DOI Artikel:
Griffith, Francis Ll.: Progress of Egyptology: archaeology, hieroglyphic studies, etc.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11503#0062
50
Peogress of Egyptology.
570 are of Eamosside type, and 567 looks very early, perhaps before the
XVIIIth Dynasty.
M. de Morgan displays in this book acuteness and a considerable
power of observation, qualities to be expected in so successful an
explorer. His work covers the whole ground, is stimulating and inde-
pendent ; and if he has not given due attention to the obserTations of
other scientific men, and his own observations have been marred by
impatience and the desire to get brilliant results from excavating the
wholo of Egypt at once, it will at least rouse more interest in the
subject. What is imperatively needed is patient investigation on the
spot. The student can by no means look on If Age de la Pierre et des
Metaux as an infallible handbook ; and in respect of the dating of
objects the illustrations to Professor Petrie's little Ten Years' Diggings
form a better guide.
Mr. Seton Karr has collected a vast number of flints from flint mines
and workings in the Eastern desert in the Wady esh Sheikh district,
sometimes as far as 30 miles from the Nile. These mines were known
to Johnson Pacha 10 years ago, but no one had hitherto visited them for
archaeological purposes. According to the Times, " At some of the
mines were shafts about 2 ft. in diameter, filled up with drifted saud and
surrounded by masses of excavated rock neatly arranged. There was
usually a central work-place, where most of the objects were discovered,
but in some mines a number of clubs or truncheons lay distributed
uniformly, as though hurriedly left when the mines were last abandoned."
It will be recollected that Mr. Seton Karr formed a large collection of
palaeolithic implements in Somalilaud, two years ago.
In Verli. d. Berl. Gesells. fiir Anthrojpologie Ethnologie und Urges-
chicJde (1897, p. 27), Professor Virchow has published two letters of Dr.
Schweiufurth with regard to De Morgan's publication, and in connexion
with discoveries relating to the earlier periods. Two of Dr. Sohwein-
furth's observations were of especial importance, viz. that the hair on
the skulls discovered by M. Ameliueau at Abydos had probably lost
colour by age, and might originally have been black, and, that, contrary to
the opinion of Dr. Fouquet, the contents of the skulls seemed to have
no traces of resin, but were merely the residue of brain. With regard
to the first statement, Dr. Virchow agrees that probably some change had
taken place in the colour of the hair, but that as the black hair of the
Egyptian mummies has retained its colour it is most probable that these
ancient people to whom Amelineau's skulls belonged had originally a
light-coloured hair, and so were of " Libyan " race. With regard to
Peogress of Egyptology.
570 are of Eamosside type, and 567 looks very early, perhaps before the
XVIIIth Dynasty.
M. de Morgan displays in this book acuteness and a considerable
power of observation, qualities to be expected in so successful an
explorer. His work covers the whole ground, is stimulating and inde-
pendent ; and if he has not given due attention to the obserTations of
other scientific men, and his own observations have been marred by
impatience and the desire to get brilliant results from excavating the
wholo of Egypt at once, it will at least rouse more interest in the
subject. What is imperatively needed is patient investigation on the
spot. The student can by no means look on If Age de la Pierre et des
Metaux as an infallible handbook ; and in respect of the dating of
objects the illustrations to Professor Petrie's little Ten Years' Diggings
form a better guide.
Mr. Seton Karr has collected a vast number of flints from flint mines
and workings in the Eastern desert in the Wady esh Sheikh district,
sometimes as far as 30 miles from the Nile. These mines were known
to Johnson Pacha 10 years ago, but no one had hitherto visited them for
archaeological purposes. According to the Times, " At some of the
mines were shafts about 2 ft. in diameter, filled up with drifted saud and
surrounded by masses of excavated rock neatly arranged. There was
usually a central work-place, where most of the objects were discovered,
but in some mines a number of clubs or truncheons lay distributed
uniformly, as though hurriedly left when the mines were last abandoned."
It will be recollected that Mr. Seton Karr formed a large collection of
palaeolithic implements in Somalilaud, two years ago.
In Verli. d. Berl. Gesells. fiir Anthrojpologie Ethnologie und Urges-
chicJde (1897, p. 27), Professor Virchow has published two letters of Dr.
Schweiufurth with regard to De Morgan's publication, and in connexion
with discoveries relating to the earlier periods. Two of Dr. Sohwein-
furth's observations were of especial importance, viz. that the hair on
the skulls discovered by M. Ameliueau at Abydos had probably lost
colour by age, and might originally have been black, and, that, contrary to
the opinion of Dr. Fouquet, the contents of the skulls seemed to have
no traces of resin, but were merely the residue of brain. With regard
to the first statement, Dr. Virchow agrees that probably some change had
taken place in the colour of the hair, but that as the black hair of the
Egyptian mummies has retained its colour it is most probable that these
ancient people to whom Amelineau's skulls belonged had originally a
light-coloured hair, and so were of " Libyan " race. With regard to