we see a change come over it. On searching the types of pottery we
see many new forms arising from S.D. 38 to 43, while many older types
disappear between S.D. 40 and 44. These changes serve to stamp the
point of the change, but it is in other respects that the differences
are most visible. The black-topped pottery, red polished, and fancy
forms of pottery cease to develop after 43, whereas the decorated
pottery, with brown line patterns on buff ware, is scarcely known till
40, and the late class of pottery begins at 43. In the stone vases the
forms of tall tubular shape, with handles, cease at 40, and the barrel
forms begin at 39, and are dominant by 42. In flint work the various
new types begin from 39 to 45; the disc mace dies out about 40, and the
pear-shaped mace begins at 42. In the slate palettes old types vanish
and new ones arise from 37 to 42. The same is seen in ivories. Foreign
intercourse was increased, as silver (from Asia Minor?), lazuli (from
Persia?), serpentine and hæmatite (from Sinai?) all come into use from
38 to 40. In copying Nature, the steatopygous figures of the Bushman
type are only found before 38, and human figure amulets are known from
down to 44. Animal figure amulets begin in 45. Multiple burials in
graves are common down to 40, and continue till 43; only single burials
are known later.
[Sidenote: Invasion from the East]
[Sidenote: What Mythology Says]
The racial changes that are thus indicated by these widespread
differences can only be traced by the different products. The white
line pottery characteristic of the earliest people is closely like
that of the Kabyles, and the similarity of the skull measurements
show that there is no bar to accepting the connection with the North
African race. But the details of the new people, using animal amulets,
a face veil, wavy-handled pottery like that of early Palestine, and the
Asiatic silver and lazuli, all point to their coming in from the East.
This change may be further linked with the religious traditions. This
later mythology taught that Osiris had found the Egyptians in a brutal
existence, and he had taught them agriculture, laws, and worship; this
appears to be the tradition of the bringing in of cultivation by the
earliest civilisation at S.D. 30. His worshippers were allied with
those of Isis, who were a kindred tribe. Hence Osiris is said to have
married his sister Isis. The myth further shows that this civilisation
was attacked treacherously by the tribe who worshipped Set, in
confederacy with an Ethiopian queen, and they succeeded in suppressing
the worship of Osiris and removing his remains to Byblos in Syria. This
seems to agree to the influx of Asiatic influence, about S.D. 40, which
we have noticed above. The correction of the calendar from 360 to 365
days, is attributed to the beginning of the civilisation (at S.D. 30)
by the myth that Osiris and his cycle of gods were born on the extra
five days.
[Illustration: PREHISTORIC SHIPS: THE EARLIEST PICTURES OF EGYPTIAN
VESSELS
The pottery of the second period of Egyptian civilisation is
rich in representations of prehistoric ships. The vessels are
shown with many oars, and the cabins are placed amidship with a
gangway between. It is gathered from these crude drawings that in
prehistoric times there was a considerable shipping trade along the
coast of Egypt.
]
SECOND CIVILISATION. The second prehistoric civilisation, of
which we have traced the Asiatic source, is specially marked by the use
of a hard buff pottery, on which designs are often painted in brown
outline. The art of these has no connection with that of the early
white line designs; the habit of covering figures with cross lines, and
the imitation of basket-work, have entirely disappeared; and, on the
contrary, the plant, ostrich, and ship designs are quite new.
What, then, were the connections of these people? One indication
is gleaned from carvings at the close of the prehistoric age. Two
tributaries of the new king of Egypt are shown bearing stone vases
of the style of those of the second prehistoric civilisation, S.D.
45-75. They have large pointed noses, and wear pigtails, and another
tributary of the same type wears a long robe. Hence we may see that
they came from a cold region where stone vases were wrought; and that
by the form of the vase they were probably the same people as the later
prehistoric stock. Yet, on the other hand, we occasionally find pottery
vases of that people in the earlier prehistoric age, so that they must
have been in touch with Egypt throughout. The more likely source for
them was the mountainous region, where snow sometimes lies, between
Egypt and the Red Sea; and certainly this was the source of the rare
igneous rocks used for the prehistoric vases.
The general conclusion would be, then, that a people occupying the
mountainous region east of Egypt had an independent civilisation, and
were in touch with the early prehistoric people of the Nile valley.
