High Antiquity of the Egyptian Nation. Interesting Character of Egyptian Remains. Extent of Egyptian Conquests. Tartars, Parthians, Turks, &c. Figures of Jews on Egyptian Monuments. Egyptian and Semetic Languages and Races connecting links between the Asiatic and African Languages and Races.
The Egyptian annals of Manetho seem to convey the inference that there must have been in Egypt a series of thirty dynasties, whose reigns occupied a period of time reaching far beyond the commencement of our received chronology. It appears, however, that in the present age the most eminent writers on the antiquities of Egypt are agreed in rejecting this conclusion. The long dynasties of these chronicles are referred by some writers to repetition, by others to the coexistence of distinct dynasties in different parts of Egypt.
But the same eminent writers who have agreed in repudiating the conclusion that seems to be conveyed by Manetho may be said to be equally unanimous in referring the origin of the Egyptians to a date which, tried by the standard of received chronology, will be found to coincide with the very first age in the history of nations.
“By a comparison of Manetho's work with the Theban table of Eratosthenes,” observes Dr. Prichard,[117] “we find satisfactory data for fixing the origin of the Egyptian monarchy as deduced from these documents in the 24th century before our era.”
Other eminent writers on this subject do not perfectly coincide with Dr. Prichard in adopting this precise date. But [pg 136] they all fix on pretty nearly the same time, which, it will be observed, is about the era of the Flood of Scripture, which immediately preceded the diffusion of the human race. In the annexed Table I have introduced a compendious statement of the views of these writers, more especially of the author of a work entitled “A Monumental History of Egypt,” in a form that will exhibit concurrently the principal Chronological facts and the progress of Writing in Egypt. I may observe that Dr. Lepsius is of opinion that Hieroglyphics, which is a mode of conveying ideas by representations of objects without reference to their names, was the source,—(by means of a gradual transition,)—of phonetic characters, which represented their names or words.
| Egyptian Chronology. | Progress Of HieroglyphicsAnd Writing. |
| Doubtful Period. | |
| The accession of Menai or Menes, and earlier EgyptianKings.[118] | |
| First Pyramid built, it is supposed, b.c.2123 | No hieroglyphics on this Pyramid. |
| Historical. | |
| Abraham visits Egypt. 1920 | Hieroglyphics invented,and gave rise to Phoneticwriting, between 2123 and1740. |
| Osirtasen united Egypt into one Monarchy. 1740 | The name of Osirtasen, in this reign the first knownspecimen of Phonetic characters.(Monumental Hist.) |
| Joseph in Egypt. 1706 | |
| 18th Dynasty. 1576 | Age of MSS. (Dr. Lepsius.) |
According to the author of the Monumental History, previously to the year 1740 b.c., the commencement of the reign of Osirtasen, who is believed to have been the contemporary and patron of Joseph, “we have little to guide us on the Monuments of ancient Egypt.” According to the same writer, he was the first who united Egypt into one kingdom, that country, he maintains, having previously been divided into little unimportant kingdoms.
The arguments of this able writer, however, do not impugn the conclusion, that though the precise date may be uncertain, the origin of the Egyptian nation must be referred to the first ages of the human race. The condition of the Egyptians in 1740 b.c. implies a prior existence for many ages, of which we have a distinct proof in the visit of (the Patriarch) Abraham two centuries previously.
The marvellous discoveries made in our day by Champollion, Belzoni, and others, may be said to have thrown a new light on the early history not only of Egypt but of the world! Proofs the most startling have been brought to light of the vast political power and high civilization of the Egyptian nation, combined with a knowledge of science in many branches scarcely surpassed in the present and not equalled in the last generation of European nations! In the Egyptian paintings we have the most distinct portraits, representing not only Negroes, Jews, and other neighbouring races, but also of nations whose light complexions, peculiar physiognomy, and equipments, combined as they sometimes are with delineations of the costumes or natural productions of the countries of which they were natives, betoken the inhabitants of more northern latitudes, confirming the account of Tacitus, who states “The Egyptians overran all Libya and Ethiopia, and subdued the Medes and Persians, the Bactrians and Scythians, with the extensive regions inhabited by the [pg 138] Syrians, the Armenians, and the Cappadocians; and by this conquest a tract of country extending from Bithynia on the Pontic Sea to the coast of Syria on the Mediterranean was reduced to subjection.”
The evidence seems to be clear that some of the nations with whom the Egyptian armies fought, may be identified with the principal Asiatic nations still inhabiting the borders of the Caspian.