The American Journal of Archaeology, 1893-1

by Various

EGYPT.

TEXTS OF THE PYRAMIDS.--Biblia for November, 1892, contains an article by Dr. Brugsch on "The Texts of the Pyramids." It mentions the opening of one of the smaller pyramids of the Sakkarah group in 1880 by Mariette Pasha and the discovery of a number of hieroglyphic inscriptions beautifully chiseled into the walls of the inner aisles and chamber, which gave the name of the maker of the pyramid as Pepi, and fixed its date at the VI Dynasty or about 3,000 B.C. Prof. Brugsch then gives an account of his own work at the request of Mariette upon a second pyramid opened by Mariette's men at Sakkarah, where the walls of the chamber were covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions. A granite coffin, also, was found adorned with hieroglyphics repeating in different places the name of the King. The inscriptions on the walls had been destroyed in a number of places by treasure hunters.

Maspero, Mariette's successor, opened a number of pyramids of the same group and found a great quantity of inscriptions. As a result, new texts were discovered in a number of pyramids of which three belonged to the royal houses of the V and VI Dynasties. Maspero then published a copy of all these inscriptions together with their translation as far as this was possible.

These discoveries establish the important point in the study of the language, that its "iconographic phrase" dates from the most ancient times and goes back even to Menes the first king. The grammar, vocabulary and the construction of words and sentences betray the awkward stiffness of a language in its first literary beginnings, but it is shown in all its youthful strength and pregnance.

A reciprocal comparison of all the texts found establishes the fact that they belong to a collection of texts known as "the Book." This "book" contained all the formulas and conjurations used after death, is a guide for the deceased in the unknown future, and a book of charms, in which guise the Egyptian faith made its appearance in the most ancient period of culture, although containing nothing of the philosophy or history of the ancient Egyptians, it gives us much interesting information relating to mythology, geography, astronomy, botany and zoology.

For the ancient Egyptians believed that their earthly districts, cities and temples had heavenly counterparts of the same name; in fact, the whole geography of this world was duplicated in the world to come. The celestial inhabitants consist of the immortal company of the "shining" with the solar god at their head. Each constellation is designated as the abode of the soul of one god benificent or maleficent. In his wanderings the soul of man came in contact with these abodes of the evil gods and the book which covered the walls of his mortuary chamber provided charms which made him proof against harm.

The texts of the pyramids promise to the departed the enjoyment of a new life which he continues to live in the earth, in the body, in heaven, in the spirit. The soul had power to reunite itself to the body at will. We find in the texts mention of Egyptian political institutions at the remotest period, the existence of a high type of civilization. Agriculture was highly developed. All the domestic animals, with the exception of the horse and camel, are introduced, the arts of cooking, of dressing and of personal adornment, all find mention.

The texts of the pyramids then, though they fail to give us any information with regard to the life or history of the kings whose chambers they adorned have still much significance for the universal history of civilization.

THE MARRIAGE OF AMENOPHIS IV.--The Amarna tablets show that Amenophis married other Babylonian princesses besides Thi his first wife who bore the title of "Royal mother, Royal wife, and Queen of Egypt." A large tablet on exhibition at the British Museum with two others in the museum at Berlin and one at Gizeh gives a very entertaining correspondence between Amenophis and Kallima-Sin, king of Chaldea and brother of one of Amenophis' wives and father of two others. The tablet in the British Museum is relative to the alliance with Lukhaite the youngest daughter of the Chaldean king.

Kallima-Sin is reluctant to give his daughter to the Pharaoh and advances various reasons for his indisposition while Amenophis smoothly explains away the various impediments.

Matters take a new turn in the Berlin letter where we find the Babylonian requesting a wife of the Egyptian monarch, the request is curtly refused, whereupon Kallima-Sin replies, "Inasmuch as thou hast not sent me a wife, I will do in like manner unto thee and hinder any lady from going from Babylon to Egypt." Another letter however shows that Kallima-Sin finally consented on condition of large emolument to send Lukhaite to Egypt, and this very mercenary and diplomatic alliance was finally made.--Biblia, V, pp. 108, 109.

THE DATE OF THE FOURTH EGYPTIAN DYNASTY.--Mr. Petrie's statement in Medum as to the passage-angle of Senefru's pyramid completes a chain of astronomical evidence proving the commencement of the IV Dynasty to have been very approximately 3700 B.C.

The entrance passage of the Medum pyramid has a polar distance (allowing for the azimuth error of the passage) of about 45, and, if intended for observation of a circumpolar star, fixes the date of the structure within not very wide limits. Between 4900 and 2900 B.C. no naked eye star was within this distance of the pole, except the sixth magnitude star 126 Piazzi (XIII) which was so situate about 3820 to 3620 B.C., its minimum distance being about 36'. Allowing an uncertainty of a few minutes of arc, a date fifty years on either side of these extremes would satisfy the requirements of the case.

