ARTISANS AND THEIR CRAFTS. Countries today can easily import such articles of manufacture as are not produced within their own boundaries. A single household may possess silk made in India, porcelain from China, curtains and laces from Belgium, cutlery from England, and some musical instruments made in Germany. All this was different in antiquity. Egypt long remained isolated. She developed a higher civilization than her neighbors, and what her people required had to be produced for the most part within her borders. It followed naturally that a wide variety of trades and crafts grew up in the limited valley of the Nile. To be sure, during her empire period many lands sent their choicest products as tribute, yet even then, Egyptians held first place in certain arts and crafts. There was little native wood in the valley. When the conquests of Thutmose I. established relations with Syria, woods were imported to some extent. Mummies have been found encased in the rare cedars of Lebanon. Generally speaking, however, substitutes had to be found for timber. Light boats were made from reeds, and for the making of larger ones, boatmakers became expert in joining together small pieces of wood, thus forming large boards, strong enough to bear severe strains. For some purposes, cartonage was substituted. This was composed of several layers of coarse linen glued together. It was used extensively for the manufacture of coffins. In veneering rare woods upon less costly foundations, the Egyptians far surpassed any modern efforts. Wood carvers reached a high degree of skill in fashioning little statuettes and images from wood, also in carving, with exquisite detail, tiny wooden amulets and ornaments. Handles of knives sometimes display the dexterity of the wood carvers.