ly
extended by the Frenchman Champollion, a little later, with the result
that the firm foundations of the modern science of Egyptology were laid.
Subsequently such students as Rosellini the Italian, Lepsius the German,
and Wilkinson the Englishman, entered the field, which in due course
was cultivated by De Rouge in France and Birch in England, and by
such distinguished latter-day workers as Chabas, Mariette, Maspero,
Amelineau, and De Morgan among the Frenchmen; Professor Petrie and Dr.
Budge in England; and Brugsch Pasha and Professor Erman in Germany, not
to mention a large coterie of somewhat less familiar names. These men
working, some of them in the field of practical exploration, some as
students of the Egyptian language and writing, have restored to us a
tolerably precise knowledge of the history of Egypt from the time of the
first historical king, Mena, whose date is placed at about the middle
of the fifth century B.C. We know not merely the names of most of the
subsequent rulers, but some thing of the deeds of many of them;
and, what is vastly more important, we know, thanks to the modern
interpretation of the old literature, many things concerning the life
of the people, and in particular concerning their highest culture, their
methods of thought, and their scientific attainments, which might well
have been supposed to be past finding out. Nor has modern investigation
halted with the time of the first kings; the recent explorations of such
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