ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the general development of the civilisation revealed by two periods could be distinguished. About Petrie found the first tombs of a special type which was a puzzle to archaeologists. In Nubia also two periods are recognisable, the first offering complete identity with the first period of Upper Egypt. As regards the second period, it is noticeable that there is a persistence of primitive types which had disappeared in Egypt: the forms change, but the genres survive. The Meroitic pottery of Ethiopian times shows the late survival of the pottery of the most ancient period of Upper Egypt. Primitive civilisation ebbed from north to south, the course of the Nile. The information gained from these remarks enables us to say that the second period in Upper Egypt shows the influence of contact with a neighbouring civilisation which we naturally look for in Lower Egypt.
