iefly recapitulating and describing
the discoveries made since its appearance. On this account we
have followed a geographical rather than a chronological system of
arrangement, but at the same time the attempt has been made to suggest
to the mind of the reader the historical sequence of events.

At no period have excavations been pursued with more energy and
activity, both in Egypt and Western Asia, than at the present time, and
every season's work obliges us to modify former theories, and extends
our knowledge of periods of history which even ten years ago were
unknown to the historian. For instance, a whole chapter has been added
to Egyptian history by the discovery of the Neolithic culture of the
primitive Egyptians, while the recent excavations at Susa are revealing
a hitherto totally unsuspected epoch of proto-Elamite civilization.
Further than this, we have discovered the relics of the oldest
historical kings of Egypt, and we are now enabled to reconstitute from
material as yet unpublished the inter-relations of the early dynasties
of Babylon. Important discoveries have also been made with regard to
isolated points in the later historical periods. We have therefore
attempted to include the most important of these in our survey of recent
excavations and their results. We would again remind the reader that
Prof. Maspero's great work must be consulted for the complete history of
the period, the present volume being, not a connected history of Egypt
and Western Asia, but a description and discussion of the manner in
which recent discovery and research have added to and modified our
conceptions of ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilization.

CONTENTS

I. The Discovery of Prehistoric Egypt

II. Abydos and the First Three Dynasties

III. Memphis and the Pyramids

IV. Recent Excavations in Western Asia and the Dawn of Chaldaean History

V. Elam and Babylon, the Country of the Sea and the Kassites

VI. Early Babylonian Life and Customs

VII. Temples and Tombs of Thebes

VIII. The Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires in the Light of Recent
Research

IX. The Last Days of Ancient Egypt

EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA

_In the Light of Recent Excavation and Research_

CHAPTER I--THE DISCOVERY OF PREHISTORIC EGYPT

During the last ten years our conception of the beginnings of Egyptian
antiquity has profoundly altered. When Prof. Maspero published the
first volume of his great _Histoire Ancienne