Then about S.D. 38 they began to push down into Egypt, and fully
entered it by S.D. 44, bringing with them various different points of
their own civilisation, and expelling the Osiris worship in favour of
Set, who was their god. They probably brought in the Semitic elements
to the Egyptian language, along with the other Asiatic connections.
[Sidenote: Fleet of Prehistoric Ships]
SHIPPING. Under this new order of things we see much more foreign and
maritime connection. The introduction of silver from Asia, of lazuli
from Persia, of hæmatite from Sinai, of serpentine from the Arabian
desert--all show this. On the vases we see the starfish painted, and
one of the most usual decorations was the figure of a great galley
or ship. These ships are shown with oars on the pottery vases, and
without oars or sails on the tomb paintings. From the proportion of the
figures they appear to have been as much as 50 ft, long, and this is
confirmed by the oars, which number up to sixty. Neither indication is
exact; but the tendency would be to exaggerate the size of the figures,
and certainly not to diminish them, and so aggrandise the ship. The
shipbuilding in the early history may prepare us for the earlier rise
of such work, when we read of Senefru building sixty ships of a hundred
feet long in one year.
[Sidenote: What the Ships Were Like]
These prehistoric ships were all of one pattern. Amidships were the
large cabins, and there was no poop or forecastle structure, probably
because of the want of support fore and aft, the flotation being mainly
in the middle. The two cabins were separated by a broad gangway across
the boat, and joined above the gangway by a bridge from roof to roof.
Lesser cabins projected fore and aft from the main cabins. On the roofs
were rails at the corners, so as to secure top cargo without getting
in the way of loading it up. In a large ship there was an upper cabin
on the hinder main one, a light shelter shaded with branches. From the
back of the hinder cabin stood up a tall pole bearing a solid object as
a standard, which we shall notice below. At the stern was the steersman
seated by an upright post, to which was probably lashed the steering
oar, as in the historical boats. In the bows was a low platform, with a
rail round it, for the look-out, shaded with branches. The cabins were
narrower than the beam, and left free space for rowers on each side.
[Sidenote: Trade in Those Days]
FOREIGN IMPORTS. Vessels of this large size certainly imply a
corresponding importance of commerce. We have noted already the foreign
imports into Egypt; and others imply more distinctly a sea intercourse.
From S.D. 33 down to S.D. 68 there is found black pottery with incised
basket-work patterns [page 238] filled in with white. It is always
rare, only occurring in less than 1 per cent. of the graves, and in
only one case was there more than a solitary example. It is entirely
disconnected from the Egyptian types, but it is closely akin to pottery
found on the north of the Mediterranean, in Spain (Ciempozuelos),
in Bosnia, and in the earliest town of Troy. At the close of the
prehistoric age the black pottery of the late Neolithic city of Knossos
is found in the lowest levels of the temple at Abydos. And in the
royal tombs of the first dynasty there many vases and pieces have
been found which are clearly of the earliest age of painted Ægean
pottery. Considering that the bulk of the trade must have been for
perishable goods--oil and skins from Crete and Greece, corn and beans
from Egypt--it is not to be expected that a great amount of breakable
pottery would pass and be preserved in burials. There are, moreover,
some tallies left to us besides the northern pottery. Throughout the
later prehistoric age emery was regularly in use for all the grinding
and polishing of stone vases and of carnelian beads; and so common that
one excelsior spirit in search of a tour de force had even cut a vase
out of block emery, as being the hardest known material. This emery,
so far as we know, must have come from Smyrna. Again, the gold of the
first dynasty contains a large amount of silver. This points to its
source from the Pactolus region, where electrum was found, rather than
from Nubia, where the gold is free from silver.
CONNECTION OF THE SHIPPING. When we look at the evidence of the ships
themselves we see that it points to their having been used at sea
rather than on the Nile. It is impossible to row a ship up against the
Nile stream, which runs at three miles an hour, and sailing or towing
is the only way to go southward in Egypt. But in only one instance is a
ship with a sail represented, while there are many dozens of figures of
rowing vessels. The galley has always been the type of business ship on
the Mediterranean. All through the classical wars the rowing galley was
the mainstay of power. The Homeric catalogue of ships, the Phœnician
coinage, the Assyrian sculptures, the Greek fleets, the Carthaginian
navy and its destroyers of Rome, the pirates of Liburnia and Lycia,
down to the Venetian fleet and the French galleys of a couple of
centuries ago, all show the dominance of the oar.
