Stone Age in Egypt
Earlier than the Nile deposits there must have been some rainfall, enough to keep up the volume of the river, and to prevent its slackening, so as to deposit its burden. We must picture, then, the country as having enough rainfall for a scanty vegetation in the valleys, while the Nile flowed down a mighty stream, filling the whole bed as it now does in flood, and bearing its mud out to the sea, except in some backwaters which were shoaling up. Such a land would support a small population of hunters, who followed the desert game and snared hippopotami in the marshes. The Nile had been in course of recession for a long period before it began to rise again by filling its bed. The gravels high above the present Nile contain flints flaked by human work; much as in Sinai such flakes are found, deep in the filling of the valleys which belong to a pluvial period. Yet after the Nile had retreated down to the present level, man appears to have been still in the Palæolithic stage, as freshly flaked, unrolled flints have been found at the lowest surface level of the desert. As the country, while drying up, and before mud deposits were laid down, would have only been suited for occupation by hunters, it seems probable that Palæolithic Man had continued in Egypt until the beginning of the Nile deposits—that is to say, till the beginning of the continuous civilisation as discovered in the cemeteries.
BUSHMAN TYPE. On turning to the remains of the earliest burials, we find that in many cases female figures of the Bushman—or more precisely Koranna—type, were placed in the graves; while at the same time long, slender figures of the European type are also found. The inference is that the Palæolithic race of the Koranna type was known to the earliest civilised race in Egypt, and that they were being expelled and exterminated, as only female figures are found—representing captive slave women—and even these soon disappear. Thus it would seem that Egypt, as an almost desert region, before the formation of the cultivable mud flats, was the last home on the Mediterranean of the hunters who continued in the Palæolithic stage. The physical type of the figures which we can attribute to this earliest population has the Bushman characteristics of fatness of the thighs and hips, with a deep lumbar curve; and a line of whisker covers the jaws of the female figures, akin to the fur on the bodies of women on the Brassempouy and Laugerie-Basse ivory carvings. This indicates that they belonged to a cold climate, and had not been developed in Egypt. As, however, man had certainly dwelt in the Nile valley for long ages, this northern indication points to a comparatively recent invasion from a colder to a warmer climate, such as has been the rule throughout historical times.
Time Without Dates
PREHISTORIC PERIOD. The beginning of the continuous civilisation of the country must be placed at about 8000 B.C. The written history extends back to the first dynasty, and places that at 5500 B.C., and this is checked at the sixth, twelfth, and eighteenth dynasties by records of the rising of Sirius, and of the seasons in the shifting year, which agree to this dating in general. For the length of the prehistoric age before these written records there is no exact dating. But, as in a given district of Egypt, where all the desert has been searched, the prehistoric graves are about as numerous as those made during the six thousand years of the historic time, at least 2,000 or 3,000 years must be allowed. The amount of change in every kind of production during this age is considerable; and as we can trace two cycles of civilisation, which usually occupy about 1,500 years each in the later times, it is likely that 2,500 years is too little rather than too long a period. As no definite scale of years can be used, the dating of the graves of this age is treated as a matter of sequence. From a careful statistical classing of the pottery, it is practicable to put about a thousand of the fullest graves into their original order; this series is then divided into 50 equal parts, and these are numbered from 30 to 80. Thus, sequence date 30 is the earliest type of graves yet found, and S.D. 80 is of the age of Mena, the founder of the first dynasty. The sequence dates are given below for each stage of the prehistoric times.
THE FIRST INHABITANTS OF EGYPT
As female figures of the Bushman type are found in the very earliest Egyptian graves, it is thought that this race was native to the country and was gradually expelled by the first civilised people. The photograph illustrates one of the figures taken from a grave.
EARLIEST BURIALS. The earliest graves found are shallow circular hollows on the desert, about 30 in. across, and a foot deep. The body lies closely doubled up, wrapped in goat-skins. There are very few objects placed with these burials; a single cup of pottery, red, with black top; rarely, a slate palette for grinding face-paint; and, in one grave, a copper pin to fasten the goat-skin. Pottery was in a simple stage, and weaving was quite unknown. These graves are classed as sequence date 30.