According to a writer in the Temps, two are Greeks, one Syrian and one a Jew. The Greeks are blond with straight hair; the others have dark brown curly hair. All are bearded. The drapery is white.--Chron. des Arts, 1892, No. 30.
The department of Greek and Roman antiquities at the Louvre has also received from M. Bouriant two funerary inscriptions found in the necropolis dating from the second century A.D. One is Latin, tha other Greek.--Chron. des Arts, 1892, No. 32.
CHATBI (NEAR).--NECROPOLIS.--M. Botti has discovered between Chatbi and Ibrahimieh a Roman necropolis of the first or second century A.D.. at a depth of fourteen metres. It is excavated in soft calcareous stone and its chambers and corridors are reached by a rock-cut staircase. The bodies are both laid on the floor and placed in jars. They were intact.--Chron. des Arts, 1892, No. 30.
EL-QAB.--Mr. Taylor has been excavating here for the Egypt exploration fund, in continuation of the previous year's work. Prof. Sayce reports, after Mr. Taylor's departure (Acad., March 12), that more of the foundations of the old temple which stood within the temple were then visible than the preceding year. The fragmentary remains show that among its builders were Usertesen (xii dyn.), Sebekhotep II (xiii dyn.), Amenophis I and Thothmes III (xviii dyn.) and Nektanebo I (xxx dyn.) In one of the tombs Nofer-Ka-Ra is alluded to as (apparently) the original founder of the sanctuary.
GEBELEN.--TEMPLE OF HOR-M-HIB.--Prof. Sayce writes. "On the voyage from Luxor to Assuan I stopped at Gebelon, and found that the Bedouin squatters there had unearthed some fragments of sculptured and inscribed stones on the summit of the fortress built by the priest-king Ra-men-kheper and queen Isis-m-kheb to defend this portion of the Nile. On examination they turned out to belong to a small temple which must once have stood on the spot. The original temple, I found, had been constructed of limestone by Hor-m-hib, the last king of the xviii dynasty, and brilliantly ornamented with sculpture and painting. Additions had been made to the temple, apparently by Seti I.; since besides the stones belonging to Hor-m-hib, there were other fragments of the same limestone as that of which the temple of Seti at Abydos is built, and covered with bas-reliefs and hieroglyphs in precisely the same delicate style of art. Eventually a building of sandstone had been added to the original temple on the west side by Ptolemy VII Philometor. It may be noted that Ra-men-kheper used bricks burnt in the kiln as well as sun-dried bricks in the construction of the fortress, as he also did in the construction of the fortress at El-Hibeh.--Academy, March 12.
HAT-NUB.-THE EARLY QUARRY.-This interesting quarry has been recently discovered by Mr. Griffith. Mr. Petrie writes : Allow me to note that in this quarry, described by Mr. Griffith (Academy, Jan. 23), and situated ten miles southeast of El Tell in this plain, the main quarry does not contain any name later than the vi Dynasty. The tablet in the thirtieth year being of Pepi II (Nefer-ka-ra), and mentioning the sed festival in that year, this might refer to the Sothiac festival of 120 years falling in that year, and so be important as a datum. There are seven painted inscriptions of Pepi II, containing about fifty lines in all. There are also a great number of incised graffiti.--Academy, Feb. 20.
HAWARA.--MUMMY PORTRAITS.--Among the most important discoveries of the year is that by Dr. Brugsch, of three mummy portraits in the desert of Hawara. These were found, uncoffined, and buried at a very slight depth below the surface.
The first is that of a woman: the portrait is brilliantly executed in tempera, on canvas, and is the most ancient of paintings on canvas known, for its date cannot be fixed later than the first century B.C.
The next portrait was on the mummy of a man but instead of a painting on canvas is a relief in stucco, gilded. The features are carefully reproduced, as are the beard and whiskers.