kings, Ra saa ka khepru, Tut ankhamen, Ai, and Horemheb, in
peaceable succession. But of late it has been thought that the
last three were rival kings at Thebes; and that they upheld
Amen in rivalry to Khuenaten and his successor, who were cut
very short in their reigns. Nothing here supports the latter
view. A great number of moulds for making pottery rings are
found here in factories; and those of Tut ankhamen are as
common and as varied as of Khuenaten, showing that he was an
important ruler here for a considerable time. Of Ai rings are
occasionally found here, as also of Horemheb, who has left a
block of sculpture with his cartouche in the temple of Aten. So
it is certain that he actually upheld the worship of Aten early
in his reign, and added to the buildings here, far from being a
destructive rival overthrowing this place from Thebes.
Afterwards he re-established Amen (as I got a scarab of his in
Cairo, "establishing the temple of Amen"), and he removed the
blocks of stone wholesale from here to build with at Thebes.
Later than Horemheb there is not a trace here; Seti and Ramessu
are absolutely unknown in this site, showing that it was
stripped of stone and deserted before the XIX dynasty. Hence,
about two generations, from 1400 to 1340 B.C., are the extreme
limits of date for everything found here. The masonry was
re-used at Thebes, Memphis, and other places where the name of
Khuenaten has been found.
Page 109
The manufactures of this place were not extensive--glass and
glazes were the main industries; and the objects so common at
Gurob (metal tools, spindles, thread, weights, and marks on the
pottery) are all rare here. The furnace and the details of
making the coloured blue and green frits, have been found.
Pottery moulds for making the pendants of fruits, leaves,
animals, &c., are abundant in the factories; and a great
variety of patterned "Phoenician" glass vases are found, but
only in fragments.
The cuneiform tablets discovered here were all in store rooms
outside the palace; they were placed by the house of the
Babylonian scribe, which was localised by our finding the waste
pieces of his spoilt tablets in rubbish holes. A large quantity
of fragments are found of the Aegean pottery, like that of the
early period at Mykenae and Ialysos. This is completely in
accord with what I found at Gurob, but with more variety in
form. The Phoenician pottery which I found at Lachish is also
found here, so we now have a firm dating for all these styles.
The connexion between the naturalistic work of these frescoes
and the fresco of Tiryns and the gold cups of Vaphio is
obvious; and it seems possible that Greece may have started
Khuenaten in his new views of style, which he carried out so
fully by his native artists. The similarity of the geometrical
pattern columns to the sculptures of the Mykenae period is
striking; hitherto such Egyptian decoration was only known in
colour, and not in relief. We have yet a great deal to learn as
to the influences between Greece and Egypt, but this place has
helped to open our eyes.--W.M. FLINDERS PETRIE in _Academy_,
April 9.
CUNEIFORM TABLETS.--Prof. Sayce while in Egypt spent several
days at Tel el-Amarna with Mr. Petrie, and examined the
fragments of cuneiform tablets which he has discovered there.
Among them are portions of letters from the governors of
Musikhuna, in Palestine, and Gebal, in Phornicia. The most
interesting were some lexical fragments. One or two of these
formed part of a sort of comparative dictionary of three (or
perhaps five) different languages, one of them of course being
Babylonian, in which the words of the other languages are
explained at length. The work seems to have been compiled by
"order of the King of Egypt." Another work was a dictionary of
Sumerian and Babylonian, in which the pronunciation of the
Sumerian is given as well as their ideographic representation.
Thus the Babylonian _risápu_ and _di_ _kate_ are stated to be
the equivalents not only of the ideographic _gaz-gaz_, but also
of the phonetically written _ga-az-ga-az_. This confirms the
Page 110 views of Professors Sayce and Oppert, expressed long ago, as to
the comparatively late date at which _Accado-Sumerian_ ceased
to be a spoken language.--_Academy_, May 14.
TOMB OF KHUENATEN OR AMENOPHIS IV.--Prof. Sayce writes to the
_Academy_ of Feb. 27. I have been spending a few days at Tel
el-Amarna. Mr. Flinders Petrie is excavating the ruins of the
old city of Khuenaten, while M. Alexandre, on behalf of the
Gizeh Museum, has spent the summer and autumn among the tombs
of Tel el-Amarna, and his labours have been rewarded by some
important discoveries. At the entrance to one of the tombs, for
instance, he has found stelae of the usual tombstone shape let
into the wall like the dedication tablets of Greek and Roman
times. The removal of the sand from the foot of the great stela
of Khuenaten, first discovered by Prisse d'Avennes, has brought
to light a most interesting text. This describes the distance
of the stelae erected by the Pharaoh one from the other, and
thus defines the limits of the territory belonging to the city
which he built.
