Lepsius succeeded in tracing Egyptian history, king by king, event by event, to Alexander the Great, and hence through the XXXIst, XXXth, XXIXth, XXVIIIth, XXVIIth, XXVIth, XXVth, XXIVth, and XXIIIrd consecutive Egyptian dynasties, back to Sheshonk Shishak, founder of the XXIInd dynasty, who conquered Jerusalem ‘in the Vth year of King Rehoboam,’ as is hieroglyphically recorded in Karnac. This furnishes us with a perfect synchronism between Egyptian and Hebrew history up to 971–3 B.C. From this point we have innumerable Egyptian tablets, papyri, and genealogical lists, carrying us upward through the XXIst, XXth, XIXth, and XVIIIth dynasties to Ramses I. (Ramesu) 15th-16th century B.C. Here we have a short period of anarchy, represented in the Disk heresy, and find sundry royal claimants, at the head of whom stands Atenra-Bakhan, or Bexen-aten, called by Lepsius ‘Amenophis IV.’ From the reign of his father Amenophis III. every king is known, by means of hieroglyphical inscriptions on stone and papyri, back to the beginning of the XVIIth Theban dynasty, in the reign of AAHMES I. (Amosis), about 1671 B.C. Here again we have the mysterious period of the Hyksos or Shepherd kings, who, according to Manetho, ruled 511 years. Three dynasties may be put down for this period—the XVIth, XVth, and XIVth. But we again step into the broad daylight of monumental facts when we reach the XIIIth dynasty, and with it the ‘Old Empire’ in the land of Kham, Ham, the venerable Chemnus, the Sebakhetps and Hepherhetps of the XIIIth dynasty; whilst the glories of the XIIth blaze forth effulgently, thanks to the critical investigations of the Turin Papyrus by the immortal Lepsius.
The XIIth dynasty ends about 2124 B.C.
Though little is known of the XIth, Xth, IXth, VIIIth, and VIIth dynasties, the VIth and Vth dynasties stand solid as rocks on the Turin papyrus, and are thoroughly known in consequence of the recovery of all the kings, but one, from the tombs opened at Memphis. The remains of the IVth dynasty surpass belief; those who doubt can refer to the folio plates, the ‘Denkmäler,’ by Lepsius, copies of which are in nearly all our libraries.
Of the IIIrd, IInd, and Ist dynasties we have no monuments, but even this unknown age must have been preceded by a long period of development, till at last Menes is set down as the first Pharaoh of Egypt about 3892 B.C. according to Lepsius, or 5702 B.C. according to Böckh; 5613 B.C. according to Unger; Brugsch puts him 4455 B.C.; Lauth 4157 B.C., and Bunsen 3623 B.C. But before Menes constructed Memphis; Teni, This, or Thinis, was already a once flourishing and then decaying town. Menes erected at Memphis a green sanctuary, ornamented with the figures of men and animals. Memphis (Men-ofer) means ‘the good station.’ The king in the times of Menes had already several titles. He was called the great house—Per-āo, Pharaoh; as we speak of the ‘sublime Porte.’ The king was to his subjects nuter (divine), or neb (master). He was addressed by the title of hon-f, corresponding to our ‘Your Majesty’; or only by on, which would be our ‘Sire.’ The Egyptians under Menes had already rewards in the form of decorations, in nub, the golden collar, corresponding to our ‘order of the garter.’ The court consisted of nobles and attendants. The nobles were Sez, and had to distinguish themselves by wisdom and learning. The house of the king’s children was under a governor, who was responsible for their health and education. Those belonging to the highest classes had the title of erpa, illustrious, ha, chief, or set, your excellency. The affairs of the court were entrusted to intendants, the hir-sesta, the secretary and numerous scribes. The king 3000 or 5000 years B.C. had a quartermaster-general; a director of vocal music; a director of amusements; a chief of the chamber of the robes; a chief hair-dresser; a master of trimming the nails of H.M., and a superintendent of the baths. Inferior court-officials were intrusted with the supervision of the granaries, the fruit and oil-chambers; there were royal purveyors of meat, royal bakers, and equerries. Architects, who were held in the very highest honour, because they could marry the daughters of the king, had to inspect the public works. Judges administered the law, already divided into a civil and criminal section. The title hir-sesta meant ‘he who is above a secret,’ There was a hir-sesta of heaven (the royal astronomer), one of ‘secret words,’ a kind of private secretary, who had to compose important political or social essays; another of grammar. The scribes again were divided into different classes. They had to transmit orders from their superiors; to register dry facts; to keep accounts. The very titles of these court-officials are enough to convince us that at the time of Menes, Egypt must have already possessed a highly-complicated and civilised State-organisation.
The successor of Menes, Atos or Akotus, is recorded to have written ‘books on Anatomy,’ and constructed the royal palace of Memphis.
This was the state of Egypt under Menes. His name suggests a more than merely accidental analogy with Manû, Minos, or Man, and has reference to the time when man became conscious of law, and assembled into a social bondship. The Egyptians, before a Menes could have ruled over them, must have gone through the savage and nomadic, or pastoral stages, and have passed from the palæolithic, neolithic, and bronze ages of art into that of iron. When did they invent their hieroglyphs, which must first have been ideographic before they became phonetic? From the first-recorded meeting between the Hebrews, then still nomads, and the Egyptians, it appears that the latter already then formed a well-organised State-body. As regards their monuments, we see them enter the mythical age with their grand stone-constructions, their pyramids, colosses, temples, palaces, sphinxes, catacombs and obelisks, as a developed artistic nation. All these stupendous works are constructed for eternity; there is nothing nomadic in them, though this element here and there shows itself in colossal petrifactions. Wood-constructions and textile fabrics form the bases of their ornamentation, but this influence must have taken effect in antediluvian, nay, even pre-Adamitic, times, when humanity everywhere else was sunk in a state of unconscious inactivity. The mound, constructed with geometrical accuracy as a huge pyramid, must have had an origin somewhere. The construction itself has a purpose. The crystal form surrounds an inner kernel, around which the stone shell is laid; it not only serves to point upwards, but also downwards. Thus mortality and immortality are already blended into one in these hoary monuments.
To proclaim the grandeur of the silent inhabitant, once a mighty ruler, to the four quarters of the globe, was the purpose of these pyramids.
Natural caves must have suggested their tombs and catacombs. The sacred Nile with its majestic flow is reflected in the endless horizontal lines of their temples. The rising peaks of mountains seem to have suggested their huge pylons. The rays of the sun were transformed by them into stones, recording, as gigantic obelisks, the deeds of their kings. When did these obelisks shake off the rough shape of mere huge monoliths, placed in plains to commemorate some grand event? To point upwards in isolated forms was the secret tendency of these half-sculptured, half-architectural marvels. Trees and forests were turned by the Egyptian artists into hypostyle halls, with innumerable columns, spreading a mysterious gloom about them.
The Chinese were practical; the Trans-Himâlâyans metaphysical; the Cis-Himâlâyans agricultural, commercial and warlike; and the Egyptians pre-eminently architectural and monumental.
Their whole historical life may be divided into the following art-periods.