[Illustration: ARTICLES ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE EARLY CIVILISATION OF EGYPT
(1) Slate palettes on which paint for rubbing round the eyes was
ground; (2) adze heads and harpoons, the harpoons at the sides
being of bone, the others of copper; (3) beautifully flaked flint
knife; (4) serpent amulet of stone; (5) maces of quartzose rock,
very effective weapons; (6) forked lances of flint; (7) combs of
ivory; (8) vases carved from hard stone; (9) black incised pottery,
a foreign import into early Egypt.
]
[Sidenote: Port Ensigns Carried]
The nature of the standards upon poles carried by the ships has been
variously interpreted. We can distinguish the elephant, bird on a
crescent, and fish; the two or four pair of horns, the bush, and the
branch; the rows of two, three, four, or five hills; the crossed
arrows, and the harpoon, besides other forms which we cannot identify.
The question is, what view will account for these most completely?
Some have thought they were emblems of gods, and that the boats
were sacred to divinities; but there are many which cannot be thus
explained. Others have thought that they indicated tribes; but the
rarity of repetitions, and the absence of any duplicates together, are
against this. Marks of personal ownership have been suggested; and this
is not impossible, as they might be well dedicated to special gods. But
the prominence of the groups of hills as signs agrees best with their
being marks of the ports from which they hailed; the divine emblems
would naturally be those of the god of the port, the number of hills
would be very likely to distinguish different ports, the elephant, the
bush, or the fish might well be the mark of a port. And the parallel
in later times of such being distinctive ensigns for ports--as in
the ensign of Gades found in the Red Sea--agrees to this usage. The
carrying of a port ensign in an age of independent city-states was
equivalent to a national flag in later times; and it was essential for
showing friends or foes.
We have dwelt at length on the detail of this shipping, as it is the
most important subject for showing the extent and character of the
early civilisation. It takes two to trade as well as to quarrel; and
these large ships were not rowed about the Mediterranean unless there
was a paying trade to be done on those coasts, a people civilised
enough to produce goods that were wanted and to require foreign stuff
in exchange, and a society stable enough to enable goods to be stocked
in bulk and traded without any serious risk of fraud or force.
[Sidenote: Ingenuity of the Hunters]
[Sidenote: Mode of Ostrich Hunting]
HUNTING. The main occupation represented in the prehistoric paintings
is hunting. The bow and arrow was used. The bow was a single piece of
wood, painted red and covered with zigzag white lines; the arrow was of
reed, with a point several inches long of hard wood. The forked lance
of flint was also a favourite weapon [p. 238]; it was inserted at the
end of a wooden shaft, which was controlled by a long thong of leather
ending in alabaster knobs which kept it from entirely flying from
the fingers. Thus the lance could be thrown by a man in ambush to cut
the legs of a gazelle, while, if it missed, it was jerked back by the
elastic thong, and so saved from breaking the delicate edge of flint.
These forked lances are found throughout nearly all the prehistoric
time; and they continued in use in North Africa till the Roman Age,
when Commodus borrowed thence their use for hunting the ostrich.
This lance retained by a thong was the parallel to the favourite
harpoon used in fishing. Another mode of hunting was the trap. This
is represented as being formed of pointed splints or stakes, lashed
together like spokes of a wheel, with the points around a central
hollow. Such traps to catch the legs of animals are used now in Africa,
and an example was found at the Ramesseum, dating perhaps from the
twentieth dynasty. Sticks or clubs were used in hunting and in fighting.
[Illustration: STANDARDS OF EGYPTIAN SHIPS
There has been much speculation as to the significance of the
standards carried by the most ancient of the Egyptian vessels, as
recorded on pottery and elsewhere. Some examples of these standards
are here given. The most reasonable supposition is that these
devices indicated the port from which the vessel sailed.
]
FIGHTING. The earliest representation of fighting is on a vase of the
white slip on red, at the beginning of the prehistoric age. On that
a man with long, wavy hair appears to be spearing another man in the
side. Later, there are the fighters on the Hierakonpolis tomb, at about
S.D. 63. On this hooked sticks are used, and the fighters are clad
with a spotted animal’s hide on the back. One man has been killed, and
another is hard pressed, fallen on one knee. To save himself from blows
he has taken off the hide and is holding it up, thus anticipating the
use of the shield. It seems likely that the Egyptian shields of hide
stretched on a frame of sticks were directly copied from this use of
the hide that was otherwise worn on the body. In another group a black
man is holding three red captives bound with a black cord, while two
red men approach him to deliver their kindred.
