archaeologists as Amelineau, De Morgan, and Petrie have brought
to light numerous remains of what is now spoken of as the
predynastic period--a period when the inhabitants of the Nile
Valley used implements of chipped stone, when their pottery was
made without the use of the potter's wheel, and when they buried
their dead in curiously cramped attitudes without attempt at
mummification. These aboriginal inhabitants of Egypt cannot
perhaps with strict propriety be spoken of as living within the
historical period, since we cannot date their relics with any
accuracy. But they give us glimpses of the early stages of
civilization upon which the Egyptians of the dynastic period were
to advance.

It is held that the nascent civilization of these Egyptians of
the Neolithic, or late Stone Age, was overthrown by the invading
hosts of a more highly civilized race which probably came from
the East, and which may have been of a Semitic stock. The
presumption is that this invading people brought with it a
knowledge of the arts of war and peace, developed or adopted in
its old home. The introduction of these arts served to bridge
somewhat suddenly, so far as Egypt is concerned, that gap between
the prehistoric and the historic stage of culture to which we
have all along referred. The essential structure of that bridge,
let it now be clearly understood, consisted of a single element.
That element is the capacity to make written records: a knowledge
of the art of writing. Clearly understood, it is this element of
knowledge that forms the line bounding the historical period.
Numberless mementos are in existence that tell of the
intellectual activities of prehistoric man; such mementos as
flint implements, pieces of pottery, and fragments of bone,