The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-26
EARLY EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION.
1t Dates Back at Least Seven Thou
sand Years.
Nature.

Nature.
At the last meeting of the British Asso-
citation for the Advancement of Science,
Professor Flinders Petrie gave a mmar
of the principal discoveries during the last
five years that had revealed the rise OF
Egyptian civilization. Various excavations
at Koptos, Naquada, Abydos and Hieracon-
polls had discovered remains belonging to
the ages before 1900 b. c., which had hith-
erto been the starting point of known his
Beginning with the Libyan stock. with
some Negro mixture, which occupied Egypt
in it's earliest civilization, he showed some
of the objects he had found at Naquada.
These were at first temporarily assigned to
a new race; but now they could be safely
assigned to the p~redynastic stock about 5000
B. c., and even earlier. In the graves OF
this aboriginal race were found bowls or
black clay with patterns imprinted upon
them. In each of the countries where this
type had been found II was contemporary
innate date of this was 5000 b. C.-and that
accorded very well with the time necessary
for arriving at the high culture attained by
1900 B. c. Therefore these discoveries were
of great value in giving the relative state
Of Egyptian civilization to that OF the rest
of the world at the introduction of dynastic
There was a wide difference between the
people of 5000 B. G. and those of 1000 b. c.,
period and modern times. This showed that
a different race entered the country about
that period.
e. e., the presumed tomb Of King Mena, the
founder Of dynastic history, of about the
date of 400 Is. c, then the remains of other
royal tombs found at Abydos belonging to
the first three dynasties. The gradual de-
cay of flint working between 400 b. e. and
1900 b.. c., as metals came into use and
copper was gradually hardened into bronze,
had no parallel in the world.
Professor Petrie showed diagrams and I'M
pressions of cylindrical seals as used by the
kings of the first three dynasties; also II
vase exhibiting the earliest representation
Of Egyptian mythology, and other vases,
tablets and states showing animals and
birds. These finds were very important, as
they showed the rise Of the art of model
ing and of the Egyptian ideas and appre-
citation of the forms of animals and OF the
human body and proved that Egyptian arr
reached its high-water mark somewhere be-
fore 1000 B.. c.
Other finds showed the kings I'm triumph
over their enemies receiving captive kings,
opening the public works or retaining the
marshes. The handled copper vessels
showed the most advanced metal work
found Of the first three dynasties. The pop
ulation of the predynastic age was different
in the early monuments the presence of di-
verse types was very clear. We had at last
before us evidence of the close of the period
previously considered prehistoric, showing
the development Of the &rt, writing and civ
i~lization of Egypr and the composition OF a
race which had since ms intained its char
acter during 5000 years. Egypt was then an
originator in the arts AMI not a borrower,
but ever since then most OF the nations of
originators. Here we were studying the his
tory of a country not borrowing but devei-
oping a vast n complex civilization on its
own resources.