Introduction

Egyptian history and the Greek and Roman writers

Until the mid 19th century, the information the whole world had about Ancient Egypt was so thin and poor. That was due to the inability to read its hieroglyphic scripts. It is true that a good number of Ancient Greek and Roman writers who have been to Egypt to witness its wonders have described Egypt in detail and have written whatever they learnt about its history, yet unfortunately, all what reached us of their writings had reached them through verbal narration or just a geographic description. Such tales remained as our only source about the history of Ancient Egypt till the early 19th century. Among the most important of those writers are Herodotus, Cecily Didor, Strapone and others who have toured Egypt during the age of Ptolemaic kings and during the Roman age.

The true history of Ancient Egypt prior to the Ptolemaic age thus remained an unsolved mystery that we knew nothing about except for what had reached us from the Egyptian writer Maniton who had written the history of Egypt during the Ptolemaic age apparently using Ancient Egyptian sources. Unfortunately, nothing but a tiny part of that has reached us. A lot of what he has mentioned in his book was not authenticated by original sources that have now been found after uncovering the secrets of the Ancient Egyptian language. The world kept relying for information about the history of Egypt on what the Greek writersand Maniton have left us. We had no way for correcting their mistakes and filling the gaps encountered by researchers in the history of Egypt. Due to this, some scientists such as Father Karsnar attempted to unlock the meaning of the Egyptian language in order to reach the real history of Egypt, yet no satisfying result had been achieved.

French campaign and its scientific studies in Egypt

Yet since the day the French Forces set foot on the shores of the Nile, a new page was written in the history of Egypt. At the time the French soldiers fought the Mamaleek, there had been a parallel campaign by French scientists who traveled all over Egypt in order to study all its aspects in an systematic scientific method. They have studied the geography of Egypt, its animals, plants, varied crops and crafts. They also studied the behavior of people, their culture and their monuments. They recorded the ancient scripts which had then been visible at the Egyptian temples. After that, they carefully wrote down all their findings with high accuracy in a special multivolume encyclopedia which they called Description de l'Egypte. Unfortunately, historians benefited little from this. That was because the scripts which the French had copied from temples and other places remained mute until Champollion came and unlocked its secrets as we will mention later on.

Greek mythology as a source for the history of Egypt

Since the time the secrets of the Egyptian language have uncovered, the real history of Egypt started to reveal itself gradually. This put an end to the myths propagated by Greek writers who traversed the Nile Valley and wrote about Egypt. Until that time, such myths were in the eyes of the world seen as the reliable history of Egypt.

Archeologists and the history of Egypt

At the time Egyptologists were moving steadily in the direction of uncovering the real history of Egypt, thanks to the tremendous efforts that had been exerted in excavation work and in uncovering the meanings of the scripts found on the walls of temples and in papyrus in Egypt, at that same time a group of European scientists were exerting great efforts in founding a new and distinct science at the other side of the Mediterranean.

Beginnings of the science of prehistory

That science is the science of prehistory. At its early beginning, the science of prehistory had no strong foundation compared to the science of Egyptology. The science of prehistory was concerned with solving the mystery of the origin of humans before the time of recorded history, that is before the appearance of writing. That was achieved by studying the remains of human bones and other remnants which were left over neglected above the surface of the earth or buried inside caves or beneath ancient rivers. Such studies achieved at last in some success after the founding of such science had been faced with strong opposition.

First book in the science of prehistory

In fact, after half a century's work, the two scientists Bushe and Bern were able to write a reference about the prehistoric era. A group of scientists succeeded them and were able through their research to make the foundation of this new branch of science more solid making it an acknowledged science by all scientific societies in Europe.

Ancient writers and prehistory

It is surprising that some ancient writers have mentioned this science before it had been known and founded. The Latin poet Lucree mentioned this in his words: "Prehistoric humans had no knowledge of using metals and thus used wood, bones and ~professionally crafted stones as tools and weapons for hunting and war. At a later age, humans became farmers. Then humans started improving their tools and sharpening their axes."

