Haga 
 i i 
 if 
 
 : aa 
 see ala eels 
 A i Hi uy a 
 
 i ZU AER HEEL ESTRUS 
 Hal tr He i pata 
 
 ie 
 ale 
 e ce 
 ih) 
 
 we a 
 pileet q 4; 
 
 Repent rae 
 
 ut a 
 
 i i ae He 
 3 att etpLEPEEy a 
 
 ce ae actus 
 ae ial LL a 
 
 a ny fF 
 Licbatanerserete 
 a i 
 
 : na i 
 
 ; u a 
 
 nat 
 ili 
 
 me nll 
 
 Per eeheres 
 ous 
 
 Aer or eee 
 
 ete 
 
 Ht ie 
 pani 
 
 THE 
 Hee 
 
 PeErtt Res 
 
 He ee f 
 
 i 1 
 a 
 prgrene 
 
 a i 4 2 ail 
 
 EXPEREOD EEE i a 143 
 
 aati il) ie My 4 Aaa 
 
 i 
 ee} 
 fee te ID beerk 
 Di 
 He 
 
 a RAB HHT 
 att este EF 
 
 f rey is # uli hai f 
 aa Hy ie cane We 
 
 fe nanHE 
 _e. 
 
 a 
 
 rt ul 
 all th ean i 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 ete 
 a. ry tebe 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ST ee ee 
 — “ 
 
 
 
 “APR 95 1924, 
 
 
 
 ae ak 
 TTT seu | 
 
 a | ; Cmiiaty Section Bl eae 
 
 i 
 - f 
 i ¥ 
 i 
 ty th 
 he ; ea 
 ay 
 ‘i 
 i 
 ; | 
 . Me 
 t 7 wh 
 : ee A \ 
 i? ey ‘ 
 s ae 
 ae, ay 
 ‘ y *) ie 
 
 4 ? 
 “7'2 
 X a ] . A . 9 7 ) ry 4 i ; 
 & J he — >; a ; “8, ae ay J Ay ‘ a4 we % 
 
 
 
 * ' oe - fix . ibe de . “ 
 
 aie hoe Lah woe ce 
 os ea date 
 
 TP, ae UP Med) oe 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2022 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 _ https://archive.org/details/centuryofexcavatOObaik_0 
 
nae 
 Wins Ss) 
 SS US 
 Ae 
 i ah VE 
 
 th) ae 
 a 
 
 ean 
 RA A 
 tha 
 
 ae Ae 
 4 
 ‘ys! 
 
 Atak 
 1 AN 
 Ray ON. Nye 
 
 “W K i 
 
 i 
 bale 
 
 i 
 
 8) AAS oy 
 Seu 
 
 “ee 
 Ss 
 
 
 
A Century of Excavation in the 
 Land of the Pharaohs 
 
 ; 
 

 
 IL XOURIDIRUANIEIE (SMCANIMGHS, (One INS IMSOMUES, IMAL, (CAMURO) IMNUISIE CIM. 
 

 

 
' tie aah MN? 
 te. tok BO st 5 " . moh WL 5 
 me Oh RT STRUT 
 SSUeea ry. Se wea} a 
 Wrsaeoe, Py ee PL, ath, Oe wet 
 MEN Rem sngy psrenqre™ 
 
 Century of Excavation 
 
 in the 
 
 Land of the Pharaohs 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES BAIKIE, F.R.A.S. 
 
 AUTHOR OF ‘‘ WONDER TALES OF THE ANCIENT WORLD” 
 LANDS AND PEOPLE OF THE BIBLE,” ‘‘THE SEA KINGS OF CRETR” 
 “THE STORY OF THE PHARAOHS,” ETC. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH 32 PLATES 
 SPECIALLY PREPARED FOR THIS VOLUME 
 
 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 New York Cuicaco ToRoNTO 
 
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN 
 BY 
 WILLIAM CLOWES & Sons, LIMITED, 
 
 LONDON AND BECCLES, 
 
PREFACE 
 
 T is somewhat remarkable that, in spite of the 
 | considerable, if spasmodic, interest which is 
 taken in the results of research in Egypt, no 
 adequate account of the work of excavation has 
 ever been written. T’he student who wishes to 
 learn how, when, and where the facts and objects 
 which interest him were discovered, has himself 
 to excavate the desired information from the 
 innumerable volumes of reports issued by the 
 various exploration societies. It is much to be 
 desired that someone who is master of the subject, 
 and preferably, someone who has had actual 
 experience of the work of excavation, should tell 
 the story, not in a manner suited only to the ears 
 of experts, but so that the educated public on 
 whom in the long run excavation must depend 
 for its resources, could appreciate and enjoy a 
 narrative which ought to be as fascinating as any 
 story of search for buried treasure. 
 
 This volume makes no pretension to the dis- 
 charge of sucha task. All that it attempts to do is 
 to outline the story of certain aspects of the great 
 work which has given us back so many of the 
 wonders of the ancient civilisation of Egypt. Its 
 omissions are, doubtless, many; but two will be 
 at once conspicuous to anyone who has the 
 slightest acquaintance with the subject. Nothing 
 is said of the Search for the Cities, which in the 
 
 3 
 
4 PREFACE 
 
 closing years of the nineteenth century created so 
 much interest, and resulted inso many identifica- 
 tions of sites; and nothing is said of the great 
 work of Papyrus-hunting which has added so 
 much to our knowledge of ancient life. ‘These 
 two matters were left untouched for reasons 
 which seemed valid. In the case of the Cities, 
 many of the identifications of the ‘nineties are 
 at present being questioned, and it seemed better 
 to leave the matter till something like agreement 
 is reached. Inthe case of the Papyri, the subject 
 has become so specialised, and has developed so 
 large a literature of its own as to render impossible 
 any attempt to deal with it, on the scale which it 
 deserves, in such a volume as the present. 
 
 It may be that at some time in the not far 
 distant future, when controversy has resulted in 
 more or less general agreement as to the sites, 
 these two aspects of Egyptian excavation may be 
 dealt with in a volume which may bea sequel and 
 companion to this. My indebtedness to many 
 authorities is manifest on almost every page of 
 the book; but I wish specially to acknowledge 
 my debt to Professor Sir W. M. Flinders Petrie, 
 D.C.L., F.R.S., not only for the kindness which 
 has allowed me to use the material of several of 
 the plates in the book (7, 9, 10), but also for the 
 constant inspiration and stimulus which his work 
 has given to me, as to so many other students of 
 the wonderful civilisation of Ancient Egypt. 
 
 JAMES BAIKIE. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 Tue Story oF THE PIONEERS 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 MariETTE AND HIS WorK 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Tue Brcinnrincs OF THE Mopern PEriop 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Tue PyraMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Work AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Buriep Royatrigs . 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 "TUTANKHAMEN AND HIS SPLENDOURS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Lirz, Arrs, anD Crarts in THE Lanp oF THE NILE 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PLATE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1. Portrait Statue of Thothmes III, Cairo Museum Frontispiece 
 
 . Detail of Decoration, ‘Tomb of Sety I 
 . Temple of Ramses III, Medinet Habu 
 
 . Great Pyramid and Sphinx 
 
 on rI Amn > Ww N 
 
 Dynasty 
 
 g. Hatshepsut’s Temple. Der el- nae General view 
 
 5 
 
 . Temple of Edfu—The Pylon, and View from the Pylon 
 
 . Gold Pectorals of Senusert II and IT, XIIth uae 
 . Diadems of Princess Khnumit, Gold work, XIIth 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 . Wall of Chamber, Tomb of Sety I, Valley of the Kings 
 
 10 
 18 
 
 30 
 
6 
 
 PLATE 
 1c, 
 
 II. 
 12. 
 13. 
 14. 
 15. 
 
 16. 
 ee 
 18. 
 19. 
 
 20. 
 21. 
 22. 
 
 23. 
 24. 
 
 25. 
 
 26. 
 om 
 
 28. 
 29. 
 30. 
 
 a4. 
 
 a7. 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 North Colonnade, Der el-Bahri; “ Proto-Doric” 
 Columns 
 
 Reliefs, Der el- Bahri 
 
 Karnak, Avenue of Sphinxes 
 
 Karnak, Nave of Hypostyle Hall 
 
 Karnak, Columns of the Side-Aisle, Hypostyle Hall 
 
 Karnak, View from the North; Obelisks of Hatshep- 
 sut, and Thothmes I : 
 
 Luxor, Forecourt of Amenhotep Ili . t 
 
 Luxor, Papyrus-Bud Columns and Colossi of Ramses 
 
 Colonnade in ‘Temple of Sety I, Abydos 
 
 Bracelets of Ist Dynasty Queen, Chain and Gold Seal, 
 Vith Dynasty, with XIIth Dynasty Goldsmith’s 
 Work ; 
 
 Entrance to the Valley of ne icine Thebes 
 
 Tomb of Ramses IX, Valley of the Kings . 
 
 Granite Head of Tutankhamen, Cairo Museum . 
 
 Decoration froma Theban Tomb . ; 
 
 Decoration from a Theban Tomb: Sowing, Reaping, 
 the Vintage ; 
 
 Head of the Hathor-Cow, Der i Bahri 
 
 Colossus of Ramses II, Luxor } 
 
 Portrait-Statue of Mentuemhat, Cairo Museum . 
 
 Vth Dynasty Relief-Work, Tomb of Ptah-Hetep 
 
 XIXth Dynasty Relief-Work, Temple of Sety I, 
 Abydos 
 
 XiIXth Dynasty Relief. Work, Tanne of Rane I, 
 Luxor 
 
 XXth Dynasty Relief: Work, rei ble of Rijcises IT, 
 Medinet Habu 
 
 Ptolemaic Relief-Work, Kom Caries 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 g2 
 
 96 
 104 
 112 
 
 116 
 
 120 
 124 
 128 
 136 
 
 144 
 148 
 152 
 178 
 184 
 
 192 
 200 
 208 
 216 
 
 224 
 228 
 232 
 
 236 
 240 
 
A CENTURY OF 
 EXCAVATION IN 
 Ee AND cOB 
 THE PHARAOHS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE STORY OF THE PIONEERS 
 
 HE story of the beginnings of research 
 | into the wonders of antiquity in Egypt 
 
 is unique in at least one point. In no 
 other land does a conquering army march at 
 the head of the pioneers of exploration; but 
 the true beginnings of the century and a quarter 
 of research which has given to us so many 
 wonders from the Land of the Nile are to be 
 found with that amazing troop of learned camp- 
 followers who accompanied Napoleon’s army on 
 the expedition of 1798. The wonders of ancient 
 Egypt had never altogether been blotted from 
 the memory and the interest of man, as was the 
 case with some of the other lands of the Classic 
 East. The pages of Herodotus, never fuller or 
 more vivid than when he is dealing with Egypt, 
 prevented that oblivion ; and therefore Herodotus 
 has some right to be named at the very beginning 
 of the story of the exploration of ancient Egypt 
 
 7 
 
8 THE STORY OF THE PIONEERS 
 
 as the pioneer of pioneers. But the world was 
 first really awakened to the richness of the 
 Treasury of Egypt by the colossal production, 
 twelve volumes of plates and twenty-four of 
 text, which was the result of the untiring labours 
 of Vivant Denon and his collaborators—the 
 famous Description de l’Egypte—a work almost 
 comparable in scale and grandeur with the 
 monuments which it described. Few armies 
 have left behind them such a memorial of their 
 passage across a land—the more credit to the 
 man whose inexhaustibly fertile brain conceived 
 the idea of making even war subserve the interests 
 of science. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, the tie with inter- 
 national strifes and jealousies, which had drawn 
 the French savants originally to the Nile Valley, 
 remained unbroken for many years; and 
 questions of archeology were continually com- 
 plicated by questions of national pride and 
 prestige, so that the early story of Egyptian 
 exploration is not the story of pure research, 
 conducted for the love of truth and of antiquity, 
 but very often merely the story of how the 
 representative of France strove with the repre- 
 sentative of Britain or Italy for the possession of 
 some ancient monument whose capture might 
 bring glory to his nation, or profit to his own 
 purse. There are few more melancholy chapters 
 in the story of human frailty than those in which 
 the early explorers of Egypt (if you can dignify 
 them by such a name) describe how they 
 wrangled and intrigued, lied and cheated, over 
 relics whose mutilated antiquity might have 
 
THE STORY OF THE PIONEERS 9g 
 
 taught them enough of the vanity of human 
 wishes to make them ashamed of their pettiness. 
 
 Dr. Macalister has told us in the Cambridge 
 Ancient History that “it is impossible to give 
 any complete survey of the history of Egyptian 
 excavation.” ‘This is true for the later period, 
 because the field is so vast, and the workers are 
 sO many ; it is not less true for the beginnings, 
 because it is impossible to write a history of the 
 scufflings of kites and crows—or rather, one 
 might say, of ghouls. It must be almost a 
 nightmare to the modern excavator, with his 
 ingrained appreciation of the importance of 
 even the very smallest object which may add 
 to the knowledge of ancient lands and peoples, 
 to think of the priceless material which was 
 destroyed by the undiscriminating zeal of men 
 like Belzoni, Drovetti, and their fellows, or if 
 not destroyed, at least deprived of half its value 
 by being torn from its historical place and 
 connection. These were the lamentable days 
 when interest in the antiquities of Egypt had 
 advanced but little beyond that displayed by 
 the gentleman of Addison’s first Spectator, 
 whose Egyptian researches are thus described 
 by himself—* I made a voyage to Grand Cairo 
 on purpose to take the measure of a pyramid ; 
 and as soon as I had set myself right in that 
 particular, returned to my native country with 
 great satisfaction,’ or by Lord Charlemont, who 
 according to Johnson had nothing to tell of his 
 travels except a story of a large serpent which 
 he had seen in one of the pyramids of Egypt. 
 
 In the early years of the nineteenth century, 
 
10 THE STORY OF THE PIONEERS 
 
 and, indeed, till Mariette in 1858 laid his masterful 
 hand upon the key of the great treasure-house 
 and allowed no one to spoil it but himself, there 
 was a perfect orgy of spoliation carried on, not 
 in the interests of science, but partly out of 
 vanity, and partly out of greed. Every important 
 or noble traveller had to add a few curios from 
 Egypt to his miscellaneous collection gathered 
 from half a dozen other lands, and sculptures, 
 inscriptions, and papyri of the greatest value 
 were thus uselessly dispersed in paltry private 
 collections, where, when they had gratified a 
 passing curiosity or ministered to a momentary 
 spirit of emulation, they were allowed to gather 
 dust through years of neglect, till at last the 
 futile cabinet of curios was dispersed, and its 
 items were lost sight of altogether. 
 
 Some collections, such as those of Belzoni, 
 Passalacqua, Drovetti, and a few others, had 
 better fortune, and were finally purchased for 
 one or other of the great European Museums, 
 which nearly all formed the nucleus of their 
 Egyptological collections in this fashion; but 
 the amount of unnecessary loss of what can 
 never now be replaced must have been deplorable. 
 
 This “‘ unbridled pillage,’ as Maspero justly 
 calis it, in which the consuls of the various 
 European powers played an ignoble but doubtless 
 lucrative part, lasted for more than thirty years, 
 in spite of the protests of men like Champollion, 
 who could understand the irreparable loss which 
 was being inflicted on the infant science of 
 Egyptology by this mutilation and confounding 
 of the documents on which its future depended. 
 
OAK 
 
 Qe 
 
 SRA 
 
 SONU Dal SSMS L, 
 
 SSS 
 
 HO 
 
 7a A Oe PAN 
 
 AX 
 
 Way 
 
 cl 
 
 ‘T ALAS AO ANOL 
 
 OVER E ss 
 WwW 
 
 RSENS 
 
 c 
 
 UHANWVHO HO TIVM 
 
 . 
 
 c 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 a4 4 i Ry iW : “Sal 7 a / 
 j a! “ha < 4 =< i) 7 ; ; J i] Pet ) _ e*e - 4, 7 Ms: 
 ; i rior e ' , f _ Na 7 : G “4 eh mn “He ; mn a ee ee 
 5 ys Wg ail oe, | a ee. in s 
 4 ‘ ? 4, = ’ suber. es | : é , } Phait 7 a el Ae 4 . ry 
 bs a Fl, { \) be a” ¢ 62 Fy Y wey) 7 Ve eww. Ke ae’ 
 r ae Yi ", ' al "31 7 ee 7 iy U hal ia se \ i Wee 7 < - i f) 
 is ae | i . bs Cy Jj he opt af pets ae | a 7 
 y ) a . = . ' afd 
 oe) ers oT ao oe ’ wire 4 : 4 Pa) - 
 - pie < =< s ‘ . } i a a i® 
 . wae : . i a a, ” ie J 7 iL hf ad cy 7 g 
 isha 4 . j a tf ot ; ss e 
 Ya * Any a ! es a; 
 7 a 4 ry ; ia 
 ip * ie . ¥ a ~~ ' an 
 i. we y eh ‘ ¥ ; aa “Si 5 ies ar , } io ie % 
 ’ le 7 . é S a =i 7 
 ih 7 4 here met a a | iy 
 4 1 's = oi P 2 : - . ww i 1) i £ is a + 
 aes ti eee Ae a 
 9 5) s 7 ¥ i. id ; = 
 a on Ue : ry ; 
 2 ae 7 
 Soe ; a 
 << 
 ae 
 
 he ; . Wey 
 ot AY Rae ar ee : 
 
THE STORY OF THE PIONEERS 11 
 
 Among its practitioners were one or two men 
 who were distinguished from the vulgar crowd 
 of papyrus, scarab, and mummy hunters by a 
 certain dim appreciation of the fact that the 
 treasures with which they were dealing had a 
 value greater than that of their price in the 
 curio-market, and who have added at least a 
 few interesting and remarkable items to the mass 
 of Egyptian treasure which the nineteenth century 
 accumulated, though our gratitude to them for 
 this must always be qualified by the fact that we 
 have no certain knowledge of what they lost 
 and destroyed in the process, but can only judge 
 from their own admissions that it must have 
 been far more than they preserved. 
 
 Of these men who may be pronounced guilty, 
 but with extenuating circumstances, the most 
 interesting, and perhaps the least harmful, was 
 the inimitable Belzoni, to whose unwearying 
 efforts we owe the opening of the Second Pyramid, 
 the discovery of the tomb of Sety I, the most 
 perfect example of the rock-hewn tomb of a 
 Pharaoh of the New Empire, and the magnificent 
 alabaster sarcophagus of Sety which is one of 
 the treasures of the Soane Museum, London, 
 besides several of the most important royal 
 statues in the Egyptian Galleries of the British 
 Museum. No one who wishes to realise what 
 the young science had to endure at the hands 
 of its first devotees can afford to neglect the 
 extraordinary farrago of vanity and pomposity, 
 ignorance and self-seeking, but also of patience 
 and endurance, and a certain inborn instinct for 
 what was either beautiful or valuable, which 
 
12 THE STORY OF THE PIONEERS 
 
 Belzoni has jumbled together under the sounding 
 title—‘‘ Narrative of the Operations and Recent 
 Discoveries within the Pyramids, ‘Temples, 
 ‘Tombs, and Excavations, in EGypT AND NUBIA.” 
 
 Belzoni’s original object in going to Egypt 
 was simply to get “ The Bashaw”’ to adopt a 
 hydraulic machine for irrigation work—a project 
 in which it is almost needless to say that he 
 failed ; his knowledge of the precious material 
 with which he was soon dealing was nothing at 
 the beginning, and not much more at the end of 
 his “‘ Researches and Operations’”’; he had a 
 positive gift for quarrelling with everybody with 
 whom he came into contact, Egyptian or 
 European, and a mania for imputing the vilest 
 motives to anyone who coveted any piece of 
 antiquity on which he had set his own heart ; 
 but with it all he had the flair of the true explorer 
 for a promising site, and could foresee hidden 
 treasures where his rivals dreamed of nothing, 
 and with all his petulance he had a patience which 
 was almost inexhaustible. It was these qualities 
 which have made him the only explorer of those 
 unhappy days whose name is really remembered, 
 or deserves to be remembered, in connection 
 with our knowledge of ancient Egypt. 
 
 As to his methods, these, of course, were 
 unspeakable, and the mere mention of them is 
 enough to turn a modern excavator’s hair white. 
 He finds the entrance of a royal tomb in the 
 Western Valley of the Kings, and proceeds to 
 open it—with a battering-ram made of two palm- 
 logs! As to his reverence for the mighty dead 
 of the past one sentence may suffice: “ Every 
 
THE STORY OF THE PIONEERS 13 
 
 step I took I crushed a mummy in some part or 
 other.”” Again he describes his journey through 
 a tomb-gallery which the modern excavator 
 would have given his ears to see as Belzoni 
 saw it. ‘‘ It was choked with mummies, and 
 I could not pass without putting my face in 
 contact with that of some decayed Egyptian ; 
 but as the passage inclined downwards my own 
 weight helped me on; however, [I could not 
 avoid being covered with bones, legs, arms, and 
 heads rolling from above.”’ 
 
 The object of these ghoulish journeys was 
 simply to plunder the coffins of their papyri, 
 which, of course, were marketable, though as yet 
 no one could read them; and there can be little 
 doubt that far more was destroyed than was 
 preserved by methods which were only a little 
 above those of the Ramesside tomb-robbers who 
 stripped the mummies of King Sebek-em-saf 
 and Queen Nub-khas of their jewels, and then 
 burned them. Such was Egyptian excavation 
 in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, 
 and in the hands of one of its most distinguished 
 practitioners, for Belzoni was an angel of light 
 compared with some of his rivals, native or 
 foreign. 
 
 Fortunately, however, the time for such 
 ignorant and sordid exploitation of the treasures 
 of the past was not to last for long; though it 
 lasted far too long for the welfare of Egyptology. 
 By 1822, Jean Francois Champollion, working 
 on the material supplied by the Rosetta Stone 
 and the Philz Obelisk, and aided to some extent 
 in his brilliant achievement by the previous 
 
14 THE STORY OF THE PIONEERS 
 
 labours of Akerblad and Young, gave to the 
 world the key to the hieroglyphic inscriptions, 
 so that the Egyptian monuments were no longer 
 dumb. In 1828 came the second great general 
 survey of the monuments under Rosellini and 
 Champollion. 
 
 It was now possible to read some, at least, 
 of the inscriptions, and therefore to reach some 
 approach to order in the classification of the 
 monuments dealt with. The work suffered an 
 irreparable loss by the early death of Champollion ; 
 but the results of the expedition, presented in 
 the ten volumes of the Monument: storichi dell’ 
 Egitto e della Nubia constituted a great en- 
 largement of real knowledge as opposed to 
 the conjectures which had previously held the 
 field. 
 
 For a time after the Rosellini Expedition, the 
 field was left to individual workers, of whom 
 the most notable were two Englishmen, F. E. 
 Perring and Colonel Howard Vyse, whose careful 
 measurements of the pyramids, especially the 
 great group of Gizeh, laid the foundation for 
 all subsequent study of these wonderful 
 structures. The work of Perring and Vyse was 
 done in 1837, and three years later came the 
 important Prussian Expedition directed by Karl 
 Richard Lepsius, whose name must always 
 stand among the foremost on the roll of 
 Egyptology. 
 
 Lepsius began with the Pyramid field at 
 Memphis, where his theorising on the method 
 of erection of the pyramids, though perhaps the 
 part of his work by which he is most generally 
 
THE STORY OF THE PIONEERS 15 
 
 known, was of less importance than his investi- 
 gation of the Old Kingdom tombs of the nobles 
 in the necropolis, with its revelation of the life 
 and culture of the Egypt of 3000 B.c. Thence 
 the mission worked southwards, visiting the 
 Fayum, and carrying out investigations as to 
 the whereabouts of Lake Moeris and the 
 Labyrinth. 
 
 Passing on up the Nile Valley, Lepsius paid 
 special attention to the tombs of the Middle 
 Kingdom with their valuable pictures of Egyptian 
 life a millennium later than the pyramid period, 
 and also visited the site which has since become 
 so famous as Tell el-Amarna. Not content 
 with carrying his researches to the limit of the 
 Second Cataract, where Rosellini had stopped, 
 he pressed on through Nubia as far as Napata 
 and Meroe, the former seats of that Ethiopian 
 extension of Egyptian civilisation which gave to 
 Egypt its ill-starred XXVth Dynasty, while on 
 his return journey he visited the Sinai Peninsula, 
 where he discovered and published the very 
 valuable inscriptions left by the Egyptian expedi- 
 tions which for many centuries were sent to 
 work the copper mines at the Wady Maghareh 
 and Serabit el-Khadem. He thus revealed to 
 us the first chapter of the wonderfui story of 
 Egyptian exploring and commercial activity, 
 whose subsequent disclosures have at last almost 
 succeeded in destroying the time-honoured myth 
 which represented the ancient Egyptians as a 
 cloistered nation, the Chinese of the Near East. 
 
 The Denkmaler aus Atgypien und ALihopen, 
 published from 1849 to 1858, gave to the 
 
16 THE STORY OF THE PIONEERS 
 
 world the results of the wonderfully fruitful 
 work of Lepsius, and has scarcely yet been 
 altogether superseded as a source of illustration 
 of the manners and culture of the ancient Egyp- 
 tians. “* In the main,” says Dr. Macalister, “‘ the 
 statement may stand, that Lepsius exhausted the 
 general topographical study of the country.” 
 Subsequent researches have done no more than 
 to add filling in to the broad outlines which he 
 drew with such care and certainty. 
 
