The American Journal of Archaeology, 1893-1

by Various

The manufactures of this place were not extensive--glass and glazes were the main industries; and the objects so common at Gurob (metal tools, spindles, thread, weights, and marks on the pottery) are all rare here. The furnace and the details of making the coloured blue and green frits, have been found. Pottery moulds for making the pendants of fruits, leaves, animals, etc., are abundant in the factories; and a great variety of patterned "Phoenician" glass vases are found, but only in fragments.

The cuneiform tablets discovered here were all in store rooms outside the palace; they were placed by the house of the Babylonian scribe, which was localised by our finding the waste pieces of his spoilt tablets in rubbish holes. A large quantity of fragments are found of the Aegean pottery, like that of the early period at Mykenae and Ialysos. This is completely in accord with what I found at Gurob, but with more variety in form. The Phoenician pottery which I found at Lachish is also found here, so we now have a firm dating for all these styles. The connexion between the naturalistic work of these frescoes and the fresco of Tiryns and the gold cups of Vaphio is obvious; and it seems possible that Greece may have started Khuenaten in his new views of style, which he carried out so fully by his native artists. The similarity of the geometrical pattern columns to the sculptures of the Mykenae period is striking; hitherto such Egyptian decoration was only known in colour, and not in relief. We have yet a great deal to learn as to the influences between Greece and Egypt, but this place has helped to open our eyes."--W.M. FLINDERS PETRIE in Academy, April 9.

CUNEIFORM TABLETS.--Prof. Sayce while in Egypt spent several days at Tel el-Amarna with Mr. Petrie, and examined the fragments of cuneiform tablets which he has discovered there. Among them are portions of letters from the governors of Musikhuna, in Palestine, and Gebal, in Phœnicia. The most interesting were some lexical fragments. One or two of these formed part of a sort of comparative dictionary of three (or perhaps five) different languages, one of them of course being Babylonian, in which the words of the other languages are explained at length. The work seems to have been compiled by "order of the King of Egypt." Another work was a dictionary of Sumerian and Babylonian, in which the pronunciation of the Sumerian is given as well as their ideographic representation. Thus the Babylonian risápu and di kate are stated to be the equivalents not only of the ideographic gaz-gaz, but also of the phonetically written ga-az-ga-az. This confirms the views of Professors Sayce and Oppert, expressed long ago, as to the comparatively late date at which Accado-Sumerian ceased to be a spoken language.--Academy, May 14.

TOMB OF KHUENATEN OR AMENOPHIS IV.--Prof. Sayce writes to the Academy of Feb. 27. I have been spending a few days at Tel el-Amarna. Mr. Flinders Petrie is excavating the ruins of the old city of Khuenaten, while M. Alexandre, on behalf of the Gizeh Museum, has spent the summer and autumn among the tombs of Tel el-Amarna, and his labours have been rewarded by some important discoveries. At the entrance to one of the tombs, for instance, he has found stelae of the usual tombstone shape let into the wall like the dedication tablets of Greek and Roman times. The removal of the sand from the foot of the great stela of Khuenaten, first discovered by Prisse d'Avennes, has brought to light a most interesting text. This describes the distance of the stelae erected by the Pharaoh one from the other, and thus defines the limits of the territory belonging to the city which he built.

But M. Alexandre's crowning discovery--a discovery which is one of the most important made in Egypt in recent years--did not take place until December 30. It was nothing less than the discovery of the tomb of Khuenaten himself. The tomb is well concealed, and is at a great distance from the river and the ruins of the old city. Midway between the northern and the southern tombs of Tel el-Amarna, in the amphitheatre of cliffs to the east of the ancient town, are two ravines, more than three miles from the mouth of one of them, towards the head of a small valley is the tomb. It resembles the famous "Tombs of the Kings" at Thebes, being in the form of a subterranean passage cut in the rock, and sloping downwards at an acute angle to a distance of more than 100 metres. In front of the entrance is a double flight to steps also cut out of the rock, with a slide for the mummy between them. After entering the passage of the tomb, which is broad and lofty, we pass on the right another long passage, probably intended for the queen, but never finished. Soon afterwards we come to a chamber, also on the right, which serves as an antechamber to another within. The walls of both chambers have been covered with stucco, and embellished with hieroglyphs and sculptures. Among the latter are figures of prisoners from Ethiopia and Syria, of the solar disk, and of female mourners who weep and throw dust on their heads. From the inscriptions we learn that the two chambers were the burial-place of Khuenaten's daughter Aten-mert, who must consequently have died before him. It further follows that Ra-si-aa-ka, Aten-mert's husband, who received the titles of royalty in consequence of his marriage, must have been coregent with Khuenaten.

Khuenaten himself was buried in a large square-columned hall at the extreme end of the tomb. Fragments of his granite sarcophagus have been found there by M. Alexandre, as well as pieces of the exquisitely fine mummy cloth in which his body was wrapped. At the entrance to the tomb M. Alexandre also picked up broken ushebtis, upon which the cartouches of Khuenaten are inscribed. Before the Pharaoh had been properly entombed it would seem that his enemies broke into his last resting-place, destroyed his sarcophagus, tore the wrappings of his mummy to shreds, and effaced the name and image of his god wherever it was engraved upon the wall. The only finished portions of the tomb are the chambers in which his daughter was buried. Elsewhere the tomb is in the same condition as the majority of the tombs of his adherents. The walls have never been covered with stucco, much less painted or sculptured, and even the columns of the magnificent hall in which his sarcophagus was placed remains rough-hewn. It is clear that the king died suddenly, and that he was buried in haste on the morning of a revolution. His followers may have made a stand against their enemies for a few months, but it is difficult to believe from the state in which the tomb has been found that they can have done so for a longer time. Very shortly after Khuen-Aten's death his city must have been destoyed, never to be inhabited again.

Mr. Petrie in a letter to the Academy says: "It has long been known that the Arabs had obtained access to the tomb of the remarkable founder of Tel el-Amarna; the heart scarab of Khuenaten was sold two or three years ago at Luxor, and the jewellery of Neferti-iti, his queen, a year or two before that."

The entrance is like that of the tomb of Seti I at Thebes; but the sloping passage is about half the length of that.--Academy, Feb. 6.