DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26288#0009
I ntroduction
DURING the last ten years that Mr. de Rustafjaell spent in Egypt, he de-
voted his time to prehistoric research, and took advantage also of his
many opportunities to form a large and valuable collection of flint im-
plements and Egyptian works of Art. These include the oldest weapons in
the world, and with their aid man’s handicraft has been determined to a
period as far back as the Pliocene, or long before the Glacial period. He has
also worked out a new theory regarding the age of flint implements, de-
pendent upon certain forms, their provenance and density of patina resulting
from exposure of the worked surfaces of the implements, during aeons
of time to the actinic rays of the sun. One specimen of the Glacial period
bears petrified finger marks and this is the oldest and only evidence we
possess of man himself of that remote age.
His collection of predynastic pottery is the largest and most compre-
hensive in existence; the specimens are considerably older than 7000 years,
and trace the development of shape and design from the origin of pottery,
when man began by imitation, reproducing natural forms of hollow flint
nodules and geods in baked clay.
Furthermore, the collection comprises the earliest attempts at sculpture, repre-
sented by several unique and realistic figures in sun-dried clay of the pre-
dynastic age, the largest figure in this group is that of a seated man nearly half
the natural size.
The dynastic works of art, or products of the historical age, beginning
about B. c. 5000, may be briefly summed up under the following headings:
A variety of figures and vases in stone and clay of the Old Kingdom period.
Ushabtiu, the small glazed figures known as “respondents.”
The oldest painting on canvas in the world, and other paintings on cloth
of later dynasties, a..panel painting on wood of an Egyptian Princess of
the XX Dynasty, and the’earliest known painting on canvas, in wax, of
a Christian subject, abo-utvA. D. 600.
Vases in alabaster and blun''glazed pbttery.
Bronze figures of deities, kirigs and queens, battle axes, mirrors and tools.
A set of “pilgrim bottles,” the first three from the beginning of the dynastic
period.
Wicker-work, figures in wood and wall decorations in low relief from Thebes.
Models of sacred barks 5000 years old.
A roll of Papyrus in Demotic about 30 feet long, of the Ptolemaic Period.
Shirts, some 3500 years old, and tapestries of the I to VI Centuries, A. D.
A mummy of a high priestess of the XX Dynasty in a stone sarcophagus, and a
royal mummy case, XVIII Dynasty, Thebes.
Figurettes, beads, jewelry, scarabs and a set of bracelets from the predynastic
to the Arabic period.
For educational purposes Egyptian archaelogy is invaluable. Its records
of the Stone Age belong to a period more ancient than that of any other
country, and end with the discovery of copper in Lpper Egypt. The Nilotic
race thus brought its investigations to the verge of the historical period when
other and more direct evidence of rnan’s progress becomes available. This
was about 7000 years ago and it enabled them not only to conquer the world
with superior weapons made of metal, but also to fashion huge blocks of
granite and build the most wonderful architectural monuments the world has
ever seen, namely, the pyramids. During the countless ages that these
primitive people toiled, they laid the foundation to all subsequent civilization
to which we owe our advancement.
Some of the above referred to specimens are illustrated herein by photo-
graphs and duly described. They are arranged in chronological order and
for convenience sake have been bound together.
DURING the last ten years that Mr. de Rustafjaell spent in Egypt, he de-
voted his time to prehistoric research, and took advantage also of his
many opportunities to form a large and valuable collection of flint im-
plements and Egyptian works of Art. These include the oldest weapons in
the world, and with their aid man’s handicraft has been determined to a
period as far back as the Pliocene, or long before the Glacial period. He has
also worked out a new theory regarding the age of flint implements, de-
pendent upon certain forms, their provenance and density of patina resulting
from exposure of the worked surfaces of the implements, during aeons
of time to the actinic rays of the sun. One specimen of the Glacial period
bears petrified finger marks and this is the oldest and only evidence we
possess of man himself of that remote age.
His collection of predynastic pottery is the largest and most compre-
hensive in existence; the specimens are considerably older than 7000 years,
and trace the development of shape and design from the origin of pottery,
when man began by imitation, reproducing natural forms of hollow flint
nodules and geods in baked clay.
Furthermore, the collection comprises the earliest attempts at sculpture, repre-
sented by several unique and realistic figures in sun-dried clay of the pre-
dynastic age, the largest figure in this group is that of a seated man nearly half
the natural size.
The dynastic works of art, or products of the historical age, beginning
about B. c. 5000, may be briefly summed up under the following headings:
A variety of figures and vases in stone and clay of the Old Kingdom period.
Ushabtiu, the small glazed figures known as “respondents.”
The oldest painting on canvas in the world, and other paintings on cloth
of later dynasties, a..panel painting on wood of an Egyptian Princess of
the XX Dynasty, and the’earliest known painting on canvas, in wax, of
a Christian subject, abo-utvA. D. 600.
Vases in alabaster and blun''glazed pbttery.
Bronze figures of deities, kirigs and queens, battle axes, mirrors and tools.
A set of “pilgrim bottles,” the first three from the beginning of the dynastic
period.
Wicker-work, figures in wood and wall decorations in low relief from Thebes.
Models of sacred barks 5000 years old.
A roll of Papyrus in Demotic about 30 feet long, of the Ptolemaic Period.
Shirts, some 3500 years old, and tapestries of the I to VI Centuries, A. D.
A mummy of a high priestess of the XX Dynasty in a stone sarcophagus, and a
royal mummy case, XVIII Dynasty, Thebes.
Figurettes, beads, jewelry, scarabs and a set of bracelets from the predynastic
to the Arabic period.
For educational purposes Egyptian archaelogy is invaluable. Its records
of the Stone Age belong to a period more ancient than that of any other
country, and end with the discovery of copper in Lpper Egypt. The Nilotic
race thus brought its investigations to the verge of the historical period when
other and more direct evidence of rnan’s progress becomes available. This
was about 7000 years ago and it enabled them not only to conquer the world
with superior weapons made of metal, but also to fashion huge blocks of
granite and build the most wonderful architectural monuments the world has
ever seen, namely, the pyramids. During the countless ages that these
primitive people toiled, they laid the foundation to all subsequent civilization
to which we owe our advancement.
Some of the above referred to specimens are illustrated herein by photo-
graphs and duly described. They are arranged in chronological order and
for convenience sake have been bound together.