof the coups-de-poing. So far as is knownthis is the earliest occurrence of the burintechnique, and in all probability itcorresponded to some technological con-nection between Egypt and Palestine."

The Micoquian, a Final Acheulianindustry named after the site of LaMicoque in the Dordogne section ofFrance, is not clearly represented in Egypt,but handsome hand-axes of Micoque typehave been found at Kharga "in UpperAcheulian typological contexts" and on orjust below the surface in the plain ofAbbassiya.

At Kharga the Upper Acheulian stage isfollowed by a mixed and evidently transi-tional industry described as "Acheulio.-Levalloisian," in which Acheulianhand-axes "showing less directional re-touch than formerly" occur together with

discoid cores, flakes with faceted butts,and flake-blades of rudimentary butdistinct Levalloisian character. Much thesame industry is found in the 30-foot Nileterrace, which is preserved today chieflybetween Luxor and Asyut and whichappears to have been formed during thesecond stage of the penultimate glaciation(Riss II). The gravels of this terrace con-tain not only small triangular hand-axesof advanced Acheulian type, but alsocharacteristic Levalloisian tortoise-coreflakes and flake-blades. Here, then, wetake leave of Lower Paleolithic man andpass gradually into the milieu of hisMiddle Paleolithic successor.

To judge from the surface finds oneither side of the Nile Valley the Acheuliantool-maker seems to have covered muchthe same area and used in general the samestopping places and flaking sites as hisAbbevillian predecessor. Their implementsare found together at Gebel el-Ahmar,Gebel Moqattam, the cliffs at Thebes, andthe quarry of Abu el-Nur, near NagHammadi. In the Eastern Desert theAcheulian is encountered alone nearAswan, above Gebel Silsila, at Mahamid,near el-Kab, and at Rabah and Wassif, inthe vicinity of the Red Sea; and, in theLibyan Desert, north and west of Abydosand between the Nile Valley and GebelUweinat.

A survey of the Republic of the Sudanhas disclosed the presence of the Acheulianindustry in one or more of its stages atmany different points along the rivervalley, all the way from the region of theSecond Cataract to Wadi Afu on the WhiteNile, fifty miles upstream from Omdurman,and also at a number of sites on the lowerreaches of the Atbara. Paleolithic imple-ments have not been recorded south ofWadi Afu as far as the Uganda border oranywhere west of the Nile in Kordofan orDarfur; and, further north, Lower Paleo-

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lithic industries are lacking between theSecond Cataract and Abri and betweenthe mouth of the Atbara and the SixthCataract; but in the Ennedi region ofnorthern Chad, six hundred and fifty mileswest of Dongola, ancient stream and lakebeds have yielded spreads of hand-axesand an occasional cleaver of developedAcheulian type as well as "small hand-axes intermediate between Acheulean andAterian."

Egypt has as yet produced no humanremains of either Abbevillian or Acheuliandate; but off to the west, in Algeria, LowerAcheulian Man, in the person of Atlanthro-pus mauritanicus, is represented by threemandibles and a parietal bone found atTernifine, near Palikao. Possessed of"teeth of great size" and being in general"nearer the condition of the apes thaneither modern man or the Neander-thaloids," this ancient tool-maker hasbeen linked "very closely indeed to theSinanthropus-Pithecanthropus group of theFar East" and is described as belonging toa "widespread evolutionary stage in

the emergence of man." In 1955 themandible of a more evolved specimen "of

the same generic type" was found nearCasablanca, in Morocco, "associated withnumerous bifaces or hand-axes of classicalMid-Acheulian type." At Swanscombe inKent, tools of Upper Acheulian type arelinked with what has been thought to bean early form of Homo sapiens, or modernman. In view, however, of the Ternifineremains McBurney, for one, regards it asdoubtful if the makers of the hand-axe in-dustries were "precocious Homo sapiens."

Serious doubts, in any case, have been

raised regarding the dating of the Homosapiens remains of Kanam and Kanjera in

Kenya which were once associated with,respectively, the Kafuan and Acheulianindustries of that part of Africa.

Since in Egypt the Acheulian tradition

is seen to develop gradually out of the pre-ceding Abbevillian and over most of itslong history to exhibit recognizable localcharacteristics it would seem to be un-necessary to look for a source of this

tradition and its practitioners outside ofthe Egyptian area itself. During theAcheulian period, however, it is practi-cally certain that Egypt's food-gatheringhuman population was not constant, butcame and went, retreating to morehospitable climatic zones during the long,dry Mindel-Riss Interpluvial and the RissInterstadial and returning in force at thebeginnings of the Riss pluvial phases,bringing with them-perhaps from greatdistances-new methods of making stonetools. There would appear, then, to besome justification for attributing themarked typological and technological ad-vances in the manufacture of bifacialimplements to outside influences or tointrusions of new groups of tool-makinghominids. If we choose to do so we shouldprobably once again look southward to

the great center of the hand-axe industriesin East Africa, where the Acheulian tradi-tion, like its forerunners, is represented inall its stages by a concentration of materialunparalleled in any other part of theworld. A southern source for the EgyptianAcheulian is further suggested by theextraordinary richness and wide distribu-tion of this industry in the Republic of theSudan. In Upper Acheulian times "star-tling resemblances" are seen to existbetween the Sudanese implement formsand those of Kharga Oasis, both areashaving yielded the rare ovate celtiformtools and "choppers of... Oldowan tech-nique." Less significance is probably to beattached to the already-mentioned re-semblances between the Upper Acheulianof Kharga and that of Palestine, wherethe hand-axe industries seem never tohave been very firmly established and the

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Acheulian tradition occurs only in itsevolved stage.

It is an enlightening commentary on thetempo of early cultural development thatduring a period sixty times as long as allrecorded history Acheulian man adheredwith little change to the food-gatheringeconomy and nomadic existence of hisAbbevillian forbears. Our picture of himmay well be distorted by our lack ofknowledge; but it would appear that,despite his more varied and more efficienttool-kit and an awakening aesthetic sensereflected in the symmetry and beauty ofsome of his implements, he remained at acultural level generally classified as "thelower savagery." He was, however, evi-dently a more accomplished and successfultrapper and hunter than his predecessors,and this may be attributed in part to aslowly increasing ability to plan andorganize his projects and in part to hisdevelopment of important additions to hishunting armory. Evolved Acheulian lan-ceolates and other elongated points withwaisted sides or tapered butts, found atKharga and near Nag Hammadi, forexample, were almost certainly designedto be provided with hafts of wood, bone, orhorn which would have added immeasur-ably to their range and effectiveness.Faceted stone balls of Acheulian dateoccur on a number of sites in Europe andAfrica-including an example in quartzitefrom Kharga-and their presence in groupsof three at Olorgesaillie in Kenya hassuggested their use in bolas. This missileweapon, attested at Olduvai in mid-Chellean times, enjoyed apparently agreatly expanded use in the hands of theAcheulian hunters. Large animals wereprobably captured in drop-traps, or game-pits, or by being driven into swamps"where they could easily be despatched."At Olorgesaillie the Acheulian hunter'sfavourite food-animals were a giant baboon

(which Cole thinks "must have tasted verynasty"), a large "and probably verytough" horse, and an enormous pig aboutthe size of a rhinoceros; and at Torralba inSpain his quarry included the rhinoceros,the wild ox, the stag, the horse, and theelephant. These he apparently ate raw,splitting the bones to extract the marrowand smashing the skulls to remove thebrains. In Egypt the teeth of a wild oxand an equine animal, probably a zebra,have been found in deposits of Acheulianand early post-Acheulian date.

3. THE MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC AGE

The advent of the Middle Paleolithicstage of Egyptian pre-history is charac-terized, as elsewhere, by the gradualdisappearance of the hand-axe and otherbifacial core-tools from man's lithic equip-ment and the widespread use of the"faceted platform," or Levalloisian, tech-nique of flake-tool production. The latter,named for the Parisian suburb of Levallois,consists of preparing the convex dorsalsurface of each flake and adjusting theangle and shape of its striking platformby minute faceting before it is detached,by a single blow, from its core. Theresulting flake is large and characteristi-cally oval or circular (polygonal) in out-line, though triangular and elongatedforms also occur; and the resulting core,being typically oval and plano-convex, iscalled a "tortoise-core." In western EuropeLevalloisian flakes and tortoise-cores havebeen found "in direct and indisputableassociation with Early-Middle Acheulianmaterials," and Movius has been led to askwhether there the "concept of a Leval-loisian tradition as an entity separate anddistinct from an Acheulian tradition" has"any real validity."

In Egypt a "latent Levalloisian tech-nique," represented by a single "triangulartortoise-core and two thin flakes with

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faceted butts," crops up first during theearly stage of the Riss Glaciation (Riss I)in the Upper Acheulian deposits ofKharga oasis. Definite early Levalloisianforms, as we have seen, occur in late Risstimes (Riss II) in the 30-foot wadi gravels ofUpper Egypt and in the Refuf Pass of theKharga scarp in association with hand-axes of very late Acheulian type. In this"Acheulio-Levalloisian" horizon, which wehave already had occasion to discuss, theadoption of the new method of producingflake-tools is accented by the completeabsence of Clactonesque flakes and cores.

The Lower Levalloisian industry ofKharga is described by Miss Caton-Thompson as "of normal Egyptian charac-ter, with a large proportion of tortoise-cores of skilled technique, and acontradictory poverty in the range andretouch of flake implements." No hand-

axes or other bifacial tools were found inassociation with it and, as represented atLocus IV in the Refuf Pass, the industryis seen to have "freed itself from the lastvestiges of Acheulian influence." Theearlier Lower Levalloisian has not yetbeen recorded in situ in the Nile Valley,but the physiographical features in whichwe should expect to find it are the 50-footterrace of northern Middle Egypt and thebeach of the 131-foot Fayum lake, both ofwhich appear to have been formed duringthe Last, or Riss-Wirm, Interglacialperiod. In view of their date it is, in anycase, unlikely that these two featuresbelong, as has been thought, to the UpperAcheulian or "evolved hand-axe" stage ofEgyptian industrial development; and thepresence in the Fayum of some low-levelLevalloisian surface finds would not seemto warrant the invention of a 40-footlake of Lower Levalloisian date to fill anassumed cultural gap between the 131-footbeach and its 112-foot Upper Levalloisiansuccessor.

The 10-15-foot pluvial terrace of UpperEgypt is assigned to the early phase of theLast Glaciation (Wiirm I) and its con-tained industry is identified as LateLower Levalloisian. Here, as McBurneypoints out, "the Levalloisian flakingtechnique has reached a mature stage ofdevelopment" in "a varied assemblage oflight and effective flake tools," includingnow the elongated flake-blade, a significantMiddle Paleolithic innovation destined tosurvive far down into historic times.Movius summarizes this industry, whichhe prefers to call Middle Levalloisian, asone "in which a reduction in size and anincrease in the delicacy of the flakes maybe noted." Among the abundant imple-ments found in the 10-foot terrace

Sandford draws special attention to "thin,leaf-shaped flakes of great beauty" andthe cores from which they were produced;and goes on to say, "In these flakes andcores artistic skill seems to find by simpleform-lines as high an expression as it doesin Acheulian technique." Some of the coreswere prepared on both sides and their

points subsequently used for boring orchipping, while others may have served asscrapers. It is evident, then, that incertain instances the cores as well as theflakes are to be regarded as implements.In Nubia, where the 10-15-foot gravelseither were never formed or are nowhidden beneath the later silts, Leval-loisian implements typical of this stage arefound in the base of the silts and in flakingsites on the surfaces of the higher terracesand the slopes of the adjoining hills,notably in the neighborhood of AbuSimbel, Faras, and Ashkeit. At Khargathe "Earlier" (Late Lower) Levalloisianis characterized, as in the Nile Valley,by triangular and sub-triangular cores,narrow flake-blades, broad pointed, sub-rectangular, and sub-discoidal flakes,and end-scrapers, all except the last

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distinguished by a general absence ofretouch.

By Upper Levalloisian times (WirmInterstadial?) conditions in the Nile Valleyboth climatically and physiographicallyhad begun to approximate those of thepresent day (see Chapter I). Fine gravelsand silts brought down by the annualsummer floods from the Abyssinian high-lands were beginning to cover the valleybottom in Nubia and Upper Egypt anddownstream, north of Sedment, werebuilding up into a terrace-like feature 25-30 feet above modern alluvium. The lattercan be traced through the HawaraChannel into the Fayum, where the corre-sponding level is represented by the beachof a lake 112 feet above sea-level. In all ofthese deposits and in the passes of theKharga scarp are found implements ofhighly evolved Levallois type and distinctlocal Egyptian character. Oval and discoidcores of relatively small size now tend toreplace the triangular forms and amongthe flakes the more interesting shapesinclude thin, sharp points with constrictedbutts, evidently designed as missile orlance heads. A bifacial lanceolate from the112-foot Fayum beach resembles the workof the so-called Aterian industry of north-western Africa (see below) without, how-ever, any suggestion of "formal corre-spondence." "Sporadic examples" of"Mousterian typology and technique"occur in the Upper Levalloisian of Khargaand the Fayum, notably in a series of"neatly made cutting or scraping tools"showing a well-developed secondary re-touch and inviting comparison with theso-called Levalloisian-Mousterian of Pales-tine and Cyrenaica. On the whole, however,the term Mousterian, derived from theFrench village of Le Moustier and formerlyapplied somewhat indiscriminately to theMiddle Paleolithic industries of Egypt hasin recent years been generally abandoned in

favor of the more accurate "Levalloisian."One of the more significant characteristicsof Egypt's Upper, or Late, Levalloisianindustry is the now marked tendencytowards a reduction in the average size ofthe implements-a tendency which heraldsthe approach of the so-called "diminutiveLevalloisian," or Epi-Levalloisian, indus-tries of Late Paleolithic times.

The wide distribution of Levalloisianflaking sites and other surface finds overareas which are now absolute desertconfirms the physiographical evidencethat in northeast Africa portions of theimmensely long span of time which wecall the Middle Paleolithic period weresubstantially moister than the presentday. In the vicinity of the Nile Valleyimportant groups of Levallosian or"Levalloiso-Mousterian" implements havebeen recorded by Bovier-Lapierre in"ateliers" at Abbassiya, Gebel el-Ahmar,and Wadi el-Tih, by members of theGerman Institute along the eastern fringeof the Delta, by Vignard at Abu el-Nur(west of Nag Hammadi) and Gebel Silsila,and by Seligman and others in the neigh-borhood of Thebes. Middle Paleolithicwork- or camp-sites in the Eastern Deserthave been observed northeast of Aswan,near an outcrop of quartz at the mouth ofthe Wadi Abu Agag, in the vicinityof Gebel el-Silsila and Naga ed-Deir, andat Rabah and Wassif, near the coast ofthe Red Sea. In the Libyan Desert evidenceof the Levalloisian tool-maker's presenceis found to the west of el-Sebaiya, Esna,Sohag, and Abydos, on the heights ofwestern Thebes, north of the Fayum andnorth of the Giza pyramids, off to the westin the oasis of Siwa and between Siwa andBahria, near wells to the north and southof the oasis of Farafra, a few miles east ofthe village of Kharga, and along the rail-way line extending between the NileValley and the oasis of Kharga.

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PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT5

The identification of some of the groupsof Levallois surface finds as flaking sites,where implements were actually manu-factured, rests on more substantial evi-dence than is the case with many of theso-called "stations" of Lower Paleolithictimes. On the surface at AbbassiyaBovier-Lapierre found not only as yetunretouched flakes, but also the coresfrom which they had been detached andthe hammerstones used in their produc-tion, the latter showing numerous evi-dences of use. Middle Paleolithic flakingsites on the surfaces of the higher-levelterraces in western Thebes contained dis-carded flakes which, according to Sandfordand Arkell, "may sometimes be fittedtogether round the core from which theywere struck off" and which undeniably"have lain undisturbed since the day theywere made." In general the Levalloisianworking floors both in and near the NileValley and at Kharga are characterized,as would be expected, by a sparsity offinished flakes and an abundance of coresand broken pieces of cortex.

A similarly broad expansion of thepractitioners of the "faceted-platformtechnique" has been noted in the Repub-lic of the Sudan. Here, besides Ashkeit,Tangasi, and other sites in the river valley,areas far from the Nile in what is now "100per cent desert" have produced implementsof Levalloisian types, notably theregion between Nuri and Dongola andthe neighborhood of the Abu Tabari well,the latter lying a good three hundred andsixty miles out in the Libyan Desert. Thatnone have been found further to the west,in the well-explored vicinity of Ennedi,suggests that conditions there were lessfavorable than in the late Lower Paleolithicperiod, which is represented in that area,as we have seen, by hand-axes and otherartifacts of developed Acheulian type.

The relatively moist periods when

Middle Paleolithic man found it bothpossible and profitable to seek his liveli-hood on the present-day desert plateauxmay be correlated with the late Kanjeranand early Gamblian Pluvials of East Africaand assigned to late Riss and early Wormtimes, the industrial stages embracedwithin these periods being, respectively,the Acheulio-Levalloisian and the MiddleLevalloisian. During the dry Riss-WiirmInterpluvial and the Wirm I--II Inter-stadial (Lower and Upper Levalloisian,respectively) it is unlikely that men andanimals could have survived for any lengthof time away from the river, the shores ofthe Fayum lake, or the springs and scarpvalleys of the oases.

The absence of securely dated humanremains, the fallacy of tying a particulartype of stone industry to any one speciesof early man, and the fact that bothAcheulian and early Levalloisian imple-ments appear to have been produced and

used by the same groups of people shouldwarn us against being too positive inidentifying the makers of the Egypto-Levalloisian artifacts or in differentiatingbetween them and their Lower Paleolithicpredecessors. There are, however, notentirely negligible reasons for supposingthem to have belonged to the mostprominent and most widely-distributedstock of Middle Paleolithic hominids, theNeanderthaloids. In Europe NeanderthalMan, a thickset, large-brained predecessorof Homo sapiens named for the Neandervalley in western Germany, is firmlyassociated with flake-tools of Mousteriantechnique and "the early neanderthaloidsof Steinheim and Ehringsdorf were ac-companied by 'Levalloisian' industries."In both Palestine and Cyrenaica a taller,hybrid or transitional form of the samehuman species is linked with a Levalloiso-Mousterian industry, which McBurneybelieves to have been "a tradition of

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African ancestry," "superimposed by aprocess of migration on a belated hand-axeculture in Palestine." Since such a migra-tion could only have taken place by wayof Egypt the presence in this area of boththe industry and its Neanderthaloid pro-ducers seems assured. Moreover, in thespring of 1958 Dr. Andrej Wiercinski ofthe University of Warsaw announced thediscovery in a wadi near Maadi, a suburbof Cairo, of "three fossilized skulls of veryprimitive nature," the "general features"of which "resemble those of Neanderthalman." Elsewhere in Africa human remainsof Neanderthal or Neanderthaloid type,usually in association with a Levalloisianor Levalloiso-Mousterian industry, havebeen found not only in Cyrenaica, but alsonear Tangier in Morocco, near Lake Eyasiin Tanganyika, and at Broken Hill inNorthern Rhodesia. The Neanderthaloidjawbone of Cyrenaica comes from thestratified cave deposits of Haua Fteah,less than 500 miles west of Alexandria,where it was found together with LowerLevalloiso-Mousterian stone implementsand some charcoal which has been datedby radiocarbon tests to approximately43,000 B.c. As McBurney points out,the Haua Fteah mandible is "the firsthuman fossil securely associated with theMiddle Paleolithic in Northern Africa,and the only human fossil at the timeof writing" (1960) "to be dated inyears."

Occupying the long and loosely definedzone of human development transitionalbetween the lower and upper savageryMiddle Paleolithic man's most notableadvance over his predecessors was hisnew-found ability to produce, by acomplicated and sophisticated technicalmethod, a wide variety of specialized toolsand weapons, each designed and producedfor an individual purpose and thereforeinfinitely more efficient than the few

generalized implements of Lower Paleo-lithic times. Under a chapter heading,"Man Begins to Specialize," Cole notesthat in Upper Pleistocene times "Chisels,gouges, and awls were invented; knifeblades undoubtedly had as many usesthen as they have today; hollow-scraperswere used as spoke-shaves, while end- andside-scrapers were more finely finished fordressing leather for bags or clothing."Equipped with the hafted dagger and thestone-tipped lance, as well as with bolasand perhaps other missile weapons, theNeanderthaloid hunter did not hesitate totackle the most formidable of animals,including on the icy slopes of westernEurope the mammoth and the huge andfierce cave-bear with which he successfullydisputed the possession of the caves them-selves. On Egypt's western plateau hisquarry is known to have comprised a fleethorse-like animal, perhaps a zebra, andeither a wild ox or a large antelope withbovine characteristics. The ample brainwhich devised the Levallois and Mous-terian techniques of tool manufacture anddesigned the many implements producedby these methods led its owner forward inother and diverse ways along the long,slow road toward civilization. In Europeand Asia Neanderthal men "made regularuse of fire" to keep themselves warm andperhaps even to cook their food, and mayhave worn simple clothing made of animalskins. They buried their dead in the cavesin which they lived, ceremonially pre-served and stacked the skulls and limb-bones of the great beasts which they hadkilled, practiced simple surgery, and caredfor the aged and infirm members of theircommunities. These evidences of solicitudefor the welfare of both the living and thedead, of a belief in the efficacy of ritualand magic, and of anxiety and speculationregarding the future denote, as Coon hasrepeatedly pointed out, beings already far

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removed from the "insensate brutes" ofthe popular Neanderthal image.

Far from lagging behind their Europeanand Asiatic contemporaries in the climbto this new cultural plateau, the peoples ofAfrica in general and of northern Africain particular seem, to judge from thequality and originality of their stone in-dustries, to have been among its leaders."It is probably true," says McBurney,"that nowhere in the Palaeolithic world asat present known did this 'Middle Palaeo-lithic' evolution of flake-tool traditionsreach a higher state of development thanin North Africa. This is perhaps the onestage at which this area was the scene ofcultural innovations in advance of similarlyderived traditions elsewhere."

4. THE CULTURES OF LATE PALEOLITHIC TIMEs

In Egypt the industrial and artisticachievements of the great Upper Paleo-lithic cultures of Europe-the Perigordian,the Aurignacian, the Solutrean, and theMagdalenian-are for the most partlacking, and we find, instead, a number ofindigenous local industries, sharing, incommon a Levalloisian ancestry andretaining throughout a Levalloisiancharacter, but exhibiting with time pro-nounced and clearly differentiated regionaldevelopments. McBurney deals with these"Epi-Levalloisian" industries in his chap-ter on "The Middle Palaeolithic" and MissCaton-Thompson includes them in hermonograph on "The Levalloisian In-dustries of Egypt." The period duringwhich they flourished, however, corre-sponded approximately with that of theUpper Paleolithic elsewhere, extendingfrom the Wiirm I-II Interpluvial (Gott-weig Interstadial) to Late Wurm timesand covering, therefore, the closing phasesof both the glacial epoch and the OldStone Age, the immediately succeeding

cultural stage, as represented at Helwanand elsewhere, comprising a microlithicindustry of very late glacial (post-pluvial)age and Mesolithic type. Thanks to a seriesof radiocarbon readings from associatedareas the "Late Paleolithic" period inEgypt can be dated in terms of years fromapproximately 30,000 (before 23,000) toapproximately 10,000 B.C.

The so-called Sebilian cultures are,properly speaking, confined to southernUpper Egypt and Nubia, the type sitelying, as we have had occasion to remark,near the Ezbet el-Sebil in the Kom Ombobasin, some thirty miles downstream fromthe First Cataract. Here in 1920 EdmondVignard found the chipping floors andcamp sites of groups of Late Paleolithicpeople who occupied the area toward theend of the late Pleistocene silt aggradationphase and during the ensuing stages ofriverbed degradation and whose activities,owing to an increasingly arid climate, seemto have been restricted to the immediatevicinity of the Nile and its subsidiarystreams, lakes, and marshes. The firstgroup of "Sebilians" lived apparently onthe margins of the great reed swamp whichat that time filled a large part of the basin,and their implements are found in theuppermost levels of the aggradation silts,separated by a great thickness of sterilesilt-and an evidently considerable inter-val of time-from the Upper Levalloisianimplements at the base of the samedeposits. Their stone industry, generallydesignated as Lower Sebilian or Sebilian I,differs from the parent Levalloisian inseveral respects. These include the use of asteep secondary retouch along the lateraledge of the normal Upper Levalloisianflake to produce a triangular or trapezoidal"backed" tool or other geometric form, atendency to shorten the striking platformand to trim, or truncate, the bases of theflakes, and a notable increase in the

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production of flake-points and elongatedflake-blades. Breuil is inclined to derivethis industry from the Mousterian, butMcBurney and others have pointed outthat "the secondary work appears to bemore abrupt and discontinuous" than thatof either the Mousterian of Europe or theLevalloiso-Mousterian of Palestine. Des-pite a further marked reduction in theaverage size of the tools and cores, ascompared with those of the UpperLevalloisian, Sebilian I remains an in-dustry of fairly large implements and canin no wise be described as microlithic.Disks occur and on the high-level sitesVignard also found a number of hammer-stones, a sandstone anvil, some animalbones, and fragments of burnt clay whichhe took to be portions of cooking hearths.The materials used by the Lower Sebiliantool-maker are confined, in rather strikingfashion, to quartzite, quartz, and diorite.Outside of the Kom Ombo basin hishandiwork occurs in the high silts atseveral places between Luxor and theSecond Cataract, notably, near WadiHalfa in the northern Sudan and Toshkain Nubia and near Edfu and el-Kab insouthern Upper Egypt. The northwardexpansion of the earlier Sebilian cultureseems to have ended in the vicinity of el-Kab and the use of the name to designatethe more or less contemporaneous, butotherwise distinct, Epi-Levalloisian in-dustries of Middle and northern Egypt isinaccurate.

As the Nile in response to the MainWiirm marine regression lowered its bedin the recently aggraded silts men followedthe declining waters far out into the greatKom Ombo marsh and by Middle Sebiliantimes had established their camps "aroundchannels and swampy lakes and ponds" ata general level somewhat below thatoccupied by the earliest Sebilians. Herethey subsisted on fresh-water mollusks

deposited in thousands by the waters ofthe annual inundation, on fish caught inthe river and its backwaters, on riveranimals and on plains animals which camedown from the now parched plateaux todrink. Their camp sites are marked by

quantities of burned clay hearths, bysandstone mills with grinding stones forgrinding apparently not only coloringmatter (ochre, limonite) but also wild-growing cereal grains, and by mounds ofrefuse, or kitchen middens, several yardsin height, composed of mollusk shells, fishbones, broken and sometimes burnt animalbones, human bones, ashes, flint chips, andfragments of hard stone and Red Seacoral, but no pottery-in short, the typi-cal living debris of a pre-Neolithic riversidepopulation of hunters and fishermen. TheMiddle Sebilian, or Sebilian II, stone-toolindustry which has been associated withthis level is made up in general of smaller

and more varied implements than those ofSebilian I. The true Levalloisian flake hasdisappeared and in its place we find thenow very common flake-point and varioussub-geometric forms "steeply retouchedon one or more margins." Triangles,trapezoids, and semicircular or crescenticshapes were produced by suppression, ortruncation, of both the bases and the topsof the flakes and a number of flakes andflake-blades were evidently deliberatelybroken to shorten them. Of the new formsthe lunate backed implements are perhapsthe most striking. Double-ended flake-blade cores and multiple cores worked onboth sides are found, but true blades arerare until late Middle Sebilian times.Implements identified by Alimen as burins,or small graving chisels, have been com-pared by her with those of the Tardenoisianindustry of Mesolithic Europe, but Vignarddoubts that the flakes in question are infact real burins. McBurney is inclined toregard many of the geometric forms of

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both Sebilian I and II, classified andillustrated by Vignard, as "dubious,""arbitrary," and of "fortuitous," or un-intentional, origin. Flint is now thefavorite material, being evidently readilyavailable locally and having graduallytaken the place of the harder stonesemployed by the earliest Sebilians. ThoughCaton-Thompson in 1946 limited the ex-pansion of the Middle Sebilians to the areabetween Wadi Halfa and Esna theirimplements have in fact been found inwadi deposits as far north as Qurna inwestern Thebes. At Dibeira West in Nubiathey occur at a level of 68-73 feet abovemodern alluvium and in the district ofEdfu a Middle Sebilian flaking site hasbeen identified at an elevation of 45 feet.The so-called Middle Sebilian implementsfound by Sandford at el-Sheikh Timai inMiddle Egypt and at el-Hibah, south of theentrance to the Fayum, are considered byCaton-Thompson as "not characteristic"or, at best, doubtful; and it would appearthat this culture, like its predecessor, wasconfined to southern Upper Egypt andNubia. In the Eastern Desert near Laqeita,Debono has found small groups of Epi-Levalloisian implements which he com-pares with those of Levels I and II ofKom Ombo.

By Upper Sebilian, or Late Glacial,times (16,000-10,000 B.C.) the Nile inUpper Egypt had lowered its bed to morethan 100 feet below its present level anddesert conditions in northeastern Africahad reached a degree of severity as great,if not greater, than at the present day.The region had long since ceased to attractimmigrants from other parts of Africa andfrom western Asia, and the dwindlingnative population, more or less cut offfrom the rest of the world, clung pre-cariously to the much reduced habitableareas along the Mediterranean coastline,on the banks of the river, and around the

Fayum lake and the springs and scarpvalleys of the Great Oasis. Near Sebil thestieams from the east which had for solong fed the great marsh had dried up andto find water men were forced still furtherdown into the Kom Ombo plain wherewhat McBurney cautiously refers to as"surface concentrations more or less sug-gestive of individual camping sites" arefound grouped around a series of small,low-lying basins. The work and habitationsites of the Sebilian III people are generallysimilar to those of Sebilian II, comprising,besides the flaking floors themselves, largehearths ringed with lumps of ochreous clayand containing red or black ash dependingon whether the fuel used was grass orwood, and kitchen middens built uplargely of broken and charred bones, theopened shells of freshwater mollusks, bitsof flint, sandstone, and various hardstones, and ashes. Mixed in with the latterwere sandstone mills and grinding stones,pebbles stained red, shells pierced withholes for suspension as ornaments (?), aslab of schist also drilled with a hole whichVandier has taken to be a cosmetic palette,fragments of red ochre coloring matter,what Vignard describes as small vases andcups of sandstone, and quantities ofsmoothed but undecorated bone points,perhaps the tips of javelins or arrows,perhaps implements used in the pressureflaking of stone tools. There are still notraces of pottery vessels or of ground orpolished stone implements. The kitchenmiddens are neither as large nor asnumerous as those of the Sebilian II en-campments, and this suggests that thesojourn in this area of the Upper Sebilianhunters and fishermen-though estimated,as we have seen, at six thousand years-was not as long as that of their pre-decessors.

The stone implements of this lowest andlatest level, made exclusively of flint or

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chalcedony and designated generally asSebilian III, are such a disparate lot thatMcBurney feels that "in the absence ofstratigraphical proof or of circumstantialdetails, photographs, etc., of individualsites," "the true association of thesediverse elements may well be doubted."Caton-Thompson, on the other hand,accepts them as a single "backed bladeand trapeze industry" of "microlithiccharacter," "derived from Sebilian II,"and Huzayyin sees in them "essentially acontinuation and perfection of the industryof Level II." There are miniature cores ofLevalloisian type, others from which smallflake-blades were evidently produced, andstill others designed for the production ofelongated blades and bladelets. Trueblades occur and both these and the flakesare in many cases of such small size as tobe justifiably described as "submicro-lithic." Many have been converted into avariety of geometric forms by the samesteep marginal retouch and the samemutilation (truncation) of the bases andtops noted in the preceding Sebilian stage.The types include notched blades, tangedblades, lunates, end-scrapers, and augers,some of the fine, specialized small toolsbeing quite evidently intended for workingin ivory, bone, or wood. Small rectangularblades with one serrated edge may havebeen set into primitive wooden sickles forreaping the wild cereal grains whichapparently formed part of the UpperSebilian's diet and small points and spursof flint are believed by Vignard to havebeen imbedded in lumps of gum or clay toform composite arrow heads. Notched ortanged arrow heads of both unilateral andbilateral type suggest, in any case, thatthe Sebilians-thanks perhaps to therecent Aterian invasion of the Libyanoases (see below)-were by now in posses-sion of that most revolutionary of allancient weapons, the bow and arrow. The

so-called "micro-burins" on which (toquote Huzayyin) "Vignard bases hisassumption that the Kom Ombo Basinwas the centre of dispersal for the wholeof the Final Palaeolithic (Mesolithic)cultures of the Old World" are identifiedby Caton-Thompson as by-products, ordebitage, of the triangular and trapezoidalimplements; and it is the opinion of theEnglish prehistorian that from beginningto end the Sebilian culture "is valid onlyfor Upper Egypt and Nubia" and that "toregard it as the vehicle of transmission ofAsiatic blade and burin culture to north-west Africa is both fantastic and repre-hensible." McBurney also casts doubt onVignard's belief that there is evidencehere of "an actual transition from a flake-industry to a blade industry" of trueUpper Paleolithic type, since such atransition would on the geological evidencebe "actually later than the earliest UpperPalaeolithic of Europe." At the same timehe points out that "in Europe, Asia, andelsewhere in Northern Africa" the micro-lithic elements of the so-called Sebilian IIIassemblage "only make their appearanceat the very end of the blade succession, inthe post-glacial epoch"; and Huzayyinremarks that the preparation of thestriking platforms of some of the SebilianIII cores by means of a single blow("plane transversal facet") "is a FinalPalaeolithic (Mesolithic) rather than atrue Up. Palaeolithic feature." All in all,it seems wisest to regard the implementsof Vignard's Level III as representing, inpart, the terminal phase of a local LatePaleolithic industry of Levalloisian ante-cedents and, in part, groups of "intrusive"microliths and other artifacts of possiblyMesolithic or pre-Neolithic date.

In the Fayum and in the stretches of theNile Valley adjoining it we find anotherLate Paleolithic culture developing in amore conservative and quite different

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fashion towards a microlithic and/orpre-Neolithic culmination. Geologicallyand chronologically the 92- and 74-footFayum lake beaches, some wadi terracesin the northern rim of the depression, andthe corresponding Hawara Channel andNile gravels and silts belong to the Lowerand Middle Sebilian periods, but typo-logically the industry found in thesedeposits and designated by G. Caton-Thompson as Fayum Epi-Levalloisian,exhibits clear differences from the Sebilian.Small double-ended oval cores of Leval-loisian type, pointed, triangular, and ovoidflakes, and narrow "flake-blade-like forms"show none of the special features-thereduced butts and other mutilations, thebacked lateral edges, and the steep retouch-which characterize the Sebilian. Indeed,retouch of any type is rare in theseimplements. The prevalence of double-ended cores might be taken as a link withthe earlier Sebilian, but even here there isno exact correspondence. Miss Caton-Thompson finds a monotonous lack ofvariety in the implement types and isprone to regard the industry as "a stageof attested development from the LateLevalloisian of the 34 m. [112 ft.] lakelevel" with "no innovations whatsoever."The "Epi-Levalloisian II" industry of the74-foot Fayum beach and associatedNilotic deposits is seen as a direct descend-ant of that of the 92-foot level with thediminution in the average size of the imple-ments having now become more marked,but without having as yet attained a truemicrolithic character.

Huzayyin, on the other hand, notes apronounced tendency in this industry,which he proposes to call the "Qarounian,"toward the production of core tools, bi-facially flaked and including triangularcore-points, choppers, and primitive formsof axes and adzes. These he believes maybe the precursors of the triangular and

hollow-based arrowheads and the largeaxes, tranchets, adzes, and other bifacialtools of the Fayum Neolithic, and in themhe is inclined to see a local evolution fromthe Upper Paleolithic into the Neolithicwithout an intermediate microlithic-i.e.,Final Paleolithic, or Mesolithic-phase.With the fall of its lake to eighteen feet ormore below present sea-level the Paleo-lithic history of the Fayum is. "lost toview" and with it the final stage of thelocal industry, Miss Caton-Thompson'slargely hypothetical "Epi-LevalloisianIII."

Other local facies of essentially the sameLate Paleolithic industry of northernEgypt have been exposed in wadi depositsand surface washes on the eastern fringesof the Delta, the sites including AbuSuwair, on the northern rim of the WadiTumilat, Shibeem el Qanatir, near theIsmailia canal, and Heliopolis and Abbas-siya, northeast of Cairo. Here, too, we findwhat would appear to be two lines ofdevelopment, one a diminutive or "pro-longed" Levalloisian flake traditioncharacterized by small but broad flakeswith faceted butts and tending in itslatest phase towards the microlithic, theother a reversion to a bifacial core-tooltradition featuring ancestral forms of the"axes and similar implements of the Neo-lithic and later cultures." Among the fourthousand artifacts found in 1940 at AbuSuwair are cores with microlithic features,such as the single-faceted striking plat-form, others showing axe or chopper-tooltendencies, and still others prepared insuch a way as to suggest possible use assling-stones. The industry is relativelypoor in flakes and among the latter theproportion of narrow blades is somewhathigher than it is, for example, at Sebil insouthern Egypt. Burins are almostcompletely lacking. At Heliopolis andAbbassiya cores and core-tools are less

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predominant and microlithic tendenciesless clear than at Abu Suwair. Bifacialaxes, reminiscent of typologically similartools of Neolithic and later times, occur,as do also "re-edging flakes," struck offtransversally from the working edges ofsuch axes.

Collections of implements made byJunker and Menghin in the vicinity of AbuGhalib, on the western edge of the Delta,and variously described as Sebilian, Cap-sian, or Neolithic, have, upon furtherstudy, proved to be either Upper Leval-loisian or, in the case of a microlithicindustry, of protodynastic, early OldKingdom, or even Middle Kingdom date.Debono has reported the discovery of Epi-Levalloisian implements in eastern Sinai,180 miles from the Nile Valley, but, sofar as is known, has not yet published hisfinds.

In general, it is felt that, despite somelocal differences, the Delta industries andthose of the Fayum can be grouped to-gether and regarded as jointly representa-tive of the last surviving stages of thePaleolithic in northern Egypt.

The third principal sub-area of LatePaleolithic regional specialization centersaround the oasis of Kharga and theadjoining portions of the Nile Valley insouthern Middle Egypt. Here there existedin Sebilian times a diminutive Levalloisianindustry to which Miss Caton-Thompsonhas given the name "Khargan" and whichshe describes as being made up for the mostpart of "very thick, short flakes, reducedby steep or even vertical retouch of theiredges to a variety of usually asymmetricforms." Besides normal Levalloisian flakes,cores, and discs and some well-developedend- and side-scrapers the "Khargan" anda preceding, transitional stage, the so-called "Levalloiso-Khargan," are repre-sented as including "diminutive types,characterized by bulb reduction or trunca-

tion, steep marginal trimming, improvisa-tion of forms, and an addiction to snappinglarger flakes and multilating them."Though it is conceded that many of thediminutive implements may be merelythe results of prolonged use and that onthe whole they are typologically unrelatedto true blade-microliths, it is suggestedthat they may have given rise to some ofthe thick, backed microliths produced inEgypt at a later period. The implementsdesignated as Levalloiso-Khargan werefound in situ in the gravels of Kharga'seastern scarp valleys, below the Aterianlevel, and can be dated to the latest periodof stream activity in these wadis. Thoseclassed as Khargan, however, are surfacefinds, picked up in and around solutionpans and water-sheds of the scarp valleys,as well as near Qara in the Nile Valley,and cannot be positively dated, even theirchronological relationship to the intrusiveAterian industry being a matter of un-certainty. Miss Caton-Thompson feels sure"that both Aterian and Khargan lay at ornear the end of the Paleolithic successionin the scarp" and suggests the possibilitythat the Khargan is "that final degenera-tion of the local Levalloisian sequence"which "gave way before the higherintrusion," i.e., the Aterian. Because of its"progressive" character and the nature ofits "secondary work" both Miss Caton-Thompson and Huzayyin are inclined toassociate the Khargan with the Sebilianand to bracket the two industries togetheras a "southern group," distinct from themore conservative, or backward, culturesof northern Egypt. McBurney, on theother hand, points out that the distinctivesecondary "work" of the "Khargan"implements "wears a singularly haphazardappearance," exhibits a multiple patina-tion, and could, as in the case of othersurface finds, have been produced byaccidental or natural agencies over ex-

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tended periods of time. He is thereforeinclined to place both the Khargan andthe Levalloiso-Khargan "in a suspenseaccount," conceding only "the survivalinto the final stage of major activity inthe wadis of a well-characterized Leval-loisian of small dimensions."

It was apparently during this phase ofKharga's prehistory that the oasis wasinvaded by a colony of desert dwellerswho had migrated eastward from theirhomeland around the Atlas Mountainsbringing with them the bow and arrowand a highly developed stone industryof Levalloiso-Mousterian type generallyknown as the Aterian after the type-siteof Bir el Ater in southern Tunisia. Havingpassed through Cyrenaica, the Oasis ofSiwa, and the Oasis of Dakhla, theintruders entered the Kharga depressionnear its extreme northwest corner, leavingexamples of their remarkable tangedpoints on the surface near Ain el Amur,an uninviting region, avoided by otherPaleolithic peoples less well versed thanthe Aterians in the art of desert living.Elsewhere the intrusive industry is widelydistributed over the oasis, occurring in situon the floor of the depression, at mound-spring KO 6E, and on the eastern scarp,at Site A of the Bulaq Pass, where, as wehave seen, it overlies the local "Levalloiso-Khargan" industry. The eastward expan-sion of this relatively late phase of theAterian culture does not seem to haveextended much beyond the region ofKharga, Aterian implements being ex-ceedingly rare in the Nile Valley, thougha few have been picked up at scatteredsites between Thebes and Asyut and nearthe Laqeita Wells, to the east of Qus.The industry in general is characterizednot only by highly evolved methods ofcore preparation in the best Levalloisiantradition, but also by extraordinarilyskillful secondary work, or trimming,

reminiscent of the highest achievementsof the Levalloiso-Mousterian of Palestineor the Mousterian of Europe. Using forthe most part tabular chert the Aterian ofKharga shaped his thin, flat cores withgreat precision and from them producedhis famous tanged and laurel-leaf points,large and expertly retouched end-scrapers,and magnificent bifacial spear-blades upto nine inches in length. The last, whichare of elongated foliate form, were finishednot only by shallow percussion scaling butalso by fine marginal "pressure flaking," arecently developed technique in whichsmall, carefully controlled flakes weredetached from the edges of an implementsimply by pressing against them the end oredge of a flaking tool of stone or, morefrequently, of wood, bone, or horn. Thegreat spearheads and the tanged javelinpoints, designed for efficient hafting toshafts of wood or reed, are accompanied,in the words of Miss Caton-Thompson,"by unmistakable arrow-heads of morethan one sort," some provided with stembarbs or wings, "the certain criterion of astone arrow-head." With the Gravettiansand Upper Solutreans of Europe theAterians may, then, lay claim to the dis-covery and earliest use of the bow andarrow, a weapon of far greater range andaccuracy than the slings and bolas of theearlier Paleolithic peoples and one whichendowed its inventors with an over-whelming superiority both in warfare andin hunting over their less ingeniouscontemporaries. There can, in any case,be little doubt that the Aterians wereresponsible for introducing this formidablearm into northeastern Africa, where itwas to remain throughout the rest of pre-history and most of recorded history theprincipal weapon of the Egyptian warriorand huntsman. Moreover, in the Aterianfoliates Miss Caton-Thompson is "temptedto see the origins of the Egyptian Neolithic

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and early Predynastic (Badarian) bifacialtools." Though they do not seem to havereached the Nile Valley itself in anynumbers, it is clear that this vigorous andobviously highly intelligent people exerteda not inconsiderable influence on the futurecourse of Egyptian civilization.

At Kharga their arrival brought to apremature end the development of thelocal diminutive Levalloisian tradition,the adherents of which appear to haveemigrated or been driven from the oasisbefore their industry reached a microlithicor sub-microlithic stage. MoundspringKO 5B, in the Bellaida area, has produceda puzzling mixed industry of very smallflakes and flake-blades, backed-blade trans-verse arrow-heads, and large tubular arti-facts, which seems to be not directlyrelated to either the "Khargan" or theSebilian, but which, in theory, is what isneeded "to bridge the transition fromepi-Levalloisian to Microlithic culturegroups." The next recorded industry inthe Kharga succession, the so-calledBedouin Microlithic, belongs well down inpost-Paleolithic times, having flourished inall probability during the interval ofslightly increased rainfall known as theNeolithic Wet Phase.

Though blades, as we have seen, occurwith some frequency among the flake-toolswhich are the dominant elements ofEgypt's Late Paleolithic, or Epi-Levalloisian, industries, there is at presentno positive evidence for the existence inthe Egyptian area of a true blade industrybefore Final Paleolithic, or "Mesolithic,"times. In such an industry the elongatedflakes, or blades, are produced, usuallyfrom conical or cylindrical cores, with theaid of a wood or bone tool called a flakingpunch, which is either struck with amallet or operated by pressure. The end-scraper, the burin, and the blade, often"backed" for mounting in a wooden

handle, are the prevailing forms, the last-named degenerating with time into theminute sections of blade known as micro-liths. Among the leading blade cultures ofUpper Paleolithic times we may cite theAurignacian of Europe and western Asia,the Capsian of southern Tunisia andAlgeria, and the Oranian, or Ibero-Maurusian, of the North African coastalregion from the Maghreb to Cyrenaica.Despite the assertions of a number ofwriters on Egyptian prehistory neitherthe Aurignacian nor the Capsian, sensustricto, have yet been found in north-eastern Africa. The industry of the Champde Bagasse, near Nag Hammadi, identifiedby Vignard as Aurignacian, is probablyNeolithic or Predynastic, the absence ofpottery notwithstanding. Though theCapsian may at one time have crossednorthernmost Egypt en route betweenCyrenaica and the Levant, true Capsiantool types and techniques are not presentin the existing Late or Final Paleolithicindustries of the lower Nile Valley and theimmediately adjoining desert areas. Mc-Burney believes that the Earlier Oranianspread "eastward along the coast as far asCyrenaica, ...ultimately, perhaps, colo-nizing Lower Egypt"; but he points out,at the same time, that "no significantfinds of blade-industry have yet beenrecorded" between Cyrenaica and the NileDelta and notes in general "the absence ofadequate surface collections from thecoastal regions east and west of" the Delta.

What we find, then, in Late PaleolithicEgypt are chiefly Epi-Levalloisian flakeindustries "with restricted blade element,"some of which, in northern Egypt, tendgradually to revert to a bifacial core-tooltradition of "pre-Neolithic" type. All (inthe words of H. L. Movius) "developedalong indigenous lines almost completelyundisturbed by contemporary develop-ments from outside the area except for the

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appearance of the Aterian in the Khargaoasis," and because, according to G.Caton-Thompson, "increasingly Nilotic ina specific sense..., untroubled by rivaldiscoveries and inventions by easternneighbours.. ." From their latest, orsub-microlithic, phases some of theseindustries, like the more or less contem-poraneous Capsian and Oranian, seemto have passed gradually, and without adiscernible gap, into the microlithic stagewhich in Egypt characterizes the so-calledFinal Paleolithic, or Mesolithic, cultures oflate Glacial and post-Glacial times, thelatter, in turn, continuing until "the onsetof the Neolithic, or Late Stone Age, andthe so-called 'rise of civilisation."'" Others,in the north, appear to have gradeddirectly into the large bifacial tool tradi-tion of the pre-Neolithic and Neolithicwithout passing through a Mesolithicstage. To Miss Caton-Thompson theregional differences in Egypt's Late Paleo-lithic industries reflect the disintegrationof the country at this time into "districttribal groups," and in the existence of asouthern and a northern group of culturesshe discerns "the origins of Predynasticdyarchy and the beginnings of the stronglylocal flavour of the tribal and religioussystems of pre-Menic civilisation."

