The record-union., 1895-06-22
DISCOVERY OF A new RACE.
Remains of a Strange Prehistoric
People.
They We're CannibaIs, and Yet We're
Very SkillfuI Artists and
Mechanics.

the surprising discovery that has just
been made by band of European scient-
lists who have been exploring and exca-
waiting in the southern part of that an
cient country. OF what type or section
OF the human family this race was a part
has not yet been settled, but this much at
least Is certain, that the people must have
been essentially non-Egyptian, for their
pottery, their statuettes, their mode of
burial, their beads, and even themselves,
as can be plainly deduced, were COM
pleEely different. The honors of this dis
coyery, the particulars of which have only
just come to London are Que to two gentle
men of that recently established English
institution known as the Egyptian Re-
search Account Mr.. Quibell and w.
NJ. Flinders Petrie, who have been con-
stantly IN Africa for six months past.
They have not only explored and eX-
humed, but they have summarized their
data and made careful deductions, so that
the value OF the discovery is already ap-
parent. BY careful study OF dates and
other comparisons they have proved,
fairly cOnclusively, that this new-or old
race-lived and had power between the
seventh and ninth dynastieS of Royal
Egypt or about 1000 &. c.
over 1000 graves have been opened
and hundreds of skulls and skeletons
have been collected, and with great mass
OF implements and relics made ready for
shipment TO England. y ct in all these
tombs and excavations there has not been
found single article that bore the marks
of Egyptian CIVILIZATION In the slightest
degree, or solitary mummy.
That these people Were not merely a
local variety or even provincial division
OF the Egyptians Is certain from the fact
that romans OF them we're found over
stretch Of more than hundred miles OF
country, from Abydos to Gebelen. Side
by side with the novel relics and strange
bodies nave been found Egyptian tOmbs,
Egyptian pottery and ruins of Egyptian
towns of the fourth. twelfth. eighteenth
and nineteenth dynasties of Egypt
As the explorers have recorded in
the memorial they have presented,
The strata of Egyptian civil
ization was therefore uniform over
the whole country" This newly dis
covered race must have been tribe of
invaders settling in this section of South
ern Egypt between the days of the SOW
enth and ninth dynasties.
NOT THE ORIGINAL NEGROES.
The carvings and the bodies that have
pie must have been a fierce and powerful
folk, with strong features, hooked noses.
long, pointed boards and brown, wavy
hair. Setting point that might other
wise be disputed, they show no trace
whatsoever OF the negro type. In general
contour OF features and form they have
a strange resem blauce to the Libyan
and AmOrite races, and the strong prob
ability is that they came on troin the
auf hxT nf NM nd
great oases. This fact is strengthened
by the historic certainty that during the
seventh and eighth Egyptian dynasties
the seat of Egypt was Memphis, and no
people had thrust themselves up the Nile
Valley.
Curious characteristics of the unknown
race are made known from the detail and
arrangement OF the tOmbs that have been
examined. In type these graves resem-
BILE those in the circle at Mycenae. They
are square open pits, rooted with beams
of wood. Always by preference in shoals
of water courses. they show that this race
came from rocky country, where exoa-
vation was impossible, except IN allu-
Yium.
The bodies in the tombs have a great
development in legs, this pointing to the
former stronghold of these people having
been a hill country and not coast re-
gion. Forked hunting lances predomi-
nate among the instruments that time
has Left, proving their habit OF chasing
the gaZelle.
THEY WERE CANNTBALs.
In the graves the bodies lay contracted
and not mummiled, always with the
head to the south and the face to the
west. The evidence Is not lacking that
the bodies were generally mutIlated be-
fore they were buried, and yet moro
startling characteristic is conveyed from
the fact that seems to be proven that these
people were anthropophagists, that is,
cannibals.
In one large and important tomb four
skulls were found placed between stone
vases on the floor, separate heap of
loose bones of several bodies together,
and but a little distance away bones
broken open at the ends and scooped out.
All of these were distinctively human
bones. 1t does not need an expert in eth
nology to judge this to be cannibalism
pure and simple.
Commercially speaking, these un-
knowns must have been of importance, for
even when set side by side in comparison
with the Egyptians their workmanship
shows forth as little short of remarkable.
With both metals and flint they were ex-
perts. In flint especially they must have
been possessed of wonderful skill, for
mint arLlcIeS nave been IOund magnln-
Gently worked, far more exquisitely and
with a greater degree of elaboration than
that employed by the Egyptians in any
age. There are in the Ashmolean and
Pitt-Rivers Museums at Oxford splendid
examples of tine workmanship that have
been believed for years to be Egyptian.
1t is now absolutely proved, the dis
coverers say, that these were products of
this unknown race.
SPECIMENS OF THEIR WORK.
Copper needles found in the to mbs In
dicate the use of garments that We're
sewed, and scores OF spindle wheels dis
covered in one OF the excavated towns
prove beyond question that weaving
must have been common pursuit among
the women Of this people. Copper adzes
show that carving was a trade IN vogue,
and a couch has been found in illustra-
ton of this art with finely carved bulbs
legs.
These people were q nation of hand
workers, for while vases of stone and
other materials have been found i n great
abundance, none of them shows the
slightest sign of the turning-wheel or the
lathe This fact in itself is sufficient 10
distinguish completely the unknown race
from the Egyptian, among whom the
wheel was well known. All the work.
manship thus far discovered however, is
exquisite. The vases especially are beau
nd Iii ind n 1ofa