 But now the period of superficial survey of 
 the wealth of material which Egypt offers to the 
 student was drawing to a close, and was to be 
 succeeded by the period in which excavation, 
 conducted with constantly growing skill and 
 attention to the most minute details, was to do, 
 as it is still doing, what no amount of superficial 
 cataloguing of the monuments of the land could 
 ever do, and to give us back, not only pictures of 
 the life of these ancient days, but the tools and 
 weapons with which the Egyptian worked, fought, 
 and hunted, the vessels which he used for all the 
 purposes of life, the jewels with which he and 
 his women-kind adorned themselves, the books 
 which they read, and the songs which they sang ; 
 all the material from which, if we have the vision 
 and the insight, we may reconstruct the life of 
 those far-off days; and to crown its gifts by 
 calling up from the tomb the very men themselves 
 who ruled and warred in the land of the Nile in 
 the great days when Egypt was the first of all 
 empires, and her Pharaoh a god incarnate, 
 before whose golden sandals all the lesser kings 
 of the world bowed in the dust “seven times 
 
THE STORY OF THE PIONEERS 17 
 
 and seven times.’ The pioneer of this work, 
 surely the most romantic and interesting, as it 
 has proved not the least fruitful, in the whole 
 realm of scientific research, was the brilliant 
 Frenchman, Auguste Mariette. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 MARIETTE AND HIS WORK 
 
 HE story of the life-work of the man who, 
 
 : more than any other, was responsible for 
 
 the creation of a genuine interest in the 
 ereat works of ancient Egypt, as distinguished from 
 the aimless or sordid antiquity-grubbing which has 
 been described in the preceding chapter, is one of 
 the romances of science. Mariette was one of those 
 men who, in the words of Cromwell, never go 
 so far as when they do not know whither they 
 are going, and in his early connection with 
 Egypt he was like Saul the son of Kish, who went 
 out to look for his father’s asses and found 
 a kingdom. Born in 1821, at Boulogne, and 
 employed as a teacher in the college of his native 
 town, he was drawn to the study of ancient 
 Egypt by the fact that the town museum had 
 acquired a fine Egyptian sarcophagus from the 
 collection of Denon, one of the savants who had 
 accompanied Napoleon’s Army of Egypt. 
 
 In 1849 he was appointed assistant in the 
 Egyptian Department of the Louvre, and in the 
 following year he was sent out to Egypt for 
 the purpose of buying Coptic manuscripts. The 
 mission, a comparatively trifling one in itself, 
 
 ; 18 
 
‘ 
 
 NOILVYOOUG AO TIVLaAd °€ 
 
 Ul ALES, EKO) SSL MQ, 
 
 
 

 
MARIETTE AND HIS WORK 1g 
 
 was one of those trifles which often prove turning- 
 points in a man’s life; and from the moment 
 when he set foot on Egyptian soil, Mariette’s 
 future career was marked out for him. 
 
 The thing which determined his fate was a 
 passage from the old geographer and historian 
 Strabo. The god of Memphis, the most ancient 
 capital of Egypt, was Ptah, the artificer-god, who 
 was supposed to become incarnate in the sacred 
 bull Apis. As each successive Apis died, it 
 was buried with all the reverence and splendour 
 due to an incarnation of Divinity, in a special 
 necropolis at Saqqara. Later in the complicated 
 story of Egyptian religion Apis was identified 
 with the god of the Underworld, Osiris, and was 
 called Osiris-Apis, and the Greeks speedily 
 corrupted this into Serapis, and called the 
 burial-place of the Apis bulls the Serapeum. 
 
 Now Strabo, in writing his account of Egypt, 
 inserted the following passage about this ancient 
 bull-cemetery. ‘‘ One finds also [at Memphis] 
 a temple of Serapis in a spot so sandy that the 
 wind causes the sand to accumulate in heaps, 
 under which we could see many sphinxes, some 
 of them almost entirely buried, others only 
 partially covered ; from which we may conjecture 
 that the route leading to this temple might be 
 attended with danger if one were surprised by 
 a sudden gust of wind.” While Mariette was 
 pursuing his inquiries after Coptic manuscripts, 
 he noticed in a garden at Alexandria several 
 sphinxes, and shortly after, when at Cairo, he 
 came across several more of the same type, 
 while more still were found at Gizeh. It was 
 
20 MARIETTE AND HIS WORK 
 
 plain that there was somewhere not far off some 
 storehouse of sphinxes which was being plundered 
 to furnish ornaments for the gardens of local 
 officials. The matter lay in Mariette’s mind 
 until one day when he was at Saqqara he noticed 
 the head of a similar sphinx sticking up out of 
 the sand. Searching round about it, he found 
 a libation-tablet, inscribed with a dedication to 
 Osiris-Apis. At once Strabo’s statement occurred 
 to his mind, and he realised that he was standing 
 over the avenue of sphinxes which the ancient 
 writer refers to. 
 
 Coptic manuscripts went to the winds. With- 
 out apparently asking permission of anybody, 
 “almost furtively,’’ as he says himself, Mariette 
 gathered a handful of workmen, and began the 
 excavation. ‘‘ The first attempts were hard 
 indeed,’ he says; “‘ but before very long lions 
 and peacocks, and the Grecian statues of the 
 dromos, together with the monumental tablets 
 or stele of the temple of Nectanebo, were drawn 
 out of the sand, and I was able to announce my 
 success to the French Government, informing 
 them, at the same time, that the funds placed at 
 my disposal for the researches after the manu- 
 scripts were entirely exhausted, and that a further 
 grant was indispensable. Thus was begun the 
 discovery of the Serapeum.” 
 
 The passage is entirely characteristic of 
 Mariette, and the calmness with which he 
 assumes that the Government which had sent 
 him out to buy manuscripts will be quite pleased 
 to hear that he has spent all their money on 
 something quite different, and has committed 
 
 ' 
 
MARIETTE AND HIS WORK _ ar 
 
 them to a huge excavation which was to last four 
 years, instead of to the purchase of a few parch- 
 ments, is particularly delightful. One wonders 
 what were the first thoughts of officialdom at 
 Paris when his letter reached the Louvre, and his 
 chiefs realised the kind of man and the irre- 
 pressible energy which they had let loose in Egypt 
 to spend money on things which they had never 
 dreamed of. 
 
 His action at the Serapeum was typical of 
 his whole career in Egypt. When Mariette had 
 once reached the conclusion that a certain object 
 was desirable, nothing was allowed to stand in 
 the way. He went for his object, one cannot 
 always say straight, for he had caution as well as 
 daring, and knew how to use the wisdom of the 
 serpent, but with a resolute determination which 
 seldom failed in the end to accomplish its purpose; 
 and if regulations stood in the way, so much the 
 worse for the regulations. It was this self- 
 reliance and impatience of restraint which were 
 responsible for a good deal of the wastefulness 
 which undoubtedly was a marked feature of his 
 Egyptian work ; but, on the other hand, without 
 these same qualities it is dificult to see how his 
 work could have been accomplished at all, in the 
 face of all the obstacles which were thrown in 
 his way by Oriental lethargy and corruption, 
 and by European jealousy and selfishness. 
 
 The great Apis-cemetery which was thus dis- 
 covered by Mariette’s happy disregard of the 
 limits of his commission is all that remains of the 
 original Serapeum. When the place was com- 
 plete, it comprised an avenue of sphinxes at 
 
22 MARIETTE AND HIS WORK 
 
 least 600 feet in length, leading up to the great 
 temple of Osiris-Apis. No fewer than 141 of 
 the sphinxes were discovered, together with the 
 pedestals of others. The temple had entirely 
 disappeared, having, no doubt, been used as a 
 quarry for other building operations; but an 
 inclined passage led from one of its chambers 
 downwards into the vast vaults where for 
 centuries the bodies of the dead Apis-bulls were 
 given burial with splendours which rival those of 
 the Pharaohs. 
 
 The vaults belong to three periods. In the 
 first, which belongs to the XVIIIth Dynasty, the 
 tombs are separate vaults hewn here and there 
 in the rock; in the second, which is that of 
 Dynasties XXII to XXV, a long gallery was 
 excavated, on either side of which mortuary 
 chambers were excavated as needed; in the 
 third (XXVIth Dynasty) the gallery plan is 
 followed, but on a much larger scale. The 
 total length of the galleries of the XXVIth 
 Dynasty is 1150 feet, and the great gallery alone 
 measures 640 feet in length. In the side 
 chambers are the immense granite coffins, of 
 superb workmanship, which were provided for 
 the last resting-place of the Apis. ‘Twenty-four 
 of these were found in the third gallery. They 
 average 13 feet in length, 11 feet in height, and 
 7 feet 8 inches in breadth, and weigh not less 
 than 65 tons apiece, magnificent specimens of 
 the engineering skill of the ancient workers who 
 transported these vast blocks from Aswan to 
 Memphis, a distance of almost 600 miles. 
 
 The discovery of the Serapeum set the seal 
 
MARIETTE AND HIS WORK 23 
 
 on Mariette’s destiny. Henceforward his life- 
 work was to lie in the excavation and preservation 
 of the relics of that ancient land to which fate 
 had brought him; but as yet he occupied no 
 official position in the country, and was, indeed, 
 looked upon rather as an unauthorised interloper 
 by the native antiquity-hunters and the foreign 
 officials who encouraged the constant and shame- 
 less pillage which had been going on for half a 
 century. It was in his struggles with these 
 vampires that the great explorer acquired the 
 habits of secret and solitary planning and working 
 which characterised his reign as chief of the 
 Egyptian Service of Antiquities, and the distrust 
 of all other excavators which led him to forbid all 
 such work even to the most famous scholars or 
 to his dearest friends, and to retain the right to 
 excavate exclusively in his own hands to the day 
 of his death. 
 
 ‘Forced to struggle for more than three 
 years,’ says Maspero in his vivid sketch of his 
 predecessor, ‘‘ against the jealousy of the dealers 
 of the time and the sharp practices of the Egyptian 
 officials, he was not long in learning and putting 
 into practice all the dodges which the natives 
 employed to track out their rivals or to cheat 
 the treasury. No one knew better than he how 
 to conceal a quest, to pack up the product of it 
 in secret, and to dispatch it without arousing the 
 suspicion of anyone.” Curious qualifications for 
 the head of a great Government department ; 
 
 et they served him well in what was really a 
 lifelong battle against the rivalry of men of 
 science, who, instead of encouraging him in his 
 
24 MARIETTE AND HIS WORK 
 
 efforts to set Egyptology on a firm foundation 
 in its native land, did their worst to rob him of 
 the fruits of his labours ; and against the apathy 
 and indifference of his master, who regarded the 
 antiquities which his untiring servant unearthed 
 as valuable only because he could gratify a globe- 
 trotting potentate by the gift of some of them, 
 or in the last resort might raise a loan on the 
 precious treasures of his Museum. 
 
 Mariette’s appointment as head of the Service 
 of Antiquities was due, indeed, to a piece of 
 skilful wire-pulling in which de Lesseps and 
 Prince Napoleon, afterwards Napoleon III, were 
 concerned ; and Said Pasha gave him the post, 
 not because he cared for his royal predecessors, 
 but because, as Maspero caustically puts it, “ he 
 came to the conclusion that he would be more 
 acceptable to the Emperor if he made some show 
 of taking pity on the Pharaohs.” 
 
 An appointment due to no higher inspiration 
 than self-interest on the part of the giver 
 obviously depended largely on how long self- 
 interest coincided with the interests of the new 
 post; and perhaps the most arduous part of 
 Mariette’s task consisted in trying to make his 
 thoroughly Oriental master see that it was his 
 interest to maintain what he had begun, and 
 in Overcoming the whims and caprices, and the 
 secret intrigues which continually threatened to 
 undermine his position and destroy the structure 
 which he was so painfully rearing. He never 
 could get a permanent grant for the work of his 
 department from the Egyptian Government. 
 When money was needed he had always to ask 
 
MARIETTE AND HIS WORK ~— 25 
 
 it direct from the Khedive, who granted a subsidy 
 or refused it according to the mood in which he 
 happened to be at the moment. Again and 
 again Mariette had to close down his excavations 
 because he had unfortunately approached Said 
 when the Khedive was in a bad temper; but 
 though the continuance of work under such 
 conditions might have driven the most phlegmatic 
 of men, let alone a mercurial Frenchman, to 
 despair, he never for a moment lost sight of his 
 end. Repulsed once, he only waited a more 
 favourable opportunity to return to the charge, 
 and in the end he was almost invariably successful. 
 
 When his work is criticised, as it has often, 
 and not unjustly, been, as hasty and wanting in 
 thoroughness, let it be remembered that, with all 
 its faults, it was done under conditions which 
 would have driven most-men mad, and that 
 thoroughness and minute care are not precisely 
 the qualities which are encouraged by the 
 knowledge that the exchequer is empty, and that 
 there is no prospect of being able to pay the 
 workmen unless one can catch a wayward prince 
 in a favourable mood. All things considered, 
 the wonder is, not that so much was overlooked 
 and left undone, but that so much was actually 
 accomplished under such maddening conditions. 
 
 His main object was to form such a Museum 
 in Egypt that it would no longer be possible for 
 the representatives of the European powers to 
 excuse their spoliation by the suggestion that 
 Egypt was unable to safeguard her own treasures 
 of antiquity. With this end in view he was 
 indefatigable in the work of excavation, doing 
 
26 MARIETTE AND HIS WORK 
 
 his utmost to gather from Memphis, Thebes, 
 Abydos, ‘Tanis, and other famous sites, such a 
 collection of historical monuments as_ should 
 render the creation of a permanent home for 
 them a crying necessity. 
 
 Erelong he had so far succeeded that his 
 collection included fine statues of Ramses I], 
 the well-known Amenartas, the so-called Hyksos 
 Sphinxes, the Triumphal Stele of Thothmes ITI, 
 and a great mass of amulets from the cemeteries 
 of Memphis, Abydos, and Thebes. ‘To house 
 these treasures he was provided with a set of 
 miserable buildings which were of no use for 
 any other purpose—a deserted mosque which 
 was falling into ruin, some filthy sheds, and a 
 dwelling-house alive with vermin, in which he 
 lived himself. Making the most of this heap of 
 ruins, he improvised pedestals for the statues 
 and cases for the amulets, and turned his early . 
 training as a drawing-master to account in the 
 painting of the decorations of his crazy walls. 
 
 The incident which finally determined Said 
 to yield to the importunity of his energetic 
 Director of Antiquities was highly characteristic, 
 both of the daring and persistence of Mariette, 
 and the waywardness of the ruler with whom he 
 had to deal. One of the chief hindrances to 
 the erection of the Museum was the fact that the 
 excavations, though highly productive of objects 
 of historic interest, had as yet yielded nothing 
 in the way of gold or jewellery, and Said, a 
 thorough Oriental, cared but little for researches 
 which only produced inscribed or sculptured 
 stones. Early in 1859, Mariette’s workmen at 
 
MARIETTE AND HIS WORK 27 
 
 Drah-Abou’l-Neggah, near Thebes, discovered 
 the splendid gilded sarcophagus of the Queen 
 Aahhotep. Mariette sent orders for it to be 
 sent to Cairo at once; but meanwhile the Mudir 
 of Keneh had laid hands on it, opened it in his 
 harem, and, throwing aside the mummy, took 
 possession of the fine set of jewellery which the 
 coffin contained, and hurried off by boat to 
 present it to the Khedive as an offering from 
 himself. 
 
 Mariette immediately set out on his steam- 
 boat, the Samanoud, to meet the robber. Board- 
 ing the Mudir’s boat, he tried to persuade him to 
 give up his ill-gotten goods, and when persuasion 
 failed he passed to threats, and from threats to 
 blows. Finally he triumphed, and took posses- 
 sion of the treasure. Knowing the danger which 
 he ran of having his action represented to the 
 Khedive as sheer robbery of a treasure addressed 
 to the Royal Palace, Mariette took care to be the 
 first to tell the story to his royal master, and 
 did so with such effect that the Khedive 
 thoroughly enjoyed the joke, and laughed heartily 
 at the spoiling of the spoiler. He kept a gold 
 chain for one of his wives, and himself wore for 
 awhile a fine scarab which he afterwards returned ; 
 but the rest of the treasure was reserved, as 
 Mariette wished, for his darling Museum, and 
 the Khedive, now convinced that the collection 
 was worth housing, gave orders for the erection 
 of a suitable building at Boulak. 
 
 Thus, by a happy combination of good fortune 
 and daring, the great explorer succeeded in the 
 attainment of at least a part of his heart’s desire. 
 
28 MARIETTE AND HIS WORK 
 
 The buildings at Boulak, however, were far from 
 satisfactory, and his heart was always set on a 
 dream-museum, which he did not live to realise, 
 which indeed has not yet been realised, though 
 the great Egyptian Museum has known two 
 changes of abode since his time, and is now 
 preparing for a fresh extension to house the 
 treasures of T'utankhamen’s tomb. In addition, 
 he had to be continually on his guard to see that 
 the priceless things which he had gathered with 
 such pains, and housed at such risk, were not 
 dissipated to gratify his patron’s passing whims 
 of generosity towards some favourite guests, or 
 sold en masse to act as security for a loan. 
 Mariette had no intention of allowing his treasures 
 to be treated as pawnbroker’s pledges; but it 
 took all his energy and authority to prevent this 
 happening, for whenever Said was short of money, 
 which happened with unfailing regularity, his 
 first thought was to raise a loan on the Museum, 
 and it was only the Director’s personal accepta- 
 bility with his master which enabled him to stave 
 off disaster once and again. 
 
 The narrowest escape came just on the heels 
 of what had seemed the greatest triumph of his 
 life. At the Paris Exhibition of 1867, he had 
 secured the first adequate representation of 
 Egyptian antiquities. A small Egyptian temple 
 was built, preceded by a short avenue of sphinxes ; 
 and within the temple were housed the finest 
 specimens of art and craftsmanship which Egypt 
 could produce. For six months all the world 
 admired and wondered; then came the blow. 
 Mariette had wrought too well, and made his 
 
MARIETTE AND HIS WORK 29 
 
 treasures look too inviting. The Empress 
 Eugenie had cast covetous eyes upon them, and 
 the Khedive Ismail was informed that she 
 desired to have the whole collection offered to 
 her as a gift. Ismail, taken by surprise, and, as 
 usual, short of cash, did not dare to refuse ; but 
 he had the sense to make his consent subject to 
 one condition. ‘‘ There is,” he said to the 
 emissary of the Empress, “‘ someone at Boulak 
 more powerful than I, and you must address 
 yourself to him.” It must have been the cruellest 
 of blows to Mariette thus to be wounded in the 
 house of his friends; but his resolution was 
 proof against both imperial wiles and threats, 
 and the collection returned in safety to its native 
 home. The explorer had saved the treasures of 
 the land of his adoption from the greed of his 
 native land; but it was at a heavy cost that the 
 victory was gained. The favour of France, 
 which had always been one of his main supports, 
 was immediately withdrawn, and for the next two 
 or three years Mariette found himself in disgrace 
 at the palace, and unable to obtain any support 
 for his schemes. Curiously enough, it was the 
 downfall of France in 1870 which brought him 
 into favour once more with the Khedive, and for 
 the last ten years of his life he saw the work to 
 which he had given himself steadily growing, 
 though on at least one occasion the proposal to 
 raise a loan on the Museum was revived, and 
 though Ismail’s grandiose plans for the extension 
 of the buildings remained only dreams, which 
 came through the ivory gate. 
 
 In respect to the excavations which he kept so 
 
ell 
 
 30 MARIETTE AND HIS WORK 
 
 jealously in his own hands, Mariette’s energy 
 was amazing, though its results were never so 
 carefully chronicled as they might have been, 
 
 . and were sometimes scarcely chronicled at all. 
 
 The two greatest charges to be brought against 
 him as an excavator are, first, this lack of adequate 
 publication of his results, a huge mass of precious 
 material being gathered without anything to tell 
 the student its actual provenance, or its historical 
 connection, and, second, the craving for big 
 and imposing results, which led him often to 
 neglect the smaller but often more important 
 material which would have been of priceless 
 value to modern workers, but did not appeal to 
 him, and consequently got overlooked and lost. 
 
 With regard to the latter point, however, 
 we must remember that the knowledge of the 
 infinite importance of the small game of the 
 archeologist is a thing of modern growth, and that 
 it is scarcely fair to blame Mariette for not being 
 a quarter of a century in advance of his time; 
 and also that the difficulties of his position obliged 
 him to lay stress on the big and imposing monu- 
 ment, even at the cost of neglecting what was 
 really of more value to the serious student. 
 Broken potsherds may mean far more for the 
 reconstruction of history than intact colossi ; 
 but to the men in authority on whom depended 
 the continuance of the excavator’s work, they 
 were just-broken potsherds. 
 
 Spite of all the defects of his methods, we 
 owe him an infinite debt, both for what he 
 accomplished and for what he hindered others 
 from destroying. The chief fruit of his toil, 
 
"‘AGVH LANIGAW ‘III SASWVY JO AIAWAL ‘V 
 
 a 
 
 Sot A 
 ma Gite eee ee 
 
 
 
AP HK 
 7 ‘ 
 J ‘ 
 
 
 
MARIETTE AND HIS WORK © 31 
 
 apart from the work at the Serapeum and in the 
 necropolis at Saqqara, was the unveiling at 
 Abydos of the noble temple of Sety I, with its 
 exquisite reliefs, which will always rank among 
 the very finest work of the artists of the New 
 Empire. Besides the excavation of the temple, 
 he did an immense amount of work, very imper- 
 fectly recorded, alas, in the great necropolis of 
 Abydos, where he unearthed over 15,000 monu- 
 ments of one kind or another. It ought not to 
 be forgotten either, though it often has been, 
 _ and though it has been stated that in his work 
 at Abydos he had no idea of the existence there 
 of any remains of the early dynasties, that it was 
 Mariette who prophesied both the discovery of 
 Ist Dynasty tombs and that of the great 
 subterranean ‘“‘ Pool of Osiris,’ which is the 
 latest fruit of M. Naville’s work there. 
 
 Scarcely less important was his work at 
 Thebes, where he for the first time made some 
 approach to establishing the architectural history 
 of the great temple of Karnak from its foundation 
 under the Middle Kingdom down to the close 
 of building under the Ptolemies. ‘To him, also, 
 we owe the excavation of the great temple of 
 Ramses III at Medinet Habu, and the first 
 beginnings of that huge piece of work which 
 M. Naville and his assistants at Der el-Bahri 
 only completed, after thirteen years’ hard labour, 
 in 1908. 
 
 How many of the visitors to Hatshepsut’s 
 beautiful memorial temple, who wonder at the 
 patience which unearthed this most exquisite of 
 Egyptian buildings, remember that it was Mariette 
 
32 MARIETTE AND HIS WORK 
 
 who first gave to the world the most interesting 
 part of the whole building with its reliefs of 
 the royal expedition to the Land of Punt? 
 ‘To tell of all his work at the thirty-seven 
 places in which he excavated would take a 
 volume, and not a chapter. One of his greatest 
 successes, though it dealt only with a Ptolemaic 
 building, was the excavation of the very perfect 
 temple of Edfu. He found it so completely 
 covered with rubbish that an Arab village had 
 established itself upon the roof of the ancient 
 sanctuary of Horus. Mariette succeeded in 
 getting these interlopers cleared away, and was 
 at last able to reveal the whole of a building, 
 which, while comparatively modern as Egyptian 
 temples go, is yet one of the most complete and 
 perfect specimens of Egyptian architecture, show- 
 ing the almost pure type of temple architecture 
 as it can be seen only in one or two other instances 
 in the whole land. 
 
 The great explorer’s work in Egypt lasted for 
 almost exactly thirty years. Before his death on 
 January 18, 1881, he had the satisfaction of know- 
 ing that the work of which he had so well laid 
 the foundations would not be interrupted when 
 he had to lay it down. He never, indeed, saw 
 the accomplishment of his great life-dream, the 
 completion of a Museum really worthy of the 
 treasures which he had gathered. Sir Gaston 
 Maspero, his able successor, has told us how 
 that vision hovered round his death-bed, and 
 cheered his last hours; but even to-day the 
 great Museum at Cairo is scarcely worthy of 
 the matchless stores which it holds, and it is 
 
MARIETTE AND HIS WORK 33 
 
 becoming more and more doubtful whether 
 Cairo is the right place for a collection of such 
 priceless value. But at least Mariette accom- 
 plished one thing which will never be undone ; he 
 put a stop to the worst of the pillage of Egyptian 
 antiquities which had gone on unchecked for 
 half a century, and he established the fact that 
 the proper place where the historical monuments 
 of a great nation’s past should be gathered is on 
 national soil, where they are at home, and where 
 they have a value which could never be theirs 
 if they were scattered through a score of alien 
 collections. 
 
 A noble statue keeps his memory alive in the 
 Cairo Museum. Maspero tells us that a great 
 personage who visited the Museum asked whether 
 this monument was that of a Pharaoh or of a 
 modern individual ; and when he was told that 
 it was the monument of Mariette, the founder of 
 the Museum, ‘* Mariette,” said he, “I did not 
 know that the founder of the Museum was a 
 woman!” Such is fame, even in the land 
 where memories seem to endure longer than 
 in any other spot on earth. But Mariette’s 
 worth to the world does not depend on monu- 
 ments, though he had so much to do with them, 
 nor on great personages, though he suffered so 
 much at their hands all his life. It lies in this, 
 that he saved the relics of ancient Egyptian 
 history from the bottomless bog of international 
 jealousies and greed and insisted that a nation 
 with a great past had the right and the responsi- 
 bility to hold the treasures of that past within its 
 own bounds—in trust for the world. 
 