By Late Paleolithic times Homo sapiens,or "Modern Man," moving into the areafrom western Asia and southwesternEurope, had ousted and replaced hisNeanderthaloid predecessor throughoutthe greater part of northern and easternAfrica. In Cyrenaica, where he is associatedwith Upper Paleolithic blade industries,his advent can be dated to between 29,000and 26,000 B.c. In Egypt his fossilizedand waterworn remains have been foundin the Sebilian silts of the Kom Omboplain and, in association with graveldeposits of apparently similar date, nearQau el Kebir, in Middle Egypt. These

remains, which comprise "portions ofhuman skulls, jaws and other bones,"have, upon examination by a number ofeminent anatomists, proved to be "moreakin to the predynastic Egyptian than toany other race of which we have fullknowledge"--a fact striking not onlybecause of the great span of time sep-arating the Late Paleolithic from theearliest Predynastic, but also because itimplies the existence at this early periodof identifiable racial types, in this case aHamitic or semi-Hamitic branch of the so-called Mediterranean Race. Elsewhere inNorth and East Africa more completelypreserved skeletal remains attest thepresence of tall, dolicocephalic men of non-negroid type, related to the Cro-Magnonpeople of Upper Paleolithic Europe and,like them, "often interred in a flexedposition and sprinkled with red ochre."

At both Kom Ombo and Qau the bonesof Homo sapiens were accompanied bythose of the animals which he huntedand among which he lived. This in-terestingly varied fauna of both river-valley and marginal desert types includedthe cave hyena (Hyaena crocuta), the lion(Felis leo), the donkey (Equus asinus), thehorse (Equus caballus), great quantities ofhippopotami (Hippopotamus amphibius),the pig (Sus sp.), an early type of ox, nowextinct (Bos primigenius), the long-hornedAfrican ox (Bos Africanus), the short-horned ox (Bos brachyceros), and anotherbreed (Bos cf. Laini), two extinct speciesof buffalo (Bubalus nov. sp.* and Bubalusvignardi), a variety of hartebeest (Bubaliebuselaphus) and a similar large antelope(Bubalis sp.), the Isabella gazelle (Gazellasisabella), the ostrich (Struthio sp.), the Nilecrocodile (Crocodilus niloticus) and asecond species (Crocodilus nov. sp.), turtles(Testudo sp.), and several kinds of fish,including Synodontis schall, Clarias anguil-laris, and Clarias lazera. The list as drawn

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up by LAonce Joleaud comprises also thecamel (Camelus sp.), the deer (Cervu8 sp.),and a number of small rodents, and con-tains such variants as Hippopotamus(Hexaprotodon) cf. 8ivalen8is, Equus 8ival-ensi8, Crocodilus (cf. indicus), Sus cf.hysudricus, Bos (Bibos), and Emys cf.sivalensi. Near el Sheikh Timai, betweenAsyut and Samalut, the blackened, min-eralized, and water-worn bones of hippo-potami, crocodiles, oxen (Bos sp.), andsiluroid fish were found in gravels ofLower or Middle Sebilian date, accom-panied by water-worn stone implements ofEpi-Levalloisian types; and near Edfuthe silt fifteen feet above the MiddlePaleolithic level yielded the remains ofHippopotamus, Equus sp., Bos sp., siluroidfish, and the dermal plates of a crocodile.Fauna from silt deposits southwest ofWadi Halfa includes "Equus sp., a gigantichippopotamus, a deer, and an antelope."The Nubian and Upper Egyptian silts andthe Sebilian kitchen middens also con-tained, as we have seen, innumerableshells of edible, fresh-water mollusks:Unio willcocksi, Unio (Caelatura) nilotica,Nodularia (caelatura) nilotica, Viviparusunicolor, Corbicula consobrina artini, Cleo-patra bulimoides, and the so-called Nile"oyster," Aetheria elliptica. At Qau theonly shell found was that of Aetheriaelliptica. Butzer characterizes this faunaas of "gallery-woodland" or "levee-woodland" type-"forest and marsh ani-mals with some species which are morelikely to be encountered on the edge of thedesert"-and Professor D. M. S. Watsondescribes some of the mammals from Qauas "northern forms of southern andcentral African types."

Confined by similar climatic conditionsto those areas where water is still foundtoday-the banks of the river and itsbackwaters, the shores of the Fayum lake,the springs and scarp ravines of the oases

-- the Late Paleolithic inhabitants ofEgypt, like their European contempor-aries, the Aurignacians and the Mag-dalenians, formed a less nomadic, moresettled population than had the far-ranging hunting bands of the Lower andMiddle Old Stone Age. Their habitationsites in the Kom Ombo basin, with theirlarge clay-walled hearths, heavy stonemills, and towering mounds of food refusegive evidence of prolonged and continuousoccupation by sizeable communities ofpeople and constitute logical forerunnersof the permanent settlements of Neolithictimes. On these sites the growth anddevelopment of new industries is attestedby the number and variety of new andhighly specialized types of small tools,including, perhaps, in the pointed boneimplements of the Upper Sebilian level,tools for making tools. Unlike the more orless contemporaneous cave dwellings ofFrance, Spain, and Italy, however, theopen camps of Egypt's Late Paleolithicpeople have preserved no paintings orreliefs nor any of the small works ofsculpture and decorative art carved ofbone, tusk, or antler for which the UpperPaleolithic cultures of Europe are de-servedly famous. Their failure to developan effective graving tool, or burin, suggeststhat they did not, in fact, work in bone,ivory, or horn to any notable extent. It ispossible that the mere struggle forexistence of these hunting and food-gathering communities in a land where adeteriorating climate was making the wildfauna and flora increasingly sparse leftthem little or no leisure for the develop-ment of the arts or any but the simplestof the crafts. The fact that they were ableto survive at all is attributable in part tomarked advances in their hunting tech-niques and hunting weapons, which in-cluded by Upper Epi-Levalloisian timesthe bow and the stone-tipped arrow, and

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in part to other improvements in methodsof food-gathering and food preparation,such as the use of the stone-edged sicklefor harvesting wild-growing cereal grassesor other edible plants and of sandstonemills for converting the grain into flour.That such mills were used also for grindingred ochre and other mineral pigmentssuggests that, like other Upper Paleolithicpeoples, the Egyptians of this time were inthe habit of painting their bodies andperhaps their faces either for adornmentor, more likely, to indicate their tribe,affiliation, sex, or social status. In thecolored pebbles and pierced shells of theUpper Sebilian kitchen middens we mayperhaps recognize a primitive form ofjewelry and in the presence in these mid-dens of bits of Red Sea coral the beginningsof trade with adjoining areas. Unfortu-nately, none of the many rock drawingswhich flank the desert trails to the eastand west of the Nile Valley can with anyassurance be assigned to this period, few ifany of them being pre-Neolithic in date.No burials have been preserved and, aswe have already noted, there are no traceson any of the Egyptian sites of this timeof pottery vessels or ground and polishedstone implements. Food productionthrough agriculture and the domesticationand breeding of animals was apparentlyas yet undreamed of. As elsewhere, theLate Paleolithic inhabitants of the KomOmbo basin, the Libyan oases, the Fayum,and the fringes of the Delta lived in astate which has been described as "thehigher savagery," a stage transitionalbetween the nomadic "lower savagery" ofearlier Paleolithic times and the sedentary"barbarism" of the Neolithic period. Lestit be felt that "savagery" is too strong aword to apply to groups of people at thisstage of development, it should be pointedout that the presence of human bonesamong the remains of game animals and

fish in the Sebilian refuse heaps suggeststhat cannibalism was among their lessattractive and less progressive institutions.

Since the neanthropic colonizers ofnortheastern Africa did not bring withthem from their homeland in western Asiaone of the characteristically Upper Paleo-lithic blade industries, but simply adoptedand maintained, with some alterations andadditions, a local Middle Paleolithic tradi-tion of tool making, it would appear thattheir immigration into the Egyptian areamust have taken place before UpperPaleolithic times. In this connection it isinteresting to note the discovery at Singaon the Blue Nile of a "primitive sapiens-like skull apparently associated withLevalloisoid industrial material." Follow-ing their establishment in the Nile Valleyand the oases the newcomers evidentlylost touch with neighboring areas of theNear East and remained largely unaffectedby the significant cultural developmentswhich were taking place in these areas.Until Final Paleolithic times their owncultural evolution, as we have seen, was toa great extent independent, indigenous,and determined, not by foreign influences,but by changing natural conditions withinthe boundaries of the land itself, such asthe steady encroachment of the desert onthe already narrow strips of habitableland, the gradual decline in the vegetation,and the decrease in the quantity, character,and size of the wild fauna. To Miss Caton-Thompson Egypt at this period provides"instances of the capacity of a specificStone Age industry to transform itself"without outside human influence "intosomething totally different." To Vaufrey,on the other hand, "the cultures ofthe Egyptian Upper Paleolithic are, likethose of the Maghreb, delayed culturesdisplaying the characteristics of longlasting survivals"; and to Grahame ClarkUpper Paleolithic Africa as a whole

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appears as "something of a backwater,where cultures of Middle Paleolithic origincontinued to develop, throwing off variantslike the Aterian and Sebilian, ... inspired,it may be, to a greater or lesser degree byneoanthropic influences." The most strik-ing of the Late Paleolithic trends in Egypt-and on this there is no disagreement-was the emergence of clearly differentiatedregional cultures associated with geo-graphically definable division of thecountry: Upper Egypt and Nubia, theFayum and northern Egypt, and MiddleEgypt and the Libyan oases; for herein lie,without doubt, the origins of the localcultural, religious, and, eventually, politi-cal units which throughout most of hersubsequent history so deeply influencedthe course of Egypt's development.

5. THE FINAL PALEOLITHIC, OR

MESOLITHIC, STAGE

In Egypt the stage of cultural develop-ment which corresponded in a general wayto the so-called Mesolithic, or MiddleStone Age, of other portions of the ancientworld began about 10,000 B.c.-towardthe end of the glacial period-and ex-tended, in some localities, well down intoNeolithic and even post-Neolithic times.As in Europe, it witnessed a dwindlingpopulation of "terminal food-gatherers"struggling to sustain itself in a naturalenvironment no longer suited to thisfundamentally parasitic mode of existence.Despite an interval of slightly increasedrainfall extending from about 9500 toabout 8500 B.c. and corresponding to thefinal re-advance of the disappearing Wirmglaciers, northeast Africa was now largelydesert, abandoned by the larger plainsanimals; and the hapless Nilot wasreduced to subsisting chiefly on smallgame, wildfowl, fish, mollusks, and thescanty plant life which still survived inthe much reduced habitable areas along

the edges of the river and other remainingbodies of water. Like his European con-temporaries he had probably reverted to amigratory existence, moving frequentlyfrom one place to another in search offood. He was fortunate, however, inpossessing the bow and arrow and probablyby this time that most expert of huntingcompanions, the dog, the domestication orsemi-domestication of which is well at-tested on Mesolithic sites elsewhere in theworld.

The type and size of quarry hunted bythe Egyptian of late glacial and early post-glacial times, his other sources of liveli-hood, his nomadic habits, and, indeed, thewhole mode and pattern of his life arereflected in his stone implements, the moretypical of which are microliths evidentlyused as points, cutting edges, or barbs incomposite tools and weapons made chieflyof wood, bone, or horn. As in the UpperCapsian and Oranian of northern andnorthwestern Africa these miniature pointsand blades are likely to be mingled, on thesame sites, with larger implements ofNeolithic form and technique.

This is the case with the best known ofEgypt's mesolithic industries, that ofHelwan, on the east side of the Nile somesixteen miles south of Cairo. Here, in theplain between the river and the town ofHelwan, Dr. Wilhelm Reil in 1871 dis-covered the first of a series of surfacestations, or camps, containing for the mostpart minute blades of both irregular andsub-geometric forms, some showing littleor no retouch, others with deliberatelyblunted backs or ends. Among the morecharacteristic geometrical shapes, whichinclude trapezes and triangles, are slenderlunates, or segments of circles, theircurved backs blunted for mounting (asarrow barbs?), their cutting edges straightand sharp. Sickle blades with serratededges occur in some quantity as do also

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minute implements made from the "waste"(dichets de taille) of the geometric formsand identified by Debono as microburins,or miniature graving tools, a typical meso-lithic form which, however, happens to beextremely rare on most of the Egyptiansites so far explored. Some of these micro-liths show affiliations with the terminalUpper Paleolithic, or Epi-Levallosian, ofthe region. Associated with them on astation now covered by the rapidly ex-panding town of Helwan was found adistinctive type of elongated bifacialarrowhead of decidedly Neolithic aspect,provided near the base with a pair of deep,skillfully formed lateral notches, evidentlyfor the lashing by means of which thelong, graceful point was attached to itsshaft. Since this type of point has not beenfound on other Egyptian sites it has cometo be known as "the Helwan arrowhead."It occurs, however, in the Mesolithic ofnearby Palestine, the so-called Natufian,together with bifacially trimmed micro-liths and other forms which seem to linkthe two industries and which in bothareas survived into Neolithic times. J. deMorgan and D. A. E. Garrod are inclinedto attribute the Helwan industry toimmigrants from Palestine. S. A. Huzayyinconcedes the resemblance between the twoindustries, but points out that the Natufianof Palestine "was somewhat more spe-cialized" and tends to favor "a spreadingfrom Egypt into Palestine." Since, how-ever, it is difficult to derive the industryof Helwan directly from the DiminutiveLevalloisian of northern Egypt and sinceit differs in a number of important respectsfrom the Capsian of North Africa and theSebilian of southern Upper Egypt, wewould seem to be left with no choice butto regard it, with Garrod, de Morgan,McBurney, and others, as-in part at least-- an importation from southwestern Asia.

As in the Kom Ombo plain some of the

Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic camp sitesnear Helwan are marked by kitchen mid.dens, or refuse heaps, made up chiefly ofashes, flint implements, and animal bones,among which have been recognized thoseof a pig and of a horse-like quadruped. Nopottery vessels were found, but in theirstead these pre-Neolithic hunters andfishermen used as containers and cookpotsthe shells of ostrich eggs, many of whichwere charred from the heat of the cookingfires. Like their Natufian contemporariesthe Helwan people wore jewelry made upof strings of marine shells, pierced or trim-med for the purpose, the favorite type beingthe tubular Dentalium, or tooth-shell.

Similar camps with comparable stoneindustries of apparently both UpperPaleolithic and Mesolithic age have beennoted by Debono in the neighborhood ofthe Laqeita Wells, in the desert to the eastof Qus in Upper Egypt. Here the imple-ment types included, according to theirdiscoverer, both burins and microburins,sickle flints, tanged arrowheads of seem-ingly Aterian ancestry, plain and re-touched blades and bladelets of variousgeometric forms, and the cores from whichthey were struck. Hearths were found and,near them, beads and receptacles ofostrich eggshell, the last, as at Helwan,often blackened by fire. Groups of micro-liths from the vicinity of Aswan and fromthe depression of Ain Dalla in the LibyanDesert, where they were associated withsmall hearths and fragments of ostricheggshell, are said by P. Bovier-Lapierre toresemble closely those of Helwan.

Microlithic implements from a site im-mediately north of Helwan-now usuallycalled "el-Omari" in honor of its dis-coverer-from the Wadi Angabiya, onthe Suez Road, sixteen miles east-north-east of Cairo, and from the Fayum lakebasin show similarities with those ofHelwan and, being in all instances surface

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finds, are similarly difficult to date. Likethe Helwan sub-facies these other northernindustries persisted into the late Neolithicor post-Neolithic cultural phase without,in the words of Huzayyin, becoming"overwhelmed by the contemporary andmore advanced culture." They are charac-terized by small blades, either simple or"backed," and by the absence of burins,microburins, and true geometric forms ofCapsian type. In the Wadi Angabiya theshapes include lunates and elongated tri-angles and, in the Fayum, single-backedshanked, or tanged, blades and blade-points, and slender little trihedral rods,pointed at both ends. Far off to the west,near the border of Libya, the oasis of Siwahas yielded microlithic, or semi-microlithic,implements of comparable type and date,among which long backed blades andelongated triangles tend to predominate.

Of the more or less contemporaneouscultures of the northeastern African regionin general the most remarkable and mostcompletely preserved is the Mesolithic ofKhartoum in the Republic of the Sudan.Here were found the riverside settlementsof a negroid fishing people whose industriesincluded the production of multi-barbedbone harpoons and decorated potteryvessels and among whose microlithic stoneimplements are chisel-shaped arrowheadsof a type favored by the Egyptians ofNeolithic and later times.

A comparison of the groups of imple-ments from northern Egypt with thealready discussed microlithic and, in partat least, Mesolithic industries of the KomOmbo basin ("Sebilian III"), the oasis ofKharga, and the adjacent portions of theUpper Egyptian Nile Valley discloses, ifanything, an even more pronounced"regionalism" than was apparent duringthe preceding stages of the Late Paleolithicera. At Sebil the microlithic facies appearsto have developed more or less directly

out of the local Epi-Levalloisian flaketradition. At Kharga this tradition wascut short by the Aterian invasion, and thesomewhat belated microlithic industries ofthe area, though evidently also of Leval-loisian ancestry, are distinct in manydetails from their counterpart in the KomOmbo basin. In the north affiliations withthe Egypto-Levalloisian flake-tool tradi-tion can still be recognized, but theclosest association of the partly microlithicand partly pre-Neolithic cultures of theregion was, as we have seen, with the Meso-lithic of Palestine, whence, indeed, at leastone of the interrelated industries, that ofHelwan, may have been brought into thecountry by "a final wave of hunters fromthe Levant."

The Mesolithic population of Egyptseems, then, to have comprised a numberof different groups or tribes of semi-nomadic fisher-folk and hunters, each ofwhich tended to confine its activities to anindividual section of the land and did notunder normal circumstances come intoprolonged or frequent contact with theother groups. Within the general confinesof their own territories, however, allthe groups seem to have moved aboutfreely in search of game and other sourcesof food, everything which has survived oftheir material equipment, from their light,composite tools to their ostrich-egg con-tainers and cooking vessels, being of eithera disposable or readily portable nature.Despite the hardships and precariousnessof their existence these relics of the OldStone Age survived the stretch of extremearidity which marked the post-pluvialstages of Egypt's climatic history andwere still present in the Egyptian arealong after the advent of the so-calledNeolithic Wet Phase, or Subpluvial, hadbrought into the land a new and sedentarypopulation of herdsmen and farmers. By5000 B.C., however, it has been estimated

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that the total population of the EgyptianNile Valley and Delta had dropped to onethousand; and it is believed that whenNeolithic man first reached the newly re-established Fayum lake he found itsshores uninhabited. While it serves tobridge the chronological "gap betweenthe end of the Palaeolithic and the riseof civilisation," in no sense does the Meso-lithic phase in Egypt or elsewhere con-stitute a stage of transition from the Oldto the New Stone Age; but, rather, theprolongation of an essentially Paleolithicmode of life and industrial tradition into anew cultural milieu of quite a differentnature and origin. The co-existence of thetwo traditions, however, was not withoutits lasting effect, for, as Butzer has pointedout, the Egyptian civilisation was the"product of a fruitful contact between anendemic Final Palaeolithic hunting andfishing folk on the one hand, and newcultural and ethnic groups originatingfrom the area of the Fertile Crescent onthe other." Furthermore, though the useof microliths "tended to become more ex-tensive during the Final Palaeolithic (orMesolithic) stage," they are by no meansconfined to this era, recurring frequentlyin Egypt from Upper Paleolithic timeswell down into the New Kingdom, whenwe find them still being employed as thepoints and barbs of hunting arrows.

It is tempting to identify the latesurvivors of the Mesolithic hunting bandswith the authors of the oldest series ofrock drawings preserved to us on the cliffsedging the Nile Valley and along the deserttrails of southern Upper Egypt and LowerNubia. The people in question, Winkler's"Earliest Hunters," Caton-Thompson's"Bedouin Microlithic" folk, lived ap-parently during the Neolithic or earlyPredynastic ("Amratian") stage of Egyp-tian prehistory. Their crude pictures,usually hammered out, but sometimes also

incised with a pointed tool, on the surfacesof the desert rocks, have been recorded atseveral places in the Eastern Desert inthe vicinity of the Laqeita Wells, at fivesites on the west side of the Nile betweenHosh and Aswan, in the Libyan Desertsixteen miles west of Naqada, and at threepoints along the desert track between theLibyan oases of Kharga and Dakhla. Thenaked hunters portrayed in these drawingsare equipped with large, C-shaped bowsand elaborately fletched arrows withbroad, probably poisoned points, which,for lack of quivers, they sometimes carrystuck into their evidently long, thick hair.For capturing and killing the giraffe usewas also made of the lasso and a macewith a heavy circular head. Some of thefigures wear feathers in their hair and theheads of others are surmounted bycurious horizontal wavy lines. Occasionallythe huntsmen are accompanied by largedogs, in one instance held on a leash. Inthe spasmodically rainswept hills to theeast of the Nile the favorite quarry isthe African elephant, while on the morebarren plains to the west the giraffe, lessdemanding in its need for food and water,is the animal most frequently represented.Other beasts encountered in these draw-ings are the antelope, the gazelle, the ibex,the barbary sheep, the ostrich, a wolf-likeanimal, a lizard, a snake, a bird with fourclaws, and the crocodile, the prevalenceand evident importance of the last-namedindicating a people of riverain origin andaffinities. Large rectangular objects havebeen thought to be game-nets and heart-shaped enclosures may well be fish-traps.A belief in magic as a means of achievingsuccess in hunting is reflected in the fre-quent representation of the tracks ofanimals and of their entrails, or "spirits,"in the form of spirals issuing from theirmouths, such pictures presumably givingthe hunters "control" over their prey in

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accordance with a familiar primitive tenet.Parts of animals, such as the bushy tailsof giraffes, depicted in exaggerated detail,may have been used as amulets or orna-ments. A group of eight men surroundinga larger man apparently wearing ananimal mask has been interpreted as amagical dance, the central masked figure,in any case, recalling the well-knownMagdalenian "sorcerer" of a paintedengraving in the cave of the Trois Freresat Aridge in France. The adoption by theEarliest Hunters of a pregnant femaledeity (?) found chiefly in the drawings ofWinkler's "Early Oasis Dwellers" (Caton-Thompson's "Peasant Neolithic" people)may reflect the type of religious toleranceand hospitality toward "foreign" divinitieswhich characterizes the Egyptians of latertimes and, with other bits of evidence,speaks for the existence of a close andfriendly relationship between the nomadichunting folk and the more settled peasantpopulation of this formative period.Regrettably, not much can be said for theformer's artistic achievements. Unlikesome of the spirited, naturalistic, andadmirably executed engravings and paint-ings of the western and southern fringes ofthe Sahara, these earliest Egyptian draw-ings are coarse, crudely schematized, andlacking in detail. In the words of Winkler,they seem to have been produced by apeople "devoid of any artistic sense";while McBurney finds them "suggestive ofan impoverished marginal tradition farremoved from the main centre ofdevelopment."

NOTESCHAPTER II

GENERALAt present the most extensive and detailed

accounts of Paleolithic Man in the NileValley are those provided by K. S. Sandfordand W. J. Arkell in the four volumes of theirPrehistoric Survey of Egypt and Western Asia

(Chicago, 1929-1939). Here the treatment isregional, starting with the Nile-FaiyumDivide ("OIP," Vol. X) and proceedingthence to Nubia and Upper Egypt ("OIP,"Vol. XVII), Upper and Middle Egypt("OIP," Vol. XVIII), and Lower Egypt("OIP," Vol. XLVI). Brief but valuablediscussions of the subject, with importantre-assessessments and re-interpretations of thematerial, have more recently appeared inS. A. Huzayyin's The Place of Egypt in Pre-history (Cairo, 1941). See pp. 151 if., 164-65,181-94, 221-23, 225-26, 251-64) and in suchgeneral books on African prehistory as L. S.B. Leakey's Stone Age Africa (London,1936), pp. 114-20; H. Alimen's The Pre-history of Africa (London, 1957), pp. 77-103;and C. B. M. McBurney's The Stone Age ofNorthern Africa (Harmondsworth, 1960),pp. 121-28, 135-62. Useful compilationsof the material, with particular accent onthe work of the French prehistorians inEgypt, are provided by P. Bovier-Lapierre,"L'Egypte prdhistorique" (Precis de l'hist-oire d',gypte, I [Cairo, 1932], pp. 6 ff.;R. Cottevieille-Giraudet, "L'lgypte avantl'histoire. Paldolithique-Ndolithique-Ages du

Cuivre," BIFAO, XXXIII (1933), 16-36,42, 46; 0. Menghin, "The Stone Ages ofNorth Africa with Special Reference toEgypt," Bull. Soc. roy. Gdogr. d'1Egypte,XVIII (1934), 9-15; E. Massoulard, Pr.-histoire et protohistoire d']gypte (Travauxet rnmoires de l'Institut d'ethnologie [Uni-versitd de Paris], LIII [Paris, 1949]),pp. 1-27; and J. Vandier, Manuel d'archd-ologie egyptienne, I (Paris, 1952), 25-61. Seealso A. Scharff, GrundziLge der aegyptischenVorgeschichte (Morgenland, Heft 12 [Leipzig,1927]), pp. 10-15; Die Altertimer der Vor-und Fruhzeit Agyptens (Staatliche Museen zuBerlin, Mitteilungen aus der agypti8chenSammlung, IV, 1 [Berlin, 1931]), pp. 1-7,P1. 1.

Among the more significant of the earlierworks on the Paleolithic period in Egypt arethose of such pioneers in the field of Egyp-tian prehistory as Godefroy Arcelin (1869),Ernest Hamy and Francois Lenormant(1869) (See Keldani, Bibliography, Nos. 98-101, 1182-87); Augustus Pitt-Rivers ("On

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PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT 7

the Discovery of Chert Implements inStratified Gravel in the Nile Valley, nearThebes," Journal of the Royal AnthropologicalInstitute, XII [1882], 382-400); Haynes."Jiscovery of Palaeolithic Flint imple-inents in Upper Egypt,"Alemoires of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences(Cambridge, Mass.). I Part 2 (1882), pp.357-61; Jacques de Morgan (Recherches surles ortgines de l'Egypte, 1 [1896], 47-66);Georg Schweinfurth ("Kiesel-Artefacte inder diluvialen Schotter-Terrasse und auf denPlateau-Hohen von Theben," Zeitschrift fi rEthnologie, XXXIV [1902], 293-310; "Stein-zeitliche Forsehungen in Obergypten,"ibid., XXXV [1903], 799-822; XXXVI[1904], 766-830 [devoted chiefly to the so-called "eoliths"]; XLIV [1912], 627-58);

Max Blanckenhorn ("Die Geschichte desNil-Stroms . . . sowie des paldolithischenMenschen in Agypten," Zeitschrift der Gesell-schaft fir Erdkunde zu Berlin, XXXVII[1902], 694-722, 753-62; Die SteinzeitPalastina-Syriens und Nordafrikas. [Land d.Bible, III Leipzig, 1921]); Charles Currelly(Stone Implements [CC, Nos. 63001-64906]Cairo, 1913); and Charles Seligman ("TheOlder Palaeolithic Age in Egypt," Journalof the Royal Anthropological Institute, LI

[1921], 115-53).The materials and techniques employed

by the Paleolithic toolmakers are describedin detail by Jacques Bordaz, "First Tools ofMankind," Natural History Magazine (NewYork), January, 1959, pp. 36-51; by K. P.Oakley, Man the Tool-.Maker (London,1950), pp. 5-49; by H. L. Movius, "The OldStone Age" (in H. Shapiro, Man, Culture,and Society [New York, 1956], pp. 49-93),pp. 52 if.; and by C. B. M. McBurney, TheStone Age of Northern Africa, pp. 26-30,130-32. See also A. J. Arkell, "The Sudan.Archaeology and Excavation," The Archaeo-logical News Letter, Vol. II, No. 8 (January,1950), pp. 124 if.

Out of the rich general literature on theOld Stone Age and succeeding periods ofworld prehistory the following books wereconsulted in the preparation of this chapter:

1924), Vol. I; W. J. Sollas, Ancient Huntersand their Modern Representatives (3d ed.[London, 1924]); 0. Menghin, Weltgeschichteder Steinzeit (Vienna, 1931), pp. 87-135; M.C. Burkitt, The Old Stone Age. A Study ofPalaeolithic Times (Cambridge, 1933), pp. 7-113 passim; V. G. Childe, Man Makes Him-self (Library of Science and Culture, No. 5[London, 1936]), pp. 9-72; What Happened inHistory (Pelican Books, A 108 [Harmonds-worth, 1942]), pp. 23-47; W. B. Wright,Tools and thc Man (London, 1939), pp. 8-195passim; R. Turner, The Great CulturalTraditions. The Foundations of Civilization, I(New York and London, 1941), 22-26; G.Clark, From Savagery to Civilization (London,1946), pp. 26-68; R. J. Braidwood, Pre-historic Men (Chicago Natural History Mu-seum, Popular Series, No. 37. 2(1 ed. [Chicago,1951]), pp. 19-61; H. Shapiro (ed.), Man,Culture, and Society (New York, 1956),Chaps. I-III, VII; C. S. Coon, The Jacesof Europe (New York, 1939), pp. 16-55;The Story of Man (New York, 1958),pp. 9-113 passim; M. Ebert (ed.), Real-lexikon der Vorgeschichte (15 vols. [1924-1932]).

Also consulted was a series of articles ofmore general scope which appeared in theScientific American for September 1960,

under the title "The Human Species" andwhich include E. S. 1)eevey, Jr.'s "TheHuman Population"; C. 1). Hockett's "TheOrigin of Speech"; M. D. Sahlin's "The Originof Society"; and S. L. Washburn's "Toolsand Human Evolution."

To the bibliographies of E. H. Keldaniand S. A. Huzayyin cited in the notes toChapter I may now be added: H. L. Movius,Recent Publications, Mainly in Old WorldPaleolithic Archaeology and Paleo-Anthropo-logy (American School of Prehistoric Research,Old World Bibliography), 1948-1956 (mimeo-graphed); and C. Bachatly, Bibliographie dela prehistoire egyptienne (1869-1938) (Pub.

lications de la ,Societe royale de Geographie),Cairo, 1942. Recent publications, chiefly inthe field of anthropology and related subjects,are listed two or three times a year in the

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76 PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT

in recent years by W. Gieseler andIE.Breitinger and published in Stuttgart,Germany.

1. THE "ABBEvILLIANS"The European type-sites of Abbeville,

Chelles, and Clacton-on-Sea are situated,respectively, on the lower Somne, the Marnenear Paris, and the Thames estuary. Thesites themselves and the classes of imple-ments found on them have been studied anddiscussed by Boucher do Perthes in his epoch-making Antiquite'8 celtiques et antidiluviennes(Paris, 1847), and the Abbe (H.) Breuil in aseries of important articles, including "bevrai nivoau de l'industrie abbevillionne de laPorte du Bois (Abbeville)," L'Anthropologie,XLIX (1939), 13-34; "be gisement do

Chelles; see phenornenes, sos industries,"Quartar, II (1939), 1-21; and "Les industriesit eclats du paleolithiqiio ancien. I. beClactonien," Pre'histoire, I (1932), 125-90.See also Zeunor, Dating the Past, pp. 166 ff.;Movius, "The Old Stone Age" (Shapiro,Man, Culture, and Society, Chap. III),pp. 55-59; Wright, Tools and the Man,pp. 8-9, 38-45, 87if.; H. Obermaier, DerMensch der Vorzeit (Der Mensek alter Zeit,I. Berlin-Munich [1912]), pp. 113-22, 149;Sollas, Ancient Hunters, pp. 68 if.; MBBurney,Stone Age of Northern Africa, pp. 27-30;

Huzayyin, Place of Egypt. pp. 166 if.; etc.On the numerous sites in Africa and

southwestern Asia which have yielded in-dustries of Abbevillian ("Pre-Chellean" and"Chellean") and Clactonian type see es-pecially: A. J. Arkell, The Old Stone Age inthe Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (Sudan AntiquitiesService, Occasional Papers, No. 1), Khartoum,1949; "The Sudan. Archaeology and Excava-tion," The Archaeological News Letter, Vol. II,No. 8 (Jan., 1950), pp. 124-28; L. Balout,Prihistoire de l'Afrique du Nord, Part II,Chap. VI (pp. 159-268); McBurney, Stone

Age of Northern Africa. pp. 88-128 passim;

S. Cole, The Prehistory of East Africa(Pelican Books, A 316 [Harmondsworth,1954] ), pp. 121-48; Alimen, Prehistory ofAfrica, see Index (p. 431) under "Chellean,"

and of. pp. 12, 35; Leakey, Stone Age Africa,pp. 22, 26, 41ff., 47, 100ff., 104, 115ff.,121 ff., 181 ff.; H. Fleisch, "Depots pre-historiques do la cote libanaise et lear placedans la chronologie baste sur le Quaternairemann," Qvaternaria, III (1956), 101-32;and K. W. Butzer, Quaternary Stratigraphy... in the Near East, p. 97 and Table II. TheKafuan and Oldowan industries (named forthe Kafu valley in Uganda and the Olduvai[Oldoway gorge in northern Tanganyika)are discussed and their distribution indicatedby Alimen, Prehistory of Africa, pp. 210 if.,433, 436, and by Cole, Prehistory of EastAfrica, pp. 125 if., 131 if., 298, 300. See alsoSiave-Soderbrgh, "Preliminary Report ofthe Scandinavian Joint Expedition: Archaeo-logical Survey between Faras and Gamai,~January-March, 1961," Kush X 1962),84-85.

Descriptions, drawings, and photographsof the Abbevillian and Clactonian implementsof the 100-toot Nile gravels will be found inSandford and Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, I,29-31, figs. 8-9; II, 26, 29-31, 72-75, 86,Plates XIII-XIX; III, 110-12, 126, PlatesXV-XIX; IV, pp. 8 9

-91, Plates XVII, XVIII;in Huzayyin, Place of Egypt, pp. 181-94,Plates VI-VIII; in Massoulard, Prehistoire.. . d'gypte, pp. 1-10; and in Alimen,Prehistory of Africa, pp. 88-90, fig. 35. Onthe re-deposited lower gravels of the RusChannel and the rolled Abbevillian imple-ments contained in them see Sandfordand Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, I, 28-3 1, andButzer, Erdkunde, XIII (1959), 52-53; andon those of the ballast-pits of the plain ofAbbassiya: P. Bovier-Lapierre, "be Paleo-

lithique stratifie des environs du Caire,"L'Anthropologie, XXXV (1925), 37-46; "Les

gisements paleolithiques de la plaine del'Abassieh," BIE, n.s. VIII (1926), 257-72;Sandford and Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, I,29; II, 14, 28, 73; III, 42, 55, 110; IV,passirn (especially p. 95): Huzayyin, Place ofEgypt, pp. 182-85, 192; Butzer, Erdkunde,X.III, 49-51; Alimen, Prehistory, pp. 80-81;MoBurney, Stone Age, pp. 125-26.

The distribution and nature of the surface

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in the Egyptian area are recorded in the"earlier works" cited above, in the Generalnotes, and by P. Bovier-Lapierre, "Stationsprehistoriques des environs du Caire,"Congres International de Glographie, Cornpterendu, IV (Cairo, 1926), 298-308 (see 301-308); "Industries prehistoriques dans l'iled' lephantine et aux environs d'Assouan,"BIE, XVI (1934), 115-31; "Les explorationsde S. A. S. le Prince Kemal el Din Hussein:Contribution k la prehistoire du desertlibyque," BIE, X (1929), 33-44 (see pp. 38-39); "Recentes explorations do S. A. S. lePrince Kemal el-Din Hussein dans le desertlibyque: Contribution h la prehistoire,"BIE, XII (1930), 121-28 (see p. 125);"L'1 gypte prdhistorique" (Prici8 de l'histoired'1gypte, I, 1-50), pp. 22-25; S. Schott, E.

Neuffer, K. Bittel, "Bericht uber die zweite... nach Ostdelta-Rand und in das WadiTumilat unternommene Erkundungsfahrt,"MDJK, II (1931), 39-73 (see pp. 45 if.); E.Vignard, "Stations pakeolithiques do lacarrire d'Abou el-Nour pre's do Nag.Hamadi (Haute gypte)," BIFAO, XX(1922), 89-109 (see pp. 92 if.); Sandford andArkell, Prehistoric Survey, II, 30; IV, 90;F. Dobono, "Expedition archeologique roy.ale au desert oriental (Keft-Kosseir)," ASAE,LI (1951), 59-110 (see 60-61); R. Cottevicille-Giraudet, "L'egypte avant l'histoire,"BIFAO, XXXIII (1933), 1-168 (see figs. 26

and 29); J. Vandier, Manuel d'archeologieigyptienne, I, 27-33; Massoulard, Prehistoire

. .. d' gypte, p. 9; MacCurdy, HumanOrigin, I, 124-29; Ebert, Reallexikon, I, 48.

The possibility of some of the early hand.axes having been hafted is discussed bySandford and Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, III,111; and the techniques which produced theAbbevillian and Clactonian implements aredescribed by the same authors, op. cit.,Vol. II, pp. 72--75; III, 110-12; IV, 89-91;by J. Bordaz, Natural Hietory (Magazine),January, 1959, pp. 38-42; by Oakley, Man

the Tool-maker, pp. 23 if., 40 if., 48 if.;Burkitt, The Old Stone Age, pp. 33 if., 110-13; McBurney, Stone Age of Northern Africa,pp. 26-27, 30, 130-32; and Arkell, Archaeo-"ogcalNewT Lt..ter, 1, No.8, p.124.1

The largest group of Egyptian "eoliths" ispublished by G. Schweinfurth, "SteinzeitlicheForschungen in Oberihgypten," Zeitschrif tfiir Ethnologie, XXXVI (1904), 766-825.The problem of the eoliths has been discussedby many writers, including Sandford andArkell, Prehistoric Survey, II, 15-16; Bovier-Lapierre, L'A nthropologie, XXXV (1925),39; BIE, VIII (1926), 265; Braidwood, Pre-historic Men, pp. 37-38; Burkitt, The OldStone Age, pp. 99-109; MacCurdy, Human

Origins, I, 25, 86-102; Menghin, Welt-geschichte der Steinzeit, pp. 88-89; Movius,"The 01(1 Stone Age," p. 51; Oakley, Manthe Tool-maker, pp. 5-10; Obermaier, DerMensch der Vorzeit, pp. 383-84; Sollas,

Ancient Hunters, pp. 68-106 passim; Huzay.yin, Place of Egypt, pp. 164-65; C. H. Read,

in The Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th ed.),II, 344-45. See also Ebert, Reallexikon,III, 99-107.

The so-called "Chellean Man" of theOlduvai gorge deposits of Tanganyika hasbeen the subject of a preliminary report byL. S. B. Leakey in The Illustrated LondonNews for March 4, 1961 (No. 6344, Vol. 238),pp. 335, 347-48 ("New Links in the Chain ofHuman Evolution: Three Major IDiscoveriesfrom the Olduvai (orge, Tanganyika"). Seealso Leakey in ILN for June 28, 1958; and

the National Geographic Magazine for October1961, pp. 576 if. Also Leakey in NatureCLXXXIX, 649 (1961); National GeographicCXXIII. 132 (1963) and The Progress andEvolution of Man in Africa (Oxford Univer-sity Press [1962]); G. H. Curtis and J. F.Everden, Nature CLXXXXIV, 610 (1962);R. L. Hay, "Stratigraphy of Beds I throughIV, Olduvai Gorge, Tanganyika," Science,CXXXIX, No. 3557 (1963), pp. 829-33.The skull of this man, which Leakey com-pares not only with that of Java Man and

Peking Man, but also with the Steinheimskull and the Broken Hill skull of Rhodesia,was found at "Site LLK II" in ChelleanStage 3 of Bed II. The Chelleo-Acheulianman of Rabat in Morocco is discussed byAlimen, Prehistory of Africa, pp. 329-30(see also the bibliography, p. 350, underMariais J., _adVai7_11 .); by M.urney

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Stone Age of Northern Africa, p. 118; and byBalout, Prdhistoire de l'Afrique du Nord,pp. 202-208.

The life and activities of Lower PaleolithicMan have been convincingly reconstructedfor us by a number of prehistorians, amongwhom may be cited H. Obermaier, DerMensch der Vorzeit (1912), pp. 418 ff.; W. J.

Sollas, Ancient Hunters (1924), pp. 107-39;M. C. Burkitt, The Old Stone Age (1933),pp. 7 ff., 33, 54; R. Turner, The GreatCultural Traditions, I (1941), 22-26; G.Clark, From Savagery to Civilization (1946),pp. 26-39; S. Piggott, Prehistoric India to1000 B.C. (Pelican Books, A 205 [Harmonds-worth, 1950]), pp. 23-24, 33-34; V. G. Childe,What Happened in History (Pelican Books,A 108 [Harmondsworth, 1952]), pp. 27-33;Man Makes Himself (A Mentor Book. 7thprinting [New York, 1960]), pp. 45-49; C. S.Coon, The Story of Man (New York, 1958),pp. 43-69. An interesting account of thebone tools and weapons used by the earliestman-like inhabitants of South Africa wascontributed by R. A. Dart to the IllustratedLondon News for May 9, 1959, pp. 798-801("The Ape-Men Tool-Makers of a MillionYears Ago: South African Australopithecus-His Life, Habits, and Skills"). On the useof the bola by Chellean man at Olduvai seeLeakey, National Geographic, CXX, No. 4(October 1961), 579, 583-84.

The probability that the "kernel zone" ofthe hand-axe industry lay within Africaitself is discussed by Huzayyin, Place of

Egypt, pp. 205-12. See also McBurney, Stone

Age of Northern Africa, pp. 53-54. On p. 128of the latter work MeBurney expresses theopinion now generally held by prehistorianswhen he says: "Although the case cannotperhaps be regarded as yet absolutelyproved, it will probably be admitted bymost readers that the evidence in favour ofa centre of dispersal of hand-axe industriessomewhere in Central Africa is certainly verystrong." The presence of the same types ofimplements in Cerntral and NortheasternAfrica at approximately the same time doesnot necessarily imply the presence in thesetwo widely separated areas of the same

species of hominids, but, on the other hand,it certainly does not militate against thesupposition that this was the case.

The occurrence of Pre-Chellean pebble-tools and other early implements in the 150-foot river terrace in the Egyptian-Sudanese

border area is reported by A. J. Arkell,Archaeological News Letter, II, No. 8, p. 124;The Old Stone Age in the Anglo-Egyptian

Sudan, pp. 2-3, 45.

2. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OFTHE ACHEULIAN TRADITION

Brief general treatments of the Acheulianstage of Egyptian prehistory are providedby Pt. Massoulard in his Prdhistoire etprotohistoire d']gypte (Paris, 1949), pp. 10-12(with a useful listing of the sites on whichthe industry occurs), and by S. A. Huzayyin,The Place of Egypt, pp. 188-91. Selectedimplements and the geological settings inwhich they were found are dealt with insome detail in the four volumes of Sandfordand Arkell's Prehistoric Survey (I, 28, 29,31, 36, 71; II, 25, 30, 32, 34, 37, 44, 74-77,83, 85, 86; III, 59, 61, 63, 64, 66, 69, 74, 76,110-14, 123; IV, 50-53, 59, 89, 90, 95, 98);but, as we have seen, the dating of the 100-,50-, and 30-foot terraces by these authorsand their identification of the industry ofthe 30-foot terrace require revision (Butzer,Erdkunde, XIII, 52-53; "Naturlandschaft,"

p. 57; Caton-Thompson, Proc. Preh. Soc.,XII, 80). For discussions of the Acheuliantradition as a whole and the techniqueswhich characterize it we may turn to someof the general works cited in the precedingsections, notably, Movius, "The Old StoneAge," pp. 59-60; Bordaz, "First Tools ofMankind," pp. 39-43; Oakley, Man the Tool-maker, pp. 43-46; MacCurdy, Human Origins,I, 116-29; Burkitt, The Old Stone Age, pp.110-12. See also Vignard, BIFAO, XX,93 if., fig. 2. On the duration of the Acheu-lian phase in Egypt see especially Butzer,Quaternary Stratigraphy, pp. 64, 75, 100-102(Tables IV, VIII, and IX); and on itsduration in general, Zeuner, .Dating thePast4 , pp. 285-92.

An Acheulian hand-axe from the floor of

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the Wadi el-Natrun is published by Sand-ford and Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, IV, 50,Plate XXII, 7; and the few scattered ex-amples from the Fayum are referred to byO. H. Little, BIE, XVIII (1936), 207-208;by Caton-Thompson and others, BIE, XIX,249, 287; and by Caton-Thompson, Proc.Preh. Soc., XII, 92, n. 6. To the referenceson the Lower Paleolithic surface finds inthe Eastern Desert given in the precedingsection may now be added F. H. Sterns,"The Paleoliths of the Eastern Desert,"Harvard African Studies, I (1917), 48-82,which deals in particular with implementsfrom the sites at Hammamat, Wassif, andRabah. Massoulard discusses Sandford'sthree-sided Acheulian pick and the anvils ofAbbassiya on p. 12 of his Prdhistoire...d'4gypte.

The Upper Acheulian industry of Khargais described in detail and fully illustrated byG. Caton-Thompson in her Kharga Oasis inPrehistory (London, 1952), pp. 22-26, 54-73,95-98, Plates X-LVI. See also McBurney,Stone Age of Northern Africa, pp. 59 f.;Alimen, Prehistory of Africa, pp. 90-92.The opinions of Miss Caton-Thompson andS. A. Huzayyin quoted in the seventhparagraph of this section are from Proc.Preh. Soc., XII (1946), 58, and Place of Egyptin Prehistory, p. 190, respectively.

The existence in Egypt of a well-definedMicoquian industry (Bovier-Lapierre, BIE,VIII, 268; Vandier, Manuel d'archdologiedgyptienne, I, 37) has been questioned bySandford and Arkell (Prehistoric Survey, II,75), by Caton-Thompson (Kharga Oasis, pp.19-20), and by Massoulard (Prdhistoire...d'Egypte, p. 12). See also Huzayyin, Place ofEgypt, p. 188, n. 4; Alimen, Prehistory, p. 92.

The industry of the 30-foot Nile terrace,described by Sandford and Arkell (Pre-historic Survey, III, 114, 126) as EarlyMousterian or Levalloisian, has been re-identified by Miss Caton-Thompson asAcheulio-Levalloisian and compared to thesimilar industry of Kharga (Proc. Preh. Soc.,XII [1946], 61, 69-81; Kharga Oasis, pp. viii,20, 26-28, 92-94, 99-103). Her conclusionshave been accepted by Huzayyin (Place of

Egypt, pp. 190-91, 193), McBurney (StoneAge, pp. 135-38, 153-55, figs. 9, 14), Butzer(Erdkunde, XIII, 55, 66), and others.

For the Acheulian finds in the Republicof the Sudan and in the vicinity ofEnnedi the principal references are A. J.Arkell, The Old Stone Age in the Anglo.Egyptian Sudan (1949), passim; The Archaeo-

logical News Letter, vol. II, No. 8 (1950),pp. 124 ff.; A History of the Sudan from theEarliest Times to 1821 (London, 1955),pp. 8-9; "Preliminary Report on theArchaeological Results of the British EnnediExpedition, 1957," Kush, VII (1959), 15-26(see pp. 16-19, 21, 23).

The hominid remains from Ternifine inAlgeria and the Sidi Abderrahman quarry,near Casablanca, are discussed, with ref-erences, by Alimen, Prehistory, pp. 330-31(see the Bibliography, p. 349, under "Aram-bourg, C."); Balout, Prdhistoire, pp. 123-24,262; and McBurney, Stone Age, pp. 99-101,118 (see the Bibliography, p. 275, under"Arambourg, C."). On the Kanam mandibleand the Kanjera skull fragments see Cole,The Prehistory of East Africa, pp. 82-88;Leakey, Stone Age Africa, pp. 165-66; and,on the question of their dating, P. 0. H.Boswell, "Human Remains from Kanamand Kanjera, Kenya Colony," Nature,March 9, 1935. See also Alimen, Prehistory,pp. 331-32.

