Our modern tombstones record only the virtues of the dead. If future
generations have to rely upon the revelations of our churchyards for
facts connected with the people of modern times, they will write that
we were all of us faultless as fathers, irreproachable as husbands,
and devoted and self-sacrificial as children. Every tombstone is
engraved with a catalogue of human virtues; and idlers wandering round
about our country churches, find themselves surrounded by the ashes of
fond husbands, innocent angels, and adored wives. These prattlings of
sorrow have their happy significance, since they show the universal
forgiveness that follows even the worst and basest of mankind to the
grave. But viewed as historical records, tombstones are sadly erring
guides. They tell histories of men, written by their mistresses or
their children. The sculpture which adorns the graves of modern races
in this country, generally represents urns, or weeping cherubims,
broken flowers, or fractured columns, or grieving angels. These
symbols of death and grief contrast often oddly with the hopeful
scriptural sentences which they surmount. In some instances the
occupation or calling of the deceased is typified on his tomb--the
unstrung lyre telling the whereabouts of a dead musician; and a
palette indicating the resting-place of a defunct painter. Little that
is great in sculpture has of late marked burial-places.
The Egyptians, on the contrary, employed their choicest workmen to
decorate their tombs. The visitor may, gathering together the
scattered fragments from this saloon, picture to himself one of the
massive solemn vaults of the old Egyptians--the walls decorated with
sepulchral tablets, and beneath each tablet a massive sarcophagus,
containing the mummy of the deceased whose actions the tablet records.
Not altogether unlike the vaults of the present day, save that
perishable materials suffice for modern notions; whereas the Egyptian
provided comforts for the long, long rest, that, according to his
creed, would elapse, before the mummy would shake off its bandages,
and walk forth bodily once more. The Egyptian tablets, of which there
are a great number scattered about the saloon, are, as the visitor
will perceive, of small dimensions, but crowded with mystic
hieroglyphics, and ornamental groups of the funereal deities and other
subjects. The writing records the actions and the name of the
deceased, together with various religious sentiments; and is
therefore, in form and spirit, not unlike the modern epitaph. This
resemblance is not so wonderful as it at first appears, seeing that
the same circumstances acted upon the dictator of the old Egyptian
epitaph, as those which make the modern widow eloquent. The most
modern of the tablets in the present collection are those executed
while Egypt was a Roman state, many are of the time of the Ptolemies,
and one is believed to be of a date before the time of Abraham. This
tablet is to the memory of a state officer: it is marked 212. The
examination of the sarcophagi, will have led the visitor to the
southern end of the saloon; and from this point he should once more
turn to the north, and examine the sepulchral tablets on the eastern
and western walls. He will notice that numbers of them exactly
resemble one another in certain forms; that certain sepulchral scenes
are frequently repeated, and that therefore the tablets cannot be said
in many cases with certainty, to represent either passages in the life
of the deceased, or symbolic images of his career.
First let the visitor remark, numbered 90, a basalt slab, presented to
the museum by the Lords of the Admiralty. It is supposed to have been
originally the cover of a stone coffin, in the time of the Ptolemies.
It is remarkable for a Graeco-Egyptian recumbent figure, executed in
bas-relief. The sepulchral tablets marked 128-9-31-32, are in
calcareous stone. The first is that of a scribe, who is receiving a
funeral offering from his son; the second is that of Akar-se, who is
receiving the offerings of his bereaved family; the third, from
Abydos, has similar representations of family offerings, and the
fourth is that of the chief keeper of the cattle of Rameses II., named
Hara, who prays to Horus, Isis, Nephthys, and Osiris. The first three
tablets are dedicated to Isis. The visitor may also remark in this
neighbourhood a fragment in bas-relief from the tomb near Gizeh, of
Afa. Afa was a palace officer, who is supposed to have flourished
about the period of the fourth dynasty. He is here represented, in
company with various members of his family.
The next tablet to which the visitor should direct his attention is
from Thebes, and is marked 139. It is that of a priest named Rames,
who flourished during the reign of King Menephtah. Here the priest is
represented in the act of adoring various deities, and accepting
funeral honours from his family. The tablet marked 142 is of the time
of the nineteenth dynasty. It bears an inscription referring to a
governor of the Ramesseium, named Amen-mes. The next tablet that
deserves particular remark is one in calcareous stone, from Abydos. It
is in honour of a military chief of the twelfth dynasty, named Nechta.