 CG 
 
34 MARIETTE AND HIS WORK 
 
 “* Assuredly,’’ says Maspero, “ Mariette is not 
 a model to be blindly imitated ; and the man who 
 should imitate him to-day would run the risk of 
 committing irreparable blunders ; but let anyone 
 _ who is tempted to depreciate him replace himself 
 in spirit in the Egypt of sixty years ago, and let 
 him ask himself how he would have acted in the 
 midst of the difficulties which would then have 
 assailed him on all sides; I believe that, if he is 
 an honest man, he will be forced to admit that 
 though perhaps he would have handled matters 
 differently, he would not have come better out 
 of the business. Mariette was the man who 
 fitted the time.” 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN PERIOD 
 
 the close of the old and bad period of 
 
 reckless pillage in Egypt. His thirty 
 years of ceaseless struggle against difficulties 
 formed the transition period, in which the 
 foundations of the modern science of Egyptology 
 were being laid, but in which its aims and methods 
 were as yet but partially and imperfectly under- 
 stood. With his death in 1881, and the beginning 
 of the reign of his successor, the late Sir Gaston 
 Maspero, we may fairly be said to reach the 
 dawn of the modern period, in which new men 
 and new methods have completely revolutionised 
 the whole conception of archeology, and made it 
 one of the most fruitful aids to the reconstruction 
 and the comprehension of ancient history, and 
 above all the indispensable interpreter of the 
 life of ancient peoples. It seems fitting, there- 
 fore, that at this point we should stop for a little 
 to consider what archeology is, and what are its 
 aims, its methods, and its materials; for with 
 regard to all these points there is, save in the case 
 of those who are more or less students of the 
 past, a very general haziness in the public mind. 
 
 35 
 
 ie coming of Mariette in 1850 marked 
 
36 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN PERIOD 
 
 To the average man, archeology might be 
 quite satisfactorily defined as the study of old 
 stones and old bones, potsherds, and fragments 
 of corroded metal—a study presupposing, on 
 the part of the student, a curious and perverted 
 taste for the dry and the dusty and a disregard 
 for all the things which have in them the true 
 sap and joy of life. “‘ Your true antiquarian,” 
 it has been said, “ loveth a thing the better for 
 that it is rotten and stinketh”’; and this judg- 
 ment, more pointed than polite, fairly represents 
 the conception which most people cherish of the 
 work of the excavator and the interpreter of his 
 results. 
 
 Now and again this crude and summary 
 judgment is shaken for a little by some wonderful 
 discovery which seems to hint that there is more 
 in archeology than the man in the street had 
 thought. Some Pharaoh, like ‘Tutankhamen, is 
 found “lying in glory, in his own house,” as 
 Isaiah puts it, and the world in general begins 
 to turn in its sleep and dream for a while of the 
 romance of buried treasure. It may be suspected 
 that no small part of the interest awakened with 
 regard to Tutankhamen’s tomb arose from the 
 fact that there was talk of the money value of the 
 find running into millions sterling. A science 
 which can produce assets like that must be worth 
 attention. To tell anyone whose interest has 
 thus been excited that the money value of the 
 find, even if it has not been ridiculously over- 
 estimated, as is most likely the case, is the least 
 important aspect of it, absolutely negligible in 
 comparison with its other values, is merely to 
 
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN PERIOD 37 
 
 invite incredulity, polite or otherwise. In any 
 case the temporary interest of the find soon dies 
 away, and the public reverts to its old and normal 
 conception of the archzologist as an amiable and 
 quite harmless lunatic, and of his study as the 
 dullest and dustiest thing under heaven. 
 
 All this, of course, is just about as wrong, 
 and as stupidly wrong, as anything well can be. 
 It is, indeed, exactly the opposite of the truth. 
 
 he explorer, instead of being inspired with a 
 malignant disregard for the sap and joy of life, 
 is really so enamoured of these very things that 
 one of his main objects is to endeavour to make 
 the world realise them not only in the present, 
 but for the past also. His purpose, and his 
 business, if he has any real understanding of 
 the end for which Providence created him (for 
 there are some archzologists who have not, and 
 who almost justify the worst that the public 
 can believe of their science), is not the mere 
 gathering of facts, but the reconstruction by 
 means of these of the life of the past, for the 
 interest, the help, and the guidance of the 
 present. His work is not complete until he has 
 presented a picture of that ancient world in 
 which he is interested, not as it is now, a handful 
 of unrelated fragments of dry bone and dusty 
 papyrus and mouldering metal, but as it was 
 when the dry bones were alive, clothed with 
 flesh and inspired with spirit, when the words 
 on the scroll throbbed with the hopes and fears 
 of a living man or woman, and the corroded 
 bronze or iron was a sword in the hand of a 
 mighty man of valour, or a chisel in that of a 
 
38 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN PERIOD 
 
 cunning sculptor. Unless he keeps this in view 
 as his real object, he is misconceiving his whole 
 purpose, and substituting means for ends ; unless 
 he can to some extent accomplish this (no man, 
 of course, can do it completely) he is failing of 
 his aim. 
 
 But we are still waiting for our definition of 
 what archeology is, and what are the ways in 
 which it is to accomplish this desirable revivifying 
 of the past. It has been defined by a well-known 
 excavator and writer as “‘ the study of the facts 
 of ancient history and ancient lore ’—which is 
 very well as far as it goes, but omits, strangely 
 enough, the very point in which its author has 
 shown himself most keenly interested. ‘To com- 
 plete the definition, one would need to add, 
 ‘* and of ancient life in all aspects.” 
 
 The archeologist deals with ancient history, 
 and may prove helpful to the historian of the 
 past in many ways; he deals with ancient lore, 
 and may reveal material which is of the utmost 
 importance for the study of the knowledge and 
 literature of the past; but his main concern is 
 always with the life of the past, and his main 
 use to the world is to enable the present to see 
 and to realise the life of the past as it really was, 
 to give life again to the men of old so that they 
 shall no longer be names in a dry text-book, but 
 flesh-and-blood figures, and to do this for the 
 common man of the past as well as for his rulers, 
 so that ancient history shall no longer be the 
 chronicle of the deeds, great or otherwise, of 
 Pharaohs and monarchs of all sorts, but shall 
 give you the whole many-coloured tapestry of 
 
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN PERIOD 39 
 
 life as it was in those far-off days with the fates 
 of common men interwoven with the glittering 
 destinies of their lords and masters. 
 
 ‘“* Archeological research,” says Dr. R. A. S. 
 Macalister in the latest summary of its results, 
 “consists principally in the discovery and the 
 classification of the common things of daily life, 
 houses, personal ornaments, domestic utensils, 
 tools, weapons, and the like.’ To have said 
 such a thing fifty years ago would have been to 
 make the scientific man of those days hold up 
 his hands in horror at such a degradation of 
 a science whose chief end was the discovery of 
 the great monuments of great men, and the 
 substantiation or correction of history by their 
 means. 
 
 To put the change of view in a word, 
 archeology has during the modern period become 
 human. It has learned that history never existed, 
 and cannot be viewed, in a vacuum; and that 
 quite as important for its right apprehension of 
 the facts is the realisation of the medium in 
 which the facts transpired, and which largely 
 conditioned them. “The true function of 
 archeological research,” says Dr. Macalister 
 again, ‘‘ is to discover the conditions amid which 
 lived such heroes of old as we have mentioned ; 
 to show them, no longer as solitary, more or less 
 idealised or superhuman, figures, but as men of 
 like passions to ourselves moving with other 
 men, in a busy world engrossed in its secular 
 interests, and making daily use of the common 
 things of life.’ ‘To take an illustration from a 
 familiar figure of Egyptian history, we know, as 
 
40 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN PERIOD 
 
 a fact of history, that the favourite son of the 
 mighty Ramses II was Setna-Khaemuast, that he 
 fought in his father’s Syrian wars, that about 
 _ the middle of the reign he was high-priest of 
 Memphis, and that he died somewhere before 
 the fifty-fifth year of Ramses ; in other words, 
 so far as the big records of the historical monu- 
 ments go, he is to us “ magni nominis umbra,”’ 
 and no more. The real living interest of the 
 man begins for us with the discovery of a papyrus 
 of the Ptolemaic period, now in the Cairo 
 Museum, which shows him studying the old 
 inscriptions at Memphis in search of magic 
 charms, stealing the roll of Thoth from the tomb 
 of an earlier prince, just like a modern explorer, 
 and getting into trouble over the theft. 
 
 “The lofty personages,” says Maspero in 
 the Introduction to his charming Contes 
 Populaires, “The lofty personages whose 
 mummies repose in our museums had a reputa- 
 tion for gravity so thoroughly established, that 
 nobody suspected them of having ever diverted 
 themselves with such futilities in those days 
 when they were only mummies in expectation.” 
 That is just the point. It is not the impassive 
 mummies, with their reputation for gravity, 
 thoroughly well-deserved for the last three 
 thousand years, since they became mummies, 
 that we want to know; it is the folk who were 
 only “ mummies in expectation,’”’ who lived and 
 loved, hated and fought, and made fools of 
 themselves, like other people. And the business 
 of archeology is to show you these people, in 
 their habit as they lived, and in the ordinary 
 

 
 pele Pils ORE DEUs-THEhY PYLON, AND VIEW FROM. THE. BYLON: 
 
’ 
 
 Dart ie 
 } ae hea 
 
 aed > re 
 aaa | dg, _ 
 
 
 
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN PERIOD 41 
 
 medium which conditioned their actions. If it 
 cannot or does not do that, then it deserves all 
 the vivid abuse which Carlyle used to hurl at 
 the Dry-as-dusts of the past. 
 
 Now it is the supreme merit of the modern 
 period that it has been steadily learning the 
 importance of this aspect of its work among the 
 treasures of the past, till now it can say “‘ nothing 
 human is foreign to me.” ‘The change of view 
 is set before us very plainly in the contrast 
 between our modern histories of Egypt and those 
 of our forefathers. 
 
 Take, for instance, Maspero’s Histoire 
 Ancienne, or Breasted’s History of Egypt, 
 and compare the brilliant pictures of ancient 
 Egyptian life which you will find in their pages 
 with the dry summaries of events which passed 
 for Egyptian history fifty years ago. What 
 has made the difference? Simply the fact that 
 in the interval the archzologist has been learning 
 that his business is not only or even chiefly with 
 the great historical monuments of the land with 
 which he is dealing, but, above all, with the small 
 things which made the background of lKfe, 
 “the pots and pans,” as Dr. Macalister puts it, 
 *“ which are essential if he is to fill in the picture 
 of the ancient life of the region.” 
 
 The change of view thus brought about is 
 marked by a corresponding change of judgment 
 as to what shall constitute the chief object of 
 search in the excavations which reveal the past 
 to us. In the dawn of excavation it was the big 
 and imposing monument which was eagerly and 
 almost exclusively sought for—very naturally, 
 
42 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN PERIOD 
 
 for it was only by the discovery of such relics 
 that the explorer could hope, in the existing state 
 of knowledge, to justify his work, and to create 
 _the interest on the part of the public which would 
 provide him with the funds which were needed 
 for its prosecution. Colossal statues, granite 
 sarcophaguses, intact burials in Egypt, winged 
 human-headed bulls, alabaster slabs carved in 
 relief, cuneiform tablets inscribed with legends 
 of the Creation and the Flood in Mesopotamia ; 
 such were the prizes which rewarded and vindi- 
 cated the labours of men like Mariette, Botta, 
 and Layard in the middle of last century. It was 
 all very natural and inevitable, as things then 
 were ; and it is both unjust and unreasonable 
 to denounce the work of such pioneers because 
 they worked with the knowledge and under the 
 conditions of their own time. 
 
 _ The science of excavation and the knowledge 
 of its true objects did not exist when they did 
 their work; it had to be slowly and painfully 
 created by experience, and in the process it was 
 inevitable that many things should suffer and 
 that there should be much loss of material which 
 a better instructed generation would have known 
 how to value. These great men would doubtless 
 do their work very differently now; but it is 
 vain to criticise them for not possessing a know- 
 ledge which nobody possessed in their day. We 
 owe them rather our gratitude for that they 
 accomplished so much in such unfavourable 
 circumstances. 
 
 There can be no doubt, nevertheless, that the 
 methods of the early excavators, judged from 
 
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN PERIOD 43 
 
 the modern point of view, were wasteful to a 
 large degree of the things which we have learned 
 to consider of supreme importance in the study 
 of the past. In their search for the big game 
 of excavation they overlooked, too often with 
 fatal loss to the science of the future, the common 
 things which would have made the indispensable 
 background to their more imposing discoveries, 
 and in many instances what they let slip will 
 never be recovered. ‘To-day the outlook is 
 entirely changed, and the man who should 
 excavate on the lines of Mariette or Layard would 
 be a hopeless anachronism among explorers. 
 The excavator goes to his work now, not with 
 the hope of finding some great monument which 
 will confirm some doubtful statement of history 
 or disprove some theory of succession, not even 
 with the hope of discovering some store of 
 tablets which will let new light in on a dark 
 period. Such things may of course be found, 
 and are welcomed when they are found; and 
 such discoveries as that of the tomb of Tutan- 
 khamen tell us that the romance of exploration is 
 by no means a thing of the past. But the modern 
 explorer has learned the infinite importance of 
 little things, and the results for which he mainly 
 hopes are such things as would be heartily 
 despised by the casual and uninstructed beholder. 
 Perhaps the change may be expressed most 
 simply by saying that while the explorer of two 
 generations back looked for colossi, his present- 
 day successor looks for crockery. 
 
 It may seem that from a science thus occupied 
 and concerned mainly with the infinitely little, 
 
44 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN PERIOD 
 
 the romance of the early days of exploration has 
 departed ; but this is to misunderstand the situa- 
 tion. The explorer’s work was never romantic 
 in the sense in which the average man understands 
 the word. The idea of the excavator as a man 
 who spends his days in exploring wonderful 
 underground chambers filled with the treasures 
 of the past, is just about as true as the picture of 
 the great detective who is always unravelling the 
 mysteries of crime by the most amazing strokes 
 of genius, and landing himself incidentally in 
 the most appalling situations. ‘There never was 
 such an explorer, or such a detective; and the 
 life of the one as of the other is mainly one of 
 monotonous drudgery at which most of the folk 
 who talk about romance would shudder. The 
 great thrilling moments, when a discovery which 
 will excite the imagination of the world is made, 
 have always been far between, and the finding of 
 Tutankhamen’s tomb has shown that they may 
 still come to the modern explorer just as richly 
 as to his predecessor. But the true romance of 
 modern excavation lies in this, not that it can 
 reveal the dead monarchs of thirty centuries 
 back in all their splendour, but that by its patient 
 piecing together of innumerable small details 
 it can give back to us the actual life of the period 
 in which the dead monarch lived, and let us see 
 the order of his court, and what is far more 
 important to our knowledge of the past, the 
 trafhe of the market-place in his cities, and the 
 intercourse of his land with the nations around 
 it. It is scarcely too much to say that because 
 of the minute care with which the modern 
 
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN PERIOD 45 
 
 excavator has treated the minutest fragments of 
 the relics of ancient days we are better acquainted 
 with the life of the Egypt of the New Empire 
 than we are with that of the ordinary European 
 nation of the Dark Ages, though the latter be 
 more than two millenniums nearer us in time. 
 A science which can accomplish such a miracle 
 of resurrection can never lack the element of 
 true romance in the eyes of anyone who has a 
 real sense of the wonder of life. 
 
 It follows from the fact that the modern 
 excavator is called to deal with such a multitude 
 of matters, each in itself perhaps comparatively 
 insignificant, but each of importance, as an 
 additional stroke in the picture of the past which 
 is being slowly built up on the canvas, that far 
 more extensive qualifications are exacted of him 
 than sufficed for his predecessor. ‘‘ Our explorer 
 in Egypt,” says Miss Amelia Edwards, “ is only 
 called upon to be an ‘all-round’ archeologist 
 within the field of the national history : namely, 
 from the time of Mena, the prototype of Egyptian 
 royalty, who probably reigned about five thousand 
 years before Christ, down to the time of the 
 Emperor Theodosius, Anno Domini 379. Yet 
 even within that limit, he has to know about a 
 vast number of things. He must be familiar 
 with all the styles and periods of Egyptian 
 architecture, sculpture and decoration; with 
 the forms, patterns and glazes of Egyptian 
 pottery ; with the distinctive characteristics of 
 the mummy-cases, sarcophagi, methods of em- 
 balmment and styles of bandaging peculiar to 
 interments of various epochs; and with all 
 
46 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN PERIOD 
 
 phases of the art of writing, hieroglyphic, hieratic, 
 and demotic. Nor is this all. He must know 
 by the measurement of a mud brick, by the 
 colour of a glass bead, by the modelling of a 
 porcelain statuette, by the pattern of an ear- 
 ring, to what period each should be assigned. 
 He must be conversant with all the types of all 
 the gods; and last, not least, he must be able 
 to recognise a forgery at first sight. After this, 
 it must, I think, be admitted that the explorer, like 
 the poet, is ‘born, not made’! The wonder 
 perhaps is that he should ever be born at all.” 
 
 It seems, no doubt, a sufficiently formidable 
 catalogue of qualifications ; but to Miss Edwards’ 
 list others would now have to be added. For 
 the progress of investigation of the inter-relation 
 of the nations of the ancient east has broken down 
 the limitation which she imposed upon the 
 knowledge of her imaginary explorer, and the 
 Egyptian excavator of the present day must be 
 familiar, not only with all that has been men- 
 tioned, but with the related work of Mesopotamia 
 and Babylonia, with the art of the brilliant 
 Minoan craftsman, with all that is known of the 
 enigmatic Hittite civilisation, and with the art, 
 both archaic and mature, of Greece, together 
 with a score of other related matters ! 
 
 All this development of a science which has 
 grown almost within the lifetime of some of its 
 exponents from a comparatively simple thing to 
 one of the most complex and exacting of human 
 studies, has, of course, been the work of many 
 minds and hands. But if the name of any one 
 man must be associated with modern excavation 
 
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN PERIOD 47 
 
 as that of the chief begetter of its principles and 
 methods, it must be the name of Professor Sir 
 W. M. Flinders Petrie. It was he, as one of 
 the most brilliant of the exponents of his methods 
 has recently stated, who first called the attention 
 of modern excavators to the importance of 
 ‘* unconsidered trifles,’’ as means for the recon- 
 struction of the past. Above all, it was he who 
 first taught us that for purposes of certainty in 
 the establishment of the succession of different 
 periods, the “ broken earthenware ” of a people 
 may be of far greater value than its most gigantic 
 monuments. And it has been men trained in 
 the principles which he established who have 
 during the last generation been doing the work 
 which has made the past of the Classic East 
 a living thing to the world of to-day. It remains 
 now to trace the outline of their accomplishment 
 
 in Egypt. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 F all the works of man there is none 
 () which has attained such lasting and 
 universal fame as the group of build- 
 
 ings known as the Pyramids of Gizeh. For the 
 best part of five thousand years this group of 
 mighty structures has been one of the wonders 
 of the world, and the theories which have been 
 framed to account for their existence have been 
 more numerous than the Pyramids themselves. 
 Egypt has many buildings far more beautiful, 
 and perhaps as wonderful; but the Pyramids 
 are, to the great majority of people, the character- 
 istic buildings of the land, and whenever Egypt 
 is named there rises before the mind at once a 
 vision of three vast bulks of masonry squatting 
 defiantly on the rising ground above the Libyan 
 desert, as though challenging ‘Time himself to 
 make any impression on their stupendous mass. 
 “All things dread Time,” it has been said, 
 ‘but Time itself dreads the Pyramids’; and 
 the very exaggeration testifies to the profound 
 impression which their bulk and strength have 
 made upon the mind of man. The mere lapse 
 of forty-five centuries would seemingly of itself 
 
 48 
 
PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 49 
 
 have made next to no impression on them; the 
 vandalism of man has done a little more; but 
 even the efforts of those who for many centuries 
 have used the vast masses as a convenient quarry 
 have done little more than show more con- 
 vincingly the power and skill of the builders 
 who reared in the beginning these huge 
 mausoleums around whose bases the workers 
 of succeeding generations have pottered and 
 scratched like children playing with toy spades 
 in the sand. 
 
 Yet though the Pyramids may fairly claim to 
 be the most famous and the best-known buildings 
 in the world, the ignorance in the average mind 
 with regard to them and the purpose for which 
 they were reared is still just about as general and 
 widespread as the fame of them ; and the purpose 
 of this chapter is, first, to tell what, and how many, 
 and of what kind they are; next, what was the 
 end for which they were reared in the beginning 
 of history ; and lastly, to recount something of 
 the efforts which have taught us what is really 
 known about them. 
 
 To most people the Pyramids mean solely 
 the great group at Gizeh ; but though these are 
 by far the greatest and the most famous, they are 
 by no means the only pyramids, nor are they 
 even the oldest. The chief field, known as the 
 Great Pyramid Field, begins almost opposite 
 Cairo, on the western side of the Nile, at Abu 
 Roash, where is the pyramid of Dadefra (Razedef) 
 of the IVth Dynasty, and extends south along 
 the bank of the Nile for a distance of about 
 sixty miles to the Fayum, where lie the pyramids 
 
 D 
 
so PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 of the great XIIth Dynasty Pharaohs, the last 
 of the regular kings of Egypt to build pyramids 
 for themselves. Far to the south again in the 
 country which we know as the Soudan, there 
 lie two other pyramid fields, the one at Gebel 
 Barkal or Napata, near to the Fourth Cataract, 
 the other at Begarawiyah, the ancient Meroé, 
 between the Fifth and Sixth Cataracts, and a 
 little more than a hundred miles north of 
 Khartoum. These two fields have neither the 
 greatness of scale nor the historic importance 
 and interest of the Great Pyramid Field, for 
 they belong to the Ethiopian kings, some of 
 whom, for a time, reigned over Egypt in the days 
 of its decline. The Napata group belongs to 
 the earlier Ethiopian monarchs, who founded 
 the XXVth Egyptian Dynasty, which was finally 
 driven out of Egypt by the Assyrians in the 
 reign of ‘lanutamen, and to their successors, 
 who after the disasters of 661 B.c. maintained 
 the old Ethiopian sovereignty in the south; the 
 Meroé group belongs to the later Ethiopian kings 
 who reigned after 300 B.c. As things go in 
 Egypt, therefore, these southern pyramids are 
 quite modern, nor do they belong to the most 
 interesting period of Egyptian history, and though 
 they have been long known, they are only now 
 in process of being investigated by the Harvard- 
 Boston Expedition under G. A. Reisner, whose 
 work at Begarawiyah is still unfinished. Our 
 attention, therefore, may be given solely to the 
 Great Pyramid Field. | 
 Beginning with Abu Roash, the next site of 
 importance is Gizeh itself, with all its wonders 
 
PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 51 
 
 of IVth Dynasty work. Passing southwards, 
 we come to Abusir, with its remains of the 
 pyramids and temples of the Sun-worshipping 
 Pharaohs of the Vth Dynasty, lately excavated by 
 the German expedition; beyond these again 
 comes the great field of Saqqara, with remains 
 dating over a long period of Egyptian history. 
 The Step-Pyramid of King Zeser of the IIIrd 
 Dynasty is, of course, the most important and 
 imposing monument; but besides, there are 
 pyramids dating from the latter part of the Vth 
 Dynasty, a number of VIth Dynasty ones, and 
 the splendid tombs of many of the nobles of the 
 early dynastic period, so that, though the Saqqara 
 portion of the field cannot compare with Gizeh 
 in the size of its monuments, it is only second 
 to its northern rival, and surpasses it in the 
 variety and the pictorial interest of its minor 
 tombs. Still travelling southwards, we pass in 
 succession Dahshur and Lisht with their pyramids 
 of the great Pharaohs of the XIIth Dynasty, 
 Medum, with its remarkable pyramid of King 
 Seneferu of the [IIrd Dynasty, rising in three 
 stages, like a Mesopotamian Ziggurat, to a height 
 of 114 feet, and Illahun, where Senusert II had 
 his pyramid, and where the exquisite jewellery 
 of some of the royal princesses was found recently, 
 and reach the last of the series at Hawara, where 
 Amenemhat III, one of the greatest and noblest 
 of the long line of Egyptian Pharaohs, had his 
 last resting-place. In later days there were 
 pyramid tombs at Thebes and Abydos ; but the 
 pyramid part of these structures was com- 
 paratively unimportant, and they have, in any 
 
52 PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 case, left few traces behind. Indeed, after the 
 XIIth Dynasty the fashion of pyramid-burial 
 seems to have gradually died out, though we 
 know from the revelations of the Abbott Papyrus 
 that in the XXth Dynasty there were in the 
 Theban necropolis at least ten royal pyramids 
 belonging to kings of the XIIIth to the XVIIIth 
 Dynasty. Altogether there must be at present in 
 Egypt something like seventy pyramids of greater 
 or less importance, without reckoning the later 
 and less important groups of Napata and Meroé. 
 