The fluctuations in Egypt's climate re-ferred to in relation to the comings andgoings of Acheulian man have been outlinedin Chapter I, above (see especially the textand notes of the sections on Climate andChronology). On the important hand-axeindustries of East Africa we may consultAlimen, Prehistory, pp. 201-202, 212-14;Leakey, Stone Age Africa, pp. 41-47; Cole,Prehistory, pp. 117-49; Huzayyin, Place ofEgypt, pp. 196-97, 206-209; and, on that ofthe Republic of the Sudan, the works of A.J. Arkell cited above. The quotationsregarding the points of resemblance betweenthe Upper Acheulian of Kharga and that ofthe Sudan are taken from Caton-Thompson,Kharga Oasis, pp. 26, n. 2, 67, 72, n. 2. TheLower Paleolithic of Syria and Palestine is

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conveniently summarized by Huzayyin,

Place of Egypt, pp. 191-92. See also the

references cited in an earlier paragraph in

connection with the Upper Acheulian of

Kharga.Under the heading, "the Lower Savagery,"

Grahame Clark (From Savagery to Civiliza-

tion, pp. 26-43) groups all the pre-Upper

Paleolithic stages of man's development,

including the Acheulian and the succeeding

Mousterian or Levalloisian. On the hafting

of certain types of Acheulian implements or

weapons the clearest statements are those

of Caton-Thompson, Kharga Oasis, p. 62

("It is impossible to avoid the conclusion

that these forms were for hafting") and

Vignard, BIFAO, XX, 94-98. The use of the

bolas by Acheulian hunters is discussed by

Cole, Prehistory of East Africa, pp. 142-43,

and by Oakley, Man the Tool-maker, pp. 43-

45. See also Balout, Prdhistoire, p. 166 (cf.

pp. 164-72; Alimen, Prehistory, pp. 28-29,

33, 213; Arkell, Old Stone Age in the...

Sudan, p. 10). The Upper Acheulian deposits

around mound-spring KO 10 at Kharga

yielded a quartzite ball, 2J-3 in. in diameter

-perhaps a bola or a sling-stone (Caton-

Thompson, Kharga Oasis, p. 71). On Acheu-

lian man's methods of hunting, his probable

use of drop-traps, or game-pits, and the

formidable animals which in Kenya and in

Spain formed part of his diet see Cole, Pre-

history, p. 144; Oakley, Man the Tool-maker,

pp. 43-46; and Clark, From Savagery ... ,

p. 38; and on the animal remains found in

Paleolithic deposits at Kharga, Caton-

Thompson, Kharga Oasis, pp. 72, 79,

146, n. 1.

3. THE MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC AGEOur three principal sources of material on

the Middle Paleolithic age in the lower Nile

Valley and adjoining areas are Sandford and

Arkell's Prehistoric Survey (I, 28, 34-52, 71,

figs. 12-19; II, 16, 17, 25, 35-46, 57, 59,

76-78, 84, 86, Plates XXIX-XL; III, 64,

66-80, 114-18, 126, Plates XXXI-XXXVII;

IV, 54-68, 89-91, 98, Plates XXII-XXX);

Caton-Thompson, "The Levalloisian In-dustries of Egypt," Proceedings of the

Prehistoric Society, XII (1946), No. 4, pp. 57-

120 (see pp. 57-98); and the same author's

Kharga Oasis in Prehistory, pp. 26-29, 54,

57, 58, 73-80, 108-16, 139-44, 148, Plates

57-72. See also Huzayyin, Place of Egypt

pp. 212-29, Plates IX, X. Chapter IV

(pp. 129-89) of McBurney's Stone Age of

Northern Africa contains a valuable discus-

sion of the Middle Paleolithic of this area

with sections devoted to "Egypt" (pp. 135-

49) and "The Egyptian Oases" (pp. 149-62),

preceded on pp. 31-34 by a survey of the

Levalloisian and Mousterian industries in

general. Massoulard deals with "Le Pal6o-

lithique moyen" on pp. 13-15 and 25-26 of

his Prdhistoire et protohistoire d',gypte

(Pls. II-III); as does Vandier on pp. 37-43

of his Manuel d'archdologie gyptienne, Vol. I

(figs. 18-24). Among the more important

works on individual sites with Middle

Paleolithic material are Vignard, "Stations

paleolithiques de la carrire d'Abou el.

Nour," BIFAO, XX (1922), 96-105, figs. 4-

12, Plates X-XIX; Seligman, "The OlderPalaeolithic in Egypt," Journal of the Royal

Anthropological Institute, LI (1921), 115-43;

and the reports of Bovier-Lapierre on the

plain of Abbassiya (BIE, VIII [1926], 268-

70, 274, 275; L'Anthropologie, XXXV [1925],

43 ff.; etc.).The views of H. L. Movius, cited in the

first and third paragraphs of our text and

based in part on the indices obtained by F.

Bordes on Paleolithic techniques in Europe,

are drawn from his chapters on "Old World

Prehistory: Paleolithic" (in Anthropology

Today, an Encyclopedic Inventory, ed. by A.

L. Kroeber [Chicago, 1953], pp. 163-92),

p. 164, and "The Old Stone Age" (in Man,

Culture, and Society, ed. by H. L. Shapiro

[New York, 1956], pp. 49-93), pp. 60 if. To

be noted is the fact that Movius groups theLevalloisian tradition under "Lower Paleo-

lithic." See also Cole, Prehistory of East

Africa, p. 156. Other good general treat-

ments of the Levalloisian technique and in-

dustries will be found in Oakley, Man the

Tool-maker, pp. 49-52; Bordaz, Natural

History Magazine for February 1959, pp. 43-46; Zeuner, Dating the Past4 , pp. 288 ft.;

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Cole, op. cit., pp. 154 ff.; and McBurney,Stone Age of Northern Africa, pp. 132 if.

On the probability of a Lower Levalloisian(Riss-Wiirm) date for the 50-foot terrace ofnorthern Middle Egypt and the 131-footFayum beach see above, Chapter I, pp. 90,

94, 98, 106; and cf. Butzer, Quaternary

Stratigraphy, Table IV (p. 75), Egyptian

Stage 7, and Table VIII (p. 100), "Riss/Wiirm" (= "Lower Levallois") and "RissII" (= "Upper Acheulian" = Egyptian

Stages 8 and 9 of Tables IV and IX). MissCaton-Thompson's sequence of Fayum lakes,including her hypothetical 40-foot (10-metre)Lower Levalloisian lake, is presented in somedetail in Proc. Prehist. Soc., XII (1946), 90-97 (see also Huzayyin, Place of Egypt, pp.

84 ff.). It has been accepted by, among

others, McBurney, Stone Age of Northern

Africa, p. 146; Alimen, Prehistory of Africa,

p. 82 (for "40-metre beach" read "10-metre

[or 40-foot] beach"); and Ball, Contributionsto the Geography of Egypt, pp. 192-94. Cf.,

however, Sandford and Arkell, Prehistoric

Survey, I, 73; Butzer, op. cit., pp. 68, 71.

The quotations in the fourth paragraph

of our text come, respectively, from Mc.

Burney, op. cit., p. 139; Movius, "Old World

Prehistory: Paleolithic" (in Anthropology

Today), p. 176; and Sandford and Arkell,

Prehistoric Survey, II, 77; and those in the

fifth paragraph from Caton-Thompson, op.

cit., pp. 58, 84; and McBurney, op. cit.,

p. 155.The Mousterian, or "discoidal nucleus,"

technique of flake-tool production has "very

little in common" with the Levalloisiantechnique and at least "in its developed form

represents a distinctly different process"

(Movius, "The Old Stone Age," pp. 62-63;

McBurney, Stone Age of Northern Africa,

pp. 133-34). It is described in some detail by

Bordaz, Natural History Magazine, February

1959, pp. 43-46; by Movius, loc. cit.; and byMcBurney, loc. cit.; and the differences

between it and the generally earlier and to

some extent ancestral Levallois method areclearly pointed out by these authors. See

also, more recently, F. Bordes, "MousterianCultures in France," Science, Vol. CXXXIV,

No. 3482 (Sept. 22, 1961), pp. 803-810.Alimen (Prehistory of Africa, p. 92) remarksthat in Egypt "generally speaking, realMousterian artifacts with fine secondary re-touching are not to be found"; Caton-Thompson (Proc. Prehist. Soc., XII, 58)states that "'Mousterian' typology andtechnique" are "on the whole absent inEgyptian groups"; and, according to Huzay-yin (Place of Egypt, pp. 221-22), "TheMousterian technique sensu stricto appears to

be very little represented (if at all) inEgypt" and "Among the various finds fromEgypt, hardly any (or only very rare) flakes

exhibit the typical surface retouch of theMousterian proper." Prior, however, to1930, when the Abb6 H. Breuil (L'Afriqueprehistorique [Cahiers d'Art. Paris, 1930,

1931], p. 71) suggested the terms Levalloisianand Levalloiso-Mousterian as the appropriatedesignations of Egypt's Middle Paleolithicindustries, the latter were generally referredto as Mousterian and are so described in theworks of Bovier-Lapierre, Vignard, Selig-

man, and Sandford cited above (see, however,Sandford and Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, IV,

89). The expression is still retained by

Massoulard for reasons set forth in his Prd-histoire et protohistoire d'Agypte, p. 13, and-perhaps inadvertently-by Vandier in hisManuel d'archdologie egyptienne, I, 37 if.

Between them the two last-named workspretty well cover the distribution of Middle

Paleolithic implements (especially surface

finds) in the Egyptian area, the referencescited being in the main those listed above,

in the notes to our section on the "Abbevil-lians" (p. 178). To these may be addedSandford and Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, II,

16, 17, 35, 37; III, 64, 66; IV, 90, 91;Vignard, "Le Levalloisien du Gu6bel-

Silsild ... ," Bull. Soc. prdh. frang., LII

(1955), 214-18; Alimen, Prehistory, p. 92;

MeBurney, Stone Age, p. 161; Butzer,"Naturlandschaft," p. 62; Caton-Thompson,

Man, XXXI (1931), 77-84; Huzayyin,

Place of Egypt, Plate II.Details of the Levalloisian flaking sites, or

working floors, at Abbassiya, Abu el.Nur,Thebes, and Kharga are provided by Bovier-

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Lapierre, BIE, VIII, 274-75; Vignard,BIFAO, XX, 96 ff.; Sandford and Arkell,Prehistoric Survey, II, 29 (see also I, 45);McBurney, op. cit., p. 125; and Caton-Thompson, Kharga Oasis in Prehistory,pp. 76-78, 96-97, 104, 109 ff., 142.

On the character and distribution of theMiddle Paleolithic industries of the Repub-lic of the Sudan we may refer to A. J.Arkell, The Old Stone Age in the Anglo.Egyptian Sudan, pp. 2-3 (map and table),37, 45; The Archaeological News Letter, Vol.II, No. 8, p. 124; Cole, Prehistory of EastAfrica, pp. 37, 45, 160. Arkell's "PreliminaryReport on... the British Ennedi Expedi-tion, 1957" was published in Kush, VII(1959), 15-26. Here no Levalloisian finds arerecorded, but only implements described onpp. 19, 21, and 23 as "early Aterian" or as"intermediate between the Acheulean andthe Aterian." Incidentally, it should benoted that at the First Pan-African Congresson Prehistory, held at Nairobi in 1947, "itwas decided... to use the term 'facetedplatform"' to describe what we have beencalling the Levalloisian technique (Cole, op.cit., p. 154) and that this is the expressionemployed by Arkell in the works just cited.Cole, however, retains the more convenientterm "Levalloisian" (op. cit., pp. 155 ff.).For our purposes the related Middle andpost-Middle Paleolithic industries of Central,East, and South Africa-the so-called Proto-Stillbay, Stillbay, Fauresmith, and Sangoan(Tumbian)-are adequately dealt with byCole in the sixth chapter of her Prehistory ofEast Africa, pp. 152-82).

The relationship of the activities of MiddlePaleolithic man-i.e., the successive stagesof the Levalloisian and Levalloiso-Mousterianindustries-to the pluvial and interpluvialperiods of Egypt and of East Africa and tothe glacial and interglacial periods of alpineEurope are summarized by Butzer, Quater.nary Stratigraphy, pp. 64-71, 98, 102,Tables IV, VIII, and IX; and by Cole,Prehistory of East Africa, pp. 152 ff. (onthe naming, characteristics, and dating ofthe Kanjeran and Gamblian Pluvials seepp. 29, 47-52). See also Alimen, Prehistory

of Africa, pp. 88, 206-207, 216, 424-25.Among the many articles on Neanderthal

man which make up the NeanderthalCentenary 1856-1956 volume (Wenner GrenFoundation, Kemink en Zoon. Utrecht,1956) is one by C. B. M. MeBurney (pp. 253-64) on "Evidence for the Distribution inSpace and Time of Neanderthaloids andAllied Strains in Northern Africa." Here andin his Stone Age of Northern Africa (pp. 168,171, 187) McBurney discusses the associationof the Levalloiso-Mousterian industries ofCyrenaica and Palestine with the Neander-thaloid remains of Haua Fteah and MountCarmel, and speaks of "biological intercourseacross now formidable deserts, particularlythose separating the Nile Delta on the eastfrom the hills of Judea," arriving at the con-clusion that: "In a word, everything pointsto a close community between the humanpopulations of the Gebel Akhdar and westernAsia at this time" (Neanderthal Centenary,pp. 260-61. Cf. Arkell, History of the Sudan,p.. 9). Dr. Wiercinski's preliminary announce-ment of the three Neanderthaloid skullsfrom Maadi is reported by Edward Wente in"Newsletter Number Twenty-nine" of theAmerican Research Center in Egypt (May,1958, p. 2). A search through the biblio-graphical lists of the AnthropologischerAnzeiger for 1958-1961 has failed to discloseany additional publication of these skulls byDr. Wiercinski. Besides the works of Mc-Burney, just referred to, the Neanderthaloidsof Africa are described and discussed byAlimen, Prehistory of Africa, pp. 333-37; byCole, Prehistory of East Africa, pp. 74-76, 82,89-94; and by Leakey, Stone Age Africa,pp. 169-70, 194, 195. See also P. Oakley,"The Dating of Broken Hill (RhodesianMan)," Neanderthal Centenary, pp. 265-66.In this article Oakley concludes that theBroken Hill remains are of Upper Pleisto-cene, post-Acheulian date. The quotationregarding the Steinheim and EhringsdorfNeanderthaloids is from Cole, op. cit., p. 156;and that concerning the dating of the HauaFteah mandible from McBurney, Stone Ageof Northern Africa, p. 168.

Cole's remarks on Upper Pleistocene

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man's tendency toward specialization inthe forms of his implements is from herPrehistory of East Africa, p. 151. Thephysical characteristics of Neanderthal manand his relationship to Homo sapiens arediscussed by H. L. Shapiro in Man, Culture,and Society (New York, 1956), pp. 14-15,and by C. S. Coon in The Races of Europe(New York, 1939), pp. 14, 17, 23, 25-28. Thematerial on his cultural level, living habits,and hunting prowess is drawn from G.Clark, From Savagery to Civilization, pp. 39-43; C. S. Coon, The History of Man (London,1955), pp. 60ff.; The Story of Man (NewYork, 1958), pp. 57-69; "There are Neander-thals among Us," New York Times Magazine,March 12, 1961, pp. 32, 84, 86; V. G. Childe,Man Makes Himself (2d impression [London,1937]), pp. 56-60; Braidwood, PrehistoricMen (2d ed. [Chicago, 1951]), pp. 25, 26,32-36; Turner, The Great Cultural Traditions,I, 26-29; K. P. Oakley, Man the Tool-maker, pp. 49-56; and from other publica-tions, including the Neanderthal Centenaryvolume cited above. The equine and bovineteeth discovered in Upper Acheulian andLevalloisian contexts at Kharga are reportedby Caton-Thompson in Kharga Oasis inPrehistory, pp. 72, 79, 146, n. 1.

According to Oakley ("Use of Fire byNeanderthal Man and his Precursors,"Neanderthal Centenary, pp. 267-69) Paleo.lithic man used fire as a weapon of defenseagainst dangerous carnivores, for drivinggame into pitfalls or corrals, for fire-hardeningwooden spear tips, and in Middle Paleolithictimes probably for cooking his food (contraCoon, History of Man, p. 62). On the samesubject see also Oakley, "Fire as a Palaeo.lithic Tool and Weapon," Proc. Prehist. Soc.,N.S., XXI (1955), 36-48; and L. C. Eiseley,"Man the Fire.Maker," Scientific American,CXCI, 52-57.

The words of McBurney cited in the lastparagraph of this section will be found onp. 129 of his Stone Age of Northern Africa.With this statement may be compared thoseof Caton-Thompson in the opening para-graphs of her "The Levalloisian Industries ofEgypt" (Proc. Prehist. Soc., XII, 57-58).

4. THE CULTURES OF LATEPALEOLITHIC TIMES

The last nineteen pages of G. Caton.Thompson's much-cited article in theProceedings of the Prehistoric Society for 1946(Vol. XII, No. 4, pp. 57-120. See pp. 100-118) are devoted to a detailed discussion of"The Epi-Levalloisian Industries of Upperand Lower Egypt." Earlier in the samearticle (p. 59) she refers to the Epi-Levalloisian as "those varied regional in-dustries of Levalloisian technique anddescent which anachronistically occupy theUpper Palaeolithic period, and are physio-graphically linked with the silt r6gime inthe Nile Valley which succeeded the gravelregime." C. B. M. McBurney's brief, butinterestingly critical, treatment of the sameindustries occupies pp. 139-49 and 155 if. ofhis Stone Age of Northern Africa; and S. A.Huzayyin's thoughtful assessment of them,pp. 251-63 of his Place of Egypt in Prehistory(Pls. X-XII). The great wealth of materialcollected in Egypt and Nubia by Sandfordand Arkell and classified by them as "LatePaleolithic" (the term adopted here) or, lessaccurately, as "Sebilian" (without dueregard for regional differentiation) is pub-lished in their Prehistoric Survey, I, 52, 54-56,58-66, 71, 72, figs. 22-25; II, 38-52, 79-80,86-87, Plates XL-XLII; III, 81-96, 116-20,124-26, Plates XXXVIII, XXXIX; IV, 70,72-74, 89, 97, 98. Useful descriptions ofEgypt's Late Paleolithic cultures, which,however, must to some extent be emendedin the light of the studies cited above, areprovided by 1. Massoulard, Prdhistoire etprotohistoire d']gypte, pp. 16-23, 26-27; R.Cottevieille-Giraudet, "L'Egypte avantl'histoire" (BIFAO, XXXIII [1933], 1-168),pp. 19-46; J. Vandier, Manuel d'archiologie9gyptienne, I, 43-61; A. Scharff, Grundztigeder aegyptischen Vorgeschichte (Morgenland,Heft 12 [Leipzig, 1927]), pp. 12-15; DieAltertumer der Vor. und Frihzeit Agyptens(Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Mitteilungenaus der agyptischen Sammlung, Band IV[Berlin, 1931]), pp. 4-7; H. Obermaier,"Agypten. A. Paliaolithikum, 52" (in M.Ebert [ed.] ReleIkon der Vorgeschichte, I

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[Berlin, 1924]), 49-50. Also to be consulted

are Movius, "Old World Prehistory: Paleo-lithic" (in Anthropology Today), 175-76;"The Old Stone Age" (in Man, Culture, andSociety), pp. 86-87; Leakey, Stone Age Africa,pp. 114, 119, 177-78, 193; Butzer, "Natur-

landschaft," pp. 57, 58, 62-65.Our dating of the Late Paleolithic period

is derived from Butzer, Quaternary Strati-graphy (1958), pp. 15, 17, 41, 64-71, 75, 98-101, 103, 127, 128, 142; Geografiska Annaler,

XXXIX (1957), 49; Erdkunde, XI (1957),25; "Naturlandschaft," (1959), pp. 57, 60,62, 63; Caton-Thompson, Proc. Prehi8t.Soc., XII, 117, 118; McBurney, "Radio-carbon Readings and the Spread of theUpper Palaeolithic in Europe and theMediterranean Basin," Pro. I. N. Qu. A.(Madrid), 1957; Neanderthal Centenary, p.263; Stone Age of Northern Africa, pp. 42 n. 1,51, 52, 203, 204; McBurney and Hey (R. W.),Prehistory and Plei8tocene Geology in Cyren-aican Libya (Cambridge, 1955), pp. 218, n. 1;234, 235. Cf. Zeuner, Dating the Past4,pp. 229-48, 286-87, 291-97, 421-23; and

see the references to radiocarbon datescited above in the notes of Chapter I("Chronology").

On the Sebilian cultures of the Kom Ombobasin the source publications are P. Vignard,"Une nouvelle industrie lithique: le 'Sbi-lien,"' BIFAO, XXII (1923). 1-76, CartesNos. 1, 2, Plates I-XXIV; "Une nouvelle

industrie lithique: le 'S6bilien,"' Bulletin de

ka Societe~ pr~historique francaise, XXV(1928), 200-220, Plates I-XX; "Le Pal6o-

lithique en egypte," MIFAO, LXVI (1935-1938 =Afllan gee Maspero, I), pp. 165-75(see pp. 170-75); "Les mnicroburins Tarde-noisiens du Sebilien: fabrication; emplois;origine du microburin," Extrait du CongrAisprihistorique de France, Xe session (1934),pp. 66--106. The presence of Middle Sebilianimplements in wadi deposits near the villageof Qurna in western Thebes was reported hyButzer in 1959 (Erdkunde, XIII, 55 f.;"Naturlandschaft," p. 63); and the "Sebil-ian" surface stations of the region of Laqeita,some twenty-five miles east of the modernvillage of Qu a, a r iscussed by1 F. Deono

"Expedition archeologique royale au desertoriental ...," ASAE, LI (1951), 59-91 (see

pp. 61-64, 87-88, fig. 1). In 1956 Vignardpublished his discovery in the plain northeastof Kom Ombo of flaking sites of a post-Levalloisian ("Upper Paleolithic") industrymade up to a great extent of "large blades"(l. Vignard, "Les stations de taille de laplaine nord-est de Kom Ombo [Haute1 gypte]," Bull. Soc. Preh. franc., LIII[1956], 588-98). So far as is known, the

position of this industry in the Late Paleo-lithic prehistory of Upper Egypt-if that,indeed, is where it belongs-has not been

established.On the Late Paleolithic industries and

sites of northern Egypt there are, besidesthe important general works cited in the firstparagraph of these notes, a number ofreports on and discussions of individuallocalities and groups of implements. Seeespecially S. A. Huzayyin, "New Light onthe Upper Palaeolithic of Egypt," Pro-ceedings of the Fan-African Congress onPrehistory, 1947 (Oxford, 1952), pp. 202-204;"Recent Studies on the Technological Evolu-tion of the Upper Palaeolithic of Egypt,"Congres International des Sciences Pre-

histortques et Protohistoriques, Actes de la lISession, Zurich 1950 (Zurich, 1953), pp. 174-76; R. Vaufrey, "Vari tSs. Section II.Paldolithique et Mesolithique," L'Anthropo-logie, LV (1951), 288-90 (see p. 290); Alimen,Prehistory, p. 95; A. M. Montet, "Lesindustries levalloisiennes d'Heliopolis etd'Abu Suwair (egypte)," Bulletin de laSoci~i Prehistorique f ranf~aise, LIV (1957),329-39. The microliths collected by H.Junker at Abu Ghalib are published by himin Bertcht caber die von der Akademie derWissenschaften in Wien mach dem Westdeltaenisendete Expedition (20. Dezember 1927 bis25. Februar 1928), (Vienna and Leipzig,1928), pp. 5-14, Pls. I, II, XI-XIII;and their dating is discussed by Caton-Thompson, Proc. Preh. Soc., XII (1946),116-17; H. Larsen, "Vorbericht uiber dieschwedischen Grabungen in Abu Ghalib1932--1934," MDIK, VI (1935), 41-87 (seepp. 44-50)

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The Late Paleolithic cultures of KhargaOasis, including the Aterian, are discussedand illustrated by G. Caton-Thompson inher Kharga Oasis in Prehistory (London,1952), pp. 11, 29-32, 106-107, 116-39,Pls. 73-93. Of basic importance is the sameauthor's lecture on "The Aterian Industry:Its Place and Significance in the PalaeolithicWorld (The Huxley Memorial Lecture for1946)," published in The Journal of the RoyalAnthropological Institute of Great Britain andIreland, LXXVI (1946), 87-130. Valuableand often divergent assessments of the samematerial are provided by C. B. M. McBurneyin The Stone Age of Northern Africa(Harmondsworth, 1960), pp. 155-61, 177-89, 223. Some points of evolved Aterian typefound in the vicinity of Laqeita in theEastern Desert are illustrated by F. Debono,ASAE, LI (1951), 64-65, 88, Pls. IIb andIIIb. Miss Caton-Thompson (Kharga Oasis,pp. 32-36, 159-64, Pls. 94-100) favors apre-Neolithic date for the Bedouin Micro-lithic, which, however, must be one of thecultures assigned by McBurney (op. cit.,p. 161) to a time not "earlier than the thirdor fourth millennia B.c., during a widelyattested period of slight recovery of therainfall."

Excellent and, for our purpose, whollyadequate accounts of the Upper Paleolithicblade-industries of Europe, Africa, andWestern Asia are provided by Movius("The Old Stone Age," pp. 64-74, 86 ff.),

Balout, Prdhistoire de l'Afrique du Nord,pp. 339-448; McBurney (Stone Age ofNorthern Africa, pp. 34-44, 48-52, 56-60,190-228. The words quoted in our text arefrom p. 226), Cole (Prehistory of East Africa,pp. 182 ff.), Alimen (Prehistory of Africa,pp. 50-64, 157-60, 188-91, 214-16, 301 ff.),

and Huzayyin (Place of Egypt, pp. 243-51,263-68). The techniques of blade-tool pro-duction are described in some detail byBordaz, Natural History Magazine forJanuary 1959, pp. 46-51.

On the so-called "Upper Aurignacian" ofthe Champ de Bagasse (E. Vignard, "Unestation aurignacienne a Nag-Hamadi [Haute

gypte]: Station du Champ de Bagasse,"

BIFAO, XVIII [1921], 1-20; "Stationaurignacienne de Champ de Bagasse bNag-Hamadi [Haute Egypte]," Bull. Soc.Prdhist. franc., XXVI [1929], 199-306; J.Vandier, Manuel d'archdologie dgyptienne, I,54-57, 59 ff.) see especially Huzayyin, Placeof Egypt, pp. 236-37; Alimen, Prehistory ofAfrica, p. 101; and Massoulard, Prdhistoire etprotohistoire d'lAgypte, pp. 16-17.

The application of the term "Capsian"(from a site near Gafsa, Roman Capsa, insouthern Tunisia) to one or more of the LatePaleolithic industries of Egypt is, un-fortunately, fairly widespread in books andarticles on Egyptian prehistory (e.g., Scharff,Grundziige der aegyptischen Vorgeschichte,pp. 14-15; Die Altertimer der Vor- undFrihzeit Agyptens, pp. 4-7; Cottevieille-Giraudet, BIFAO, XXXIII, 19-38; Junker,Westdelta, pp. 8-14; Vandier, Manuel, I,53-61). According, however, to Huzayyin("Recent Studies," p. 174; Place of Egypt,pp. 247, 259, 267) ". .. the Upper Palaeo-lithic of Egypt has no affinities with theAurgnacian or the Capsian..."; "... it iscertain that the Capsian sensu stricto has notso far been recorded in N. Libya or Egypt(or Palestine)"; the small narrow bladeswhich occur at Abu Suwair "are differentfrom the blades of either the Aurignacian orthe Capsian, ... "; and the Capsian does not"seem to have spread, to any appreciableextent, along the Mediterranean Belt in thedirection of N.E. Africa or Palestine, The Up.and Final Palaeolithic cultures of these latterregions (especially N.E. Africa) had adifferent technique." McBurney (Stone Age ofNorthern Africa, pp. 223-28 passim) notesthat the small-scale backed-blade-industriesof the Fayum and Kharga are "totallylacking in the evolved geometrical forms ofthe Typical Capsian and Upper Capsian . . .";that the Sirtican microlithic culture "pro-vides the most easterly versions" of theUpper Capsian trapeze "among huntingpeoples north of the Sahara"; that while avery late (Mesolithic) hunting culture nearKhartoum "does offer some of the forms ofthe Latest Capsian and its Neolithic deriva-tives" and the Capsian may possibly have

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passed "undetected" along the Delta coast

en route from the Levant to the GebelAkhdar "no trace of such an event has yetbeen detected in the desert near Cairo,further south, or in the region between theDelta and Suez"; and that "during the final

hunting period the cleavage lies, in essence,between the predominantly Upper Capsianprovince in the west" and "the Cyrenaicantraditions dominated by burins, end-scrapers,and non-geometric microliths most clearlypointing to the Levant." On the so-calledCapsian sites near Aswan and Luxor, theGebel Uweinat, and the oases of Bahariaand Farafra (Vandier, Manuel, I, 57-58)Alimen (Prehistory of Africa, p. 101 [for"Aterian" read "Capsian" (see Prdhi8toirede l'Afrique, p. 127)]) has this to say: "Theindustries from these sites are characterizedby backed blades and microburins and by ageneral tendency towards microlithismwhich, perhaps, do not constitute a realCapsian." It may also be noted, in passing,that according to D. A. E. Garrod and D. M.A. Bate (The Stone Age of Mount Carmel[Oxford, 1937], p. 119) there is no trueCapsian in Palestine.

The conclusions of Movius and Caton.Thompson on the Late Paleolithic industriesof Egypt are taken, respectively, from theformer's "Old World Prehistory: Palaeo-lithic" (Anthropology Today), p. 176, andfrom the latter's "Levalloisian Industries"(Proc. Preh. Soc., XII), pp. 57, 100, andKharga Oasis, p. 30. Huzayyin's importantreassessment of the Late Paleolithic in-dustries of northern Egypt is contained inhis already cited "Recent Studies on... theUpper Palaeolithic of Egypt" (Congr. In-ternat. Sciences Prdh. et Protohist., Acte8 dela IIIH Session Zurich 1950, pp. 174-76).The same author (Place of Egypt, p. 260, n. 3)speaks of "an unknown gap in technologicalevolution between the late DiminutiveLevallois" and the "industry of Hilwan,"and A. J. Arkell (Archaeological NewsLetter, II, No. 8, p. 124) of the "gap betweenthe end of the Palaeolithic and the rise ofCivilisation"; but to some prehistorians thishiatus is not discernible. Alimen (Pre.

history of Africa, p. 425), for example, says:"The Palaeolithic-Mesolithic gap, so markedin western Europe, does not exist in Africa.In varying ways, but, all the same, almosteverywhere, there is an insensible transitionto microlithism, whether it be from Capsian,Levalloiso-Khargan, Sebilian, Magosian,Smithfield or Lupemban." Butzer (Quater-nary Stratigraphy, p. 99), referring to the"Diminutive Levalloisian" of Egypt, says:"This graded into a microlithic stage thatcan be observed until the onset of the Neo-lithic." Caton-Thompson (Proc. Preh. Soc.,XII, 117, 118) speaks of the "earlier micro.lithic industries of Egypt which directlysucceed Epi-Levalloisian II," and notes thatthe Sebilian industry develops "through themedium of steep marginal retouch, into oneof a backed-blade, microlithic character,"adding that this "probably happened else-where too," the "regional microlithic groups"resulting from the "needs for new toolscommon throughout Egypt."

The appearance and earliest examples ofHomo sapiens in North and East Africa arediscussed, with references, by McBurney,Stone Age of Northern Africa, pp. 35-37, 46,48, 186-87; Cole, Prehistory of East Africa,pp. 74, 80-82, 101, 157; and Alimen, Pre-history of Africa, pp. 337-40, 348. Thehuman remains from Kom Ombo in UpperEgypt and Qau in Middle Egypt wereexamined by Dr. Douglas E. Derry of Cairo,Sir Arthur Keith of the Royal College ofSurgeons, London, and Sir Elliot Smith.They have not been adequately published,but are referred to in varying degrees ofdetail by K. S. Sandford, Prehistoric Survey,III, 85, 86; "The Fossil Bones found atQau .. .," The Quarterly Journal of theGeological Society of London, LXXXV (1929),536; F. Petrie, "Early Man in Egypt," Man,XXV (1925), 130; S. A. Huzayyin, Place ofEgypt, pp. 272, 273; and Massoulard, Prd.histoire et protohistoire d'fgypte, pp. 391-92,417.

On the associated fauna our principalreferences are: C. Gaillard, "Contribution &l'6tude de la faune prdhistorique dell'fgypte," Archive du Mued-m d'Histoire

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Nat urelle de Lyon, XIV (1934), M6moire III,pp. 13-56; L. Joleaud, "Progres recents denos connaissances sur la geologie du Quater-naire et sur La Prehistoire do 1'lgypte,"Revue generale des Sciences pures et appliquees,XLIV (1933), 601-608 (see pp. 602-606);K. S. Sandford, "The Pliocene and Pleisto-cene Deposits of Wadi Qena and of the NileValley between Luxor and Assiut (Qau).VIII. The Fossil Bones found at Qau, andBeds proved in Borings," The QuarterlyJournal of the Geological Society of Lowdon,LXXXV (1929), 536-41; Prehistoric Survey,III, 84-88, 125; K. S. Sandford and W. J.Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, II, 38 (n. 5), 46,52; Huzayyin, Place of Egypt, pp. 81-82;Vignard, BIFAO, XXII (1923), 12, 27, 64-65; Bull. Soc. Prehist. franc., XXV (1928),203, 207, 216; Butzer, "Naturlandschaft,"pp. 63-64. On the secondary deposits ofanimal bones at Qau see also G. Brunton,Qau and Badari III (British School ofArchaeology in Egypt, 1926), p. 20; Massou-lard, Prehistoire..., pp. 391-92.

The probability of a western Asiaticorigin for the Homo sapiens population ofnortheastern Africa is discussed by Me-Burney, Neanderthal Centenary, p. 263;

Stone Age of Northern Africa, pp. 46, 48. Seealso Oakley, Man the Tool-maker, pp. 56-57, 74.

The pro- or proto-Bushman skull found atSinga has been published by A. S. Woodward,"A Fossil Skull of an Ancestral Bushman,"~Antiquity, XII (1938), 190-95; and has beendiscussed by A. J. Arkell, The Old Stone Agein the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, pp. 45, 47;Cole, Prehistory of East Africa, pp. 95-96;Alimen, Prehistory of Africa, pp. 342-43.The remarks on this skull cited in our textare those of McBurney (Neanderthal Cent-enary, p. 262).

H. Breuil ("Les gravures rupestres duDjebel Ouenat," Revue Scientifique, LXVI[1928], 106) would attribute some early rockdrawings of giraffes and ostriches found byHassanein Bey at Uweinat to Upper Paleo-lithic hunters, and Sandford and Arkell(Prehistoric Survey, II, 70-7 1) favor an

Wadi ol Arab in Nubia. Alimen (Prehistoryof Africa, p. 372), however, has this to sayon the subject: "Various authorities (such asG. B. M. Flamand and H. Kuhn) haveassigned the most ancient engravings to thelate Paleolithic. However, the tendency,nowadays, is to follow the lead of the lateH. Obermaier and of R. Vaufrey and toconsider the earliest of the rock-engravingsas Neolithic." See also McBurney, Stone Ageof Northern Africa, pp. 258-74 (especiallypp. 272-74); Huzayyin (1939), Bull. Soc.Roy. Giog. d'tgypte, XX, 213-15.

The term "(higher) savagery" and "(Neo.lithic) barbarism" to describe, respectively,the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic levels ofhuman existence are used by, among others,G. Clark, Fron Savagery to Civilization(London, 1946), pp. 43ff., 69ff.; and G.Childe, What Happened in History (Har-mondsworth, 1952), pp. 36 ff., 48 ff.

On the practice of cannibalism amongUpper Paleolithic peoples see, for example,Clark, op. cit., pp. 60--6.

The quotations in the final paragraph ofour text are from G. Caton-Thompson, Proc.

Preh. Soc., XII (1946), 59; Alimen, Pre-hiatory of Africa, p. 103; and Clark, op.cit., p. 44.

5. THE FINAL PALEOLITHIC, OR

MESOLITHIC, STAGEApproximate absolute dates for the Meso-

lithic phase of human prehistory in the NearEast are supplied by K. W. Butzer, Quater-nary Stratigraphy (1958), pp. 99-103 (see

also pp. 17, 128). These agree well with themore recent findings of H. L. Movius,Current Anthropology, I (1960), 374 (1 and in),

though, as the latter points out, Carbon-14dates are still lacking for the early Mesolithic.

Movius in his "Old Stone Age" (pp. 75 ff.)gives a brief but clear picture of the Meso-lithic stage in general, which may be ampli-fied by referring to such works as Bordaz,Natural History Magazine, Feb. 1959, pp.93 ff.; Coon, The Races of Europe, pp. 56-77;Clark, From Savagery to Civilization, pp.62 ff.; Burkitt, The Old Stone Age, pp. 240-42.4 6;Mttakley, Ma__ n/ the. Tol-maer ,..

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pp. 68, 84; MacCurdy, Human Origins, II,3-20; Turner, The Great Cultural Traditions,I, 51 if., 58; and Cole, Prehistory of EastAfrica, pp. 195-214.

A good bibliography on the much ex-plored and much published Mesolithicstations at Helwan is provided by Massoulardin his Prghistoire et protohistoire d'gypte,pp. 29-30, 52, nn. 3 if. To the referencesgiven there may now be added Huzayyin,BSRGE, XX (1939), 210, 211, 224-26;Place of Egypt, pp. 260, 263, 289-90, 294;

Alimen, Prehistory of Africa, pp. 101-103;Cottevieille-Giraudet, BIFAO, XXXIII(1933), 38-40; Vandier, Manuel d'archeologieegyptienne, I, 57 if.; and Movius, "Old WorldPrehistory: Paleolithic," p. 176. In 1936 thesite was re-explored by Fernand Debonoand the interesting results of his investiga-tions are incorporated in his report, "LePaleolithique final et le M6solithique lHelouan," ASAE, XLVIII (1948), 629-37.The possibility of the Heiwan industry'shaving been an importation from Palestineis discussed by J. de Morgan, La prlhistoireorientate, II (1926), 69; D. A. E. Garrod, "ANew Mesolithic Industry, the Natufian ofPalestine," JRAI, LXXII (1932), 268; D. A.E. Garrod and D. M. A. Bate, The Stone Ageof Mount Carmel (1937), pp. 30-37; Massou-lard, Pr#histoire et protohistoire d'Egypte,p. 30; McBurney, Stone Age of NorthernAfrica, p. 226; and Debono, ASAE, XLVIII,636. Huzayyin's somewhat divergent viewson the subject are expressed in BSRGE, XX,224-26; and Place of Egypt, pp. 260, 263,

289-90, 294. On the Egyptian Mesolithic in

general see also Butzer, BSGE, XXXII(1959), 49--50, 79-82.

To Debono we owe a report on the UpperPaleolithic and Mesolithic of the Laqeitaarea in the Eastern Desert in ASAE, LI(1951), 64-66 ("Expedition archeologiqueroyale au Desert Oriental [Keft.Kosseir] ...3. Paleolithique sup rieur et M6solithique" );and to P. Bovier-Lapierre similar reports on

the microlithic industries and associatedfinds at Aswan and Ain Dalla in BI E,XVI (1934), 128 ("Industries prdhistoriquesdans l'1e_d1'1_lephant eaxenirn

d'Assouan"), and in BIE, XII (1930), 126

("Recentes explorations de S. A. S. le PrinceKemal el-Din Hussein dans le DesertLibyque"). See also Vandier, Manuel

d'arch*5ologie egyptienne, I, 57. 58.The microlithic industry of the site now

generally known as el-Oman, a mile andthree-quarters to the north of Heiwan, atthe mouth of the Wadi el-Hof, is referred toby Bovier-Lapierre in the Compte rendu ofthe Congrs International de G#ographie, LeCaire, Avril, 1925, Vol. IV (Cairo, 1926),p. 306; "L'Egypte prehistorique" (in Prcisde l'histoire d'Agypte, I), 34; by Cottevieille-Giraudet, BIFAO, XXXIII (1933), 40; andby Butzer, BSGE, XXXII (1959), 49. Onthe naming of the site see Bovier-Lapierre,Compte rendu.. ., pp. 268-270. The industryof the Wadi Angabiya has not been publishedin extenso, but is briefly described andillustrated by Huzayyin in BSRGE, XX(1939), 210, 211, P1. II, Nos. 25-32 ("SomeNew Light on the Beginnings of EgyptianCivilisation .. ."); and in The Place of Egypt,pp. 257 n. 2, 260, 297, 430, P1. XII, Nos. 33-37. See also Caton-Thompson, Proc. Preh.Soc., XII (1946), 116. The Fayum microlithsare published by G. Caton-Thompson andE. X. Gardner, The Desert Fayum, pp. 30,55, 58, 59, 67, 68, Pls. XLVIII, XLIX; andare discussed by Caton-Thompson, Proc.Preh. Soc., XII (1946), 117-18; Sandfordand Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, I, 60-61, 66;Huzayyin, BSRGE, XX, 210, 226, 232-34;Place of Egypt, pp. 290, 296-98; and Mc-Burney, Stone Age of Northern Africa, p. 223.Though apparently contemporaneous withthe "Fayum A" and "Fayum B" culturesof late Neolithic and post-Neolithic timesthey are described by Huzayyin (Place ofEgypt, p. 290) as "of definite Final Palaeo-lithic descent." On the surface finds ofmicroliths at Siwa see especially Huzayyin,BSRGE, XX, 234; Place of Egypt, p. 298;McBurney, Stone Age of Northern Africa,pp. 224-25; McBurney, Prehi story andPleistocene Geology in Cyreniaican Libya(Cambridge, 1955), pp. 251-62.

The Mesolithic culture of Khartoum ispubisedbyA. .ArkelEalyKrt1m

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PALEOLITHIC MAN IN EGYPT8

An Account of the Excavation of an EarlyOccupation Site carried out by the SudanGovernment Antiquities Service in 1944-5(Oxford, 1949); and is discussed in varyingdegrees of detail by C. B. M. McBurney, Proc.Preh. Soc., XV (1949), 197-99; Stone Age ofNorthern Africa, pp. 59 n. 1, 242-44; Cole,Prehistory of East Africa, pp. 104, 211-14; R.Vaufrey, L'Anthropologie, LIV (1950), 478-81; and others (see J. M. A. Janssen, AnnualEgyptological Bibliography, Indexes 1947-1956 [Leiden, 1960], p. 20). See also Myers,Kush, VIII (1960); Cesnola, Kush, VIII(1960); Save-Soderbergh, Kush, X (1962).

Because of the continuity which existsbetween the Late and Final Paleolithic(sub-microlithic and microlithic) industriesof Sebil and Kharga the latter have beendiscussed and documented in the text andnotes of our preceding section. The in-tensification of regional differences in FinalPaleolithic times is referred to by Huzayyin,Place of Egypt, pp. 263, 269-70; "RecentStudies ... ," p. 211; and by Caton-Thompson, Proc. Preh. Soc., XII (1946),117. In the first reference Huzayyin remarksthat the cultural isolation of the varioussections of Egypt maintained itself although"the Nile continued to facilitate migrations."At Sebil the derivation of Sebilian III from

Sebilian II is noted by Caton-Thompson,Proc. Preh. Soc., XII (1946), 117; andHuzayyin, Place of Egypt, p. 253. Huzayyin(op. cit., p. 260) suggests that "it was perhapsfrom" the "Diminutive Levalloisian" ofnorthern Egypt "that the microlithic (partlyFinal Palaeolithic? and certainly later) faciesdiscovered on the surface (and so of ratheruncertain date) at Hilwan and Wadi cAnga-biya (Pl. XII, 33-45) was evolved (thoughonly indirectly)." See also Butzer, QuaternaryStratigraphy, p. 99. The quotation at the endof our antepenultimate paragraph is fromMcBurney (Stone Age of Northern Africa,p. 226), who says: "A final wave of huntersfrom the Levant brought the Natufian

culture as far as the eastern Delta, but did

not apparently penetrate further west."K. W. Butzer studies the "Postpluvial"-

i.e., Final Paleolithic to Neolithic---climatic

stages and developments in the Near Eastin some detail in his Quaternary Stratigraphy,pp. 101, 127-28; and it is he who suggests apopulation of 1000 for the Nile Valley andDelta about 5000 B.c. (BSGE, XXXII[1959], 50). Butzer's assertion that "dieeinladenden Ufer des Fayumsees warenanscheinend ur 5000 v. Chr. zuerst nochunbesiedelt" ("Naturlandschaft," p. 65) isderived from Caton-Thompson and Gardner,The Desert Fayum (see especially pp. 1 and88). The phrase "gap between the end ofthe Palaeolithic and the rise of civilisation"is used by A. J. Arkell in ArchaeologicalNews Letter, vol. II, No. 8, p. 124. The co-existence of Mesolithic and Neolithic culturesin Egypt is discussed by Huzayyin, BSRGE,XX (1939), 211,212, 216, 218, 219, 226, 232-35, 258; "Recent Studies.. .," pp. 175-76;Caton-Thompson and Gardner, The DesertFayum, p. 30. The relationship of the Meso-lithic in general to the preceding Paleolithicand the succeeding Neolithic is clearlydefined by Movius, "The Old Stone Age" (inShapiro, Man, Culture, and Society), p. 75.Butzer's cited comment on the effect of thecontact between the Final Paleolithic andearly Neolithic peoples of Egypt will befound in BSGE, XXXII (1959), 44.

On the recurrence of microlithic industriesin Egypt in later prehistoric and historictimes see especially Huzayyin, Place ofEgypt, pp. 270-71; Caton-Thompson, Proc.Preh. Soc., XII, 116-17; and Larsen, MDIK,VI (1935), 44-50; and on the use of tinyblades and barbs of quartz and flint onhunting arrows of the Eighteenth Dynastysee, for example, H. Bonnet, Die Waffen derVolker des alten Orients (Leipzig, 1926),p. 161; W. Wolf, Die Bewaffnung des alt.tgyptischen Heere8 (Leipzig, 1926), p. 85; G.

Daressy, Fouilles de la Vallde des Rois(COG, Nos. 24001-24990), Nos. 24083,24085, Pl. XII; A. Lansing and W. C. Hayes,BMMA, XXXII (1937), January, Sect. II,p. 12, fig. 21.

The rock-engravings of the so-calledEarliest Hunters are published by H. A.Winkler, Rock Drawings of Southern UpperEgypt (Sir Robert Mond Desert Expedition.

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2 vols. London, 1938, 1939), I, 28-29, 31-32,49, Pis. XXVI-XXXII; H, 31--35, Pis.LI-LXI. See also Winkler, Valker undVolkerbewegungen im vorgeschichtlichen Ober-agypten im Lichte neuer Feisbilderfunde

(Stuttgart, 1937); J. H. Dunbar, The Rock-Picture8 of Lower Nubia (Service des Anti-quits de l'1Egypte [Cairo, 1941]); Sandfordand Arkell, Prehistoric Survey, II, 63-71;Caton-Thompson, Kharga Oasis in Pre-history, pp. vi-vii; Alimen, Prehistory of

Africa, pp. 371-74; McBurney, Stone Age of

Northern Africa, pp. 271--72. The associationof these drawings with a "Mesolithic ratherthan a Neolithic culture" is discussed byButzer, BSGE, XXXII (1959), 81-82. In

his discussion Butzer points out that thereis no evidence that these people "keptdomestic animals" and draws attention to

the "cultural impetus of rock drawings fromMesolithic Spain."

Groups of large flint implements from theWadi el-Sheikh, in Middle Egypt, have beencompared to those of the Mesolithic cultureof Campigny in northern France (Seton-Karr, JRAI, XXVII [1898], 90 if.; Scharif,Altertiimer der Vor- und Frizhzeit Agyptens,pp. 7-8), but the resemblance seems to besuperficial and without immediate culturalor chronological significance (Caton-

Thompson, Kharga Oasis in Prehistory, pp.187-96; Huzayyin, Place of Egypt, p. 307,n. 2. See also Vandier, Manuel d'archiologieegyptienne, I, 62-63). The implements inquestion apparently range in date from thePredynastic Period to the Middle Kingdom(Baumgartel and Brotzen, Pra h. Zeitschrift,XVIII, 100 ff.).

