_Mariette, Wilkinson, Bunsen, Brugsch, and Ebers: Ermans speech on
Egyptology: The Egypt Exploration Fund: Masperos investigations: The
Temple of Bubàstis: Ancient record of Israel: American interest in
Egyptology._
Accompanying Napoleons army of invasion in Egypt was a band of savants
representative of every art and science, through whom the conqueror
hoped to make known the topography and antiquities of Egypt to the
European world. The result of their researches was the famous work
called Description de lEgypte, published under the direction of the
French Academy in twenty-four volumes of text, and twelve volumes of
plates. Through this magnificent production the Western world received
its first initiation into the mysteries of the wonderful civilisation
which had flourished so many centuries ago, on the banks of the Nile.
Egypt has continued to yield an ever-increasing harvest of antiquities,
which, owing to the dry climate and the sand in which they have been
buried, are many of them in a marvellous state of preservation. From
the correlation of these discoveries the new science of Egyptology
has sprung, which has many different branches, relating either to
hieroglyphics, chronology, or archaeology proper.
The earliest and most helpful of all the discoveries was that of the
famous Rosetta Stone, found by a French artillery officer in 1799,
while Napoleons soldiers were excavating preparatory to erecting
fortifications at Fort St. Julien. The deciphering of its trilingual
inscriptions was the greatest literary feat of modern times, in which
Dr. Thomas Young and J. F. Champollion share almost equal honours.
Jean François Champollion (1790-1832) is perhaps the most famous of
the early students of Egyptian hieroglyphs. After writing his _De
lécriture hiératique des anciens égyptiens_ at Paris, he produced in
1824 in two volumes, his _Précis du système hiéroglyphique des anciens
égyptiens,_ on which his fame largely depends, as he was the first to
furnish any practical system of deciphering the symbolic writing, which
was to disclose to the waiting world Egyptian history, literature, and
civilisation. Champollion wrote many other works relating to Egypt, and
may truly be considered the pioneer of modern Egyptology. While much of
his work has been superseded by more recent investigations, he was so
imbued with the scientific spirit that he was enabled securely to lay
the foundation of all the work which followed.
[Illustration: 321.jpg THE GREAT HALL OF ABYDOS]
The distinguished French savant, Augustus Mariette, (1821-1881) began
his remarkable excavations in Egypt in the year 1850. The series of
discoveries inaugurated by him lasted until the year 1880. Mariette made
an ever-memorable discovery when he unearthed the famous Serapeum which
had once been the burial-place of the sacred bulls of Memphis, which the
geographer Strabo records had been covered over by the drifting sands of
the desert even in the days of Augustus.
[Illustration: 322.jpg PROPYLON AT DENDERAH]
The Serapeum was in the neighbourhood of the Sphinx, and, on account of
its great height, remained in part above the ground, and was visible to
all passers-by; while everything else in the neighbourhood except the
great Pyramid of Khûfûi was totally buried under the sand. Mariette
worked his way along the passage between the Great Sphinx and the other
lesser sphinxes which lay concealed in the vicinity, and thus gradually
came to the opening of the Serapeum. In November, 1850, his labours were
crowned with brilliant success. He discovered sixty-four tombs of
Apis, dating from the eighteenth dynasty until as late as the reign of
Cleopatra. He likewise found here many figures, images, ancient Egyptian
ornaments and amulets, and memorial stones erected by the devout
worshippers of antiquity. Fortunately for Egyptian archæology and
history, nearly all the monuments here discovered were dated, and were
thus of the highest value in settling the dates of dynasties and of the
reigns of individual monarchs. Mariette afterwards discovered a splendid
temple in the same place, which he proved to have been the famous shrine
of the god Sokar-Osiris. He was soon appointed by the Egyptian Viceroy,
Said Pasha, as director of the new museum of antiquities which was then
placed at Bulak, in the vicinity of Cairo, awaiting the completion of
a more substantial building at Gizeh. He obtained permission to make
researches in every part of Egypt; and with varying success he excavated
in as many as thirty-seven localities. In some of the researches
undertaken by his direction, it is to be feared that many invaluable
relics of antiquity may have been destroyed through the carelessness of
the workmen. This is to be accounted for from the fact that Mariette was
not always able to be present, and the workmen naturally had no personal
interest in preserving every relic and fragment from the past. It is
also to be regretted that he left no full account of the work which he
undertook, and for this reason much of it had to be gone over again by
more modern explorers.
In the Delta excavations were made at Sais, Bubastis, and elsewhere.
Mariette also discovered the temple of Tanis, and many curious
human-headed sphinxes, which probably belong to the twelfth dynasty,
and represent its kings. He further continued the labours of Lepsius
about the necropolis of Memphis and Saqqâra. Here several hundred tombs
were discovered with the many inscriptions and figures which these
contained. One of the most important of these findings--a superb example
of Egyptian art--is the statue called by the Arabs The Village
Chief, which is now in the museum at Bulak. Mariette followed out his
researches on the site of the sacred city of Abydos. Here he discovered
the temple of Seti I. of the nineteenth dynasty.
[Illustration: 324.jpg TYPES OF EGYPTIAN COLUMNS: 1, 2, 3, GEOMETRIC ,
6-11, BOTANICAL; 4, 5, 12, HATHORIC.]
On the walls are beautiful sculptures which are exquisite examples of
Egyptian art, and a chronological table of the Kings of Abydos. Here
Seti I. and Ramses IL, his son, are represented as offering homage to
their many ancestors seated upon thrones inscribed with their names and
dates.
Mariette discovered eight hundred tombs belonging for the most part
to the Middle Kingdom. At Denderah he discovered the famous Ptolemaic
temple of Hâthor, the goddess of love, and his accounts of these
discoveries make up a large volume. Continuing his labours, he excavated
much of the site of ancient Thebes and the temple of Karnak, and, south
of Thebes, the temple of Medinet-Habu. At Edfu Mariette found the temple
of Horus, built during the time of the Ptolemies, whose roof formed the
foundation of an Arab village. After persevering excavations the whole
magnificent plan of the temple stood uncovered, with all its columns,
inscriptions, and carvings nearly intact.*
* In connection with the architecture of the ancient
Egyptian tombs, it is interesting to note that there was a
development of architectural style in the formation of
Egyptian columns not dissimilar in its evolution to that
which is visible in the case of the Greek and Roman columns.
