Egypt emerges from those dark ages, ruled by powerful feudal lords, with the pharaohs appearing to be mere figure-heads. These great barons left voluminous records, which depict their conquests and their powers, and tell of their own individual greatness. They constructed magnificent tombs for their eternal rest, and the land blossomed culturally under their dominion. These conditions prevailed until the coming of the Hyksos dynasty. These conquering kings were of Semitic origin and they seem to have come from the region of Ur. After this conquest, Egypt suddenly became an unlimited monarchy. The great lords became landless, stripped of their power and robbed of all authority. The people literally passed into the possession of the crown, and Egypt became a nation of slaves who owed their very existence to the royal head of the government. The reason for this change will be made manifest later in this present work. We are now interested only in presenting these strange cycles of culture as shown by archeology. It would take many volumes to give a detailed picture of the early golden age in Egypt. As an illustration of the art and development of that culture, we refer the reader to the tomb of a court official at the dawn of the sixth dynasty. Buried with this minor official were certain small wooden effigies depicting customs, trades, and tools of his day. There were porters laden with their heavy burdens. There were scribes bearing stylus and plaque. Certain tradesmen were found in these brilliant statuettes, each man’s craft being shown by the tools that he carried in his hand. Priests appeared clad in their pontifical robes. Perhaps the most interesting of all were the statuettes of candy vendors, each man equipped with his tray of sweets, and a horsehair tail wherewith to fan the flies. Some of these statues were so perfect in their execution that the eminent Phidias might well have envied their perfection. When we compare this art and culture with the so-called pictures of brutish cave-dwellers, we have one more failure in the collapsing chain of evidences that was supposed to show man’s constantly advancing culture. We might also give, by way of illustration, the magnificent statue of Kephren. This memorial was exquisitely carved from stone so hard that it would blunt most modern tools. Kephren constructed one of the pyramids at Giza. This latter work was notable in that there were evidences that some of the stones had been cut with what appeared to be tubular drills. Since this is possible in our modern culture with the use of diamond-pointed instruments, there is food for considerable thought and speculation as to the culture and learning of Kephren’s age! As a general statement, it is not too much to say that the farther back we go into Egyptian antiquity, the more perfect the arts and culture in general seem to be.