INTRODUCTION xxiii
than did the Greeks or the Romans, and more about pre- Dynastic times and the early Dynasties than even those Egyptian scholars who took degrees In the Heliopolltan colleges when “Cleopatra’s Needle” was first erected. But our knowledge is withal fragmentary. We can but trace the outlines of Egyptian history; we cannot com- mand that unfailing supply of documentary material which is available, for instance, in dealing with the his- tory of a European nation. Fragments of pottery, a few weapons, strings of beads, some rude drawings, and tomb remains are all we have at our disposal in dealing with some periods; others are made articulate by inscriptions, but even after civilization had attained a high level we occasionally find it impossible to deal with those great movements which were shaping the destinies of the ancient people. Obscure periods recur all through Egyptian history, and some, indeed, are almost quite blank.
When "Cleopatra’s Needle” was erected by Thoth- mes III, the Conqueror, and the forerunner of Alexander the Great and Napoleon, Egyptian civilization had attained its highest level. Although occasionally interrupted by internal revolt or invasions from north and south, it had gradually increased in splendour until Thothmes III ex- tended the empire to the borders of Asia Minor. The Mediterranean Sea then became an “Egyptian lake”. Peace offerings were sent to Thothmes from Crete and Cyprus, the Phoenicians owed him allegiance, and his favours were courted by the Babylonians and Assyrians: the “Needle” records the gifts which were made by the humbled King of the Hittites.
After the passing of Thothmes, who flourished in the Eighteenth Dynasty, decline set in, and, although lost ground was recovered after a time, the power of Egypt