The earliest Egyptian column appears to have been of a
strictly geometrical character. This developed into a column
resembling the Doric order. A second class of Egyptian
column was based upon plant forms, probably derived from the
practice of using reeds in the construction of mud huts. The
chief botanical form which has come down to us is that of
the lotus. A more advanced type of decoration utilised the
goddess Hâthor for the support of the superincumbent weight
and has its analogy in the decadent caraytides of late Roman
times.
Owing to Mariettes friendship with the viceroy he was able to guard
his right to excavate with strict exclusiveness. He was accustomed to
allow other scholars the right to examine localities where he had been
the first one to make the researches, but he would not even allow the
famous Egyptologist, also his great friend, Heinrich Brugsch, to make
excavations in new places. After his death, conditions were somewhat
altered, although the general directorship of the excavations was still
given exclusively to Frenchmen. The successors of Mariette Bey were
Gaston Maspero, E. Grébault, J. de Morgan, and Victor Laret. But as time
went on, savants of other nationalities were allowed to explore, with
certain reservations. Maspero founded an archaeological mission in Cairo
in 1880, and placed at its head, in successive order, MM. Lebebure,
Grébault, and Bouriant. The first of all to translate complete Egyptian
books and entire inscriptions was Emanuel de Rougé, who exerted a great
influence upon an illustrious galaxy of French savants, who followed
more or less closely the example set by him. Among these translators we
may enumerate Mariette, Charles Deveria, Pierret, Maspero himself, and
Revillout, who has proved himself to be the greatest demotic scholar of
France.
England is also represented by scholars of note, among whom may be
mentioned Dr. Samuel Birch (1813--85). He was a scholar of recognised
profundity and also of remarkable versatility. One of the most important
editorial tasks of Doctor Birch was a series known as The Records
of the Past, which consisted of translations from Egyptian and
Assyrio-Babylonian records. Doctor Birch himself contributed several
volumes to this series. He had also the added distinction of being the
first translator of the Egyptian _Book of the Dead_.
Another English authority was Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, who wrote
several important works on the manners and customs of the ancient
Egyptians. Wilkinson was born in 1797 and died in 1875. Whoever would
know the Egyptian as he was, in manner and custom, should peruse
the pages of his Egyptian works. His Popular Account of the Ancient
Egyptians has been the chief source of information on the subject.
German scholars have done especially valuable work in the translation
of texts from the Egyptian temples, and in pointing out the relation
between these texts and historical events. Foremost among practical
German archaeologists is Karl Richard Lepsius, who was born in 1810 at
Naumburg, Prussia, and died in 1884 at Berlin. In his maturer years
he had a professorship in Berlin. He made excursions to Egypt in an
official capacity, and familiarised himself at first hand with the
monuments and records that were his life-study. The letters of Lepsius
from Egypt and Nubia were more popular than his other writings, and were
translated into English and widely read.
Another famous German who was interested in the study of Egyptology
was Baron Christian Bunsen (1791-1867). From early youth he showed the
instincts of a scholar, but was prevented for many years from leading a
scholars life, owing to his active duties in the diplomatic service for
Prussia at Rome and London. During the years 1848--67, Bunsen brought
out the famous work called Egypts Place in Universal History,
which Brugsch deemed to have contributed more than any other work in
popularising the subject of Egyptology.
Heinrich Carl Brugsch was born at Berlin in 1827 and died there in 1894.
Like Bunsen, he was a diplomatist and a scholar. He entered the
service of the Egyptian government, and merited the titles of bey
and subsequently of pasha. He became known as one of the foremost of
Egyptologists, and was the greatest authority of his day on Egyptian
writing. He wrote a work of standard authority, translated into English
under the title of The History of Egypt under the Pharaohs. The
chronology of Egypt now in use is still based upon the system created by
Brugsch, which, though confessedly artificial, nevertheless is able to
meet the difficulties of the subject better than any other yet devised.
Among distinguished German Egyptologists must be mentioned Georg
Moritz Ebers (1839-96). He is best known by his far-famed novels, whose
subjects are taken from the history of ancient Egypt, perhaps the most
popular being An Egyptian Princess. Besides these popular novels and a
valuable description of Egypt, Ebers also made personal explorations in
the country, and discovered at Thebes the great medical papyrus, which
is called the Papyrus Ebers. This remarkable document, to which he
devoted so much labour, is our chief source of information regarding
the practice of medicine as it existed, and would alone keep the name of
Ebers alive among Egyptologists.
The leading German Egyptologist of to-day is Dr. Adolf Erman, who was
born at Berlin in 1854. He is the worthy successor to Brugsch in the
chair of Egyptology at the University of Berlin, and is director of
the Berlin Egyptian Museum. His writings have had to do mainly with
grammatical and literary investigations. His editions of the Romances
of Old Egypt are models of scholarly interpretation. They give the
original hieratic text, with translation into Egyptian hieroglyphics,
into Latin and into German. Doctor Erman has not, however, confined his
labours to this strictly scholarly type of work, but has also written a
distinctly popular book on the life of the ancient Egyptians, which
is the most complete work that has appeared since the writings of
Wilkinson.
The memorable speech of Erman, delivered on the occasion of his election
as a member of the Berlin Academy, sets forth clearly the progress
made in the science of Egyptology and present-day tendencies. On that
occasion he said:
Some of our older fellow-specialists complain that we of the younger
generation are depriving Egyptology of all its charm, and that, out of
a delightful science, abounding in startling discoveries, we have made
a philological study, with strange phonetic laws and a wretched syntax.