The passage-angle of the Great Pyramid is 3° 30' below the pole (3° 34' in the built portion, the latest). The Second Pyramid passage has also an angle of about 3° 31' polar distance (Smyth's measures--Perring and Vyse, whose angle measures are not accurate, give 4° 5'). Finally the northern "trial-passage" east of the Great Pyramid has the polar distance 3° 22' + or - 8'. Now at the date 3650 B.C. the star 217 Piazzi (somewhat brighter than that last named) was at a distance of 3° 29' from the pole, increasing to 3° 34' by 3630 B.C.

East of the Great Pyramid there are certain straight trenches (one at the Ν.Ε. corner) running respectively 13° 6', 24° 22', and 75° 58' east of North and west of South. At about the date named these trenches pointed very nearly to Canopus at setting and to Arcturus and Altair at rising, the average error of azimuth being less than a degree.

But even these differences of half a degree or so are accounted for. Refraction at the horizon amounts to about 35' of arc; if we assume that the Egyptian (?) astronomers took it roundly at 30', and that they intended to observe the stars on the true and not the apparent horizon, we find the azimuths would have been (3645 B.C.):--

Canopus 13° 3' (W. of S.), Trench 13° 6'
Arcturus 24° 23' (E. of N.), " 24° 22'
Altair 76° 0' ( " ), " 75° 58'

These figures speak for themselves. The dates 3645 B.C. for the trenches and external works, and 3630 B.C. for the completion of the entrance passage, with an interval of fifteen years, accord with the probabilities of the case. It should be remembered that they are deduced quite independently.

The net result is that the three reigns of Senefru, Khuffu, and Kaffra may be definitely assigned to the century 3700-3600 B.C.--G.F. HARDY, in Academy, Oct. 29.

THE PETRIE PAPYRI.--A paper was read by Prof. Mahaffy at the Oriental Congress upon "The Gain to Egyptology from the Petrie Papyri."--The first part of the papyri placed in his hands by Mr. Flinders Petrie consisted of classical documents which had already been printed by the Royal Irish Academy in the Cunningham Memoirs. Of these a large volume had appeared, which was exciting vehement controversy in Germany. But in addition to these there was a great mass of private papers which had not yet been printed, but which had been deciphered partly by Prof. Sayce and partly by himself. These papers were in two languages-Greek and demotic, or the popular language of the Egyptians. These were in part hieroglyphs done into cursive. Of these demotic fragments a large quantity had been sent to the British Museum. The Greek papyri still remain in his own hands. Strange to say, only one of these texts is bilingual. These interesting documents might be divided into--(1) legal agreements, of which some were contracts, others receipts, others again taxing agreements; (2) correspondence, partly of a public and partly of a private character. In the former were official reports, petitions, complaints. The private correspondence was especially interesting in showing the condition of society at that date. A large number of Macedonians and Greeks were settled in the Fayum under the second Ptolemy, about 270 B.C. In addition there was a large number of prisoners from Asia, who must have been brought into Egypt after the great campaign of the third Ptolemy, about 246 B.C. This mixed body were the recipients of large grants of land in the Fayum. It was interesting to find that many of these grants were as large as 100 acres, and the occupiers are thus called ἑκατοντάρονροι. The farms were divided into three classes of land. First, there was what was called the Royal land, probably fruitful land was meant; the second class was called ἄβροχος, or land still in need of irrigation; and the third ἄφορος, or land which would bear nothing. This latter was also called ἁλμυρίς, or the salt marsh, which was still common in Egypt. These recipients or allottees of land were called by a name familiar to all readers of Greek history--κληρουχοί. Prof. Mahaffy had found no native landowner mentioned in the papyri. But in many cases the natives had an interest in the crops on something like a metayer system. Among the crops grown were the vine, olives, wheat, barley, rye. There was evidence in the legal papers that alienation of these farms was not allowed. Among the contracts are many between Greeks and natives. The principal officers of the Nome were the Strategos, the Oeconomos, and the επιμελητης, or overseer. The commissioner of works had charge of drainage and irrigation works. It was amusing to find that two currencies were prevalent at that period, silver and copper. This discovery disposed of the current theory that the copper currency only came in under the late Ptolemies. The phrases for the rate of exchange had long been known--χαλκος ου αλλαγή, but he had now got hold of a later term, ισόνομος which might be translated 'at par.' These documents were also valuable, as being transcriptions from Egyptian into Greek, with respect to our knowledge of the Egyptian language. As the Egyptians did not write down their vowels, the vocalisation of the language was hardly yet known. But results of much importance were gained--first, of a palaeographical, and, secondly, of a linguistic character. We now know exactly how they wrote in the third century B.C., and we have also learnt what was the Greek used by the respectable classes of that epoch. The Greek was far purer and better than that of the Septuagint would lead us to expect. There was still a large number of papers to be deciphered, and a large addition to our knowledge might be expected.--Academy, Sept. 24.