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3THE NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COM-

MUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

1. NEAR EASTERN ORIGINS

IT will have become apparent thatsuch terms as "Paleolithic" and "Mesolith-ic" do not imply "absolute periods oftime," but are simply designations of broadand often overlapping stages of culturaldevelopment as observed at various timesin various individual localities. This istrue also, and to an equal degree, of theso-called Neolithic, or New Stone Age, aphase in man's cultural evolution whichin the Near East extended roughly from7500 to 3000 B.C., in Britain from 2500 to1800 B.C., and in some of the world's moresecluded backwaters down into modemrntimes. The stage itself is characterized by

the use of both flaking and grinding (orpolishing) in the preparation of stone toolsand weapons, by the inauguration of foodproduction through stock breeding andagriculture, and by the adoption, thanksto this new economy, of an increasinglysedentary type of existence in more orless permanent dwellings grouped togetherto form settlements ranging in size fromsmall farming villages to good-sized towns.It is also characterized, thanks in part tothe security and the leisure provided bythe new form of livelihood, by notableincreases in the population and by markeddevelopments in the fields of religion,

politics, commerce, science, craftsmanship,and art-the components of what we areaccustomed to call "civilization."

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92 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

In the Near East the earliest evidences ofman's transition from the nomadic lifeof the hunter to the more settled existenceof the farmer are found in southwesternAsia, in the long arc of grassy uplandswhich form the outer flanks of Breasted's"Fertile Crescent," curving around fromthe Iranian plateau, through northern Iraqand southern Armenia, and down intoSyria and Palestine. Here the goat and thesheep, the first food animals to be domesti-cated by man, occur in profusion in a wildstate, and at Qalat Jarmo in Iraq a formintermediate between the wild bezoar andthe later domestic species of goat has beenfound in an early Neolithic context. Herealso grow the wild ancestors of wheat andbarley, the Neolithic farmer's basic crops,the cultivation of which probably origi-nated in Palestine and is attested in Iraqby 6000 B.C., early forms of cultivatedwheat and two-row barley having beenfound in the pre-pottery Neolithic villageat Jarmo. Encampments partaking of thenature of villages, with sunken, plaster-lined shelters and storage bins, are alreadyknown in the Mesolithic (Natufian) ofJordan and in the contemporaneousKarim Shahir culture of Iraqi Kurdistan.At Tell el - Sultan (Jericho) in southernPalestine a fortified proto-Neolithic villageof mud-brick houses has been dated byradiocarbon tests to before 6800 B.c., atRas Shamra (Ugarit) in northern Syriasimilar houses solidly constructed onfoundations of large stones are assigned tothe seventh millennium B.C., and at Jarmorectangular houses of packed mud or pis6construction range back in time into thelatter part of the same millennium. Onthese sites the earlier settlement levelshave produced no trace of pottery vesselsand the cultures which they represent areaccordingly designated as pre-pottery, orpreceramic, Neolithic. In southern Anatoliaand the mainland of Greece, on the other

hand, well made pottery appears to havebeen present from the very beginning ofNeolithic times.

Jericho lies a scant two hundred milesto the east of the Nile Delta, and it wouldseem inevitable that a Neolithic, food-producing, village culture of the typeattested there before 7000 B.C. should havereached northern Egypt from this immedi-ately adjacent southwest Asian area in thecourse of the seventh or, at the latest, thesixth millennium B.C. This assumption issupported by a radiocarbon date from theHaua Fteah cave in Cyrenaica whichindicates that by 4850 B.C. immigrantsfrom the east bringing with them aprimitive Neolithic culture had alreadytraversed the Delta and settled furtherto the west in the coastal region of Libya.The earliest settlement remains so fardiscovered in Egypt-on the northernfringe of the Fayum and at the west Deltasite of Merimda Beni Salama-seem todate, however, from the fifth millenniumB.C. and, though primitive in some respects,contain numerous pottery vessels andother elements of fairly well developedtypes. Butzer is inclined to push theFayum "A" Neolithic back to about 5500B.C., and Larsen has suggested a dateof 5040 B.C. for the lowest level ofthe Merimda settlement, disregarding oremending the evidently somewhat lowradiocarbon readings of 4440 and 4145B.C. obtained for the former and 4130 B.C.for the latter. Dr. Baumgartel, on theother hand, repudiates the use of the termNeolithic in connection with either of thesesites and would see in the Fayum and westDelta settlements retarded, marginalcultures of Chalcolithic times, contempo-raneous, respectively, with the so-calledPredynastic (Naqada I and II) cultures ofUpper Egypt. With this it is difficult toagree, especially in view of the Carbon 14results so far obtained, which tend to place

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NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 93

the Predynastic finds five hundred to athousand years later in absolute time thanthe metal-free and generally more primitiveassemblages of the Fayum and Merimda.

2. THE FAYUM SETTLEMENTS

It was apparently during the eighthmillennium B.C. that the lower Nile, inresponse to the rise in sea level known asthe Flandrian Transgression, began toaggrade its bed and send its waters onceagain through the Hawara Channel intothe Fayum, reflooding the depression andcreating a new, post-Paleolithic lake whichin the course of time reached an elevationof 59 feet (18 meters) above present sealevel. Two of the small Neolithic encamp-ments strung out along the northern rimof the depression from Dimai to a pointnorth of Kom Aushim may have beenestablished on the shore of this high-levellake; but most of the settlements of theso-called Fayum "A" culture, to whichthese two camps ("M" and "Zl") alsobelong, date from a slightly later periodwhen, owing to the silting up of theHawara Channel, the lake had sunk to33 feet (10 metres) above sea level, leavingalong its margins expanses of rich lacustrinesilt, suitable for hoe cultivation of theprimitive type practiced by the firstNeolithic settlers in the region. The longperiod of equilibrium maintained by thelake at this level is undoubtedly to beassociated with the increase in rainfalland general betterment of climatic condi-tions which, toward the end of the sixthmillennium B.c., ushered in the so-calledNeolithic Sub-pluvial, or Moist Interval,facilitated agriculture and stock farming,and led to "the resumption of widespreadcultural contacts and intercommunica-tions" throughout the Near East.

For their settlements the Fayum-Apeople selected sites in the lee of the low

sandrock "buttes" which ring the northshore of the lake, usually near an inlet orother indentation in the shoreline, wherethe fishing would have been good, andnever very far from the level stretches ofold lake bed upon which they grew theirmodest crops of wheat and barley. Of theirflimsy huts or shelters, built probablyagainst the protective masses of sandrock,nothing now remains; but the village sitesare marked by sunken hearths, or fire-holes, ranging in number up to betweentwo and three hundred for a singlesettlement (Kom W) and having occasion-ally coarse pottery cooking vessels, con-taining the bones of fish and animals, stillin position in them. It is clear that fishingand hunting in and along the shores of thelake itself provided an important part ofthe settler's food supply, the wild gameavailable locally including hippopotamus,elephant, crocodile, pig, Bubalis, andseveral carnivores. There is no evidencethat domestic animals "played much, ifany part in this lake-side economy"; andthe scanty remains of sheep or goat foundmay belong to wild species, such as theAmmotragus, the same being true of theremains of cattle. Groups of grain storagepits, or silos, sunk in the high groundadjoining the settlements and often linedwith coiled straw matting, indicate, how-ever, not only that food production byagriculture was well advanced, but that,locally at least, it was organized on acommunity basis; and the fact that grainsof emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum) andsix-row barley (Hordeum hexastichum)found in the silos are practically identicalwith those grown in Egypt today suggeststhat a very long time had already elapsedsince the cultivation of the wild ancestorsof these grains was first undertaken-inshort, that agriculture had been practicedin the Near East for millenniums before itsintroduction into the Fayum. Well made

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grass-coil baskets found in the granarieswere probably used for sowing grain,several silos yielded what look likethreshers' flails, and two contained sicklescomposed of straight, tapered shafts oftamarisk wood, in one case with threeserrated flint blades imbedded in resin ina groove in its cutting edge. For millinggrain there were saddle querns of lime-stone with gritstone grinders, which,however, could also have been used forgrinding red ochre used as a pigment.

Chipping, pressure-flaking, and grinding,or polishing, with an abrasive wereemployed singly or conjointly in theproduction of the Fayum-A people'sextensive repertory of stone implementsand weapons, nearly all of which wereworked bifacially in accordance with atradition now believed to have beenrevived in northern Egypt-perhaps withsome stimulus from the Aterian-inFinal Paleolithic and pre-Neolithic times.Most characteristic are the axes of chert,limestone, dolerite, and volcanic ashwhich comprise over forty percent of allthe tools found. They are for the most partpounded or flaked to an elongated tri-angular, conoid, or trapezoidal form witha narrow butt and a straight cutting edge,the latter sharpened by grinding followingthe initial flaking, but not apparentlyre-flaked after grinding except to repair adamage or in a later re-use of the axe.Next in frequency are the sickle blades,thirty-one of which were recovered fromthe settlement of Kom W alone. They areserrated on one edge only and are usuallypointed at one end, only three of theexamples found being square at both ends.In nearly every case the edge of the bladehas acquired a "silica-polish," or gloss,from cutting the stalks of wheat or barley.

Easily the most striking of the NeolithicFayumis' hunting weapons are the superblyworked hollow-based arrowheads with

long wings sweeping back on either sideof the point of attachment of the shaft.These the lake-dwellers apparently usedagainst even such formidable beasts as theAfrican elephant and the hippopotamus,two such arrowheads having been actuallyfound in the carcasses of an elephant anda hippo. This type of arrowhead, knownalso from the Badarian sites of Middle andUpper Egypt, is thought by some to haveevolved locally from the Late Paleolithiccore-point and the triangular arrowhead, byothers to be a deyelopment of the Ateriantanged arrowhead borrowed by the Niloticpeoples from their Saharan neighbors.

Kom W, the largest of the A-groupsettlement sites, also produced adzes offlint and banded volcanic ash, a fewtriangular arrowheads, ground points oftranslucent chert and leaf-shaped pointsused as daggers, javelins, and spears,knives of tabular chert worked by pressure-flaking, a small number of pebble-buttedand pebble-backed tools, a twisted bifacialblade, and an elaborate halberd-like point,perhaps a forerunner of the Predynastic"fish-tail." In the same area, but not insitu and probably belonging to the laterB-group, were found chipped axes, planes,and gouges, leaf-shaped arrowheads, anda curious type of concavo-convex flake-tool detached from its core by a blowdelivered on the side of the latter. Thepresence in Kom W of a small number ofblade-tools, including plain blades andmicrolithic backed blades and cores,suggests a partial intrusion by one of thesurviving North African or Palestinianblade cultures of Final Paleolithic ante-cedents. Hammerstones of flint, quartz,fossil wood, grit, and limestone werefound in large quantities as were alsosmooth waterworn pebbles of flint andvolcanic ash used as burnishers, andpebbles apparently collected by the settlersbecause of their odd forms.

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NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

A pierced discoid object of limestoneand another of diorite have been identified,perhaps correctly, as maceheads, thoughthe possibility that they are weights forloaded digging sticks of the kind used byprimitive agriculturists today should notbe overlooked.

Similar objects, but smaller and morespherical in shape, made of limestone and,in one case, of dolerite, are almost certainlyspindle whorls, employed in the spinningof thread, which we know from a piece ofcoarse linen cloth found near one of theA-group silos the Neolithic Fayumis werenot only able to produce, but were alsoable to weave into fabrics on simple loomsof, presumably, the primitive horizontaltype. The fibre used in the manufacture ofthis cloth is quite definitely flax, thoughnot necessarily Linum usitatissima, seedsof the latter having been found, however,in two adjoining silos. The weave of thecloth is fairly even, the thread "lightlyspun," and the fibre evidently retted,beaten, scraped, and combed beforespinning. Other spindle whorls recoveredfrom the settlements are simply perforateddisks of pottery of the type common inPredynastic times.

For catching fish in the clear, shallowwaters of the lake the Fayum people seemnot to have used fish-hooks but to haverelied chiefly on fish-spears and harpoonstipped with heads of fish-bone (Latesniloticus) which are beveled at their buttsto fit into the wood or reed shafts and areeither barbed or grooved to receive smallbarbed points, now missing. Being, as wehave seen, expert basket makers, theyprobably also fashioned fish-traps ofbasketwork and may have used knottedcord fish-nets weighted with groovedlimestone sinkers of which a considerablenumber have been found.

The settlement of Kom W yielded bonepins and awls and a tubular length of bone

which may have served as a paint-container, a needle-case, or the foreshaftof a beveled bone point or harpoon. Fresh-water mussels were gathered from the lakeas food and their shells, especially those ofSpatha cailliaudi, were used as scoops, orladles, being frequently found stackedtogether, either in pottery vessels or inhearthside rubbish with sherds, fish bones,and splintered animal bones. Similar shellswith nicked or serrated rims may havebeen employed for scaling or skinning fish.

Ochre, presumably destined for use as apigment or cosmetic, was ground on ovalor irregularly rounded palettes of bandedlimestone and Nubian diorite with bevellededges and plano-convex or concavo-convexcross sections, a smooth pebble being usedas the grinder. Among the strikingly fewitems of personal adornment recoveredfrom the settlements are marine shellsacquired, apparently through trade, fromthe Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts andusually pierced for suspension or stringing,the varieties of shell so employed includingPectunculus, Cardium edule, two species ofcowries, Nerita, Conus, Turritella, andColumbella, as well as 08initu8 turbinatusand Helix desertorum, the last obtainedlocally. A shell bracelet, evidently madeto be worn by an infant, measures only1.7 inches in its inside diameter. A fewprimitive stone beads and pendants ofbanded volcanic ash, limestone, andmicrocline felspar, or green amazonite-the last material probably imported from

the Eastern Desert or from the Libyanmassifs north of Tibesti-range in formfrom rough perforated pebbles to discoidand barrel-shaped beads and drop-shapedpendants. Despite their crudity, theshaping and drilling of these minute stoneornaments reflect the notable advances intechnical ability achieved by the Neolithiccraftsmen of northern Egypt. Turquoisenuggets, presumably for use as beads, may

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have been brought from the westernmassifs or possibly from as far away asSinai, the locale of the principal turquoisemines of the dynastic Egyptians. Beads ofa type peculiar to the Fayum settlementsconsist of discs of ostrich eggshell, halfan inch in diameter, pierced with a holethrough the center. Miniature axes ofvolcanic ash and fossil shark teeth wereworn as amuletic pendants and show inseveral cases incomplete perforations forstringing. Garments, bags, vessels, and thelike were apparently made of dressedanimal skins, a "dark glutinous substance"found in one of the granaries having beenidentified as the remains of a piece of hideor leather.

The numerous pottery vessels found inthe Fayum-A settlements are for the mostpart of simple forms, without handles,necks, mouldings, or projecting rims, andare made in the majority of cases of acoarse, ill-fired clay containing a binder ofchopped straw. They are entirely hand-made and are often asymmetrical inshape. Among the larger cooking andstorage pots deep round-bottomed bowlsand wide-mouthed bulbous jars of rough-faced brown ware predominate. A fewfiat-bottomed pedestaled cups and onesmall cup resting on three knobbed feetare surprisingly sophisticated forms.Particularly characteristic of the FayumNeolithic A culture are rectangular basinsof polished red ware with the rims pressedup at the corners to form pronounced peaks.The surfaces of these platters, which donot occur again in Egypt until much laterPan-grave times, preserve "patches of athin ferruginous slip of purply-red colourapplied in horizontal smears below therim." Vessels of polished black ware areexceedingly rare, and in several of theexamples found the black is probablyaccidental, the result of improper firing ofwhat were to have been red-polished

vessels. In the case of one pot and anumber of sherds of brown ware a smoothbut not polished surface was achieved bythe application of a slip or by wet hand-smoothing, or "creaming," of the dampclay. The fragments of nine pots showsmall holes drilled from the outside of thevessels and intended either for theirsuspension or repair. "No traces ofincised, combed or painted pottery wasfound," the only decorated pieces being asolitary sherd with a row of studs belowthe rim and another with a single largeboss on its surface. The primitive characterand poor development of the Fayum-Apottery may be attributed in part to itsrelatively early date and in part to the"high perfection" attained by the con-temporaneous basketwork.

Stone vessels appear not to have beenmanufactured in any quantity, the onlyexamples recovered being an oval, boat-shaped mortar of nummilitic limestoneand a fragment of diorite which may havebeen part of a bowl.

The complete lack of any articles carvedof ivory is not only striking, but puzzling,since both the elephant and the hippo-potamus were common in the area andwere hunted by the Fayum people, asattested, among other indications, by anumber of decayed hippo tusks found in apot and in one of the middens of Kom W.Except for a few lumps of red ochre notrace of metal or any metalliferous ore hasbeen found in an A-group context, evenmalachite, so common in prehistoric andlater times as a pigment and cosmeticbeing entirely lacking.

Whatever artistic tendencies the Neo-lithic Fayumis may have possessed seemto have been confined to their superblyfashioned and often beautiful stone toolsand weapons. Decoration of any sort isexceedingly rare on any of the otherclasses of objects found, being confined to

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the two boss-studded potsherds referredto above, an engraved line on a dioritepalette fragment, and groups of incisedrings around some of the bone points.

The total absence of burials in thelow-lying, lakeside settlements, thoughunderstandable, has deprived us of anyinformation not only on the physical andethnic character of the Neolithic inhabi-tants of the Fayum, but also on theirfunerary customs and beliefs. Unless theywere otherwise disposed of, it is probablethat the dead were buried in cemeteries inthe higher ground some distance from thevillages, but to date no graves have beenfound which can with confidence beassigned to this period.

Though the initial impetus toward asemi-agricultural village life of the typeseen here is almost certainly to be soughtfor in southwestern Asia, there is no generalagreement among modern authorities onthe origin of the earliest Neolithic settlersin the Fayum or on the principal source ofthe cultural tradition reflected in theirvillages and granary areas. Huzayyin, aswe have seen in Chapter II, would recog-nize the prototypes of the more charac-teristic tool-forms of the Fayum Neolithic(axes, tranchets, adzes, hollow-basedarrowheads) in a local Upper Paleolithicindustry, for which he has suggested thename "Fayyoumian," or "Qarounian,"and which he describes as a uniquedevelopment starting in the Levalloisian,but "specializing more in the core thanin the flake and reviving the truly bifacialtechnique." Having in 1934 favored "thepossibility of an autochthonous Deltaorigin" for the Fayum Neolithic, MissCaton-Thompson in 1952 was "tempted tosee the origins of the Egyptian Neolithicand early Predynastic bifaced tools" "inthe Aterian foliates." Forde-Johnston alsois inclined to derive the hollow-basedarrowhead and the Neolithic bifacial

technique of the Fayum and the NileValley in general from the Aterian; andArkell feels that "the neolithic features ofthe Fayum Neolithic were brought to theFayum" from "a dispersal area well to thewest of the Nile Valley" ("perhapsTibesti)." McBurney, on the other hand,draws attention to the near-identity ofthe Fayum A and Natufian sickle formsand to the marked similarity which existsbetween the burnished pottery of theFayum and that of the coastal areas of theLevant, and thinks that "there is a verystrong prima facie case for an ultimateLevantine derivation of the [Fayum A]culture"; while Childe, after discussing thepossibilities of a western or southernorigin, concludes by pointing out the many"northern or Asiatic elements in theneolithic cultures at least of LowerEgypt"; and Butzer, as we have seen,describes the Neolithic immigrants as"new cultural and ethnic groups originatingfrom the area of the Fertile Crescent ... "

The occurrence in the middens of theA-group people of a few small blade-toolsand cores of Final Paleolithic or Mesolithictype (see above) would seem to indicatethe survival in the area of bands of semi-nomadic hunters and fishermen at a far lessadvanced stage of economic and culturaldevelopment than the contemporaneousinhabitants of the recently establishedagricultural communities. As the Fayumlake continued its downward trend, firstto 13 feet (four metres) above sea-level andthen to seven feet (two metres) below sea-level, this somewhat backward elementevidently became a more and moredominant factor in the local population,to the detriment of the once flourishingNeolithic settlements and their culture.Degenerate forms of some of the A-groupstone implements, however, continued tobe produced and are found, together withincreasingly large numbers of microlithic

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blades and points, on the surfaces of thevillage middens and at a series of evidentlytemporary camp and chipping sites alongthe northern rim of the ancient lake basin,both above and below the level occupiedby the Neolithic villagers. The resultingmixed and essentially retrogressive culture,now generally known as the Fayum "B"phase, is seen to have extended in timefrom the interval between the formationof the 33- and 13-foot lake beaches to theearliest stage of the - 7-foot shoreline, thatis, from the period of decline of the FayumA-culture to the establishment in theFayum area (notably near Qasr Qarun)of outposts of a developed Predynastic(chalcolithic) culture of Nile Valley origin.Since it seems locally to have been generallyearlier than the latter culture and since itexhibits no trace of metal tools ormetalliferous substances of any kind it isusually classed as "Later Neolithic," theterm, however, being in this case a con-venient rather than a wholly accuratedescription of the material involved.

In its earlier stage the Fayum B cultureis characterized by a marked diminutionin the types of A-group implements stillproduced and by the substitution ofvariant or new forms for those abandoned.The temporary encampments of theB-group people at the 13-foot lake levelyielded pebble-butted and pebble-backedknives and scrapers of A-group types, fiveabnormally small bifacial sickle-flints,and the tip of a concavo-convex scraper,or "side-blow flake." Polished axes, sonumerous in the A-group settlements andgranaries, no longer occur, their placehaving been more or less taken by chippedceltiform tools, including ovate and hoe-shaped forms. Tanged and winged arrow-heads of a type attested elsewhere in theEgyptian area have largely replaced theconcave-base type, only one example ofwhich has been recovered in an early

B-group context. A flaked adze or planeof piano-convex cross section, evidentlyintended for woodworking, is of a form notfound in situ in the A-group mounds,but is known in the Predynastic middensof the Nile Valley, in the oasis of Siwa, andin the so-called Peasant Neolithic ofKharga oasis. The microliths found eitherin association with these A-group survivalsor in separate patches, or "swarms,"constitute a "monotonous little repertory"of single-backed straight blades, double-backed blades, partially backed or shankedforms, trihedral rods, and small conical,rectangular, or amorphous cores. Havingcomprised only a minute percentage ofthe implements present in the earlierNeolithic village sites, they now form amajority of all the tools found, whilethe number of Fayum A implements hasdecreased to such a striking degree asto suggest "a drastic reduction in theneolithic population as between A and Bgroup times."

The later phase of the Fayum B cultureis associated with a well-defined beach atseven feet below modern sea-level, aheight apparently maintained by the lakethroughout the rest of Egyptian pre-history and down into the time of the OldKingdom. Little change is apparent in thetypology of the stone implements, but thedegeneration of the Neolithic forms hasprogressed still further and the proportionof microliths to larger tools has increased.The now complete absence of sickle-flints,granaries, and millstones suggests thatagriculture had been temporarily aban-doned as a means of livelihood and thatthe inhabitants of the Fayum had revertedfor the time being to an outmoded food-gathering economy; and the absence ofpottery, cosmetic palettes, and beadsbespeaks the poverty of the B-groupencampments and the low level of theculture represented by them. A few

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beveled bone points were still being madeand the majority of the grooved pebblesused as net-weights are probably to beassigned to this phase. At a late camp sitecalled by its excavators Moeris I and at"Site H, some two miles west of Dimai,""Fayum neolithic" types and a largenumber of Fayum micro-blades and otherwind-worn microliths were found togetherwith larger, coarse unifacial blades whichseem to be related both chronologicallyand typologically, as well as in thetechnique of their manufacture, to the fineunifacial blades of the Predynastic settle-ment near Qasr Qarun.

3. THE OASES OF SIwA AND KHAROA

Whereas the Neolithic settlements atMerimda Beni Salama, on the westernfringe of the Delta, and at Shaheinab inthe Sudan show marked parallelisms withthe Fayum Neolithic A, in the LibyanDesert areas to the west of the Nile Valleythe affinities are chiefly with the later, Bculture. For this reason it seems desirableto discuss the Neolithic remains in theseareas while the picture of the latter cultureis still fresh in our minds, though muchof the material involved is of relativelylate date, being partly, if not wholly,contemporaneous with the Predynasticcultures of Upper Egypt.

The oasis of Siwa, a depression somefifty miles in length from east to west andtwenty miles in width, lies approximatelytwo hundred and seventy-five miles duewest of the Fayum, near the modernboundary line between Egypt and Libya,and roughly one hundred and seventymiles south of the Mediterranean coast.Surface collections of stone implementsfrom small farming(?) settlements on theslopes and terraces of the depression'snorthern escarpment and from huntingcamps grouped around small pond-likebasins on the desert plateau, nineteen

miles to the north, show much the samemixture of microlithic and developedNeolithic forms which characterizes theFayum B culture and include a numberof the more distinctive types of tools andweapons associated with that culture.We find, for example, among theSiwa collections now in Cambridge andAlexandria the concavo-convex scraper,or side-blow flake, known elsewhere onlyin the Fayum and at Kharga, the plano-convex adze or "plane," small pressure-flaked tanged, leaf-shaped, and elongatedarrowheads, all of which can be matchedin Fayum B and at Kharga, trihedralrod-shaped "drills," miscellaneous pressureflaked tools including planes, small leaf-shaped knives, and points, the "generaleffect" of which is "closely similar" topieces from the Fayum, oval or slightlypointed bifacial tools "not unknown in theNeolithic of the Fayum," "though lessconspicuous" there than further west,straw-polished bifacial sickle-blades likethose of the Fayum and other Egyptiansites, and spherical calcite maceheads orspindle whorls known also among theFayum surface finds. As in the B culturesingle-backed, double-backed, and shankedblades predominate among the Siwamicroliths. "Virtually all the charac-teristics of Stage 'B,"'" says McBurney, "arerepresented, but none of those which arethe exclusive property of 'A."'" The samewriter also notes the absence of "specimensdisplaying traits peculiar to the laterPre-dynastic or early Dynastic flintworking traditions."

Aside from its many links with theFayum B-group the stone industry ofSiwa exhibits one or two "western traits,"such as the Sirtican round-based arrow-head with micro-burin finish and the ovalbiface which, though known in Egypt, isfar more abundant in nearby Cyrenaicaand, further to the west, in the Maghreb.

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Heavy stone querns were found atseveral of the chipping sites on thenorthern escarpment of the oasis. Theyrange in size up to a foot in diameter andare provided with flat circular pebblerubbers or grinders. They could have beenused, as in the Maghreb, for grinding ochre,but are more likely to have been mills forgrain. Their presence together with thatof the well-worn sickle blades suggeststhat catch-crops of wheat and barleymay have been grown by the NeolithicSiwans on the terraces of the escarpmentand their weight implies settlements of asomewhat more permanent nature thanthe hunting camps of the northern plateausurface. Pottery is represented by afragment of a thick-walled hand-madevessel with bands of impressed ornamenta-tion on the exterior and by a piece of aheavy round-based pot of somewhatindefinite, though probably prehistoric,date. A cobble of speckled green crystallinerock, from which a few flakes have beenremoved, must have been imported fromsome distance away, since the stone is notlocal to Siwa or its vicinity.

Following a reference to "the pastoraland primitive agricultural economy" whichhad been implanted in the eastern Libyanarea at this time McBurney concludes byremarking that "as far as Siwa is concernedits close affinity with Kharga and theFayum is probably sufficiently explainedby the fairly uniform nature of the oasisand plateau environment which... formsa not ill-defined geographical unit whosewesterly extremity lies at Jaghbub."

At Kharga, four hundred miles to thesoutheast of Siwa and only eighty toninety miles from the Nile Valley insouthern Upper Egypt, the microlithicand Neolithic elements are not mingled asin the Fayum B and Siwan assemblages,but form two separate industries, theproducts, respectively, of a nomadic

hunting culture to which Miss Caton-Thompson has given the name BedouinMicrolithic and of a settled agriculturalpopulation whom she describes as PeasantNeolithic. The two groups have furtherbeen identified with the authors of therock-drawings assigned by Winkler, re-spectively, to his so-called Earliest Huntersand to his Early Oasis Dwellers (see above,

p. 73). Though widely divergent in theirmode of life and cultural level they arefound occasionally in the same localitiesand appear to have been, partially at least,contemporaneous with one another andwith the earlier Predynastic (Naqada I)culture of Upper Egypt.

The Bedouin Microlithic folk are seenas a roving people still in an essentially"Mesolithic" stage of existence. Theirsmall-scale stone industry is comprisedentirely of narrow blades and backedbladelets suitable for composite mounting,small leather borers, and a multiplicity ofarrow tips, including transverse, shanked-blade, lozenge, foliate, winged, and tangedforms. Burins, microburins, and trapezesare lacking and geometric forms of anytype are exceedingly rare. Aside from theirstone implements and weapons the haltingplaces of these hunting tribes around someof the silty basins of the Kharga depressionand the silt pans of the adjoining LibyanPlateau yielded only a few small discoidhand-mills of sandstone, intended perhapsfor grinding colocynth seeds and lightenough to be readily portable, and somebits of ostrich eggshell including pierceddisks of shell apparently strung and wornas beads. A Cardium shell found on one ofthe Bedouin Microlithic camp sites mayhave come from the Fayum with which,according to McBurney, the culture ingeneral offers "a remarkably consistenttypological picture," showing, on theother hand, few points of contact witheither the Typical or Upper Capsian or

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with the Sebil III culture of nearbysouthern Upper Egypt. Small groups ofmuch the same hunting people werespread out over wide areas of what is nowthe Libyan Desert, occupying mud-bottomed depressions along the routefrom Kharga and Dakhla to Gilf Kebir,on the track between Uweinat and Selima,and, to the north, in an area to the west ofAbu Mungar. Their crude but highlyinformative rock-drawings have been dis-cussed in some detail at the end of ChapterII, above.

In contrast to these lightly equippedand wide-ranging nomads the PeasantNeolithic population of Kharga made theirhabitations on the floor of the depressionin the immediate vicinity of the moribundPleistocene mound-springs, some of whichthey re-opened by digging, and confinedtheir activities to the areas around thesesprings and to a seam of tabular cherton the Eastern Scarp edge of the LibyanPlateau where they mined the materialfor their often massive stone implements.In both areas are found the remains oftheir big circular hearths or fire-pits,lined with heavy slabs of a bluish lime-stone brought from the scarp and oncesurrounded, to judge from the presence oftamarisk roots, by circles of scrubbyvegetation. There are no traces of housesin the settlement areas, but the craters ofalready dried-up mound-springs wereapparently used as shelters. Here, in situin the sandrock cappings of the springmounds or on the surface round about, arefound flaked chert axes with transverseedging, axes of nummilitic limestone, andlugged scutiform axes of chert, chisels,planes, and scrapers, including the concavo-convex, or side-blow, type of scraper,massive bifacial and unifacial knives,serrated sickle-blades and other saw-toothed tools, light picks or punches,retouched bulbar flakes, a few burins, or

gravers, and a variety of arrowheads,including a kind of concave-based point,not dissimilar from those of the Fayum Aand Badarian cultures, but with angledinstead of rounded or pointed extremities.Hand-mills of diorite and sandstone,fragments of undecorated reddish brownpottery vessels with plain rims, theimprint of a woven straw or grass platter,and a rough bead of green microclinefelspar serve to round out our picture ofthe material culture and "home life" ofthe Neolithic Khargans, and the remainsof hyenas, two kinds of gazelle, and thefish Lates niloticus tell us something of thefauna and climatic conditions amid whichthey lived.

At the chert workings on the highplateau between the Refuf and AbuSighawal passes the same people have leftus massive mauls, choppers, and hoes (orcoarse adzes), gigantic oval or discoidalplaque scrapers, a few light picks orpunches, and many of the distinctiveconcavo-convex side-blow flakes-for themost part unfinished. That some of theseimplements were stone-masons' or quarry-men's tools seems not unlikely, thoughthere is little area of agreement betweenthe Kharga series and the equally massivebut generally later (Predynastic andDynastic) implements from the well knownflint mines of the Wadi el Sheikh in MiddleEgypt.

In the Peasant Neolithic folk of Khargawe see, then, more or less sedentarycommunities of cultivators possessed of ahighly developed "heavy industry" ofstone tools and of sufficient imaginationand initiative to attempt, by sinkingshallow, funnel-shaped shafts into thenearly defunct mound-springs, to resurrectand control a failing water supply and in sodoing to take what may well be one of theearliest recorded steps in "the age-longdevelopment of hydraulic engineering."

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If, as seems likely, the Peasant Neolithiccultivators of Kharga and the "EarlyOasis Dwellers" of a group of rock drawingsobserved by Winkler and others in anancient depression to the east of the oasisof Dakhla are one and the same people,we know something of their magico-religious beliefs and of their associationwith the more or less contemporaneoushunting tribes of the area. The drawingsin question, carved in a primitive form ofsunk relief on and around a series of smallsandstone hills, portray almost withoutexception crude mud(?) statuettes of apregnant female with exaggeratedly largehips and buttocks, thought by Winklerto have been a fertility goddess andbringer of rain. Unlike her naked devotees,the "goddess" is clad in a skirt adornedwith woven patterns and occasionallywears patterned sandals, a necklace(?),and a high cap or radiate headdress aboveher long plaited hair, her costume reflectinga high degree of skill in the weaving ofcloth and production of other garmentsamong the prehistoric inhabitants of theoasis. In one scene cattle are beingpresented to the deity either as sacrificesor for her blessing; but are otherwise veryrarely represented in these drawings andevidently played no important role in theeconomy of their authors. Other animalsknown and depicted by the Early OasisDwellers are the giraffe, the antelope, theibex, the ostrich, and the dog. Hand-millsfor grinding grain are found in the vicinityof the drawings, and the desert surfaceround about is strewn with Neolithic stoneimplements described by Winkler as"typical of the Faiyim" and assumed byMiss Caton-Thompson to be PeasantNeolithic. The style of the drawings is acombination of that of the cattle-breeding"Autochthonous Mountain Dwellers ofUweinat" and that of the "EarliestHunters" (= Bedouin Microlithic folk?),

and the appearance of the Oasis Dwellers'pregnant "goddess" in the drawings of thelatter indicates that the two peoples-thesettled cultivators and the roving bandsof hunters-lived amicably side by sideand exchanged ideas one with the other.The distinctive zigzag treatment of thebody of an elephant in a drawing of theEarliest Hunters points to the at leastpartial contemporaneity of both themand their associates, the Early OasisDwellers (= Peasant Neolithic people)with the "Amratian," or Naqada I,culture of the Nile Valley.

Associations of the Khargan PeasantNeolithic with the Fayum (B-culture),Siwa, and, above all, the Predynasticsettlement at Armant in the Nile Valleyimmediately opposite "the Great Oasis,"are readily apparent, the agreement of thestone implements in the last instancebeing sufficiently close to permit us to datethe Khargan settlements to Early-MiddlePredynastic times and to suggest amigration of the same groups of peopleeither from the Nile Valley westward tothe oasis or from the oasis to the riverinezone.

In marshaling the evidence for theexistence of a Neolithic subpluvial, orrelatively moist interval, extending fromabout 5000 to approximately 2350 B.C.,Karl Butzer refers to the "innumerableNeolithic... sites... still preserved alongthe desert margins of the Valley fromMerimde to Upper Nubia" and of "thewealth of New Stone Age artifactsseemingly scattered over the desert surfacesof the greater part of Egypt," which "donot only occur at oases such as the GilfKebir and Kharga but along the routesacross the Libyan Desert." Among suchsurface concentrations of Neolithicimplements may be mentioned the onesfound by Georges Legrain in 1897 someforty to forty-nine hours by camel along

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the desert track leading from Rizeiqat insouthern Upper Egypt to the Oasis ofKharga and the similar groups observedby Miss Caton-Thompson at three or fourpoints along the light railway line con-necting Abydos with the oasis. Stone-lined hearths, hand-mills of sandstone,and quantities of "very finely worked"implements strongly reminiscent of thoseof the Fayum were seen by the expeditionof Prince Kemal el-Din Hussein on theplateau surface between Ain Dalla andAlam el- Ghard, to the northwest of theoases of Farafra and Baharia. In or nearthe Nile Valley surface finds of Neolithicflints have been recorded at Aswan,Qurna, and Medamud in southern UpperEgypt, at the flint mines of the Wadi elSheikh, and near Maasara in the EasternDesert ten miles south of Cairo.

Like the Fayum, Siwa, Kharga, andthe other Libyan Desert sites now underconsideration belong to the eastern of thetwo culture provinces into which McBurneydivides the Neolithic of North Africa, aprovince wherein "a remarkably constantculture pattern of incipient food-producingtype seems to have been establishedstarting as early as the late fifth millenniumB.C." This can be ascribed, the same authorgoes on to say, "to culture contact betweenthe indigenous microlith using hunters,and intrusive food-producing groupsultimately deriving from South West Asia.The special character of this province,already noticeable in the later huntingcultures, seems to have been maintainedlocally well into historical times, to judgefrom the uniformity and consistency of thearchaeological material."

4. THE WEST DELTA SETTLEMENT

OF MERIMDA BENI SALAMA

Reconstructions by Passarge andButzer of the ancient landscape of the

Nile Delta indicate that about 5000 B.C.

large areas of relatively high ground inand around the southern half of the broadand fertile triangle were not only habitablebut were in all probability dotted withvillage farming communities similar tothose of the Fayum and of the adjoiningareas of southwestern Asia. Most of thesevillages appear either to have been sub-merged in relatively recent times beneaththe rising silts of the Nile's alluvial plainor to have remained unexplored. A notableexception is a great settlement at a sitecalled Merimda ("Place of Ashes") on thesouthwestern fringe of the Delta one anda third miles south of the modern villageof Beni Salama and an equal distancefrom the Rosetta arm of the Nile, whichprobably at one time flowed close besidethe ancient town. The ground on whichthe latter was founded, now part of theso-called Low Desert, is composed ofMiddle Paleolithic silts rising some tenfeet above the level of the modernalluvium and banked against bluffs ofLower Pleistocene (pre-Paleolithic?) sandygravels. With an area of over 215,000square yards, an average depth of sevenfeet of cultural debris, and a lifetime ofsome six centuries, the town, if fullyoccupied at any one time, would havesupported a population of 16,000 andwould, thus, have been one of the largestprehistoric settlements in Egypt, rivaledonly by the big Predynastic town atHierakonpolis. Three layers or stages inthe settlement of the site have beendistinguished, the lowest and earliestlayer dated by radiocarbon tests to 4130B.C., the uppermost layer to 3530 B.C.

These dates, according to Hjalmar Larsen,who is followed in his conclusions byHermann Junker, the excavator of thesite, are much too low and are to be raised,by analogy with later, obviously lowCarbon-14 readings from Egypt, to 5040

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(or 5290) B.C. and to 4350 (or 4570) B.C.,

respectively.The firstcomers to the site of Merimda

settled on a gentle sandy rise near theriver's edge in the midst of what werethen probably seasonal pasturelands andnot far removed, we may be sure, fromarable stretches of Nile silt. Their flimsilyconstructed and evidently sparselyscattered shelters and windbreaks havebeen engulfed or swept away by sand-storms and by sheetflooding duringintervals of "appreciable rainfall," thelatter having left a "thin but fairlycontinuous" spread of gravel over thewhole of "the lowest settlement stratum."A few of their hearths, however, stillsurvive, showing black in the midst ofthe yellowish soil, and, in the samehabitation area, fifteen shallow ovalgraves filled with grey earth and contain-ing in each case a human skeleton, usuallythat of a young child or a woman, lyingon its side in more or less contractedposition and normally not provided withany kind of personal adornment or foodoffering. There are as yet no traces ofgranaries, but one of the hearths yieldedgrains of cultivated emmer wheat (Triticumdicoccumrn) altogether similar to that foundin the basketry silos of the layers above.The implements of the earliest settlersdiffer in no essential respect from those oftheir descendants, comprising, amongother forms, bone awls and harpoons,flint knives, and cylindrical axeheads offlint and other hard stones. Their pottery,on the other hand, exhibits certain formsand wares which are either rare or lackingin the upper levels of the settlement.Particularly characteristic are bowls offine hard polished red ware, having belowthe rim a mat band adorned with anincised horizontal herringbone pattern,usually without a midrib. Also present inthe first stage of the Merimda settlement

are such sophisticated forms as footedvases, carinated vases, pottery ring-standsfor jars, and pottery ladles. In general,there is a predilection at this stage forhard red ware, sometimes with a slightadmixture of chopped straw; but bowlsof greyish yellow ware are also found, aswell as the large, coarse basins or pans,which are common to all three layers.Noteworthy is the absence in the firstlevel of the fine polished black ware andthe decorative knobs or bosses charac-teristic of the pottery of the upper strata.

Rows of post-holes and fragments ofthe wooden posts themselves show thatthe villagers of Layer II lived in ovalhuts of wood-frame and wickerworkconstruction, perhaps covered.with hides,and in horseshoe-shaped shelters of similarconstruction with the open end normallytoward the southeast, away from thestrong westerly winds which prevail inthis region. In some instances the roof ofthe hut had been supported by a stoutwooden column at the centre of thedwelling and in one case a partition,marked by a row of post-holes, had dividedthe house into two rooms of unequal size,reminiscent of the entranceway and mainchamber of modern African huts. Thehearths which are prominent features ofthese dwellings exhibit several differentforms, including the simple round or ovalfire-pit, smeared inside with mud, thefire-tray of Nile-mud clods with a smooth,flat surface for heating cakes, the groovedhearth with a hollow in the middle for acookpot, and pairs of conical mud fire-dogs or "andirons," designed to raise thecooking vessel above the level of the mudor beaten earth floors. Smaller holes in thefloors served as supports for the round-bottomed household vessels. Besides thesesome of the dwellings contained potterywater-jars sunk in the floors, heavy mud-lined mortars for crushing fruit or the like,

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and large circular or oval baskets wovenof rush (arundo donax) or wheat strawand evidently used for storing grain. Inthe upper sub-strata of this layer arefound for the first time traces of similarlarge baskets coated on the outside withclay and sunk into pits in the earth toform silos of much the same type as thosealready seen in the Fayum. At Merimda,however, the granaries are not normallysegregated in groups off by them-selves away from the village, but arescattered through it and are associatedwith the individual dwelling places. Anumber of them preserved portions oftheir woven matwork covers and, belowand between these, a few blackenedgrains of Triticum dicoccum, or emmer,and of a globular grain which has beenidentified as a small-leafed fodder-vetch(Vicia sativa augustifolia). Larger butshallower circular cavities up to thirteenfeet in diameter, their sides revetted withspiral matting, may have been threshingfloors, especially since grain was found inthem and in receptacles nearby. Alsoscattered among the houses and granariesof this level are contracted burials of thesame simple type seen in Layer I andpresently to be encountered in Layer III,normally unprovided with offerings exceptfor a few wheat grains placed near themouth or strewn over the body. Despitethe improvements in house constructionand grain storage achieved during thesecond stage of its history the townremained throughout this stage an opensettlement of sparsely scattered dwelling-groups, or little "farmsteads," not yetsufficiently closely grouped to prevent theinfiltration into every substratum of thesettlement area of massive quantities ofwind-blown sand. No very striking changeshave taken place in the household,farming, and hunting implements of thepeople since the time of the original

settlers; but among the pottery vesselsthe fine polished red ware bowls withherringbone patterns, so characteristic ofLayer I, have all but disappeared and havebeen largely replaced by vessels of polishedblack pottery and of various coarse wares,not infrequently provided with knobs orbosses below the rim to serve as handlesand elsewhere purely as decoration. High-footed vases and chalice-shaped vesselsare among the new forms which begin toput in an appearance in the second phaseof the settlement's evidently extendedoccupation.

The uppermost layer at Merimda is adark grey mass of settlement debris fardeeper and denser than the earlier strata.Here we are confronted by the remains ofa large closed village of mud buildings,huts, and work places, which, though notapparently surrounded by a wall orembankment, was, like the Egyptianvillage of today, protected against theintrusion of wind-blown sand by thenumber and close juxtaposition of itshouses. The latter, laid out in ragged rowson either side of what appear to have beenwinding streets, are for the most part ovalchambers, five to ten and a half feet across,sunk a foot and a half into the ground andcontinued above ground by walls morethan three feet high built up of super-imposed rings of Nile mud or constructedof rough blocks or clods of the samematerial containing a binder of choppedstraw and, like the interiors and floors ofthe houses, covered with a coating of mudplaster. There may have been upper wallsand roofs of rush or reed matting; pairs ofpost-holes at the ends of some of the ovalssuggest that the roof in these cases mayhave been double pitched. Access to thehouse was gained by means of a crude stepconsisting of the leg-bone (tibia) of ahippopotamus or a short wooden post setupright against the inside surface of the

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mud wall. A pottery jar embedded eitherin the floor or against the wall wasevidently intended to hold a supply ofdrinking water rather than to serve as adrain, as was once thought. Such houseswould have provided ample protectionagainst the rain, cold, and winds of thenorthern Egyptian winter; and it is clearfrom the presence in them of hearths,ring-stands for platters, and bits of animalbones that meals were sometimes eatenin their interiors. Since the prehistoricEgyptian, like his more recent descendants,normally slept in curled-up, or contracted,position the larger houses at Merimdacould have accommodated entire families.Their oval form is undoubtedly reflectedin that of the contemporaneous and laterprehistoric graves-shallow oval pitswherein the dead also lie on one side, incontracted position, as if in sleep. Thoughprimitive in many respects, these housesare solidly and painstakingly built andwere evidently designed to last a longtime, suggesting in their construction andarrangement an urban community of apermanent nature rather than a desert-fringe encampment of semi-nomadic tribes-men. Their alignment in rows to formstreets almost certainly reflects theexistence of some form of local govern-ment, headed probably by a town ordistrict chieftain.

Oval huts and horseshoe-shaped sheltersof light construction still continued to bebuilt for use by day and in warm weatheras temporary residences, kitchens, work-shops, and the like. A more or less completefence made of long bunches of reeds boundtogether by cross-bundles of the samematerial resembles the present-day bus-fence, or zeriba, used as an enclosure forsmall cattle and grain. Besides the nownumerous sunken basketry granaries, grain,fruit, and other commodities were storedin hemispherical, mud-lined storage bins

let into the ground and resembling greatbowls and in huge flat-bottomed cordiformpottery jars, or pithoi, over three feet highand two feet in diameter at the shoulder,also buried in the ground up to the levelof their evidently narrow mouths. Theearlier examples of these pithoi areineptly made of a coarse red ware and tendto be irregular and asymmetrical in shape,suggesting that a mastery of the techniqueof their manufacture had not yet beenattained; but those of the uppermost sub-strata of the layer, a reddish light brownin color, are thin-walled and regular inform. The other pottery of Layer III ischaracterized by the extensive use, forthe finer pieces, of a soft black polishedware and by the complete disappearanceof the fine red-ware vessels with incisedherringbone ornament, found in theearliest levels. The decoration now consistsof groups of simple incised lines, rows ofsmall circular hollows, applied bosses, andsmall rib-like ornaments, as well asvertical, horizontal, and horseshoe-shapedrolls, the last serving as hand-grips forlifting the vessels.

