It was
evidently becoming known. The supposition, however, that the "Smiths"
were the Semitic conquerors, and that they won their way by the aid of
their superior weapons of metal, may be provisionally accepted.
In favour of the view which would bring the conquerors by way of the
Wadi Hammamat, an interesting discovery may be quoted. Immediately
opposite Den-dera, where, according to the legend, the battle between
the _Mesniu_ and the aborigines took place, lies Koptos, at the mouth of
the Wadi Hammamat. Here, in 1894, underneath the pavement of the ancient
temple, Prof. Petrie found remains which he then diagnosed as belonging
to the most ancient epoch of Egyptian history. Among them were some
extremely archaic statues of the god Min, on which were curious
scratched drawings of bears, _crioceras-shells_, elephants walking over
hills, etc., of the most primitive description. With them were lions'
heads and birds of a style then unknown, but which we now know to belong
to the period of the beginning of the Ist Dynasty. But the statues of
Min are older. The _crioceras-shells_ belong to the Red Sea. Are we to
see in these statues the holy images of the conquerors from the Red Sea
who reached the Nile valley by way of the Wadi Hammamat, and set up the
first memorials of their presence at Koptos? It may be so, or the Min
statues may be older than the conquerors, and belong to the Neolithic
race, since Min and his fetish (which we find on the slate palette from
el-'Amra, already mentioned) seem to belong to the indigenous Nilotes.
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