PREHISTORIC MAN.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 April 1926, Page 1

PREHISTORIC MAN.

12,000 TO 13,000 B.C. (By E. N. Failltiiize, Scienco Service.) It would appear probale-that another chapter will soon be added to the already long history of civilisation in Egypt; and should tho anticipations of the great egyptologist, Sir Flinders Petrie, bo fulfilled, it may be expected that fresh discoveries will also serve to throw light upon the origin and development of certain elements in the culture of early man in Europe as well as in the Nile \ r alley. AYith this in view, an expedition which includes amongst its members AUss Caton-Thompson, of Cambridge. Eng. land, and Mr. G. Caring, of the Halifax Museum, Yorkshire, England, has been fitted out on behalf of the British School of Archaeology in Egypt to investigate tho ancient culture of the Fayum desert.

Aliss-Caton Thompson recently returned from the Fayum, where her investigations have produced some remarkable results. Her object was to study the flint industry' of this district, which is fremarkable for the beautifully even character of tho chipping of the knives and other implements of stone. These, in the skilful nature of tlieir workmanship, resemble the flint work of paleolithic man in Europe in the Somtrean age.

Solutrean man is so called because of ihe implements, particularly knives and spear points, Ml' especially fine workmanship, which were the first found at Solutre, in France, hut have since been found discovered at Palaeolithic stations in various parts of Europe. The Solutrean culture belongs to the upper Palaeolithic and represents the incursion into Europe from the East during, or at the end of, the tho time that Aurignncian man was living in caves in France, Spain, and elsewhere, carving and engraving animal forms in bone and ivory, and painting their figures for magical purposes on the walls of his eaves to ensure a. good and constant supply of game. Solutrean man fed largely on the horse, as is shown by the thousands of hones of this animal which have been found near his dwelling places. Doubtless he had followed on the tracks of the grdnt droves of horses which had swept across the great crass prairies which then stretched across the plains of Control Europe, just as tho plains Indians followed the great herds of bison. Is it possible to connect the finely chipped flint industry of early Egypt with the implements of similar workmanship in Europe? Miss Can tonThompson’s investigations have already broilgh to light some remarkable finds, /among them pottery of a very rough kind in the shape of saucers and cooking vessels tery-poorly fired. These were found in pre-historic camping grounds. In some cases n careful owner had placed the pots out of harm’s wav on a limestone ledge, and one of them contained 5 lumps of haematite, a red iron ore with parts or a flint nodule, and twelve shells of a fresh-water bivalve. Even more remarkable were a number of bone implements, harpoons with barbs and points, the first examples of the working of hone to he discovered in connection with the Fayum culture. Stone implements of the Fayum type have l>een found in Egypt from life Siva Oasis, through Favum Oasis, eastwards to the Wadv el Avisli. and thence up to Palestine at Gaza mid Ascalon. Another extension of greater importance has been brought to light by the excavations of tlic British School of Archaeology on a site called Badnri. thirty miles south of Asyut. where a settlement was found with flints of the Fayum type. There, however, these flints were found in graves for the first time, and not on the- surface, os in Fayum. During the three winters the expedition has worked on this site, finding not only flint implements. arrow heads, adzes, and the like, of the Solutrean form, hut pottery very finely rdazed, and very hard, ivory statuettes. and ivory combs, spoons, and other objects.

The date of the settlement in the Fayum, is fixed by Sir Flinders Petrie at some time between 12,000 and 13,000 8.C.; for the level in which these objects were found was covered by the Nile after that date, and Was only dried up again when tho Ptolemies stopped the flow of the Nile into the Fayum to acquire cultivable land.

Sir Flinders Petrie, therefore suggests that this early culture in Egypt is derived from the same source ns the Solutrean culture of Europe. He thinks that a people, originating possibly in tho Caucasus or by the Caspian, split into two sections, one passing into Egypt- and the other southward in Africa. Against any relation of this kind between the Solutrean culture of Europe and the Bndarian culture of Egypt, as it is proposed to call it. it is argued that while pottery is associated with’ the culture, both in the Fayum and at- Badari, no paleolithic pottery had ever been found in 'Europe. Sir Flinders Petrie, however, holds that the southward bound branch, passing on its way to Egypt, through a favourable climate, would be able in these easy conditions to preserve its original culture, whereas the European Solntrenns, hunting and fighting their way along the glacial fringe, would not be able to carry pottery, and, therefore, lost the art of making it.