A GREEK PAPYRUS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.--At the Orientalist Congress in London a most interesting document was submitted by the Rev. Professor Hechler. It is a papyrus manuscript discovered a few months ago in Egypt, and is supposed by some authorities to be the oldest copy extant of portions of the Old Testament books of Zachariah and Malachi. These pages of papyrus when intact were about ten inches high and seven inches wide, each containing 28 lines of writing, both sides of the sheet being used. The complete line contains from fourteen to seventeen letters. The sheets are bound together in the form of a book in a primitive though careful manner with a cord and strips of old parchment. The Greek is written without intervals between the words. The papyrus is in fair preservation, and is believed to date from the third or fourth century. It thus ranks in age with the oldest Greek manuscripts of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament in London, Rome and St. Petersburg. The differences in this papyrus tend to the conclusion that it was copied from some excellent original of the Septuagint, which was first translated about the year 280 B.C. The first summary examination has shown that it has several new readings which surpass some of the other Septuagint texts in clearness of expression and simplicity of grammar. It would also appear that it was copied from another Septuagint Bible and was not written, as was frequently the case, from dictation. A second scribe has occasionally corrected some mistakes of orthography made by the original copyist. These are still to be distinguished by the different color of the ink.

Professor Hechler said it was sincerely to be hoped that this papyrus of the Bible, probably the oldest now known to exist, would soon be published in fac-simile.

THE DATE OF THE AEGEAN POTTERY.--Quite a discussion has been carried on between Mr. Flinders Petrie and Mr. Cecil Torr on the subject of the period of the Aegean pottery in Egypt which Mr. Torr regards as having been assigned to too early a date by Mr. Petrie. The recent discovery of such fragments in the ruins of the palace of Khuenaten at Tell-el-Amarna, which existed for little over half a century in the xiv century B.C., would appear to prove beyond doubt the correctness of Mr. Petrie's position.--See Classical Review for March; Academy, May 14 and 21, etc.

A PROFESSORSHIP OF EGYPTOLOGY.--Miss A.B. Edwards has left almost the whole of her property to found a professorship of Egyptology, under certain conditions, at University College, London, The value of the chair will amount to about $2,000 a year. Mr. W.M. Flinders Petrie has been appointed to this chair, and no better selection could have been made.

EXCAVATIONS BY DR. BRUGSCH, COUNT D'HULST AND M. NAVILLE.--Dr. H. Brugsch has been excavating during the past spring in the Fayoum. At Hawara he has discovered a considerable number of painted portraits. At Illahun he opened a tomb of the eleventh dynasty, which had not been entered since the mummy was originally deposited in it. Unfortunately the roof fell in before it could be properly cleared out. At Shenhour he came across the remains of a small temple. Since leaving the Fayoum he has been working on the site of Sais.

Count d'Hulst has been excavating at Behbet, near Mansourah, on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Fund. The ruined temple there is Ptolemaic, but the cartouche of Ramses II has been found in the course of the excavations.

Mr. Naville has returned to Europe. His excavations at Jmei el-Amdîd, the supposed site of Mendes, have been unfruitful, and he has fared no better at Tel el-Baghliyeh.--Athenaeum May 16.

EXCAVATIONS BY LIEUT. LYONS AT WADY HALFAH, ABUSIR, MATUGAH.--Lieut. H.G. Lyons has been continuing exploration at Wady Halfah. He has cleared out the sand from one of the temples, and found there eleven slabs with figures of a king making offerings to the god Horus of Behen or Wady Halfah in a chamber in front of the Hall of Columns. The names in the cartouches have been erased, and it is, therefore, impossible to identify the king. A second temple, with sandstone pillars and mud brick walls, is inscribed in many places with the name of Thothmes IV. This building had been flooded and filled to a depth of 2 ft. with fine sand. The third temple of Wady Halfah was completely surrounded by a line of fortifications, the flanks of which rest on the river, but of these works only the foundation remains. The discovery of them is, however, decidedly important, for in them we must see beyond doubt the great frontier fortress which marked the limit of the rule of Egypt on the south.

About five miles beyond the rock of Abusir, Lieut. Lyons has excavated the large space, about two hundred yards square, which is mentioned in Burckhard's 'Travels in Nubia,' and upon which stand the ruined walls of what has been variously described as a Roman fort or a monastery. He has come to the conclusion that the building is undoubtedly Egyptian, and has traced the site of the ancient stone temple inside it.

He reports that he has discovered old Egyptian fortresses at Halfa and at Matuga, twelve miles south, the latter containing a cartouche of Usertesen III: and has opened three rocktombs at Halfa.--Academy, July 16 and Aug. 6.

NOTES BY PROF. SAYCE.--Besides Tel el-Amarna, I have visited El-Hibeh and the little temple of Shishak, which was uncovered there last year. It is, unfortunately, in a most ruinous condition. One of the natives took me to a recently-found necropolis at a place under the cliffs called Ed-Dibân, some two miles distant, which is plainly of the Roman age, and its occupants belonged to the poorer classes.

In the White Monastery near Sohâg, I found a stone with the cartouche of Darius, which had formed part of the ancient temple of Crocodilopolis.

