| Ȧmen-mer-Ûsarken | .......... |
| Osarkon I. · | ..........illegible!.......... |
i. e. The king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Osarkon I., the Sun's offspring, Osarkon I., ..........
IV. Inscriptions of Augustus.
There is no name of any other Egyptian ruler, except the three mentioned above, inscribed on our obelisk. When the emperor Augustus, however, had the London and New York Obelisks transported to Alexandria in 12 B. C., he caused his name to be engraved on the crabs which supported them. Only two of these crabs have come down to us and are preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Central Park. On the only remaining claw of one of the crabs are two inscriptions; on the one side in Greek and on the other in Latin, which give the names of the emperor, prefect or governor, and architect. Prof. Augustus Merriam of Columbia College has devoted some time to the study of these inscriptions and has made some very remarkable discoveries, which fix the eighteenth year of the reign of Augustus as the time of the reërection of the London and New York Obelisks in Alexandria. The inscriptions are herewith given in fac-simile.
The Greek inscription reads
which looks like this in regular Greek types:
| L ΙΗ
ΚΑΙΣΑΡΟΣ ΒΑΡΒΑΡΟΣ ΑΝΕΘΗΚΕ ΑΡΧΙΤΕΚΤΟΝΟΥΝΤΟΣ ΠΟΝΤΙΟΥ | In the year · 18 · of Cæsar Barbarus · erected (it). The architect being Pontius. |
i. e. The governor Barbarus erected this obelisk in the eighteenth year of the reign of the emperor Augustus (12 B. C.). Pontius was the architect.
The Latin inscription reads