 Passing by the Abu Roash pyramid of King 
 Razedef, we begin our survey with the magnifi- 
 cent group of Gizeh, which to the ordinary man 
 are the Pyramids to the exclusion of all others. 
 Everyone knows, of course, what the Pyramids 
 are like, and has some rough idea of their sur- 
 passing size, and perhaps the only way to impress 
 the sense of their vastness on the mind is to use 
 one or other of the comparisons which have 
 been worked out to illustrate the stupendous 
 scale on which they are built. To tell the 
 reader that the weight of the stones built into 
 the Great Pyramid is over six million tons is 
 merely to bewilder him; the vastness of the 
 business may be better appreciated when one 
 realises that a town of the size of Aberdeen might 
 be built out of the materials which Khufu 
 gathered together for his monstrous tomb, or 
 that if the stones were divided into blocks a 
 foot square, and these blocks placed end to end 
 in a straight line, the line would be long enough 
 to reach two-thirds of the length of the circum- 
 ference of the earth at the Equator. 
 
‘XNIHdS AHL AO WIMdNAL AO LYVd HLIM ‘XNIHdS GNV CINVUAd LVAD ‘9 
 
 
 

 
PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 53 
 
 Khufu’s pyramid was originally about 481 
 feet in height, and each of its sides measured 
 at the base a matter of 755 feet 8 inches, and these 
 long lines were laid out and built with such 
 wonderful accuracy that the maximum error is 
 not more than an inch. “ The laying out of the 
 base of the Great Pyramid of Khufu,’’ says 
 Professor Sir W. M. F. Petrie, “is a triumph of 
 skill; its errors, both in length and in angles, 
 could be covered by placing one’s thumb on 
 them ; and to lay out a square of more than a 
 furlong in the side (and with rock in the midst 
 of it, which prevented any diagonal checks 
 being measured) with such accuracy shows 
 surprising care. The work of the casing stones 
 which remain is of the same class; the faces are 
 so straight and so truly square, that when the 
 stones were built together the film of mortar 
 left between them is on an average not thicker 
 than one’s thumb-nail, though the joint is a 
 couple of yards long; and the levelling of them 
 over long distances has not any larger errors.” 
 “Equal to optician’s work of the present day,”’ 
 says the same authority elsewhere, “‘ but on a 
 scale of acres instead of feet or yards of material.” 
 
 The Second Pyramid is slightly inferior to 
 the first in size, its measurements being 472 feet 
 in height and 706 feet 3 inches on each side; 
 and its workmanship is also of inferior accuracy, 
 the errors in length being double, and those of 
 angle quadruple those of its predecessor, while 
 the masonry is of poorer quality. Curiously 
 enough, the sarcophagus, the core of the whole 
 vast building, was in the case of the Great 
 
54 PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 Pyramid one of the poorest pieces of work of 
 its kind in the period, and much inferior to that 
 of Khafra in the Second Pyramid. Spite of 
 its smaller size, which most travellers scarcely 
 notice owing to the fact of its somewhat superior 
 position, and its inferior workmanship, the 
 Second Pyramid is itself a world’s wonder. 
 
 Beside these great twin brethren, Men- 
 kaura’s Third Pyramid, with its 215 feet of 
 height and its length on the side of 346 feet 
 2, inches, seems diminutive, though its partial 
 outer casing of granite may have given it a 
 richness of appearance which to some extent 
 compensated for its smallness. 
 
 Here, then, we have a group of buildings 
 which, from whatever point of view they are 
 regarded, are among the most wonderful ever 
 reared by the hand of man, and which in sheer 
 bulk are by far the greatest of all architectural 
 works. What was the purpose for which these 
 stupendous bulks were built and maintained for 
 so long? ‘To ask such a question was, not so 
 long ago, to let loose all the flood of vain imagina- 
 tions which always gathers about a subject which 
 is great and imperfectly understood. 
 
 The theories which have been framed about 
 the Great Pyramid in particular are almost as 
 monstrous as itself, but have none of its solidity. 
 Of these, perhaps the favourite, because of a 
 certain romance attaching to it, and because of 
 the reputation of some of those who have 
 supported it, is, or rather one should say, was, 
 that it was designed for an astronomical obser- 
 vatory. R. A. Proctor, to whose advocacy the 
 
PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 55 
 
 idea owes a great deal of what vogue it had, has 
 told us that the entrance passage is so placed 
 that at the date which he assumes for the erection 
 of the pyramid (3400 B.c.) it bore directly on 
 the then Pole-Star, Thuban, or Theta Draconis, 
 when the star was on the meridian below the 
 pole, and further, that the great gallery which 
 leads up to the King’s Chamber was designed 
 to serve the purpose of a great transit instrument, 
 through whose open upper end the transits of 
 stars could be observed by astronomers occupying 
 seats on cross-benches laid across the gallery at 
 different levels! Still wilder are the fancies 
 which would have us see in the measurements 
 of the Great Pyramid divinely inspired revelations 
 as to units of length, capacity, and so forth, and 
 which gravely inform us that the granite sarco- 
 phagus of Khufu is really a standard measure 
 of capacity, of which our British quarter is a 
 fourth part. It seems rather a pity in view of 
 this wonderful theory that Professor Petrie 
 should have just told us of the inferiority of 
 Khufu’s sarcophagus in accuracy to that of 
 Khafra, as such a fact tends to disturb the mind 
 as to the truth of our own measures; but it is 
 a sufficient indication of the flimsy nature of 
 the foundations on which all these theories 
 rest. 
 
 The fact is that no evidence worth considera- 
 tion has been brought forward in support of any 
 of them, and in especial that the idea of the 
 ereat gallery having been a gigantic transit 
 instrument (surely the most cumbrous and 
 inefficient ever designed) is absolutely negatived 
 
56 PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 by the knowledge which we possess of the object 
 with which the whole building was constructed— 
 an object whose all-important condition was 
 absolute secrecy and concealment. ‘To dream 
 that Khufu built a pyramid to secure his body 
 from discovery and destruction, and then allowed 
 its passages to remain open to the sky for years 
 that astronomers might observe the stars, and 
 tomb-robbers the plan of the pyramid, is to put 
 a fool’s cap on the whole business. The Great 
 Pyramid, like all the other pyramids, great and 
 small, was none of the extraordinary things 
 which we have been told it was; it was some- 
 thing simpler and more wonderful than any of 
 them—the greatest witness ever given on earth 
 to the human craving for immortality ! 
 
 There is no longer any doubt that all the 
 pyramids, from the first imperfect conception 
 of the form in the Step-Pyramid of Saqqara, 
 through the giants of Gizeh, down to the crumb- 
 ling heaps of brickwork which are all that remain 
 of some of the later fabrics, were built simply 
 and solely as tombs, and that their one object was 
 to render the resting-place of their royal tenant 
 as secure as precautions could make it from the 
 attacks of dynastic enemies or mere robbers. 
 
 The pyramid was just one pathetic expression 
 of that marvellously persistent passion which 
 gave us the tomb-chambers of Abydos, with 
 their storerooms for the supply of the dead 
 king’s wants in the Underworld, the Mummy 
 with all its wonderful elaboration of means for 
 preserving the shape and likeness of the dead 
 man, the Funerary Statue, with its amazingly 
 
PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 57 
 
 lifelike portrait of the man whose place it was 
 designed to take when time had reduced the 
 mummy to dust, and the soul still craved a 
 recognisable dwelling-place, and the long, rock- 
 hewn galleries of the Valley of the Kings, with 
 their pictured representations of all that could 
 help their owner through the dangers and 
 difficulties of the long journey to the Egyptian 
 Fields of Contentment. 
 
 No race has ever been so possessed by any 
 religious idea as was the ancient Egyptian by 
 the faith that it was possible to secure immortal 
 life for humanity beyond the gates of death, 
 possible, but difficult to the last degree, and 
 needing all the effort which could be given to 
 secure so great and so difficult an end; and the 
 Great Pyramid is just the most colossal seal 
 ever put on that creed, expressing, as nothing 
 else ever could, both the intensity of the con- 
 viction and the consciousness of the extreme 
 difficulty of its attainment in actual fact. The 
 Egyptian Pharaoh built his pyramid as the 
 expression of his faith in life everlasting; he 
 built it as huge and as massy as he could, as the 
 expression of his consciousness of the numberless 
 difficulties and dangers which compassed the 
 road which led to the attainment of immortality, 
 and of his determination that, so far as human 
 effort could secure it, he would be secured against 
 everything which might prejudice his chance 
 of winning eternity. 
 
 The Pyramid, then, is a tomb, or rather it is 
 the sole surviving part of the elaborate and 
 complicated structure which the Egyptians of 
 
58 PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 the Pyramid period devised for the accomplish- 
 ment of this end of securing the duration of the 
 personality of its owner. For what we see now 
 at Gizeh and elsewhere is by no means what the 
 Egyptians of the early dynasties saw when they 
 looked upon the “ eternal dwelling-places ” of 
 their great kings, but only a fragment, which 
 by reason of its massiveness, and especially of 
 its form, has survived while the rest of the 
 fabric has perished. The complete pyramid- 
 complex was a development of the normal 
 Egyptian arrangement of tomb-chamber and 
 tomb-chapel. Each Egyptian of any rank or 
 pretensions was buried in a chamber, generally 
 underground, which contained his coffin of stone 
 or wood; but he had also another chamber 
 above ground, where the necessary rites might 
 be observed at the stated times, and the daily 
 offerings of food and drink made for his use 
 in the other world by his relations or by the 
 priests who were appointed for this purpose. 
 These two chambers were combined in the 
 ‘“* mastabas ”’ of the Old Kingdom nobles, with 
 their shafts and their chapels. The pyramid 
 took the place of the mastaba, and as it developed, 
 the chapel, instead of being within the same mass 
 of building as the tomb-chamber, was built 
 outside, at the foot of the great structure which 
 protected the mummy of the king, as was fondly 
 hoped, from sacrilegious attack. ‘This pyramid- 
 temple lay at the east side of the pyramid, and 
 in close connection with it. But the pyramids 
 were situated on rising ground, generally at a 
 considerable distance from the cultivated land, 
 
: 
 
 i 
 
 PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 59 
 
 and it was therefore necessary to arrange for a 
 convenient approach to them, instead of allowing 
 the priests or the royal relatives to scramble 
 over the rough ground. Accordingly a secondary 
 temple, or portico, was built down on the level 
 of the cultivated land in a position where it could 
 be approached by boats during the inundation ; 
 and from this portico-temple a covered causeway 
 led up to the temple proper at the foot of the 
 pyramid. 
 
 We are to conceive of the pyramid fabric, 
 then, as consisting of these four parts, first the 
 part for whose sake all the rest existed, the 
 pyramid itself, with its concealed passages and 
 its carefully protected sarcophagus-chamber, in 
 which lay the mummy of the king in its granite 
 coffin; then the temple crouching at the foot of 
 the great tomb-chamber ; then the long covered 
 causeway leading down to the lower levels, and 
 finally the Portico-temple on the margin of the 
 flooded river. One imagines the scene on the 
 feast-day of a great Pharaoh—the graceful and 
 gaily decorated Egyptian river-skiffs drawing 
 up to the stately columned portico on the river 
 bank, and landing their freight of white-robed 
 priests and gorgeous courtiers and princes of 
 the blood, the preliminary service within the 
 lower temple, and then the solemn procession 
 up the causeway to the temple proper where the 
 memory of Khufu or Khafra is celebrated, and 
 his wants for the other world supplied under the 
 shadow of the mighty mass of stone where the 
 bones of the great builder are laid. ‘The Pyramids 
 are impressive enough to-day in their stripped 
 
60 PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 and gaunt majesty—one wonders if they could 
 be more impressive even in the days of their 
 perfected splendour. Possibly not, but at all 
 events the world can have seen few more imposing 
 sights than an Egyptian Pyramid Field such as 
 that of Gizeh, when its three giants were girt 
 with all the sumptuous fabrics which were part 
 of their essential design as their architects 
 planned them, and without which we are no more 
 seeing them as they were meant to be seen than 
 if we were viewing Salisbury without its spire, 
 or the Duomo of Florence without its campanile. 
 
 As to the sumptuousness of these subsidiary 
 parts of the pyramid-complex, we have fortunately 
 first-hand evidence. Little remains of the temple 
 proper of the Second Pyramid, though what there 
 is has been completely excavated ; but the cause- 
 way leading down from it has been traced, and 
 it terminates in a building which has been for 
 long familiar as one of the most striking examples 
 of the combined restraint and magnificence of 
 the Egyptian architects of the early dynasties, 
 the so-called ‘Temple of the Sphinx, which is in 
 reality the Portico-temple of Khafra’s pyramid. 
 With its severely simple architecture of vertical 
 and horizontal lines, its great blocks of stone 
 absolutely without ornament of any sort, and the 
 richness of its granite monoliths and its alabaster 
 wall-surfaces, it tells us something of what must 
 have been the dignity and splendour of the Gizeh 
 Pyramid Field when it stood intact. 
 
 So far as the fulfilment of the object for 
 which they were erected is concerned, the 
 Pyramids of Gizeh are no more than a melancholy 
 
PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 61 
 
 monument of the vanity of human wishes, and 
 an illustration of how human cupidity or malice 
 will in the long run break through the most 
 elaborate system of defence. Professor Petrie 
 has suggested that Sir Thomas Browne was in 
 the wrong when he wrote that “to be but 
 pyramidally extant is a fallacy of duration,’ and 
 comments upon that characteristic utterance: 
 “ Khufu has provided the grandest monument 
 that any man ever had, and is by this means 
 better remembered than any other Eastern king 
 throughout history.” 
 
 That is so; and yet one cannot help 
 remembering that this was not at all Khufu’s 
 object in the rearing of his vast mausoleum. It 
 was not to keep his memory green, but to keep 
 his body intact that the greatest builder of the 
 world raised the Great Pyramid, and in that 
 simple object he utterly failed, as did all his 
 brother pyramid-builders great and small. The 
 evidence shows that not in one single case has 
 greed or hatred failed to overcome all the obstacles 
 placed in their way by royal power. Every 
 pyramid known has been rifled in ancient times, 
 probably not long after its builder was laid to 
 rest in his stately tomb, and the duration of the 
 mass of senseless stone, which bids fair to be 
 as long as that of the everlasting hills, only 
 mocks the hopes with which it was reared. 
 The pyramid remains; but the jewel for whose 
 sake so costly a casket was devised is long ages 
 since “ blown about the desert dust.” 
 
 The story of excavation at the Pyramids of 
 Gizeh has nothing very exciting about it. The 
 
62 PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 first excavators were, no doubt, the enemies of 
 the Crown, who, as Petrie has suggested, pene- 
 trated into the burial-chambers in the troubled 
 days between the VIIth and Xth Dynasties and 
 wreaked their spite on the bodies of their dead 
 masters. ‘Thereafter, through the Classical 
 period, the entrance into the subterranean pas- 
 sages of the Great Pyramid was well known ; 
 but the knowledge had been lost by the time of 
 the Arab Conquest, and the Khalif Mamun had 
 laboriously to quarry his way through the 
 masonry into the actual passages, leaving behind 
 him the great hole, which is still called ““ Mamun’s 
 Hole.” ‘This was the beginning of the vandalism 
 which has done so much destruction at the 
 Pyramids of Gizeh, though the worst efforts of 
 human stupidity have somehow only seemed to 
 emphasise the dignity and grandeur of the great 
 buildings whose might mocks at the puny 
 attempts of the destroyer. After Mamun had 
 showed the way, his successors followed him, 
 and used the pyramid as a quarry. In 1356 
 Sultan Hasan used part of the casing of the 
 Great Pyramid in the building of his mosque, 
 and though his work may be, as it has been called, 
 “the finest monument in Cairo,” and “ the 
 most perfect specimen extant of Saracenic archi- 
 tecture,’ its beauty is sadly discounted by the 
 fact that it was created by the robbery of the 
 most magnificent example of an architecture 
 more ancient and more noble. MHasan, or one 
 of his immediate successors, added to his crime 
 by stripping part of the casing from the Second 
 Pyramid also, leaving it in the partially despoiled 
 
PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 63 
 
 condition in which it now appears, for one of 
 his coins was found by Petrie deep down in 
 the southern foundation. Compared with such 
 barbarities, the indignities which the Pyramids 
 have had to suffer in all ages at the hands of 
 tourists, who have insisted on disgracing their un- 
 distinguished names by scrawling them on these 
 great memorials of the past, are mere trifles. 
 Early in the nineteenth century Caviglia 
 succeeded in penetrating into the centre of the 
 Great Pyramid, and he was followed in the 
 spring of 1818 by the redoubtable Belzoni, 
 whose account of the manner in which he 
 forced an entrance into the Second Pyramid is as 
 vivacious as the rest of his narrative. Belzoni’s 
 earlier efforts only resulted in the discovery of 
 one of the passages by which former explorers 
 had vainly attempted to force their way into 
 the pyramid; but his disappointment only 
 quickened his desire, and as he says in his own 
 inimitable way: ‘‘ Hope returned to cherish 
 my pyramidical brains.” His workmen were 
 speedily set to work again at a new spot. ‘“ As 
 to expectation that the entrance might be found, 
 they had none; and I often heard them utter, 
 in a low voice, the word ‘ magnoon, in plain 
 English, madman. I pointed out to the Arabs 
 the spot where they had to dig, and such was 
 my measurement, that | was right within two 
 feet, in a straight direction, as to the entrance ; 
 and I have the pleasure of reckoning this day as 
 fortunate.” Even after the passage was dis- 
 covered, the removal of the blocks of stone which 
 obstructed it required several days of hard labour ; 
 
64 PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 but at last, thirty days after the work began, the 
 explorer found himself standing in the sarco- 
 _ phagus chamber of Khafra. Besides the empty 
 sarcophagus, Belzoni found the evidence that he 
 had not been the first who had penetrated into 
 the secret of the pyramid, for in addition to 
 many graffiti on the walls of the chamber, which 
 were written in charcoal and rubbed off at the 
 slightest touch, there was an Arabic inscription 
 which ran: “‘ The Master Mohammed Ahmed, 
 lapicide, has opened them; and the Master 
 Othman attended this opening : and the King Ali 
 Mohammed, from the beginning to the closing up.” 
 
 The Third Pyramid, that of Menkaura, was 
 opened in 1226 by treasure-hunters. ‘“ After 
 passing through various passages, a room was 
 reached wherein was found a long blue vessel 
 [the sarcophagus] quite empty. ... They 
 found in this basin, after they had broken the 
 covering of it, the decayed remains of a man, 
 but no treasures, excepting some golden tablets 
 inscribed with characters of a language which 
 nobody could understand.” 'The disappointed 
 treasure-seekers were succeeded in 1837 by 
 Colonel Howard Vyse, some of the results of 
 whose discoveries are in the British Museum in 
 the shape of a fragment of the basalt sarcophagus, 
 and portions of a wooden coffin, purporting to 
 be that of “ the King of the North and South, 
 Men-kau-Ra, living for ever,” together with the 
 remains of a man, wrapped in a coarse woollen 
 cloth of a yellow colour. ‘“‘In clearing the 
 rubbish out of the large entrance room,’’ says 
 Colonel Vyse, ‘‘ after the men had been employed 
 
PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 65 
 
 there several days and had advanced some 
 distance towards the south-eastern corner, some 
 bones were. first discovered at the bottom of 
 the rubbish ; and the remaining bones and part 
 of the coffin were immediately discovered all 
 together. No other parts of the coffin or bones 
 could be found in the room ; I therefore had the 
 rubbish which had been previously turned out 
 of the same room carefully re-examined, when 
 several pieces of the coffin and of the mummy- 
 cloth were found; but in no other part of the 
 pyramid were any parts of it to be discovered, 
 although every place was most minutely examined, 
 to make the coffin as complete as possible.” 
 Unfortunately some doubt exists as to the coffin 
 being actually of the period which its inscription 
 claims, and the same doubt hangs over the 
 remains. It has been suggested that the coffin 
 is a restoration of the time of the XXVIth 
 Dynasty, and that the remains are not those of 
 Menkaura, but of one of the treasure-hunters 
 who lost his life in the attempt of 1226. Accord- 
 ingly we cannot say, as might otherwise have 
 been the case, that Vyse actually discovered a 
 Pharaoh in the great tomb which he had built 
 for his eternal abode. The fine basalt sarco- 
 phagus was taken out of the pyramid by Vyse, 
 and shipped for England in 1838; but the ill- 
 luck which has dogged the pyramid explorations 
 attended Menkaura’s coffin also. The ship left 
 Leghorn on October 12, 1838, and was never 
 heard of again, though some bits of wreckage 
 were picked up off Carthagena. 
 
 Valuable work was done at Gizeh during the 
 
 E 
 
66 PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 years after Vyse’s researches by Perring and 
 Piazzi Smyth, though the careful measurement 
 _ work of the latter was somewhat obscured by 
 the fanciful theories which possessed his mind 
 on the subject of the purpose of the Great 
 Pyramid ; but the most complete survey of the 
 Gizeh field was due to Flinders Petrie, who in 
 1880-1881 measured and planned the whole 
 site with the most scrupulous care. 
 
 Perhaps the most interesting result of his 
 work, apart from the evidence which he gathered 
 as to Egyptian methods of working stone, was 
 his discovery, behind the Second Pyramid, of 
 the barracks in which the skilled masons who 
 were permanently employed on the building 
 lived while the work was going on. These 
 were capable of containing easily about 4000 
 men. ‘The rest of the 100,000, who, as Herodotus 
 tells us, were employed in the building of the 
 Great Pyramid, were doubtless merely labourers 
 employed during the three months of high Nile, 
 when work on the land was impossible, to bring 
 up the blocks of stone and leave them ready for 
 the skilled hewers and masons to work upon. 
 As to the methods of these skilled workmen, 
 evidence of the most interesting kind was 
 accumulated. It was found that the great blocks 
 of stone were sawn by means of bronze saws over 
 nine feet in length, and equipped with jewelled 
 cutting points. ‘The sarcophagi of hard granite 
 or basalt were thus sawn to shape with the most 
 remarkable accuracy, while they were hollowed 
 out by cutting rows of holes with tubular drills 
 also set with jewelled cutting points. The 
 
PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 67 
 
 chief difference between this kind of ancient 
 Egyptian work and modern practice with diamond 
 drills is that the ancient work is undeniably 
 superior to the modern. “ Truth to tell, modern 
 drill corés cannot hold a candle to the Egyptians ; 
 by the side of the ancient work they look 
 wretchedly scraped out and irregular.”’ ‘‘ There 
 has been no flinching or jumping of the tool,” 
 says Petrie again, speaking of a drill core from 
 Gizeh, “‘ every crystal, quartz, or felspar has 
 been cut through in the most equable way, with 
 a clean irresistible cut.”’ 
 
 Our wonder at the mighty mass of the 
 Pyramids of Gizeh, then, is not to be mere wonder 
 at the barbaric power which summoned myriads 
 of slaves and forced them to toil till by sheer 
 brute force they had piled up these mountains 
 of stone. Brute force, unguided and unorganised, 
 would never have built the Pyramids, though 
 millions instead of thousands had been employed, 
 and for centuries instead of decades, but would 
 only have led to disaster and confusion. The 
 wonder of the Pyramids is that five thousand 
 years ago there was found a race whose keen 
 intelligence so clearly understood the need and 
 the marvellous power of organised and trained 
 human labour, architects and engineers who 
 were capable of directing the energies of a hundred 
 thousand men without confusion towards a 
 clearly foreseen end, and craftsmen who were 
 capable of producing, with tools whose material 
 seems to us pathetic in its inadequacy, results 
 which put to shame the best achievements of 
 men using the finest modern tools. 
 
68 PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 The recent excavations in the Gizeh Pyramid 
 Field, directed by Dr. G. A. Reisner, have added 
 much to our knowledge of the subordinate tombs 
 of the period, and of the life of the times. 
 
 Moving southwards from Gizeh, we come to 
 the pyramid field of Abusir, passing on the way 
 the unfinished pyramid of Zawiyet el Aryan. 
 Of this pyramid, designed for the Pharaoh Nefer- 
 ka-Ra of the IIIrd Dynasty, nothing exists 
 above ground. The remains consist simply of 
 the trenches destined for the superstructure, 
 and the inclined plane leading down to the 
 mortuary chamber with its fine oval libation- 
 trough, or sarcophagus. Yet there are few 
 works of ancient Egypt which impress one more 
 with the sense of the magnificent power with 
 which these early architects carried out their 
 designs. ‘‘ The whole,’ says Maspero, “ is 
 merely a T-shaped ditch, some 100 feet deep ; 
 and yet the impression it makes when one goes 
 down into it is unforgettable. The richness 
 and the cutting of the materials, the perfection 
 of the joints and sections, the incomparable 
 finish of the basin, the boldness of the lines and 
 the height of the walls all combine to make up a 
 unique creation.” 
 