But M. Alexandre's crowning discovery--a discovery which is one
of the most important made in Egypt in recent years--did not
take place until December 30. It was nothing less than the
discovery of the tomb of Khuenaten himself. The tomb is well
concealed, and is at a great distance from the river and the
ruins of the old city. Midway between the northern and the
southern tombs of Tel el-Amarna, in the amphitheatre of cliffs
to the east of the ancient town, are two ravines, more than
three miles from the mouth of one of them, towards the head of
a small valley is the tomb. It resembles the famous "Tombs of
the Kings" at Thebes, being in the form of a subterranean
passage cut in the rock, and sloping downwards at an acute
angle to a distance of more than 100 metres. In front of the
entrance is a double flight to steps also cut out of the rock,
with a slide for the mummy between them. After entering the
passage of the tomb, which is broad and lofty, we pass on the
right another long passage, probably intended for the queen,
but never finished. Soon afterwards we come to a chamber, also
on the right, which serves as an antechamber to another within.
The walls of both chambers have been covered with stucco, and
embellished with hieroglyphs and sculptures. Among the latter
are figures of prisoners from Ethiopia and Syria, of the solar
disk, and of female mourners who weep and throw dust on their
heads. From the inscriptions we learn that the two chambers
were the burial-place of Khuenaten's daughter Aten-mert, who
must consequently have died before him. It further follows that
Ra-si-aa-ka, Aten-mert's husband, who received the titles of
royalty in consequence of his marriage, must have been coregent
with Khuenaten.
Page 111
Khuenaten himself was buried in a large square-columned hall at
the extreme end of the tomb. Fragments of his granite
sarcophagus have been found there by M. Alexandre, as well as
pieces of the exquisitely fine mummy cloth in which his body
was wrapped. At the entrance to the tomb M. Alexandre also
picked up broken _ushebtis_, upon which the cartouches of
Khuenaten are inscribed. Before the Pharaoh had been properly
entombed it would seem that his enemies broke into his last
resting-place, destroyed his sarcophagus, tore the wrappings of
his mummy to shreds, and effaced the name and image of his god
wherever it was engraved upon the wall. The only finished
portions of the tomb are the chambers in which his daughter was
buried. Elsewhere the tomb is in the same condition as the
majority of the tombs of his adherents. The walls have never
been covered with stucco, much less painted or sculptured, and
even the columns of the magnificent hall in which his
sarcophagus was placed remains rough-hewn. It is clear that the
king died suddenly, and that he was buried in haste on the
morning of a revolution. His followers may have made a stand
against their enemies for a few months, but it is difficult to
believe from the state in which the tomb has been found that
they can have done so for a longer time. Very shortly after
Khuen-Aten's death his city must have been destoyed, never to
be inhabited again.
Mr. Petrie in a letter to the _Academy_ says: "It has long been
known that the Arabs had obtained access to the tomb of the
remarkable founder of Tel el-Amarna; the heart scarab of
Khuenaten was sold two or three years ago at Luxor, and the
jewellery of Neferti-iti, his queen, a year or two before
that."
The entrance is like that of the tomb of Seti I at Thebes; but
the sloping passage is about half the length of
that.--_Academy_, Feb. 6.
COLLECTION IN LONDON.--The collections of sculpture, painting,
faience, &c., which Mr. Flinders Petrie brought back from his
excavations last winter at Tel el-Amarna have been placed on
view at 4 Oxford-mansion, Oxford-circus, W. Their special
interest is that they reveal an hitherto unknown form of art,
remarkable both for its originality and for its spirited
rendering of natural objects. The resemblance to some of the
finest objects of Mycenaean work is very striking. The
exhibition remained open until October 15.--_Academy_, Sept.
24.
ETHIOPIA.
NORTHERN ETBAI.--EXPEDITION TO THE NORTHERN ETBAI.--A recent
scientific expedition to northern Etbai or northern Aethiopia,
Page 112 by the order of the Khedive, is the subject of a very
interesting paper by Ernest A. Floyer, in the _Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society_ for October.
The chief investigation of the expedition was devoted to the
remains of certain large mining stations which proved to be
doubly interesting, as giving evidence of two distinct periods
of the mining industry.
