At the beginning of the century Egypt was a land of untouched and
inexplicable mystery; the hieroglyphics were wondered at, and puzzled
over, without any idea of how they were to be read, whether as symbols
or as letters. The history was entirely derived from the confused
accounts of Greek authors, the lists remaining of Manetho’s history,
written about 260 B. C., and the allusions in the Bible. The attempt to
make everything fit to the ideas of the Greeks, and to make everything
refer to the Biblical history, greatly retarded the understanding of
the monuments, and is scarcely overcome yet. The first great step
forward was when an inscription was found at Rosetta, in 1799, written
in two methods, the monumental hieroglyphic and the popular demotic,
along with a Greek version. By 1802 some groups of each writing had
been translated. Young identified more signs, and Gell, by 1822, could
successfully apportion three-quarters of the signs to the Greek words.
The next step was to apply the modern Coptic language, descended from
the ancient Egyptian, to the reading of the words. Gell had been doing
so, but it needed a student of Coptic—Champollion—to carry this out
thoroughly, as he did in 1821–32. Since then advance in reading has
been only a matter of detail, not requiring any new principles.
The knowledge of the art began with the admiration for the debased work
of Roman times, the principal interest at the beginning of the century.
Then the excavations among the Rameside monuments at Thebes, about
1820–30, took attention back to the age of 1500–1000 B. C. The work of
Lepsius, and later of Mariette, from 1840–80, opened men’s eyes to the
splendid work of the early dynasties, about 4000–3000 B. C. And lastly
the excavations of 1893–99 have fascinated scholars by a view of the
rise of the civilization and the prehistoric period before 5000 B. C.
Throughout the greater part of the century the archæology of Egypt lay
untouched; all attention was given to the language; and even Gardner
Wilkinson’s fine view of the civilization (1837) depended largely on
Greek authors, and had no perspective of history in tracing changes and
development. It is only in the last ten or fifteen years that any exact
knowledge has been acquired about the rise and progress of the various
arts of life; this study now enables us to date the sculpture, metal
work, pottery, and other art products as exactly as we can those of the
Middle Ages.
The view that we now have of the rise and decay of this great
civilization and its connection with other lands is more complete and
far-reaching than that of any other country. In the early undated
age, before the monarchy which began about 4800 B. C., a flourishing
civilization was spread over upper Egypt. Towns were built of brick,
as in later times; clothing was made of woven linen and of leather;
pottery was most skilfully formed, without the potter’s wheel,
hand-made, yet of exquisite regularity and beauty of outline, while the
variety of form is perhaps greater than in any other land; stone vases
were made entirely by hand, without a lathe, as perfect in form as the
pottery, and of the hardest rocks, as diorite and granite; wood was
carved for furniture; the art of colored glazing was common, and was
even applied to glazing over large carvings in rock crystal; ornaments
and beads were wrought of various stones and precious metals; ivory
combs with carved figures adorned the hair; ivory spoons were used
at the table; finely formed weapons and tools of copper served where
strength was needful, while more useful were flint knives and lances
which were wrought with a miraculous finish that has never been reached
by any other people; and games were played with dainty pieces made of
hard stone and of ivory. But all this tasteful skill of 6000–5000 B. C.
had its negative side; in the artistic copying of nature the mechanical
skill of these people carried them a very little way; their figures and
heads of men and animals are strangely crude. And they had no system
of writing, although marks were commonly used. They always buried the
body doubled up, and often preserved the head and hands separately.
Commerce was already active, and large rowing-galleys carried the wares
of different countries around the Mediterranean. These people were the
same as the modern Kabyle, of Algeria, and akin to the South European
races, but with some negro admixture. Our whole knowledge of this age
has only been gained within the last five years.
At about 5000 B. C. there poured into Egypt a very different people,
probably from the Red Sea. Having far more artistic taste, a commoner
use of metals, a system of writing already begun, and a more organized
government, these fresh people started a new civilization in Egypt;
adopting readily the art and skill of the earlier race, they formed by
their union the peculiar culture known as Egyptian, a type which lasted
for four thousand years. The same foundation of a type is seen in the
bodily structure; the early historical people had wider heads and more
slender noses than the prehistoric, but from 4000 B. C. down to Roman
times the form shows no change.