 The German excavations have resulted in 
 the discovery at Abusir of a curious development 
 both of the pyramid idea and of the early Egyptian 
 temple. It was already known from one of the 
 magical tales of the Westcar Papyrus, that the 
 kings of the Vth Dynasty were probably a 
 priestly line of usurpers, who claimed to be 
 related to the Sun-god Ra by direct descent— 
 
PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 69 
 
 a relationship which was henceforth claimed by 
 every subsequent Pharaoh, and embodied in 
 the royal titulary. The German Expedition has 
 revealed to us the unmistakable proof of the 
 devotion of the Vth Dynasty kings to the worship 
 of the Sun-god, and the unique form which their 
 temples took. The temple of Ne-user-ra, for 
 example, consisted of a rectangular court, 380 feet 
 by 280 feet, whose main axis ran east and west. 
 In the western half of this area rose the pyramid, 
 a curious combination of the idea of the mastaba- 
 pyramid of Seneferu at Medum and the later 
 obelisk. On a great block of building about 
 130 feet square by 100 feet in height, shaped like 
 a truncated pyramid, rose a squat brick obelisk 
 whose point reached a height of about 120 feet. 
 Roofed corridors surrounded the enclosure on 
 the other three sides, and probably provided 
 storerooms for the temple furniture, and for the 
 materials of the offerings. At the foot of the 
 pyramid an immense alabaster altar stood in a 
 small court surrounded by low walls. The 
 Obelisk, on its truncated pyramid, represented 
 the Sun-god, and outside the temple wall, near 
 the south side, was placed the most curious of 
 all the furnishings of this curious temple, in the 
 shape of a great boat, built of brick, which bore 
 all the sacred insignia of the Sun-god in his 
 voyage across the heavens. ‘The interior of the 
 temple walls was covered with sculptured scenes 
 of the life created by the god, scenes from the 
 river, the swamps, the fields and the desert, 
 these being the earliest specimens of such mural 
 decorations in any Egyptian temple. | 
 
40 PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 The next stage of the Great Pyramid Field is 
 at Saqqara, where the chief feature is the most 
 ancient, and save for the monsters of Gizeh, the 
 most famous of all the pyramids, the Stepped- 
 Pyramid of King Zeser of the IIIrd Dynasty, 
 the earliest great stone structure in the world. 
 This remarkable building was probably the work 
 of Zeser’s famous counsellor and architect 
 Imhotep, the typical wise man of early Egypt, 
 whose counsel was “ as though one inquired at 
 the oracle of God,’’ and who was subsequently 
 deified and became the patron-deity of the scribes. 
 
 The tomb which he reared for his master 
 (who had also another great tomb at Bet-Khallaf) 
 was built in six stages, stands about 197 feet in 
 height, and has the peculiarity that its base is 
 not a square but a rectangle, measuring 394 by 
 351 feet. But though the interest attaching to 
 man’s first great piece of stonework must always 
 be great, the actually living interest at Saqqara 
 attaches not so much to Zeser’s hoary and im- 
 posing tomb, as to the comparatively insignificant 
 and decayed pyramids of the Vth and VIth 
 Dynasty kings, Unas, Teti, Pepy I, Merenra, 
 and Pepy II. Mere heaps of rubble and sand as 
 they seem, with none of the splendour of con- 
 struction or greatness of scale of the Gizeh group, 
 these monuments of the time when the royal 
 power of the Old Kingdom was beginning to 
 decline are yet of supreme value; for they are 
 the first pyramids in which inscriptions have 
 been found, and the long religious texts discovered 
 in them, and now known as the Pyramid Texts, 
 are unique and of infinite importance. 
 
PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 71 
 
 Up to the end of his career, Mariette believed 
 that the pyramids were dumb, as the Gizeh 
 group had proved to be, and therefore looked 
 upon the attempt to open any of the Saqqara 
 group as mere waste labour. Maspero, however, 
 believed otherwise, and the opening of the 
 pyramid of Pepy I in 1880 proved that he was 
 right. The other pyramids named proved also 
 to be inscribed, and altogether the five pyramids 
 give us a series of religious texts covering a 
 period of about one hundred and fifty years, or 
 perhaps one hundred and eighty, from 2825 to 
 2644 B.C., or, on Petrie’s dating, from 4275 to 
 4090 B.C. Even taking the later dates, these 
 Pyramid T'exts form by far the earliest large body 
 of religious writings which have come down from 
 any part of the ancient East, and their importance 
 as sources of knowledge as to the beliefs of the 
 earliest Dynastic period can scarcely be overrated. 
 
 Apart from the interest of its pyramids, 
 Saqqara has proved of infinite value to the 
 student of ancient Egyptian life because of the 
 richness of its necropolis in the great mastaba 
 tombs of the nobles of the Old Kingdom. Since 
 Mariette’s excavation of the tomb of Ti, who was 
 a great man in his day, and architect to two 
 successive kings of the Vth Dynasty, Nefer-ari- 
 ka-ra and Ne-user-ra, the sculptures of this 
 splendid tomb, and those, scarcely less remark- 
 able, of the tombs of Ptah-hetep, Mereruka and 
 Kagemni, have been recognised as among the 
 most precious accomplishments of ancient art. 
 
 Apart altogether from their artistic value, 
 their importance as first-hand documents for 
 
72 PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 the reconstruction of life in ancient Egypt five 
 thousand years ago is supreme, for their repre- 
 sentations, executed with infinite vivacity and 
 spirit, cover almost every department of Egyptian 
 life. ‘The great man is represented as surrounded 
 by all the busy life which ministered to his com- 
 fort when he was on earth, or engaged in the 
 sports and diversions which were his relaxation 
 in the intervals of his public duties, sailing, 
 fishing, fowling, or hippopotamus-hunting among 
 the Nile swamps. Farm life, with its changing 
 activities according to the season, and all its 
 peaceful and beautiful incident, is faithfully 
 depicted, so that the crops which the Egyptian 
 landowner grew and the stock he kept can be 
 perfectly known ; while all the crafts which were 
 necessary to the upkeep of a great estate are also 
 depicted with abundant detail and a charming 
 directness and dash. ‘The tomb-paintings of the 
 New Empire at Thebes are much and deservedly 
 admired ; but even they must yield in freshness 
 and charm to these pictures from the dawn of 
 history, which have the dew of youth still upon 
 them, and all the vigour of an art which is already 
 quite sure of itself, but has not had the time to 
 grow Stale. 
 
 From Dahshur down to Hlahun and Hawara 
 lie the pyramids of the great kings of the XIIth 
 Dynasty, who, though Thebans, realised that 
 the centre of gravity of the national government 
 must be further north, and who therefore made 
 their royal residence between Memphis and the 
 Fayum. The earlier kings of the dynasty, 
 Amenemhat I and Senusert I, had their pyramids 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 7. CHASED GOLD PECTORAL ORNAMENTS OF SENUSERT II 
 AND III (xX1Ith DYNASTY). 
 
 (From ‘* Arts and Crafts of Ancient Egypt.’’) 
 

 
PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 73 
 
 at Lisht; Amenemhat II and Senusert III 
 preferred Dahshur for their resting-place ; while 
 Senusert II chose Lahun, and Amenemhat III 
 Hawara, where he could sleep beside the great 
 works which he had wrought at Lake Moeris for 
 the welfare of his land. The XIIth Dynasty 
 pyramids are not imposing externally. The 
 ruinous piles of brickwork at Dahshur and Lahun 
 look more like gigantic ant-heaps than true 
 pyramids ; yet they were the work of kings who 
 in their own way were quite as powerful as 
 the pyramid-builders of the IVth Dynasty, and 
 the detail of the inner workmanship of the 
 sarcophagus chambers is quite as remarkable 
 as anything to be seen at Gizeh. Part of the 
 reason for the difference is a change, not so much 
 in the ideal for which the pyramid was con- 
 structed (for that remained constant throughout 
 the history of Egypt), but in the conception of 
 the best means towards the realising of the 
 ideal. “It seems,” says Petrie, describing the 
 change which Senusert II introduced in his 
 pyramid at Lahun, “that the pyramids of the 
 earlier kings had fallen a prey to violence already, 
 the signs of personal spite in the destructions are 
 evident. ‘Therefore Senusert II determined to 
 abandon the old system of a north entrance in 
 the face, and to conceal the access to the interior 
 by a new method.” His method was to excavate 
 his sarcophagus chamber entirely out of the 
 solid rock on which the pyramid was founded, 
 and to place the entrance to the passage which 
 led to the chamber outside of the pyramid 
 altogether. ‘The shaft which gives access to the 
 
74 PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 passage actually opens out on the plain, beneath 
 the floor of the tomb of one of the princesses 
 of the dynasty. Inside the rock-hewn chamber 
 which was protected with such care, and which 
 was splendidly lined with red granite, stood the 
 red granite sarcophagus, “* exquisitely wrought,” 
 says Petrie, ‘“‘ the errors of flatness and straightness 
 being matters of thousandths of an inch.” 
 
 Yet the cunning and the skill of the XIIth 
 Dynasty architects and masons proved as helpless 
 as the massive power of the [Vth Dynasty to 
 protect the dead monarchs from the ravages of 
 hatred or greed. Nor were the elaborate pre- 
 cautions of Amenemhat III any more successful 
 than those of his grandfather had been. Petrie’s 
 description of the construction of the inner 
 passages of Amenemhat’s pyramid at Hawara 
 reads like something planned to be a nightmare 
 to explorers. ‘‘ The explorer,’ he says, ‘ who 
 had found the entrance in the unusual place on 
 the south side, descended a long staircase, which 
 ended in a dumb chamber. ‘The roof of this, 
 if slid aside, showed another passage, which was 
 filled with blocks. This was a mere blind, to 
 divert attention from the real passage, which 
 stood ostentatiously open. A _ plunderer has, 
 however, fruitlessly mined his way through all 
 these blocks. On going down the real passage, 
 another dumb chamber was reached; another 
 sliding trap-door was passed; another passage 
 led to a third dumb chamber ; a third trap-door 
 was passed; and now a passage led along past 
 one side of the real sepulchre; and to amuse 
 explorers, two false wells open in the passage 
 
PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 75 
 
 floor, and the wrong side of the passage is filled 
 with masonry blocks fitted in. Yet by some 
 means the plunderers found a cross trench in 
 the passage floor which led to the chamber. 
 Here another device was met. The chamber 
 had no door, but was entered solely by one of 
 the immense roof-blocks, weighing 45 tons, 
 being left raised, and afterwards dropped into 
 place on closing the pyramid.” One would have 
 imagined that with such precautions the sleep of 
 Amenemhat would surely be undisturbed ; but 
 when Petrie in 1889 tunnelled his way through 
 the roofing-beams of the sepulchral chamber 
 he found that an early plunderer had anticipated 
 him by mining right through the great 45-ton 
 block. ‘‘ The royal interments had been entirely 
 burnt; and only fired grains of diorite and 
 pieces of lazuli inlaying showed the splendour of 
 the decorations of the coffins.” 
 
 Here, as in all the other cases of the pyramids, 
 the very elaboration of the means adopted for 
 the preservation of the dead body of the king 
 had only whetted the appetite of the spoiler and 
 destroyer, and little has survived from the XIIth 
 Dynasty pyramids to reward the modern explorer. 
 The great finds in the XIIth Dynasty pyramid 
 fields were all from outside the pyramids. Of 
 these one of the most valuable, though by no 
 means the most spectacular, was Petrie’s dis- 
 covery, near the pyramid of Senusert II at 
 Lahun, of the town, created specially for the 
 occasion, in which the workmen of Senusert had 
 lived with their staff of architects, overseers, and 
 scribes, while the pyramid was under construction. 
 
76 PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 The little town of Ha-hetep-Senusert, Kahun 
 as it is now called, gives us the most complete 
 instance extant of the character of an Egyptian 
 town of the Middle Kingdom. It occupied an 
 area of about 18 acres, and the plans of the narrow — 
 streets and of the houses, mostly small and closely 
 crowded together, though there are exceptions 
 to this rule, have been completely wrought out. 
 Much that is interesting in the way of pottery, 
 tools, and papyri came from the ruins of the 
 deserted houses of the little pyramid-town, 
 whose existence seems to have been a very brief 
 one, probably not much longer than was necessary 
 for the erection of the pyramid. 
 
 Again it was not in Amenemhat’s elaborately 
 devised pyramid at Hawara, but in the Roman 
 cemetery to the north of it, that the great find was 
 made which has made Hawara famous in the 
 history of ancient Egyptian art, and has given us 
 one of the most valuable contributions ever 
 made to our knowledge of the processes and 
 technique of ancient painting. A cemetery which 
 dates mostly from A.D. instead of from B.c. has 
 in general comparatively little attraction to the 
 explorer in ancient Egypt, unless he be a specialist 
 in the Greco-Roman Period. Accordingly, when 
 Petrie in 1888 found that the cemetery in question 
 was of the first and second centuries A.D., he was 
 on the point of giving it up as not worth working, 
 when one day a mummy was found with a painted 
 portrait on a wooden panel inserted above 
 its face. The picture was a beautifully drawn 
 head of a girl, painted in soft tones, and quite 
 un-Egyptian in its style. It proved to be only 
 
PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 77 
 
 the forerunner of a whole series of similar 
 portraits, of which about sixty were found before 
 the excavations closed. The work was resumed 
 in 1911 with further success. ‘The portraits 
 are of varying merit, and of even the best of them 
 it has to be remembered that we are not dealing 
 with the product of the studio of a skilled artist, 
 but only with that of the workshop of a firm of 
 local undertakers, who supplied funerary portraits 
 just as they supplied cofhns. All things con- 
 sidered the quality of the work is wonderfully 
 good, and the information given by these panel 
 pictures as to the methods of the ancient painters 
 is of the highest importance. Before the Hawara 
 discoveries, we were left very much in the dark 
 as to how Apelles, Zeuxis, Polygnotus and their 
 companions and rivals produced the master- 
 pieces which have only survived in the literary 
 descriptions of their contemporaries. The 
 Hawara pictures may be very far, even the best 
 of them, from being masterpieces ; but at least 
 they tell us what were the methods by which 
 the great painters of ancient Greece produced 
 the pictures which were considered the equals 
 in artistic merit of the statues which are now 
 the wonder of the world. The manner in 
 which they were painted is often described as 
 ‘“‘encaustic,” but this is an incorrect description 
 of portraits which, so far as can be judged, were 
 simply painted with melted coloured wax, laid 
 on with a free brush, each tint being laid on as 
 a solid body, and not subjected to subsequent 
 olazings. 
 
 The XIIth Dynasty pyramid fields at Dahshur 
 
78 PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 and Illahun have yielded two of the most remark- 
 able finds of Egyptian jewellery which have ever 
 been made, and the results of the work of 
 de Morgan and Petrie in this respect are such 
 as to increase our admiration for the marvellous 
 skill of the craftsmen of the Middle Kingdom. 
 It was in 1894 and 1895 that de Morgan’s work- 
 men, clearing up the area round the XIIth 
 Dynasty pyramids at Dahshur, found in the 
 tombs of the princesses of the royal house one 
 of the most wonderful stores of jewellery which 
 have ever rewarded excavation. The two most 
 notable pieces of the treasure were the diadems 
 of the princess Khnumit, the most exquisite 
 examples of the skill of the goldsmith ever 
 worn. ‘“‘ The floret crown,” says Petrie, “is 
 perhaps the most charmingly graceful head- 
 dress ever seen; the fine wavy threads of gold 
 harmonised with the hair, and the delicate little 
 flowers and berries seem scattered with the wild 
 grace of Nature. Lach floret is held by two wires 
 crossing in an eye behind it, and each pair of 
 berries has likewise an eye in which the wires 
 cross. ‘The florets are not stamped, but each 
 gold socket is made by hand for the four inserted 
 stones. The berries are of lazuli. In no in- 
 stance, however small, was the polishing of the 
 stone done in its cloison ; it was always finished 
 before setting.’ The other diadem is more 
 conventional, but scarcely less beautiful. Eight 
 rosettes of gold and precious stones are sur- 
 mounted with motives of lyre shape terminating 
 in golden flowers, and the rosettes are united 
 by long links also bearing jewelled rosettes, 
 
PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 79 
 
 The stones of the two crowns are lapis-lazuli, 
 carnelian, red jasper, and green felspar. Along 
 with the diadems were found gold pectorals of 
 fine design and execution, bearing the car- 
 touches of Senusert II, Senusert III, and 
 Amenemhat III, and various other articles of 
 jewellery, and even the famous jewellery of 
 Queen Aah-hotep, so long the typical specimen 
 of Egyptian craftsmanship, must yield the palm 
 to the earlier work in beauty of design and 
 daintiness of execution. 
 
 The second discovery came in February, 
 1914, when Professor Petrie’s workmen were 
 clearing a rifled tomb belonging to the “ Royal 
 daughter Sat-Hathor-ant”’ at Lahun near the 
 pyramid of Senusert II. How the treasure of 
 Lahun had ever escaped the plunderers who had 
 rifled the tomb is a mystery. ‘‘ The tomb had 
 been attacked,” says Petrie; “the long and 
 heavy work of shifting the massive granite lid 
 of the sarcophagus, and breaking it away, had 
 been achieved ; yet all this gold was left in the 
 recess of the passage untouched. . . . The whole 
 treasure seems to have been stacked in the recess 
 at the time of the burial, and to have gradually 
 dropped apart as the wooden caskets decayed 
 in course of years, with repeated flooding of 
 storm water and mud slowly washed into the 
 pit. ... The whole treasure was standing in 
 an open recess, within arm’s reach of the gold- 
 seekers, while they worked at breaking open 
 the granite sarcophagus.” We can only be 
 thankful that all the luck did not go to the ancient 
 robber, and that, like his earlier companion who 
 
80 PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 left the arm of the Ist Dynasty queen, with its 
 jewelled bracelets, at Abydos, he overlooked 
 something to tell a later age of the skill and taste 
 of ancient Egypt. 
 
 The chief feature of the Lahun find was a 
 perfect specimen of a royal diadem, bearing the 
 urzus on its front. No actual specimen of the 
 famous double crown of Egypt has ever come 
 to light, familiar though its appearance may be, 
 probably because its materials were of a perishable 
 nature; but the diadem of Lahun gives us a 
 _unique specimen of such a crown as Egyptian 
 royalty may often have worn in preference to 
 the cumbrous mitre so frequently figured. ‘“‘ It 
 is formed by a broad band of highly burnished 
 gold over an inch wide, and large enough to 
 pass round the bushy wig worn in the XIIth 
 Dynasty. The urzus is of open work, inlaid 
 with lazuli and carnelian; the head is of lazuli, 
 which was found loose in the mud. Around 
 the polished band were affixed fifteen rosettes, 
 each composed of four flowers with intermediate 
 buds. At the back a tube of gold was riveted 
 on to the band, and into that fitted a double 
 plume of sheet gold, the stem of which slipped 
 through a flower of solid gold. ‘The thickness 
 of the plumes was such that they would wave 
 slightly with every movement of the head. At 
 the back and sides of the crown were streamers 
 of gold, which hung from hinges attached to 
 the rosettes. ‘The whole construction was over 
 a foot and a half high.” Such was an Egyptian 
 diadem in the great days of the Middle Kingdom, 
 and surely never did a royal head wear a more 
 

 
 Ww 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sect Dok 
 
 staged 
 
 8. Above, CROWNS OF GOLD INLAID WITH STONES OF 
 KHNUMIT. Below, GRANULATED GOLD WORK. 
 
 ALL 
 XIIth DYNASTY. 
 
 (From ‘‘ Arts and Crafts of Ancient Egypt.’*) 
 
4 Melon ty 
 At : aS 
 fa ts a 
 
 
 
 
 a tipi ¢ eo) ee ce a on 
 = VL <> we} e 4 
 
 _—n 4 is r 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 ~<A A 
 vol ] z ; nyt i a Vas 
 ice ; Lomas oA ate ar 
 ee siete) i. : ho iv oe aac) 
 ae: aes « PAN Phos re i Ae age ; 
 ee ee he jek) nn Be kes es ner MS ee ba oe 
 
 =a hme | ' = 
 rs 7 i y le 7 seu" hoa [. aes 
 
PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 81 
 
 graceful emblem of sovereignty than that which 
 came so strangely to light in 1914. 
 
 Along with the crown were found two 
 pectorais, one of Senusert II, the other of 
 Amenemhat III, of even finer design than the 
 famous pectorals of Dahshur. ‘“ The earlier 
 pectoral is inlaid with minute feathering of 
 lazuli and turquoise ; the later with a different 
 feathering of lazuli and white paste, which has 
 probably been green. .. . They were probably 
 suspended by necklaces of the very rich deep 
 amethyst beads which were found here.”’ With 
 the pectorals went several gold and jewelled 
 collars and necklets, and broad armlets of golden 
 bars with beads of carnelian and turquoise, and 
 inlaid clasps bearing the royal cartouche, and 
 a number of other articles, amulets and _ toilet 
 utensils, including a silver mirror with a handle 
 of obsidian, inlaid with bands of plaited gold, 
 and bearing a cast gold head of Hathor. Another 
 item came to light from Lahun in 1920 in the 
 shape of the royal urzus of Senusert II, “a 
 massive gold casting, with inlay of carnelian and 
 lazuli, a head of lazuli, and eyes of garnet in gold 
 setting,” which was found near the sepulchral 
 chamber in the heart of the pyramid, amidst a 
 heap of dust and chips of stone. Doubtless 
 this is the royal emblem which adorned the brow 
 of Senusert when he was laid to rest in his 
 pyramid, though how it escaped the notice of 
 the robbers who plundered his tomb 1s as great 
 a mystery as the escape of the treasure of 
 Sat-Hathor-ant. 
 
 Thus the pyramids of the XIIth Dynasty 
 
 F 
 
82 PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 
 
 monarchs, insignificant as they may seem in 
 comparison with the gigantic piles of Gizeh, 
 have proved in their way no less interesting than 
 the colossal work of Khufu, Khafra, and Men- 
 kaura. Indeed each of the pyramid groups has 
 its own characteristics, and has given its own 
 contribution to our knowledge of the successive 
 periods of early Egyptian history. ‘To the mighty 
 structures of the [Vth Dynasty we owe the 
 revelation of the marvellous organisation of the 
 Egyptian kingdom, and the skill with which its 
 resources could be concentrated on a single 
 gigantic task. ‘I’o the less imposing buildings 
 of the Vth and VIth Dynasties we owe something 
 perhaps even more precious—the revelation of 
 the thoughts which were shaping themselves in 
 the mind of man in these most ancient days 
 with regard to the soul and its life beyond the 
 srave. ‘To those of the XIIth Dynasty we owe 
 the evidence of the skill which shaped the marvel- 
 lous red-granite sarcophagus of Senusert II, 
 or the great quartzite funeral chamber of 
 Amenemhat III, and the union of luxury with 
 the finest taste which created the jewellery of 
 Dahshur and Lahun. It may be questioned if 
 even the tomb of Tutankhamen, with all its 
 mass of splendour, will have anything to show 
 us which can surpass in grace and dignity the 
 diadems of Khnumit and Sat-Hathor-ant, or 
 in exquisiteness of finish their pectorals and 
 armlets. 
 
 With the decline of the royal power at the 
 close of the XIIth Dynasty, the age of the 
 pyramid-builders closes. Already the taste for 
 
PYRAMIDS AND THEIR EXPLORERS 83 
 
 these huge structures was being modified, as 
 it was continually found how powerless they 
 were to accomplish the great end for which they 
 were designed—the protection of the dead body 
 of the king from the hatred of his enemies or the 
 greed of the professional tomb-robber. The 
 decay of the royal power which is so marked 
 even in the beginnings of the dark period which 
 now ensues no doubt completed a process which 
 disillusionment had already begun; and when 
 Egypt once more found herself under a strong 
 and stable government, the Theban kings who 
 delivered her from the Hyksos tyranny had 
 recourse to another device for securing the 
 continuity of existence after death, and instead 
 of piling mountains of stone or brick above 
 their sepulchral chambers, were hewing in the 
 Valley of the Kings the galleries and halls which 
 have been yielding up their secrets in our time 
 for the wonder and instruction of the world. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 CARCELY less famous than the pyramids, 
 S and of far greater beauty, are the 
 splendid temples whose ruins extend 
 
 from Heliopolis, close to the Delta, to Phil, 
 where the beautiful shrines of Isis, exquisite in 
 their setting, even if of late date for Egypt, are 
 now becoming only memories of a beauty which 
 has had to yield to the claims of present-day life. 
 Egypt, almost equally with Greece, may claim to 
 be the Land of Temples ; and certainly no other 
 land of the ancient East can rival her in the 
 number, the scale, and the magnificence of the 
 shrines which she reared to her innumerable 
 gods. ‘The claim of the Greek to be the supreme 
 temple-builder of the ancient world is, of course, 
 unquestioned, and nothing in Egypt can bear 
 comparison with the serene beauty of the 
 Parthenon ; but, though the Egyptian architect 
 knew nothing of that exquisite balance and 
 harmony of proportion which has made Greek 
 architecture the crown of human effort in sacred 
 building, the temples of Egypt have a grandeur 
 and impressiveness of their own which make a pro- 
 found appeal to the mind ; and the contribution 
 
 84 
 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES = 85 
 
 of the Egyptian to the sum of human achieve- 
 ment in this respect is coming to be more and 
 more appreciated every day. 
 
 The pyramids show him to have been one of 
 the great master-builders of the world in respect 
 of the vastness of his creations; the temples, 
 often scarcely less impressive in this respect, 
 show him to have been also a master in the art 
 of constructing stately and nobly proportioned 
 examples of that art of the column and architrave 
 of which the temples of Hellas gave the supreme 
 demonstration. ‘T’he question of how much the 
 Greek owed to the earlier builder may still be 
 the subject of debate; but there can be no 
 question of the originality of the architects who 
 gave to the world such noble specimens of the 
 builder’s art as the great colonnades of Karnak 
 and Luxor, the beautiful terraces of Der el-Bahri, 
 and the later glories of Edfu and Philz. 
 
