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new race to the age of the VIIth to the IXth dynasty (about 3000 B.C.), who ruled only in Middle Egypt, and of whom no trace has been yet found, except a few small objects and a tomb at Siut. The extent to which Egypt was subdued by these people is indicated by their remains being found between Gebelen and Abydos, over rather more than a hundred miles of the Nile valley ...... The invaders completely expelled the Egyptians." Their graves were square pits, measuring usually 6 x 4 x 5 feet. "The body was invariably laid in a contracted position, with the head to the south, face west, and on the left side. . . . . A regular ceremonial system is observable...... From the uniformity of the details it is clear that a system of belief was in full force.' "'*

In March, 1897, M. de Morgan decided to excavate the predynastic cemeteries of Upper Egypt, and began to work at Nakada near the site of Prof. Petrie's labours two years before; two cemeteries were chosen for examination, the one, to the south, belonging to the indigenous peoples of Egypt, and the other, to the north, containing burials of ancient Egyptians. After a short time he discovered to the north of the northern necropolis, the remains of a monument, built of unbaked bricks, which had been destroyed by fire. From the fact that all the jars and objects which had been placed in the building were broken, it was clear that he had come upon a tomb belonging to an extremely ancient period; in the tombs. of the neolithic period the vessels, etc., are found whole. The building contained 21 chambers, and was undoubtedly a royal tomb, judging from the abundance of the offerings which had been placed in them; it was rectangular in shape, and measured 54 metres by 27 metres, and its main sides were oriented at an angle of 15° E. of the magnetic north.

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Quoted from Petrie, Catalogue of a Collection of Egyptian Antiquities, London, 1895.

Close by this tomb was another, which had been wrecked and spoiled in modern times. Among the objects found in the chambers of the larger monument were fragments of vases and vessels made of various kinds of hard stone, alabaster, etc., flint knives, ivory vases and plaques, terra-cotta vases and vessels, etc., many of which were inscribed. The large mud sealings of the wine jars bore impressions of inscribed seals, and these proved beyond a doubt that the building wherein they were found was a royal one. An examination of the tombs of less importance close by led to conclusions of a far-reaching and important character. M. de Morgan was accompanied in his work by the eminent German Egyptologist, Prof. A. Wiedemann, and by M. Jéquier, and he thus had the benefit of trained, expert opinion on philological problems, which his own profession of mathematician and civil engineer had left him no time to study exhaustively.

Briefly, the conclusions arrived at after an examination of a large number of tombs of the same class as those excavated by Prof. Petrie were as follows :—(1) The people to whom the tombs belong occupied not a small portion of, but the whole valley of the Nile. (2) Their manners, customs, industries, and abilities were different from those of the Egyptians, and physically the two peoples had nothing in common. (3) The people called the "new race" by Prof. Petrie were the inhabitants of Egypt long before those whom we call Egyptians; and it was from them that the Egyptians of dynastic times learned many of their industries, etc.; in other words, the Egyptians borrowed a great deal from these their predecessors in the valley of the Nile. "La new race de M. Flinders Petrie devient donc une véritable old race, celle des aborigènes, que les Égyptiens pharaoniques rencontrèrent quand ils envahirent l'Égypte ";* in fact, the new race" were of

* De Morgan, Recherches sur les Origines de l'Égypte, Paris, 1897.

the highest antiquity in Egypt, which they had occupied some thousands of years before the time of Menes. The graves excavated by M. de Morgan show that the dead were buried in three ways, i.e., with the members separated one from another, or with the complete body bent up in a position similar to that of a child before birth, or the whole body was partially burnt and then buried. Each method is different from that employed by the Egyptians, among whom every effort was made to bury the dead in as perfect a form as possible, for they believed that the continuance of the future life of the dead depended upon it. In the religious texts of the Egyptians there are frequent allusions to the customs of dismemberment, and decapitation, and burning of the dead, which prove, if proof be needed, that such things were customary long before their time, and that the Egyptians on their arrival in Egypt adopted gradually certain of the funeral customs and beliefs of the autochthones, but considerably modified others.

It has not yet been definitely decided to what race the people who were buried in such graves were related, but there are many grounds for thinking that they were either members of a tribe of the Taḥennu, or Thaḥennu, who are often mentioned in the texts of historical kings, or were akin to them. Pictures of them show that they were people with light skins, blue eyes, and fair hair, and although in historic times the tribes certainly lived to the north-west of Lower Egypt, we know that in the VIth dynasty they possessed settlements as far to the south as Nubia. The name commonly given to the Taḥennu is "Libyans," and the known facts point to the conclusion that some tribe, or group of tribes, of the Libyans formed the autochthones of Egypt. The Libyans seem to have been conquered by a race that invaded and reduced Egypt to slavery, and when the foreign kings began to reign over Egypt the conquered people formed the inferior

portion of the population. It is still a subject open to debate where the invaders came from; some think they were of Asiatic origin and entered Egypt by way of the Isthmus of Suez; others think (with Diodorus) that they came from the south, that is to say, from Ethiopia (compare Ezekiel xxix. 14, where the home of the Egyptians is said to be Pathros, i.e., the Egyptian Pa-ta-reset

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and others

believe they made their way up or across the Red Sea to

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Kuşêr (), a port for the ships coming from Yaman, and across the Eastern Desert to Coptos on the Nile. But by which road they entered Egypt is, relatively, of little importance; that they came primarily from the East is beyond dispute. All the known evidence contradicts the theory that Arabia was the home of the invaders of Egypt, and although there are many striking resemblances between the art of the statues and other objects which have been excavated at Tell Lo and other ancient sites in Southern Babylonia in recent years, and predynastic and early dynastic objects found by Messrs. de Morgan, Amélineau, and Petrie at Abydos and Nakâdah, they do not in the writer's opinion prove conclusively that the invaders of Egypt and the Babylonians were of the same race. The culture and civilization of the Babylonians between B.C. 6000 and B.C. 2300 were derived from their Sumerian conquerors, whose method of writing, and much of their learning and literature the Babylonians adopted, modified, and then assimilated. There is no evidence to show that the invaders of Egypt were kinsfolk of the Babylonians, but there are very strong probabilities that the civilizations of both peoples sprang from a common stock; what that stock was, or where the race lived, or when its cognate peoples took possession of Southern Babylonia and of Egypt, no one can at present say with certainty.

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2nd Cataract WADY HALFA

3rd Cataract
DONCOLA

The source of the Nile was discovered by Captains Grant and Speke and Sir Samuel Baker, who made out that its sources are the Albert N'yanza and Victoria N'yanza;* into the latter the Kagera River, which rises a few degrees to the south of the Equator, empties itself. Lake Victoria is situated on the Equator in the region of perpetual rains, and it is also fed by several springs and tributaries like the Kagera River. It has been asserted that the Kagera River is the true source of the Nile, but having discussed the matter with his characteristic acumen, Sir William Garstin has proved, in his last Report, that the true source of the Nile is Victoria N'yanza, that the Kagera represents the united waters of three rivers, and that it can only be considered as an item, an important one it is true, in the great system of streams which pour into the lake, and not as in any way influencing the discharge at the Nile outlet. The most recent writer on the subject is Capt. H. G. Lyons, who says: "It has been maintained D

* N'yanza means "Lake."

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BAHR AL-GHAZAL

LAKE)

ALBERT

LADO

DUFFILE

WADELAI

LAKE

ALBERT

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BEDDEN

FOLA FALLS

FUWERA

bu Heraz

RIPON FALLS

LAKE
VICTORIA

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