In general, the pottery of Merimda,though comparable to that of the Fayum"A" settlements, differs from the latter ina number of significant details and seems,on the whole, to be more evolved. It tends,for example, less to the simple bag-likeforms seen in the Fayum and moreto flat-bottomed and concave-bottomeddishes, bowls, and jars, and comprises anumber of quite elaborate footed andmulti-legged forms, including bowls andjars standing on human feet modeled ofclay, vessels with tapered tubular spoutsor open spouts, carinated vases, doublevases, conical beakers, chalices, oval andboat-shaped bowls, ring-stands for round-bottomed jars, and well developed ifsomewhat coarse terra cotta ladles, spoons,and scoops, the last occurring also on

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early Chalcolithic sites in Palestine. Besidesthe fragments of vessels with the horseshoe-shaped grips below the rim there are otherswith thumb-sockets, projecting knob-handles and conical handles and at leastone example with a stirrup handle. Holesfor suspension cords occur near the rimsof a number of potsherds from Merimda,while others show similar holes used forlashing together the pieces of vessels whichhad been broken. Miniature jars andbowls found during the season of 1931-1932have been thought to be children's toys("doll's dishes"), but are more likely tohave been containers for cosmetics orperhaps even votive vessels like the modelvases found in tomb-chapels and founda-tion deposits of the dynastic period. Manyof the larger narrow-mouthed jars wereprovided with lids composed of potsherdsor, more rarely, thin slabs of stone trimmedto form flat disks and in one case groovedon the under side for a cord lifting device.At Merimda the wares, polished, hand-smoothed, and coarse, include red, black,red-black speckled, reddish and yellowishgrey, and light or grey brown with a redslip, or wash. With the exception of thefinest polished red and black wares mostof the pottery contains a binder of choppedstraw. There is, as has been suggested, ageneral similarity to the pottery of theFayum, where, however, the black waresplayed a far less important role than herein the western Delta. The great quantityof pottery vessels produced by theNeolithic inhabitants of Merimda isattested by the recovery from a smallportion of the site during the seasons of1928 to 1932 of over 60,000 sherds and 41complete vessels.

Exceptional interest attaches to amiscellany of objects, other than vessels,made of pottery, clay, and dried Nile mud.Small barrel-shaped rattles of red polishedpottery flecked with black contain in their

hollow interiors small pebbles. They wereperhaps children's toys, though largerexamples found in the same part of thesettlement have been thought to be cultimplements used in some form of religiousceremonial. The mid-section of a humanfigure modeled of Nile clay and lightlyfired probably represents a woman orgoddess, a pair of protuberances ratherlow on the figure being taken as breastsand a loop of incised dots above andbetween them as a bead necklace. Theclay of which the figure is made containsa binder of chopped straw and tinyglittering particles, possibly mica. Likethe ivory figures of Badari in Upper Egyptit would appear to have been an idol of

some sort rather than a doll. A bull's head,also modeled of dried Nile mud, has alsobeen identified as a cult object, ratherthan a toy, and has been compared withother prehistoric and Early Dynasticheads of animal divinities. On the otherhand, a Nile mud model of a boat, pointedat both ends and having a low freeboard,since it was found, not in a grave, butloose in the settlement debris, some fivefeet below the surface, can hardly havehad the funerary significance later attachedto such models and may indeed have beena child's plaything. Its importance lies inthe fact that it offers definite evidencethat the Merimdians of this early periodpossessed serviceable boats and wouldtherefore have been able with relativeease to cross marshes, Nile arms, andprobably even larger bodies of water inany hypothetical journey from an easternpoint of origin to the western fringe of theDelta. Finally, there are some curiousfragments of Nile mud found in 1928lying on the surface of the site and some-what imaginatively interpreted as parts of

headrests, an article of furniture which isnot otherwise attested in Egypt beforedynastic times. Since both the true nature

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of these rather amorphous bits of mudand their association, if any, with thesettlement layers below are matters of theutmost uncertainty, it would seem hardlyjustifiable-as has been done-to regardthem as indications of an Early Dynasticdate for the uppermost level of thesettlement, especially since the latter hasbeen dated by radiocarbon tests to theearly fourth (or late fifth) millennium B.C.

As in the Fayum A-group settlementsthe most characteristic and by far themost common type of stone implementmade and used by the villagers of Merimdawas the bifacial axehead, usually of flintbut also produced in other fine hardstones such as quartzite, granite, chlo-melanite, nephrite, basalt, red jasper,chalcedony(?), and quartzite schist and,in a very few instances, in limestone. Thenumerous examples in flint are usuallychipped to shape from an appropriatelyformed nodule and their edges ground toan often knife-like sharpness, the rest ofthe tool being sometimes left untouched,with the cortex intact, when the nodulechosen already had the form desired.Those made of other stones are of twogeneral forms: the elongated "cylindrical"axehead with more or less rounded cross-section and the smaller and more trape-zoidal head with a wider edge in proportionto its length and usually with a fine over-all polish. The latter, evidently for themost part "show pieces," include twosuperb examples of haematite, the polishedsurfaces of which have a lustrous metallicsheen.

At Merimda saw-toothed sickle flints,closely similar to those from the Fayum,occur in matched and close-fitting sets ofthree, a rectangular element flanked bytwo pointed ones to form a continuous,double-ended cutting edge. The serratededges of these copiously representedimplements are usually glossy from cutting

the stalks of grain. A coarse-toothed sawof unusual type has a concave end, likean arrowhead, evidently for mounting ona handle of some sort. Besides the elongatedtriangular saws, retouched on both sides,there are also fine-toothed unifacial sawsmade from blades and having, as in laterprehistoric and early historic times,smooth, unworked undersides.

The Merimdian hollow-based arrowheadoften differs from those of the Fayum andthe Upper Egyptian site of Badari inhaving straight sides and rounded orbeveled-not pointed-wing tips. As inthe Fayum "A" settlements it is theprevailing type, the triangular arrowheadbeing less common and the tanged arrow-head exceedingly sparse, but includingseveral specimens with toothed or barbededges and long tangs of a type known alsoin the Fayum, in North Africa, and inwestern Europe. Among the hollow-basedheads is a show-piece, described by itsfinders as the "most beautiful knownNeolithic arrowhead." Three and a halfinches long and very thin, it was polishedon both sides and then skillfully retouchedalong the edges. Several handsome polishedlanceheads of elongated foliate or triangularform, in one case with lateral barbs nearthe point of attachment, range in lengthup to six and a quarter inches.

A thick, ground and retouched point ofunusual nature is believed to have beenmounted at right angles to its shaft and,if so, must have constituted a formidableweapon of the type called in German a"Dolchstab" or "Dolchbeil." The pointin question "has two close relatives in theFayum culture" which, according to MissCaton-Thompson, "do more to strengthenthe essential unity of the two groups thana host of minor differences due to localenvironment, independent development,or the caprices of discovery can do toweaken it."

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The knife blades of Merimda show avariety of forms, among the more commonof which are broad, sharply curved withrounded or pointed tips, sometimes tangedand sometimes with a finely serratedcutting edge. A long dagger blade withslightly convex edges is waisted near thebutt end for attachment to its haft; acurious tanged implement has a broadchisel-like cutting edge at right angles toits long axis; and a flat halberd-like bladeis reminiscent of several found in theFayum. Small stone awls and scrapers ofvarious types, the latter often showinga steep secondary retouch, are fairlynumerous in the settlement but are notamong its more distinctive implementforms.

The stone-headed mace, a favoredbattle and hunting weapon of the pre-historic peoples of the eastern Medi-terranean world, is well represented atMerimda, where the heads, like those ofPalestine and Anatolia, are invariablypear-shaped or, less frequently, spheroid.This form is not found in Upper Egyptuntil Naqada II times and is somewhatdoubtfully represented in the Fayum,two so-called maceheads found therehaving the discoid form popular in theearlier Predynastic culture of southernEgypt (Naqada I), while a number ofrather small spheroid objects of limestoneand dolerite would appear to have beenspindle whorls rather than weapons. Forattachment to their shafts the hard stoneheads are drilled longitudinally fromeither end, the elongated conical holesmeeting in centers of the heads. Anunfinished specimen, only half drilledthrough, indicates that manufacture wascarried out on the site of Merimda itself,though some of the materials used werecertainly imported from considerable dis-tances away. The latter include basalt,granite, volcanic rock, a grey-green stone,

possibly serpentine or greywacke, and ablack and white stone, probably some typeof diorite.

Interesting is the identification of alarge number of small roundish flints,ground to a conical point on one side, assling-stones, since the sling, though popularin western Asia and, later, in Libya, wasnot a weapon much used by the Egyptiansof any age.

Besides a number of true Paleolithicstone implements, derived mainly fromgravel slopes to the west and southwestof the site, the settlement yielded aconsiderable quantity of implements ofPaleolithic character and appearance, butof Neolithic or later origin, their presencereflecting a tendency noted elsewhere inthe Egyptian Neolithic and post-Neolithicindustries to reproduce certain primitiveforms-hand-axes, coarse cleavers, crudeboring tools, and flat scrapers-originatedin or reminiscent of the Old Stone Age.The dating of these implements, believedby Junker and Menghin to have beencontemporaneous with the settlementitself, presents something of a problem,the so-called "hand-axes of pronouncedChalossian type" being, in Caton-Thompson's opinion, identical with the"pebble hand-picks" of Old Kingdom agefound in the gypsum quarries along thenorthern rim of the Fayum depression.

For shaping and polishing his stoneimplements and weapons the NeolithicMerimdian used hammerstones of flint,white quartzite, and other hard rocks invarious shapes and sizes, including flatwheel-shaped specimens with indentationsfor the users' fingers and slender exampleswith small striking surfaces for moredelicate work; slipstones and polishingstones, chiefly of petrified wood, also in avariety of sizes, most of them wornconcave on both working surfaces; andpointed or edged stone retouching tools of

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many forms. The purpose for which agreat quantity of smooth round whitepebbles, all of about the same size, wascollected and stored in a circular pit nearone of the village's dwelling houses "isnot evident."

Numerous oval and irregularly shapedhand-mills and grinding stones of sand-stone, basalt, and granite were foundstrewn over the whole of the settlementarea. They were evidently householdobjects, used both for milling the wheatand other cereal grains which are assumedto have supplied an important part of thevillagers' diet and for grinding the ruddle,or red ochre, used to adorn their owners'bodies. Small, flat palettes of "alabaster"(i.e., calcite), granite, and a dark basalticstone were perhaps designed for grindingthe smaller amounts of pigment used asface and eye cosmetics. Characteristic ofthese cosmetic palettes is a completeexample in black basalt found togetherwith a small brown grinding pebble somefive and a half feet below the surface of thesite, not far from the burial of an adult ofunrecorded sex. It is shield-shaped with asmall notch in its straight top edge ashort distance in from each corner. Thetype is unknown in either Upper Egypt orthe Fayum, but is paralleled by an examplein the museum in Jerusalem and by a slate

palette of much later date from one of thesun-temples at Abusir. An ivory plaquefrom the lowermost level of the settle-ment is of the same form, but in view ofits material, can hardly be regarded as agrinding surface. Possibly, however, it wasfor mixing cosmetic colors or otherpigments.

A few very small, thick-walled stonevases, of basalt and mottled diorite, wereproduced by the inhabitants of the latest,or uppermost, level of the Merimdasettlement, three examples having beenfound on the surface of the site and a

fourth at a depth of less than twentyinches below the surface. Of the completevessels a deep, flat-footed little bowl ofdiorite, now in Stockholm, measures onlyfour inches in height and has borrowedits form from pottery bowls of the sameuppermost level. A tiny beaker, two andthree-quarters inches high, made of basalt,calls to mind the pottery beakers ofBadari in Upper Egypt. The minute size,irregularity of profile, and heaviness ofthese vessels indicate clearly that, locallyat least, the art of making them was stillin its infancy.

Two or three hundred implements ofbone, ivory, and horn were recoveredfrom the ruins of the settlement atMerimda. Most of these, it would seem,were used in the dressing and stitchingtogether of animal skins for the productionof leather garments, bags and othercontainers, the coverings of shelters, andthe like. The dominant types, in any case,are knife-like implements providedoccasionally with holes for suspension,flat triangular or round-topped scrapersresembling modern leather dressers'fleshing-knives, punches, or coarse awls,fine awls, sewing needles, in some caseswith eyes, larger, blunt-ended needles,used perhaps in the making of fish nets,and a variety of spatulae including anawl and spatula combined in a single tool.A rib-bone with a rounded end is believedto have served for smoothing either aseam in leather or the surface of an objectof bone or wood. Flat, pointed instrumentsof bone were probably employed in thepressure flaking of small flints, such asarrowheads. The bone harpoons of Merimdahave one or more barbs, like those of theFayum; but the fish hook, of which, as wehave seen, none was found in the Fayum,is without a barb and, though made ofhorn, resembles in this and in otherrespects the shell and ivory fish hooks of

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NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGY IIPT 111

Tasa, Badari, and Shaheinab as well asthe earliest copper fish hooks found inEgypt. Sections of hollow bone were madeto serve as pipes, as tubular containers,and as handles for other implements,being in the last instances sometimesgrooved or rebated at one end or providedwith a series of incised parallel rings.

A miscellany of objects in variousmaterials, though numerically unimpres-sive, throws considerable additional lighton the industries and other activities ofthe townspeople of Merimda. Small egg-shaped weights of limestone are groovedlongitudinally, almost certainly for attach-ment, as sinkers, to the edges of fishingnets. An oval spindle whorl of unfired clayhas the form seen in the later hieroglyphfor "spindle." Together with severaldiscoid whorls made of potsherds itattests a local knowledge, as in the Fayum,of the spinning of linen thread and,presumably, the weaving of cloth. Spathashells were used as scoops or ladles in thekitchens of the settlement and areoccasionally serrated around the edges foruse as fish scalers in much the same fashionas they were in the Fayum. A fragmentarysieve or strainer in an undesignatedmaterial is referred to by the excavatorsof the site as "the first and only example"of its kind.

Jewelry and other items of personaladornment, though not as rare as in theFayum settlements, are still scarce, andit is clear that, with the exception of anoccasional primitive pendant or a fewroughly shaped beads, jewelry was notgenerally worn by the people of Merimda.Twenty bodies found buried in the settle-ment during the first season's excavationsyielded, between them, only one ivorybead and one stone pendant. The pendants,evidently worn as amulets, include theminiature axehead of highly polished darkgreen or black stone, which occurs else-

where in the eastern Mediterranean area,notably in the Fayum and in the earliestNeolithic level at Jericho, and the boar'stusk, an example of which was found inposition on the breast of a skeleton andwhich may reflect the important roleplayed by the pig in the economy, if notin the magico-religious beliefs, of theMerimdians (see below). A pear-shapedpendant is carved from the tusk of ahippopotamus, while others consist simplyof small bivalve shells notched around theedges and pierced in each case with a holefor suspension. A more elaborate pendantamulet has the form of a small plano-convex cosmetic palette with a suspensionhole near the center of its top edge and asemicircular notch in either of its sidesnear the top. Roughly tubular, spherical,lenticular, and disk-shaped beads occurin a variety of materials, including blackand green stone, alabaster, ivory, bone,and clay fired black and polished, andsmall rings of bone and of alabaster seemto have formed links in chainlike necklaces.Other narrow sections of tubular boneshave been identified as finger rings, butseem in most cases too small for thepurpose, unless the wearers were infantchildren. Fragments of several plain,ring-shaped bangles of ivory were found,in one instance near a burial, as well as awide bracelet of clay, fired black andengraved on the exterior with a series ofparallel curved lines. A carved piece ofbone has been identified, perhaps correctly,as the top of a hairpin. The curiousabsence of combs, which are so commonin the prehistoric cemeteries of UpperEgypt, may be attributable to theextreme fragility of this class of object, tothe ravages which the site has undergoneat the hands of man and of nature, andto the fact that only a small percentage ofits total area has yet been excavated.

The bones and horns of numerous

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domestic animals found in the hearths,potholes, storage areas, and general rubbishof the settlement show that stock farmingplayed a far more important role in thelife and economy of the Merimdians thanit did with the lakeside population of theFayum. Bones of pigs are particularlynumerous, and it is clear that, like otherprehistoric peoples of northern Egypt (andwestern Asia), the Neolithic villagers ofMerimda were great pork eaters, anapparently regional or even racial charac-teristic, since traces of pig are relativelyscarce in the settlements and cemeteriesof Upper Egypt, Nubia, and the Sudan.The remains of longhorned cattle, sheep,and perhaps also goats occur in somequantity and the dog is attested at leastthree times in the village area. Of wildanimals hunted for their meat the mostimportant was the hippopotamus, thebones and tusks of which recur again anagain throughout the village. The longbones and spinal vertebrae of this massivebeast and also the articulated vertebrae ofa smaller animal, perhaps a steer, arefound sometimes bound with sinew andcloth and stuck upright in the ground likecolumns, evidently as offerings to somedivinity or guiding spirit of the chase whoseems to have been similarly propitiatedin the later prehistoric settlement atMaadi. Other quarry successfully pursuedby the hunters and fishermen of Merimdawere the crocodile, the polecat, or fitchew,a kind of antelope, numerous turtles(Testudo sp.), and various species of Nilefish. Shell fish gathered from the riverincluded Spatha cailliaudi and other typesof large bivalve mussels.

At Merimda, as we have seen, it wasapparently the custom to bury the deadamid the habitations of the living. Thepractice may have been confined to thosepersons-chiefly women and infantchildren-who died within the confines of

the settlement, for the 125 graves foundduring the seven seasons of excavationcan hardly represent the total mortalityduring the prolonged occupation of thehuge site or even that which occurredwithin the relatively restricted areasexplored. It has been suggested that themen of the town, the bodies of only a fewof whom have been found at Merimdaitself, more often than not died or werekilled on campaigns, hunting trips, andother expeditions which took them awayfrom home and were normally buriedwhere they died, a perfectly understandableprocedure for a primitive people possessedof very limited transport facilities and noartificial means of preserving a dead body.Undoubtedly, too, the mortality amongnewborn infants and women in child-birth was in Neolithic times very muchhigher than among any other segment ofthe population. We must consider, finally,the probability that the severe denudationof the site by wind and water has destroyedmany of the graves which at one timeexisted within its limits. In any event,the existing evidence together with theabsence of traces of anything resembling acemetery or isolated burial ground in thevicinity of the ancient town stronglysuggest that here, as in the Natufian andearlier Neolithic settlements of Palestineand on the Upper Capsian habitationsites of northern Africa the primitivecustom of settlement-burial or house-burial prevailed. It is, on the other hand,difficult to agree with the propositionadvanced by Junker that this type ofburial in itself is an earmark of a settledcommunity, while burial in cemeteriesaway from the habitations, as apparentlyin the Fayum and in Predynastic UpperEgypt, is a trait of a nomadic or semi-nomadic population.

The shallow oval graves of the Merim-dians, occasionally lined with coarse

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matting, are scattered, either singly or ingroups, throughout every level of thesettlement, the method of burial havingevidently remained unchanged from theearliest occupation of the site until itsabandonment some five or six centurieslater. Within the grave the body usuallylies on its right side, with knees drawn up,in the position of sleep. More often thannot the head is to the south and the facetoward the northeast, the north, or theeast. From this it might be supposed thatthe intent was to direct the gaze of thedeceased either toward the Nile, theprincipal local source of life, or, as laterin Egyptian history, toward the risingsun. There are, however, so many varia-tions in the positions and orientation ofthe bodies that there is at least equalreason to believe that the focus of thedead person's gaze was in most cases nota distant point outside the settlement,but simply the hearth in the dwellinghouse in or near which he or she wasburied. Here lay the center of the house-hold of which the deceased had been andwas evidently still regarded as a memberand the principal source of the foodconceived of as shared at mealtime by theliving and the dead members of the familyalike. Such a concept would obviate theneed, so universal in the cemetery type ofburial, of providing the grave with suppliesof food, drink, and other equipment andwould explain the bareness of the Merimdagraves as compared with those of laterprehistoric times in both Upper and LowerEgypt. Occasionally, to be sure, a bodyis adorned with a single crude pendant orbead, is accompanied by one or two flintimplements, and holds to its mouth orhas scattered over it a few grains ofemmer, the last perhaps more the symbolof a hoped-for resurrection and immor-tality, like the germinating "Osiris beds"of later times, than an actual offering of

food. It is possible that at mealtimes foodwas set aside for the dead or was evenplaced on the grave, such a practiceforeshadowing the funerary banquets andperiodic feasts held in the cemeteries andtomb-chapels of subsequent eras. Theclose and continuing contacts maintainedat Merimda between the living and thedead shows, in any case, that even at thisearly period piety and devotion, ratherthan fear, characterized the former'sattitude to the latter and governed thefiunerary service as a whole.

A slender, dolicocephalic people, smallby modern standards, the Merimdians,nevertheless, are seen from their skeletalremains to have been distinctly taller,more sturdily built, and endowed withlarger, better formed, and more capaciousskulls than the Natufians of Palestine andthe earliest Predynastic population ofUpper and Middle Egypt. The differencesare sufficient to suggest that they, togetherwith other prehistoric and early historic

peoples of northern Egypt, belonged to adifferent and generally less primitive racethan the Upper Egyptians. The men ofMerimda, to judge from the few skeletonsrecovered, averaged five feet five and one-half inches in height, the women, five feettwo inches. The crania are higher inrelation to their breadth than the skullsof the Naqada people of Upper Egypt andbroader, with smoother and more evenlycontoured cranial vault, than those foundin the Badarian cemeteries of southernMiddle Egypt. The teeth are small andoften show abscess cavities at the roots,"due to exposure of the pulp cavity byexcessive friction," a condition commonin Egypt at all periods. "Certain Armenoidcharacteristics" shared by the Merimdianswith the people of El-Omari have suggestedthe association of these early northernEgyptians (and of two or three of the so-called "Tasian" skulls from Upper Egypt)

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with a race which, fanning out from a

hypothetical homeland in the region ofTurkestan, has been credited with bringingNeolithic culture to Europe and to north-eastern Africa.

However that may be, the cultural tieswhich exist between the settlement atMerimda and the Mesolithic, Neolithic,and early Chalcolothic sites of south-western Asia-Eynan, Jericho, Tell el -

Ghassul, Byblos, Ras Shamra, Hassuna,Eridu, Mersin, Hacilar, etc.-are sub-stantial. They include, as we have seen,the practice of burying the dead, or, atleast, certain classes of dead, in and amongthe houses of the living, the use of rounded,mud-plastered pits as granaries and atEynan and Merimda as dwellings, thebreeding and eating of pigs, the productionof large numbers of flaked axes and adzeswith ground edges and a predilection forthe globular or pear-shaped macehead, theuse of the sling, a typically Asiatic weaponrarely found in Egypt, the wearing ofpierced animal teeth and 'miniature axe-heads of hard green or black stone asamulets, the prevalence in the PotteryNeolithic B of Jericho and the earlierlevels of Merimda of pottery vesselscoated with a smooth red slip and adornedwith bands of incised herringbone patterns,the occurrence of footed vases and long-handled clay ladles, and the modeling ofsmall female and animal figures of clay,reflecting perhaps a magico-religious beliefin the efficacy of such idols in stimulatingthe procreative powers and increasingthe fertility of the people, their flocks, andtheir fields.

At the same time, we should expect anddo in fact find in this west Delta cultureelements which link it to the adjoiningSaharo-Libyan area, to more remoteAfrican regions to the west and southwest,and, through these, to some aspects, atleast, of the Neolithic of western Europe.

The most obvious link lies in the fineMerimdian stone industry with itsbifacially worked hollow-based, triangular,and tanged arrowheads of types unknownin western Asia, but without much doubtof Saharan origin and probably of Aterianancestry. Arkell has suggested that theflaked axehead with only the edge ground"may have been invented in the SaharanNeolithic"; and Larsen would see inMerimda "a spur of a widely expandedSaharan culture." Menghin has pointedout that the cylindrical axes of Merimdaare similar to those of northwestern Africaand western Europe, and believes that theMerimdian culture "is to be designated asproto-Libyan." Kaiser notes that thestone implements of both Merimda andthe Fayum A settlements seem to berelated to finds in the distant Hoggar, Air,and Tibesti region; and a number ofprehistorians have drawn attention to thefact that burial of the dead within thehabitation area is known from the UpperCapsian rammadyat, or shell-heaps, of theMaghreb. For Baumgartel the material"nearest" to that found at Merimda comesfrom the "A-Group," or Early Dynastic,cemeteries in Nubia, which, following OricBates, she proposes to identify as"Libyan." It has been repeatedly statedthat the cultures of Merimda, the Fayum,and El-Omari are "African," derive froma common "African substratum," or havetheir roots in "the North African mother-soil." They have even been described as"African-Hamite," though the expression"Hamite" is normally reserved for associa-tions of a linguistic nature, of which atthis period, of course, we know nothing.

The agreement is not complete in thecase of either southwestern Asia or northernAfrica, typological and chronological dis-crepancies being in both instances toogreat to derive the Merimdian culturein its entirety from one of these areas

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NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOIX)LITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 115

alone. Rather, we must recognize in thislarge northern Egyptian settlement acomposite culture which, like the FayumA-group villages, owed its food-producing,semi-urban character, much of its materialequipment and magico-religious beliefs,and perhaps the salient physical charac-teristics of its people to immigrants fromthe north and east, but which, at the sametime, exchanged ideas, customs, andimplement types with its Libyan andSaharan neighbors on the west and was byno means wholly out of place in its northAfrican setting. Again, as in manyanother Neolithic community, we find herethe merging of a settled village-farmerstrain of ultimately western Asiatic originwith a warlike, semi-nomadic huntingelement of local Paleolithic antecedents.

The culture and mode of existence whichresulted from the fusion at Merimda ofthese ingredients seems, in any case, tohave persisted during the entire occupationof the site, the differences noted betweenthe earliest and latest habitation layersreflecting developments of and within theculture itself rather than the results ofchanges introduced by intrusive foreignelements. Throughout we find a settled,semi-urban population dependent for theirlivelihood to approximately equal degreeson agriculture, stock-breeding, hunting,and fishing. Though the community as awhole may have participated in a primitiveform of land irrigation-this being knownin some parts of the world to haveantedated agriculture itself-the crops ofemmer and other food-plants wereevidently neither the products nor theproperty of the community, as wasapparently the case in the Fayum, butwere raised by the individual villagers andstored in private granaries adjoining theirrespective houses. The long occupation ofthe site suggests either that new plots ofarable land were from time to time

discovered or created in its vicinity orthat some method of crop rotation orfallowing had been developed, for withoutsuch measures the fields adjacent to aNeolithic farming community were rapidlyexhausted and the life of the communitywas necessarily brief. The fact that thehouses of the uppermost level of the townappear to have been lined up alongwinding but nonetheless recognizablestreets bespeaks an orderly communitylife and implies, as we have remarked, thepresence of some sort of local governmentalauthority or administration, centered per-haps in a mayor or town council. Thereligious beliefs of the townspeople arereflected, on the one hand, in the hunters'offerings which they set up to some spiritor spirits of the chase and, on the otherhand, in the crude clay figure of thefarmers' characteristic fertility or "mother-earth" goddess, that bringer of rain, richharvests, and increased herds revered alsoat Jericho and in other village-farmingcommunities of western Asia. The head ofa bull or aurochs (Bos primigenius)modeled of clay may indicate the existencein this early settlement of a fetishisticanimal cult and is significant in view ofthe persistence and widespread popularityof bull-gods in the religion of the dynasticEgyptians, especially the northernEgyptians. The sistrums or rattles usedextensively in the religious rites of historicEgypt may also have had their fore-runners in the crude pottery rattles of theMerimdians. The concept of protectivemagic inherent in two of the amuletsworn by the people of Merimda is directand uncomplicated, the amulets in questionhaving, quite simply, the forms of naturalor artificial weapons of defense, in onecase the boar's tusk, in another theminiature axehead. The notions behindthe pear- and palette-shaped pendantswere apparently more complex. Like

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other ancient peoples among whom thepractice of settlement burial prevailed theMerimdians "lived in the closest associa-tion with their dead," shared their mealswith them, and evidently regarded themas still maintaining their old ties with theirhomes and families. They clearly believedin a life after death and naively picturedthat life as similar to man's earthlyexistence. Like the houses of the livingthe graves of the dead are oval cavitiesscooped out in the ground and like theliving the dead were occasionally providedwith trinkets to wear, implements to use,and with grains of wheat, the latter toserve either as food or as a symbolicmeans of inducing the deceased's resurrec-tion. Within the settlement the pottersand stone-knappers, the carvers of wood,bone, horn, and ivory, the jewelers andlapidaries, the leatherworkers and basket-makers, and the spinners and weavers ofcloth, supported now by the excess offood and other commodities produced bythe farmers, the hunters, and the fishermen,practiced their crafts with ever growingskill, some of the materials which theyused -Red Sea shells and crystallinestones from the Eastern Desert and theLibyan massifs-having been acquired,

probably through trade, from sometimesfairly remote regions. The relativelyadvanced stage of civilization attained bythese west Delta villagers is furtherattested by their elaborate and systematicarrangements for the storage of theirhousehold provisions, which, according totheir types and natures, were consigned,respectively, to baskets, subterraneangranaries, mud-lined storage bins, andlarge pottery pithoi.

The many analogies already notedbetween the Merimdian and the FayumA cultures leave little room for doubt thatthey are closely related one to anotherand are without much question descended

from a common ancestor or combinationof ancestors. Of the two the big settlementat Merimda seems the more advanced, itspottery more evolved, its dependence onagriculture and stock farming more pro-nounced, and its social organization of ahigher order. The radiocarbon dates so farobtained for the two sites (pp. 92 and

102 suggest that it is also somewhatlater in date than the Fayum A villages,with perhaps only its earliest stagereaching back into the period when theselakeside settlements were still flourishing.At the same time, it shows no relationshipwhatsoever with the later B-groupculture of the Fayum and east Libyanareas. The important fact which emergesfrom a study of the Fayum A and Merimdasettlements is that, despite the differenceswhich exist between them, they are clearlyparts of a single cultural complex charac-teristic of and local to northern Egyptand distinct from the earliest groups ofpost-Paleolithic cultures of Upper Egypt,the distinction extending apparently to theraces and physical characteristics of thepopulations of the two parts of the countryas well as to their material culture.

5. EL-OMARI: ITS SETTLEMENTS

AND CEMETERIES

Two subsequent stages of the samegeneral northern Egyptian culturaldevelopment belong a series of prehistoricvillages and cemeteries clustered in andaround the mouth of the Wadi Hof, sometwo miles north of Helwan and four and ahalf miles to the east of the Nile, oppositeAbusir. The site, now part of the lowdesert at the foot of the Gebel Tura, onthe eastern edge of the Nile Valley, isgenerally known as El-Omari, in memory ofAmin el Omari, a young Egyptianmineralogist who in the spring of 1924conducted investigations there with theaid and advice of the veteran prehistorian,

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Pere Bovier-Lapierre. During the winterof 1925, following the death of his protege,excavations were undertaken at El-Omariby Bovier-Lapierre himself on behalf ofthe Egyptian Service des Antiquits, andwere resumed in 1943-1944, 1948, and1952 under the direction of FernandDebono. By and large, however, theprehistoric remains of El-Omari have notbeen as thoroughly explored nor asextensively published as those of theFayum and Merimda, and there is muchabout the site which still remains obscure,especially as regards the dating andinterrelationships of the various settle-ments.

What would appear to be the earliestof these-its beginnings perhaps con-temporaneous with the final stage of theMerimdian culture-occupies a gravelterrace which slopes downward from thesouth to join the southwest corner of theestuary of the Wadi Hof near the' rocky

spur known as the Ras el-Hof. Here, over

a "very large" area, are scattered the

sunken bottoms of more than a hundredcircular huts as well as the remains of

numerous oval dwellings constructed of

posts and wickerwork on the surface of theground. The circular hut-bottoms notinfrequently cut into one another, the

shallower examples sometimes providingaccess to deeper ones. They are lined with

thick, clay-covered matting reinforced on

the inside with cords and occasionallyplastered against the remains of the wooden

posts which supported the superstructuresof the huts. Similar, but smaller pits, alsolined with matting or containing, as at

Metimda and in the Fayum, clay-daubedbaskets, were used as granaries ormagazines for provisions. Some of thesewere cut not in the yellow pebbly surface

of the terrace but in the adjoining rock.Larger spaces were inclosed with reedfences, like the present-day zeribas, and

there are also the remains of little walls ofdried earth. The hearths or fire holes,usually in the centres of the huts, are smallrounded depressions blackened by fire andusually containing or surrounded by

pottery vessels, potsherds, stone imple-ments, mills, and grinders, broken and

charred animal bones, eggshells, molluskshells, and other household litter. A

difference in the lower and upper fill of thedwelling and storage pits-the former ayellowish detritus, the latter a blackishfill-points to two successive periods of

occupation, separated by an intervalwhen the momentarily abandoned hutsand silos were used as dumps before beingrecut and re-occupied. Since, however,no change is discernible in the stone

implements of the two layers, theyprobably reflect some purely internalupheaval or development through whichthe settlement passed during its evidentlylong period of occupation.

The implements in question, madechiefly of flint, include many of thebifacially worked forms with which wehave become familiar in the Fayum A andMerimda settlements-the flaked axe-head with ground cutting edge, the fullypolished axehead (including an example

in serpentine), the serrated sickle flint,the concave-based and triangular arrow-head and lancehead, and a few ex-

amples of the rare tanged arrowhead.On the other hand, the production offlake and blade tools-knives of a newform with curved and blunted backs andwell developed tangs, saws, unifacialsickle flints, piercers, scrapers, and re-touched blades of miscellaneous types-isfar more extensive than at Merimda andforeshadows the stone industry of thestill later settlement at Maadi, a few milesto the north, where the blade elementalmost entirely replaced the old bifacialtechnique. The presence of cores, flakes,

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hammerstones, and polishers in the debrisfrom the hut circles indicates that themanufacture of stone implements wascarried out in the dwellings themselves.The principal stone-knappers' atelierseems, however, to have been located onthe outskirts of the settlement, whereBovier-Lapierre found large quantities ofglobular, discoid, and elongated hammer-stones of flint and fossil wood togetherwith "innumerable" flint flakes and cores.The hand mills or saddle querns found inthe settlement are mostly of quartzite(from the subsequently famous quarriesat Gebel el-Ahmar?), the grinders whichaccompany them usually of petrifiedwood, which is abundant in this region ofthe old Oligocene delta of the Nile. "Nodule-picks" of Merimdian type, made ofindurated limestone, were probably usedfor excavating the hut-bottoms, andlongitudinally grooved ovoid weights ofthe same material and of a by now familiarform were evidently sinkers for fishingnets. In bone there are piercers, punches,awls, knife-like blades, and needles witheyes; and in shell and horn a number offinely made fishhooks.

The spinning and weaving of cloth isattested to not only by a number of stonespindle whorls, but also by the presence inthe settlement of actual pieces of linencloth up to a foot in length, of both coarseand fine weave. Finely worked baskets ofa type and quality comparable to thoseof the pharaonic era were produced at El-Omari as were also cords and stringsexceeding five feet in length and mats ofvarious kinds, used for lining hut and silowalls and for wrapping the bodies of thedead. Evidence for leatherworking includesbits of animal skins found in the gravesand a complete skin two and half feet longrecovered from the bottom of a hut.

Dwellings and graves alike yieldedpottery vessels of good quality and

"evolved character" in monochrome red,brown, or black ware, both fine and coarse,with surface finishes ranging from coarsethrough smoothed and polished to lustrous.The red pottery seems to have been thepreferred ware and the favorite formswere the straight-sided "flower-pot" witheverted rim and the globular flask; butDebono records at least seventeen differenttypes of vessels, including narrow-mouthedvases, ovoid vases, goblets, cylindricalcontainers, pans with flaring or concavesides, conical vases, bowls and vasessupported on two or three feet, pots withlug handles, large pithoi or storage jars,and coarse vessels of a variety of shapes.As evidence for a relatively low datingBaumgartel has drawn attention to parallelstriations which occur on the interiors ofsome of the pots and which suggest thatthey were turned, or rotated, in the processof manufacture, though not necessarily ona potter's wheel. Despite some rathermarked differences the pottery of El-Omari bears a general resemblance in itswares and in some of its forms-notably,the coarse pithoi, the cook-pots with lughandles, and the footed vases and bowls-to that of Merimda and to that of the laterprehistoric settlement at Maadi. On theother hand, it exhibits no relationshipwhatsoever with the pottery of Tasa,Badari, Naqada, and the other Pre-dynastic sites of Upper Egypt, beingclearly, and in spite of its somewhatdisconcerting individuality, a product ofthe northern zone of Egyptian culture.Notable is the complete absence ofdecorated pottery.

Besides their pottery vessels the peopleof El - Omari used ostrich eggshells ascontainers and even as cook-pots, andmollusk shells, especially those of Unioand Spatha, as scoops and receptacles.Stone vessels are represented by thefragment of a single basalt vase, thought

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to have been imported from elsewhere,and a few fragments of calcite of uncertaindate.

In contrast to the inhabitants ofMerimda and the Fayum the Omarianswere well provided with primitive jewelryand other items of personal adornment.Pendants and necklace elements weremade of gastropod shells, imported fromthe Red Sea coast and pierced for stringing,of ostrich eggshell, animal bone, and thespines of fish, and of mother-of-pearl andvarious hard, ornamental stones, some ofthe last-named evidently brought fromafar. Fossil nummulites were sometimesperforated and worn as pendants. Bits ofochre found in and among the huts hadapparently been used for cosmetic purposesas well as for coloring the red and brownpottery vases.

Aside from their sickle flints, mills, andgrinders the agricultural activities of thepeople of El- Omari and the importantrole played by cereal grains in their dailydiet is reflected by the presence in thedwellings, granaries, and other areas ofthe settlement not only of copious amountsof grains and ears of wheat and barley,but also of a cake made of crushed wheatgrains and bits of wheat and barley bread.The wheat here is emmer (Triticumdicoccum), as on most other Egyptian sitesincluding Merimda and the Fayum, butClub wheat (Triticum compactum or oneof its varieties), hitherto unrecorded inthe Near East before the mid-secondmillennium s.c. and in Egypt beforeGreco-Roman times, also occurs. Thecommon, lax-eared barley of El- Omari(Hordeum vulgare L.) is of a different andmore evolved form than that found in thesilos of the Fayum A settlements, which,as we have seen, is of the six-rowed type(Hordeum hexastichum). Grains of a fodder-vetch (Vicia sativa L.) similar to thatknown at Merimda occur at El -Omari.

Fruits eaten by the inhabitants of thetown included sycamore figs and dates(Phoenix dactylifera L.), and flowers placedin one of the graves have been identifiedby Vivi Tiackholm and Elhamy Greiss asPulicaria undulata Kostel. A pod of flax(Linum usitatissimum L.) suggests apositive identification of the fibres usedlocally in the spinning and weaving ofcloth. Stalks of a type of wild sugar cane(Saccharum spontaneum L.) appear to bethe earliest examples of this plant recordedin Egypt. The specimens of wood foundare chiefly tamarisk (Tamarix sp.).

Among the animals hunted or kept bythe inhabitants of El-Omari were the pig,hippopotamus, crocodile, snail, ostrich,duck(?), antelope, goat, and a type ofbovide, the last two probably domesticated.Also recognized were the bones of acanide or dog-like animal. Fish bones areabund include those of the clariaand the synodont, or lizard-fish.

Of the ties which exist between theearliest culture of El=Omari and that ofMerimda none is more significant or morestriking than the custom common toboth-and to no other Egyptian groupnow known-of burying the dead withinthe confines of the settlement itself. Atthe Omarian village below the Ras el-Hofthe burials were made in the huts or nearthem, in some instances in adjoining silosor magazines. Graves belonging to theearlier of the two successive periods ofoccupation were sometimes cut into bysubsequently excavated provision cellarsor pierced by the posts of huts built onthe surface above. Most of the graves aresimple rounded cavities in the ground,but one grave, discovered in 1948, had itswalls revetted with rough blocks of stone.In burial, the body, wrapped in a mat, ananimal's skin, or a coarse fabric or pro-tected by a mat spread above it on treebranches, was regularly placed on its left

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side in contracted position with the headin almost every case to the south and theface directed to the west. This rule, whichwas not followed at Merimda, is,interestingly enough, generally adheredto in the Predynastic cemeteries of UpperEgypt and may reflect the intrusion atthis time into northern Egypt of influencesfrom the south. Almost every gravecontained a single pottery jar of commonhousehold type placed before the deceasedand in one case the bouquet of flowersreferred to above had been laid on thebreast of the dead person, while in anothera small clay box had been placed behindthe head of its late owner.

The skeleton of what has been thoughtto be a local ruler was found holding in itshand a well made wooden staff or scepter,some fourteen inches long, carved at bothends, one of the latter being pointed, theother flat. This so-called "baton ofcommand" has been compared with theames-staff carried by Egyptian kings andgods from early historic times and perhapsof prehistoric ancestry and has suggestedto Childe the rather far-fetched notionthat one of the line of Omarian chieftainsmay have become King of Lower Egypt.

On the evidence of their skeletons thepeople of El-Omari belonged to a relativelytall, sturdily built, mesocephalic race,related on the one hand to the Merimdiansand on the other hand to the so-calledLower Egyptian, or "Giza," type ofDynastic times, of which, indeed, they,together with "other primeval inhabitantsof the Delta," appear to have been theancestors. One of their skulls, which couldbe accurately measured, has a length of190 millimetres, a breadth of 145 milli-metres, a height of 138.5 millimetres, anda cephalic index of 76.3, surpassing in itsmeasurements most of the Giza skulls ofthe Fourth Dynasty and pointing,according to Dr. Douglas Derry, "to a

brain capacity far above the average ofthe prehistoric Egyptian."

Although no trace of copper or othermetallic substance has been found in thesettlement near the Ras el-Hof there isevery probability that this town waspartly contemporaneous with and certainlynot earlier than the Naqada I cemeteriesand settlements of Upper Egypt, where,in addition to a highly developed stone-tool industry, small implements andornaments of copper were being fashionedfrom hammered sheets of the native metal.Possibly because in the southern portionsof the Eastern Desert deposits of nativecopper lay nearer to hand than in thenorth the material culture of UpperEgypt was, then, already in what isgenerally called the Chalcolithic or Copper-and-Stone Age; and it is to this periodthat the earliest culture of El-Omari mustbe assigned, even though the village itselfmight still reasonably be classed asNeolithic. A radiocarbon date of 3305 + 230B.c., derived from a sample of charcoalfound on a hut floor in the Ras el -Hofsettlement, would appear, from the com-parative archeological evidence available,to be several centuries too low.

On the northern side of the entrance ofthe Wadi el-Hof, more than three hundredfeet up, on one of the highest terraces ofthe Gebel Hof, lie the remains of a secondearly Omarian village, evidently roughlycontemporaneous with the larger settle-ment to the south and quite clearlyforming part of the same cultural ensemble.Here also, even on this lofty plateau, thedead are buried in the village itself, theirbones being frequently found washed outof the soil by mountain torrents. As in thefirst settlement the stone industry exhibitsnot only such bifacially worked forms asthe polished axehead, the hollow-basedand triangular arrowhead, the larger lanceor javelin head, and the toothed sickle-

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flint or saw, but also blade-tools (knives,unifacial sickle blades, saws, and narrowblades) and implements fashioned out ofirregularly shaped flakes. Cores andhammerstones abound in the atelier areas,and millstones with grinders as well assamples of the cereal grains milled on themoccur among the rubbish in the dwellings.Pottery of at least two of the types knownin the larger settlement are found, andNerita shells from the Red Sea, perforatedfor stringing in necklaces, bracelets, or,as at Shaheinab in the Sudan, in girdles.Despite its strange location the existencein the Gebel Hof village of what appear tohave been graves suggests a fairly longperiod of habitation, facilitated, pre-sumably, by the presence in the immediatevicinity of two natural cisterns, or rain-catching basins, one to the west, in theWadi Rayan, the other on the east, in theWadi Rahana. Thanks to occasionalwinter rains, which must have been morefrequent in prehistoric times, the latterstill contains water throughout the greaterpart of the year.

Distinct from and apparently later indate than the two settlements justdescribed are a small village and one ormore adjoining, but separate, cemeteriesdiscovered by Bovier-Lapierre in a branchof the estuary of the Wadi el-Hof. Of thevillage little now remains except tracesof huts in the form of small round post- orpot-holes and some larger cavities takento be magazines for provisions, filled inboth cases with a blackish deposit con-taining flint flakes, a few potsherds, bitsof cords or mats, and carbonated grains ofwheat and barley. The stone industryhere is comprised exclusively of smallblade-tools-knives, flat and roundedscrapers, and chisel-shaped arrowheads-which differ markedly not only from thoseof the earlier Omarian settlements, butalso from those of the later prehistoric

complex at Maadi. The pottery, on theother hand, seems related to and is perhapsdescended from that of the Ras el-Hof andGebel Hof settlements.

The cemeteries associated with thisvillage lie to the west and south of thesettlement proper. They are characterizedby graves surmounted by roughly circulartumuli of stones under which the deadlie buried in shallow pits in crouchedposition with the hands before the facebut without, apparently, any standardorientation as regards the points of thecompass. The bodies, which include thoseof both adults and children (sometimesburied together in the same graves) seemto have been wrapped in cloth or in plaitedstraw mats and are at times accompaniedby a pottery jar and, more rarely, bysnail or mussel shells, small flint blades,necklace beads of agate, and bits ofcharcoal and a "brown organic matter."The skulls of the people buried in onecemetery have been described as dolico-cephalic, while those in another "seemedbrachycephalic"; but since none was in acondition to permit of accurate measure-ment, such observations are of relativelylittle value. Hearths and small circles ofstones ("miniature cromlechs") scatteredamong the grave tumuli were undoubtedlyassociated with meals or offerings sharedby the living with the dead and withceremonies performed in the latter'sbehalf.

Thus, during the late Neolithic andChalcolithic phases of Egyptian prehistorywe find the gravel terraces in and aroundthe mouth of the Wadi Hof occupied bytwo distinct and probably successivegroups of settlers, both of whom raisedwheat and barley, lived in circular huts oflight construction, and continued to maketheir tools and weapons exclusively ofstone, wood, bone, and shell, ignoring ap-parently the contemporaneous production

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122 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYT

in Upper Egypt of implements of beatencopper. Though both groups display mark-edly individual, local characteristics, whatappears to have been the earlier of thetwo shows also certain clear relation-ships with the West Delta culture ofMerimda, the most cogent of which is thepractice, common in Egypt to these twosites alone, of burying the dead in oramong the dwellings of the living. Bycontrast, the people of the second Omariangroup, or what is sometimes called theOmari (or Helwan) B culture, follow thecustom, current already in the Fayum andthroughout Upper Egypt, of burial incemeteries separated by some distancefrom the areas of habitation. The periodduring which this people flourished is amatter of extreme uncertainty; but if, asseems likely, they did indeed supersedethe Omari A settlers, their occupation ofthe site would date, at the earliest, fromthe end of the Naqada I or the beginningof the Naqada II phase in Upper Egypt(ca. 3600 B.c.). The many points ofdifference between their culture and thatof the late prehistoric and protohistoricsettlement at Maadi, only a few miles tothe northwest, suggests a terminus adquem for them well before the rise of thefirst historic dynasty (3100 B.C.).

Though, with Kaiser and others, wemay recognize the cultures of El-Omari,together with those of Merimda and theFayum, as basically "African" in originand character, the position of the site onthe edge of the Eastern Desert not twohundred miles from the Palestinian borderis a factor not entirely to be overlooked.The predilection for blade-tools, the burialof the dead among the dwellings of theliving, and perhaps also the presence ofgrains of Club wheat, otherwise first knownin the Near East in Anatolia, Syria, andPalestine, suggest, in any case, thatinfluences from the north and east played

a not inconsiderable role in the life of thismost easterly of all the prehistoric sites ofnorthern Egypt.