Ages of the prehistoric era

In fact, this coincides with historic facts, for we have found that during the stone age, ~crafted flint tools have been used followed by the use of polished stone. This was followed by an age where people felt more advanced, that was the age of using metals. It is noticed that by the appearance of metals, usage of the flint tools started to diminish gradually. There is no surprise in this, for the use of cupper then the invention of bronze which was replaced by iron for a short period were among the things that enabled humanity to take new steps towards advancement till the age of recorded history, that is the age of using writing and reading in recording its events and works. Yet the nations of the world did not reach that stage at the same time. For instance the Egyptian states and Keldic states knew writing and reading since thousands of years BCE while at the same time remaining for a long time unaware of the existence of iron. On the other hand, we find that inhabitants of the Mediterranean kingdoms remained for centuries buried in the darkness of the prehistoric age. In spite of that, they did have knowledge of using metal long before the Roman ~invasion.

Egyptologists dismissing prehistory

It is surprising that the research done by scientists of prehistory was not accepted by Egyptologists during most of the 19th century. The reason behind this was that those archeologists doubted the existence of an era in the history of Egypt before the age of the Old Kingdome. This is because they believed that the inhabitants of Egypt had no infancy ere like the rest of the nations and that they have appeared in history at once and that their city was almost complete. That led archeologists to refuse searching for the origins of such flourishing culture which must have reached what it had reached gradually after the passing of several countries. Due to this, they refused to examine tools made of stone which they accidentally found during excavations or which were collected from above the surface of the earth. They explained the existence of such tools by saying that they were created by nature or were created during the Pharaonic dynasties.

Arcelin, first to proove prehistory in Egypt existed

Archeologist thus kept resisting until the French scientists Arcelin came to Egypt. He was the first to prove the existence of a prehistoric era in Egypt. He succeded in providing evidence for what he said.

Arcelan came to Egypt in 1868. he traversed the River Nile to and fro. He produced fruitful research during his trip. He collected some tools made of gold plated flint from the edge of the desert land on which the pyramids were built. Those tools looked similar to those found in Europe. he was even more fortunate to find a great factory made out of flint at the ~land next to the King’s Vally in the direction of Luxor. The factory came from the Old Stone Age (Paleoletic). It became apparent that what has been found at that location was so similar to what had been found at Saint Achul. South of the above mentioned spot at Abi Menkar, some tools from the New Stone Age were found.

Anthropology society confirms prehistoric Egypt

Shortly after that discovery, the two scientists Lanormount & Henry found some tools of great importance near the Thebes ~Hills. As a result of that discovery, the International Anthropology Society declared in 1870 the possibility of the existence of a prehistoric era in Egypt. Further support for this declaration came from what Father Richard found in Sinai and also near Cairo and in Thebes. Yet in spite of all that, archeologist kept resisting the idea of the existence of a prehistoric age in Egypt saying that they had found tools similar to those found by these researchers in Ancient Egyptian tombs. They did not understand that such tools might have been left over from prehistoric eras that have remained in use through inheritance and custom till the age of recorded history. Archeologist such as Merit Pasha, Lepseus and Shabas maintained their views despite the attempts of prehistory scientists to convince them that there existed an ere in Egypt before that of the Old Kingdome.

De Morgan first archeologist accepting prehistoric Egypt

This kept going on for over thirty years until one of the archeologists themselves put things in their proper place. That archeologist was Jack De Morgan who had been Head of Egyptian Archeology at that time. He compiled two huge volumes in which he gathered all what had been written regarding this subject. He concluded his research by confirming the existence of a prehistoric ere in Egypt. He also added to this his own observations which he had collected during his long stay in Egypt. For during that period, he studied the conditions and locations where the stone tools were found ad gave solid proof that the tools that came from the prehistoric era were older than the tools which people kept making and using during historic ages as a custom similar to those of the prehistoric ere. After reaching that result, he went on proving to scientists that tools from prehistoric Egypt are almost identical to those kept in europ’s museums from the same era.

He then provided conclusive evidence that the era of gold plated stone in Egypt came before the era of ~smoothed stone which was in turn followed by the age of using metal, as was the case in England, France and other nations.

Flinders Petrie's research in prehistoric Egypt

In 1897, the scientist Di Morgan showed the results of his research to the world. Since then, the world acknowledged the existence of a prehistoric era in Egypt. Research started to pour in supporting the view of this great scientist or adding to his research and in some cases correcting some of his errors in different points. Research done by Mr Flinders Petrie and Di Morgan paved the road for us to find a link between the prehistoric era in Egypt and the Old Kingdome. This period was called the Predynastic Era.

The archeologist La Grane later on found new ~stops. Furthermore, the two scientists Stone and Kar and others found sites of that age in the desert area at the outskirts of the Nile. Mr Shfilfort, a German scientist, pointed out the existence of several sites containing tools that dated back to prehistory.