I picked up some fine flint spear-heads near the line of Roman forts on the north side of the Gebel Sheikh Embârak, where I discovered an enormous manufactory of flint weapons and tools three years ago.

Lastly, I may add that at the back of the Monastery of Mari Girgis, about three miles south of Ekhmim, I found that another cemetery of the early Coptic period has been discovered, and that it is providing the dealers with fresh supplies of ancient embroideries.--A.H. SAYCE, in Academy, Feb. 27.

PRESERVATION OF MOHAMMEDAN MONUMENTS.--The Soc. for the Protection of Ancient Buildings has protested, through Sir Evelyn Baring, against the so-called restoration of the mosque El-Mouyayyed and the mosque of Barkouk. It is proposed to rebuild the domed minaret of Barkouk's mosque and the suppressed bell-tower of the Sultan's mosque, which is to be replaced by a bulbous roof.--Chron. des Arts, 1892, No. 31.

ABU-SIMBEL.--The Council of Ministers has granted £1,000 for the preservation of Abu-Simbel, which is in danger of partial destruction. The rock above the four colossi on the façade, which is of sandstone with layers of clay, had become fissured, threatening an immediate fall. A party of sappers from the army of occupation have been sent to the temple, who, after binding with chains the falling rock, will break it up. Further examination will be made to ascertain whether additional work is required for the protection of this temple.--Academy, March 5.

ASSOUAN.--DAM.--A huge dam is to be thrown across the Nile at Assouan: its height will raise the water to the level of the floors of the ruins at Philae, enhancing rather than detracting from their picturesque grandeur. It is said that the structure of the dam will harmonize with the ancient architecture of Philae. The material already cut and lying in the quarries of Assouan will be almost sufficient to complete the dam.--Biblia, V. p. 109.

TOMBS.--Some new tombs have been opened, one by the Crown Princess of Sweden and Norway, the other by Mr. James. One of them belonged to the reign of Nofer-Ka-Ra; and, in an inscription found in it, Prof. Schiaparelli has read the name of the land of Pun, which accordingly, was already known to the Egyptians in the age of the dynasty.--PROF. SAYCE in Academy.

CAIRO (NEAR). DESTRUCTION OF AN ANCIENT CHRISTIAN CHURCH.--Rev. Greville J. Chester writes (Acad. March 19). "Permit me to draw public attention to an almost incredible act of vandalism which was perpetrated during the last year in Egypt, close to the capital. The finest Roman ruin in Egypt was the fortress of Babylon, south of Cairo, known also as Mus'r el Ateekeh and Dayr esh Shemma. One of the most interesting sights in that Dayr was the Jewish synagogue, anciently the Christian Church of St. Michael, but desecrated by being handed over in the middle ages by an Arab Sultan to the Jews, and thenceforward to the present time used by them as a place of worship. The building was of much architectural interest. The old Christian nave and aisles were preserved intact; but the Jews had destroyed the apse which must have existed, and had replaced it by a square Eastern sanctuary, and over the niche, within which were preserved the Holy Books of the Law, had adorned the wall with numerous Hebrew texts executed in gesso, forming an interesting example of Jewish taste and work in the middle ages. Some of the ancient Christian screenwork of wood was preserved, but was turned upside down, probably because gazelles and other animals formed part of the design. Behind this building, in a sort of court, the very finest portion of the original wall of the Roman fortress was visible, and, what is more important, the inner and most perfect circuit of one of the Roman bastion-towers, which outside looked out on the desert.

All this is now a thing of the past. The Jews have razed the ancient church and synagogue to the ground, and in its place have erected a hideous square abomination, supported internally on iron pillars. Of the fine Roman wall which bounded the property, and with it the bastion-tower, with its courses of brick at regular intervals, and its deeply-splayed windows, not a vestige now remains."

CAIRO.--GIZEH MUSEUM.--M. de Morgan has been appointed director of the Museum in place of M. Grébaut. This will meet with general approval. He is young and energetic, and the work he has done in the Caucasus and in Persia has placed him in the front rank of archaeologists and explorers. Moreover, he is an engineer, and therefore possesses a practical knowledge which, in view of the conservation of the ancient monuments of Egypt, is a matter of prime importance. He has asked the Board of Public Works for £50,000 in order to secure the building against fire; it is built of very inflammable material. During the past summer the museum has been entirely rearranged by him. Of the rooms in the palace, only some thirty-eight contained antiquities last winter; now, however, about eighty-five are used as exhibition rooms, and, for the first time, it is possible to see of what the Egyptian collection really consists. On the ground floor the positions of several of the large monuments have been changed, and the chronological arrangement is better than it was before. In one large room are exhibited for the first time eleven fine mastaba stelæ of the Ancient Empire, (VI. Dyn.) which were brought from Sakkarah during the past summer; they are remarkable for the brightness of the colours, the vigour of the figures, and the beauty of the hieroglyphics. On the same floor are two splendid colossal statues of the god Ptah which have been excavated at Memphis during last summer, and many other large objects from the same site. In a series of rooms, approached from the room in which the Dêr el-Bahari mummies are exhibited, are arranged the coffins and mummies of the priests of Amen which were brought down from Thebes two years ago. The coffins are of great interest, for they are ornamented with mythological scenes and figures of gods which seem to be peculiar to the period immediately following the rule of the priest-kings at Thebes, i.e., from about B.C. 1000 to 800.

