By this route they may have entered
Egypt, bringing with them a civilization, which, like that of the other
Semites, had been profoundly influenced and modified by that of the
Sumerian inhabitants of Babylonia. This Semitic-Sumerian culture,
mingling with that of the Nilotes themselves, produced the civilization
of Ancient Egypt as we know it.
This is a very plausible hypothesis, and has a great deal of evidence in
its favour. It seems certain that in the early dynastic period two
races lived in Egypt, which differed considerably in type, and also,
apparently, in burial customs. The later Egyptians always buried the
dead lying on their backs, extended at full length. During the period of
the Middle Kingdom (XIth-XIIIth Dynasties) the head was usually turned
over on to the left side, in order that the dead man might look through
the two great eyes painted on that side of the coffin. Afterward the
rigidly extended position was always adopted. The Neolithic Egyptians,
however, buried the dead lying wholly on the left side and in a
contracted position, with the knees drawn up to the chin. The bodies
were not embalmed, and the extended position and mummification were
never used. Under the IVth Dynasty we find in the necropolis of Medum
(north of the Payyum) the two positions used simultaneously, and the
extended bodies are mummified.
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