6. MAADI, WADI DIGLA, HELIOPOLIS,

AND QASR QARUN

Four miles northwest of El-Omari, sixmiles south of Cairo, and a few hundredyards east of the modern suburbancommunity of Maadi lies a low desertridge, about a mile in length from west toeast and one hundred and thirty yards inwidth from north to south, which extendseastward into the mouth of the Wadi el-Tih and separates the latter from itssmaller southern subsidiary, the WadiTura. Here have been found the remains ofa sprawling town of oval huts, rectangularhouses, and subterranean shelters andmagazines, which appears to have beenfounded in late Predynastic (NaqadaII-III) times but which evidently con-tinued to flourish well into the proto-historic, or Early Dynastic, period. Theposition of the town, at the mouth of theprincipal wadi leading eastward to therich copper deposits of Gebel Ataqa andSinai and the large amounts of workedand unworked copper found within itsconfines has suggested to Dr. Baumgartelthat "a budding copper industry causedby the first exploitation of the Sinai minescould well have been the reason for Madi'sexistence." Be that as it may, it is clearthat the population of this great settlementincluded farmers and stockbreeders as wellas metal workers and that the cultivationof wheat and barley and the raising of pigs,beef-cattle, sheep, and goats were amongits essential activities. Hunting and fishingseem, on the other hand, to have beenrelatively unimportant and to have contri-buted less to the livelihood of the ancientMaadians than was the case with Egypt'searlier prehistoric peoples. Arrowheads,fishhooks, and net-weights are extremely

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rare, and the scanty remains of wild gamerecovered in the area of the town areconfined to the ibex and to such purelyriverain species as the hippopotamus, thebeaver(?), turtles, fish, and freshwatermollusks.

The houses and shelters of Maadi areconcentrated chiefly in the central sectionof the 45-acre site, with the silos, provisioncellars, and huge, buried store-jars distri-buted for the most part around itsperiphery, the arrangement calling tomind the segregated granary areasassociated with the Fayum A-groupsettlements (§2). Of the dwellings the mostprevalent type is the oval hut or horseshoe-shaped windbreak constructed of stouttamarisk posts driven deep into the virginsoil and supporting walls made of inter-woven tree branches plastered over withNile clay. The bottoms of the posts hadbeen neatly pointed, evidently with ametal axe or adze, but most of them stillretain their bark and the projecting stubsof untrimmed branches. The hearths,usually placed near the centers of theshelters or just inside their entranceways,are shallow circular or rectangular cavitiesin the ground, frequently surrounded bystones and sometimes lined with fired orunfired clay, one hearth, in fact, consistingof the bottom of a large pottery jarembedded in the earth. Big store-jarsburied in the ground up to their mouths,small storage-pits, and clay-lined pot-holesand "mortars" were occasionally foundinside or closely associated with the huts.The oval house or shelter evidently con-tinued to be constructed during the entirelong occupation of the site, the remainsof several being found in the upper-most levels of the six-foot-deep towndebris and one example having been builtover the ruins of a rectangular structure-house or courtyard-of more advancedtype. The latter, some seventeen feet in

length from north to south and ten feetwide, was provided, near the south end ofits long eastern side, with a doorway,protected from the prevailing northerlywinds by a wind-screen. Its walls, springingfrom shallow, mud-filled trenches, appearto have been of reeds and straw supportedon wooden posts. The structure containedno hearth but had a cruciform partitionjust inside the doorway, a circular pittwo feet deep near the east wall, and arectangular pit outside the entrance.Another rectangular building, of whichlittle more than one corner was preserved,seems to have been built of logs, laidhorizontally, and to have been partitionedon the interior. Several large cave-likesubterranean chambers, dug in the compactsandy soil to depths of between six andeight feet, are roughly circular, oval, orrectangular in plan with their walls,either vertical or sloping inward toward adomed(?) roof, covered with matting or,in one case, revetted with boulders andlarge blocks of mud. They were enteredby means of steps, cut in the soil andsometimes faced with flat stones, andcontained fire-pits or hearths, and holesfor the posts which in some cases supportedthe roofs. Such subterranean dwellings areunknown elsewhere in Egypt but are wellattested in Palestine, notably at Bir AbuMatar, Bir el- Safadi, and other sites nearBeersheba. Fragments of rectangular sun-dried mud bricks could not be associatedwith any of the structures described above.The remains of stout post fences, orpalisades, and of long narrow ditches mayhave formed part of the town's primitivedefenses against enemy attack--defenseswhich apparently proved futile, for layersof ashes, scattered human bones, and thescarcity on the site of copper tools andweapons and other articles of value suggestthat the town was sacked and burned atleast once in the course of its history.

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124 NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOIX)LITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

A very large circular fireplace has beenidentified by the excavators of the site asa pottery kiln and some long rectangularpits are supposed to have been providedfor vertical looms, a device, however,which appears not to have been introducedinto Egypt until the New Kingdom. Smallholes with clay-lined walls and bottomsconsolidated by pebbles and potsherds maywell have been mortars for crushing fruitand other foodstuffs, while similar holes,not so reinforced, were evidently forsupporting pots with rounded or pointedbottoms. The storage cellars, concentratedin the southern sector of the site, arecircular pits, three to six feet deep, withsloping or vertical sides, sometimes linedwith mud or showing traces of basketwork.Their bottoms are not infrequently pro-vided with one or more pot-holes and theirrims are occasionally rebated to take a lidor cover of some sort. Some of the cellarsare connected with one another in series.Their contents included black soil,carbonized grain, animal and fish bones,flint implements, spindle whorls, potsherds,and groups of as many as six to twelvecomplete pottery jars. In one deep cellar-hole, sunk in the virgin soil and coveredwith a stone slab, were found seven wellmade basalt vases, an alabaster vase, ajar of grey limestone, and twenty-twobeads of carnelian and "a whitishmaterial." Another storage pit containedsome twenty large lumps of asphalt, orbitumen, of a type known chiefly fromSyria and Palestine.

A second storage area, in this case givenover chiefly to rows of huge potterystore-jars or pithoi, buried up to theirmouths in the sandy soil, occupied thenorthern fringe of the settlement. Thejars, three to four feet in height and twoto three feet in diameter, are usuallycordiform with broad shoulders andbottoms tapering to rounded points. They

are of coarse brick-red, reddish brown,grey, or black, or solid black ware, withsurfaces carefully burnished or coveredwith a dull red or whitish wash, the largerexamples being made up of superimposedcylinders of clay joined together. One suchjar has a drawing of a crocodile scratchedon its shoulder and a round hole in itsbottom. On this rather slender evidence,it has been identified as an offering orlibation vase used in the cult of a localcrocodile god. A nearly cylindrical barrel-shaped pithos has a moulded rim and,around its shoulder below the rim, a rowof rounded lug-handles pierced to receivea stout cord or rope. Coated with a shinyred slip, it is unique at Maadi, but finds afaint parallel in the Early Dynasticcemetery of nearby Tura. The contents ofthese great jars was generally similar tothat of the cellar-holes, including, besideslarge quantities of grain (emmer andbarley), the bones of animals and fish,shells, cooked mutton, masses of a brownishresinous substance, flint implements,spindle whorls, small vases, and jar-stoppers of Nile mud, pottery, and wood.Among the last-named are a pottery diskpierced with holes near its edges and acarefully made domical cover of wood,hollowed and rebated on its underside andprovided with holes for lashing it in place.

Besides the big store-jars pottery vesselsand potsherds were recovered in vastnumbers from the cellars, huts, andgeneral debris of the settlement at Maadi.As elsewhere in Lower Egypt at this earlyperiod the pottery is for the most partmonochrome. Most characteristic are asmooth red ware, a polished black ware,and a mixed red-and-black pottery whichresulted apparently from the unevenfiring of the black ware. In the first ofthese wares there are slender ovoid jarswith moulded rims and "ring-bases" of atype which survived at Tura and elsewhere

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into Early Dynastic times, ovate pots ofvarious proportions with flat, rounded,pointed, and "knobbed" bases, deep andwide-mouthed bowls, and conical cupswith moulded rims, thought at Tura tohave been jarlids, but often containing,at Maadi, a cosmetic composed of pigmentmixed with a fatty substance. Some ofthese forms occur also in the polishedblack pottery together with globular potsand bottles, broad ovate vases withpointed bottoms, cylindrical situlae, andconical bowls. We find, in addition, ahighly polished fine red ware, the use ofwhich was confined to little globular potswith bands of incised decoration at thebase of the neck, middle-sized wide-mouthed bowls with narrow bases, smalldouble vases, and high ring-stands. Vasesof Syro-Palestinian types, including broad"wavy-handled" jars, known also in theGerzean (Naqada II) of Upper Egypt,ledge- and lug-handled jars, loop-handledcups, barrel-shaped pots, and squat,flat-bottomed vases with imprinted decora-tion around the neck were importedinto Maadi (as containers of oil, etc.) or

produced there under western Asiaticinfluence in a distinctive white or pinkclay, often with a whitish surface wash orslip. Among a number of special andrelatively rare types may be mentionedwide basins of coarse pottery resting onhigh cylindrical feet, handled jars ofyellowish pottery, spouted vases andbowls, squat carinated cosmetic potscontaining powdered ochre, very smallovoid and conical vases which may havebeen toys or models, vases made in theform of birds with the wings and tailclearly indicated, not unlike those found inthe Naqada II culture of the south, sherdsof black-topped red and brown vesselswhich also suggest a contact with thepredynastic culture of Upper Egypt, andsherds and complete vessels with a variety

of incised ornament-gouges, slashes, dots,triangular imprints, cross-hatching, andbranch and herringbone patterns. Painteddecoration in light or dull brownish red ona pinkish yellow or whitish slip occurs onnumerous sherds and one or two nearlycomplete vessels from Maadi. The designs,elementary in concept and crudelyexecuted, consist largely of rough net orscale patterns, palm-leaf patterns, dots,crosses, curved strokes, straight lines, andparts of what have been thought-some-what imaginatively-to be human figures.The frequently suggested association ofthis pottery with the so-called "decorated"ware of the Naqada II culture of UpperEgypt is, in fact, somewhat vague, thoughit may represent a late, debased, and muchsimplified form of that ware. Menghin andVandier have compared it with the Thinite(Early Dynastic) vases called by PetrieAegean and by Hall Syrian, Bonnetbelieves it to have been "made in Egyptby a foreign tribe," and Childe notes thatthe painted sherds from Maadi "are as likeEarly Palestinian wares as GerzeanDecorated vases."

For jar-lids the Maadians, like theMerimdians before them, used potsherds,trimmed to form rough disks, and some-times the broken and inverted bases ofsmall pots. Pottery disks with a centralhole were probably spindle whorls anddeeply scored ringbases of ovoid jars wereapparently used as scrubbers or burnishersin the manufacture of limestone vases.

Crude sculpture in pottery is representedby the heads of animals in red-on-whitepainted ware, perhaps broken away fromvases and variously identified as camels,donkeys, and birds, and by rough T-shapedfigures of burnt clay which may have beenintended as bulls' heads or possibly asfemale idols. Also found were a fragmentof a boat model in red pottery and thehead of a human statuette of the same

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material, described by its discoverer as"showing a racial type not uncommon,even in our own days, in the countrieslying north east of the Delta."

Stone vessels are more numerous atMaadi than on the earlier northernEgyptian sites and it is probable that theirnumber was at one time swelled by manyother examples which, because of theirdurability and value, were either buriedin the graves of their owners or were takenaway by plunderers when the town wassacked. The surviving vessels are chieflyof basalt or limestone, with an occasionalexample or fragment in alabaster, granite,or diorite. They show considerable varia-tion in their shapes, sizes, and workman-ship. Finest are the polished basalt vessels,which are thought not to have beenproduced locally, but in the neighborhoodof the Fayum where outcrops of the hardlight grey to black stone are found.Slender cylindrical and ovoid vases withflat rims, small ear-like handles, androunded, flat, or spreading conical bases,flat hemispherical bowls or goblets, alsowith splayed conical feet, conical vaseswith a broad flat rim, and small conicalcups ar areamong the more common forms.Childe and others have remarked that theslender footed vases and the squatchalices go back, in Upper Egypt, toNaqada I, or "Amratian," times; butBaumgartel, while conceding a fairlyearly origin for the vases, points out thatthey continued to be produced in Egyptduring the early historic period and evendown into the reign of King Menkaure(Mycerinus) of the Fourth Dynasty. Theconical cup and the wide-brimmed conicalvase, in both cases, according to Baum-gartel, of protodynastic date, have beenfound, respectively at Badari in MiddleEgypt and at Mersa Matruh, west ofAlexandria; the squat chalice, or "egg-cup," occurring at Maadi in both basalt

and limestone, but rare elsewhere in Egypt,is known at Arpakhiya in Assyria and atErech in Sumer, where it has been assignedto the Late Uruk-Jemdet Nasr phase. Amassive limestone goblet is less carefullyfinished on the outside than its basaltmates but is decorated on its exteriorsurface with an incised vertical zigzagpattern. It is solid except for a very shallowcavity in its top and was perhaps a ritual orcult vessel used for pouring libations. Othercoarse limestone vessels, obviously manu-factured at Maadi itself, include deep andshallow circular bowls and dishes, a fewsmall cups, an oval dish, a boat-shapedvessel, and several heavy elliptical lime-stone bowls, blackened with soot on the in-teriors and clearly to be identified as lamps,the shape, according to Menghin, havingbeen traditional since Upper Paleolithictimes. Carinated cups, cylindrical cups,with or without projecting rims, and anumber of very small conical vases aremade of a fine, translucent "limestone"(or calcite?), their surfaces carefullysmoothed but not usually polished. A vaseof grey limestone has the form of a potteryjar and was even tinted red to enhance theillusion. Fragments of several large lime-stone mortars show that these massivevessels were smoothed on the interior butleft rough on the outside. In a brief reporton the fifth season of excavations atMaadi (1935) mention is made of a"marvelous" vessel of "Libyan" typemade of gneiss with rose and dark greencrystals. Several vases show in theirinteriors the marks left by a rotary boringtool, while the asymmetry and crudenessof others testify to the ineptitude of theearly stoneworkers.

In contrast to the stone-tool industriesof the earlier northern Egyptian settle-ments, where bifacially worked implementspredominate, that of Maadi is primarilya flake and blade industry related to

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those of western Asia, the few bifacialtools found on the site-tanged arrow-heads, "fishtail" and other lanceheads,saws, sickle flints, and one polished stoneaxehead-being perhaps imports fromthe south or west. Despite the Maadians'evident familiarity with the smelting andworking of copper their flint implementsnumber well up into the thousands, butshow, as we should expect in so late astone industry, relatively little variety intheir types and techniques. Oval andfan-shaped scrapers made of thin slabsof tabular grey flint with the cortex lefton and closely resembling those found atTeleilat Ghassul in Transjordania andByblos (II) on the Syrian coast are amongthe more characteristic forms, whichinclude also scrapers of other types(convex, keel-shaped, ribbed, double,etc.), knives with retouched edges, andfine and coarse awls and punches. Apeculiarity of the Maadian flake tools isthat the bulb of precussion-that is,the point from which the flake was struckoff-is regularly at the thin, narrow endof the tool, making the achievement of agood point difficult. The characteristicsickle flint is a unifacial sharp-edged bladewithout teeth. True burins, microburins,trihedral "rods," and what Petrie hascalled "three-faced twisted blades" arealso represented. Coarse wedges, choppers,scrapers, and borers bearing a superficialresemblance to the rough tools of LowerPaleolithic times occur in some quantityin the layers of the settlement debris andshow the same patination as the otherMaadian stone implements, with whichthey are clearly contemporaneous. Naturalflint pebbles, much battered and evidentlyemployed as hammerstones, and slenderretouching tools of flint with round orpolygonal cross-sections indicate that acertain amount of stone-knapping wasdone in the town itself; but the scarcity

of cores suggests that the principal atelierwas elsewhere. Aside from the pebbles ofNile-gravel flint and the slabs of minedtabular flint the materials used by theMaadian implement makers included, onrare occasions, quartzite and rock crystal.Stone axeheads, with the single exceptionnoted above, are unknown at Maadi, thisimplement now being made almostexclusively of copper. Only two maceheadshave been recovered from the site, onepiano-convex in form and made of granite,the other a conical head of dolerite.Though the beautifully worked fish-taillanceheads, the fine twisted blades, andsome of the other forms which crop upoccasionally at Maadi go back in UpperEgypt to early Naqada times the industryas a whole has a late and somewhatdecadent character, its traditions, as MissCaton-Thompson, Dr. Baumgartel, andothers have pointed out, being moreclosely allied to those of the Early Dynastic,or Protodynastic, period than to those ofthe earlier Fayum and West Delta cultures.

The stone mills or querns of Maadi differin no essential respect from those metwith on the other prehistoric and earlyhistoric sites of northern Egypt andadjoining areas. They are heavy oval slabsof sandstone or quartzite with slightlyconcave, or hollowed-out, upper surfaceson which were ground the cereal grainswhich formed a staple item of the towns-people's diet. Some of the smaller exampleswere evidently used for pulverizing theochre from which was produced the much-admired red pigments and cosmetics, thelatter employed, as we have seen, formagical as well as decorative purposes.Cosmetic palettes of yellow limestonewith beveled edges and burnished uppersurfaces are usually square, rectangular,or irregular in outline. They carry tracesnot only of red, but also of green andblack pigments and the surfaces of some

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are worn and hollowed from prolongeduse. Thin ovoid slabs of grey flint withfinely chipped edges have been classed bysome modern writers as palettes but areprobably large scrapers of the Maadian-Ghassulian type referred to in the preced-ing paragraph. The presence in the townruins at Maadi of fragments of a numberof elongated rectangular and rhomboidalcosmetic palettes of slate characteristic ofthe Naqada cultures (Amratian andGerzean) of Upper Egypt forms, with thefish-tail lanceheads and the black-toppedpottery fragments, yet another tie with thesouthern predynastic group. Spherical andhemispherical polishers of red and whitequartzite and limestone were evidentlyused for burnishing the rounded and flatsurfaces of vessels, boxes, and other manu-factured articles, and grooved sandstonehones for sharpening and polishing boneimplements. Small pierced discs and ballsof limestone have been identified asspindle whorls or net-weights; and burnt,fiat stones found in or near the hearths aspot-boilers or fire-dogs. Mention must alsobe made of a rather amorphous piece ofgypsum or baryte which has been thoughtto be the leg of a roughly sculptured stonestatuette.

Implements and other objects made ofbone, wood, and horn are less numerous atMaadi than in the earlier settlements.Fine and coarse awls and punches, notunlike those found at Merimda, were stillproduced in some quantity from sectionsof split hollow bones, with the trochlea orrounded joint-end of the bone often left inplace to serve as a handle. One bone awl isprovided with a wooden handle, evidentlyshaped with a metal cutting tool and boundwith strips of bast fibre. Another consistsof a wide, flat piece of bone with a thin,needle-like point projecting from one of itsends. There are also fragments of largeoval(?) bone palettes, made of the shoulder

blades of oxen or other large animals, andsmaller, tongue-shaped palettes used per-haps as pigment rubbers or spatulae. Anelongated bone point of somewhat irregularform has been tentatively identified as anarrowhead, and a small conical object witha cylindrical base as a playing piece for agame. Sections of small tubular bones,either left cylindrical or cut to prismaticforms and carefully polished, were strungtogether and worn as beads.

In wood there are, besides a number ofhandles for bone and copper punches andthe domical jar-cover mentioned above,a crude, short-handled spoon or ladle, afragmentary bent club or throwstick, ahardwood point thought to be an awl butidentical in form with an Early Dynasticarrowhead from Abydos, part of a carefullycarved or beaded staff, some woodenplates "of fine workmanship," woodenbeads, and several short rods of an aro-matic cedar-like wood, charred at one endand perhaps used as incense.

A single comb, carved of ox-horn, isunfortunately so badly preserved that thelength of its teeth must remain uncertain.The shells of river mussels trimmed aroundthe edges to serve as ladles or scoops areamong the rare examples, aside fromjewelry, of the use of this material in theMaadi settlement.

Though, for any number of reasons-pillage, evacuation, melting down forre-use, disintegration-tools and weaponsof copper have not survived in largenumbers at Maadi the site has yieldedcopious evidence that copper ore wasimported and worked in some bulk andthat locally a knowledge of smelting,casting, and other metallurgical processeshad advanced sufficiently for the produc-tion of a variety of metal implements, somefairly large and complex in form. Theseincluded heavy rectangular and trape-zoidal axeheads of copper with fine

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cutting edges, chisels with rectangularcross-sections, copper punches and awls(one of the latter provided with a bonehandle), a copper fish-hook "of excellentworkmanship," another type of hook,several needles and pins, and some sectionsof copper wire. Aside from the more or lesswell preserved tools and weapons patchesof green oxide, the traces of copper objectslong since disintegrated, occurred withsome frequency in the settlement debris.A copper axehead spoiled in casting and anumber of copper ingots and masses ofcopper ore found on the site indicate thatthe metal was processed and the toolsmanufactured in Maadi itself, and a pieceof pyrolusite or natural ore of manganese,found with the copper ore, suggests thatwestern Sinai or its vicinity was the sourcefrom which the ores were obtained. Here,then, as Baumgartel points out, we havein all probability "the earliest evidence ofinterest in the Sinai Peninsula and itscopper and turquoise mines." In view,however, of the scale on which metal toolsand weapons were now being produced andused and the relatively high degree of truemetallurgical knowledge implicit in theirproduction, a date for this particularMaadian activity not earlier than the end

of the Naqada II phase of Upper Egypt andmore probably in very late Predynastic andEarly Dynastic times seems indicated. Inthis connection it is interesting to note,with Baumgartel, that the flint axehead,already replaced at Maadi by its coppersuccessor, is known to have survived onother Egyptian sites well into the DynasticPeriod.

Either through poverty or personal tastethe people of Maadi seem to have con-cerned themselves little with jewelry orother forms of personal adornment. Liketheir predecessors at Merimda they wore asamuletic pendants the tusks of the malepig or boar, an animal apparently as

important in their magico-religious beliefsas it was in their economy. Their dwellingareas have also yielded fossil sharks'teeth pierced for suspension and a fewdrop-shaped, wedge-shaped, and discoidpendants of limestone, translucent gypsum,and a dark stone, some of the examplesbeing scarcely more than natural pebbles

drilled for stringing. Disk-, ring-, barrel-,and ball-beads occur in various stones,including gypsum, banded calcite, lime-stone, azurite, baryte, quartz, rock crystal,black stone, and carnelian, and there arealso beads of wood, tubular beads of bone

and limestone, and small, pierced disks ofostrich eggshell. Among the river and seashells perforated and worn as beads orpendants by the Maadians are the spiralConus, the small scallop, Pectunculus, thespiny Murex, and several common mussel,conch, and snail shells, chiefly of localorigin. During the third season of excava-tions were found fragments of two braceletsor armbands, one carved of mussel shell,the other of "red marble." The list soundsimpressive, but, with the exception oftwenty-one carnelian and white stone

beads found together in a cache of valuableobjects, the types are represented by onlyone or two examples each, found duringtwelve seasons of work widely scattered

over an extensive area. Red ochre for useas a cosmetic occurs throughout the sitein lumps, in the form of a crayon or pencil,as powder contained in a small pottery jar,as the pigment in a fatty cosmetic sub-stance kept in little conical pottery cups,and as smears or traces on the surfaces ofcosmetic palettes and grinders. The lump ofmanganese ore referred to above may haveserved as a black eye cosmetic.

That the people of Maadi were wellacquainted with the spinning and weavingof textile fabrics is attested by the presencein the settlement debris of pieces of linencloth as well as spindle whorls of several

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different types, including, besides thealready mentioned spherical and discoidexamples in limestone and pottery, thick,perforated disks of clay with rounded topsand slightly concave undersides. Strips ofa bast fibre were used, as we have seen, tobind the handle of a bone awl and similarstrips of fibre were found tied togetherin a knot. A section of stout cord orrope was made up of twisted strands ofesparto or halfa grass (Stipa tenacissima

or Desmostachya).Animal and plant remains recovered

from the dwelling and storage areas of theancient town throw abundant light on itsfood supply and on the activities of itsinhabitants as stock farmers and agricul-turists. Numerous bones of domesticanimals show that beef-cattle, sheep,goats, and, above all, swine were bred andeaten by the people of Maadi and that thedonkey, Egypt's most ancient and mostcommon beast of burden, was known tothem. A mass of black organic matterfound in a large pottery jar turned out,upon analysis, to be cooked animal flesh,probably mutton to judge from the natureof the fatty portion. Of the local wild faunathe hippopotamus seems to have been theMaadian hunters' favorite quarry, and, asat Merimda, the leg bones of this massiveanimal, evidently with the meat still onthem, were set up in vertical position,braced by pairs of stones, at several placesinside the town, where one can only supposethem to have been intended as trophies,fetishes, or offerings to some deity or spiritof the hunt. Also hunted, as we have hadoccasion to note, were the ibex and alarge aquatic rodent, probably a beaver.Turtles and fish were caught in the Nile,the latter in great numbers, severalstorejars containing literally hundreds offish bones, including the fin-bones of thesheat-fish. As in nearly every prehistoricEgyptian settlement fresh-water shellfish

formed an important part of the towns-people's diet. The cereal grains stored inlarge quantities in the pithoi and provisioncellars and scattered liberally throughoutthe settlement debris are without excep-tion those of emmer wheat (Triticumdicoccum) and six-row barley (Hordeumvulgare hexastichum). Seeds of the castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis), knownalso to the Badarians of Upper Egypt, theremains of a seed- or fodder-vetch (Viciasativa L.) similar to that found at Merimdaand of a bird-vetch, or field weed (Viciacracca), not previously known in Egypt butnow found mixed with grains of emmer andbarley, complete the floral specimens fromMaadi which have so far been identified.

Though burial in the settlement itselfwas not a normal practice with the peopleof Maadi exceptions were made in thecases of premature and newly born infants,which, as in Central Africa, Nubia, and afew Egyptian villages of the present day,were buried under or near the dwellings oftheir parents, perhaps as a magical meansof warding off future miscarriages andstillbirths. The younger foetuses, agedfive to six months (intra-uterine), wereburied in pottery jars averaging about afoot in height and usually of the familiarovoid ring-base type made of smooth redware. A cordiform jar containing theskeleton of a foetus is interesting in havingnear its inverted base a pair of eye-holesthrough which the deceased's gaze couldbe directed outwards-in this case towardthe north, that being the direction towardwhich the jar was turned. There can belittle doubt that these small circularopenings form a true parallel to the so-called "soul-holes" in prehistoric burialsand a predecessor of the pairs of great eyespainted or carved on the sides of Egyptiancoffins and sarcophagi of the dynastic era.The more developed foetuses, eight tonine months old from the time of concep-

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tion, and the newborn babies, usuallyunder a month old, were buried simply insmall pits or hollows in the virgin soilbelow the town debris. By the third seasonof work (1933) nineteen foetus burials hadbeen found within the habitation area atMaadi and this number was evidentlyadded to during the succeeding years.In the course of the fifth season of excava-tions (1935), in the western sector of thesettlement, the skeleton of a five-year-oldchild, apparently a girl, was discoveredsqueezed into a pottery jar, surrounded bysmaller, provision jars and buried beneaththe ruins of a rectangular structure,presumably a house.

An adult woman, perhaps the mother ofone of the foetuses who died with it, wasalso buried among the habitations of thetown. Her body was found lying in con-tracted position in a hollow in the groundand covered by a huge inverted potterybowl. The head of the deceased lay to thesouth with the face to the west. The bodywas accompanied by two pots, a limestonecosmetic palette, and other grave furnish-ings. Described as larger, wider, "fuller,"and more pentagonoid in form than thoseof the typical prehistoric inhabitants ofUpper Egypt the woman's skull, like thoseof the child and two of the foetusesmentioned above, is said to mark her asbelonging to the so-called "Delta-people,"or "northern race."

The fragmentary skull bones-chieflymandibles-of some ten other adults,found scattered in the settlement area,come possibly from graves in the areaitself, but are more likely to have beendragged thither by jackals or other wildanimals (one jaw-bone has been extensivelymauled), collected and worn by theMaadians as amulets (a known custom),or may be simply the remains of personskilled in the fighting when the townwas captured by an enemy.

Our knowledge of the ancient town atMaadi suffers from erratic and inadequatepublication of the work conducted there,including a lack of even preliminary reportson the last six seasons of excavation. Thesame is true to an even greater degree ofthe associated cemeteries. There seem tohave been three of these in the generalvicinity of the settlement.

The first to be recorded was discovered in1925 by the R. P. Paul Bovier-Lapierre ona low plateau in the mouth of the Wadi elTih, some two miles to the northeast ofthe settlement, near the foot of the GebelMoqattam. The graves here are shallowcircular or oval pits containing skeletonsin contracted position and occasionally asingle pottery jar. Many are surmountedby rectangular or cubical structures ofrough limestone slabs or blocks which havebeen described as "dolmens" and advancedas evidence of an early date for the cem-etery, but which Dr. Baumgartel compareswith the rough limestone-block super-structures of the Early Dynastic middle-class cemetery at Saqqara and the stoneconstructions found in the Early Dynastictombs at Ezbet el-Walda, near Helwan.The larger, rectangular tomb super-structures at Wadi el- Tih are usuallyoriented east-west with the open end facingwest, toward the Nile. One of them,perhaps marking the grave of a ruler orchieftain, was surrounded by a circle ofthe smaller, cubical superstructures. Anumber of more modest graves weremarked simply by lines of stones laid fiaton the ground. The cemetery, which-possibly owing to faulty recording-issaid to be poor in grave equipment, hasbeen dated by its explorers to MiddlePredynastic (Naqada II, or Gerzean)times, but is probably, as Baumgartel hassuggested, considerably later, perhaps ofearly historic date.

A second cemetery in the same general

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area ("Maadi North"), but apparently tothe southwest of the town, "on the slopeto the flood plain," is described as lying"at the foot of the same terrace" on whichthe settlement was founded. It was ex-plored during the years 1942 and 1947 bymembers of the Egyptian University'sexpedition and is referred to briefly byIbrahim Rizkana and Mustafa Amer inreports written, respectively, in 1952, andin 1947 and 1953, and by Childe in thefourth edition of his New Light on theMost Ancient East. Like those of theWadi el-Tih necropolis its graves, includ-ing that of a dog, are reported to be "verypoor" in furnishings, only a few containingas much as a single pottery jar for foodand drink. Rizkana implies, though hedoes not actually state, that some of thepots were of the tall ovoid base-ring type,which, as we have seen, have been foundin Early Dynastic contexts at Tura and else-where. The "Maadi-North" graves, too,have been dated by their finders to the Mid-dle Predynastic period, but, again, there isdoubt that they were really that early.

Another cemetery, often referred to as"Maadi South," lies on somewhat lowerground little more than half a mile to thesoutheast of the settlement, on "a littleeminence" in the estuary of the WadiDigla. It was discovered in October 1951,and was excavated for two seasons (1952and 1953) by Amer and Rizkana on behalfof the Egyptian University. Here over anarea of more than an acre were found fourhundred and sixty-eight human gravesand those of fourteen animals-thirteengazelles and a dog. The typical grave is acircular or oval hollow scooped out in thevirgin soil in which, in the case of thehuman burials, the dead, wrapped in apapyrus mat or an animal's skin, wasplaced in contracted or semi-contractedposture with the head more often than notto the south and the face to the east.

Lines of limestone blocks mark the easternboundary of the cemetery and rim theedges of some of the richer graves, andburnt hearth-stones, brought presumablyfrom the settlement, were placed under theheads of the deceased to serve as headrests.The equipment buried with the dead in theWadi Digla is far richer than in the Maadi-North cemeteries, comprising not onlynumerous pottery vessels of a variety ofdifferent types, but also an alabaster vase,limestone, basalt, and slate cosmeticpalettes, flint tools and weapons, Nileshells (used for mixing pigments), combs,shell bracelets and necklaces, beads ofcarnelian, "coloured stone," and bone, andtraces of malachite and manganese evi-dently employed as pigments. It is inter-esting and possibly significant that thecemetery yielded not a single object madeof copper.

As in the settlement the pottery ismonochrome-smooth red and polishedblack-the forms including the by-nowfamiliar slender ovoid jars with ring-bases,squat and elongated ovate vases withrounded or flat bottoms, bottle-shapedvessels with very narrow necks, globularjars with ear-handles (rare), very smallcosmetic(?) vases, and an ovoid jar withtwo lines of imprinted decoration aroundthe neck and three knobs between thelines. A few of the vessels bear indecipher-able pot-marks, all different, and somewere stoppered with conical cups or withdiscoid lids of stone or pottery. Severalpots found lying on the surface of theground, outside of the graves, may havebeen brought thither as offerings by thefamilies of the deceased on the occasionsof periodical "funerary banquets."

The stone implements of Maadi Southare without exception flakes and bladesshowing the same technique and many ofthe same forms seen in the settlement.Blades, knives, and scrapers of tabular

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NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COi MUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT 133

flint predominate and there are also a fewflakes with serrated edges. The slatecosmetic palettes are either trapezoidalwith beveled edges or of the rhomboidaltype which we associate with the Naqadacultures of Upper Egypt.

The skeletons of the men, women, andinfant children buried in this cemeteryare in many cases well preserved, but noanthropological report concerning them isas yet available. They are described in abrief resume on the site as being taller,more heavily built, and more prognathous(more negroid?) than the people of MaadiNorth, sharing these characteristics withthe occupants of a cemetery near Helio-polis, to which we shall presently turn ourattention.

In the western sector of the Wadi Diglacemetery lie the more poorly equipped ofthe human burials and the fourteen animalburials referred to above. The latter wereprovided with graves of their own andhalf of them, including the dog and six ofthe gazelles, with food or drink containedin pottery jars. One at least of the gazelles,however, had had its throat cut prior toburial, and it is probable that we have todo here with household pets which thedeceased wished to take with them intothe afterlife rather than, as has beensuggested, with sacred animals, in whichdwelt the spirits of divinities. Accordingto a zo5logist, Dr. Shawki Moustafa, thegazelles "belong to the Artiodactyl group ofGazellinae, Coues, as suggested by thenature of the horn cores and the flattenedroof of the skull" and are probably of "theAsian and African Genus Gazella, Blain-ville." The remains of the dog have beenidentified by the same authority as "thoseof the domesticated dog Canis Familiaris,specimens of which were discovered.., inthe Predynastic cemetery of Maadi [North]in 1947, as well as in the Predynasticcemetery of Heliopolis in 1950."

The last-named cemetery, discovered in1950 and excavated from March 20thonward of that year by Fernand Debonoand others, lies near Cairo's well-knownnortheastern suburb, not far from theracetrack of the Heliopolis Racing Club,but at some distance from the site of theancient city and cult center of On-Heliopolis (modern Matariya), with which,indeed, it may not have been associated.The fifty graves excavated here occur inthree layers of gravel brought down byancient freshets from the Gebel el-Ahmar,and it would appear from this fact that thecemetery covered a considerable period oftime. In almost every respect-types ofgraves and burials, physical characteristicsof the people buried, pottery wares andshapes, stone vessels, animal burials (fourgazelles, five dogs)-it is so similar to thecemetery of Maadi South (Wadi Digla)that la detailed description of the gravesand their contents would be little morethan a repetition of the contents of theimmediately preceding paragraphs. Wemay note, however, the presence of anumber of new pottery types-ovoid,globular, and drop-shaped jars with lowor high cylindrical necks- of an exception-ally fine basalt vase with two smallhandles, of a shell bracelet found in posi-tion on the wrist of a skeleton, and of aNile mollusk shell placed over the mouthof one of the deceased. It may be remarkedalso that, whereas the dog burials wereunaccompanied by offerings of any sort,the graves of the gazelles were "filled withvases" and the animals themselves wereoriented in death in the same manner astheir human companions, facing east withtheir heads to the south. This orientation,in the direction of the rising sun, has beenthought to reflect the existence at Helio-polis, in Late Predynastic times, of thesolar religion of which the town wasshortly to emerge as one of the great

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centers. It must, however, again bepointed out that the distance of thecemetery from the site of the ancient citymakes their association with one another atleast dubious and that the same orienta-tion of the bodies of the deceased is foundin the graves of the Wadi Digla, south ofMaadi.

There seems to be little reason to doubtthat the cemeteries of Wadi Digla andHeliopolis were contemporaneous with oneanother and, in part at least, with thesettlement at Maadi, and that the formerwas one of the necropolises used by thetownspeople of the settlement. The curiousabsence of copper in both cemeteries, incontrast to the frequency with which itoccurs in the town, is perhaps to be attrib-uted to a natural hesitancy to bury usefulobjects in so valuable and so perishable amaterial with the dead. The belief, sharedby several students of the period, that thecursively recorded and practically un-published cemeteries of Maadi North areearlier in date than those of Wadi Diglaand Heliopolis appears to have no basis infact, the poverty of the burials beinginconclusive in this respect and the type oftomb superstructure in the Wadi el-Tihpointing, if anything, to a slightly laterperiod. Together the five sites-the settle-ment and the four cemeteries-seem torepresent the known remains of a north-eastern Egyptian sub-culture of lateprehistoric and early historic times, towhich, for want of a better name, we maytentatively apply the designation"Maadian."

Though classed on the basis of its flintimplements as Predynastic, a small settle-ment four miles southeast of Qasr Qarun,at the western end of the Fayum, showssufficiently strong affinities with theMaadian group to warrant its inclusion inthe present survey. The remains of thesettlement, "situated on a spur of middle

palaeolithic gravels" close to the shorelineof the Neolithic lake, "covered an area of120 by 100 ft." and consisted of a shallowdeposit "of black powdery sabakh," devoidof any structural elements, but containinga few potsherds, some fifty flint implements,a small pierced discoidal object (spindlewhorl?) of limestone, a limestone saddle-quern, a few fragments of ostrich eggshell,a Spatha shell, and the burnt bones ofbeef cattle, sheep, and fish. The pottery,of rough brown ware, includes two of theslender ovate jars with flat bases andeverted rims so familiar to us at Maadiitself and the related sites but scarcelyknown in this ware in Upper Egypt. MissCaton-Thompson describes the stone im-plements, which are chiefly unifacial butinclude a few bifacial tools and weapons,as "a typical middle-predynastic series."She goes on to say, however, that "com-parison of the Fayum settlement flintswith those of Maadi shows the similartradition of both." Among the implementsoccurring at both Maadi and Qasr Qarunare the discoidal scraper of tabular flint,the upper surface of which still retains itscortex, the unifacial sickle flint, the "three-faced twisted blade," the narrow, pointedknife, and the forked or fish-tail lancehead.Scrapers of other types, narrow blades,trimmed flakes, sickle-shaped and handledknives of bifacial workmanship, and asingle tanged arrowhead complete theQasr Qarun series, which is interesting iffor no other reason than that it establishesa bridge between the stone industry of theMaadian sites and that of the middle andlate Predynastic of Upper Egypt.

7. CHARACTER OF THE NORTHERN

EGYPTIAN COMMUNITIES

Despite a relatively late date and apronounced individual character the peopleand the culture of Maadi and the associatedcemeteries exhibit certain traits which we

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recognize as characteristic of the pre-historic inhabitants and civilization ofnorthern Egypt as a whole-traits whichfrom Neolithic to protohistoric times tendto give the population of this region adegree of racial and cultural homogeneityand to set it apart from those of neigh-boring areas in general and from the moreor less contemporaneous Predynastic peopleand civilization of Upper Egypt inparticular.

The early northern Egyptian, whereverwe encounter him-Merimda, El -Omari,Maadi North, Maadi South, and Heliopolis-appears to have been somewhat tallerand more sturdily built than his UpperEgyptian contemporary and to have beenendowed with a broader and better formedskull and a generally greater cranialcapacity. The prognathism observed in theskulls from Maadi South and Heliopolismay or may not indicate the infiltration ofa negroid strain into the northern regionand, on the other hand, a few broad,square-jawed skulls found in a cemeterynear Deir Tasa may point to the existenceof an outpost of the "Northern Race" inMiddle Egypt. Generally speaking, how-ever, the prehistoric northerner seems torepresent a type distinct in race andphysique as well as in culture from thepeople of the south. In him, rather thanin some intrusive group of outlanders, wemay perhaps recognize, with Junker, theancestor of the so-called Dynastic Race, orGiza type, of Early Dynastic and OldKingdom times.

To judge from his surviving settlementson the fringes of the eastern and westerndeserts, the northern Egyptian lived intowns of far greater size and of moredeveloped urban character than thosepresently known to us in Upper Egypt,where even the relatively late Predynasticsettlement at Hierakonpolis, the mostextensive yet recorded in this region,

covered an area and had an estimatedpopulation less than one-third the size ofthose of either Merimda or Maadi. Thismay be attributable, in part at least, to acloser association with western Asia,where the urban tradition and the citystate appear to have originated and wereat this time strongly developed. It wouldnot, in any case, seem to be, in itself,sufficient reason for assuming the existenceof a generally more advanced and "exaltedculture" in the North than in the Southnor of a more typically "Egyptian"civilization, since, as we shall see, thetruly urban community did not bulk largein the life of dynastic Egypt.

Indeed in some fields-notably in thearts-the northern Egyptian showed littleor none of the flair exhibited by hissouthern contemporaries. His pottery,though frequently well made and carefullyfinished, is almost uniformly monochrome(red, black, or brown), its plainness onlyoccasionally relieved by a few primitivedecorative motifs incised into or applied inrelief to the surfaces of the vessels. Onlyin the relatively late settlement at Maadido we encounter pottery with painteddecoration and even here the examples arefew in number, crude in concept andexecution, and quite possibly imported(from Palestine?) rather than producedlocally. "Sculpture" is represented by an oc-casional female figure ("fertility goddess"?)or animal head modeled in pottery or Nileclay but usually so crude as to be scarcelyrecognizable, and, at Maadi, by bird-shaped vases, probably of Gerzean originor inspiration. Applied decoration onobjects other than pottery is confined toone or more incised lines on the surface ofa palette or around the neck of a bonepoint. The same austerity or lack ofimagination extended also to personaladornment. Jewelry is extremely scarce onall the northern sites, with the exception

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of El Omari, and when present at allcomprises only a few sea or river shellspierced for stringing, an occasional boar'stusk or shark's tooth worn as a pendant,and a few isolated pendants and beads ofstone.

Distinctive practices and customs foundamong the prehistoric inhabitants ofnorthern Egypt, which are attested ontwo or more of the sites explored and which,so far as can be determined, are not preva-lent south of the Fayum, include the large-scale breeding of pigs and a belief in theamuletic powers of a boar's tusk whenworn on the person, the ceremonial setting-up of the leg of a hippopotamus or otheranimal to serve either as a fetish or as anoffering to some divine or semidivinespirit of the chase, the burial of prematureand infant children and, at Merimda andRas el- Hof (El-Omari), of adult women and,occasionally, men in and among thedwellings of the living, and the use in thesettlements of clay-lined bins for storageand of trimmed potsherds as jar-covers.

From the earliest post-Paleolithic timesrelations between northern Egypt andwestern Asia, including perhaps occasionalmigrations of groups of people, are readilydemonstrable. The initial impulse towardthe domestication of food-animals and thecultivation of food-plants, such as wheatand barley, and toward the settled mode ofexistence which goes hand in hand withfood production apparently came to Egypt,as we have already remarked, from theregion of the Fertile Crescent. Sincethat moment Egypt's northern settle-ments seem to have maintained more orless continuous contacts, through tradeand other activities, with similar but moreadvanced urban centers in Palestine andSyria, the effects of these contacts beingdiscernible not only in their materialculture, but also, it would appear, intheir religious beliefs and burial customs

and perhaps also in the physical andracial characteristics of their inhabitants.

Of equal importance to an understandingof the early settlements and cemeteries inthe north of Egypt are the ties which quiteevidently existed between them and otherAfrican groups and communities, particu-larly those generally described as Saharo-Libyan and including the peoples andcultures of the western oases, of the GilfKebir and Uweinat hills, of the moreremote Hoggar-Air-Tibesti region, and ofthose stretches of the Nile Valley in Nubiaand the northern Sudan which came moststrongly under "Libyan" influence fromthe west. These ties are most readilydiscernible in the bifacially worked stoneimplements of the earlier settlementswhich derive their forms and techniquesin part from local Paleolithic antecedentsand in part from traditions brought fromthe west by the Aterians and other no-madic groups. They are apparent again,in late Neolithic times, in the strikingcoincidences which exist between theimplement types of the settlements of theFayum B-culture and those of the Libyanoases of Siwa and Kharga. Settlementburial and the cult of a fertility goddess,both attested in northern Egypt andwestern Asia, occur also in the Libyanarea and further to the west, the former,as we have seen, in the Upper Capsianmiddens of the Maghreb, the latter amongthe Early Oasis Dwellers, or PeasantNeolithic folk, of the Kharga-Dakhlaregion. Arkell has noted significant paral-lels between a Neolithic settlement nearKhartoum in the Sudan and the FayumNeolithic "A" culture, and Baumgartelreports that some material from a proto-historic, or "A-group," cemetery in Nubia"is the nearest" she has "seen so far toMerimda." That at least desultory traderelations existed between the northernEgyptian settlements and the Predynastic

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people of Upper Egypt is indicated by thepresence at Merimda and Maadi of suchtypical Naqada-culture products as black-topped pottery, forked lanceheads, andrhomboidal cosmetic palettes of slate.

Despite the facts that they almostcertainly overlapped each other in time,were not widely separated geographically,and belonged to a recognizably "northernEgyptian" culture circle, the settlementsof the Fayum, Merimda, El-Omari, andMaadi display in every case pronouncedindividual characteristics which distinguishthem sharply from one another and leadinevitably to the conclusion that each waspolitically, economically, and to a greatextent culturally and religiously indepen-dent of its neighbors. There is, in otherwords, archeological evidence that LowerEgypt consisted at this time of a series ofindependent townships, each comprisingthe town or village proper surrounded bythe fields, pasture-lands, and other ruralareas on which it depended for its supportand each possessing its own local govern-ment, customs, and religious beliefs andcults. The existence of local governments,probably centered in each case around atown or district ruler, is suggested atMerimda by the laying-out of the settle-ment in streets, at El-Omari by the findingin a grave of a body holding in its hand asceptre or staff of authority, and at MaadiNorth by a circle of relatively modestgraves surrounding an obviously much moreimportant grave with a massive dolmen-like superstructure. The contrasting rich-ness and poverty of the graves in theeastern and western sectors of the cemeteryof the Wadi Digla indicate, too, thatdifferent social or, at least, economicclasses existed within a single settlement.

We shall find, in a subsequent chapter,'

1 This topic, planned by the author for Chap. V,was unfrtunately never developed into publishableforrn.-The Editor.

that the image of the political, social,economic, and religious development ofprehistoric northern Egypt reflected in the

archeological material is confirmed andclarified by traditions and records of eventspreserved to us in the writings and otherdocuments of the historic, or dynastic,period. Before turning to these, however,it is of the greatest interest and importanceto acquaint ourselves with the more or lesscontemporaneous developments in Middleand Upper Egypt, that is, in the longstretch of river valley extending south-ward from the Fayum to the great bend ofthe Nile at Qena and thence upriverthrough the Thebaid and past the First

Cataract into Nubia.

NOTES

CHAPTER III

1. NEAR EASTERN ORIGINs

Of the general works cited in the fourthparagraph of the first section of the notes toChapter II, above, the following containmore or less detailed surveys of the NewStone Age and its salient characteristics asobserved in various parts of the Old World,including the Near East: MacCurday, HumanOrigin, II (1926), 21-132; Menghin, Weltge-schichte (1931), pp. 273-477; Childe, ManMakes Him8elf (2d impr.; London, 1937),pp. 59-86; What Happened in History (1942),pp. 48-68; Childe, "The New Stone Age", inMan, Culture, and Society, ed. by Harry L.Shapiro (New York, 1956), pp. 94-110;Turner, Great Cultural Traditions, I (1941),51-67, 68-122 passim; Clark, From Savageryto Civilization (1946), pp. 69-87 ("PrimitiveBarbarism"); Braidwood, Prehistoric Men,"Chicago Natural History Museum Popular

Series, Anthropology," No. 37 (1957), pp.90-104; Coon, Races of Europe (1939),pp. 78-130; Story of Man (1958), pp. 114-80;and Ebert, Reallexikon (1924-1932), under"Neolithikum" and other appropriate entries.