A new and important feature in the arrangement of the rooms on the upper floor is the section devoted to the exhibition of papyri. Here in flat glazed cases are shown at full length fine copies of the 'Book of the Dead,' hieratic papyri, including the unique copy of the 'Maxims of Ani.' and many other papyri which have been hitherto inaccessible to the ordinary visitor. To certain classes of objects, such as scarabs, blue glazed faïence, linen sheets, mummy bandages and garments, terracotta vases and vessels, alabaster jars, etc., special rooms are devoted. The antiquities which, although found in Egypt, are certainly not of Egyptian manufacture, e.g., Greek and Phœnician glass, Greek statues, tablets inscribed in cuneiform from Tel el-Amarna, etc., are arranged in groups in rooms set apart for them; and the monuments of the Egyptian Christians or Copts are also classified and arranged in a separate room.--Athenæum, May 14 and Nov. 19.

THE FRENCH SCHOOL AT CAIRO.--M. Maspero analyzed before the Acad. des Inscr. (Oct. 28), the recent work and immediate prospects of the French School at Cairo. The Memoirs recently issued show the field that it covers at present. First comes a fascicule of Greek texts, the mathematical papyrus of Akmim, explained and commented by M. Baillet; a long fragment of the Greek text of the Book of Enoch, remains of the apocryphal Gospel and Apocalypse of St. Peter, reproduced by M. Bouriant. All these works are of extreme importance for primitive church history. Arab archæology is represented by memoirs of M. Casonova on an Arab globe, on sixteen Arab steles, and especially by M. Burgoin's great work on Arab art in Egypt. Father Scheil makes an incursion into Assyriology by his publication of some of the Tel el-Amarna tablets, and in this connection M. Maspero states that the intention of the school is to extend their researches to Syria and Mesopotamia and to include the entire East both ancient and modern. In the Egyptian domain, besides the Theban fragments of the Old Testament and the remains of the Acts of the Council of Ephesos, the notable event is the appearance of the first fasciculus of the work on Edfu by M. de Rochemonteix. In it a complete temple will be placed before students. The entire Egyptian religion will be illustrated, in all its rituals,--ritual of foundation, of sacrifice, of the feast of Osiris. M. Benedite has commenced in the same way the publication of the Temples of Philae.-- Revue Critique, 1892, No. 45.

The investigations enumerated above are far from being all. They represent merely the official governmental side of the work. The learned societies have done a great deal; such as the Ecole des lettres of Algiers, the management of historical monuments (Tebessa), and the French School of Rome.

EL-KARGEH.--PLASTER BUSTS.--At a meeting of the Académie des Inscriptions, M. Héron de Villefosse exhibited four painted plaster busts from El-Kargeh, in the Great Oasis, which have recently been sent to the Louvre by M. Bouriant, director of the French School at Cairo. They have been taken from the lids of sarcophagi; but the peculiarity about them is that the heads were not in the same plane with the body, but as it were erect. The features have been modelled with extraordinary verisimilitude; the eyes are of some glassy material, in black and white; the hair was modelled independently, and afterwards fitted to the plaster head; the painting is in simple colours--various shades of red for the skin, and black or brown for the hair. M. Héron de Villefosse maintained that they were certainly portraits. The physiognomy of one is Jewish; another recalls a bronze head from Cyrene in the British Museum, which Fr. Lenormant considered to be of Berber type; the third might be Syrian, and the fourth Roman. The date is probably about the time of Septimius Severus. M. Maspero declared that he had never seen anything of the kind in any museum.--Academy, July 9.

These busts have been placed on exhibition at the Louvre, in the Salle des fresques.--Chron. des Arts, 1892, No. 28.

According to a writer in the Temps, two are Greeks, one Syrian and one a Jew. The Greeks are blond with straight hair; the others have dark brown curly hair. All are bearded. The drapery is white.--Chron. des Arts, 1892, No. 30.

The department of Greek and Roman antiquities at the Louvre has also received from M. Bouriant two funerary inscriptions found in the necropolis dating from the second century A.D. One is Latin, tha other Greek.--Chron. des Arts, 1892, No. 32.

CHATBI (NEAR).--NECROPOLIS.--M. Botti has discovered between Chatbi and Ibrahimieh a Roman necropolis of the first or second century A.D.. at a depth of fourteen metres. It is excavated in soft calcareous stone and its chambers and corridors are reached by a rock-cut staircase. The bodies are both laid on the floor and placed in jars. They were intact.--Chron. des Arts, 1892, No. 30.