Mines have been opened over almost the entire surface, and the
remains of numerous towns mark the dwelling places of the
miners.
Not only in the mines is found evidence of two methods, one
very ancient and another less ancient; but in the settlements
above were discovered remains of Ptolemaic construction,
together with the stone huts of a race probably aboriginal, and
preceding or contemporaneous with but not unknown to the
ancient Egyptians.
The Ptolemaic miner seem to have employed the ancient methods
to a great extent, so that it would seem that there could never
have been any complete cessation of mining for a very long
period.
The miners of Rameses' time, too, used methods of great
antiquity. In the Wadi Abba stands a rock temple with
hieroglyphic inscriptions stating that Sethos, father of
Rameses the Great, had discovered gold mines in this region.
Golenischeff believes this temple to have been erected by the
Ptolemies. At the mines of Sighait is an hieroglyphic
inscription recording the visit of a royal scribe and a mine
inspector. This is faintly inscribed on the face of a steep
rock. At the emerald mines of Sikait may be seen a number of
Greek dedications over rock-cut temples. Near the Wadi Khashat,
where topazes are found, there stands a square enclosure, the
platform of a temple, and numerous ruined structures of
apparent Greek origin. It would appear from these remains that
the Ptolemies examined all of the ancient mines and reopened a
certain number--here they erected their temples, houses and
barracks for slaves, here they constructed high roads for their
carts and oxen, with caravan service, and post houses built at
intervals.
Beside these Ptolemaic ruins are found some traces of the
prehistoric miners, and in a few cases as at the mines of the
Um Roos these exist alone. The most important traces are the
stone huts built of large stones in two lines, and of uniform
irregularity. In connection with these huts there is not a
single mark or inscription of any kind which might lead to a
solution of the problem with regard to their origin.
Their implements, quantities of which are found at Um Roos were
as crude as their abodes, in fact the use of some of them
cannot be determined. The mines, though extensive, are little
more than burrows, and in a few cases it is not known for what
Page 113 mineral they were excavated. The writer, after dismissing the
Æthiopians, the Kushites and the ancient Egyptians, as the
probable pre-Ptolemaic miners, suggests that the Etbai was
peopled by a negroid tribe of natural miners, the possible
ancestors of the copper miners in the mountains north of
Kordofan.
Near the Wadi Sikait, not far from the temples with Greek
inscriptions already referred to, is a fine building of
apparently later date, and supposed by the writer to have been
a church from its construction, for the mines were worked
steadily during the third and fourth centuries of the Christian
era. The structure has no roof over the main portion, but what
was apparently an apse still retains its roof of long slabs of
schist. The body is filled with fallen slabs. The walls show a
side window and several niches, which features suggested a
Christian church.
ALGERIA AND TUNISIA.
M. René de la Blanchère in making, to the _Acad. des
Inscriptions_, his report on the excavations and discoveries in
Tunisia and Algeria during 1891, calls attention to the new
organization of the archæological administration of this
region. Up to the present time Tunisia and Algeria had separate
organizations, but the following arrangement has now gone into
effect: M. de la Blanchère is delegate of Public Instruction
and Fine Arts, in Algeria and Tunisia, and the mission under
him is at present composed of M. M. Doublet, inspector of
antiquities in the Regency; Pradère, conservator of the Museum
of Bardo; Wood, attaché at the same museum; Gauckler,
historical student, and Marye: it is quite distinct from the
local administrations. Although it supplies the greater number
of the agents of the Bey's service of antiquities, which it
created, it has no connection with its administration any more
than with that of similar organizations in Algeria, such as
that of historical monuments. Its object is: (1) to keep the
Committee of Historic works (of Algeria and Tunisia) informed
of all that happens in Africa in the domain of archæology, to
transmit to it any documents and to make researches regarding
necessary work; (2) to carry on three important publications,
two of which have already been partly published; the
_Collections du Musée Alaoui, the Musées et collections
archéologiques de l'Algérie_, and the _Catalogue général des
musées de l'Afrique française_; (3) to hold itself at the
disposal of the French ministry and the local authorities for
any work deemed necessary, excavations, organization of
museums, enterprises of learned societies, explorations, etc.
The head of the mission, being a delegate of the ministry, has
Page 114 the right to oversee the Tunisian service of antiquities, and
has also for both Algeria and Tunisia the permanent inspection
of libraries and museums.
By means of this central organization, all the desiderata for
African archæology are obtained, and the best methods are put
in practice for excavations, the organization of museums, and
the publication of antiquities.