From this union of two able races came one of the finest peoples ever
seen, the Egyptians of the old kingdom, 4500—3500 B. C. Full of grand
conceptions, active, able, highly mechanical, and yet splendid artists,
they have left behind them the greatest masses of building, the most
accurate workmanship and exquisite sculptures in the grand pyramids
and tombs of their cemeteries. They perfected the art of organizing
combined labor on the immense public works. In all these respects
no later age or country has advanced beyond this early ability. The
moral character and ideas are preserved to us in the writings of these
people; and we there read of the ability, reserve, steadfastness, and
kindliness which we see reflected in the lifelike portraiture of that
age.
After a partial decay about 3000 B. C. this civilization blossomed out
again nobly in the twelfth dynasty about 2600 B. C.; though the works
of this age hardly reach the high level of the earlier times, yet they
are finer than anything that followed them. At this period more contact
with other countries is seen; both Syria and the Mediterranean were
known, though imperfectly.
To this succeeded another decadence, sealed by the disaster of the
foreign invasion of the Hyksos. But this was thrown off by the rise of
a third age of brilliance—the eighteenth dynasty, 1500 B. C.—which,
though inferior to early times in its highest work, yet shines by the
widespread of art and luxury throughout the upper classes. Magnificence
became fashionable, and the lower classes contented themselves with
most barefaced imitations of costly wares. Foreign islands came
closely in contact with Egypt. The ships of the Syrian coast and
Cyprus continually traded to and fro, exchanging silver, copper, and
precious stones for the gold of Egypt. Greece also traded its fine
pottery of the Mycenæan age for the showy necklaces of gold and the
rings and amulets with names of Pharaohs. Egypt then dominated the
shores of the western Mediterranean, the plains of the Euphrates, and
the fertile Soudan. But this power and wealth led to disaster. Like
Rome, later on, she could not resist the temptation to live on plunder;
heavy tribute of corn was exacted, large numbers were employed in
unproductive labor, and national disaster was the natural consequence.
Egypt never recovered the dominion or the splendor that were hers in
this age. Of this period some slight notions are given us from literary
remains in the Bible and Greek authors; but archæology is, so far, our
only practical guide, as in the earlier ages. The great temples and
monuments of the eighteenth-twentieth dynasties (1600–1100 B. C.) bear
hundreds of historical inscriptions, the tombs are covered with scenes
of private life, the burials and the ruins of towns furnish us with all
the objects of daily use. This age is one of the fullest and richest
in all history, and hardly any other is better known even in Greece or
Italy. Yet all this has been brought to light in the century, and the
knowledge of the foreign relations of Egypt is entirely the result of
the last fifteen years.
The final thousand years of the civilization of Egypt is checkered
with many changes; sometimes independent, as in the ages of Shishak
of Necho, and of the Ptolemies; at other times a prey to Ethiopians,
Persians, Greeks, or Romans. Its arts and crafts show a constant decay,
and there was but little left to resist the influence of Greek taste
and design, which ran a debased course in the country. There was,
however, a spread of manufactures and of cheap luxuries into lower and
lower classes; and the wealth of the country accumulated under the
beneficent rule of the earlier Ptolemies (300–200 B. C.).
The principal discoveries about these later ages have been in the
papyri, which have been largely found during the last twenty years.
The details of the government and life of the country in the Ptolemaic
(305–30 B. C.) and Roman (30 B. C.–640 A. D.) periods have been cleared
up; and many prizes of classical literature have also been recovered.
The archæology of the Middle Ages in Egypt has also been studied.
Many of the Arabic buildings have been recently cleaned and put in
good condition, and the splendid collection of manuscripts in Cairo
has opened a view of the beautiful art of the thirteenth-fifteenth
centuries so closely akin to what was done in Europe at the same time.
Egypt is, then, before all other lands, the country of archæology. A
continuous history of seven thousand years, with abundant remains of
every period to illustrate it, and a rich prehistoric age before that,
give completeness to the study and the fullest value to archæological
research.