In the autumn of 1928 a German archaeological expedition began to excavate the site of Ctesiphon, the capital of the Sassanid empire. Two years earlier the Deutsche Orientgesellschaft, which had successfully made excavations at Babylon, Assur, Farah and Warka, was informed by the Iraq Ministry of Education that the help of German archaeologists in carrying out research would be welcomed. The Society thereupon agreed to co-operate with the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft in the excavation of Ctesiphon and Seleucia.

Ever since the first discovery of predynastic cemeteries in Egypt by Sir Flinders Petrie at Naqada in 1895 it was realized that the beginnings of civilization in the Nile Valley had not been found, and that remains of earlier stages might come to light. For nearly thirty years, in spite of active and more or less scientific excavation in all parts of Egypt and Nubia, no earlier settlements or cemeteries were discovered which could then be classed as older than predynastic. Flintwork of palaeolithic man abounded, especially on the high desert; and the flints of the Fayyum, in great variety, were recognized as mainly neolithic. But the ancestors or forerunners of the predynastic people seemed to have left no other trace. Probably the advance of the cultivation with the gradual rise of the mud level had obliterated all that they had left behind them. Steep slopes of desert are obviously covered less quickly than the flatter areas. The eastern desert fringing the cultivation in the Badari district of Middle Egypt presents a succession of more or less high spurs intersected by dry watercourses or wadys running down from the cliffs to the fields. It is here, and so far here only, that the much sought for precursors of the predynastic Egyptians have been revealed to us. They have been called Badarians to distinguish them from the well-known predynastic people (Amratians, Gerzeans and Semainians) with whom they are closely akin both in culture and physical type.

It seems amazing that an African negro should ever have been able with any sort of justification to style himself – Emperor of the World ', and perhaps even more so that he should have been an enlightened prince ruling a people who were in many ways quite as civilized as we are today. For though it might be easy to imagine a native military genius, it is difficult to picture him as a patron of the finer arts.

From the very earliest recorded times what is now the northern Sudan-in those days described variously as Nubia, Ethiopia, or Kushwas in close relation with Egypt; and between the two countries there was a continuous exchange, not only of produce and material, but also of ideas and customs.

It is now 24 years since Dr Randall MacIver investigated the problems of the origin and age of the Southern Rhodesian ruins. Nothing of any scientific consequence has since been added to the evidence on the purely archaeological side, with the exception of the partial excavation of the so-called Western Temple of the Zimbabwe Acropolis.

In physical anthropology, we had, in 1924, Sir Arthur Keith's report on four ancient skeletons found in gold mines, and one from Zimbabwe itself. They were of Bantu type, but do they represent the original miners, and how old are they?