TUNISIA.
M. de la Blanchère reports that in 1891 the most urgent need in
Tunisia was the classification of monuments that should be
preserved. The operation is being carried on under the
direction of M. Doublet; enquiry was opened in regard to about
150 monuments, nearly all of great importance, of which 27 are
already classified. No excavations were undertaken by the
service of antiquities, its funds being all employed on
finishing the Bardo museum. It has, however, overseen or
authorized the following enterprises, the most important of
which will be found described in their alphabetical order:
Sfaks; Sousse; Henchir Maatria; Dougga; Teboursouk; Henchir
Tinah; Maktar.
CARTHAGE.--M. do Vogüé has communicated to the _Acad. des Ins._
(March 18) a report on the continuation of Father Delattre's
excavations at Carthage, which go on giving interesting results
which will be fully described in a publication by the explorer
himself. At another point a funerary inscription was found of
an iron caster. This is the first time the profession is
mentioned in Carthaginian texts, which had hitherto mentioned
only gold and bronze casters. Of course there was no casting of
iron at that time, but only working of the metal.--_Revue
arch._ 1892, II, p. 254.
TERRACOTTA MOULDS.--M. Héron de Villefosse communicated to the
_Acad. des Inscr._ (Nov. 11,) the photographs of seventy-two
moulds for intaglios, in terracotta, selected from a collection
of over three hundred which were found in the lower part of
Carthage, between the hill of St. Louis and the sea. They were
all executed in antiquity. There are coin, types, a head of
Herakles, similar to that of some silver coins attributed to
Jugurtha, the fronting head of Silenus of the coins of Kyzikos,
the galley of the coins of Sidon, etc., all of the purest Greek
style. There are also some female heads, recalling Greek
Sicilian coins; standing figures; an Athena, a Pan, a Hermes
fastening his heel-pieces, a Marsyas, an amazon, a nude woman
fastening her sandal, recalling coins of Larissa in Thessaly;
some of groups, a man overthrown by a lion, a lion devouring a
horse, a man standing and killing a kneeling woman, an episode
Page 115 of the contest of Achilles and Penthesilea; finally some purely
Egyptian types, such as scarabs with royal cartouches. This
collection of moulds was probably made by a manufacturer with
the purpose of reproducing them.--_Rev. Critique_, 1892, No.
47.
CHEMTOU-SIMITHU.--Excavations have been carried on at this site
by M. Toutain: they were continued, thanks to a subvention from
the _Acad. des Inscriptions_. In a letter to the Academy dated
June 16, M. Geffroy gives an account of what had been
discovered up to date. Nearly the whole of the ancient theatre
was discovered in a few weeks. In the space occupied by the
orchestra was a mosaic, with all the shades of Numidian marble,
nine metres in diameter. These are interesting peculiarities in
the construction and arrangement of the theatre. It is neither
adossed to a hill nor completely isolated: the lower part of
the hemicycle of steps which was completely buried, is well
preserved. M. Toutain had commenced researches in two necropoli
of the city hoping to find tombs and epitaphs of the freedmen
and slaves employed in the neighbouring quarries. He had begun
the excavation of a large building, perhaps a basilica or a
curia, which appears to be about 40 metres long.
In a letter to the _Académie_, dated October 16, M. Toutain
gives information of further discoveries, principally in the
theatre and forum. A square was discovered 20 met. wide by 25
met. long, paved with large slabs of granite of greenish blue
schist. It is situated in the midst of the ruins of several
important monuments, notably a temple and a basilica, and is
certainly the forum of Simithu. It is bounded on the south by a
monumental exædra whose substructions of cut stone are still in
place, and whose architectural decoration can be reconstructed
by means of the bases, fragments, columns, capitals, and pieces
of cornice which have come to light. Toward the north the forum
is bounded by two structures separated by a narrow paved
street.
A mile-stone found is important, as containing the name of
Emperor Galerius, and dating from the short period when, after
the abdication of Diocletian and Maximianus, Hercules,
Constantius Chlorus, and Galerius were Augusti (May 1, 305, to
July 25, 306). It has also a topographic interest as belonging
to the cross-road from _Thuburbo majus_ to Tunis or Carthage,
passing by Onellana and Uthina. M. Toutain has traced a system
of bars, basins and cisterns, to supply with rain water a small
Roman city, whose ruins are now called Bab-Khaled. It would
appear as if the public buildings of the city were inhabited
and made over at the Byzantine period.--_Revue critique_ 1892,
No. 44; _Revue arch._, 1892, II, pp. 260, 266-7; _Chron. des
arts_ 1892, No. 34.