EL-QAB.--Mr. Taylor has been excavating here for the Egypt exploration fund, in continuation of the previous year's work. Prof. Sayce reports, after Mr. Taylor's departure (Acad., March 12), that more of the foundations of the old temple which stood within the temple were then visible than the preceding year. The fragmentary remains show that among its builders were Usertesen (xii dyn.), Sebekhotep II (xiii dyn.), Amenophis I and Thothmes III (xviii dyn.) and Nektanebo I (xxx dyn.) In one of the tombs Nofer-Ka-Ra is alluded to as (apparently) the original founder of the sanctuary.

GEBELEN.--TEMPLE OF HOR-M-HIB.--Prof. Sayce writes. "On the voyage from Luxor to Assuan I stopped at Gebelon, and found that the Bedouin squatters there had unearthed some fragments of sculptured and inscribed stones on the summit of the fortress built by the priest-king Ra-men-kheper and queen Isis-m-kheb to defend this portion of the Nile. On examination they turned out to belong to a small temple which must once have stood on the spot. The original temple, I found, had been constructed of limestone by Hor-m-hib, the last king of the xviii dynasty, and brilliantly ornamented with sculpture and painting. Additions had been made to the temple, apparently by Seti I.; since besides the stones belonging to Hor-m-hib, there were other fragments of the same limestone as that of which the temple of Seti at Abydos is built, and covered with bas-reliefs and hieroglyphs in precisely the same delicate style of art. Eventually a building of sandstone had been added to the original temple on the west side by Ptolemy VII Philometor. It may be noted that Ra-men-kheper used bricks burnt in the kiln as well as sun-dried bricks in the construction of the fortress, as he also did in the construction of the fortress at El-Hibeh.--Academy, March 12.

HAT-NUB.-THE EARLY QUARRY.-This interesting quarry has been recently discovered by Mr. Griffith. Mr. Petrie writes : Allow me to note that in this quarry, described by Mr. Griffith (Academy, Jan. 23), and situated ten miles southeast of El Tell in this plain, the main quarry does not contain any name later than the vi Dynasty. The tablet in the thirtieth year being of Pepi II (Nefer-ka-ra), and mentioning the sed festival in that year, this might refer to the Sothiac festival of 120 years falling in that year, and so be important as a datum. There are seven painted inscriptions of Pepi II, containing about fifty lines in all. There are also a great number of incised graffiti.--Academy, Feb. 20.

HAWARA.--MUMMY PORTRAITS.--Among the most important discoveries of the year is that by Dr. Brugsch, of three mummy portraits in the desert of Hawara. These were found, uncoffined, and buried at a very slight depth below the surface.

The first is that of a woman: the portrait is brilliantly executed in tempera, on canvas, and is the most ancient of paintings on canvas known, for its date cannot be fixed later than the first century B.C.

The next portrait was on the mummy of a man but instead of a painting on canvas is a relief in stucco, gilded. The features are carefully reproduced, as are the beard and whiskers.

The third mummy was provided with a beautifully executed portrait on wood which is one of the best examples of ancient painting, though not so rare as the other, for ancient portraits painted on wood have long been known.--Biblia, V. P.

HELIOPOLIS.--M. Philippe, the Cairo dealer in antiquities, is, with permission from the Gizeh Museum, carrying on excavations at Heliopolis, which have brought to light some tombs of the Saïtic period.--Academy, Nov. 12.

KOM-EL-AHMAR.--"At Kom el-Ahmar, opposite El-Qab, I visited two recently-discovered tombs, which contain the cartouches of Pepi, and are in a fairly perfect condition. The walls are covered with delicate paintings in the style of those of Beni-Hassan, and explanatory inscriptions are attached to them. The early date of the paintings and inscriptions makes them particularly interesting. The tombs are still half buried in the sand, and only the upper part of the internal decoration is visible."--PROF. SAYCE, in Academy, April 2.

MEIR.--The authorities of the Gizeh Museum have, on the suggestion of Johnson Pasha, caused excavations to be made at Meïr, near Deirut, in Upper Egypt, which have already resulted in the discovery of some tombs of the XI dynasty. It is intended to continue these excavations.--Academy, Nov. 12.

MEMPHIS.--DISCOVERIES BY M. DE MORGAN.--At a meeting of the Acad. des Inscr. Prof. Maspero communicated the result of the excavations on the site of Memphis by M. de Morgan. He has discovered among the ruins of the temple of Ptah a number of monuments of importance. First, a large boat of granite, similar to that in the museum at Turin, on which the figures are destroyed; next, several fragmentary colossi of Rameses II, and in particular two gigantic upright figures, dedicated by this king, of Ptah, the god of Memphis, enshrouded in mummy-wrappings and holding a sceptre in both hands; lastly, some isolated figures, arranged in a court or a chamber. The importance of this discovery, said Prof. Maspero, will be realised when we bear in mind that we possess no divine image of large size, and that the very existence of statues of gods in Egyptian temples has sometimes been denied.--Academy, Sept. 17.

