The illustrations used in this volume are largely from the author’s own photographs of exhibits and evidences, made by him and presented with the assurance that they are not retouched or altered in any manner. In the course of his studies and travels in search of this material, he made hundreds of negatives, only a few of which appear in this work. The exceptions to this are noted where they appear. The zinc etchings are made from original drawings by Miss Elizabeth Elverhoy from our photographs, and are authentic in all details.
We hand you now Tales of Dead Men, rendered by Men Long Dead, as they unconsciously accredit the sacred page of the Word of God. If you have a tithe of the pleasure and profit in the reading of these pages that we have experienced in the gathering of their contents, we shall be repaid for the labor involved.
CONTENTS
[Chapter I The Premise Stated] 13 [Chapter II The Tides of Culture] 37 [Chapter III Converging Streams of Revelation and History] 55 [Chapter IV Modern Science and the Ten Plagues of Egypt] 85 [Chapter V Sources] 125 [Chapter VI Fragments] 163 [Chapter VII The Rebirth of an Empire] 195 [Chapter VIII The Resurrection of Edom] 225 [Chapter IX The Brazen Shields of Rehoboam] 247 [Chapter X Mingled Voices] 269 [Chapter XI Vindication of Daniel] 317 [ Bibliography] 349
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
[Anthropoid Sarcophagus, or Cartonnage] Frontispiece [Egyptians at a wine orgy] Facing Page 32 [Crude hieroglyphics on an ancient statue] 33 [Example of embellished statue] 40 [Colossi at Luxor] 41 [The Sheltered Wife] 41 [Khnum and Thoth in Creation Tradition] 56 [Colossi of Karnak] 64 [Colossi of Luxor] 64 [Colossi of Amen-Hetep III guarding Valley of Kings] 65 [At Tomb of Tutanhkamen] 65 [Open burial] 72 [Mural from an ancient tomb: Butchers at work] 73 [The god Hapi drawing the Two Kingdoms into one] 73 [Mace-head in British Museum] 128 [Cuneiform writing and sculpture on stone weapon] 129 [Ancient seals depicting historic events] 136 [Section of funerary papyrus, showing progress of the soul] 137 [Herds of cattle, such as Hyksos kings possessed] 160 [Ancient mural: Slaughter of cattle] 161 [Papyrus showing capture of quail] 161 [Cartonnage in the anthropoid sarcophagus] 168 [Outside and inside writings and decorations on anthropoid sarcophagus] 169 [Detailed study of outside and inside of anthropoid coffin] 176 [Outside of rectangular coffin covered with writings] 176 [Murals and frescoes from tomb walls] 177 [Commemorative stele] 184 [Ancient boundary markers] 185 [Stone ouches, or door-sockets] 192 [The famed Black Obelisk, which confirmed record of Jehu] 193 [Hamath inscription] 195 [Small ivory lion from Ahab’s palace] 200 [Fragmentary frieze showing ancient chariots] 201 [Hittite inscription] 208 [Egyptian funerary papyri] 209 [Monuments of Petra, showing ruins from one direction] 216 [Monuments of Petra, looking in opposite direction] 217 [The rough approach to Petra] 240 [Approaching Petra by way of the main siq] 241 [“El Kahzne”, the Temple of the Urn] 248 [Building carved from living stone] 249 [El Deir] 256 [Additional view of El Deir] 257 [En route to the “High Place”] 264 [The Altar of Sacrifice] 265
CHAPTER I
The Premise Stated
In the romantic vocabulary of the twentieth century few words are more potent to arouse the interest of the average man than the fascinating word “archeology.” A flood of volumes has come forth from the press of our generation covering almost every phase of this now popular science. After one hundred years of steady plodding and determined digging, this school of research has at last come into its own and today occupies deserved prominence in the world of current literature. This science, which deals exclusively with dead races and the records of their conduct is, to many, the most fascinating field of investigation at present open to the inquiring mind of man. Nothing is of such interest to the human as is humanity. The study of the life and record of our own kind rightly means more to us than can most other subjects.
But the true appreciation of the value of the contribution of archeology to our modern learning can be appreciated only by those who grasp an outstanding fact that should be self-apparent, but is so often overlooked: Namely, these records derived from musty tombs and burial mounds constitute the daily events in the lives of human beings! The folks who left these records were ordinary people such as make up the nations of the earth today. They are not merely names on tablets or faces carved in stone. They were actual flesh-and-blood individuals with all that this implies. In hours of merriment they laughed, and they shed tears in moments of sorrow. They hungered, and ate for satisfaction; they drank when they were thirsty. They loved and they hated; they lived and they died. Pleasure and pain were their alternating companions, while ambition, aspiration, and hope drove them on the endless round of their daily tasks.
In a word, they were real. Their life was as important to them as is your life, and they lived it in much the same way. Therefore, the records written by humans and studied by their kind, who now live these thousands of years later, constitute the source of the most human science with which our generation has to deal.