History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery | Page 8

the term, so far as its close has as yet been ascertained. It is
probable that "sequence-date 80" more or less accurately marks the
beginning of the dynastic or historical period.
This hypothetically chronological classification is, as has been said,
due to Prof. Petrie, and has been adopted by Mr. Randall-Maclver and
other students of prehistoric Egypt in their work. [*El Amra and
Abydos, Egypt Exploration Fund, 1902.] To Prof. Petrie then is due the
credit of systematizing the study of Egyptian prehistoric antiquities; but
the further credit of having discovered these antiquities themselves and
settled their date belongs not to him but to the distinguished French
archæologist, M. J. de Morgan, who was for several years director of
the museum at Giza, and is now chief of the French archæological
delegation in Persia, which has made of late years so many important
discoveries. The proof of the prehistoric date of this class of antiquities
was given, not by Prof. Petrie after his excavations at Dendera in
1897-8, but by M. de Morgan in his volume, _Recherches sur les
Origines de l'Égypte: l'Âge de la Pierre et les Métaux_, published in
1895-6. In this book the true chronological position of the prehistoric
antiquities was pointed out, and the existence of an Egyptian Stone Age
finally decided. M. de Morgan's work was based on careful study of the
results of excavations carried on for several years by the Egyptian
government in various parts of Egypt, in the course of which a large
number of cemeteries of the primitive type had been discovered. It was
soon evident to M. de Morgan that these primitive graves, with their
unusual pottery and flint implements, could be nothing less than the
tombs of the prehistoric Egyptians, the Egyptians of the Stone Age.

Objects of the prehistoric period had been known to the museums for
many years previously, but owing to the uncertainty of their
provenance and the absence of knowledge of the existence of the
primitive cemeteries, no scientific conclusions had been arrived at with
regard to them; and it was not till the publication of M. de Morgan's
book that they were recognized and classified as prehistoric. The
necropoles investigated by M. de Morgan and his assistants extended
from Kawâmil in the north, about twenty miles north of Abydos, to
Edfu in the south. The chief cemeteries between these two points were
those of Bât Allam, Saghel el-Baglieh, el-'Amra, Nakâda, Tûkh, and
Gebelên. All the burials were of simple type, analogous to those of the
Neolithic races in the rest of the world. In a shallow, oval grave,
excavated often but a few inches below the surface of the soil, lay the
body, cramped up with the knees to the chin, sometimes in a rough box
of pottery, more often with only a mat to cover it. Ready to the hand of
the dead man were his flint weapons and tools, and the usual red and
black, or buff and red, pots lay beside him; originally, no doubt, they
had been filled with the funeral meats, to sustain the ghost in the next
world. Occasionally a simple copper weapon was found. With the body
were also buried slate palettes for grinding the green eye-paint which
the Egyptians loved even at this early period. These are often carved to
suggest the forms of animals, such as birds, bats, tortoises, goats, etc.;
on others are fantastic creatures with two heads. Combs of bone, too,
are found, ornamented in a similar way with birds' or goats' heads,
often double. And most interesting of all are the small bone and ivory
figures of men and women which are also found. These usually have
little blue beads for eyes, and are of the quaintest and naivest
appearance conceivable. Here we have an elderly man with a long
pointed beard, there two women with inane smiles upon their
countenances, here another woman, of better work this time, with a
child slung across her shoulder. This figure, which is in the British
Museum, must be very late, as prehistoric Egyptian antiquities go. It is
almost as good in style as the early Ist Dynasty objects. Such were the
objects which the simple piety of the early Egyptian prompted him to
bury with the bodies of his dead, in order that they might find solace
and contentment in the other world.

All the prehistoric cemeteries are of this type, with the graves pressed
closely together, so that they often impinge upon one another. The
nearness of the graves to the surface is due to the exposed positions, at
the entrances to wadis, in which the primitive cemeteries are usually
found. The result is that they are always swept by the winds, which
prevent the desert sand from accumulating over them, and so have
preserved