[Sidenote: Fighting with Maces]
The weapons mostly found are the stone maces [page 238]. These were
sharp-edged discs in the earlier age, a form which is very effective
in a mixed fight, as it cannot be turned aside like a battleaxe, but
must cut in whatever direction it falls. These maces were usually made
of porphyry and other quartzose rocks. The mace used in the later age
was of a pear shape, and this form was continued into the historic
times, and perpetuated in the conventional scene of the king striking
an enemy, even in the latest times. The handle holes in these maces are
very small, and this shows that probably the handles were dried thongs
of hide. Nothing else would be sufficiently tough and elastic. The
flint dagger was probably also used, and certainly the copper dagger.
A very fine example of this, dated to S.D. 55 or 60, is wrought with a
quadrangular blade, giving the utmost strength and lightness, a better
design than that of any daggers of the historic times.
[Illustration: THE FIRST PICTURES OF FIGHTING
The earliest representation of fighting, at the beginning of the
prehistoric age, shows a man with long, wavy hair, spearing another
man in the side. Later, are fighters on the Hierakonpolis tomb,
using hooked sticks and clad in piebald hides of animals.
]
TOOLS. Tools of metal begin with small, square chisels of copper at
S.D. 38. The intermediate examples have not been found till we reach
a fine large chisel of copper at the close of the prehistoric. Adzes
of copper [p. 238] begin at S.D. 56, or earlier, and increase in size
down to historic times; they continued to be the favourite tool of the
Egyptians for both wood and stone working until Greek times. Borers are
usually tapered, to work in soft material. Needles of copper appear as
early as S.D. 48, and the fastening pins of copper begin with the very
earliest graves of S.D. 30.
Flint working was the greatest artistic industry of the prehistoric
age. The surfaces were not merely reduced by haphazard flaking, but
the flints were ground into form, and then reflaked in a marvellously
regular manner with uniform parallel grooves [page 238]. The finishing
of the edges by deep serrations of the fineness of forty to the inch,
and the chipping out of delicate armlets of flint, show also the same
astonishing skill and perfection of hand work. The Scandinavian flint
chipping used to be regarded as the most perfect, but the Egyptian work
entirely surpasses it in regularity and boldness.
STONE VASES. Hard stones were largely employed for making vases [page
238]. In the earlier age tall, cylindrical forms were used, and in the
later age barrel forms. The earlier material was usually basalt, but
syenite, porphyry, alabaster and limestone were also used. The later
materials included slate, grey limestone, breccia, serpentine, and
diorite. The hollowing out of these vases was by grinding, but the
outside was entirely formed by chipping and polishing without rotary
motion. The perfect regularity of the forms, and the fine taste shown
in the curves of the outlines, as well as the hardness of the material,
place the vase working higher than any work of the historic times.
[Sidenote: 1,000 Forms of Pottery]
POTTERY. Pottery was greatly developed, although the wheel was not
used, and all the forms were entirely modelled by hand and eye without
mechanical guidance. The outlines are true and fine, the circularity
is astonishingly regular, although all the trimming and polish runs
vertically; and it was as easy in such a mode of building to make oval,
doubled, or square forms, all of which are found. The specially later
pottery is the decorated, with brown-red lines on a hard buff body.
The forms are clearly copied from those of the stone vases; and the
patterns are derived from the fossils and veins in the stone, or from
the cordage net in which the vases were slung for carrying. Next appear
aloes and other bushes, and figures of ships, which we have already
noticed. Rows of ostriches and of hills are also favourite designs.
Other pottery of this ware, but not decorated, has a curious type
of projecting ledge, wavy up and down, for handles. Beginning at
S.D. 40 as a globular vessel, the type narrows to an upright jar;
by S.D. 60 the handles dwindle, becoming united around it as a wavy
band of pattern; by S.D. 70 the jar at last becomes a cylinder; by
S.D. 75 the band becomes a mere line; and then after S.D. 80--in the
first dynasty--the jar dwindles to a rough tube like a thumbstall.
