DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6916#0059
54
ÉTUDES SUR L'AGE DE LA PIERRE EN EGYPTE
Depuis mon arrivée en Egypte (1892), je m'étais vivement préoc-
cupé de cette question : j'avais réuni tous les documents épars, re-
cherché dans un grand nombre de localités, acheté presque tous les
instruments en silex qui se trouvaient chez les marchands. C'est ainsi
que peu à peu je me suis trouvé amené à penser que, s'il est possible
d'admettre que quelques silex taillés appartiennent à l'époque histo-
rique, nous devons attribuer à la plupart une antiquité beaucoup plus
reculée, et que les témoins du véritable âge néolithique sont dans la
vallée du Nil plus abondants qu'on ne le pense généralement.
(Tell-el-Amarna) ; and large quantifies of flinl flakes lie mingled with roman pottery and
glass around the tower south of El Heibi. Hence ihe undated sites of flinl ilakes musl
be of small historical value. Large quantities of worked flinls, mostly small flakes,
sometimes chipped at the edge, hâve been found at Helwan, many occur at Guizeli,
and at the back of the Birket Qurun and Medinel Mahdi, in the Fayum; at Tell-cl-
Amarna on the top of the désert plateau, where are rudely chipped pebbles, winch
from their extrême weathering may be even palaeolithic ; on various parts of the foot
hills along the Nile, at Abydos, at Qournah, at the south of Medinel Habu, and at El-
Kab are places where the ground is strewn with flint flakes and imperfect lools. The
finest examples of flint working are in the magnificent knives, chipped with exquisite
regularity, in a smooth horny flint. Thèse are found in lombs al Abydos; but ail of
them have been plundered by natives, and no record exisls of their âge. They are
perhaps a priestly survival, for funeral purposes, of the flint working of the XI11h dy-
nasty, lasting perhaps tiU the XVIIIth. The most distinct use of flint was for sickles ;
particular forms were made to fit the curves of the sickles, and were notched to cul
the straw. Such flints can be recognised by the polish on the saw edge, while the rest
is dull, or even retains some of the cément by which it was fastened in the wooden
sickle-back — of other remains of prehistoric man no trace has been found in Egypt.
His dwelling would be upou, or close to, the Nile soil ; and as now twenty feet of de-
posits overlie the levai of that âge, it is hopeless to search there for any trace of his
works » (W. M, Flinders Pétrie, A History of Egypt, London, i8g4, p. 7).
ÉTUDES SUR L'AGE DE LA PIERRE EN EGYPTE
Depuis mon arrivée en Egypte (1892), je m'étais vivement préoc-
cupé de cette question : j'avais réuni tous les documents épars, re-
cherché dans un grand nombre de localités, acheté presque tous les
instruments en silex qui se trouvaient chez les marchands. C'est ainsi
que peu à peu je me suis trouvé amené à penser que, s'il est possible
d'admettre que quelques silex taillés appartiennent à l'époque histo-
rique, nous devons attribuer à la plupart une antiquité beaucoup plus
reculée, et que les témoins du véritable âge néolithique sont dans la
vallée du Nil plus abondants qu'on ne le pense généralement.
(Tell-el-Amarna) ; and large quantifies of flinl flakes lie mingled with roman pottery and
glass around the tower south of El Heibi. Hence ihe undated sites of flinl ilakes musl
be of small historical value. Large quantities of worked flinls, mostly small flakes,
sometimes chipped at the edge, hâve been found at Helwan, many occur at Guizeli,
and at the back of the Birket Qurun and Medinel Mahdi, in the Fayum; at Tell-cl-
Amarna on the top of the désert plateau, where are rudely chipped pebbles, winch
from their extrême weathering may be even palaeolithic ; on various parts of the foot
hills along the Nile, at Abydos, at Qournah, at the south of Medinel Habu, and at El-
Kab are places where the ground is strewn with flint flakes and imperfect lools. The
finest examples of flint working are in the magnificent knives, chipped with exquisite
regularity, in a smooth horny flint. Thèse are found in lombs al Abydos; but ail of
them have been plundered by natives, and no record exisls of their âge. They are
perhaps a priestly survival, for funeral purposes, of the flint working of the XI11h dy-
nasty, lasting perhaps tiU the XVIIIth. The most distinct use of flint was for sickles ;
particular forms were made to fit the curves of the sickles, and were notched to cul
the straw. Such flints can be recognised by the polish on the saw edge, while the rest
is dull, or even retains some of the cément by which it was fastened in the wooden
sickle-back — of other remains of prehistoric man no trace has been found in Egypt.
His dwelling would be upou, or close to, the Nile soil ; and as now twenty feet of de-
posits overlie the levai of that âge, it is hopeless to search there for any trace of his
works » (W. M, Flinders Pétrie, A History of Egypt, London, i8g4, p. 7).