 In one sense there can be comparatively little 
 to tell in the way of a story of excavation with 
 regard to the Egyptiantemples. In Mesopotamia 
 and Babylonia the remains of the great temples 
 of Anu and Adad, of Enlil, and of Marduk, owe 
 their restoration to the light of day entirely to 
 the spade of the excavator, for they were 
 completely buried beneath the dust of ages in 
 the great mounds of Ashur, Nippur, and Babylon, 
 and almost nothing was visible to tell of their 
 former splendours till the modern excavator 
 patiently stripped away the mantle in which time 
 had wrapped them. 
 
 But the temples of Egypt had never 
 experienced the oblivion which had covered their 
 
86 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 northern rivals. They had suffered, indeed, 
 many things at the hands of Time and of human 
 vandalism. Sometimes they were half-buried in 
 the sand which had risen higher and higher, 
 century after century, around their columns ; 
 sometimes the shrines of a rival faith had been 
 thrust incongruously into their ruined courts, or 
 an Arab village had grown up like an ugly 
 parasite on their roofs ; but there always remained 
 enough to tell that the work of one of the great 
 master-building races of the world was there, 
 waiting the time when it should be stripped of 
 these paltry accretions, and revealed in its full 
 beauty. Karnak, Luxor, Edfu, Dendera, and 
 their companion shrines were never quite for- 
 gotten, and even Hatshepsut’s exquisite terraces 
 at Der el-Bahri, half-smothered beneath the sand, 
 and wrecked by Coptic fanaticism though they 
 were, still showed enough to enable the 
 first European explorers who described them 
 (MM. Jollois and Devilliers of Napoleon’s 
 Expedition of 1798) to be sure of the general 
 character of the building which lay beneath the 
 rubbish-heaps. 
 
 Accordingly the work of the excavator in 
 connection with the temples of Egypt has not 
 been so much the discovery of the unknown as 
 the recovery of the complete form of what was 
 already partially known, the clearing away of the 
 excrescences which had attached themselves in 
 the course of centuries to the original structures ; 
 the preservation of the more delicate work, such 
 as relief-sculpture and painting, from further 
 injury ; the re-establishment in a state of security 
 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 87 
 
 of tottering walls and columns; and, not least, 
 the tracing out of the history of the building of 
 temples which were in general the work of 
 centuries, and of many kings. It has all been 
 work which, from its very nature, can have but 
 little of the nature of romance about it, which has 
 but seldom led to any startling finds, which has 
 involved a colossal amount of sheer hard labour, 
 without any very conspicuous rewards; but 
 which has resulted in the temples becoming 
 intelligible to the ordinary traveller, and safe for 
 his interest for generations to come, and has 
 enabled us to trace, in the case of a great structure 
 like Karnak, the successive stages by which the 
 vast building grew to a finished whole. 
 
 It is, of course, obviously impossible to 
 attempt to tell, even in the scantiest outline, 
 the story of a work which has extended over the 
 whole length of the land from the Delta to the 
 furthest bounds of Egyptian influence in Nubia, 
 and has been carried on by scores of workers 
 of all nationalities. Perhaps our end will best 
 be served by taking a typical instance of the 
 recovery of a temple, and telling in more or less 
 detail the story of the work which gave it back 
 to present-day knowledge. We take as our 
 example Queen Hatshepsut’s terraced temple at 
 Der el-Bahri, one of the most beautiful, as it is 
 now also one of the most famous, of Egyptian 
 buildings. 
 
 In all Egypt there is probably no more 
 beautiful or imposing site than that of the 
 “Paradise of Amen,” which the great queen 
 reared to the glory of the Theban god and of 
 
88 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 her own name. On the western side of the Nile, 
 almost exactly opposite Karnak, the limestone 
 cliffs of the Libyan Range sweep backwards in a 
 great semicircle, forming a bay across whose 
 mouth is drawn the long line of the funerary 
 temples of the Theban kings of the XVIIIth 
 and XIXth Dynasties. Behind them, and behind 
 the innumerable tombs of Sheikh Abd el-Qurneh 
 and the Northern Assassif, there lies, close against 
 the salmon-red cliffs, the building which, of all 
 Egyptian temples, makes the strongest appeal 
 of pure beauty, as distinguished from the 
 impressiveness which comes from sheer scale 
 and mass. 
 
 The site is one which offers peculiar 
 advantages, but is also encompassed with peculiar 
 risks. No more magnificent background for a 
 building could be desired; but the background 
 is precisely of such magnificence as to form a 
 dangerous pitfall in which a merely mediocre 
 architect would have been lost. ‘To attempt to 
 compete with Nature, when the work of man has 
 to be placed in such close proximity with her 
 towering architecture, would be to ensure hopeless 
 defeat and to invite ridicule. Khufu’s mountain 
 of stone gets its full value from contrast with the 
 long lines of the desert plateau on whose edge it 
 stands. ‘The columns and obelisks of Karnak 
 and Luxor are far enough from the hills on either 
 bank of the Nile to make the human handiwork 
 the central and impressive feature of the picture ; 
 but the site at Der el-Bahri would have made 
 what was possible elsewhere a mere derision. 
 To have placed the huge columns which seem so 
 
‘“MaIA IVMENGD ‘INHVE-TE UAC “ATAWAL S,LASdaHSLVH °6 
 
 
 

 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 89 
 
 great on the Theban plain in competition with 
 the soaring vertical lines of the Libyan cliffs 
 would have been to place a fool’s cap on the most 
 grandiose work of human hands. What was 
 needed at Der el-Bahri was a building which 
 should avoid the very idea of rivalry with Nature’s 
 handiwork, and which should conquer by subjec- 
 tion, a building where all the emphasis should 
 be laid on the horizontal lines of structure, so as 
 to disclaim at once the thought of competition 
 with the towering buttresses and bastions behind. 
 It may be questioned if ever an architect more 
 thoroughly appreciated the conditions of his 
 problem, or more satisfactorily fulfilled them, 
 than did Senmut, when he designed for Queen 
 Hatshepsut the three rising courts of the Paradise 
 of Amen, with the long slopes leading from the 
 one to the other, and the stately colonnades, 
 where the shadows are so cunningly pressed into 
 the decorative scheme, and the vertical lines of 
 the columns give emphasis to the horizontality 
 of the whole conception, and never for one 
 moment suggest rivalry with the cliffs above. 
 Excavation, which has done so much for our 
 knowledge of Der el-Bahri, has taught us that the 
 originality of the XVIIIth Dynasty architect was 
 not quite so absolute as was once imagined, and 
 that he owed at least the idea of colonnaded 
 terraces to the great man of the XIth Dynasty, 
 Mertisen or another, who designed the pyramid- 
 temple, ‘“‘ Glorious are the seats of King 
 Mentuhotep Neb-hepet-Ra,” for his royal master. 
 But Senmut was one of those great men who, 
 though they take their blessings where they find 
 
90 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 them, can never be accused of plagiarism, because 
 they give back to the world the original idea 
 transfigured and glorified. He has made the idea 
 of the terraced courts and colonnades his own, 
 while avoiding the heavy central block, which, 
 with its somewhat paltry pyramid (if this was 
 ever completed), must have been a contradiction 
 to the whole conception of the rest of the building; 
 and his spacious courts, with their almost Greek 
 grace of surrounding colonnade, seem touched 
 with a spirit which is lacking in the older work. 
 
 Mr. Robert Hichens has told us how “ after 
 the terrific masculinity of Medinet-Abu, after 
 the great freedom of the Ramesseum, and the 
 erandeur of its colossus, the temple at Deir-el- 
 Bahari came upon him like a delicate woman, 
 perfumed and arranged, clothed in a creation of 
 white and blue and orange, standing—ever so 
 knowingly—against a background of orange and 
 pink, of red and of brown-red, a smiling coquette 
 of the mountain’; and though his idea is quite 
 too fantastically elaborated (for the idea of 
 conscious striving after prettiness is the last 
 thing one could think of in connection with 
 Der el-Bahri), yet the idea of femininity does occur 
 to the mind when the temple is compared with 
 other Egyptian work. Hatshepsut had not much 
 of the weak woman about her, to all appearance, 
 and Senmut, if his statues are any clue to the man, 
 was as rough-hewn and masculine a piece of 
 granite as one might encounter; but between 
 them they managed to rear a temple which 
 stands alone in Egypt for the feminine quality 
 of grace. 
 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES | g1 
 
 So now we may turn to the story of how this 
 most graceful of Egyptian temples, unique in 
 its grace if not in its main idea, and unique also 
 in that it is the only temple in Egypt which came 
 into being wholly at the bidding of a woman, was 
 rescued from the accumulations of two and a 
 half millenniums of neglect and the ravages of 
 religious fanaticism. 
 
 Hatshepsut’s temple was first made known 
 to the modern world, as we have seen, by 
 MM. Jollois and Devilliers, two of the savants 
 attached to Napoleon’s Expedition of 1798. The 
 English traveller Pococke had indeed visited the 
 site in 1737 ; but the thing which chiefly interested 
 him was the abundance of mummies, and all 
 that can be learned about the temple from his 
 mention of it is that in his day the sanctuary was 
 apparently accessible. ‘‘ Here it seemed,” he 
 says, ‘‘ as though the mountain had been vertically 
 hewn out by the hand of man, and the people of 
 the place said that there had once been a passage 
 through it into the next valley ’—the Valley of 
 the Kings. 
 
 What the French explorers saw sixty years 
 later was not a great deal more. They traced 
 what they believed to be the bases of a series of 
 sphinxes which had formerly formed an avenue, 
 42 feet wide and 437 yards long, leading up to 
 the enclosure-wall of the temple, the remains of 
 a wall which must have formed part of one of the 
 terraces, what they took for the evidence of two 
 flights of steps, leading to the higher levels of 
 the building, the central part of the highest 
 platform, and the rock-cut sanctuary which 
 
92 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 Pococke had seen. ‘The rest of the temple was 
 completely covered with heaps of sand and — 
 rubbish. 
 
 The next visitor of importance was the famous. 
 Champollion, who, as was natural in the first 
 decipherer of the hieroglyphics, was _ chiefly 
 interested in the inscriptions which were visible, 
 especially on the granite trilithon portal of the 
 upper platform; and the great scholar at once 
 recognised the existence in these of a puzzle 
 which was only to be solved later. He read the 
 cartouche of Hatshepsut as that of a king 
 Amenenthe ; but was surprised to see that all 
 the nouns and verbs referring to this unknown 
 king were in the feminine, and that the royal 
 builder was addressed by Amen-Ra as “ His 
 daughter whom he loves.’ He imagined the 
 existence of a female ruler Amense, who must 
 have been connected by marriage with an 
 unknown Thothmes, and also with the unknown 
 Amenenthe, and his solution of the mystery, 
 though his names were incorrect, was, after all, 
 not so far from the truth. 
 
 Champollion found evidence in the work of 
 the temple of one of his favourite theories—that 
 Greek art found its origin in imitation of Egyptian 
 work ; and here, again, he was only anticipating 
 the recognition of the fact that the colonnades 
 of Der el-Bahri approach nearer to the style of 
 Greek work than almost any other work in Egypt. 
 
 Nearly thirty years after the first French 
 explorers, and shortly after the visit of 
 Champollion, Wilkinson surveyed the ruins, and 
 apparently saw, not only the ramps of approach 
 
“SNIWNTIOO JIXMOd-OLOUd . 1SHVS-Ie AAG “AGCVNNOIOO, HIMON “OT 
 
 Cuts a) 
 
 
 

 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES — 93 
 
 to the courts, but also one of the pillared corridors 
 whose walls were covered with sculptures of 
 soldiers carrying boughs and weapons, and with a 
 scene representing the dedication of two obelisks 
 to Amen. His reading of the name of the builder 
 of the temple, Amunneitgori, or Amun-noo- 
 het, was no nearer to the truth than that of 
 Champollion, though he saw that the French 
 scholar’s unknown 'Thothmes was no other than 
 Thothmes II. 
 
 Lepsius, who evidently saw more of the temple 
 than any of his predecessors, was the first to make 
 a real approach to the true reading of its builder’s 
 name. His version of the name, ‘““ Numt Amen,” 
 was indeed an almost correct reading of part of 
 Hatshepsut’s title, Khnum Amen ; and he con- 
 jectured that she was the eldest sister of 
 Thothmes III, who occupied the throne during 
 the minority of her brother, but was not permitted 
 to rank in the regular lists of the kings of Egypt. 
 
 In 1858 the indefatigable Mariette visited the 
 temple, and added it to the thirty-six other sites 
 at which he carried on excavations during his 
 thirty years of ceaseless toil. He was too busy 
 with other work at Qurneh to give to Der el-Bahri 
 the attention which it deserved, and his work 
 there was carried on only with a small staff, and 
 for a short time, though he worked again at the 
 place in 1862 and 1866. Nor were his methods 
 here such as to be helpful to his successors. 
 Working, as he did all his lifetime, under the 
 lash, as it were, and with the need of getting 
 the largest possible results with the smallest 
 expenditure of money and time, it was impossible 
 
94 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 for him to make his clearances thorough and 
 methodical. Indeed, he seriously added to the 
 difficulties of subsequent excavators by the fact 
 that instead of removing the rubbish of his 
 excavations completely outside the probable 
 limits of the temple, he was forced by stress of 
 time and want of money simply to dump his 
 waste on the nearest convenient spot within the 
 temple area. ‘The consequence was that when 
 Naville came to make the systematic clearance 
 of the whole building, he found several of the 
 most important chambers completely buried, 
 not only beneath the debris of the centuries, but 
 beneath that also which Mariette had heaped on 
 the top of everything. 
 
 All the same, it was Mariette who, as in so 
 many other instances, first revealed to the world 
 the real wonder of Der el-Bahri and the sur- 
 passing interest of its sculptured halls. His was 
 the first plan to give us anything like a true 
 conception of the form of the temple, then held 
 to be unique in Egyptian architecture; and 
 though his restoration of the details, or rather 
 the restoration of M. Brune, working on his 
 material, was incorrect in several points, it was a 
 good deal less so than some more pretentious 
 attempts which succeeded it, and at least gave an 
 impression intelligible, and in the main not very 
 far from the actuality. 
 
 It was to this first excavation of Mariette 
 also that we owe what has ever since been the 
 most picturesque, and not the least informing, 
 of the treasures of Der el-Bahri—the wonderful 
 series of reliefs representing the voyage of 
 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES — 95 
 
 Hatshepsut’s squadron to Punt, which decorates 
 the retaining wall terminating the middle platform 
 of the temple. ‘This series of sculptures, one of 
 the priceless treasures of New Empire Egyptian 
 art, would of itself be the justification of Mariette’s 
 work. 
 
 In 1893 the Egypt Exploration Fund took 
 up the great task of completely excavating Queen 
 Hatshepsut’s temple, and their work, conducted 
 by M. Edouard Naville and a number of 
 assistants, only closed with the publication, in 
 1908, of the sixth folio volume of plates and 
 plans, completing, with the introductory memoir, 
 a present-day memorial which even the great 
 queen need not have disdained, and which is 
 worthy of her fine achievement. By the patient 
 efforts of M. Naville and his fellow-workers the 
 long ramps and spacious courts of the temple 
 were completely cleared of the rubbish of 
 centuries, their graceful colonnades put in a 
 condition of safety, and the priceless coloured 
 reliefs roofed over so as to protect them from the 
 ruinous effects of the weather, which, even in 
 the period between the work of Mariette and that 
 of the Egypt Exploration Fund, had wrought 
 more damage to the wonderful series of scenes 
 of the Expedition to Punt than had been done 
 by all the centuries of neglect. 
 
 Wisely the explorers made no attempt at 
 restoration. Their aim was solely one of preserva- 
 tion, and we owe to them the fact that the most 
 interesting temple of the XVIIIth Dynasty is 
 now in a condition which permits some realisation 
 of its former beauty, and which promises its 
 
96 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 endurance for centuries to come. Thanks to 
 the explorers’ labours, and to the complete view 
 of the building which we owe to Mr. Somers 
 Clarke, the memorial temple of Egypt’s greatest 
 queen is now as well known in all its essential 
 features as almost any structure in the world. 
 
 The work at Der el-Bahri, however, only 
 ended in one aspect to beginin another. Already 
 in 1879 Mariette, to whose instinct for the 
 possibilities of the various Egyptian sites full 
 justice has never been done, had declared his 
 belief, founded on his discovery of a block of 
 stone bearing the name of King Mentuhotep 
 Neb-hepet-Ra of the XIth Dynasty, and of 
 several fragments of columns, that a small temple 
 of the XIth Dynasty had once existed not far 
 from Hatshepsut’s great temple. In 1903, after 
 the completion of the actual work of excavation 
 at the great temple, M. Naville began the excava- 
 tion of the large mounds to the south of the site 
 of his former labours, and with the assistance of 
 Dr. H. R. Hail and others, the work was carried 
 on till 1907, the final volume of results being 
 published in 1913. 
 
 The work began, as M. Naville tells us, 
 chiefly with the view of clearing the XIth Dynasty 
 cemetery which the explorer was convinced lay 
 beneath the great mounds of rubbish; but the 
 cemetery soon proved to be less, and other 
 objects more, important than had been antici- 
 pated. Ere long the diggers made out the line 
 of a ramp, running parallel to the outer wall of 
 Hatshepsut’s temple, and, following up the 
 traces of building which successively revealed 
 
‘IMHVE-1TA WAC ‘SAHHITAN ‘11 
 
 
 
Br 
 
 Dap a 
 > 
 
 or 
 ket 
 rn 
 
 ./ it ; 
 : “ : 
 
 " ~~ st “a _ 
 
 CP Otay ras 3 
 
 ‘ 
 
 
 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES _ 97 
 
 themselves, as the mounds, often from 15 to 
 20 feet in height, were cleared away, they at last 
 completely unearthed the remains of a building 
 which is as unique in the history of Egyptian 
 architecture as Hatshepsut’s temple was formerly 
 thought to be. ‘The temple was at an early stage 
 found to belong, as Mariette had suggested, to 
 the XIth Dynasty, and to be the work of one of 
 the greatest kings of this little-known line of 
 rulers, the Mentuhotep Neb-hepet-Ra who has 
 already been mentioned. 
 
 It is by no means in such good preservation 
 as its great companion, for about the end of the 
 XIXth Dynasty it appears to have been definitely 
 abandoned as a temple, and handed over to the 
 tender mercies of the masons who used it as a 
 convenient quarry for material. Nothing is now 
 standing above ro feet from the pavement level, 
 and none of the pillars are above 7 feet in 
 height. Yet the remains are sufficiently complete 
 to allow of the understanding of the appearance 
 which the whole must have presented in the days 
 when Hatshepsut’s architect took its platform 
 and colonnades as the inspiration of the great 
 work on which he was engaged at its side. 
 
 At the end of a spacious enclosure, bounded 
 by a double temenos wall of which the outer 
 member was of brick and the inner of limestone, 
 a broad ramp, sloping somewhat steeply, rose to 
 the level of a rectangular platform. The retaining 
 wall of the platform was faced, as in the later 
 temple, with a colonnade consisting of a double 
 row of pillars square on plan. The platform 
 itself was surrounded by a double range of 
 
 G 
 
98 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 similar square pillars, which was roofed over, 
 and made a kind of veranda completely enclosing 
 the central mass of the temple. In the centre of 
 this colonnade, a door, curiously narrow and 
 paltry for so fine a building (it is only 3 feet wide), 
 gave access to an almost square hypostyle hall, 
 whose roof was supported by a perfect forest of 
 octagonal columns ranged on three sides in three 
 rows, and on the fourth, at the back of the hall, 
 in two. In the centre of this hall, and probably 
 with a narrow open space between it and the 
 innermost row of columns, rose the unique 
 feature of the temple—-2 *ectangular mass of 
 rubble faced with hewn . -ne, and surmounted 
 by a pyramid of similar materials. Behind the 
 pyramid, and against the wall which separated 
 the pyramid-court from the rear portion of the 
 temple, were several shrines, corresponding to 
 certain tombs in the court beyond. 
 
 Passing through another granite doorway, of 
 the same meagre proportions as the one in the 
 front of the hall, the visitor entered an open 
 court surrounded by a colonnade of octagonal 
 columns, two deep on the southern side, but 
 single on the east and west. In the midst of 
 this court the mouth of a sloping passage, which 
 descended for 150 metres to the rock-hewn 
 sanctuary, lined with granite and furnished with 
 an alabaster shrine, where the Ka of King 
 Mentuhotep was worshipped, formed a strange 
 and impressive feature. Beyond the open court 
 stood another hypostyle hall, with eight rows of 
 octagonal columns, ten deep, and, last of all, a 
 passage, bounded by two walls which reached 
 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES — 99 
 
 from the seventh of the two central rows of 
 columns in the hall, led to a tiny sanctuary hewn 
 out of the cliff behind the temple. 
 
 Such was the temple of Mentuhotep as 
 excavation has revealed it to us—undoubtedly a 
 most interesting memorial of Middle Kingdom 
 architecture, and most important as being by far 
 the most complete example which has survived 
 of the work of that period. Probably we should 
 have thought the dominant feature of the building, 
 the central pyramid, rather an incongruity than 
 otherwise, and evidently Senmut, when he came 
 to his great task six hundred years later, thought 
 so too, for he adopted the ideas of his prede- 
 cessor in other respects, but discarded what 
 seems to us the clumsy pyramid block altogether. 
 One thing, however, Senmut could not do. He 
 could not secure for his splendid design anything 
 like the fineness of masonry which Mentuhotep’s 
 architect had been able to compass in the older 
 temple. The XVIIIth Dynasty builders, clever 
 though they were in many respects, left poor 
 work behind them compared with the magnificent 
 masonry of the XIth Dynasty men. 
 
 One of the most interesting features of the 
 older building was found in the six shrines which 
 have been already mentioned. They belonged 
 to certain princesses, Aashait, Sadhe, Kauit, 
 Kemsit, and Henhenit, with one unnamed, who 
 were also priestesses. ‘These shrines were in 
 connection with the tombs of the ladies in 
 question, who were buried within \the temple. 
 
 The building had been completed before 
 either the tombs or the shrines were inserted ; 
 
100 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 and the inference has been drawn that these were 
 the ladies of the harem who were chosen for the 
 honour of accompanying King Mentuhotep on 
 his voyage through the Underworld to the regions 
 of the blessed—in other words, who were killed 
 at his funeral so that he should not lack company 
 in the world of the dead. ‘The survival to so late 
 a period of this barbarous custom is not proved, 
 though it has been suggested that it continued 
 even as late as the middle of the XVIIIth Dynasty; 
 but at all events the shrines of the princesses 
 have furnished us with some fine examples of the 
 work of the little-known XIth Dynasty. 
 
 In the extreme north corner of the temple, 
 Thothmes III intruded another shrine to the 
 goddess Hathor, which was discovered during 
 the progress of the excavations in February, 1906, 
 and has provided us with one of the most admir- 
 able examples extant of Egyptian sculpture. The 
 shrine is a small chamber, 10 feet long and 8 feet 
 high, hewn in the rock and lined with sandstone. 
 The slabs are sculptured with religious scenes 
 in which 'Thothmes III makes offerings to Hathor. 
 The goddess herself stood in the centre of the 
 shrine in the shape of a life-sized figure of a 
 cow, suckling a kneeling figure of a king, while 
 another royal figure stands in front under her 
 head. ‘The name of Amenhotep II is attached to 
 these figures; but the probability is that they 
 were meant to represent Thothmes III, who 
 dedicated the chapel, and that all that 
 Amenhotep II had to do with the act of piety 
 was the engraving of his cartouche on his father’s 
 work. The Hathor cow of Der el-Bahri is 
 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES tor 
 
 quite one of the masterpieces of New Empire 
 art, quite eclipsing the famous example of the 
 same figure which has come from the Saite 
 period and has hitherto been esteemed one of the 
 finest specimens of Egyptian animal sculpture. 
 “Neither Greece nor Rome,” says Maspero of 
 the Der el-Bahri cow, “ has left us anything that 
 can be compared with it ; we must go to the great 
 sculptors of animals of our own day to find an 
 equally realistic piece of work.” Indeed the 
 Hathor cow and the two lions of Amenhotep III 
 and Tutankhamen, now in the British Museum, 
 might be safely taken as the pieces on which 
 Egyptian sculpture might elect to stand as an 
 interpreter of animal figure. 
 
 Such, then, have been the main results of 
 excavation on a single Egyptian site; surely 
 enough to afford ample justification of the 
 expenditure of time and money and labour which 
 has been involved. Two great temples have 
 been given back to the knowledge of the world— 
 one of them, it is true, from a period otherwise 
 fairly well known, the other from a period which 
 was hitherto almost a blank. Even in the case 
 of the later temple, where the results contained 
 no surprises, and only extended our already 
 existing knowledge, the contribution of this site 
 to our estimate of Egyptian art was of surpassing 
 value ; while Mentuhotep’s temple has filled a 
 gap at one of the points where further knowledge 
 of Egyptian history and art was most to be 
 desired. 
 
