Petrie Flinders. Wisdom of the Egyptians

British school of archaeology in Egypt/Bernard Quaritch, 1940. — 200 p.When we speak of Egyptian wisdom, it is obvious that it does not imply a scope like that of modern Science, but the wisdom of the ancients contained the elements of what we now call Science.
Wisdom is primarily knowledge in its higher sense, but it included natural science and skill, expertness, all that is acquired and not inborn.
Moses was “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,” sophia, and in the present volume we try to enter into the ideas of the Egyptians regarding various sciences.
When we speak of Egyptian Science moreover, it is the acquired knowledge and skill in the various branches of civilisation which have been elaborated by the successive dwellers in the Nile valley. Our scope is an outline, without giving all the details needed for a subject like weights and measures, or architecture, both of which have been treated separately.
We must always remember, in working at the sources of Egyptian ideas, that six successive races have entered the country (besides political conquests), so we must be prepared to find a composite origin for everything Egyptian. There was first a crude condition, akin to all Africa; upon this came (2) the Tasian, (3) a skilful civilisation, Badarian from Asia; next (4) a Libyan influence, Amratian, from the west; (5) an eastern civilisation, Gerzean, akin to the Amorite; lastly (6) Semainean, the dynastic race from Elam, by way of Punt (Somali) and the Red Sea, which brought in art, and rapid growth of ability. The successive periods are named from places where each is found with least admixture.
During historic times there have been frequent political conquests but without much change in the population. All of these changes Egypt assimilated, usually as a stimulus to its innate abilities, for Egypt has never been strong except under foreign inspiration. It needs outside pressure, and falls like China when left to its own initiative.
The traditions of the land, developed in thousands of years, were taken up by each conqueror, until it met a stronger mental vigour in the Greek; after that the true Egypt was finally wrecked, and there was only an old influence but no continuity of thought.
We must approach each subject along the path of Egyptian thought, however clumsy it may seem, if we would understand the Egyptian mind.