und are innumerable flint chips and perfect
weapons, burnt black and patinated by ages of sunlight. We are taking
one particular spot in the hills of Western Thebes as an example, but
there are plenty of others, such as the Wadi esh-Shekh on the right bank
of the Nile opposite Maghagha, whence Mr. H. Seton-Karr has brought
back specimens of flint tools of all ages from the Palaeolithic to the
Neolithic periods.

The Palaeolithic flint workshops on the Theban hills have been visited of
late years by Mr. Seton-Karr, by Prof. Schweinfurth, Mr. Allen Sturge,
and Dr. Blanckenhorn, by Mr. Portch, Mr. Ayrton, and Mr. Hall. The
weapons illustrated here were found by Messrs. Hall and Ayrton, and are
now preserved in the British Museum. Among these flints shown we notice
two fine specimens of the pear-shaped type of St. Acheul, with curious
adze-shaped implements of primitive type to left and right. Below, to
the right, is a very primitive instrument of Chellean type, being merely
a sharpened pebble. Above, to left and right, are two specimens of the
curious half-moon-shaped instruments which are characteristic of
the Theban flint field and are hardly known elsewhere. All have the
beautiful brown patina, which only ages of sunburn can give. The
"poignard" type to the left, at the bottom of the plate, is broken off
short.

[Illustration: 008.jpg Palaeolithic Implements of the Quaternary Period.
From the desert plateau and slopes west of Thebes.]

In the smaller illustration we see some remarkable types: two scrapers
or knives with strongly marked "bulb of percussion" (the spot where the
flint-knapper struck and from which the flakes flew off), a very regular
_coup-de-poing_ which looks almost like a large arrowhead, and on the
right a much weathered and patinated scraper which must be of immemorial
age.

[Illustration: 009.jpg (right): PALAEOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS. From Man,
March, 1905.]

This came from the top plateau, not from the slopes (or subsidiary
plateaus at the head of the _wadis_), as did the great St. Acheulian
weapons. The circular object is very remarkable: it is the half of the
ring of a "morpholith "(a round flinty accretion often found in the
Theban limestone) which has been split, and the split (flat) side
carefully bevelled. Several of these interesting objects have been
found in conjunction with Palaeolithic implements at Thebes. No doubt the
flints lie on the actual surface where they were made. No later wate