There is doubtless truth in this complaint, but it should be urged
against the natural growth of the science, and not against the personal
influence of individuals or its development. The state through which
Egyptology is now passing is one from which no science escapes. It is a
reaction against the enthusiasm and the rapid advance of its early days.
I can well understand to outsiders it may seem as though we had only
retrograded during later years. Where are the good old times when every
text could be translated and understood? Alas! a better comprehension of
the grammar has revealed on every side difficulties and impediments
of which hitherto nothing had been suspected. Moreover, the number of
ascertained words in the vocabulary is continually diminishing, while
the host of the unknown increases; for we no longer arrive at the
meaning by the way of audacious etymologies and still more audacious
guesses.
We have yet to travel for many years on the arduous path of empirical
research before we can attain to an adequate dictionary. There is indeed
an exceptional reward which beckons us on to the same goal, namely,
that we shall then be able to assign to Egyptian its place among the
languages of Western Asia and of Africa. At present we do well to
let this great question alone. As in the linguistic department of
Egyptology, so it is in every other section of the subject. The Egyptian
religion seemed intelligently and systematically rounded off when each
god was held to be the incarnation of some power of nature. Now we
comprehend that we had better reserve our verdict on this matter until
we know the facts and the history of the religion; and how far we are
from knowing them is proved to us by every text. The texts are full of
allusions to the deeds and fortunes of the gods, but only a very small
number of these allusions are intelligible to us.
The time has gone by in which it was thought possible to furnish the
chronology of Egyptian history, and in which that history was supposed
to be known, because the succession of the most powerful kings had been
ascertained. To us the history of Egypt has become something altogether
different. It comprises the history of her civilisation, her art, and
her administration; and we rejoice in the prospect that one day it may
be possible in that land to trace the development of a nation throughout
five thousand years by means of its own monuments and records. But we
also know that the realisation of this dream must be the work of many
generations.
The so-called demotic texts, which lead us out of ancient Egypt into
the Græco-Roman period, were deciphered with the acumen of genius more
than half a century ago by Heinrich Brugsch, but to-day these also
appear to us in a new light as being full of unexpected difficulties and
in apparent disagreement with both the older and the later forms of
the language. In this important department we must not shrink from a
revision of past work.
I will not further illustrate this theme; but the case is the same in
every branch of Egyptology. In each, the day of rapid results is at an
end, and the monotonous time of special studies has begun. Hence I would
beg the Academy not to expect sensational discoveries from their new
associate. I can only offer what _labor improbus_ brings to light, and
that is _small_ discoveries; yet in the process of time they will
lead us to those very ends which seemed so nearly attainable to our
predecessors.
The German school may perhaps be said to have devoted its time
especially to labours upon Egyptian grammar and philology, while the
French school is better known for its excellent work on the history
and archaeology of ancient Egypt. On these topics the leading authority
among all the scholars of to-day is the eminent Frenchman, Professor
Gaston C. C. Maspero, author of the first nine volumes of the present
work. He was born at Paris, June 24,1846. He is a member of the French
Institute, and was formerly Professor of Egyptian Archeology and
Ethnology in the Collège de France, and, more recently, Director of
the Egyptian Museum at Bulak. His writings cover the entire field
of Oriental antiquity. In this field Maspero has no peer among
Egyptologists of the present or the past. He possesses an eminent gift
of style, and his works afford a rare combination of the qualities of
authority, scientific accuracy, and of popular readableness.
Some extraordinary treasures from tombs were discovered in the year
1881. At that date Arabs often hawked about in the streets what
purported to be genuine works of antiquity. Many of these were in
reality imitations; but Professor Maspero in this year secured from an
Arab a funeral papyrus of Phtahhotpû I., and after considerable trouble
he was able to locate the tomb in Thebes from which the treasure had
been taken. Brugsch now excavated the cave, which was found to be the
place where a quantity of valuable treasures had been secreted, probably
at the time of the sacking of Thebes by the Assyrians. Six thousand
objects were secured, and they included twenty-nine mummies of kings,
queens, princes, and high priests, and five papyri, among which was
the funeral papyrus of Queen Makeru of the twentieth dynasty. The
mummy-cases had been opened by the Arabs, who had taken out the mummies
and in some instances replaced the wrong ones. Many mummies of the
eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties had been removed to this cave
probably for safety, on account of its secrecy. Out of the twenty-nine
mummies found here, seven were of kings, nine of queens and princesses,
and several more of persons of distinction. The place of concealment
was situated at a turn of a cliff southwest of the village of
Deîr-el-Baharî.
The explorers managed successfully to identify King Raskamen of the
seventeenth dynasty, King Ahmosis I., founder of the eighteenth dynasty,
and his queen Ahmo-sis-Nofrîtari, also Queen Arhotep and Princess Set
Amnion, and the kings daughters, and his son Prince Sa Amnion. They
also found the mummies of Thûtmosis I., Thûtmosis II. and of Thûtmosis
III. (Thûtmosis the Great), together with Ramses I., Seti I., Ramses
XII., King Phtahhotpû II., and noted queens and princesses.
In the year 1883 the Egypt Exploration Fund was founded for the purpose
of accurate historical investigation in Egypt. The first work undertaken
was on a mound called the Tel-el-Mashuta, in the Wadi-et-Tumi-lat.
This place was discovered to be the site of the ancient Pithom, a
treasure-city supposed to have been built by the Israelites for Pharaoh.
In the Greek and Roman period the same place had been called Hereopolis.
M. Naville also discovered Succoth, the first camping-ground of the
Israelites while fleeing from their oppressor, and an inscription with
the word Pikeheret, which he judged to be the Pihahiroth of the Book
of Exodus. The next season the site of Zoan of the Bible was explored, a
village now termed San.
Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie started work where a rim of red granite
stood up upon one of the many mounds in the neighbourhood. The site of
the ancient city had been here, and the granite rim was on the site of a
temple. The latter had two enclosure walls, one of which had been built
of sun-dried bricks, and was of extreme antiquity; the other was built
of bricks of eight times the size and weight of modern bricks, and the
wall was of very great strength. Dwelling-houses had been built in the
locality, and coins and potsherds discovered. These remains Professor
Petrie found to belong to periods between the sixth and twenty-sixth
dynasties. Stones were found in the vicinity with the cartouche of King
Papi from one of the earliest dynasties. There were also red granite
statues of Ahmenemhâît I., and a black granite statue of Kind Usirtasen
I. and of King Ahmenemhâît II., and a torso of King Usirtasen II. was
found cut from yellow-stained stone, together with a vast number of
relics of other monarchs. Parts of a giant statue of King Ramses II.
were discovered which must have been ninety-eight feet in height before
it was broken, the great toe alone measuring eighteen inches across, and
the weight of the statue estimated to be about 1,200 tons. In addition
to these relics of ancient monarchs, a large number of antiquities were
discovered, with remains of objects for domestic use in ancient Egyptian
society.
The explorations conducted at Tanis during 1883-84 brought to light
objects mainly of the Ptolemaic period, because a lower level had not at
that period been reached, but here many invaluable relics of Ptolemaic
arts were unearthed. The results of researches were published at this
date bearing upon the Great Pyramid. Accurate measurements had been
undertaken by Professor Petrie, who was able to prove that during one
epoch systematic but unavailing efforts had been made to destroy these
great structures.
Professor Maspero discovered among the hills of Thebes an important
tomb of the eleventh dynasty, which threw light upon obscure portions
of Egyptian history, and contained texts of the Book of the Dead.
The following year he discovered the necropolis of Khemnis in the
neighbourhood of Kekhrneen, a provincial town in Upper Egypt built on
the site of the ancient Panopolis. The remains were all in a state of
perfect preservation.
In July, 1884, Professor Maspero secured permission from the Egyptian
government to buy from the natives the property which they held on the
site of the Great Temple at Luxor, and to prevent any further work of
destruction. These orders, however, were not carried out till early in
1885, when Maspero began excavating with one hundred and fifty workmen.
He first unearthed the sanctuary of Amenhôthes III., with its massive
roof. He brought to light the great central colonnade, and discovered a
portico of Ramses II., and many colossi, which were either still erect
or else had fallen on the ground. The columns of Amenhôthes III. were
next explored, which were found to be among the most beautiful of all
specimens of Egyptian architecture. It is believed that Luxor will prove
to have been a locality of almost as great a beauty as Karnak.
During the season of 1884-85 Professor Petrie started excavations at the
modern Nehireh, which he learned was the site of the ancient Naucratis.*
Here many Greek inscriptions were found.
* The investigations on this site were continued in the
season of 1888-89.
[Illustration: 336.jpg ruins at luxor]
This city was one of great importance and a commercial mart during the
reign of Ahmosis, although in the time of the Emperor Commodus it had
wholly disappeared. Two temples of Apollo were discovered, one of which
was built from limestone in the seventh century B.C.; and the other
was of white marble, beautifully decorated, and dating from the fifth
century.
Magnificent libation bowls were also discovered here, some of which had
been dedicated to Hera, others to Zeus, and others to Aphrodite. The
lines of the ancient streets were traced, and a storehouse or granary
of the ancient Egyptians was unearthed, also many Greek coins. Besides
these were discovered votive deposits, cups of porcelain, alabaster
jugs, limestone mortars; and trowels, chisels, knives, and hoes.
Much light was thrown by these discoveries on the progress of the
ceramic arts, and many links uniting the Greek pottery with the Egyptian
pottery were here for the first time traced. It was learned that the
Greeks were the pupils of the Egyptians, but that they idealised the
work of their masters and brought into it freer conceptions of beauty
and of proportion.
M. Naville was engaged about this time in controversies as to the true
site of this ancient Pithom. He also made, in 1886, a search for the
site of Goshen. He believed he had identified this when he discovered
at Saft an inscription dedicated to the gods of Kes, which Naville
identified with Kesem, the name used in the Septuagint for Goshen.
Others, however, disagree, and locate the site of Goshen at a place
called Fakoos, twelve miles north of Tel-el-Kebir.
The explorations of 1885-86 started under the direction of Professor
W. M. Flinders Petrie, Mr. F. Llewellen Griffith, and Mr. Ernest A.
Gardiner. Gardiner set out in the direction of Naucratis, and Petrie and
Griffith proceeded to explore the site of Tanis. The mound at which they
worked, like many other localities of modern and ancient Egypt, has been
known by a variety of names. It is called Tel Farum, or the Mound of the
Pharaoh; Tel Bedawi, the Mound of the Bedouins; and Tel Nebesheh, after
the name of the village upon this site. There are remains here of an
ancient cemetery and of two ancient towns and a temple. The cemetery
was found to be unlike those of Memphis, Thebes, or Abydos. It contained
many small chambers and groups of chambers irregularly placed about a
sandy plain. These were built mostly of brick, but there were other and
larger ones built of limestone. A black granite altar of the reign of
Ahmenemhait II. was discovered, and thrones of royal statues of the
twelfth dynasty. Here were also found a statue of Harpocrates, a portion
of a statue of Phtah, with an inscription of Ramses II., a sphinx and
tombs of the twentieth century B.C. containing many small relics of
antiquity.
Professor Petrie went on from here to the site of Tell Defenneh, the
Tahpanhes of the Bible, called Taphne in the version of the Septuagint.
This proved to be the remains of the earliest Greek settlement in
Egypt, and contains no remains from a later period than the twenty-sixth
dynasty. It was here that Psammeticus I. established a colony of the
Carian and Ionian mercenaries, by whose aid this monarch had won
the throne; and this Greek city had been built as one out of three
fortresses to prevent the incursions of the Arabians and Syrians. The
city of Tahpanhes or Taphne is referred to in the book of Jeremiah.
