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Fig. 8. Mounds of fort, Defeneh.

Fig. 9. Sarcophagi at Zuweleyn.

Towns.

A town site is always recognised (Fig.8) by its mounds of crumbling mud brick, strewn with potsherds if in Upper Egypt, or with burnt red bricks on the later mounds of the Delta. Whenever a native begins to describe a site in Lower Egypt, one inquires if there is red brick, and if so there is no need to listen further. Generally it is possible to date the latest age of a town by the potsherds lying on the surface; and to allow a rate of growth of 20 inches a century down to the visible level; if that gives a long period we may further carry down the certainly artificial level by 4 inches in a century for the Nile deposits when in the cultivated ground. For instance, there are mounds in the Delta about 40 feet high, ending about 500 A.D.; this gives about 40 feet of rise, equal to about 2400 years, or say 2000 B.C., for the age at the present ground level. But the visible base was about 5 feet lower at 500 A.D.; and the human deposit rising at 20 inches a century has been overlaid at the rate of 4 inches a century by the Nile deposit. Hence the age may be reckoned by a depth of 45 feet accumulated at 16 inches a century before 500 A.D. or about 2900 B.C. No exact conclusion could be based on this; but it is a valuable clue to the age to which the yet unseen foundation of a town may most likely belong. Town mounds and ruins of buildings have generally symmetrical forms, weathered away uniformly on all sides. But around towns are often heaps of rubbish thrown out, the best-known example of this being the immense heaps behind Cairo; and such accumulations usually show their nature by the two slopes, the gradual walk-up slope, and the steep thrown-down slope.