Predynastic Research Articles

Palaeolithic Vessels of Egypt, or the Earliest Handiwork of Man

IN this pamphlet of some twenty-two pages and thirteen plates, Mr. de Rustafjaell advances a new theory as to the origin of pottery. He directs attention to certain flint nodules with hollow cavities which he found in the Western Desert of Egypt, and suggests that they were used by primitive man as water-holders, that these hollow flint “nodules were copied during the Palæolithic age in limestone, from which again evolved other stone, and finally the clay vessels of the predynastic period”(p. 21). This is a theory which will have few, if any, adherents, and the author seems to be unaware that the lines on the earliest examples of pottery abundantly show its evolution from basket-work (by way of a burnt clay lining), and not from any form of rigid material. The forms of early stone vessels clearly show that they were copied from pottery types.

The Archæological Survey of Nubia

THE objects of the archæological survey of Nubia which has been undertaken by the Government of Egypt are, first, to ascertain the extent and value of the historical material buried under the soil; secondly, to make this material available for the reconstruction of the early history of that country and of its relations with the Nile valley. There is reason to believe that in the pre-dynastic period Lower Nubia formed with Egypt a single region of culture, and possibly a single ethnological district. Later on the northern lands developed more rapidly, and Nubia failed to keep pace with Egypt. At any rate, when the Egyptians pushed southwards under the twelfth dynasty, some of the products of Nubian civilisation are found closely to resemble, in technique and material, products of the pre-dynastic age common to both countries. The present survey aims at reconstructing the culture development of some fifteen centuries of Nubian civilisation which at present are a blank.

29. A Pre-Dynastic Pot-Kiln Recently Discovered at Mahasna, in Egypt.

29. A Pre-Dynastic Pot-Kiln Recently Discovered at Mahasna, in Egypt.