Naqada and Ballas Volume 1; 1895

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. 1896 Excerpt: ...heads. There seems, therefore, no possible room for the military hypothesis to account either for foreigners on Egyptian soil, or for the mutilations of the bodies. The tribe was fairly homogeneous, containing equal numbers of similar men and women, and was not addicted to fighting. Nor will the presence of even a tribe of foreign mercenaries account for the remains. Any soldier employed by Egyptians must have had some contact with them, have used some Egyptian objects or weapons, and probably have been recompensed by some Egyptian products. Yet not any Egyptian things, of any kind whatever, were found among these people, nor even the simplest Egyptian arts, such as the potter's wheel; they had no intercourse with the former inhabitants, but were entirely independent. CHAPTER IX. DESCRIPTION OF PLATES. By Messrs. Petrie and Quibell. 56. PL. I. Ballas to Naqada.--This map will shew the general relation of the places. The belt of cultivation varies from 1 miles wide at Ballas to 3 miles opposite Nubt; while the desert plain back to the cliffs averages about 3 miles in width. This desert rises in a low terrace to a plateau about 30 feet above the Nile plain, and then gradually slopes upward until it is broken into a maze of foot hills at about 2 miles back. High above these rise the cliffs to 1400 feet, in many parts quite inaccessible, with ranges of precipices some hundreds of feet high. These cliffs form the river front to the great Libyan plateau, which is intersected with stream-courses and valleys. The valleys run down westward in the plateau, and open out in the Nile valley far to the north, while the valley-heads reach up to the cliffface, and often break the outline of that with dips and slopes. The plain below the cliffs is intersected with drainage ...