The pictorial embellishments represent the chief before a table of
offerings, with his wife, mother, and nurse, seated before him. On the
next tablet (144) a judge named Kaha, is adoring funeral deities, and
receiving the usual honours from his family. Passing the tablet of the
commander of the troops of the palace of Sethos I. (146) the visitor
should pause before the interesting tablet marked 147. This tablet
records the date of the birth and marriage of a female named
Tai-em-hept, of the advent of her son Tmouth, and of her death which
took place in the tenth year of the reign of Cleopatra. As the visitor
progresses with his inspection of these tablets, he will be more and
more struck with the minute revelations they afford of the subdivision
of labour among the ancient Egyptians. For instance, one tablet (148)
is that of a superintendent of the builders of the palaces of Thothmes
IV. in Abydos; another (149) is that of a scribe of the royal
quarries; a third (150) is that of a Theban judge, on the lower part
of which are representations in yellow, in the style of the nineteenth
dynasty, of the transport of the corpse, and other funeral ceremonies;
a fourth (154) is that of a royal usher; a fifth is that of Pai, a
queen's officer, among the illustrations of which a tame cynocephalus
may be noticed. The tablet marked 159 is a very ancient specimen. It
is that of Rutkar a priest, who is represented, in company with his
wife, surveying the domestic occupations of his dependents. The tablet
from Thebes, of Baknaa, a master of the horse in the reign of
Sesostris is marked 164. Here the deceased is represented adoring a
group of deities. The other tablets in this vicinity are chiefly of
the time of Rameses II. or III, and are in honour of scribes and other
functionaries immediately connected with the court. Two sepulchral
tablets from Sakkara are interesting. That marked 184 is in honour of
a priestess of Phtha named Tanefer-ho. The pictorial embellishments
represent the priestess about to be introduced to Osiris and other
deities by Anubis and other presiding spirits of the tomb. This
specimen bears the date of the nineteenth year of the reign of Ptolemy
Auletes. The second tablet from Sakkara (188) is that of an ancient
pluralist named I-em-hept, who is represented introduced to Osiris and
other deities by Anubis and his brother spirits or genii. The
inscription below, in the vulgar character of the ancient Egyptians,
is supposed to begin with the sixth year of Cleopatra. Near these
tablets is one in dark granite, of a date before the twelfth dynasty
(187) in honour of Mentu-hept, a superintendent of granaries and
wardrobes. The next tablet to which the visitor's attention should be
directed, is one crowded with symbolic animals and deities (191). It
is that of a functionary named Kaha, who is adoring Chiun, standing on
a lion, and grasping snakes, with Horus and other deities. Asi, a
military chief and priest of a very remote period, is represented on
the next tablet (192), with food before him, and the next (193) is
that found before the great sphinx at Gizeh. On it the sun is
represented, and a Greek inscription tells that it was erected in the
time of Nero, by the inhabitants of Busiris to the Roman governor of
Egypt, Tiberius Claudius Balbillus. The next tablet (194) is that
discovered by Belzoni, near the temple of Karnak, on which a line of
adoring deities are represented. The tablets marked 548, 9, 51 have no
particular points of interest; the visitor may therefore at once pass
to the group, most of which are coloured yellow, and are elaborately
embellished, marked from 555 to 598. The first of these worth especial
notice is that (555) of a Theban judge of the eighteenth dynasty. It
is coloured yellow and the deceased is represented with the boat and
the sun's disc above, and in company with his sister adoring the cow
of Athor; the second (566) is in the form of a doorway, is of the
nineteenth dynasty, is coloured, and is in honour of a conductor of
the festival of Amen-ra; the third and fourth (557-8) are of earlier
date, or the twelfth dynasty, and represent the deceased before tables
of viands; the fifth tablet (560) is in honour of Her-chen, who is
represented with his relations, and Phtah-kan, a scribe, also
represented and similarly attended, all well finished and coloured;
the three following tablets represent the deceased before tables of
viands, coloured; the next (564) is that of the keeper of the
treasury, or "silver abode," in the twelfth dynasty--he too is before
a table of food in company with his relations; the next remarkable
specimen is that marked 569, which is in honour of Athor-si, a
functionary supposed to have been the superintendent of mines in the
twelfth dynasty, who is here represented in one part before a table
loaded with food, and in another part seated, with his hands humbly
crossed upon his breast; the next tablets presenting particular points
for remark are those of Eun-necht, (575) a superintendent of corn and
clothing, of the twelfth dynasty. Senatef, chief of the palace to
Amen-emha II., who is represented receiving a goose, a haunch, and
other food from his relations. Eunentef, a chief and his son standing
face to face, bearing wands and sceptres--a sculptor named User-ur,
who is represented with his wives and parents, and upon which the
square red lines used by the precise Egyptian artists are still
visible on the unfinished parts. After several other tablets of the
twelfth dynasty, is placed (584) a small square one of an earlier date
in honour of Chen-bak, an architect, who is seated with his wife,
receiving the duty of his children. Near this is a good specimen of
old Egyptian bas-relief on calcareous stone, in honour of a palace
officer named Amen-ha (586); and next to it (587) is a tablet in
honour of a superintendent of all the gods, named Seraunut. Hereabouts
also is the tablet from Thebes in honour of Hera, a royal scribe
(588). On this tablet the deceased is represented bearing an
appropriate feather sceptre before Nameses the ninth of the twentieth
dynasty, who is seated on his throne, under the particular
guardianship of the God of truth.
The tablet from Thebes marked 593 is that of a judge and his wife, and
is dedicated to Osiris and Anup. Hereon, the lotus flower is
represented, with corn and bread. The next tablet (594) is one in the
shape of an altar of libations, and is dedicated to Amenophis I. and
the queen Aahmes-Nefer-Ari. It is ornamented with representations of
various foods, including vases of figs. In this neighbourhood are a
few more tablets, including one on which are jars, water-fowl, and
bread cakes, (596) and a fragment upon which the head of a king is
traceable, marked 595. The visitor should also notice now the two
early Saracenic tombstones presented by Dr. Bowring. Having examined
these, the more remarkable of the sepulchral tablets, or tombstones of
the ancient Egyptians, the visitor, still lingering amid the funereal
relics of long ages ago, should turn to the