There were found on this site the remains of a vast pile of brick
buildings, which could be seen in outline from a great distance across
the plains. The Arabs called this El Kasr el Bin el Yahudi, that is,
The Castle of the Jews Daughter. This was found to have been a fort,
and it contained a stele with a record of the garrison which had been
stationed there; pieces of ancient armour and arms were also found in
the neighbourhood. There was likewise a royal hunting-box on this site,
and all the principal parts of the settlement were found to have been
surrounded by a wall fifty feet thick, which enclosed an area of three
thousand feet in length and one thousand in breadth. The gate on the
north opened towards the Pelusiac canal, and the south looked out upon
the ancient military road which led up from Egypt to Syria. Pottery,
bronze-work, some exquisitely wrought scale armour, very light but
overlapping six times, were unearthed within this enclosure. There were
also Greek vases and other Greek remains, dating in the earlier part
of the reign of Ahmosis, who had subsequently sent the Greeks away, and
prevented them from trading in Egypt. Since this Greek colony came to an
end in the year 570 B.C., and as the locality was no longer frequented
by Greek soldiers or merchants, it is possible to set an exact term to
the period of Greek art which these antiquities represent. The Greek
pottery here is so unlike that of Naucratis and of other places that it
seems to be well ascertained that it must have been all manufactured at
Defenneh itself. Outside the buildings of the Kasr, Petrie discovered a
large sun-baked pavement resting upon the sands, and this discovery was
of value in explaining a certain passage of the forty-third chapter of
Jeremiah, translated from the Revised Version as follows: Then came the
word of the Lord to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, Take great stones in
thine hand, and hide them in the mortar of the brick-work which is at
the entry of Pharaohs house in Tahpanhes in the sight of the men of
Judah [i.e. Johannan and the captains who had gone to Egypt]; and say
unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I
will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the King of Babylon, my servant, and
will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall
spread his royal pavilion over them. And he shall come and smite the
land of Egypt. An alternate reading for brickwork is the pavement
or square. The pavement which Jeremiah described was evidently the one
which Petrie discovered, though he was not able at the time to discover
the stones which, according to Jeremiah, had been inserted in the
mortar. Outside the camp wall was further discovered the remains of a
large settlement, strewn on all sides with bits of pottery and jewelry
and a great number of weights.
During this season Maspero carried on researches at Luxor, and proceeded
to excavate in the neighbourhood of the Great Sphinx. There are many
Egyptian pictures which represent the Sphinx in its entirety down to
the paws, but the lower parts had for centuries been buried in the
accumulations of sand which had covered up all of the ancient site.
It had previously been supposed that the Sphinx had been hewn out of a
solid mass of rock resembling an immense boulder. Professor Masperos
excavations enabled him not only to verify the accuracy of the
old Egyptian paintings of the Sphinx, but also to show that a vast
amphitheatre had been hewn out of the rock round the Sphinx, which was
not therefore sculptured from a projecting rock. Since the upper rim of
this basin was about on the same level with the head of the figure, it
became evident that the ancient sculptors had cut the rock away on all
sides, and had subsequently left the Sphinx isolated, as it is at the
present day. Maspero dug down during this season to a depth of thirty
yards in the vicinity.
Professor Masperos last official act as Director-General of the
Excavations and Antiquities of Egypt was his examination of the mummy of
Ramses II. found in 1884, in the presence of the khédive and other
high dignitaries. The mummy of this great conqueror was well preserved,
revealing a giant frame and a face expressive of sovereign majesty,
indomitable will, and the pride of the Egyptian king of kings. He
then unbandaged the mummy of Nofritari, wife of King Ahmosis I. of the
eighteenth dynasty, beside which, in the same sarcophagus, had been
discovered the mummy of Ramses ITT. The physiognomy of this monarch is
more refined and intellectual than that of his warlike predecessor; nor
was his frame built upon the same colossal plan. The height of the body
was less, and the shoulders not so wide. In the same season Maspero also
discovered an ancient Egyptian romance inscribed on limestone near the
tomb of Sinûhît at Thebes. A fragment on papyrus had been preserved at
the Berlin Museum, but the whole romance was now decipherable.
Professor Maspero resigned his office of directorship on June 5, 1886,
and was succeeded in the superintendency of excavations and Egyptian
archeology by M. Eugene Grébault. In the same month Grébault started
upon the work of unbandaging the mummy of the Theban King Sekenenra
Ta-aken, of the eighteenth dynasty. It was under this monarch that a
revolt against the Hyksôs, or Shepherd Kings, had originated, in the
course of which the Asiatics were expelled from Egypt. The history of
this king has always been considered legendary, but from the signs of
wounds present in the mummy, it is certain that he had died in battle.
In the same season the mummy of Seti I. was unbandaged, and also that of
an anonymous prince.
The next season the work of clearing away the sand from around the Great
Sphinx was vigorously prosecuted by Grébault. In the beginning of the
year 1887, the chest, the paws, the altar, and plateau were all
made visible. Flights of steps were unearthed, and finally accurate
measurements were taken of the great figures. The height from the lowest
of the steps was found to be one hundred feet, and the space between the
paws was found to be thirty-five feet long and ten feet wide. Here there
was formerly an altar; and a stele of Thûtmosis IV. was discovered,
recording a dream in which he was ordered to clear away the sand that
even then was gathering round the site of the Sphinx.
M. Naville and Mr. F. Llewellen Griffiths explored during the season of
1886-87 the mound of Tel-el-Yehu-dieh (the mound of the Jew). The
site is probably that on which was once built the city that Ptolemy
Philadelphus allowed the Jews to construct. The remains of a statue of
the cat-headed goddess Bast, to which there is a reference in Josephus,
was also found here. The discovery of tablets of definitely Jewish
origin make it clear that the modern name had been given to the place
for some reason connected with the colony thus proved to have once been
settled there.
