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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 Excerpt:...How many years, or how many generations or centuries, were needed for the early Chalcolithic culture to evolve, before the institution or the introduction of the earliest dynasties? Data on which to found any suggestions have hitherto been almost non-existent. The variety of artistic products, the rise and degeneration of which can be traced in minute detail, has led Professor Petrie to suggest that the pre-dynastic culture before Menes extended over a period which was not less than 1000, and might be as much as 2000 years in length (Diospolis Parva, p. 28). But of course an argument of this kind, as its author would readily admit, is a pis allery legitimate only when no direct evidence is available. It must always be open to two obvious objections. The first of these is that it would be almost impossible, reviewing the history of culture in various parts of the world, to fix even approximately the length of time necessary for the evolution of any sort of civilization. The second is that, even if a canon could be established for certain joeoples or nations, there is no reason to suppose that it would be applicable to a civilization so unique as that of pre-dynastic Egypt. There is nothing, so far as present knowledge goes, with which this can in its entirety be compared; no com plete parallel to it can be found either in the Nile Valley or elsewhere. The difficulty, however, has been to find any satisfactory substitute for the argument which has been criticized. In this chapter I propose to offer a new one, based on calculations of the number of burials contained in various cemeteries which have been exhausted to the very last grave. The Cemetery a at El Amrah had been excavated to a considerable extent before this year (p. 2). We fully noted 223 graves fro...