 There have been no marvels of buried treasure 
 to gild the pages of the story of excavation at 
 
102 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 Der el-Bahri; but there has been a solid addition 
 to the sum of human knowledge of the past. 
 Ata score of other sites, work similar to that which 
 has just been described has been continually 
 going on during the last thirty years. Mariette’s 
 beginnings of clearance at sites such as Edfu, 
 Esneh, Denderah, and Abydos have been followed 
 by work whose thoroughness has been such as 
 Mariette, from the nature of the case, could never 
 ' have accomplished. To tell the story of excava- 
 tion, even in the most meagre outline, would take 
 a volume instead of a chapter, and Der el-Bahri 
 must suffice as a typical example of the kind of 
 work which has been done all up and down the 
 land of Egypt. 
 
 Reference must be made, however, to one 
 piece of work, associated, curiously enough, also 
 with the name of the explorer of Der el-Bahri, 
 which has a unique interest of its own. This is 
 the discovery of the Pool of Osiris, which, as 
 Strabo told us, lay beneath the great temple, 
 or, as he called it, the Memnonium, at Abydos. 
 In 1914 M. Naville, following up the work of 
 Miss M. A. Murray and Professor Petrie in 
 1902-3, found a great underground chamber, 
 100 feet by 60 feet, constructed of huge blocks 
 of limestone, cased inside with hard red sand- 
 stone. The pillars, the architraves, and the 
 roofing-blocks of the aisles of this chamber were 
 all of fine granite, without adornment or inscrip- 
 tion, and in fact resembled almost exactly the 
 similar work in the so-called “ Temple of the 
 Sphinx” at Gizeh, with this difference, that 
 whereas the granite pillars of the Temple of the 
 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 103 
 
 Sphinx are 3 feet square, those of the chamber 
 at Abydos are 8} feet square. The wonder of 
 the building, however, was its arrangement. In 
 the centre of the chamber stood two rows of 
 these great granite monoliths, each row consisting 
 of five pillars. Around the central block of 
 masonry on which these pillars rested, ran a deep 
 channel, which had manifestly once been filled 
 with water, so as to render the central block an 
 island. 
 
 Around this channel runs a ledge of stonework 
 about 3 feet wide, and from this ledge access 
 is given to a set of seventeen cells each about 
 6 feet square and 6 feet high. 
 
 Manifestly this extraordinary building is 
 Strabo’s “‘ well,’ which, as he tells us, was below 
 the temple, and was built like the Labyrinth, 
 only on a smaller scale, with passages covered 
 by a single stone. What may have been its use 
 it is as yet impossible to say. ‘The water channel 
 and the ledge round it suggest that the boat of 
 Osiris may have been towed around the pool 
 by his priests on the great feast-days, or when 
 the Passion Play of Abydos, representing the 
 death and resurrection of Osiris, was being 
 celebrated. ‘Two things alone seem certain, the 
 first, the identity of the chamber with the pool 
 described by the old geographer, and the second, 
 that we have here one of the most ancient sacred 
 buildings in Egypt. 
 
 Other parts of the structure are the work of 
 the XIXth Dynasty, which did so much at 
 Abydos, and bear the cartouche of Merenptah 
 and representations of this king worshipping the 
 
104 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 gods; but the chamber of the pool is another 
 matter. Its construction is of such a character 
 as to refer it at once to a very much earlier date ; 
 and there can be little doubt that the resemblance 
 to the Temple of the Sphinx is only the evidence 
 of the fact that the two buildings are of the same 
 period, and that the Pool of Osiris is the earliest 
 Egyptian building of any size known, apart from 
 the pyramids. 
 
 The magnificence of its masonry shows how 
 far the Egyptians of this early period had already 
 carried the system of construction which they 
 were to use to such splendid purpose in the great 
 temples of the land. Never again, however, 
 even in the great days of New Empire building, 
 did they put together such a piece of sumptuous 
 massiveness as the underground chamber of 
 Osiris at Abydos. | 
 
 Another aspect of work among the temples 
 must be referred to, as being, in its own way, not 
 less important than the rescuing of the actual 
 structures from obscurity and neglect ; and that 
 is the interpretation of the work thus rescued, 
 the tracing of its history, and the disentangling 
 of the various periods of building which are 
 represented, and the different hands which have 
 been at work in the completion of a building 
 whose history as a growing organism may stretch 
 through centuries, and involve the activities of 
 half a dozen dynasties. 
 
 To make the temples intelligible is a matter 
 scarcely less important than to make them 
 visible, and it has involved scarcely less effort. 
 Even after all that has been accomplished in 
 
“SHXNIHdS JO ANNAAV ‘MVNUVM ‘ZI 
 
 
 
i i 
 . vet 
 4 
 7 
 Lz 
 by ; 
 rs 
 j 
 4 , 
 j 
 ' 
 i] , 
 ” 
 ~ \ 4 
 Le be 
 . 
 1 
 t9 
 ° 
 . 
 ’ 
 te 
 ae | 
 ‘ 
 4 
 ' j 
 ' 
 { 
 « 
 i 
 | 
 : 
 z 
 a 7 
 ¥ 
 «6 
 5 
 i ‘ 
 0 ' 
 id <! 
 ’ 
 ¥ r @ 
 re 
 i 
 Py ‘ 
 7 4 
 . " 
 : wile 
 
 
 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 105 
 
 this direction, a great Egyptian temple such as 
 Karnak remains a_ sufficiently complicated 
 business to bewilder the ordinary sight-seer and 
 make him turn with relief to the clarity of 
 Greek architecture; but at least it is now 
 possible to arrive at something like an under- 
 standing of how the vast bulk of Karnak grew, 
 century after century, to what we now see, and 
 to realise a little of the romance of history which 
 is involved in the succession of Pharaohs who 
 have laboured to make great and splendid the 
 holy and beautiful house of Amen in Thebes. 
 Let us turn, then, to Karnak, and try to see 
 a little of what modern work has done in the 
 direction of making this vastest of extant Egyptian 
 temples intelligible. A century ago, Belzoni 
 wandered round the ruins of the great temple, 
 his mind filled with vague dreams of Memnon, 
 Osymandias, and Psammethes, perhaps as 
 appreciative of the wonder of what he saw as 
 the most enlightened of his successors, but 
 absolutely in the dark as to the significance of 
 what he saw, or the history of how the great 
 building had been reared; to-day the story 
 of Karnak is practically as well understood as 
 that of one of our European cathedrals, and 
 anyone who likes to take the trouble may trace 
 out the evidence of its age-long growth. Indeed 
 it is difficult for the modern to realise how 
 lengthy is the story which unfolds itself in the 
 sculptured stones of the great temple. We think 
 with something like awe of the long process 
 which reared some of our cathedrals, and which 
 may, perhaps, have lasted for a century, or 
 
1066 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 perhaps, in an extreme case, for two ; but Karnak 
 was a growing organism for a period of time more 
 than twice as long, not only as any of our cathe- 
 drals took in the building, but twice as long as 
 any of them have been standing. ‘Towards the 
 eastern end of the vast complex of Karnak there 
 are still to be seen the scanty relics of the earliest 
 builders of the temple of whom we have any 
 knowledge—the Middle Kingdom Pharaohs, who 
 began their work at Karnak certainly not much 
 later than 2000 B.c. On the western face of the 
 great temple is the Pylon of the Ptolemies, whose 
 dynasty only closed with the subjection of Egypt 
 to Roman rule in 30 B.c. Karnak, in other words, 
 was building for a period which was certainly 
 not less than seventeen hundred years, and which 
 may have been almost two thousand! Such a 
 consideration makes our ideas as to duration 
 seem very small indeed. 
 
 Nor has the work been less complicated than 
 it has been lengthy. Practically every Pharaoh 
 worth naming has left his mark on the great 
 building in some form or another, and often 
 the work of the reigning king was done without 
 the slightest regard to that of his forerunners ; 
 sometimes, indeed, with the deliberate design 
 of obscuring it and blotting out its memory. 
 Consequently the task of disentangling the story 
 of Karnak has been no easy one. It has been 
 like the reading of a manuscript where interpola- 
 tions of different writers, dealing with different 
 matters, continually break the thread of the main 
 narrative, and where, to add to the confusion, 
 part of the writing is a palimpsest, written over 
 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 107 
 
 the faded script of an earlier author. Along with 
 the difficulty of interpreting the story of the 
 various buildings has gone that of preserving 
 them from destruction. 
 
 One of the curious facts about Egyptian 
 building is that, for a race of master-builders 
 such as they showed themselves to be, they were 
 strangely, even culpably careless about their 
 foundations. If the mighty halls which they 
 reared had been built on such foundations as 
 modern builders would insist on for even much 
 less important structures, there seems no reason 
 why, short of deliberate destruction by the hand 
 of man, the Egyptian temples should not stand 
 practically for ever. But the Egyptian architect 
 was content to pile walls and colonnades which are 
 the wonder of the world on the most flimsy 
 ‘foundations, and his work is in most cases literally 
 a house built on the sand. 
 
 The wonder is, not that there have been 
 occasional collapses, but that the buildings have 
 stood so long as they have ; indeed nothing but 
 their sheer mass and weight has enabled them to 
 endure. Even so, earth-tremors, and the constant 
 and insidious work of infiltration, have worked 
 havoc on the badly founded buildings, and were 
 it not for the constant care devoted to them, 
 and the work of practically refounding them 
 which has been carried out, the great halls of 
 Karnak would ere long be only masses of tumbled 
 ruin. There is nothing dramatic about the work 
 of either the interpreter or the preserver ; neither 
 can point, in general, to any treasure-trove which 
 has resulted from his efforts, though occasionally, 
 
108 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 as notably in connection with the work of 
 M. Legrain at Karnak, the work of preservation 
 has resulted in the unearthing of a mass of the 
 most wonderful ancient statuary. But we owe 
 the double fact that Karnak stands to-day and 
 is likely to stand for centuries to come, and that 
 its vast complex of building is intelligible, to 
 many years of quiet and unobtrusive work on 
 the part of scholars and architects. 
 
 In the great days of Egypt’s glory under the 
 New Empire, Thebes must have been one of 
 the wonder-cities of the world, and one of the 
 fairest sights on which the sun ever shone. It 
 may be that Babylon, in the short-lived glory of 
 the Neo-Babylonian Empire of Nebuchadnezzar, 
 was vaster in extent, and the German excavations 
 have taught us how gorgeous were some of the 
 great buildings of the city, with their facings of 
 enamelled brick and their wealth of colour; 
 but it may be questioned if even Babylon could 
 show anything to match the solemn splendour 
 of Karnak or Luxor. and beside the ordered 
 sumptuousness of ti huge Egyptian temples, 
 with their wonders of ‘egalithic construction, one 
 imagines that Babylon's glories would have seemed 
 rather cheap and tav’ ~. And of all the glories 
 of Thebes, Karnak v’ ; tne centre and crown. 
 
 Petrie tells us that the pitiful remains of the 
 Labyrinth, the great temple of Amenemhat III 
 of the XIIth Dynasty, show that it was big 
 enough to hold all the temples of Karnak and 
 Luxor put together; but the imagination is 
 scarcely capable of trying to comprehend the 
 extent of such a building, and. Karnak is quite 
 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES tog 
 
 big enough for most people. The actual area 
 of its buildings is about equal to that of St. Peter’s 
 (Rome), Milan, and Nétre Dame (Paris) ; while 
 the sacred enclosure, the Cathedral Close, so to 
 speak, would hold another half-dozen of the 
 biggest cathedrals of Europe, without crowding 
 them unduly. 
 
 Let us try to imagine ourselves visiting the 
 great temple in the days when it had reached its 
 greatest extent, though, by that time, the glory 
 of ‘Thebes had in great measure departed. Still 
 the building, as we now see it, was practically 
 completed only in the days of the Ptolemies, and 
 no survey of it would be adequate without 
 including their work. Unfortunately in taking 
 the temple in the natural order of approach, by 
 its west front, so to speak, we reverse almost 
 exactly the order of its building, which was, 
 
 generally speaking, from east to west. Yet the 
 _ history of the building is sufficiently intelligible 
 even when thus taken in reverse order, and 
 though there are other approaches to Karnak, 
 and the approach by either the Eastern or the 
 Western Avenue of Sphinxes must have been very 
 impressive, yet the main front of the temple must 
 _ always have been that which faced the Nile, in 
 the termination of the axis of the whole structure. 
 No doubt also the Egyptian Kings, with their 
 fondness for using their great river as the scene 
 of ceremonial processions, used the western front 
 of the temple for their visits to the shrine of 
 Amen. 
 
 We land, then, at a quay of hewn stone, 
 adorned with two small obelisks of Sety II of the 
 
110 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 XIXth Dynasty, and with two statues of couchant 
 lions. Passing down a short and gentle slope, 
 we move along a broad paved way between rows 
 of couchant ram-headed sphinxes, which were 
 placed here by Ramses II. The path extends 
 for 200 feet, and leads up to the vastest portal to 
 be found even in this land of vast portals. This is 
 the First Pylon of Karnak—first in point of 
 approach, but last in point of erection, for it is 
 the work of the Ptolemaic Pharaohs who grasped 
 the sceptre of Egypt after the death of Alexander 
 the Great ; and indeed, as you can see, the work 
 is not yet complete. Building is still going on, 
 and the ramps of crude brick by which the great 
 stones are dragged up to their positions are still 
 heaped against the walls, where they will continue 
 to stand for more than two thousand years. 
 
 The pylon itself is gigantic. The breadth 
 of the west front of St. Paul’s, the greatest 
 building familiar to English minds, is 179 feet, 
 and its height, to the top of the statue of St. Paul 
 on the pediment, is 135 feet. ‘The Pylon of the 
 Ptolemies measures 370 feet in breadth, or rather 
 more than double St. Paul’s, while its height is 
 1424 feet, so that it overtops St. Paul’s head by 
 74 feet. In addition its walls are 49 feet thick. 
 No mightier approach to a temple was ever 
 devised. 
 
 Passing through this great gateway we find 
 ourselves in an open court whose dimensions 
 are worthy of the portal which gave access to it. 
 From the gateway where you stand to the 
 scarcely less imposing pylon of Ramses I, which 
 faces you across the open space, this court 
 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES rr 
 
 measures 275 feet, while its breadth is 338 feet. 
 The area of St. Paul’s is 84,000 square feet, so 
 that this single court of Karnak exceeds our great 
 cathedral in area by 8000 square feet. Around 
 its walls runs a colonnade of single columns. 
 In the north corner of the court there stands a 
 little grey sandstone temple, divided into three 
 chapels, which are dedicated to Amen, Mut, and 
 Khonsu, the members of the Theban Triad. 
 The southern colonnade is broken bythe intruding 
 front of a larger temple. This is the temple of 
 Ramses III, the last of the great warrior kings of 
 Egypt, who saved the land, in the degenerate 
 days of the XXth Dynasty, from being overrun 
 and ravaged by the raid of the Sea-Peoples. His 
 temple, though very modest in size (it measures 
 only 170 feet in length), is important as giving 
 one of the most perfect examples extant of a 
 complete Egyptian temple, built from start to 
 finish by one monarch, and on a straightforward 
 and homogeneous plan. 
 
 The great court which has taken these two 
 lesser buildings into its sweep was the work of 
 the Libyan Pharaohs of the XXIInd Dynasty, 
 who held their court at Bubastis, and is therefore 
 often called the Court of the Bubastites. The 
 temple of Ramses III was cleared of rubbish in 
 1896-7 by M. Legrain, in the course of his 
 great work at Karnak. Down the central avenue 
 of the Bubastite court the Ethiopian Pharaohs 
 of the XXVth Dynasty began the erection of 
 a colonnade whose purpose has not been quite 
 determined. As they left it, it consisted of a 
 double range of huge columns, five in each row. 
 
112 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 Of the ten, only one solitary survivor now stands, 
 and is known as the Column of Taharqa, after 
 the Ethiopian king who was responsible for its 
 erection, and for some of the sorest disasters of 
 Egypt in her declining days. It was ‘Taharga 
 and his successor ‘Tanutamen who brought down 
 upon Egypt the wrath of the Assyrian conqueror, 
 Ashurbanipal, whose ruthless soldiery by the 
 sack of ‘Thebes dealt the imperial city a blow from 
 which she never recovered. Taharga’s column 
 stands as the memorial of a man who “ began to 
 build, and was not able to finish ” in more senses 
 than one. 
 
 Leaving the court for a moment by the portal 
 in the south-east corner, we find on the wall of 
 the second pylon one of the most interesting 
 records of the temple. This is the inscription 
 in which Sheshanq, one of the Libyan Pharaohs, 
 records the triumph of that campaign in Syria 
 in the course of which he humbled the pride of 
 Rehoboam of Judah, and robbed Solomon’s 
 temple of all the riches which the wise king had 
 accumulated. In Sheshanq’s relief a gigantic 
 figure of Amen leads up before the now vanished 
 figure of the king five rows of captive towns of 
 Palestine, each represented by a circular wall 
 enclosing its name, from which emerges the upper 
 part of a bound prisoner. 
 
 Before us, as we return to the great court, 
 rises the second pylon, the work of Ramses I, 
 the founder of the XIXth Dynasty. Scarcely 
 any part of the temple is more eloquent of the 
 jumble of times, and kings, and even faiths, 
 which goes to make up Karnak, than the 
 

 
 1 ope LACEUING AKG ee NAGY 1 © Dae Vib © Srna ir Eas EL Ave Ie. 
 

 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 113 
 
 neighbourhood of this pylon. The great gateway 
 itself is of Ramses I; but its materials had their 
 own story before he built them into his new 
 approach to the temple of Amen, and had served 
 another god ; for some of the blocks of the pylon 
 once belonged to one of the heretical temples of 
 Akhenaten, and bear his name and those of his 
 successors, Tutankhamen and Ay. The little 
 vestibule before the pylon is flanked by statues 
 of Ramses I] ; but within the doorway are found 
 the cartouches of Ramses I and Sety II, as well 
 as that of Ramses II, while part of the vestibule 
 is the work of two of the Ptolemies. Thus in 
 this little space the work of no fewer than eight 
 Pharaohs, covering a period of more than a 
 thousand years, is represented. 
 
 The gateway of Ramses I gives access to what 
 is perhaps the most remarkable, though by no 
 means the most beautiful, of the halls of Karnak. 
 The Hypostyle Hall, one of the hugest of human 
 creations, was, like so much else at Karnak, the 
 work of several sovereigns, though in this case the 
 completion of the building was not so very long 
 protracted as in some other instances. ‘The hall 
 was begun by Ramses I, whose short reign of 
 two years only enabled him to see the work 
 started. The greater part of the hall as we now 
 see it is the work of Sety I, one of the finest of 
 Egyptian Pharaohs, whose work everywhere is 
 in accordance with the nobility of his face as it 
 can be seen at Cairo. 
 
 Sety carried out the erection of what is by 
 far the most imposing feature of the hall, the 
 nave, with its double row of gigantic open-flower 
 
 H 
 
114 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 columns, the largest in existence. Each of the 
 twelve tremendous columns is 69 feet in height 
 and 33 feet in circumference, while the spread- 
 ing capitals, 11 feet in height, have an area large 
 enough for one hundred men to stand upon. 
 Imagine twelve versions of the Trajan Column 
 at Rome, or the Vendéme Column at Paris, facing 
 one another in two rows and supporting gigantic 
 architraves of sixty to a hundred tons in weight, 
 which in their turn support the great roofing-slabs. 
 These form the central avenue of the great hall. 
 On either side of them the papyrus-bud columns 
 of the two side aisles rise to a height of 424 feet. 
 The rows nearest to the central avenue on either 
 side bear above their architraves rectangular 
 pillars which make up the difference between the 
 height of the side columns and those of the 
 centre, and which bear the extremities of the roof 
 of the nave with its cornice. On the lower level 
 of the side pillars, the roof of the hall continues 
 over the rest of the area, supported by a forest 
 of one hundred and twenty-two columns. 
 
 Sety I is responsible for the whole of the 
 northern half of the hall, as weil as for the central 
 avenue, so that the southern portion of the 
 building is all that Ramses II can claim as his 
 work, if indeed even this part was not erected 
 by his father, and only sculptured by him. 
 Ramses II, however, had the knack of securing 
 to himself the glory of work which was done by 
 other men, and to most people the great Hypostyle 
 Hall of Karnak is his work, though he had really 
 very little to do with it. 
 
 The architectural merits of the huge building 
 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 115 
 
 are undoubted, up to a certain point; but its 
 faults are equally unquestionable. Mere size 
 tells here, as indeed it almost always does, unless 
 its impression is spoilt by sheer incapacity. 
 There can be no question of the impressiveness 
 of the great building. ‘The central avenue, with 
 its soaring columns, and its grated clerestory 
 rising above the roofs of the side-aisles, is the 
 prototype of all subsequent cathedral archi- 
 tecture. But the side-aisles do not add to the 
 dignity of the great chamber. ‘Their forest of 
 squat, shapeless columns, instead of being impres- 
 sive, is only bewildering. Here, very certainly, 
 you cannot see the wood for the trees, and the 
 spaciousness of the hall 1s quite destroyed by the 
 multitude of the supports of its roof. “‘ The size 
 that strikes us,’ says Professor Petrie, “‘is not 
 the grandeur of strength, but the bulkiness of 
 disease.” 
 
 The outer walls of the great hall are sculptured 
 with reliefs representing the wars of its two 
 creators. ‘The north wall bears a fine series of 
 scenes, covering over 200 feet of surface, in which 
 the wars of Sety I are depicted with great spirit. 
 In some later instances such war-reliefs are 
 merely wearisome; but these of Sety are both 
 vivacious and well-executed, and such scenes as 
 that of the king smiting the Libyans are among the 
 best examples of work in this kind, and infinitely 
 superior to the pretentious work of his son. 
 The southern wall has reliefs of Ramses II, his 
 eternal Battle of Kadesh, which he could never 
 forget, or allow anyone else to forget, a copy of 
 the treaty of peace with the Hittites, and the 
 
116 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 so-called Poem of Pentaur, in which the king’s 
 valour at Kadesh is celebrated. 
 
 Behind the Hypostyle Hall comes the 
 IlIrd Pylon, which was reared by the most 
 magnificent, if not the greatest, of Egyptian 
 Pharaohs, the gorgeous Amenhotep II], in whose 
 glittering reign the glories of the New Empire 
 seemed to culminate, before the shadows of his 
 son’s ill-starred attempt at religious reform 
 dimmed their splendour. When Thebes was 
 at the height of its fame, and when all the kings 
 of the ancient east were sending their ambas- 
 sadors to the great city to fall “ seven times and 
 seven times ”’ in the dust before the golden sandals 
 of the man who was God visible on earth to a 
 great part of the ancient world, this third pylon 
 was the main front of the great ‘heban temple, 
 which then occupied not much more than half 
 the space which it now covers. Its western face 
 was used by Sety as the back wall of the Hypostyle 
 Hall; but on the northern tower on the eastern 
 side can still be seen the faint remains of a great 
 scene in which a royal procession on the Nile in 
 honour of Amen is depicted. One great ship 
 over 40 feet long has the king standing on the 
 poop, and cabins with cornices amidships. 
 Thirty or forty rowers urge it along, and it 
 tows behind it the sacred barge of Amen, which 
 bears in a shrine a small processional bark of the 
 god, and at the bow a sphinx and an altar. 
 
 Besides his pylon, Amenhotep wrought a vast 
 amount of work at Karnak ; but it was not, like 
 that of Sety and Ramses, concentrated in a single 
 great structure, but dispersed in various parts 
 

 
 I4. KARNAK, COLUMNS OF THE SIDE-AISLE, HYPOSTYLE HALL. 
 

 
 
 
 ma 
 
 ) ay v4 ae ee re oe 
 > ee D a . 7, t a ngs eos . ape tata oa a 
 Pa TTT Sern a 
 ‘ 7" ; ay | re yy ‘ Paar 4 i Ray eee mas 
 j i@ . } d 7 f oat er Ys 7 
 pao ee abel ey aie 
 Gries’ SS a et - ; : 
 rte ; aay as Pee Lb ae, 
 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 117 
 
 of the sacred enclosure, and so does not produce 
 the same effect. To see the work of Amenhotep 
 on a scale worthy of his importance in the line 
 of Egyptian Pharaohs, you have to go to Luxor 
 with its fine papyrus-bud forecourt, and its 
 noble nave, which, had it been finished, would 
 have almost rivalled the Hypostyle Hall of the 
 later kings in size and exceeded it in beauty ; 
 or to try to think back the vanished glories of 
 what was probably the most gorgeous and 
 beautiful of all the Theban temples—the Funerary 
 temple of Amenhotep, which was destroyed, not 
 by the Assyrian conqueror, but by the royal 
 vandals of the XI Xth Dynasty, Ramses II and his 
 son Merenptah. 
 
 All the same, Amenhotep accomplished no 
 small amount of work, in one way and another, 
 within the enclosure of Karnak. Just beyond 
 the girdle-wall of the great temple on the north 
 side, he built a temple to Mentu, the Theban 
 War-God, with a pylon, and obelisks of red 
 granite. ‘This temple once contained statues in 
 black granite of the king, and of the goddess 
 Sekhmet, towards whom he evidently cherished 
 a feeling of deep devotion, if we may judge by 
 the number of statues to her which he dedicated 
 in the temple of Mut. 
 