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To these may be added such-for the mostpart recent-general books, articles, anddiscussions as Cole, The Neolithic Revolution(British Museum [Natural History], London,1961. Bibliography on pp. 57-58); BraidwoodThe Near East and the Foundations forCivilization (Eugene, Oregon, 1952); Childe,"Old World Prehistory: Neolithic" (1953);New Light on the Most Ancient East (1957),pp. 14-49, 102 ff.; Forde-Johnston, Neolithic

Cultures of North Africa (1959); Balout,Prdhistoire de l'Afrique du Nord (1955), seeespecially pp. 449-84; McBurney, Stone Ageof Northern Africa (1960), pp. 229-74; Cole,Prehistory of North Africa (1954), see Index(p. 435) under "Neolithic"; Huzayyin, Placeof Egypt (1941), pp. 275-304. A good generalsurvey of the technology and typology ofNeolithic tools and weapons, especially thosemade of stone, is provided by Bordaz,"First Tools of Mankind" (1959), pp. 92-106.See also De Morgan, "L'industrie ndolithiqueet le proche Orient," Syria, IV (1923), 23-37.

Divergent opinions on the use and mean-ing of the term "Neolithic" are advanced byArkell, Kush, VII (1959), 238: "Groundstone is the main criterion, and it occurs atShaheinab, which is therefore 'neolithic,'while it has not yet appeared at EarlyKhartoum, which is therefore 'mesolithic'";by Balout, op. cit., pp. 450-51: "On pourradone parler de Neolithique, m~me lorsqueles pierres polies manquent dans un gisement;mais on se refusera h employer ce terme siaucun des aspects de la civilisation ndoli-thique n'est attest6: Polissage de haches etd'herminettes-Pointes de fliches de taillebifaciale-Cdramique modelde, gdndralementornde-Domestication etllevage-Agriculture";by Cole, Prehistory of East Africa, p. 215:"The change from a hunting economy to oneof food production is the essential differencebetween Palaeolithic and Mesolithic stagesand the Neolithic"; and by Braidwood,Kush, VII (1959), p. 236: ". . . the word'Neolithic' has such a hopeless hodge-podgeof meanings that we should quickly cast itinto oblivion.., we might best name ourarchaeological materials in terms of thesubsistence levels ....

On food production and the early food-producing communities of southwesternAsia we may consult Helbaek, Science,CXXX (1959) 365-72; Archaeology, XII(1959), 183-89; Queen Ichetis's Wheat; AContribution to the Study of Early DynasticEmmer in Egypt (Copenhagen, 1953); "Stud-ying the diet of Ancient Man," Archaeology,X IV (1961) 95-101; Sauer, Agricultural Ori-

gins and Dispersals (1952); Wissler, TheCereals and Civilization (American Museumof Natural History [New York 1946]);Zeuner, History of Technology, I, 327-52;ibid., pp. 353-75; Reed, "Animal Domestica-tion in the Prehistoric Near East," Science,CXXX (1959), 1629-39; Isaac, "On theDomestication of Cattle," Science, CXXXVII(1962), 195-204; Braidwood and Reed, "TheAchievement and Early Consequences ofFood-production, A Consideration of theArcheological and Natural-historical Evi-dence" (1957); Braidwood, "Reflections onthe Origin of the Village-farming Commu-nity," in Weinberg, The Aegean and the NearEast (1956); Braidwood, Science, CXXVII(1958); Braidwood and Braidwood, "TheEarliest Village Communities of SouthwesternAsia," in Cahiers d'histoire mondiale, I, No. 2(October 1953), 228-310; Frankfort, Birth

of Civilization in the Near East (1951),pp. 35 ff.; Adams, "Agriculture and UrbanLife in Early Southwestern Iran," Science,CXXXVI (1962), 109-22; Kraeling andAdams, City Invincible (1960); Cole, TheNeolithic Revolution (London, 1961), pp. 5-28,57-88; Kenyon, Archaeology in the Holy Land(London, 1960), pp. 20-57; Digging upJericho, (1957), pp. 51-76; Schaeffer, Syria,XXXVIII (1961 [see pp. 8-13]); Mellaart,"The Beginning of Village and Urban Life,"in Piggot, ed., The Dawn of Civilization:The First World Survey of Human Culturesin Early Times (New York, Toronto, London,1961), pp. 41-64; Barnett, "The Growth ofSociety," in The Epic of Man (by the editorsof Life magazine [New York, 1961]), Chap.3, pp. 47-65; Garasinin, "The Neolithic inAnatolia and the Balkans," Antiquity, XXV(1961), 276-80; Mellink, AJA, LXVI (1962),71-85; Junker, "Geisteshaltung der Aegypt-

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er," Sitzungsb. der O8terr. Akad. der Wissen-sch., 237, 1 (Wien, 1961), 58 if., 70 if. Arkell,Kush, V (1957), 9, points out that ". . . thedomestication of plants and animals. .. are

two very different things, and did not neces-sarily originate together, or even at thesame time or in the same place." He

agrees that wheat and barley were probablyfirst cultivated in Asia; but remarks (p. 10)that "hungry wild animals must have soldthemselves over and over again into slavery

to man in return for a supply of food, andthere must have been numberless placeswhere the domestication of animals has so

originated."The radiocarbon and estimated dates

cited in the last two paragraphs of Section 1

and the chronological picture of the Neolithicphase in the Near East reflected there werederived from Braidwood, AOA W, No. 19(1958), Pittioni, Forschungen und Fort-

8chritte, XXXI (1957); Junker, "Geisteshal-

tung," pp. 55-60; McBurney, "Radio Carbon

Readings and the Spread of the Upper

Palaeolithic in Europe and the Mediter-

ranean Basin," (Madrid, 1957); Butzer,

Quaternary Stratigraphy (Bonn, 1958), pp. 56,

90-104, 109-12, 128; Kenyon, Archeology in

the Holy Land, pp. 35-44,56,59,60; Schaeffer,

Syria, XXXVIII (1961), 11; Alimen, Pre-

history of Africa (1957), pp. 105, 426;

Larsen, Orientalia Suecana, VII (1958),

48-51, 53; Arkell, Shaheinab (London, 1953),

pp. 105-107; Kush, V (1957), 11-12; Cole,

The Neolithic Revolution, pp. 2, 9, 11, 40, 47,

48, 55, 56; Mellaart, "Beginning of Village

and Urban Life," pp. 53-60 passim; Kohler

and Ralph, "C-14 Dates for Sites in the

Mediterranean Area," AJA, LXV (1961),see especially pp. 359, 360.

Baumgartel (Cultures of Prehistoric Egypt,

I [rev. ed.; London 1955], pp. 14 if., 49, 120,

121; II [Oxford, 1960], 26 if., objects to the

use of the expression "Neolithic" in connec-

tion with any of the cultures discovered to

date in Egypt. See also De Morgan, La

prdhistoire orientale (Paris, 1925-1927), II,

103 if. Dr. Baumgartel's dating of the Fayum

and Merimda settlements later in time than

the Tasian-Badarian culture of Upper

Egypt is followed by Forde-Johnston,Neolithic Culture of North Africa (1959), pp.

25, 72, 125. See, however, Arkell, BibliothecaOrientalis, XIII (1956), especially pp. 125 ff.

See also Massoulard, Prdhistoire et proto-histoire d'Egypte (Paris, 1949), pp. 30-54;

Cottevieille-Giraudet, BIFAO, XXXIII(1933), 53-70; Vandier, Manuel d'arch.dgypt., I (Paris, 1952), 62-188, especially

pp. 181 ff.; Huzayyin, Place of Egypt (1941),pp. 294-305; Alimen, op. cit., pp. 103-110;

Leakey, Stone Age Africa (1936), p. 120;

McBurney, Stone Age of Northern Africa,

pp. 233-47; McBurney and Hey, Prehistory

and Pleistocene Geology in Cyrenaican Libya

(Cambridge, 1955), pp. 247-51; Menghin,"The Stone Ages of North Africa with SpecialReference to Egypt," BSRGE, XVIII (1932),17-21; Bovier-Lapierre, "L'ligypte prd-

historique," Pricis de l'histoire d'tgypte par

divers historien8 et archeologues, I (Cairo, 1932),

40-43; Scharff, Die Altertimer der Vor. und

Frilhzeit Agyptens (Berlin, 1929-1931),I, 8-16;

Kaiser, "Stand und Probleme der agyptischen

Vorgeschichtsforschung," ZAS, LXXXI

(1956), especially pp. 98-100; and the vast

majority of the works cited in the preceding

paragraphs.A convenient listing (with references) of

the Carbon 14 dates for the Merimda, Fayum,

Naqada I, and Naqada II cultures, respect-ively, is given by Junker, "Geisteshaltung,"

pp. 56, 57.

2. THE FAYUM SETTLEMENTS

On the Neolithic and early post-Neolithic

cultures of the Fayum lake basin the basic

work is Caton.Thompson and Gardner, The

Desert Fayum (London, 1934). A series of

preliminary reports by the same authors

include Caton-Thompson, Man, XXV (1925);

Man, XXVIII (1928); Ancient Egypt (Sep-

tember 1928); and Caton-Thompson and

Gardner, Royal Anthropological Institute

Journal, LVI (1926); Geological Magazine,

LXIV (1927). Also to be consulted is Caton-

Thompson, Gardner, and Huzayyin, "Lake

Moeris: Re-investigations and Some Com-

ments," BIE, XIX (1937), in which theyreaffirm their belief in a falling Neolithic and

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post-Neolithic Fayum lake, with an initial

level of 59 feet (18 meters) above sea-level

and storm beaches piled up to a maximum

height of 72-79 feet (22-24 meters)-this

last contribution being in part a reply to

Little, "Recent Geological Work in theFaiyirm and in the Adjoining Portion of the

Nile Valley," BIE, XVIII (1936).

The association of the post-Paleolithic

reflooding of the Fayum basin and the crea-

tion of the high-level early Neolithic lake

with the so-called Flandrian Transgression of

the Mediterranean Sea is proposed by

Pfannenstiel, "Entstehung der agyptisehen

Oasendepressionen," (1953), p. 406, and by

Butzer, Quaternary Stratigraphy, p. 109.

On the Neolithic Moist Interval, or Sub-

pluvial II Phase, and its effects in Egypt see

especially Butzer, Erdkunde, XI (1957), 27;

AA WL .Mainz (1958), p. 39; "Naturland-

schaft Agyptens," AA WVL Mainz (1959),

No. 2, p. 86; BSIGE, XXXII (1959),63 if., and on the successive levels of the

post-Paleolithic Fayum lake, Ball, Contribu-

tions to the Geography of Egypt (1939), pp.197 if.

More recent discussions of the Fayum

Neolithic settlements and cultures, derived

for the most part from the reports of the

Misses Caton-Thompson and Gardner, but

often incorporating new ideas and interpre-

tations of the material, will be found in:

Massoulard, Prehistoire et protoh istoire, pp. 39-

44; Cottevicille-Giraudet, BIFAO, XXXIII,54-58; Vandier, Manuel, I, 62-94, 184-87;Huzayyin, Place of Egypt, pp. 294-98;Forde-Johnston, Neolithic Cultures, pp. 7, 17,

18, 69, 72 f., 108, 109; McBurney and Hey,

Prehi story and Pleistocene Geology in..

Libya, pp. 242-51; McBurney, Stone Age of

Northern Africa, pp. 233-38; Childe, New

Light on the Most Ancient East, pp. 35 ff. ;

Butzer, Quaternary Stratigraphy, pp. 111-12;

Larsen, Orientalia Suecana Uppsala, VII(1958), 39-41; IX (1960), 49-51; Junker,Anzeiger der Akad. der Wissenech. in Wien,

Phil.-Hist. Klasse, 1929, Nos. XVI-XVIII,pp. 180-84; "Geisteshaltung," pp. 56, 62;

Scharff, Altertumer der V'or- und FriihzeitAy T'ens+IV,1-14;A.rel hhiap.1,

4, 28, 31, 40, 55, 57, 79, 102-105, 107;Bibliotheca Orientalis, XIII (1956), 125 if.;Baumgartel, Cultures of Prehistoric Egypt,

I (rev. ed.), 15-16; II, 27, 29, 32, 33.

The opinions cited regarding the origin ofthe Fayum Neolithic A-culture will be foundin Huzayyin, "Recent Studies on theTechnological Evolution of the UpperPalacolithic of Egypt," Congres Internationaldes Sciences prihistoriques et protohistoriques,Actes de la IIIe Session, Zurich, 1950(Zurich, 1953), p. 175 (see above, Chap. II,

Sec. 4, notes); Caton-Thompson and Gardner,Desert Fayum, p. 94; Caton-Thompson, TheKharga Oasis in Prehistory (1952), p. 31;Forde-Johnston, Neolithic Cultures, pp. 73,77, cf. pp. 68, 70, 71; Arkell, Shaheinab, p.105; see also History of the Sudan from theEarliest Times to 1821 (London, 1955),pp. 345-46; Kush, V (1957), 8, 12; Kush, VII(1959), 15-26; MeBurney, Stone Age ofNorthern Africa, p. 234 (see also p. 245);Childe, New Light, pp. 47-49; and Butzer,

BSRGE, XXXII (1959), 44.Earlier finds of Neolithic implements and

other remains in the Fayum are describedand illustrated by Schweinfurth, BulletinInst it ut gyptien (Cairo, 1886); Beadnell,Geological- Magazine (London, 1903); Seton-Karr, Annales du Service, V (1904); VI(1905) ; Currelly, Stone Implements (Cairo,

"Catalogue Generale" [1913]), pp. 68-203(Nos. 63421-64426); De Morgan, La pre-histoire orientate, II, 54-68.

On the animal and plant remains found inassociation with the Fayum A culture settle-ments see especially Caton-Thompson andGardner, Desert Fayum, pp. 22, 34, 43,46-49, 72, 84; Andrews, "Notes on an

Expedition to the Fayfim, Egypt," GeologwcalMagazine, X (1903); Butzer, "Naturland-schaft Agyptens," p. 78.

3. THE OASES OF SIWA AND KHARGA

The largest and best-documented collec-tions of stone implements from Siwa wereassembled in 1918 by Dr. C. Willett-Cun-ningham from surface sites on the slopes andterraces of the northern escarpment ofthen oascis Wad on the ih esert plateau to th

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north of the depression. They are now in theMuseum of Archaeology and Ethnology inCambridge (Reg. Nos. 24.1113 and 24.1114)and in the Alexandria Museum (Inv. No.21664) together with a small series of imple-ments collected in the region of Siwa byH. W. Seton-Karr (registered as "Seton-Karr"). The best discussion of the SiwanNeolithic and its relationships with the more orless contemporaneous cultures of the Fayumand other areas is provided by C. B. M.McBurney in McBurney and Hey, Pre-history and Pleistocene Geology, pp. 251-62,Figs. 35, 36. See also McBurney, Stone Ageof Northern Africa, pp. 237-38; Huzayyin,Place of Egypt, pp. 282, n. 1, 298 and n. 2;Caton-Thompson and Gardner, Desert Fayump. 94; Fakhry, Siwa Oasis, its History andAntiquities (Cairo, 1944), p. 22.

The so-called Peasant Neolithic of Khargais described in detail and extensively illu-strated in Caton-Thompson, Kharga Oasis inPrehistory (London, 1952), pp. vi-vii, 35-40,165-96, Pls. 100-19. Further discussions ofits nature, its relationships with the FayumB culture and the Predynastic of Armant inUpper Egypt, and the probable identity ofits people with the authors of the rock-drawings ascribed by H. A. Winkler to theso-called "Early Oasis Dwellers" will befound in Caton-Thompson and Gardner,Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute,LVI (1926), 319; Desert Fayum, pp. 24, 26,34, 55, 91, 94; Forde-Johnston, NeolithicCultures of North Africa, pp. 23, 24, 70, 71;Huzayyin in Mond and Myers, Cemeteries ofArmant (London, 1937), pp. 2, 196, 210, 215;Huzayyin, Place of Egypt, pp. 309, 317, 438;McBurney, Stone Age of Northern Africa,pp. 236-37; McBurney and Hey, Prehistoryand Pleistocene Geology, pp. 256, 260-62,272-73.

On the rock-drawings of the Early OasisDwellers our principal reference is Winkler,Rock-drawings of Southern Upper Egypt(London, 1939), pp. 27-30, 33-36, Pls.XXXIX-L. See also Caton-Thompson,Kharga Oasis in Prehistory, pp. vi-vii.

Surface finds of Neolithic stone imple-ments in the Egyptian area are described.

illustrated, and referred to by a number ofwriters, among whom may be cited Butzer,BSRGE, XXXII (1959), 81 (quoted in ourtext); De Morgan, Rdcherches sur les originesde l'Fgypte (Paris, 1897), pp. 46 if., figs.29-45; Caton-Thompson, Kharga Oasis, p.ix, P1. 126; Caton-Thompson and Gardner,Geographical Journal, LXXX (London, 1932),371, 403, Map No. 1; Bovier-Lapierre,Bulletin Institut d',gypte, XII (Cairo, 1930),126-27; "Stations pr6historiques des environsdu Caire," Comp. rend., Congrds Internationalde Gdographie (Cairo, 1925), IV (1926), 306;Cottevieille-Giraudet, BIFAO, XXXIII(1933), 58, 63-64, figs. 42, 44; Massoulard,Prhistoire et protohistoire d'lgypte, p. 31,nn. 10-13; Vandier, Manuel, I, 64. See alsoAndrew and Delaney, "A Neolithic Site inthe Sabalaka Gorge," Sudan Notes andRecords, XXXIII (1952), 167; Save-Soder-bergh, Kush, X (1962), 76-105.

The remarks on the culture provinces ofNorth Africa quoted in the last paragraph ofour section are from McBurney and Hey,Prehistory and Pleistocene Geology in Cyren-aican Libya, pp. 272-73.

4. THE WEST DELTA SETTLEMENT

OF.MERIMDA BENI SALAMA

The site of the Neolithic settlement atMerimda Beni Salama, lying six miles to thenorthwest of Merimda Abu Ghalib andthirty-seven miles northwest of Cairo,measures some 660 yards from east to westand 440 yards from north to south. It wasexplored and excavated during the years1928 to 1939 by an expedition of the Akademieder Wissenschaften in Vienna under thedirection of Professor Hermann Junker,assisted during the seasons of 1931-1932 and1933 by members of the staff of the Medel-havsmuseet (then called the "EgyptiskaMuseet") in Stockholm. The first season'swork was published by Junker, "Berichtfiber die von der Akadamie der Wissen-schaften in Wien nach dem Westdeltaentsendete Expedition (20. Dezember 1927bis 25. Februar 1928)," Denkschr. Akad. d.Wis8en8ch. Wien, Phil.-hist. Klasse, BandLXVIII, Abh. No. 3 (1928), pp. 14-24 (also

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pp. 25.33), Pis. II-VI and XIV-XXV. The

results of the ensuing seven seasons (1929,1930, 1931-1932, 1933, 1934, 1937, and1939) were described and discussed by the

same author and by Professor OswaldMenghin in a series of preliminary reports:Junker, Anzeiger der Akad. der Wi8sensch. inWien, Phil.-Hist. Kiasse, Nos. XVI-XVIII(1929), pp. 156-250; Nos. V XIII (1930),pp. 21-83; Nos. I IV (1932), pp. 36-97;Nos. XVI-XXVII (1933), pp. 54-97; No. X(1934), pp. 118-32; Nos. IV(1940),pp.3-25.

On the Neolithic landscape and populationof the Delta see especially Butzer, "DieNaturlandschaft Agyptens," pp. 71-78;BSRGE, XXXII, 50-52, 59 if., and on the

geological setting of the settlement atMerimda, Butzer, Science, CXXXII, No.3440, pp. 1618-19, Fig. 3.

The stratification of the settlement siteand the Carbon-14 dates obtained from it arediscussed by Junker, Anzeiger d. Akad. d.Wissen8ch. Wien, Nos. 1-V (1940), pp.4-16; "Geisteshaltung(er Agypter," pp.55, 56, and by Larsen, Orientalia Suecana,VII (1958), 48-51. See also Childe, New

Light (1957), p. 38 and Save-Sdderbergh,Egypti8k egenart (1962), p. 18.

Detailed comparisons between theMerimda and Fayum A cultures are drawnby Caton-Thompson and Gardner. DesertFayumn, pp. 29, 32-34, 39, 45, 48, 70, 72, 87,89-94, and by Junker, Anzeier ... Wien(1929), pp. 180-84.

Larsen, Orientalia Suecana, VI (1957),VII (1958), VIII (1959), IX (1960) has de-voted four articles to the study, respectively,of the decorated pottery, the stone vases, andthe bone implements from Merimda in theMedelhavsmnuseet in Stockholm. Badawy,History of Egyptian Architecture (Cairo,1954) has provided a section on the "Dom-estic Architecture" of Merimda; and Scharf,"Das Grab als Wohnhaus in der agyptischenFriizeit," Sitzungsber. Bay. Akad. d. Wis-

senech., Phil.-hist. Kla.,se, Jahrgang 1944/46,Heft 6, pp. 13 ff., discourses on the settlement-burials at Merimda and El Omani.

Preliminary reports on the human remains

from Meimda, with special reference to the

physical type and "northern" racial charac-teristics of the Merimda people, are contri-buted by Dr. Douglas E. Derry to Junker,Anzeiger... Wien, 1930, pp. 53-59, andibid., 1932, pp. 60-61. See also Junker, ibid.,

LXXXVI (1949), No. 21, pp. 485-93, andCoon, Races of Europe (New York, 1939),pp. 93, 94, 99, 105.

Among the general works on Egyptian,North African, and Near Eastern prehistoryin which the settlement at Merimda isdiscussed and evaluated may be cited:Massoulard, Prehistoire et protohistoired''gypte, pp. 33-39; Vandier, Manuel, I,95-153, 181-88; Huzayyin, Place of Egypt,pp. 296-322 passim; Scharff, Altertilmer der

Vor- und Frihzeit Agyptens, IV, 9-12 (seealso pp. 13-14); Kaiser, ZAS, LXXXI(1956), 87-109 (see also pp. 97-102, 105);MeBurney, Stone Age of Northern Africa, p.235; McBurney and Hey, Prehistory andPleistocene Geology, pp. 244, 246, 249, 250;Forde-Johnston, Neolithic Cultures of NorthAfrica, pp. 17, 18, 24, 72; Alimen, Prehistoryof Africa, pp. 103 ff.; Childe, New Light,pp. 36-40; Menghin, Welt geschichte derSteinzeit (Vienna, 1931), pp. 358 (P1. XLI)-361; Menghin, "El origen del pueblo delantiguo Egipto,"Ampurias, IV (1941), 25-41;

Kantor, JNES, I (1942), 174-77, 199,

202-203.For the vast majority of the prehistorians

and other writers cited in the foregoingparagraphs the settlement at Merimda is aNeolithic town of considerable importanceclosely associated in its earlier stages withthe Fayum A culture and, like it, generallymore primitive in character and earlier indate than the Naqada I and II cultures ofUipper Egypt. The principal dissenting opin-ion, as already noted, is that of Baumgartel,Cultures of Prehistoric Egypt, I (rev. ed.,1955) and II (1960)-see especially I, 14-18,

120 f., and other writings, who would see inthe settlement a "rural community" "on theoutskirts of Libya," representing "a belatedcivilization," its earliest phase (Layer I)contemporaneous with Naqada II, its "upperstrata" with "Early Dynastic times." Thoughsome of Dr. Baumgzartel's points are well

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taken and her views in general must be giventhe most serious consideration, they havenot-with only one or two exceptions (e.g.,Forde-Johnston, Neolithic Cultures of NorthAfrica, pp. 17, 18, 24, 72)-been accepted bysubsequent writers on the settlement (amongwhom must be counted such competentprehistorians as Alimen, Arkell, Butzer,McBurney, Kaiser, Kantor, and Larsen) andhave been convincingly criticized by Arkell,Bibliotheca Orientalis, XIII (1956), byKantor, AJA, LIII (1949), 76-77, by Larsen,Orientalia Suecana, VII (1958), 42 if., and byVandier, Manuel, I, 81-88. The already-discussed radiocarbon dates obtained forthe Merimdian and the Naqada I and IIcultures also militate against Dr. Baumgar-tel's theories, which seem, to a great extent,to spring from the unwarranted assumptionthat in prehistoric times the Delta properwas uninhabitable and that, therefore, thehome of the earliest Egyptian cultures mustbe sought for exclusively in the south.

The reference in the next-to-last paragraphof this section to the pre-agricultural use ofartificial irrigation "by people who do notcultivate but collect wild-growing plants"is based on Frankfort, Birth of Civilizationin the Near East, pp. 36-37, who, in turn,refers to Forde, Habitat, Economy and Society(London, 1934), p. 35. The quotation re-garding the close association of the Merim-dians with their dead is taken from Otto,Agypten der Weg des Pharaonenreiches(Stuttgart, 1953), p. 21.

5. EL OMARI: ITS SETTLEMENTS AND

CEMETERIES

In April 1925 Pere Paul Bovier-Lapierre,"Une nouvelle station n6olithique (El Omari)au nord d'H6louan (lIgypte)," (Compte rendu,Congrds International de Gdographie, 1925, IV[Cairo, 1926])--see also "Stations pr6histor-iques des environs du Cairo," ibid., pp.298-308--reported the discovery, naming,and initial exploration of the prehistoric site(or sites) of El -Omari. Fernand Debono'sthree seasons of work on the site are describedand discussed by him in Chronique d'gype,

No. 41 (1946), pp. 50-54; Annalee duService,XLVIII (1948), 561-69; BIE, XXXVII(1956), 329-39. In 1949 Hermann Junkerincluded the measurements and other charac-teristics of a skull from E1-Omari in Anzeiger... Wien, LXXXVI (1949); and in 1955 areport was published by Elhamy A. M.Greiss, BIE, XXXVI (1955), on the "Ana-tomical Identifications of Plant Remains andOther Materials from (1) E1-Omari .. " Onthe cereal grains from the site (and the falseidentification of the wheat as einkorn[Triticum monococcum]) see Helbaek, Pro-ceedings of the Prehistoric Society, Cambridge,N. S., XXI (1955), 93-95.

El-Omari is briefly discussed in most of thegeneral works on Egyptian and NorthAfrican prehistory and in a number of articlesand monographs devoted to special aspectsof the subject. Some of these were writtenbefore the existence on the site of severaldistinct cultural groups and periods had beengenerally recognized (Debono, BIE, XXXVII[1956], 330), and present, therefore, a some-what confusing over-all picture of the en-semble. Others tend to confine themselvessolely to the early village near the Ras el-Hof. Nearly all, however, are of value fortheir independent and sometimes divergentinterpretations of the evidence as a whole andof the typological and technological detailswhich go to make up that evidence. The listof works is for the most part already familiarto the reader. Included are: Massoulard,Prdhistoire et protohistoire, pp. 32-33; Van-dier, Manuel, I, 154-66, 183, 188; Huzayyin,Place of Egypt, pp. 300-301; Baumgartel,Cultures of Prehistoric Egypt, I, 121; Cotte-vieille-Giraudet, BIFAO, XXXIII, 58-62;Scharff, Altertumer, IV, 13; "Das Grab alsWohnhaus," pp. 15-17; Junker, Die Agypter(Volker des antiken Orients, III [Freiburg,1933]), pp. 7, 9, 18; Wien Anzeiger, LXXXVI(1949), 486-87, 492; "Geisteshaltung," p. 65;Rizkana, Bull. Inst. Desert, II, 2 (1952),119, 121, 130; Larsen, Orientalia Suecana,VII, 41-42, 52; ibid., IX (1960), 51-52;Kaiser, ZAS, LXXXI, 98-100, 105; apudLeclant, Orientalia, XXVIII (1959), 371;Otto, Agypten der Weg des Pharaonenreiches.

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144 NEZOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN EGYPT

pp. 19, 21; Kees, Ancient Egypt, A Geo-

graphical History of the Nile (Chicago, 1961),

pp. 23, 148, 149; Wolf, Kulturgeschichte desalten Agyptens (Stuttgart, 1962), p. 26;F'orde-Johnston, Neolithic Cultures of NorthAfrica, p. 17; Alimen, Irehistory of Africa, p.104; Childe, New Light, pp. 40, 41, 48, 73, 74,93, 99; Badawy, History of Egyptian Archi-

tecture, p. 15.A considerable range of (ates has been

ascribed to the Ras el-Hof settlement groupor, as it is sometimes callel, the "Oman A"or "Helwan (Neolithic) A" culture. Severalwriters, including Alimen, Prehistory of

Africa, pp. 105, 128, and Rizkana, Bull.Inst. Desert, 11, 2, p. 130, would make it

earlier than Merimda anl would assign to ita (late in the neighborhood of 6000 B.C.Kaiser, ZAS, LXXXI, 99, 100, sees it ascontemporaneous with the late Merimdianand believes both of these cultures, as wellas the Fayum A, to be earlier than EarlyNaqada in Upper Egypt. To Debono, BIE,XXXVII, 339, the settlement (ates fromthe beginning of Naqada I and extends intothe secondl part of that cultural phase.

l3atumgartel (loc. cit.) does not seem convincedthat El-hnari is predynastic at all and wouldappear to favor a date in early historic times.The radiocarbon date of 3305 + 230 B.C.(5256 + 230 B.P. in 1951) for a sample of

charcoal "from point 'A--15' of the housefloors (fonds de cabanes)" of the Ras el-Hof

settlement was first published by Arnoldand Libby, Science, CXLII (1951), p. 111(No. 463); and is discussed by Braidwood,AO WA W (1958), Nr. 19, p. 257, by Kantor,Relative Chronologies in Old World Archeology(Chicago, 1954), pp. 2-3, and by Alimen,Prehistory of Africa, p. 106. Junker, "Geist-

eshaltung der Agypter," p. 57, points outthat this date is not compatible with the ar-cheological evidence as advanced by Debono,bc. cit., and believes that "a substantiallyearlier period must be assumed."

On the identification by Hickmann,Anynales du Serf.ice, XLIX (1949), 428-31, of

the perforated Nerita shells from El-Omani aswhistles see Arkell, Ansales du Sernice, L(195i 0),M5a66

6. MAADI, WADI DIGLA, HELIoPoLIs,

AND QASR QARUN

Modern surface exploration of the ancientsettlement site east of Maadi dates from 1925when Mrs. F. W. Hume, the wife of the well-known geologist, and her associate, Mrs.Lamb, picked up a number of flint imple-ments in the area. In the same year R. P.Paul Bovier-Lapierre explored both thesettlement area and the cemetery some twomiles to the northeast, in the mouth of theWadi el Tih, and briefly reported his findsthere of pottery, stone, and copper objects,animal and human bones (Bovier-Lapierre,CRCIG 1925, IV [Cairo, 1926], 306; see alsoChron. d'Agypte. VII. [1932]. 57-64). In1929 the site was visited by Johannes Lukas,whose investigations are described in Lukas,Mitteilungen Anthropologische Gesellschaft inWien, LXI (1931), 203-208.

Excavation of the settlement was inau-gurated on December 14, 1930, under theauspices of the Faculty of Arts of theEgyptian University in Cairo and the direc-tion of Oswald Menghin and Mustafa Amer,and was carried on thereafter for twelveseasons of one and a half to three monthseach. The results of the first three seasons(December 14, 1930, to January 31, 1931;February 15 to April 8, 1932; and February1 to April 4, 1933) were reported on byMenghin, "Die Grabung der UniversitatKairo bei Maadi," M DI A KII (1931), 143-47; M1DIAK, III (1932), 150-54; MDIAK,V (1934), 111-18; by Menghin and Amer,Exrcavation of the Egyptian University in theNeolithic Site at Maadi. First PreliminaryReport (Season of 1930--31) (Cairo, 1932), ibid.,Second Preliminary Report (Season of 1932)

Cairo, 1936) ; and by Amer, Bulletin, Facultyof Arts, Egyptian University, I (Cairo, 1933),322-24; those of the fourth season (January 27

to April 16, 1934) by Amer, ibid., II, Part II(Cairo, 1935), pp. 176-78; and those of thefifth season (February 1 to April 29, 1935) in

LaBourse A'gyptienne for August 8, 1935,and Chron. d'eLgypte, XI, No. 21 (January1936), pp. 54-57. See also Amen, Cahiers

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Fasc. 5-6 (Cairo, 1952), p. 238, reprinted asAmer, Chron. d'fgypte, XXVIII, No. 56(1953), p. 280. Amer and Huzayyin, "SomePhysiographic Problems Related to thePre-dynastic Site at Macadi," Proceedings of

the First Pan-African Congress on Prehistory,

Nairobi, 1947 (Oxford, 1952), discuss the

recent geology and stratigraphy of the site,including an alleged but probably non-existent succession of high aggradation andrenewed degradation in Neolithic and early

Chalcolithic times (cf. Butzer, "Naturland-schaft Agyptens," pp. 26-27, 68, n. 1;

Geographical Journal, CXXV [1959], 78, n. 6;BSRGE, XXXII [1959], 55-56).

Highly valuable-and often highly critical-discussions of the date and significance of

the settlement at Maadi and of the asso-

ciated cemeteries occur in such general works

as Baumgartel, Cultures of Prehistoric Egypt,

I (1955), 14, 29, n. 1, 42, 44-46, 51, 105, 109,

110, 121, 122; II (1960), 13, 23, 30, 131-33,

137-39, 154 (cited several times in the text of

this section); Huzayyin, Place of Egypt, pp.

301-304, 306, 315; Massoulard, Prihistoire et

protohistoire, pp. 259-68; Vandier, Manuel, I,

466-96, 508-18, 529-32; Alimen, Prehistory

of Africa, pp. 111, 112, 123-26, 128; Childe,

New Light, pp. 73-76, 99, 224, 229, 233, 237;

Kees, Ancient Egypt (Chicago, 1961), pp. 40,

42, 148, 149, 189; Scharff, Die Frihkulturen

Agyptens und Mesopotamiens, ("Der Alte

Orient," Band 41 [Leipzig, 1941]), pp. 12-15;

Debono, BIE, XXXVII (1956), 339.Two additional references, which should

however be used with caution, are Leclercq,

Chron. d'lgypte, VIII, No. 15 (1933), pp.

227-33, and Rizkana, Bull. Inst. Desert, II,

1 (1952), pp. 121 if.

The shelters, huts, and magazines of

Maadi are discussed and illustrated by

Badawy, History of Egyptian Architecture, I,

17-19, 23, figs. 6-8; and some of the cultural

contacts of the site with Palestine-especially

as regards the flints and pottery-byKantor, JNES, I (1942), 177, 180-85, 191,

192, 199; and Childe, New Light, pp. 224,

229, 237. On present.day foetus burials in

Egyptian villages see Blackman, The Fella-hi of Upper Egypt (London, 1927), p. 67.

The remarks of Petrie and Hall on the

painted pottery of Abydos and of Bonnet and

Childe on that of Maadi are cited with

references by Vandier, Manuel, I, 481, nn. 1

and 2, 791, nn. 1 and 2.The cemetery of the Wadi el-Tih, north-

east of Maadi, is briefly described by Bovier-

Lapierre, CRCIG 1925, IV, 306-308; and

Chron. d'1gypte, VII, 60 and is commented

on by Baumgartel, Cultures, I, 122, 131,

Massoulard, Prdhistoire et protohistoire, p.

261; and Alimen, op. cit., p. 404.

That of Maadi North, as indicated in the

text, is accorded only passing reference by

Rizkana, Bull. Inst. Desert, II, 2, pp. 121,122; Amer, Cahiers d'histoire Agyptienne,

Hdliopolis, Serie IV, Fasc. 5-6 (Cairo, 1952),

p. 238; Amer and Rizkana, Bulletin of the

Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, XV (1953),

98, 203; Baumgartel, Cultures, I (1960), 122;

and Childe, New Light, pp. 73, 75.Short accounts of their two seasons of

work in the cemetery of the Wadi Digla

(Maadi South) were published by Amer and

Rizkana, BFAC, XV (1953), 97-100, 201-

205. See also Rizkana, Bull. Inst. Desert, II,

I, pp. 121- 23, Leclant, Orientalia, XXI, 2

(Rome, 1952), p. 244; XXII, 1, pp. 97-98;

XXIII, 1, pp. 73-74.On the early cemetery near Heliopolis

there are brief reports by Debono, Chron.

d'lgypt, XXV (1950), No. 50, pp. 625-52,

Rizkana, Bull. Inst. Desert, II, 2, 121-23,

Pls. III, IV-VII (B), VIII (A), and Leclant,Orientalia, XIX, 4 (1950), pp. 493-94, and

comments by Baumgartel, op. cit., I, 121-22,

Childe, New Light, p. 75, and Vandier,Manuel, I, 496, n. 4. One of the dogs buriedin this cemetery is the subject of an article

by Moustafa, Bull. Inst. Desert, II (1952),

102-104, who reports that the animal'sskeleton and teeth are very similar to those

of a modern dog.The Predynastic finds in the Fayum,

including the settlement near Qasr Qarun

and its relationship to Maadi, are described,discussed, and illustrated by Gertrude Caton-

Thompson, in Caton-Thompson and Gardner,

Desert Fayum, pp. 69-71, Pls. LII, LIII.There can be little doubt that the immense

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settlement at Maadi and the associatedcemeteries covered a long period of time, the

former, as Huzayyin, loc. cit., has suggested,exhibiting perhaps "some kind of 'later' or'horizontal' stratification." Such items as thecylindrical vases of basalt, the black-topped

potsherds, the rhomboidal slate palettes, the

forked lanceheads, and some of the other

stone implement types would seem to imply acontemporaneity or partial contemporaneitywith the Middle Predynastic culture ofUpper Egypt. On the other hand, the fan-shaped scrapers, many of the pottery forms,the absence of stone axeheads, the extensive

use of copper for tools and weapons, and thepresence of rough stone superstructures oversome of the graves point certainly to verylate Predynastic and Early Dynastic ("Early

Bronze Age") times. That, however, neitherthe settlement nor the cemeteries survived

very far into the historic period is indicatedby the complete absence from them of truemud -brick construction, of any inscribedobject whatsoever, and of most of the charac-

teristic Early Dynastic types of pottery,stoneware, ivory carvings, and the like. Anassumed lifetime for the so-called "MaadianCulture" ranging from somewhere aroundmid-Naqada II (ca. 3300 B.c.) to about thethird or fourth decade of the First Dynasty(ca. 3070-3060 B.c.) would probably not befar wide of the mark.

7. CHARACTER OF THE NORTHERN

EGYPTIAN COMMUNITIES

The material for this summary was drawnin its entirety from the preceding sections ofthe present chapter and from the references-especially the more general works-cited inthe notes accompanying these sections.

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4THE PREDYNASTIC CULTURES OF

UPPER AND MIDDLE EGYPT

1. PRELIMINARY SURVEY

SURFACE finds of Neolithic stone

implements at numerous points along thefringes of the Upper Egyptian Nile Valleyand of habitation sites in the adjoining

desert areas as well as in Nubia and the

northern Sudan show clearly that this

part of the land was not, as has been

suggested, unoccupied by man between

the Final Paleolithic and the Chalcolithic

phases of Egyptian prehistory. To date,

however, no Neolithic settlements or

cemeteries comparable to those of northern

Egypt have been identified in or near the

river valley between the latitude of the

Fayum and the First Cataract. Though

this need not mean that Upper and Middle

Egypt had at that time no settled popula-

tion the fact remains that the earliest

post-Paleolithic habitation and burial sites

in this area belong to two partly contem-

poraneous and related cultures, the Badar-

ian and the Naqadian, both of which

from the outset produced small imple-

ments and ornaments of hammered copper

and are therefore classed as Chalcolithic

or, to use a more general and familiar

designation, as "Predynastic."

In Egypt the "core area" of the Badar-

ian centers around the type-site of Badari,

on the east side of the Nile some twenty-two miles south of the city of Asyut, and

includes the neighboring sites of DeirTasa, Nazlet el Mostagedda, and Matmaron the north and El- Hemamieh andQau el- Kebir on the south. Closely asso-ciated through their combed and burnished

pottery with Nubia and the northernSudan the settlements and cemeteries ofthe Badarians do not reach north of thearea just described, but typical Badarianpottery and other products have beenfound at several places in southern UpperEgypt, notably at Armant and in the basinof the Wadi Hammamat. In all some onethousand Badarian graves have beencleared to date and to these may be addedforty-odd burials of the so-called "Tasianculture," evidently an early phase of theBadarian found in the same general area,that is, in the vicinity of Deir Tasa and theadjoining sites. Small Badarian settlementsare also known in sufficient quantity to bedescribed by Werner Kaiser as "numerous."Unhappily, the only existing radiocarbondate derived from a Badarian sample(3150 + 160 B.c.) is so obviously low asto be useless. Since, however, the Badarianappears to have been contemporaneouswith the earliest phases of the Naqadaculture (dated by the Carbon 14 method to3790 + 300 B.C.) it may be assigned withsome assurance to the first century or twoof the fourth millennium.

The kernel zone of the Naqada cultureis the area inclosed by the great eastward

147

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PREDYNASTIC CULTURES OF UPPER AND MIDDLE EGYPT

loop of the Nile between Gebelein andAbydos. Here, where a number of deserttracks from the Red Sea on the east andfrom the Great Oases on the west convergeon the Nile Valley, lay a region muchfrequented by ancient man from theMiddle Paleolithic period onward anddestined in the course of Egypt's dynasticand subsequent history to retain much ofits old geo-political importance. In Pre-dynastic times the focal point of the arealay to the north of the present village ofNaqada, in the important prehistorictown of Nubt (later Ombos) and in thevast cemeteries of Naqada and Ballaswhich together have yielded more thanthree thousand graves. Settlements andcemeteries belonging to the earlier (andsubsequent) stages of the culture abound inthe same general area-at Hu andAbadiyeh ("Diospolis Parva"), El-Amrah,Abydos, El-Mahasna, Naga el- Deir, andMesaeed, to the north of Naqada, and atKhozam, Armant, Gebelein, and Hiera-konpolis to the south. With time the culturespread northward, first into the Badarianzone (Qau el- Kebir, Hemamieh, Badari,Mostagedda, and Matmar) and thence,during its later stages, into Middle Egypt(Deir Bisra, Sawada, Zawiyet el-Meitin)and the region of the Fayum (Harageh,Abusir el:Meleq, Gerzeh, Wadfa), reachingthe Memphite area (Tarkhan, Giza) notlong before the beginning of the historicperiod. Southward it spread beyond thebounds of Egypt proper into Nubia, wherein its middle and final phases it has beenfound at many sites between the First andSecond Cataracts (Bahan, Debod, Dehmit,Gerf Hussein, Dakka, Amada, Aniba, AbuSimbel, Faras, Gemnai, etc.). In theEastern Desert it is represented by asettlement and graves in the vicinity ofthe oasis of Laqeita and by graves in theWadi Hammamat and near the Red Seacoast, as well as by two series of rock

drawings, those of Winkler's "EasternInvaders" and those of his "Early NileDwellers." Traces of the Naqada culturein the oases and other areas of the LibyanDesert are slight, but an association of thePredynastic people of Armant and thePeasant Neolithic folk of Kharga is appa-rent, as has already been remarked (Chap.III, § 3), from the close agreement of theirstone implements. All told it occurs at morethan fifty sites, including ten with the re-mains of settlements, and its cemeteriesnumber at least fifteen thousand graves.

As time progressed influences both fromwithin and without brought about basicchanges in the character of the culture andits products, the changes taking place inmore or less recognizable stages to whichmodern investigators have applied a varietyof designations. Having, in 1901, deviseda system of relative dating, or "SequenceDates," which is no longer regarded byprehistorians as reliable, Sir FlindersPetrie subsequently divided the Naqadianinto three principal phases, named, withreference to the sites of El-Amrah, Gerzeh,and Semaineh, the "Amratian," the"Gerzean," and the "Semainean" andotherwise known as Naqada I, Naqada II,and Naqada III. In 1944 Helene Kantorchallenged the existence of a Semaineanor Naqada III stage and pointed out thatthe culture of the First Dynasty aroseimmediately out of the late Gerzean. In1956-57 Werner Kaiser, chiefly on thebasis of a detailed study of a well-recordedPredynastic cemetery at Armant, attemp-ted a new chronological articulation of theNaqada culture, dividing it into threestages ("Stufe I," "II," and "III"), eachsubdivided into three to four sub-stages("I a," "II c," etc.) which in turn weresometimes further subdivided ("II d I,""II d 2," "III a 1," etc.). x

1 This fragment of Chap. IV concludes the com-pleted portion of Mr. Hayes' proposed work.

148

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INDEX OF NAMES

The indexes to this volume were prepared by Miriam P. Arnett.