Naville also made researches at Tel Basta, the site of the Bubastis
of the Greeks, the Pi Beseth of the Bible, and the Pi Bast of the
Egyptians, which was formerly the centre of worship of the goddess Pasht
and her sacred animal, the cat. The whole plan of the ancient temple was
soon disclosed, the general outline of which bears much resemblance to
that of the great Temple of San. In the division which Naville called
the Festival Hall were numerous black and red statues inscribed with the
name of Ramses II., but many of which were probably not really erected
by this monarch. Here there was also found a standing statue of the
Governor of Ethiopia, a priest and priestess of the twenty-sixth
dynasty, and many other monuments of the greatest historical interest.
The hall itself was built of red granite.
Another hall, which Naville called the Hypostyle Hall, possessed a
colonnade of such beauty that it would seem to justify the statement of
Herodotus, that the temple of Bubastis was one of the finest in Egypt.
The columns were either splendid red granite monoliths, with lotus-bud
or palm-leaf capitals; or, a head of Hâthor from which fell two long
locks. These columns probably belonged to the twelfth dynasty. In what
Naville called the Ptolemaic Hall occurs the name Nephthorheb or
Nectanebo I. of the thirtieth dynasty. The relics of this remarkable
temple thus cover a period from the sixth to the thirtieth dynasties,
some 3,200 years. During this season Professor Petrie made important
discoveries in relation to the obscure Hyksôs dominion in Egypt. Many
representations of these Shepherd Kings were found, and, from their
physiognomy, it was judged that they were not Semites, but rather
Mongols or Tatars, who probably came from the same part of Asia as the
Mongul hordes of Genghis Khan.
Early in 1888 excavations were resumed on the site of the great temple
of Bubastis by M. Edouard Naville, Mr. F. LI. Griffiths, and the Count
dHulst. The investigation again yielded the usual crop of antiquities
that was now always expected from the exploration of the famous sites. A
third hall was discovered, which had been built in the time of Osorkon
I., of red granite inlaid with sculptured slabs. There were also many
other monuments and remains of the monarchs, together with much valuable
evidence relating to the rule of the Hyksôs.
Petrie brought to London many beautiful Ptolemaic and Roman portraits,
which he had discovered in a vast cemetery near the pyramid which bears
the name of King Ahmenemhâît III. The portraits are in an excellent
state of preservation, and are invaluable as illustrative of the
features, manners, and customs of the Greek and Roman periods in
Egyptian history.
His researches in the neighbourhood of the Fayum at this time commenced
to bear fruit; and many questions were answered regarding the ancient
Lake Mceris. It was in this season also that the ever memorable
excavations conducted at Tel-el-Amarna were first begun. This place is
situated in Upper Egypt on the site of the capital, which had been built
by Ahmenhotpû IV. Here were discovered many clay tablets in cuneiform
characters containing documents in the Babylonian language. These were
found in the tomb of a royal scribe. The list contained a quantity
of correspondence from the kings or rulers of Palestine, Syria,
Mesopotamia, and Babylonia to Ahmenhotpû III. and IV. There were
Egyptian garrisons in those days in Palestine, and they were accustomed
to keep their royal masters well informed as to what was going on in the
country. Among other cities mentioned are Byblos, Smyrna, Appo or Acre,
Megiddo, and Ashpelon. During this season many relics of early Christian
art were discovered. In many cases a pagan picture had been in part
painted over, and thus given a Christian significance. Two figures of
Isis suckling Horus are, with slight alterations, made to represent the
Virgin and the Child. A bas-relief of St. George slaying the dragon was
discovered, which closely resembled that of Horus slaying Set.
During the following season of 1888-89, Petrie resumed his excavations
round the pyramid of Hawara, which was supposed to be the site of the
famous Labyrinth. Work had been begun here in the season previous,
and it was now to be crowned with great success. All the underground
passages and secret chambers under the pyramid were examined, and the
inscriptions discovered of King Ahmenemhâît III. prove that this was
without doubt the pyramid of the monarch of that name. It was discovered
that the Romans had broken into the recesses of these secret chambers,
and many broken Roman _amphoræ_ were unearthed. Later Professor Petrie
examined the pyramid of Illahûn, which stands at the gate of the Fayum.
It is probable that this was on the site of the ancient locks which
regulated the flow of the Nile into Lake Moris. Many of the antiquities
here discovered bore inscriptions of King Usirtasen II., and, in the same
locality, was discovered the site of an early Christian cemetery dating
from the fifth or sixth centuries. A few miles from Illahûn, the same
indefatigable explorer discovered the remains of another town belonging
to the eighteenth or nineteenth dynasties. A wall once surrounded the
town, and beyond the wall was a necropolis. The place is now called
Tell Gurah, and the relics give inscriptions of Thûtmosis III. or
Tûtankhamon and of Horemheb.
In the same season of 1888--89, Miss Amelia B. Edwards, who had been
sent out by the Egypt Exploration Fund, brought to a conclusion the
excavations which had been carried on for several seasons at Bubastis.
It was discovered that the temple itself dated back to the reign of
the famous Khûfûi (Kheops), the builder of the great Pyramid, since
an inscription with his name on it was discovered, together with one
inscribed to King Khafrî (Chephren). The monuments discovered on this
site were, for the most part, shipped to Europe and America.
The city of Boston, Mass., received a colossal Hâthor-head capital of
red granite, part of a colossal figure of a king, an immense lotus-bud
capital from the Hypo-style Hall of the temple, a bas-relief in red
granite from the Hall of Osorken II., and two bas-reliefs of limestone
from the temple of Hâthor, taken from the ancient Termuther.
[Illustration: 347.jpg THE LOTUS FLOWER NYMPHAEA LOTUS]
Specimens recovered from here date from the fourth to the twenty-second
dynasties, and the relics from Termuther are from the last period of the
Ptolemies.
Early in 1891, Professor Petrie made his exhaustive examination of the
pyramid of Me-dum, which he declared to be the earliest of all dated
Egyptian pyramids, and probably the oldest dated building in the world.
