[42] Index of Works, No. XXIX.
[43] At this time the famous Anastasi papyri were also offered for sale in Berlin through Lepsius, and for a comparatively low price. Yet at that time there were no funds forthcoming for their purchase. The same thing occurred with the beautiful Dorbiney papyrus, which was sent to Berlin in 1851 to be sold, and was examined by Lepsius. He writes, “I would not myself consider the two thousand pounds too dear for such a work of the fourteenth century, which perhaps was put before Moses as a reading-book. But now they would not give eight hundred thalers for it here.” Eighty to a hundred pounds were offered to Miss Dorbiney for it at that time by Olfers; if he had gone a little higher, this treasure would have come to Berlin, but soon after de Rougé deciphered its interesting contents, and it then went, if I am rightly informed, for two thousand pounds, to London.
[44] Unfortunately, a work begun by Lepsius during this period of waiting was never completed. It was to be called “The Main Outlines of Hieroglyphics,” and he wrote of it to Bunsen: “In it I must once again touch briefly on the history of discovery, then on the system of writing, but more practically than in its historical development. After this follows my statement regarding consequent transcriptions. These are in Latin letters, for henceforth I shall use the Coptic letters for real Coptic words only, and not, as Champollion has done, for hieroglyphic words, as that only creates confusion. After this comes a short sketch of the hieroglyphic grammar, and I intend to give a selection of groups of hieroglyphics, as the foundation of a lexicon; more to secure for myself the priority of classification than even remotely to supply the need of a lexicon, which I cannot think of at present. I mean to bring out the book, as well as the plates, in the usual octavo form of the Annals.” Written on the 15th of September, 1841.
[45] Erbkam himself afterwards wrote several excellent works, namely: “Ueber den Gräber und Tempelbau der alten Aegypter” 1852. “Ueber die Memnoncolosse des Aegyptischen Thebes” 1853. “Ueber alte Aegyptische Bauwerke.” Ephemerides, Vienna, 1845.
[46] Abeken afterwards published a “Rapport sur les résultats de l’expédition Prussienne dans la haute Nubie. Revue archéol. IV.” 1846, as well as a lecture entitled: “Das Aegyptische Museum.” Berlin, 1856.
[47] Bonomi published the following papers: “On the Site of Memphis.” Transactions of the Roy. Soc. of Literature. N. S. II. 1847, “Arundale a. Bonomi. Gallery of Egyptian Antiquities,” London, 1844, and “Catalogue of the Museum of Hartwell House,” London, 1858. Sharpe and Bonomi published together the fine “Sarcophagus of Seti I.” London, 1858. We also know of two papers of his on Obelisks in the Transactions of the Roy. Soc. of Literature, 1841, Vols. I. and II.
[48] Index of Works, No. XLVIII.
[49] Afterwards thoroughly demonstrated. Index of Works, No. XLIX.
[50] Index of Works, No. XXXII.
[51] Index of Works No. XXXIII.