Adams, Robert McC., 138 n. 1Alimen, H., 33 n. 5, 39 n. 11, 74, 76n. 1,

77 n. 1, 79 n. 2, 80 n. 2,81 n. 3, 82 n. 3,84 n. 4, 85 n. 4, 86 n. 4, 87 n. 4, 88 n. 5,90 n. 5, 139 n. 1, 142n. 4, 143n. 4,144 n. 5, 145 n. 6

Amer, Mustafa, 132, 144 n. 6,145 n. 6Andrew, G., 31 n. 1,31 n. 2, 34 n. 6,141 n. 3Andrews, C. W., 32 n. 2,140 n. 2Arcelin, Godefroy, 45, 74

Arkell, A. J., 76 n. 1, 78 n. 1, 79 n. 2, 80 n. 2,82 n. 3, 86 n. 4, 87n.4, 88-89n. 5

Arkell, W. J., 29 n., 30 n., 30 n. 1, 31 n. 2,32 n. 2, 32 n. 3, 32 n. 4,33 n. 5,33 n. 6,34 n. 6, 35 n. 7, 35 n. 8,36 n. 8,36 n. 9,37 n. 10, 38 n. 11, 40n. 12, 50, 57, 74-75, 77 n. 1, 78 n. 2, 79n. 2, 80n. 3,81 n. 3, 82 n. 3, 83 n. 4,87 n. 4,88 n. 5,90 n. 5, 97, 114, 136,138 n. 1,139 n. 1,140 n. 2, 143 n. 4, 144n.5

Arldt, T., 31 n. 2Arnold, J. R., 144 n. 5Aseherson, P., 36 n. 10Attia, M. I., 35 n. 8Azadian, M. A., 37 n. 10Azer, N., 34 n. 6

Bachatly, C., 75Badawy, Alexander, 142 n. 4, 144 n. 5,

145 n. 6Baedeker, Karl, 30 n.Ball, J., 29 n., 30 n. 1, 31 . 1, 31 . 2,

32 n. 2, 33 n. 5, 34 n. 6, 35 n. 7, 35 n. 8,36 n. 9, 36 n. 10, 37 n. 10, 40 n. 12,40 n. 13, 41 n. 13, 81 n. 3, 140 n. 2

Balout, L., 39 n. 11, 39 n. 12, 76, 78 n. 1,79 n. 2, 80 n. 2, 85 n. 4, 138 n. 1

Barnett, Lincoln, 138 n. 1Barron, T., 32 n. 3Barthoux, J., 40 n. 13Bate, D. M. A., 86 n. 4, 88 n. 5Bates, Onec, 114Baumgartel, Elise J., 90 n. 5, 92, 114, 118,

122, 126-27, 129, 131, 136, 139 n. 1,140 n. 2, 142 n. 4, 143 n. 4, 143 n. 5,144 n. 5, 145 n. 6

Beadnell, H. J., 31 n. 1, 32 n. 2, 34 n. 6,35 n. 8, 36 n. 9, 37 n. 10, 140 n. 2

Bittel, K., 77 n. 1Blackman, Winifred S., 145 n. 6Blanekenhorn, M., 13, 30 n., 30 n. 1, 31 n. 1,

31 n. 2, 32 n. 2, 32 n. 3, 35 n. 7, 36 n. 9,37n. 10, 38n. 11, 39n. 12,75

Bonnet, H., 89 n. 5, 125, 145 n. 6Bordaz, Jacques, 50, 75, 77 n. 1, 78 n. 2,

80 n. 3, 81 n. 3, 85 n. 4, 87 n. 5,138 n. 1Bordes, F., 80n. 3, 81n.3Boswell, P. G. H., 79 n. 2Bovier-Lapierre, Pre Paul, 33 n. 5, 36 n. 8,

46, 56-57, 71, 74, 76n. 1, 77n. 1,79 n. 2, 80 n. 3, 81 n. 3, 88 n. 5,117-18,131, 139n. 1, 141n. 3, 143n. 5,144 n. 6, 145 n. 6

Braidwood, R. J., 40n. 12, 75, 77n. 1,83n. 3, 137n. 1, 138 n. 1, 139 n. 1,144 n. 5

Breasted, James Henry, 34 n. 6, 35 n. 6Breitinger, E., 75-76Breuil, Abbe H., 60, 76 n. 1, 81 n. 3, 87 n. 4Broecker, W. S., 40 n. 12Brooks, C. E. P., 35n. 6, 39n. 11, 39n. 12

Brotzen, F., 90 n. 5Brown, R. H., 36 n. 8Brunton, G., 87 n. 4Burkitt, M. C., 77 n. 1, 78 n. 1, 78 n. 2,

87n.5Butzer, Karl W., 21, 24, 29 n., 30 n. 1,

31 n. 1, 31 n. 2, 32 n. 2, 32 n. 4, 33 n. 5,34 a. 6, 35 n. 6, 35 n. 7, 36 n. 8, 36 n. 9,38 n. 11, 39 n. 11, 39 n. 12, 40 n. 12,40 n. 13, 41 n. 13, 68, 72, 76 n. 1,78 n. 2, 79 n. 2, 81 n. 3, 82 n. 3, 84 n. 4,86 n. 4, 87 a. 4, 88 n. 5, 89.n. 5, 90 n. 5,92, 97, 102-3, 139 n. 1, 140 n. 2,141 n. 3, 142 n. 4, 143 n. 4, 145 n. 6

Cana, F. R., 35 n. 6Caton-Thompson, Gertrude, 33 n. 5,34 n. 6,

36 n. 9, 37 n. 10, 38 n. 11, 40 n. 12,40 n. 13, 52, 55, 59, 61-67, 69, 74,78 n. 2, 79 n. 2, 80 n. 2, 80 a. 3, 81 a. 3,

149

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150IDE82 n. 3, 83 n. 3, 83 n. 4,841.4,85 n. 4,86 n. 4, 87 n. 4, 88 n. 5,891n.5,9011.5,97, 102-3, 108-9, 127, 134, 139n. 2,140 n. 2, 141 n. 3, 142n. 4, 145n. 6

Cesnola, Arturo Palma di, 89n. 5Childe, V. Gordon, 41 1. 13, 47, 75, 78 n. 1,

83 1. 3, 87 n. 4, 97, 120, 125-26, 132,137 n. 1, 138 n. 1, 140n. 2, 142n. 4,144 n. 5, 145 n. 6

Clark, Grahame, 69-70, 75, 78 1. 1, 80 n. 2,83 n. 3, 87 n. 4, 87 n. 5,137 n. 1

Cole, S., 58, 76 n. 1, 79 n. 2, 8011. 2, 8011. 3,82 n. 3, 85 n. 4, 86 n. 4,871.4,8811.5,89 n. 5, 138 n. 1, 139n. 1

Coon, C. S., 58-59, 75, 7811. 1, 83 n. 3,87 n. 5, 137 n. 1, 142n.4

Cottevieille-Giraudet, R., 74, 77 1. 1,83n. 4, 85n. 4, 88n. 5, 139n. 1,140 1. 2, 141 1. 3,143 1. 5

Currelly, Charles, 75, 14011. 2Curtis, G. H., 77 n. 1

Daressy, G., 89 n. 5Dart, R. A., 78 n. 1Davies, 0., 39 n. 11Debono, Fernand, 61, 64, 71, 77n. 1,

84 n. 4, 85 n. 4, 88n. 5, 117-18, 133,143 n. 5, 144 n.5, 145n.6

Deevey, E. S., Jr., 75Derry, Douglas E., 120, 14211. 4Diodorus Siculus, 35 n. 7Drioton, E., 36 n. 8Dunbar, J. H., 90 n. 5

Ebert, M., 75, 77 1. 1,137 n. 1Eiseley, L. C., 83 n. 3El Ayouti, M. K., 3011. 1Everdeen, J. F., 7711. 1

Fakhry, A., 37 n. 10, 141 n. 3Fleisch, H., 76 11. 1Forbes, R. H., 3711. 10Forde-Johnston, J. L., 36 n. 9, 39 n. 11, 97,

138 n. 1, 139 11. 1, 14011. 2, 141 11. 3,142 n. 4, 143 n. 4, 144 n. 5

Fourtau, R., 3411. 6Frankfort, Henri, 138 n. 1, 143 11. 4

Gaillard, C., 3411. 6, 8611. 4Gara~inin, M. V., 138 n. 1Gardner, E. W., 3411. 6, 3611. 9, 3711. 10,

38 n. 11, 88 n. 5, 89 n. 5, 139 n. 2,140 n. 2, 141 n. 3, 142 n. 4, 145 n. 6

Garrod, D. A. E., 71, 8611. 4, 8811. 5

Gindy, A. R., 30 n. 1, 32 n. 3Godwin, H., 40 n. 12Grant, James A., 37 n. 11Greiss, Elhamy A. M., 143 n. 5

Hall, A. R., 125, 145 n. 6Hamy, Ernest, 74Hay, R. L., 77 n.Hayes, W. C., 89 n. 5Haynes, John H., 75Helbaek, Hans, 138 n. 1,143 n. 5Herodotus, 35 n. 7Hey, R. W., 84 n. 4, 139n. 1, 140n. 2,

141 n. 3, 142n. 4Hickmann, Hans, 144 n. 5Higazy, R. A., 30 n. 1Hockett, C. D., 75Hume, W. F., 30 n., 31 n. 1, 32 n. 2, 32 n. 3,

35n. 8, 36n. 10, 37n. 10, 46, 144n. 6Hurst, H. E., 35n. 6Huzayyin, S. A., 30 n., 32 n. 2, 33 n. 5,

34n. 6, 36n. 9, 37n. 10, 37n. 11,38n. 11, 39n. 12, 40n. 12, 40n. 13,41 n. 13, 46, 52, 62-64, 71-72, 74-76,77 n. 1, 78 n. 2, 79 n. 2, 80 n. 2, 80 n. 3,81 n. 3, 83 n. 4, 84 n. 4, 85 n. 4, 86 n. 4,87n. 4, 88n. 5, 89n. 5, 90n. 5, 97,138n. 1, 139n. 1, 139n. 2, 140n. 2,141 n. 3,142 n. 4, 143 n. 5,145 n. 6,146n.6

Ibrahim, M. M., 32 n. 2Isaac, Erich, 138 n. 1

Janssen, J. M. A., 89 n. 5Johnson, F., 40 n. 12Joleaud, .once, 67-68, 86 n. 4Jordan, W., 36 n. 10Junker, Hermann, 4011. 12, 64, 84 n. 4,

85 n. 4, 103, 109, 112, 135, 138 n. 1,139 n. 1, 140 n. 2, 141 n. 4, 142 n. 4,143 n. 5, 144n. 5

Kaiser, Werner, 114, 122, 139 n. 1, 142 n. 4,143 n. 4, 143 n. 5, 144 n. 5, 147, 148

Kantor, Helene, 14211. 4, 143 n. 4, 144 n. 5,145 n. 6, 148

Kees, Herman, 144 11. 5, 145 11. 6Keldani, E. H., 3011., 32 n. 2, 75Kemal el-Din Hussein, 77 n. 1, 8811. 5, 103Kenyon, Kathleen M., 138 n. 1, 13911. 1Kohler, E. L., 4011. 12, 13911. 1Kraeling, Carl H., 13811. 1Kroeber, A. L., 801. 3

150 INDEX

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Lamb, Mrs., 144 n. 6Lansing, A., 89 n. 5Larsen, Hjalmar, 84 n. 4, 89 n. 5, 92, 103,

114, 139n. 1, 140n. 2, 142n. 4,143 n. 4, 143 n. 5

Leakey, L. S. B., 41n. 13, 74, 76n.1,77 n. 1, 78 n. 1, 79n. 2, 82n. 3, 84n.4,139 n. 1

Leclant, J., 40 n. 12, 143 1. 5,145 n. 6Legrain, Georges, 102Lenormant, Francois, 74Libby, W. F.. 40 n. 12, 144n. 5Little, 0. H., 35 n. 8, 36 n. 9, 37 n. 10,

79 1. 2, 140 n. 2Lozach, J., 35 n. 7Lukas, Johannes, 144 n. 6Lyons, H. G., 34 n. 6

McBurney, C. B. M., 33 1. 5, 36 n. 9,39 n. 11, 40 n. 12, 41 n. 13, 53, 55, 57-59, 60-62, 64, 66, 71, 74-76, 77n. 1,79 1. 2, 80 n. 3, 81 1. 3,82 1. 3,83 n. 4,84 1. 4, 85 n. 4, 86 n. 4, 87 1. 4,88 n. 5,89 n. 5, 90 n. 5, 97-98,99-100,138 n. 1,139 1. 1, 140 n. 2, 141 n. 3, 142 n. 4,143 n. 4

MacCurdy, G. G., 75, 77 1. 1, 78 n. 2,88 n. 5, 137 n. 1

Marais, J., 77Massoulard, P., 74, 76, 77n. 1, 78n. 2,

79 n. 2, 80n. 3,81 n.3,83n.4, 85n.4,86n. 4, 87n. 4, 88n. 5, 139n. 1,140 n. 2, 141 n. 3, 142n. 4, 143n. 5,145 n. 6

Mellink, Machteld J., 138 1. 1Menghin, Oswald, 39 11. 12, 64, 74-75,

77 n. 1, 109, 114, 125, 137 n. 1,139 n. 1, 142 n. 4, 144 n. 6

Montet, A. M., 84 11. 4Morgan, J. de, 36 n. 8, 71, 75, 88 n. 5,

138 n. 1, 139 n. 1, 140 n. 2, 141 n. 3Moustafa, Y. Shawki, 32 n. 2, 133, 145 11. 6Movius, H. L., 39 n. 12, 40 n. 12, 54-55, 66,

75-76, 77 n. 1, 78 n. 2, 80 n. 3, 81 n. 3,84 n. 4, 85 n. 4, 86 n. 4, 87 11. 5, 88 n. 5,89 n. 5

Murray, G. W., 3711. 11Myers, 0. H., 89 n. 5Myre, J. L., 3011.

Nakkady, S. E., 31 n. 1Neuffer, E., 77 n. 1Neuville, R., 39 n. 12

Oakley, K. P., 75, 77 n. 1, 7811. 2, 8011. 2,

INDEX 15Obermaier, H., 76 n. 1, 77 1. 1, 78 1. 1,83n.4, 87n.4

Otto, Eberhard, 143 11. 4,143 n. 5

Passarge, S., 34 n. 6, 35 n. 6, 37 n. 11,40 n. 13, 103

Perthes, Boucher de, 44, 76 n. 1Petrie, Flinders, 125, 127, 14511. 6,148Pfannenstiel, M., 31 n. 2, 36 11. 9, 3611. 10,

37 n. 10, 140 n.Pietsch, W., 35 n. 6Piggott, S., 78 n. 1,138 n. 1Pitt-Rivers, Augustus, 75Pittioni, Richard, 139 n. 1Pliny the Elder, 35 n. 7Proosdij, B. A., 40 n. 12

Ralph, E.K., 40n. 12, 139n. 1Read, C. H., 77 n. 1Reed, Charles A., 138 n. 1Reil, Wilhelm, 70Reim, A., 35n.6Rittman, A., 30 n. 4, 35 n. 8Rizkana, Ibrahim, 34 n. 6, 132, 143 n. 5,

144n. 5, 145 n. 6Rohlfs, G., 36 n. 10Romer, A. 5., 41 n. 13Ruhlmann, A., 39 n. 12

Save-Soderbergh, T., 76 n. 1, 89 n. 5,141 1. 3

Sahlin, M. D., 75Said, Rushdi, 29 n., 30 n., 30 n. 1, 3211. 2,

321. 3,35 n. 7, 351. 8,36 n. 9, 3611.10Sandford, K. S., 29 n., 30 n. 1, 31 . 1,

311. 2,321. 2,321. 3,321. 4,3311. 5,331. 6,341. 6, 351. 7,351.8,36 n. 8,36 n. 9, 36 n. 10, 37 n. 10, 38n. 11,40 n. 12, 40 n. 13, 50, 55, 57, 61, 74,76-77 n. 1, 78 n. 2, 7911. 2, 80 n. 3,811. 3,821. 3, 831.4,8611. 4,8711. 4,88 n. 5, 90 n. 5

Scharff, A., 74, 83 n. 4, 85 n. 4, 90 n. 5,139 n. 1, 140 n. 2, 142 n. 4, 143 n. 5,145 n. 6

Schmitthenner, H., 3611. 10Schott, 5., 77 11. 1Schwarzbach, M., 3911. 12Schweinfurth, Georg, 75, 77 11. 1, 140 n. 2Seligman, Charles, 56, 75, 81 11. 3Seton-Karr, H. W., 90 n. 5, 140 n. 2,

141 11. 3

INDEX 151

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152 INDEX

Shukri, N. M., 30 n. 1, 31 n. 1, 32 n. 1,32 n. 3, 34 n. 6, 35 n. 7, 35 n. 8

Sollas, H. G. E., 32 n. 2Sollas, W. J., 75, 76 n. 1, 77 n. 1, 78 n. 1Sterns, F. H., 79 n. 2Strabo, 35 n. 7Stromer, E., 35 n. 7, 36 n. 10Suess, Edward, 3, 32 n. 2Suggate, R. P., 40 n. 12

Toussoun, 0., 35 n. 7Turner, R., 40 n. 12, 75, 78n. 1, 83n. 3,

88 n. 5, 137 n. 1

Uhden, R., 31 n. 2, 37 n. 10

Vallois, H., 77Vandier, J., 36 n. 8, 61, 74, 77 n. 1, 79 n. 2,

80 n. 3, 81 n. 3, 83 n. 4, 85 n. 4, 88 n. 5,90 n. 5, 125, 139 n. 1, 140 n. 2, 141 n. 3,142 n. 4, 143 n. 4, 145 n. 6

Vaufrey, R., 69, 84 n. 4, 87 n. 4, 89 n. 5

Vignard, Edmond, 34 n. 6, 46, 56, 59, 60-62, 66, 77 n. 1, 78n. 2,80 n.2, 80 n.3,81 n. 3,82 n. 3,84 n. 4,85 n. 4, 87 n. 4

Wasfy, H. M., 30 n. 1Washburn, S. L., 75Watson, D. M. S., 68Wiercinski, Andrej, 58, 82 n. 3Willett-Cunningham, C., 140 n. 3Willis, E. H., 40 n. 12Winkler, 73-74, 89 n. 5, 90 n. 5,100,102,

141 n. 3,148Winlock, H. E., 37 n. 10Woldstedt, P., 39 n. 12Wolf, W., 89 n. 5, 144 n. 5Woodward, A. S., 87 n. 4Wright, W. B., 33 n. 5, 75, 76 n. 1

Zeuner, F. E., 25-26, 35 n. 7, 39 n. 11,39 n. 12, 40 n. 12, 76 n. 1, 78 n. 2,80 n.3, 84 n.4, 138 n. 1

Zittel, K. A., 36 n. 10

oi.uchicago.edu

SUBJECT INDEX

The indexes to this volume were prepared by Miriam P. Arnett.

Abbassiya, 7, 11, 33 n. 5, 45, 50, 52, 56, 57,63, 76 n. 1, 79 n. 2, S0n. 3, 81-82n. 3

Abbevillian stage (derived from Abbeville,France), 21 43, 44, 45, 48, 49, 53-54,76 n. 1, 77 n. 1, 81 n. 3

Abu el-Agag, Wadi, 46, 56Abu Roash, Gebel, 1, 3, 5,10, 27, 31 n. 1, 45Abu Simbel, 14, 55Abu Suwair, 63, 64Abuqir, 11-14Abusir, 15Abyssinia, 2, 8-9, 21, 56Accessibility, 29Acheulian Man, Lower (Atlanthropus mau-

ritanicus, Ternifine, Algeria), 47, 53Acheulian stage (derived from St. Acheul,

Amiens, France), 19, 21, 31 n. 2, 49-54,.56, 78n. 2, 79n. 2, 80n. 2, 82n.3, 83 n. Micoquian (after Micoque,France)-final stage, 79 n. 2

Acheulio-Levalloisian stage, 7, 21, 52, 55,57, 79n. 2

Afu, Wadi, 52Aggradation, 6, 9, 12, 16-17, 22, 26-27,

34 n. 6, 50, 59, 93, 145n. 6; see alsoSilt levels

Agriculture, 91-93, 95, 103, 112, 122, 130,136, 138 n. 1, 139n. 1

pre- 69-70, 72stock-farming, 112, 122, 130

Ahmar, Gebel el-, 5, 10, 45, 50, 52, 56, 118,133

Akhdar, Gebel, 87Alexandria, 12-14, 58, 99, 126Alluvium, 9, 12, 13, 28, 45

alluvial plain, 9, 10, 13Amulets; see MagicAngabiya, Wadi, 71, 72Animals, domestication of, 92-93

cattle, 112, 122, 130dog, 70, 73, 112donkey, 130goat, 92, 112, 122, 130pig, 111-12, 122, 130sheep, 92, 112, 122, 130

Animals, wild ; see FaunaAnticline, 4, 18

Kharga Oaisis, 3

Araba, Wadi, 3Arable land, 13Arabs Gulf, 12, 25, 31 a. 1, 35 n. 7, 39 n. 2Archeozoic era, 1Arrowheads; see Bow and arrowArsinoe, 18Arsinoitherium, 3, 32 a. 2Art, 135; see also Drawings, rockAssemblages; see IndustriesAstronomical dating method, 39 n. 12Aswan, 5-6, 14-15, 20, 28, 30 n. 1, 35 n. 8,

46, 52, 56, 71, 86 n. 4, 88 n. 5Asyut, 2, 8, 20, 34 n. 6, 45, 51, 65, 68, 147Ataqa, Gebel, 3, 27, 122Atbara River, 6-9, 28, 31 a. 2, 45Aterian (derived from Bir el Ater, Tunisia);

see IndustriesAtiri, 15Atlantic phase (Climatic Optimum), 23Augite (indication of the Blue Nile), 6, 7,

33n. 5Aurignacian culture (blade culture), 59, 66,

68, 85n. 4Australopithecus, 78 n. 1Axehead, 108, 117, 120

copper, 127Axes; see Hand-axe

Bab el-Mandeb, 4Badarian; see Predynastic periodBahnasa, el-, 3Bahr el-Ghazal, 6Bahr Yusef, 17Bahria Oasis, 18, 20, 37 n. 10, 46, 56, 86 n.

4, 103Barley; see Grain, domestication ofBars, marine, 12-14, 25, 35 n. 7Basal silt; see Sebilian (basal) siltsBasins, 27; see also Alluvium; Kom Ombo;

LeveesBaskets; see StrawBatn el-Baqar, 14Batn el-Hagar ("Belly of Stones"), 15Beaches, lake, 8, 17, 25, 34 a. 6

river (see Shingle beaches)sea, 12

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Beads, 95-96, 100-101, 111, 128-29, 136Bedouin Microlithic industry; see Kharga

OasisBeni Mazar, 10"Black Hills," 3Blade industries, 66, 69, 70, 71, 72, 81 n. 3,

84 n. 4, 85 n. 4, 94, 97-100, 126, 132-33; see also Flake tools; Industries

Blue Nile, 6-9, 28, 31 n. 2, 45, 69Boats, 107, 125Bola, 48, 80 n. 2Borrowing, cultural, 52-53, 62, 64-65, 71,

73-74, 93-94, 103, 114-15,118-19, 122,125, 128, 135-36

Bow and arrow, 62, 65, 68, 73, 94, 98-101,108, 117

Bread, 119Burial practices, 58, 67, 69, 96, 104-5, 111-

14, 116, 119-21, 130-32, 146 n. 6cemeteries, 121-22, 131-33, 146 n. 6, 148stone superstructures, 131, 146 n. 6

Burin (graving tool), 68, 71; see also Hand-axe

micro- 70, 71Burullus, Lake, 13, 14Bushman skull, 87 n. 4

Cairo, 1-3, 7, 10, 12-13, 24, 27Cambridge, 99Camp sites, 59, 61, 70, 98Cannibalism, 69, 87 n. 4Capsian (derived from Roman Capsa in

Tunisia) blade culture, 64, 66, 70, 72,86 n. 4, 112, 114; see also Sebilianperiod; Aurignacian culture

Caravan routes, 20Carbon-14 method, 26, 40 n. 12, 58, 59,

84 n. 4, 87 n. 5, 92, 103-4, 108, 116,120, 139 n. 1,143 n. 4, 144 n. 5, 147

Carboniferous period, 31 n. 1Casablanca, Morocco, 43, 53Cataract, First, 1, 10, 15-16, 22, 34 n. 6,

35 n. 8, 36 n. 8beginning of, 28

Cataract, Second, 8, 15-16, 22, 52beginning of, 28

Caves, not used, 48, 68Cellars, storage, 124Cemeteries; see Burial practicesChad, 19, 53Chalcolithic stage, 23, 26-27, 34 n. 6, 92,

120; see also Predynastic periodNaqada I, 26, 102Naqada II, 26

Chalk, 18

Chalossian stage (derived from La Chalosse,France), 44, 45

Chellean stage (derived from Chelles,France), 31 n. 2, 45, 46, 76 n. 1

Man (Tanganyika), 47, 77Chello-Acheulian stage, 50Chert, 29, 44, 50, 65, 101Chipping floors, 98Chronology, 39n. 12, 61, 70, 103, 122,

144 n. 5; see also Astronomical dating;Carbon-14 method

absolute, 24-27, 29 n., 40 n. 12, 58-59,87 n. 5, 92, 103-4, 108, 144 n. 5, 147

correlations, 24-26, 59, 67, 81 n. 3, 102,129, 146 n. 6

City state, 135Civilization, 91, 116Clacto-Abbevillian stage, 45, 48, 76 n. 1Clactonian stage (derived from Clacton-

on-Sea in Essex, England)"block-on-block," 44, 51disuse, 55method of flake-tool production, 43, 46,

48-49, 76-77Clays, 1, 2Climatic changes, 6, 8, 14, 18, 20-24, 28,

30 n., 33 n. 5, 37-38 n. 11, 47, 56, 59,61-62, 79 n. 2, 93

Cloth, 95, 102, 118, 129cords and strings, 118, 130flax (linen), 95, 118-19spinning, 95, 99, 109, 128-29weaving, 95

Coastline (shoreline), Mediterranean, 11,13, 25, 31 n. 1, 35 n. 7

Combs, 111, 128absence of, 111

Composite tools; see Implements, stoneContinents, separation of, 4

land bridges, 41 n. 13Copper, 120, 122, 127, 147

absence of, 132implements, 129metallurgy, 128

Coral reefs, ancient, 4, 13Cores; see Flake tools; Hand-axesCretaceous period, 1, 18, 31 n. 1

Upper, 1, 14Cro-Magnon people, 67Crocodilopolis, 18Crustal movements, 1, 3-4, 18, 32 n. 2Cultural level, 54, 58-59, 60-61, 73, 83 n.

3, 91, 98, 115, 121-22, 136; see alsoRegional cultures

regression, 98survivals, 129

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Cyrenaica, 13, 27, 56-58, 65-67, 82 n. 3,86 n. 4, 88 n. 5, 92, 99

Dakhla Oasis, 18, 20, 37 n. 10, 65, 102Damietta, 13, 14Darb el Arbain ("Road of the Forty

Days"), 20Dating, geological; see also Chronology

abandoned, 7Degradation (erosion process), 15, 22, 25-

27, 34 n. 6, 59, 145 n. 6Deir el-Miharraq, 10Deirut, 2-3Delta, Nile, 2, 6, 8-14, 23-25, 56, 64, 69,

86 n. 4, 92classical times, 10"gates of," 14

Desert; see also Libyan desertArabian or Eastern, 24, 45, 52, 73, 148high, 5, 19, 21-23, 27, 57low, 5, 12, 32 n. 4, 103

Deshasha, Gebel, 10Digla, Wadi, 122, 132-34, 137, 144Diorites, 1, 16, 60Dog, domestication of, 70, 73, 102Dolerite, 3Domestication; see Animals; Grain, domes-

tication ofDrawings, rock, 68-69, 73, 87 n. 4, 101, 148Dunes, 10, 22Dynastic period

early (proto-historic), 122First Dynasty, 146 n. 6Twelfth, 15

Edku, Lake, 13-14Elephanite, island of, 15

Eocene epoch, 1-2, 4-5, 14, 18, 32 n. 4Lower (early), 1, 2Middle, 2, 4Upper (late), 2-3, 18, 32 n. 2

Eoliths (dawn-stones), 45, 75, 77Epi-Levalloisian stage, 8, 27, 56, 59, 60-64,

66, 68, 71-72, 83 n. 3, 86 n. 4Fayum (Qarounian), 63

Erosion, 1-2, 4-6, 10, 14, 16-18, 23, 38 n. 11deposits, 10, 105

Erosion, stages of Nile, 3, 6, 8, 14-16, 26,28, 33 n. 6, 34 n. 6, 35 n. 8; see alsoAggradation; Degradation

Esna, 1-2Estuarine zones, 2-3, 5, 7, 10

bones in, 3Eustatic controls, 6, 33 n. 5, 40 n. 12, 45

Extinct forms, 3, 11, 67; see also Arsinoi-therium

Farafra Oasis, 18, 20, 37 n. 10, 46, 56, 86 n.4, 103

Farmers; see AgricultureFaulting, geologic, 3, 11, 16, 31 n. 1, 32 n. 2Fauna, 3, 8, 11, 21-24, 29, 32 n. 2, 34 n. 6,

35 n. 7, 39 n. 12, 41 n. 13, 46, 54, 58,60, 67-69, 73, 80 n. 2, 86 n. 4, 93-95,101-2, 112, 119, 123, 129-30

Fayum, 2-3, 7-8, 12, 16-20, 22, 26, 32 n. 2,36 n. 9, 37 n. 10, 38 n. 11, 45, 49-50,56-59, 62, 64, 69-74, 79 n. 2, 88 n. 5,89n. 5, 92-93, 102-3, 105-6, 108,140 n. 2, 148

Fayum A culture, 93-98Fayum B culture, 98

Fayum, lake beach levels- 18-foot, 63- 7-foot, 9713-foot, 17, 9733-foot, 17, 9359-foot, 17, 93, 140 n. 274-foot, 8, 17, 25, 63, 140 n. 292-foot, 8, 17, 21, 25, 63112-foot, 17, 21, 25, 56, 63131-foot, 21, 25, 55, 81 n. 3144-foot, 11

Fences, 106, 117, 123Filling process, geologic, 5-6Fire, 58, 83 n. 3Fishing implements, 95; see also Imple-

ments, stonefish-hook, 110-11, 118fish-nets, 95, 111, 118fish-spears, 95fish-traps (basketry), 95harpoons, 95, 110scaling shells, 95, 111

Flails, for threshing grain, 94Flake tools, 43-45, 52, 54-56, 59, 63, 66,

94, 101, 117, 126-27, 132-33; see alsoClactonian stage; Industries (Leval-loisian)

faceted platform, 4flake-blades, 62, 64; see also Sebilian

period (Sebilian III); Kharga Oasisflake-point, 60; see also Sebilian period

(Sebilian II)pressure flaking, 65, 94, 99, 110

Flandrian Transgression; see Mediterra-nean periods

Flint, 44, 50, 61mines, 103; see also Quarries

Flood, annual; see Inundation, annual sum-mer

Flood plain; see Alluvium

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Flora, 27-29, 47, 69Folds, geologic, 3-4Food gatherers; see AgricultureFood production; see Agriculture

Gebelein, rock of, 33 n. 4, 148Geo-syncline, 4Geologic provinces (R. Said), 31 n. 1Gilf Kebir, 27Giza, Pyramids of, 45, 56Glacial phases, Alpine, 21-22, 24-26, 28,

38 n. 11, 43, 47, 49, 55, 57, 67, 70Gneisses, 1, 16Gorge, Nile, 3, 5, 14-16, 27; see also Gebel

SilsilaGovernment, 106, 115, 137Gradient, river, 12-13Grain, domestication of, 92, 93-94, 98, 100,

104-6, 119, 130, 143 n. 5barley, 92, 130club wheat, 119, 122storage, 124, 136wheat, 92, 104, 130

Granites, 1, 15-16, 30 n. 1Gravel levels, river, 7, 11, 12; levees, 9, 13Gravels, wadi; see TerracesGraves; see Burial practicesGravettians, 65Great Bitter Lake, 4Greco-Roman period, 13, 18Grinders; see Mills, grainGrinding (polishing), 94, 98, 108-9, 117, 128Gunaifa, Gebel, 4

Halfa, Wadi, 2, 14-15, 28, 45, 49, 60, 61, 68Hamitic (racial) type, 67, 114Hammamat, 147, 148Hammerstones; see Tool-making toolsHand-axe (fist-wedge, cleaver, coup-de-

poing, core-biface, Boucher, hache di-luvienne), 44-46, 50-53, 55, 57, 63-64,66, 79 n. 2, 94, 101

burin technique, 52, 60, 63disuse, 54kernel zone, 78 n. 1micro-burins, 62, 84 n. 4, 86 n. 4

Hawara Channel, 17, 56, 63, 93Hearth, 68, 93, 101-2, 104, 117, 122Heliopolis, 63, 133-34, 145 n. 6Hellenistic period, 9, 13Helwan, 3, 12, 32 n. 2, 59, 70-72, 88 n. 5

arrowhead, 71Herdsmen; see AgricultureHieraconpolis, 103, 135

Historic period, 27beginning, 40 n. 12

Hof, Gebel, 120Hof, Wadi, 116, 117, 120, 121Holocene, 21Homo sapiens, 67, 87 n. 4Houses, 104-5, 123

absence of, 101absence of brick, 146 n. 6mud, 92, 105subterranean, 123threshhold (entrance), 105wickerwork, 104, 117wood-frame, 104, 117, 123

Human occupation, earliest, 7, 8, 11, 16, 19,22, 24, 27, 29, 43, 46-49

Huts; see Houses

Ibero-Maurusian culture; see Oranian cul-ture

Ice Age; see Glacial phasesIdol; see ReligionIgneous rock, 1, 15, 30 n. 1Implements, stone, 7, 8, 12, 14, 19, 24-25,

33 n. 5, 34 n. 6, 43-46, 48, 69; see alsoClacto-Abbevillian stage; Flake tools;Hand-axe; Industries; "Rolled" stoneimplements; Sebilian period; Taya-cian stage

composite tools, 70, 72grinding (or polishing), 91

Indian Ocean, 4Industries, 43, 46, 53, 56

Aterian, 38 n. 11, 56, 62, 64-66, 70-7282 n. 3, 85 n. 4, 86 n. 4, 94, 97, 114,136

Aurignacian, 66, 85 n. 4Capsian, 66, 72, 85 n. 4Fauresmith, 82 n. 3Kafuan (pebble tool), 43, 76 n. 1Khargan, 64-65; see also Kharga OasisLevalloisian, 40 n. 12Levalloiso-Khargan, 64-65Microlithic, 59, 63-64, 66, 70-73, 84 n. 4,

94, 97-99Oldowan, 43, 53, 76 n. 1Oranian, 66-67, 70Qarounian (Fayyoumian), 97Sangoan (Tumbian), 82 n. 3Sirtician, 35 n. 4Stilbay and Proto-, 82 n. 3submicrolithic, 62Tardenoisian, 60, 84 n. 4

Interpluvials, 21-22, 24, 38 n. 11, 39 n. 12,57, 59

Intrusions; see Borrowing, culturalInundation, annual summer, 6, 8-10, 34,

35n. 6, 60

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Ironstone (ferricrete sandstone), 50Ismailiya, el-, 12Isohyp, 10-foot, 13Ivory, 110, 111, 146 n. 6

absence of, 96

Java Man (Pithecanthropus erect us), 47,77 n. 1

Jericho; see PalestineJewelry, 111, 119, 135-36

Kafuan industry; see IndustriesKalabsha Gorge, 15, 35 n. 8Karat el-Soda, 3Katharina, Gebel, 4Kena, Wadi, 51Kenya, 49, 54Kharga Oasis, 18-22, 32 n. 4, 34 n. 6, 37 n.

10, 38 n. 11, 50-56, 64-66, 72, 79 n. 2,80 n. 2, 80 n. 3, 82 n. 3, 83 n. 3, 85 n. 4,86 n. 4, 89 n. 5. 90n. 5,100-103

Bedouin Microlithic, , 73, 85 n. 4,100,102

Moundspring KO 5B, 66Moundspring KO 10, 80 n. 2Peasant Neolithic, 98, 100, 101-2

Khargan industry; see IndustriesKhartoum, 9-10, 31 n. 2, 45, 72, 88-89 n. 5Khatatba, el-, 11, 12Kitchen middens, 71Knives, 109, 117Kom Ombo plain (basin), 4-5, 8, 16, 27-28,

34 n. 6, 35 n. 8, 59-62, 67, 69, 71-72,84 n. 4, 86 n. 4

Korosko, 14Kukur Oasis, 37 n. 10

Lablab, Wadi, 45Lagoons, 13-14Lahun, Gebel, 17Lamps, 126Lasso, 73Leather, 96, 110, 118Lebanon, 13, 43Levalloisian stage (faceted platform), 7-8,

17, 21-22, 27, 33 n. 5, 52-60, 62-65, 69,72, 79 n. 2, 80 n. 2, 80 n. 3, 81 n. 3,82 n. 3, 83 n. 3, 84 n. 4, 86 n. 4; see alsoIndustries

diminutive, 71Khargan, 64

Levalloiso-Khargan stage; see IndustriesLevalloiso-Mousterian industries, 56-58,

60, 81 n. 3, 82 n. 3

Libyan desert, 2-3, 16, 38 n. 11, 45-46, 57,69-70; see also Plateau oases, 1, 5, 18-20, 31 n. 2, 34 n. 6, 62, 69, 73

Limestone, 1-5, 13, 16, 28, 32 n. 4Lower Egypt, 2, 6-8, 11, 25, 34 n. 6, 74Luxor, 2, 4, 8, 20, 86 n. 4

Mace, stone-headed, 109, 114, 127Magdalenian culture, 59, 68, 74Magic (ritual), 58, 73-74, 102, 112

amulets, 74, 96, 111, 115, 129, 131votive offerings, 107, 130

Mallawi, 7, 28, 45Manfalut, 2-3, 51Marine regression; see Mediterranean peri-

odsMaryut, Lake, 13Mason, stone-, 101Matting; see Straw, mattingMedinet el-Fayum, 18Mediterranean periods (sea levels), 3, 7,

9, 13-14, 28, 33 n. 5, 39 n. 12, 40 n. 12,51, 60, 93, 140 n. 2

Menzala, Lake, 13-14Merimda, 92-93, 99, 102-16Mesolithic, 27, 59, 62-63, 67, 70-72Mesozoic, Upper, layer of sandstone, 1Metal, 120

absence of, 96Metamorphic rock, 1, 4, 15, 30 n. 1, 35 n. 8Micoquian industry; see Acheulian stageMicro-burins; see Hand-axeMicrolithic industry; see IndustriesMiddle Egypt, 2-3, 6-8, 10-12, 17, 20, 22,

25, 28, 34 n. 6, 70Middle Kingdom, 15, 64, 74Milankovitch curves, 25, 39 n. 12Milazzian sea level; see Mediterranean

periodsMills, grain, 69, 94, 98, 100, 102-3, 118, 127Mines, flint; see QuarriesMinya, 11, 20Miocene epoch, 1, 3, 11, 16, 18, 31 n. 1

Middle, 31 n. 1Upper (late), 2, 3, 14

Missa Matruh, 14Miwev, Lake of, 18 (see also Fayum, lake

beach levels)Moeris, Lake of, 18 (see also Fayum, lake

beach levels)Moghara, 3, 11Monastirian sea level; see Mediterranean

periods

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Moqattam, Gebel, 45, 52, 131Moqattam Hills, 2-3, 27, 31 n. 1Mousterian stage (derived from Le Mous-

tier, France), 56-58, 60, 65, 79 n. 2,80 n. 2, 80 n. 3, 81 n. 3

abandoned term, 56discoidal nucleus, 81 n. 3

Mud houses; see Houses

Nag Hammadi, 4, 8, 46, 52, 54, 56, 66,77 n. 1, 85 n. 4

Naqada I and II; see Dynastic period;Chalcolithic stage

Natron (kind of soda), 20Natrun, Wadi el-, 11, 18-20, 35 n. 7, 37 n.

10, 50-51, 79 n. 3Natufian stage (Palestine), 71, 88 n. 5, 89 n.

5, 92, 97, 112-13; see also PalestineNeanderthaloids (derived from Neander

Valley, Germany), 57-59, 67, 82 n. 3Ehringsdorf, 82 n. 3Steinheim, 82 n. 3

Neolithic period (new Stone Age), 8-9, 12-13, 19, 22-23, 27, 34 n. 6, 39 n. 11, 63-64, 67, 91

Fayum, 26, 63pre-, 12, 17, 19, 34 n. 6

New Kingdom, 73New Stone Age; see Neolithic periodNile; see Blue Nile; Cataract, First; Cata-

ract, Second; Delta, Nile; Erosion,stages of Nile; Gorge, Nile; Inunda-tion, annual summer; Kalabsha Gorge;Nubian Nile; Terraces, Nile; WhiteNile

Nomadism, end of, 68Nubia, 2, 6, 8, 14-15, 19-20, 22, 33 n. 6, 45,

60, 74Nubian Nile, 1, 28, 36 n. 8, 55, 61Nubt (later Ombos), 148

Oases; see Libyan desertOld Kingdom, 9, 23, 64Old Stone Age; see Paleolithic periodOldowan; see IndustriesOlduvai Gorge, Tanganyika, 43, 47-48,

77 n. 1Oligocene epoch, 1-3, 11, 18, 20, 32 n. 2Omari, El, 71, 116-22

named for Amin el Omari, 116Oran, Algeria, 43Oranian culture (blade culture), 66, 70Orogenetic movements, 4

Palaeozoic era, 4Paleolithic period (Old Stone Age), 5, 7,

19, 20, 33 n. 5, 34 n. 6, 37 n. 11, 38 n. 11

Lower (early), 7, 14, 16, 19, 21, 26, 31 n.2, 59

Middle, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21-22,26-27

Upper (late), 8, 12,14-17, 22-23, 25-27,31 n. 2, 34 n. 6

Palestine, 13, 39 n. 11, 52, 56-57, 79-80 n.2, 82n.3, 85n.4, 86n.4, 92

Jericho (Tell el Sultan), 92, 111Palettes, 110, 127, 129, 146 n. 6Peasant Neolithic; see Kharga OasisPebble tool; see Industries, KafuanPekin Man (Sinanthropus pekinensis), 47,

53, 77n. 1Perigordian culture, 59Permanent settlements, 68

beginning of, 68Petrified Forests, 3, 32 n. 2Physical traits, 67, 113-14, 116, 120, 135Pig; see AnimalsPithoi; see PotteryPlateau; see Desert, highPlatforms, gravel; see Terraces, lateral

valleysPleistocene epoch, 4-5, 10, 12, 14, 21-22,

25-26, 31 n. 1, 31 n. 2, 33 n. 5, 35 n. 7,37 n. 11, 38 n. 11, 40 n. 12

Lower (early), 12, 27, 103Middle, 18, 21, 29Upper (late), 5-6,17, 21, 25, 26, 34 n. 6

Plio-Pleistocene formations, 5, 7, 11-12, 14,19, 21, 25, 26, 33 n. 5

Pliocene epoch, 5-6, 11, 14, 16, 26, 28, 32 n.4, 33 n. 5, 35 n. 7, 38 n. 11

Lower (early), 3, 14, 26Middle, 5, 20, 26Upper (late), 4-5, 14, 16, 20, 26

Plutonic formations, 4Pluvials, 21-24, 38 n. 11, 39 n. 12, 47, 49,

50, 57, 82 n. 3, 89 n. 5, 93, 102, 140 n. 2Polished tools; see GrindingPontic Pluvial period, 3Population statistics, 72-73, 89 n. 5, 98Pottery, 69, 71-72, 92-93, 96, 100, 104-6,

116, 118,121,124-26, 129, 132, 134-35,146 n. 6, 147

kiln, 124Predynastic period, 23, 98-99, 147

Amratian, 73, 128Badarian, 66-67, 94, 147Gerzean, 128Naqada I and II, 26, 92, 100, 102, 109,

120, 122, 125-26, 128, 131, 142 n. 4,143 n. 4, 146 n. 6, 147

Tasian, 147

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Profiles; see Soil profilesProterozoic era, 1Pyramids; see Giza, pyramids of

Qallala hills, 3, 27Qarounian; see Epi-Levalloisian (Fayum)Qattara Depression, 19Qau, 8, 34 n. 6, 67-68, 86 n. 4, 87 n. 4Qena, 3-4, 33 n. 5, 51, 87 n. 4Quarries, 101, 103, 109Quartzes, 1, 44, 50, 60Quaternary period, 1, 38 n. 11Querns; see Mills, grain

Rabat Man, 47Racial types; see Physical traitsRadiocarbon method; see Carbon-14 meth-

odRahana, Wadi, 121Rainfall, heavy, 2, 3, 5, 7, 20-22, 28, 41 n.

13, 66, 70, 104Rattles; see ReligionReefs; see Coral reefs, ancientRefuf Pass, 55Regional cultures, 70, 72Regression; see Cultural levelReligion, 115, 130, 133

cult instruments, 107, 115, 126idol, 107, 114

Rhodesia, 77 n. 1Broken Hill skull, 82 n. 3Steinheim skull, 82 n. 3

Rift, geologic, 4, 32 n. 2Ritual; see MagicRock drawings, 68-69, 73, 87 n. 4, 101,148"Rolled" (travel-worn) stone implements,

7, 45Rosetta, 13-14, 103Rus Channel, 7, 45, 51, 76 n. 1

Sabchet el-Bardawil (Lake Sirbonis), 13Safaga, 4Sahara desert, 39 n. 12, 40 n. 12Said, Port, 13, 32 n. 2Samalut, 2, 20, 68Sand; see ErosionSandstone, 1-3, 6, 14-16, 19, 28Saqqara, 7, 45Saws, 109, 117Schists, 1, 16Sea levels; see Mediterranean periodsSebaiya, el-, 1, 14, 16

Sebilian period (derived from Ezbet-el-Sebilin Kom Ombo basin), 33 n. 6, 59, 63,64, 66, 70-71, 83 n. 4, 84 n. 4, 86 n. 4,89 n. 5

Capsian, 64, 66, 85 n. 4, 100Lower (Sebilian I), 31 n. 2, 59, 60-61, 63,

68Middle (Sebilian II), 60-61, 65, 68, 89

n. 5Upper (Sebilian III), 61-62, 68, 72, 87 n.

4, 89 n. 5Sebilian (basal) silts, 8, 10, 67Sedment, Gebel, 17Semna, 15, 35 n. 8Settlements, 91Shales, 1-2, 16Shargandi, island of, 15Shayeb, Gebel el-, 4Shedet, 18Sheikh, Wadi el-, 90, 101, 103Shellal (modern dam), 15, 34 n. 6Shingle beaches (Nile), 8, 28Sicilian sea level; see Mediterranean periodsSickles, wooden, 62, 94, 98, 101, 108, 117

stone-edged, 69, 70, 71Sill, granite, 15Silsila, Gebel el-, 3,16, 28, 35 n. 8, 52, 56Silt levels, 8-10, 12-13, 16, 22, 33 n. 6, 34 n.

6; see also Sebilian (basal) silts; Allu-vium rate of deposit, 9

Sinai, 4, 13, 27, 31 n. 1, 64, 129Sites, 51

camp, 59, 61, 70, 98chipping, 98flaking, 51-52, 55-57, 59, 61, 81 n. 3, 82,

84n. 4Siwa Oasis, 18-20, 46, 56, 65, 72, 88 n. 5,

99-103Slings, 109, 114Sobat, 6Social organization, Paleolithic, 49Soil profiles, 7, 22, 33 n. 5Solutrean culture, 59, 65Spindle whorl; see Cloth (spinning)Springs, natural, 19

"fossil springs," 19Spurs, 13, 15Stations, 46, 70; see also SitesSteppe conditions, 7, 21-22, 27Stock-farming; see AgricultureStone Age- see Neolithic period; Paleolithic

periodStone tools; see Implements, stoneStratigraphy, 38 n. 11

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Straw, matting, 93, 105, 113, 117baskets, 94, 96, 101, 105

Sub-pluvial; see PluvialsSubmicrolithic industry; see Industries

Sudan, 14, 15, 19-20, 31 n. 2, 34 n. 6, 50,52-53, 57

Sudd, East African, 2Suez, Gulf of, 3-4, 27, 31 n. 1Suez, Isthmus of, 11, 36 n. 4Sugar cane, 119Sulphurous springs, 3Syria, 79-80 n. 2

Tableland, Egyptian, elevation of, 1-3Tana, Lake, 31 n. 2Tanganyika, 49, 77 n. 1; see also Olduvai

Gorge, TanganyikaTardenoisian industry; see IndustriesTayacian stage, 47Tectonic formation, 4, 18, 32 n. 2Terraces, 6, 17, 28, 45, 55

high level, 12Upper Egypt survivals, 6-7

Terraces, Nile, 6, 24-26, 28, 33 n. 5, 39 n. 12,40 n. 12, 47

eustatically controlled (Middle and Low-er Egypt), 6

pluvial (Upper Egypt), 6, 1410-foot, 7, 14, 21-22, 25, 5515-foot, 1225-foot, 8, 17, 21, 2530-foot, 7, 12, 14, 21-22, 25, 50, 78 n. 2,

79n. 250-foot, 7, 14, 17, 21, 25, 39 n. 12, 50-51,

55, 78 n. 2, 81 n. 3100-foot (Lower Egypt-Delta), 11, 16, 21,

25, 50100-foot (Middle & Lower Egypt-later),

7100-foot (Upper Egypt), 6, 7, 14, 43-45,

50150-foot, 7, 14, 28, 45, 49, 78 n. 1250-foot, 7,14, 25. 28255-foot, 28300-foot, 7, 14, 28320-foot, 25, 28

"Terre v6getale, la," 9, 11Tertiary period, 1-2, 4, 10, 18, 20, 30 n. 1,

31 n. 1, 32 n. 2Thebaid, 3, 27

Threshhold; see HousesTih, Wadi el-, 45, 56, 122, 131, 132, 134Tool-making tools, 68, 109, 117-18, 127Tools, composite, 70; see also Implements,

stoneTowns, 135Trade, 95, 100, 116, 118, 121, 124, 129, 136

beginnings, 69shells, personal adornment, 95-96

Tributaries, 3, 5-6, 9, 14, 16, 27-28, 45, 48Tufa, Wadi, 19Tufa Plateau, 19, 27, 38 n. 11Tumilat, Wadi, 8, 11-12, 63Tura

Gebel, 116Wadi, 122

Turtlebacks, 12Tyrrhennian sea level; see

periodsMediterranean

Uganda, 49Upper Egypt, 1, 6-8, 10-12, 14, 20, 22-23,

25, 27-28, 33 n. 6, 70, 72, 74Urban tradition; see City stateUrnil, 2, 18, 31 n. 2, 32 n. 2, 37 n. 10

author usage, 32 n. 2Blanckenhorn theory, 31 n. 2

Uweinat, Gebel, 27, 46, 52

Valleys, 4-5, 28Pontic, 5

Vases, stone, 110, 118, 124,146n. 6

Vaulting, geologic, 4Vegetation, 27-29, 47, 69Victoria, Lake, 31 n. 2Villages, 103, 121Volcanic activity, 3Votive vessels; see Magic

126, 132, 135,

Wells, 101Wheat; see Grain, domestication ofWhite Nile, 9, 31 n. 2, 45, 52Whorls, spinning; see ClothWinds, 24Wooden objects, 128

Zagazig, 11

INDEX160

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