Its builder was Snofrui of the third dynasty; and, joined with it, and
in a perfect state of preservation, was the pyramid temple built at the
same period. From forty to sixty feet of rubbish had accumulated around
the buildings, and had to be removed. The front of the temple was thirty
feet wide and nine feet high, and a door was discovered at the south
end. A wide doorway leads to the open court built on the side of the
pyramid. In the centre of the court stands the altar of offerings, where
there is also an inscribed obelisk thirteen feet high. The walls of the
temple are all marked with _graffiti_ of visitors who belonged to the
twelfth and eighteenth dynasties. A statuette was found dedicated to the
gods of the town by a woman.
The tombs at this place had been rifled in ancient times, but many
skeletons of people, who had been buried in a crouching attitude, were
discovered, and Petrie considered that these belonged to a different
race from that which was accustomed to bury the dead recumbent. A
quantity of pottery was also unearthed, dating from the fourth century.
The method by which the plan of a pyramid was laid out by the ancient
Egyptians was discovered in this excavation, and the designs show
considerable mechanical ingenuity in their execution, and afford a
perfect system for maintaining the symmetry of the building itself, no
matter how uneven the ground on which it was to be built.
In the spring of 1891, M. Naville started an excavation on the site of
the ancient Heracleopolis Magna at a place now named Hanassieh. He found
here many Roman and Koptic remains, and further discovered the vestibule
of an ancient Egyptian temple. There were six columns, on which Ramses
II. was represented as offering gifts. The name of Menephtah was also
noticed, and the architraves above the columns were seen to be cut with
cartouches of Usirtasen II. of the twelfth dynasty. This temple was
probably one of those to the service of which Ramses II. donated some
slaves, as is described in one of the papyri of the Harris collection.
A stone was discovered by Mr. Wilborn at Luxor, recording a period of
seven years successive failure of the Nile to overflow, and the efforts
made by a certain sorcerer named Chit Net to remove the calamity.
During the season of 1895, Professor Petrie and Mr. Quibell discovered
homes belonging to paleolithic man on a plateau four thousand feet
above the Nile. Thirty miles south of Thebes, there are many large and
beautifully worked flints. Their great antiquity is proved by the fact
that they are deeply stained, whereas, in the same locality, there are
other flints of an age of five thousand years, which show no traces of
stains.
Close by this site was discovered the abundant remains of a hitherto
unknown race. This race has nothing in common with the true Egyptians,
although their relics are invariably found with those of the Egyptians
of the fourth, twelfth, eighteenth, and nineteenth dynasties. Petrie
declares these men to have been tall and powerful, with strong features,
a hooked nose, a long, pointed beard, and brown, wavy hair. They were
not related to the negroes, but rather to the Amorites or Libyans. The
bodies in these tombs are not mummified, but are contracted, though laid
in an opposite direction from those discovered at Medum. The graves are
open, square pits, roofed over with beams of wood. This ancient race
used forked hunting-lances for chasing the gazelle, and their beautiful
flints were found to be like those belonging to an excellent collection
already existing in the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford. They also made
an abundant use of copper for adzes, harpoons for spearing fish, and
needles for sewing garments. They used pottery abundantly, and its
variety is remarkable no less than the quality, which, unlike the
Egyptian, was all hand-made and never fashioned by aid of the wheel.
They entered Egypt about 3,000 B.C., and were probably of the white
Libyan race, and possibly may have been the foreigners who overthrew the
old Egyptian empire.
The discovery of the name of Israel in an Egyptian inscription was
in a sense, perhaps, the most remarkable event of the year 1895 in
archæology. It was first laid before the public by Professor Petrie,*
and was treated by Spiegelberg** in a communication to the Berlin
Academy, and by Steindorff.***
* Contemporary Review, May 1896.
** Sitzberichte, xxv., p. 593. 3.
*** Zeitschrift fur deutsch. Alt. test. Wiss., 1896, p. 330.
The name occurs in an inscription dated in the fifth year of Merenptah,
the successor of Ramses II., and often supposed to be the Pharaoh of the
Exodus. It is there written with the determinative of a people, not of
a city or country, and reads in our conventional transliteration
_Ysiràar_, but in reality agrees very closely to the Hebrew [...] the
last portion _aar_ being recognised as the equivalent of _el_ in several
words. Merenptah states that Israel is fekt (?) without seed (grain or
offspring), Syria (Kharu) has become widows (Kharut) of or to Egypt. We
can form no conclusion from these statements as to the relation in
which the Israelites stood to Pharaoh and to Egypt, except that they are
represented as having been powerless. It is pretty clear, however, from
the context that they were then in Palestine, or at least in Syria.
Steindorff suggests that they may have entered Syria from Chaldæa
during the disturbed times in Egypt at the end of the eighteenth
dynasty, and connects them with the movements of the Khabiri (Hebrews?)
mentioned in the Tel-el-Amarna tablets. On the other hand, it is of
course possible, as Professor Petrie points out, that this reference
to the Israelites may have some connection with the Exodus itself.
M. Clermont Ganneau thinks that the localities mentioned are all in
Southern Palestine.*
* Revue Archéologique, xxix., p. 127.
M. Edouard Naville found at Thebes many remains of the Punt sculptures.
The Puntites appear with their aquiline features, their pointed beards,
and their long hair; negroes also of black and brown varieties are
represented adjoining the Puntites proper. There are wickerwork
huts, and a figure of a large white dog with its ears hanging down.
Long-billed birds also appear flying about in the trees. Their nests
have been forsaken and robbed, and the men are represented as gathering
incense from the trees. Altogether, much invaluable information has been
gathered concerning the famous people who lived in the Land of Punt, and
with whom for a long period the Egyptians held intercommunication. Other
discoveries were made near the great temple of Karnak, and the buildings
of Medinet-Habu were cleared of rubbish in order to show their true
proportions.
From its foundation, the Egypt Exploration Fund has received large
pecuniary support from the United States, chiefly through the enthusiasm
and energy of Dr. W. C. Winslow, of Boston. In 1880 Doctor Winslow, who
had been five months in Egypt, returned to America deeply impressed with
the importance of scientific research in Egypt, and, upon hearing of the
Exploration Fund in London, he wrote a letter expressive of his interest
and sympathy to the president, Sir Erasmus Wilson, which brought a
reply not only from him, but also from the secretary, Miss Edwards,
expatiating upon the purpose and needs of the society, and outlining
optimistically its ultimate accomplishments.