SEHEL.--THE TENTH DYNASTY.--Prof. Sayce reports that he has been finding evidences of the little-known X dynasty in the immediate neighborhood of the First Cataract. "Mr. Griffith and Prof. Maspero have shown that certain of the tombs at Siût belonged to the period when this dynasty ruled in Egypt. I have now discovered inscriptions which show that its rule was recognized on the frontiers of Nubia.

"An examination of the position occupied by the numerous inscriptions on the granite rocks of the island of Sehêl have made it clear to me that we must recognize two periods in the history of the sanctuary for which the island was famous. During the second period the temple stood on the eastern slope of an eminence where I found remains of it two years ago. As I also found fragments of it bearing the name of Thothmes III on the one hand, and of Ptolemy Philopator on the other, it must have existed from the age of the XVII dynasty down to Ptolemaic times. Throughout this period the inscriptions left by pious pilgrims to the shrine all face the site of the temple. So also do a certain number of inscriptions which belong to the age of the XII and XIII dynasties. But the majority of the inscriptions which belong to the latter age, like the inscriptions which are proved by the occurrence of the names of Antef and Mentuhotep to be of the time of the xi dynasty, face a different way. They look southward.

"This winter I have come across a large number of inscriptions on the mainland side of the channel which look northward, that is, towards the island. A few of these inscriptions are of the time of the XII dynasty, but the greater number belong to the XI dynasty, and one is dated in the forty-first year of Ra-neb-kher. It would seem, therefore, that at the epoch when they were inscribed on the rocks the sanctuary of Sehêl stood either in the middle of the southern channel of the river or upon its edge.

"On the island side of the channel there are a good many inscriptions which are shown by the weathering of the hieroglyphs to be older than the age of the XI dynasty. Indeed, the inscription of an Antef is cut over one of them. They all present the same curious forms of hieroglyphic characters, and contain for the most part titles and formulæ not met with in the later texts. Moreover, they are not dedicated like the later texts to the divine trinity of the Cataract, Khnum, Anuke, and Sati, but to a deity whose name is expressed by a character resembling an Akhem seated on a basket. Mr. Wilbour and I first noticed it last year.

"One of the early inscriptions contains a cartouche which reads Ra-nefer-hepu, the last element being represented by the picture of a rudder. Now Mr. Newberry and his companions at Beni-Hassan have discovered that one of the groups of tombs which exist there is of older date than the time of the XII dynasty. In this group of tombs occurs the name of a lady who was called Nefer-hepu. She must have been born in the reign of Ra-nefer-hepu, and will consequently belong, not to the age of the XI dynasty, but to that of one of the dynasties which preceded it.

"That this dynasty was the X is made pretty clear by the inscriptions on the mainland side of the channel I have described. Here I have found inscriptions of the early sort mingled with those of the XI dynasty in such a way as to show that they cannot have been widely separated in age. Moreover, in one of them, the name of Khatî is associated with that of Ra-mer-ab; and Khatî is not only a name which characterises the XI dynasty, but it was also the name of the owner of one of the tombs at Siût, which Mr. Griffith has proved to belong to the time of the X dynasty. We were already acquainted with the name of Ra-mer-ab from a scarab; and two years ago Mr. Bouriant obtained a bronze vase which gave the double name of Ra-mer-ab Kherti. Kherti is a king of the X dynasty. By the side of the inscription which contains the name of Ra-mer-ab, I found others with the names of Ra-mer-ankh and Ameni. That Ameni was a king of the X dynasty has already been suspected.

"The inscriptions I have copied this winter, therefore, have not only given us the names of some kings of the X dynasty, one of them previously unknown; they have also shown that the power of the dynasty was acknowledged as far south as the Cataract. Moreover, they indicate that the government must have passed from the X to the XI dynasty in a peaceful and regular manner."

SHAT-ER-RIGALEH.--Prof. Sayce writes: "I have visited the famous "Shat er-Rigâleh," the valley a little north of Silsilis and the village of El-Hammâni, in which so many monuments of the XI dynasty have been discovered by Messrs. Harris, Eisenlohr, and Flinders Petrie. To these I have been able to add another cartouche, that of Ra-nofer-neb, a king who is supposed to belong to the XIV dynasty. His name and titles have been carved on the rock at the northern corner of the entrance into the valley by a certain Ama, a memorial of whom was found by Mr. Petrie in the Wadi itself (A Season in Egypt, pl. XV. No. 438). Mr. Spicer, whose dahabiyeh accompanied mine, photographed the inscriptions in which Mentuhotep-Ra-neb-kher of the XI dynasty is mentioned, as well as the one which enumerates the names of three kings of the XVIII dynasty, Amenophis I, Thothmes I, and Thothmes II. One of the inscriptions of Mentuhotep is dated in the thirty-ninth year of the king's reign. The epithet mâ-kheru "deceased" is attached only to the cartouche of Amenophis I, not to those of the other two kings, proving that they reigned contemporaneously."--Academy, March 12.