Page 116
CHERCHELL.--M. Victor Waille has communicated to the _Acad. des
Insc._ the first results of excavations on the field of
manoruvres at Cherchell. Captain Hétet and lieutenant Perrin
conducted them. Three mosaic pavements were copied: there was
found a dedicatory inscription to the governor C. Octavius
Pudens Cæsius Honoratus, and some bronzes, among which were the
base of a candelabrum and the handle of a chiseled vase,
decorated with a helmeted bust of Roma, of the Byzantine
period. The excavations are especially fruitful in small
objects, pottery, bronzes, coins, etc.--_Chron. des arts_,
1892, No. 31; _Ami des mon._ 1892, p. 250.
DOUGGA.--The excavations carried on by MM. Denis and Carton,
resulted in the clearing of the temple of Saturn; the discovery
of the dedicatory inscription showing it to have been erected
for the safety of Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus; the
finding of a large number of native steles; and the clearing of
the theatre.
HADRUMETUM.--A small lead tablet covered on both sides with
inscriptions, has been found in the Roman necropolis. It is a
_tabella devotionis_, to be compared with others found at
Hadrumetum, at Carthage and in Gaul. On one side is a series of
magic names, accompanied by the figure of a genius with a
rooster's head, standing in a boat and holding a torch, on the
other side is an adjuration addressed to a certain _deus
pelagicus ærius_: infernal maledictions are called down on the
horses and drivers of the green and white factions of the
circus. There was a god or genius named Taraxippos, "the scarer
of horses," as M. Heuzey remarks.--_Rev. arch._ 1892, II, p.
267.
MAKTAR.--M. Border exhumed from the mines of the basilica, next
to the amphitheatre, four fragments of an imperial dedicatory
inscription, and a most interesting altar bearing a dedication
in eighteen lines on the occasion of the sacrifice of a bull
and a ram for the safety of an Emperor, whose name is hammered
out; M. Doublet conjectures him to have been
Elagabalus.--_A.d.M._ 1892, p. 109.
SOUSSE.-In the neo-punic necropolis, on which the camp is
situated, two entire vases and 28 fragments of vases were
found, decorated with painted inscriptions. In the Roman
necropolis, along the Kairwan road, several interesting
discoveries were made, among them a hypogeum containing several
frescoes in fair preservation, containing curious figures and
inscriptions, and also some inscriptions on marble or
stucco.--_A.d.M._ 1892, p. 109.
TEBOURSOUK.--MM. Denis and Carton have excavated the megalithic
necropolis of Teboursouk, whose tombs are stone circles, with
one or more small dolmens in the centre.--_A.d.M._ 1892, p.
109.
Page 117
TUNIS.--Hans von Behrs has contributed to the _Vossische
Zeitung_ a report on the museum of the Bardo near Tunis. A
summary of it is given in the _Berlin Philologische
Wochenschrift_, November 19.
ALGERIA.
M. de la Blanchère reports that in Algeria M. Gauckler
investigated in 1891 the provinces of Algiers and Constantine,
and spent some time at Cherchell whose antiquities he studied
and partly published alone or in collaboration with M. de
Waille. He planned at the same time an excavation. M. Marye was
charged with the plan for organizing, for the first time, a
collection of mussulman art, of native industrial art, and of
Turkish and Arabic monuments.
The work regarded as most pressing by M. de la Blanchère in
1891 was the publication of African museums. The first series
of the _collections du musée Alaoui_ was almost completed: the
_musées d'Oran_ and _de Constantine_ were in the press,
following the _musée d'Alger_ published in the preceding year.
The general catalogue will be drawn up as each establishment is
definitively organized. The first place belongs to the Bardo
museum whose catalogue had already been partly compiled by M.
de la Blanchère. The museum of Oran, under its conservator,
Demaeght, has been finally organized, and occupies a fine
building given by the city. It has been enriched by several
additions, notably the famous inscription of king Masuna. The
museum of Constantine has received among other things, the
results of an interesting excavation made at Collo, especially
some curious vases with female silhouettes. The museum of the
Bardo can, however, never be rivalled by any of the museums of
Algeria. The immense palace is already nearly full, although
the museum in 1891 was but four years old. The large hall is
full, with its nine large cases; there are about 500 square
metres of mosaics, 50 statues of large fragments, about 1200
inscriptions, and a multitude of small objects.