Doctor Winslow was elected honorary treasurer of the Fund for the United
States for the year 1883-84.* Many prominent residents became interested
and added their names to its membership, and have given it their effort
and their hearty financial support. Among the distinguished American
members have been J. R. Lowell, G. W. Curtis, Charles Dudley Warner, and
among the chief Canadian members are Doctor Bourinot and Dr. J. William
Dawson.
*The American subscriptions from the year 1883 rapidly
increased, and by the year 1895 had figured up to $75,800,
and the total number of letters and articles written during
that time had grown to 2,467. The organisation in America
consists of a central office at Boston, together with
independent local societies, such as have already been
formed in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. The Boston
office, and any independent local society, which subscribes
not less than $750 a year, is entitled to nominate a member
of the Committee. At the end of July, 1884, Doctor Winslow
had forwarded to London $1,332.20.
The Fund has always preserved amicable relations with the Government
Department of Antiquities in Egypt. Excavations are conducted by
skilled explorers, and the results published promptly with due regard to
scientific accuracy and pictorial embellishment. The antiquities found
are either deposited in the National Museum at Cairo, or distributed
among public museums in the United Kingdom and the United States of
America and Canada, in strict proportion to the contribution of each
locality. Exhibitions are usually held in London in July of each year.
The Fund now consists of three departments, for each of which separate
accounts are kept. These departments are: 1. The Exploration Fund, for
conducting archeological research generally, by means of systematic
excavations. 2. The Archæological Survey, for preserving an accurate
pictorial record of monuments already excavated but liable to
destruction. 3. The Græco-Roman Branch, for the discovery of the
remains of classical antiquity and early Christianity.
The first work of the Græco-Roman Branch was to publish the recently
discovered Oxyrrhynchos papyri, of which two volumes, containing many
important classical and theological texts, were issued in 1898 and 1899
and 1900. Among its contents are parts of two odes of Pindar, of which
one begins with a description of the poets relation to Xenocritus, the
inventor of the Locrian mode of music; a considerable piece of the
Kolax of Menander, one of the two plays upon which the Eunuchus of
Terence was based; part of a rhetorical treatise in Doric dialect, which
is undoubtedly a work of the Pythagorean school; the conclusion of the
eighteenth Keo-Tcfe of Julius Africanus, dealing with a question of
Homeric criticism; and part of a biography of Alcibiades. A new light
is thrown upon some of the less-known departments of Greek literature by
a well-preserved papyrus, which contains on one side a prose mime in two
scenes, a work of the school of Sophron, having points of resemblance to
the fifth mime of Herondas; while on the other side is an amusing farce,
partly in prose, partly in verse. The scene is laid on the shores of the
Indian Ocean, and the plot turns upon the rescue of a Greek maiden from
the hands of barbarians, who speak a non-Greek language with elements
apparently derived from Prakrit.*
* This is a peculiarly interesting suggestion in view of the
fact that there is in the British Museum an unpublished
fragment which for some time was considered by Doctor Budge
to be a species of Egyptian stenography, but which has also
been suggested to be in Pehlevi characters.
The new Homeric fragments include one of Iliad VI., with critical
signs and interesting textual notes. Sappho, Euripides (Andromache,
Archelaus, and Medea), Antiphanes, Thucydides, Plato (Gorgias and
Republic), Æschines, Demosthenes, and Xenophon are also represented.
Among the theological texts are fragments of the lost Greek original of
the Apocalypse of Baruch and of the missing Greek conclusion of the
Shepherd of Hennas.
In the winter of 1898-99, Doctors Grenfell and Hunt conducted
excavations for the Græco-Roman Branch in the Fayûm. In 1899-1900, they
excavated at Tebtunis, in the Fayûm, on behalf of the University of
California; and by an arrangement between that university and the Egypt
Exploration Fund an important section of the Tebtunis papyri, consisting
of second-century B.C. papyri from crocodile mummies, was issued jointly
by the two bodies, forming the annual volumes of the Græco-Roman Branch
for 1900-01 and 1901-02. Since 1900 Doctors Grenfell and Hunt have
excavated each winter on behalf of the Græco-Roman Branch,--in 1900-01
in the Fayûm, and in 1901-02 both there and at Hibeh, with the result
that a very large collection of Ptolemaic papyri was obtained. In the
winter of 1902-03, after finishing their work at Hibeh, they returned to
Oxyrrhynchos. Here was found a third-century fragment of a collection of
sayings of Jesus, similar in style to the so-called Logia discovered
at Oxyrrhynchos in 1897. As in that papyrus, the separate sayings
are introduced by the words Jesus saith, and are for the most part
unrecorded elsewhere, though some which are found in the Gospels (e.g.
The Kingdom of God is within you and Many that are first shall
be last, and the last shall be first) occur here in different
surroundings. Six sayings are preserved, unfortunately in an imperfect
condition. But the new Logia papyrus supplies more evidence concerning
its origin than was the case with its predecessor, for it contains an
introductory paragraph stating that what follows consisted of the
words which Jesus, the Living Lord, spake to two of His disciples; and,
moreover, one of the uncanonical sayings is already extant in part, the
conclusion of it, He that wonders shall reign and he that reigns shall
rest, being quoted by Clement of Alexandria from the Gospel according
to the Hebrews. It is, indeed, possible that this Gospel was the source
from which all this second series of Logia was derived, or they, or
some of them, may perhaps have been taken from the Gospel according to
the Egyptians, to which Professor Harnack and others have referred the
Logia found in 1897. But the discoverers are disposed to regard both
series as collections of sayings currently ascribed to our Lord rather
than as extracts from any one uncanonical gospel.
[Illustration: 357.jpg PAGE IMAGE]