TEL EL-AMARNA.--EXCAVATIONS BY MR. PETRIE.--Mr. Petrie communicates the following report to the Academy: "During the last four months I have been excavating at this place, the capital of Khuenaten. Past times have done their best to leave nothing for the present--not even a record. The Egyptians carried away the buildings in whole blocks down to the lowest foundations, completely smashed the sculptures, and left nothing in the houses; and the Museum authorities, and a notorious Arab dealer, have cleared away without any record what had escaped the other plunderers of this century. I have now endeavoured to recover what little remained of the art and history of this peculiar site, by careful searching in the town. From the tombs I am debarred, although the authorities are doing nothing whatever there themselves, and the tomb of Khuenaten remains uncleared, with pieces of the sarcophagus and vessels thrown indiscriminately in the rubbish outside.

The region of main interest is the palace; and the only way to recover the plan was by baring the ground, and tracing the bedding of the stones which are gone. For this I have cleared all the site of the buildings, and in course of the work several rooms with portions of painted fresco pavements have been found. One room which was nearly entire, about 51 by 16 feet, and two others more injured, have now been entirely exposed to view, and protected by a substantial house, well lighted, and accessible to visitors, erected by the Public Works Department. With the exception of a pavement reported to exist at Thebes, these are the only examples of a branch of art which must have been familiar in the palaces of Egypt. The subjects of these floors are tanks with fish, birds, and lotus; groups of calves, plants, birds, and insects; and a border of bouquets and dishes. But the main value of these lies in the new style of art displayed; the action of the animals, and the naturalistic grace of the plants, are unlike any other Egyptian work, and are unparalleled even in classical frescoes. Not until modern times can such studies from nature be found. Yet this was done by Egyptian artists; for where the lotus occurs, the old conventional grouping has constrained the design, and the painter could not overstep his education, though handling all the other plants with perfect individuality. That Babylonian influence was not active, is seen by the utter absence of any geometrical ornament; neither rosettes or stars, frets or circles, nor any other such elements are seen, and perhaps no such large piece of work exists so clear of all but natural forms. Some small fragments of sculptured columns show that this flowing naturalism was as freely carried out in relief as in colour.

Of the architecture there remain only small pieces flaked off the columns. By comparing these the style can be entirely recovered; and we see that both the small columns in the palace, and those five feet thick in the river frontage, were in imitation of bundles of reeds, bound with inscribed bands, with leafage on base and on capital, and groups of ducks hung up around the neck. A roof over a well in the palace was supported by columns of a highly geometrical pattern, with spirals and chevrons. In the palace front were also severer columns inscribed with scenes, and with capitals imitating gigantic jewellery. The surface was encrusted with brilliant glazes, and the ridges of stone between the pieces were gilt, so that it resembled jewels set in gold. An easy imitation of this was by painting the hollows and ridges, and the crossing lines of the setting soon look like a net over the capital. We are at once reminded of the "net work" on the capitals of Solomon, and see in these columns their prototype.

This taste for inlaying was carried to great lengths on the flat walls. The patterns were incrusted with coloured glazes, and birds and fishes were painted on whole pieces and let into the blocks; hieroglyphs were elaborately carved in hard stones and fixed in the hollowed forms, black granite, obsidian, and quartzite in white limestone, and alabaster in red granite. The many fragments of steles which have come from here already, and which I have found, appear to show a custom of placing one stele--with the usual adoration of the sun by the king and queen--in each of the great halls of the palace and temple. These steles are in hard limestone, alabaster, red granite, and black granite. I have found more steles on the rocks on both sides of the Nile, and have seen in all eight on the eastern and three on the western cliffs.

The history of this site, and of the religious revolutions, is somewhat clearer than before. Khuenaten came to the throne as a minor; for in his sixth year he had only one child, and in his eighth year only two, as we learn from the steles, suggesting that he was not married till his fifth year apparently. On his marriage he changed his name from Amenhotep IV (which occurs on a papyrus from Gurob in his fifth) to Khuenaten (which we find here in the sixth). A scarab which I got last year in Cairo shows Amenhotep (with Amen erased subsequently) adoring the cartouches of the Aten, settling his identity with Khuenaten. In a quarry here is the name of his mother, Queen Thii, without any king; so she was probably regent during his minority, and started this capital here herself.

The character of the man, and the real objects of his revolution in religion and art, are greatly cleared by our now being able to see him as in the flesh. By an inexplicable chance, there was lying on the ground, among some stones, a plaster cast taken from his face immediately after his death for the use of the sculptors of his funeral furniture; with it were the spoilt rough blocks of granite ushabtis for his tomb. The cast is in almost perfect condition, and we can now really study his face, which is full of character. There is no trace of passion in it, but a philosophical calm with great obstinacy and impracticability. He was no vigorous fanatic, but rather a high bred theorist and reformer: not a Cromwell but a Mill. An interesting historical study awaits us here from his physiognomy and his reforms. No such cast remains of any other personage in ancient history.

According to one view, he was followed successively by four 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.

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, etc., 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 Phœnicia. 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 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.

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, etc., 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.