History of Egypt | Page 4

like those found in the
gravel-beds of England and Belgium, on the desert surface where they

were made. Undoubtedly where they were made, for the places where
they lie are the actual ancient flint workshops, where the flints were
chipped. Everywhere around are innumerable flint chips and perfect
weapons, burnt black and patinated by ages of sunlight. We are taking
one particular spot in the hills of Western Thebes as an example, but
there are plenty of others, such as the Wadi esh-Shêkh on the right bank
of the Nile opposite Maghagha, whence Mr. H. Seton-Karr has brought
back specimens of flint tools of all ages from the Palaeolithic to the
Neolithic periods.
The Palæolithic flint workshops on the Theban hills have been visited
of late years by Mr. Seton-Karr, by Prof. Schweinfurth, Mr. Allen
Sturge, and Dr. Blanckenhorn, by Mr. Portch, Mr. Ayrton, and Mr. Hall.
The weapons illustrated here were found by Messrs. Hall and Ayrton,
and are now preserved in the British Museum. Among these flints
shown we notice two fine specimens of the pear-shaped type of St.
Acheul, with curious adze-shaped implements of primitive type to left
and right. Below, to the right, is a very primitive instrument of
Chellean type, being merely a sharpened pebble. Above, to left and
right, are two specimens of the curious half-moon-shaped instruments
which are characteristic of the Theban flint field and are hardly known
elsewhere. All have the beautiful brown patina, which only ages of
sunburn can give. The "poignard" type to the left, at the bottom of the
plate, is broken off short.
[Illustration: 008.jpg Palaeolithic Implements of the Quaternary Period.
From the desert plateau and slopes west of Thebes.]
In the smaller illustration we see some remarkable types: two scrapers
or knives with strongly marked "bulb of percussion" (the spot where
the flint-knapper struck and from which the flakes flew off), a very
regular coup-de-poing which looks almost like a large arrowhead, and
on the right a much weathered and patinated scraper which must be of
immemorial age.
[Illustration: 009.jpg (right): PALAEOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS. From
Man, March, 1905.]

This came from the top plateau, not from the slopes (or subsidiary
plateaus at the head of the wadis), as did the great St. Acheulian
weapons. The circular object is very remarkable: it is the half of the
ring of a "morpholith "(a round flinty accretion often found in the
Theban limestone) which has been split, and the split (flat) side
carefully bevelled. Several of these interesting objects have been found
in conjunction with Palæolithic implements at Thebes. No doubt the
flints lie on the actual surface where they were made. No later water
action has swept them away and covered them with gravel, no later
human habitation has hidden them with successive deposits of soil, no
gradual deposit of dust and rubbish has buried them deep. They lie as
they were left in the far-away Palæolithic Age, and they have lain there
till taken away by the modern explorer.
But this is not the case with all the Palæolithic flints of Thebes. In the
year 1882 Maj.-Gen. Pitt-Rivers discovered Palæolithic flints in the
deposit of diluvial detritus which lies between the cultivation and the
mountains on the west bank of the Nile opposite Luxor. Many of these
are of the same type as those found on the surface of the mountain
plateau which lies at the head of the great wadi of the Tombs of the
Kings, while the diluvial deposit is at its mouth. The stuff of which the
detritus is composed evidently came originally from the high plateau,
and was washed down, with the flints, in ancient times.
This is quite conceivable, but how is it that the flints left behind on the
plateau remain on the original ancient surface? How is it conceivable
that if (on the old theory) these plateaus were in Palæolithic days
clothed with forest, the Palæolithic flints could even in a single instance
remain undisturbed from Palæolithic times to the present day, when the
forest in which they were made and the forest soil on which they
reposed have entirely disappeared? If there were woods and forests On
the heights, it would seem impossible that we should find, as we do,
Palæolithic implements lying in situ on the desert surface, around the
actual manufactories where they were made. Yet if the constant rainfall
and the vegetation of the Libyan desert area in Palæolithic days is all a
myth (as it most probably is), how came the embedded palaeoliths,
found by Gen. Pitt-Rivers, in the bed of diluvial detritus which is

apparently débris from the plateau brought down by the Palæolithic
wadi streams?
Water erosion has certainly formed the Theban wadis. But this water
erosion was probably not that which would be the result of perennial