The contents of such jars similarly deteriorate. At first, perfumed
ointment was put in them, then it was covered with a layer of mud to
retain the scent; the mud increased until it was merely scented mud,
then only plain mud was used, and lastly they were left empty. Beside
many other forms of this hard ware there was also a long series of
types in a rough brown pottery, which passed on into the ordinary
pottery of the first dynasty. As there are over a thousand different
forms of this prehistoric pottery known, and their study has been the
key to the whole arrangement of that age, this subject is a very wide
one, which we have barely noticed here.
[Illustration: PREHISTORIC POTTERY OF EGYPT
The later pottery of the prehistoric period is characterised by
brown-red lines on a hard buff body. The forms and decorations have
been copied from earlier stone vases, and from the nets in which
they were carried.
]
[Sidenote: A Constant Personal Possession]
SLATE PALETTES. A constant personal possession was the slab of slate
upon which the green malachite or red ochre was ground for colouring
around the eyes. Usually a brown pebble crusher accompanies it; and the
dead often have a little leather bag of malachite in the hands. These
slate palettes begin with a plain rhomb form, probably derived from
the natural cleavages of the slate rock. Well-formed animal figures
were also carved as slate silhouettes; the deer, hippopotamus, and
turtle are the oldest, and the fish also comes into the earlier age.
The double bird type begins with the second age, and all the types
continuously degrade by repeated copying until their original form is
quite indistinguishable at the close of the prehistoric age [page 238].
PERSONAL OBJECTS. Ivory carving is common, mainly for long combs to
fasten up the hair. These usually have an animal on the top of them;
but they only belong to the earlier age, suggesting that the hair was
worn shorter in the second period. Decorated tusks of ivory are also
early; they were fastened on to leather work, probably to close the
openings of water skins. Ivory spoons belong only to the second period,
as likewise do the forehead pendants of shell.
Amulets of animal forms were frequent in the second period. They are
generally cut in stone, carnelian, serpentine, porphyry, and coloured
limestones. The forms are the bull’s head (which continued in use into
historic times), the hawk, serpent [p. 238], frog, fly, scorpion, claw,
vase, and spear head. The meanings attached to them are quite unknown.
Games are found, as shown by the ivory draughtsmen, the small balls
or marbles, the stone gateway and ninepins [page 242], the figures of
lions and hares, and the throwing slips for obtaining a count as with
dice.
[Sidenote: What the People Wore]
CLOTHING. The clothing of men was, at most, the kilt of linen, or an
animal’s hide put over the body. Often only a belt was worn, with
three narrow strips hanging down in front. A usual covering was a
belt with a sheath attached to it to hold up the genitals. With the
pleated kilt was also worn a belt having apparently a jackal tail hung
behind. On some figures there is merely a double rope round the waist.
These various forms may belong to different peoples and periods; but
there are hardly enough examples to prove any distinctions, as the
varying circumstance of the figures, captive and conquered, resting and
working, rich and poor, in heat and in cold, may easily have led to the
different dress that we see. Women are represented with a white linen
petticoat from the waist to the feet. Leather was a favourite material
for clothing, as well as for bags. It was painted with patterns, and
decorated with beads, reminding us of the North American work.
[Sidenote: The Oldest Capital of Egypt]
DECAY OF CIVILISATION. All of this civilisation gradually decayed;
the pottery is seen becoming coarser, good work dying out in rougher
copying, new types seldom appearing, cheaper and poorer objects being
more usual. There is ground, however, for supposing that at some time
in this age there was a central rule at Heliopolis. There are many
traditions of a principality there, which must certainly have been
before the dynasties. The sacred emblem preserved in the temple was the
shepherd’s crook, _haq_, which served for the title of “prince” in all
later times; the other sacred emblem was the whip, and these two were
the royal emblems of Osiris. The title of the nome was “the princes’
territory,” and this capital retained in later ages the reputation of
being the centre of learning and theology. And on the fragment of the
early annals known as the “Palermo Stone” there is shown a long row of
kings of Lower Egypt before the dynasties; these cannot have ruled at
Memphis, as that was a new foundation by Menes.
[Illustration: THE EARLIEST GAME OF NINEPINS
These ninepins, the gate to play through, and the porphyry balls
were all found in a child’s grave.
]
[Sidenote: History as Reflected in Mythology]
[Sidenote: End of Prehistoric Times]