Mr. L. Horner, in his recent researches near Cairo, with the view of
throwing light upon the geological history of the alluvial land of
Egypt, obtained from the lowest part of the boring of the sediment at
the colossal statue of Rameses, at a depth of thirty-nine feet, this
curious relic of the ancient world; the boring instrument bringing up
a fragment of pottery about an inch square and a quarter of an inch in
thickness--the two surfaces being of a brick-red colour, the interior
dark gray. According to Mr. Horner’s deductions, this fragment, having
been found at a depth of 39 feet (if there be no fallacy in his
reasoning), must be held to be a record of the existence of man 13,375
years before A.D. 1858, reckoning by the calculated rate of increase of
three inches and a half of alluvium in a century--11,517 years before
the Christian era, and 7625 before the beginning assigned by Lepsius
to the reign of Menos, the founder of Memphis. Moreover it proves in
his opinion, that man had already reached a state of civilisation, so
far at least as to be able to fashion clay into vessels, and to know
how to harden it by the action of strong heat. This calculation is
supported by the Chevalier Bunsen, who is of opinion that the first
epochs of the history of the human race demand at the least a period
of 20,000 years before our era as a fair starting-point in the earth’s
history.--_Proceedings of Royal Soc._, 1858.
Upon this theory, a Correspondent, “An Old Indigo-Planter,” writes
to the _Athenæum_, No. 1509, the following suggestive note: “Having
lived many years on the banks of the Ganges, I have seen the stream
encroach on a village, undermining the bank where it stood, and
deposit, as a natural result, bricks, pottery, &c. in the bottom
of the stream. On one occasion, I am certain that the depth of
the stream where the bank was breaking was above 40 feet; yet in
three years the current of the river drifted so much, that a fresh
deposit of soil took place over the _débris_ of the village, and
the earth was raised to a level with the old bank. Now had our
traveller then obtained a bit of pottery from where it had lain for
only three years, could he reasonably draw the inference that it
had been made 13,000 years before?”