 The temple of Mentu shared the usual fate of 
 Amenhotep’s work, and was meddled with by 
 Merenptah, Ramses V, and at least four of the 
 Ptolemies, a fair specimen of the fashion in which 
 the history of Karnak is complicated by the 
 multitude of superimposed strata, or rather of 
 interwoven strands, with which you have to do. 
 
118 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 On the south side, and just at the girdle-wall, 
 stands the beautiful temple of Khonsu (the son 
 of the Theban 'Triad), one of the finest examples 
 of a complete Egyptian temple of normal form. 
 This is not the work of Amenhotep, but of 
 Ramses III; but apparently an earlier temple of 
 Amenhotep must have once occupied the site, 
 for the king set up before the gateway a noble 
 avenue of one hundred and twenty-two sandstone 
 sphinxes bearing his name. Beyond the wall, 
 and approached by the eastern avenue of sphinxes, 
 lies another of Amenhotep’s contributions to 
 the glories of Karnak—the temple of Mut, the 
 mother-goddess of the Theban Triad, which 
 was excavated in 1895-7 by two English ladies, 
 Miss Margaret Benson and Miss Janet Gourlay. 
 It is full of Sekhmet statues, and behind it lies 
 a sacred lake, shaped like a horse-shoe. 
 
 But the following out of the work of 
 Amenhotep has drawn us away from our main 
 quest, the tracing of the story of Karnak proper. 
 Returning to the great temple by the eastern 
 avenue of sphinxes, we pass the girdle-wall by a 
 pylon built by Horemheb out of the material of 
 a temple which the unfortunate Akhenaten had 
 reared in ‘Thebes to his new deity the Aten. 
 Beside the pylon stands a stele inscribed with a 
 manifesto of Horemheb, which was designed 
 to promote peace in the state after the religious 
 troubles of Akhenaten’s times. The square 
 court behind the pylon has on its east side the 
 ruins of a small temple of Amenhotep II, and the 
 walls of the court have reliefs of Horemheb. 
 Another pylon of Horemheb, in a very ruinous 
 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 119 
 
 condition, closes the court on the north side, and 
 passing through it we are faced by one of the 
 most ancient parts of the whole building, the 
 pylon of Queen Hatshepsut. ‘The pylon bears 
 witness both to what Professor Breasted calls 
 “the Feud of the Thutmosids,”’ and to the 
 religious strifes of the XVIIIth Dynasty, for 
 Hatshepsut’s name was erased from her reliefs 
 by Thothmes I], and all allusions to Amen were 
 scrupulously removed by Akhenaten, and restored 
 by Sety I. Behind Hatshepsut’s pylon we pass 
 a pylon of Thothmes III, her successor and 
 enemy, and traversing a court whose walls bear 
 inscriptions of Merenptah, the son and successor 
 of Ramses II, in which he describes his victories 
 over the Libyans and the Peoples of the Mediter- 
 ranean, we find ourselves back at the point from 
 which our digression started, in the central court 
 behind the great pylon of Amenhotep III. Here 
 was the western front of the temple in the days of 
 Thothmes I, and here still stands the solitary 
 remaining member of the quartette of obelisks 
 with which this king and Thothmes IIT adorned 
 the front of the pylon which now lies in ruins 
 behind them. ‘The obelisks of the later king are 
 both gone—the survivor of the pair of ‘Thothmes I 
 is a fine shaft, 754 feet high. 
 
 Behind his pylon, and between it and a smaller 
 one which he erected to the east, ‘Thothmes 
 reared a fine ceremonial hall with roof and columns 
 of cedar wood ; but his work was not permitted 
 to endure for long. It was within this hall that 
 the priests of Amen arranged a little piece of 
 play-acting in which the god Amen declared his 
 
120 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 preference for Thothmes III as king, and it was 
 perhaps this unpalatable fact which determined 
 Queen Hatshepsut to make it the scene of a piece 
 of vandalism which was to redound to her own 
 glory. Anyhow, as the time for the celebration 
 of her jubilee drew near, she sent her architect, 
 Senmut, up to Aswan to bring down two great 
 shafts of granite for her jubilee obelisks, and when 
 the tremendous blocks, 974 feet high, arrived, 
 she stripped off the roof from part of her father’s 
 hall and set them up there. Apart from the 
 filial piety of such an act, the obelisks were things 
 of which she might justly be proud. 
 
 With the single exception of the stone, the 
 work of her deadly enemy Thothmes III, which 
 now stands before St. John Lateran in Rome, 
 and which is 8 feet higher than its rival, the shaft 
 of Hatshepsut, which still remains erect at Karnak, 
 is the largest obelisk existing, and is more than 
 20 feet higher than the so-called ‘‘ Cleopatra’s 
 Needle,’ which represents to Londoners, as its 
 twin does to the folk of New York, the skill of 
 ancient Egypt. 
 
 Hatshepsut was so proud of her achievement 
 that she caused the shafts to be engraved with an 
 inscription in which she swears, “ As Ra loves 
 me, as my father Amen favours me... as I 
 shall be unto eternity like an Imperishable, as 
 I shall go down in the west like Atum, so surely 
 these two great obelisks which My Majesty 
 hath wrought with electrum for my father, Amen, 
 in order that my name may abide in his temple, 
 enduring for ever and ever, they are of one block 
 of enduring granite, without seam or joining.” 
 
‘LASdHHSLVH AO SMSITAGO ‘HLNON AHL WONT MAIA “MVNUVH CT 
 
 
 
 
 
* he 
 A | 
 AL iy a! 
 } ; 
 ‘ 
 A ' 
 q 
 ite 
 > i 
 ot -' 
 74 
 i 
 of 
 ph 
 r] - 
 ~+ 
 ' 
 i 
 . ~- 
 ' 
 . 
 a : Gibe iy dy) Lae 
 ; i : . | ; jy! Sa 
 7 
 if 
 if 
 1 ' 
 ‘ 
 a ; 
 
 mk PAG 
 on Pte tx ; 
 Can aes Wh 
 ws iiee Tey snl 
 - 
 a i) 
 
 
 
 aay aig ee 
 ey pcatag (ak 
 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 121 
 
 She goes on to say, what is still more surprising, 
 that the time occupied in the extraction and 
 transportation of the mighty shafts was seven 
 months ! 
 
 When Thothmes III came to the throne, he 
 showed his love for his distinguished relative by 
 casing her obelisks to a height of 82 feet with 
 sandstone, so that her inscriptions might not Le 
 read. As rulers, the Pharaohs of the XVIIIth 
 Dynasty, male or female, stand in the very front 
 rank; they cannot be said to have shone as 
 exponents of family affection. 
 
 To the east of his second pylon, Thothmes I 
 had another court, which was altered and added 
 to by Thothmes III, who built also a small 
 pylon in front of his Halls of Records, which 
 come next in the great complex of building, 
 jostling the apartments of Hatshepsut, which 
 stand beside them. In the First Hall of Records 
 stand the two pillars which strike everyone who 
 sees them as one of the beauties of Karnak, and 
 examples of a type not common in Egyptian work. 
 They are of granite, the southern one carved with 
 the Lotus of Upper Egypt, the northern with the 
 Papyrus of Lower Egypt. The Second Hall was 
 turned into the chapel of the temple, in which 
 the sacred bark was kept, by Philip Arrhidzus, at 
 the beginning of the Ptolemaic dominion, so that 
 one of the oldest and one of the newest parts of 
 the building are here united. 
 
 In the open space behind the chapel lie the 
 scanty remains of the earliest Karnak known to 
 us—that of the XIIth Dynasty. A few broken 
 polygonal columns suggest a kinship in style, 
 
 ~ 
 
122 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 for the earliest parts of the great temple, with the 
 work of the XIth Dynasty at Der el-Bahri; but 
 it is impossible to say with the least approach to 
 certainty what the first temple may have looked 
 like. East again of these remnants comes the 
 last important part of the vast building—the 
 great Festal Temple of Thothmes III, with its 
 fine Hall, 144 feet by 52 feet, and its eastern 
 sanctuary and complex of store-chambers. 
 
 The Festal Hall presents a feature unique 
 in Egyptian Architecture. Its colonnade consists 
 of thirty-two rectangular piers ranged round the 
 sides, while down the centre of the hall run two 
 rows of ten round columns, not spaced with the 
 piers, and of extraordinary shape. Instead of 
 tapering from the base to the top, their taper runs 
 the opposite way, and their capitals are inverted, 
 and present the appearance of a bell standing 
 on its mouth. The downwards tapering column 
 is, of course, a familiar feature in Minoan archi- 
 tectural practice, and it is within the bounds 
 of possibility that Thothmes’ columns are an 
 Egyptian adaptation of a Minoan motive, for, 
 as the tombs of Senmut and Rekhmara show, 
 Minoan influence was at its height in the middle 
 of the XVIIIth Dynasty, and intercourse between 
 Crete and Egypt was frequent. Whether 
 Thothmes owed the idea to some Minoan 
 suggestion or not, it never established itself in 
 Egypt. In Crete, with its regular use of wooden 
 pillars resting on stone bases, the downward 
 taper was quite natural; in Egypt, with a 
 prevalent stone construction, it was an exotic, 
 and could show no reason for its existence, and it 
 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 123 
 
 was never repeated. One cannot say that its 
 disappearance was any great loss to Egyptian 
 architecture, for the effect of the inversion is 
 singularly clumsy. 
 
 We have thus traced the story of Karnak as 
 one traverses the great temple from front to 
 rear, and the bewildering complexity of the 
 building is reflected in the variegated fabric of 
 the narrative. ‘To call Karnak, as is often done, 
 “the typical temple of the Egyptian Empire,” 
 is to create an entire misapprehension in the 
 mind of anyone who hears such a phrase used. 
 Karnak is anything but a typical temple ; indeed 
 it is not a temple, but rather an aggregate of many 
 temples, and above everything else an epitome of 
 Egyptian history for at least a millennium and a 
 half. One would not even seek it for typical 
 representatives of Egyptian architecture. Karnak, 
 in this respect, possesses its beauties—and its 
 monstrosities; but one would look rather to 
 smaller specimens of the builder’s art for an 
 adequate representation of Egyptian achievement 
 in this respect. 
 
 The great temple claims, and will always claim, 
 our attention and wonder, by its sheer vastness, 
 to begin with, for undoubtedly vastness has its 
 own effect, though it is not the highest, in the 
 elements of architectural impressiveness; then 
 by the extraordinary way in which it presents a 
 summary in stone of the vicissitudes of Egyptian 
 history ; last, and perhaps least, by the surprising 
 quality, and in some instances the beauty, of some 
 of its detail. The main element in its appeal 
 will always be wonder; admiration, and even 
 
124 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 that qualified by many reservations, is a bad 
 second to the impression of simple amazement, 
 that human hands and brains should have ever 
 wrought so vast a thing. 
 
 The preservation of the temple is, and will 
 continue to be, a work almost as great, and as 
 difficult, as its erection. It lies in the hands of 
 the Egyptian Service of Antiquities, and is a 
 task as unending as the web of Penelope. 
 Generally speaking, such work is of the kind 
 which has to be its own reward, for it makes 
 no appeal to the average visitor, who only sees 
 that his enjoyment of this court or that is more 
 or less hindered by the progress of work 
 whose one merit is that it will keep safe for 
 future generations priceless treasures which other- 
 wise would ere long pass away. Sometimes, 
 however, the work does bring other prizes in its 
 train. 
 
 Such was the case when, in November, 1903, 
 M. Legrain, in the course of his work near the 
 pylon of Thothmes III by which we returned 
 to the central court after our digression to the 
 south, found what has since been known as “ the 
 Karnak Cachette,” a great pit full of pieces of 
 sculpture of all types and periods. “‘ For a year 
 and eight months,” wrote Maspero in February, 
 1905, “‘ we have been fishing for statues in the 
 Temple of Karnak. . . . Seven hundred stone 
 monuments have already come out of the water, 
 and we are not yet at theend. . . . Statues whole 
 and in fragments, busts, mutilated trunks, headless 
 bodies, bodiless heads, vases on which there were 
 only broken feet, Pharaohs enthroned, queens 
 
Il cdHLtOnNaWY fO LYnOoewoOs “MOKNT "OT 
 
 
 

 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 125 
 
 standing upright, priests of Amon and individuals 
 holding naos, or images of gods, in front of them, 
 crouching, kneeling, sitting, found in all the 
 attitudes of their profession or rank, in limestone, 
 in black or pink granite, in yellow or red sand- 
 stone, in green breccia, in schist, in alabaster— 
 indeed, a whole population returns to the upper 
 air and demands shelter in the galleries of the 
 Museum.” 
 
 The reason for the existence of this extra- 
 ordinary dump of discarded sculpture, whose 
 richness Maspero’s vivacious sentences do not 
 in the least exaggerate, and which gave us, to 
 mention only two examples, the masterly pink 
 granite head of Senusert III, one of the most 
 brilliant examples of XIIth Dynasty sculpture, 
 and the schist Thothmes III, equally one of 
 the finest examples of the art of the New Empire, 
 seems to have been this. The Ptolemies, the 
 presence of whose coins in the pit sufficiently 
 dates it, did a great deal of building at Karnak, 
 and in the course of their cleaning up of the 
 places where they worked, they, no doubt, came 
 on an infinity of out-of-date ex voto statues, some 
 of them broken, some of them whole, but all 
 rather a nuisance and obstruction, as the persons 
 with whom they were associated had long since 
 ceased to be of importance. What was to be 
 done with them? They could not simply be 
 thrown out as rubbish, for they had been dedi- 
 cated to the god, and were therefore sacred ; 
 and they could not be allowed to stand littering 
 up the courts which the Ptolemies were busily 
 tidying. Accordingly the great pit was dug 
 
126 WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 
 
 within the sacred enclosure, and Senusert, 
 Thothmes, Senmut, and hundreds of other old 
 Egyptian notables were consigned to its muddy 
 depths, thence to be resurrected, more than two 
 thousand years later, by their degenerate descen- 
 dants, who baled out the water from the pit with 
 old petroleum cans, and hoisted Pharaoh, High- 
 priest or Statesman, unceremoniously out of his 
 dark resting-place with lever and tackle. It has 
 been a fortunate chance for us, for Egyptian 
 portrait-sculpture might stake its reputation on 
 the two pieces which I have mentioned, and the 
 pit has yielded scores almost as good. 
 
 The work of preserving the building, and 
 putting it in acondition of safety for the future, 
 has had a curious interest from the fact that in 
 its progress Karnak has been to some extent 
 rebuilt, and by exactly the same methods by 
 means of which it was built in the beginning. 
 For there can be little doubt, in spite of all talk 
 about the wonderful mechanical knowledge of 
 the ancient Egyptians, and their possession of 
 secrets which have been lost to our time, that 
 Karnak, like all the great Egyptian buildings, 
 was built, not by means of any of these remarkable 
 secrets which never existed save in the imagination 
 of those who have talked about them, but by the 
 disciplined and ordered use of the very simplest 
 means known to man, the inclined plane, the 
 lever, and any amount of obedient human 
 muscle. These were the mechanical secrets 
 which M. Legrain found most useful and most 
 economical in the end of the nineteenth century 
 A.D., as those who had gone before him had done 
 
WORK AMONG THE TEMPLES 127 
 
 in the nineteenth, the fifteenth, the fourth 
 century B.c. Senusert, Thothmes, Hatshepsut, 
 Sety, Ramses, Sheshanq, Taharqa, Ptolemy, they 
 all built Karnak by sheer force of human labour, 
 disciplined and guided by a race of builders who 
 for thousands of years had specialised in the 
 training of men for such tasks, and with no more 
 marvellous secrets to aid them than those oldest 
 of man’s mechanical triumphs, the ramp and the 
 lever. M. Legrain has repeated their miracles 
 with the same equipment; and in an age of 
 machinery has shown that the human machine 
 may still be the most adequate, the most adaptable, 
 and the most economical. 
 
 Thus, then, we have seen, at two of the most 
 interesting sites in Egypt, something of the 
 work which has been going on with the double 
 object of extending our knowledge of the past 
 and of preserving its treasures for the future. 
 Realising something of the importance of such 
 buildings as Der el-Bahri and Karnak, and their 
 scores of companions throughout the land, 
 buildings which are, in effect, ancient Egypt to 
 us, one can feel that work such as that which has 
 been meagrely described in these pages, un- 
 spectacular though it may be compared with the 
 work of Pharaoh-hunting, is yet of great and 
 enduring importance, the indispensable fabric 
 on which the glittering embroidery of the 
 treasure-troves from the Valley of the Kings and 
 elsewhere is wrought, and without whose rich 
 and durable substance to form a background the 
 golden glory of the royal tombs would lose half 
 its meaning and beauty. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 documents are the two papyri, the Abbott 
 
 and the Amherst, which tell the story of 
 the robberies of the royal tombs at Thebes, which 
 came to light in the reign of Ramses 1X, about 
 1100 B.c. At that time the capital city was ruled, 
 under the Governor, by a certain noble named 
 Paser, who was called “‘ 'The Prince of the Town.” 
 Western Thebes, however, the City of the Dead, 
 was not under the care of Paser, but was super- 
 vised by another official named Pewero, who 
 rejoiced in the title of “‘ Prince of the West.” 
 Between the Prince of the ‘Town and the Prince 
 of the West there was no love lost, as is not 
 uncommon with the heads of two adjacent juris- 
 dictions ; and Paser, on the eastern bank of the 
 river, kept his ears open to all the tittle-tattle of 
 discontented workmen from the Necropolis which 
 drifted across the river. It so fell out in the 
 sixteenth year of Ramses IX, that certain thefts 
 from the Necropolis were reported by the Prince 
 of the West to the Governor ; and Paser seized 
 the opportunity of making the most to the Council 
 of the laxity of administration which allowed 
 
 128 
 
 A MONG the most curious of ancient Egyptian 
 
‘II SHSNVU AO ISSOTOD GNV SNWNIOO ana-snuAdvd ‘woxnT ‘41 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 ‘ iyi oh yaa vt ’ 
 Mi ‘ ‘ i b " f r 
 i% “ i i “er . ba 4 i ng *- 4 fy Rae _ 
 y il 4 Ne ik eet % 
 wie we ‘ei ‘ 
 \ lL ie 4 aie nas 2 . ees 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Te ie Soe ; . 4 7 - a Wh bs 
 a ‘ : * ae %) is i) 
 
 phe 
 
 fae BS 0.) er ee eee eee 
 
 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 129 
 
 such things, and of suggesting that infinitely 
 worse robberies, involving the Royal Tombs, 
 were occurring under his enemy’s jurisdiction. 
 
 A special commission was appointed to 
 investigate the charges, and the importance of the 
 case is shown by the rank of the members of 
 the court. These were Khaemuas, the Governor, 
 ‘The Royal Vassal Nesamen, Scribe of Pharaoh,” 
 1.e. the King’s private Secretary, and “‘ The Royal 
 Vassal Neferkara-em-per-Amen, the Speaker of 
 Pharaoh,” doubtless the King’s Public Orator. 
 This august court went at great length into the 
 charges, and it is impossible to read the account 
 of the case without feeling that Paser had right 
 on his side, though he rather made a bungle of 
 his case. Obviously his information was mainly 
 derived from ill-natured gossip, for it was so 
 inaccurate in detail that the very royal tomb 
 which he positively declared to have been robbed 
 was found on examination to be untouched ; 
 but equally obviously there was a great deal 
 going on in the Necropolis which should not 
 have gone on, and Pewero either connived at the 
 thefts or was culpably careless. 
 
 On the whole Paser failed to establish his 
 charges, though in one case, to be mentioned 
 directly, there was plain evidence of the violation 
 of a royal tomb. ‘The Prince of the Town took 
 his failure rather badly, and spoke wild whirling 
 words before a riotous deputation of Necropolis 
 workmen, which got him into trouble; but bit 
 by bit the actual truth leaked out, though not in 
 the Commission. 
 
 Three years later, in the reign of Ramses X, 
 
 I 
 
130 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 sixty persons, mainly priests and officials of the 
 Necropolis, were arrested on the charge of 
 complicity in the thefts; and even this big bag 
 of robbers did not bring security to the royal 
 dead. Erelong the priests of the dead kings were 
 frantically hustling the mummies of their dead 
 masters from one tomb to another in the vain 
 attempt to put them beyond the reach of the 
 spoilers, until at last the bulk of the great Theban 
 Pharaohs were gathered, or rather huddled, 
 together, in the obscure shaft of the unfinished 
 tomb of Queen Astemkheb at Der el-Bahri, or 
 in the tomb of Amenhotep II in the Valley of 
 the Kings. 
 
 The kind of treatment which was meted out 
 to the mighty dead by the sacrilegious rascals 
 in the Theban Necropolis is detailed for us in 
 the confession of one of them, a confession 
 extracted, for the rest, by the time-honoured 
 Eastern questionary of the bastinado. ‘“‘ We 
 found the august mummy of this god,”’ says the 
 thief, describing his work at the tomb of King 
 Sebek-em-saf and his wife Queen Nub-khas, 
 “with a long chain of golden amulets and 
 ornaments round the neck ; the head was covered 
 with gold. The august mummy of this god 
 was entirely overlaid with gold, and his coffin 
 was covered both within and without with gold, 
 and adorned with every splendid costly stone. 
 We stripped off the gold which we found on the 
 august mummy of this god, as well as the amulets 
 and ornaments from around the neck, and the 
 bandages in which the mummy was wrapped. 
 We found the royal wife equipped in like manner, 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 131 
 
 and we stripped off all that we found upon 
 her. We burnt her bandages, and we also stole 
 the household goods which we found with 
 them, and the gold and silver vessels. We 
 divided all between us; we divided into eight 
 parts the gold which we found with this god, 
 the mummies, the amulets, the ornaments and 
 the bandages.”’ 
 
 Such was the treatment accorded to a Pharaoh 
 of Egypt by one of his subjects three thousand 
 years ago; a curious commentary on the present- 
 day Egyptian protests against the opening of 
 the royal tombs in the interests of science ! 
 But the story of the Ramesside tomb-robberies 
 is only an illustration of two contradictory crav- 
 ings which are seen working all down the long 
 record of the Egyptian monarchy. On the one 
 hand there is the constant attempt of royalty 
 to secure for itself by the most elaborate pre- 
 cautions that age-long endurance of the physical 
 frame which was deemed a necessary condition 
 for the welfare of the dead king in the Under- 
 world, an attempt which expresses itself in 
 different ways, some of them most wonderful, 
 in the successive periods of Egyptian history ; 
 on the other, there is the equally constant and 
 resolute determination of the Egyptian tomb- 
 robber that not all the divinity which doth hedge 
 a king, and especially a Pharaoh, shall keep him 
 from his prey. The Ramesside thief has any 
 amount of lip-reverence for the dead king whose 
 rest he so rudely disturbs ; but all the time that 
 he is talking about “‘ the august mummy of this 
 god,” he is stripping the gold and jewels from it, 
 
me BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 and his accomplices are kindling the fire which 
 will shortly destroy, from an Egyptian point of 
 view, King Sebek-em-saf’s hope of immortality ; 
 and the contradiction is an epitome of a good 
 deal in the story of Egyptian royalty. 
 
 The most enduring religious feeling in the 
 Egyptian was the craving for immortality ; and 
 the most permanent, as it was one of the earliest 
 religious convictions, was that immortality was 
 linked with faith in the god Osiris, who, as the 
 legend ran, had been treacherously slain by his 
 brother Set, had risen from the dead, had been 
 judged and pronounced just by the tribunal of 
 the gods, and thenceforth reigned as the god of 
 the Underworld and the judge of the dead. 
 
 The devout Egyptian believed that after 
 death, if the necessary conditions had been 
 fulfilled on his behalf, he was identified with 
 his god, and like him rose again, was justified, 
 and admitted to the Egyptian Elysian Fields. 
 These conditions, briefly stated, were, first, the 
 continuance for as long a period as possible, of 
 the body, in a state as closely as possible resemb- 
 ling that of life. Whether this need, which, of 
 course, was responsible for the characteristically 
 Egyptian practice of mummification, sprang from 
 the belief that the spiritual essence of the dead 
 man might find a resting-place after death in 
 the mummified shell of its living abode, or 
 whether the creation of the mummy was merely, 
 as Professor Peet asserts, a counsel of despair, 
 an attempt to deny death for as long as possible, 
 is not certain; but the attempt to preserve the 
 body, first by the provision of a secure tomb, and 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 133 
 
 later by mummification as well, endures through 
 the whole of Egyptian history. The second 
 condition was the provision of food and drink, 
 and all the comforts of life, for the dead man in 
 his tomb. The third was the equipping of him 
 with all the words of power which would enable 
 him to escape the dangers which haunted the 
 ways of the Underworld, and to pass the ordeal 
 of the judgment, and with amulets which would 
 prove efficacious in warding off the assaults of 
 the demons of the Underworld. Last of all, 
 as in the Elysian Fields there was work to be 
 done, and it was not fitting that a king or a great 
 noble should stoop to manual labour, the dead 
 man had to be provided with simulacra of servants 
 who should answer for him when he was called 
 upon for service, and take upon themselves his 
 burden of labour. 
 
 Out of all these conditions there arose 
 gradually the whole wealth of Egyptian funerary 
 equipment, as it is found in the tombs of the 
 great men of the land, and above all in those of 
 the Pharaohs, an equipment whose splendour 
 has dazzled the whole world in the revelations 
 of the tomb of Tutankhamen. From the very 
 earliest times the kings of Egypt were laid to: 
 rest with elaborate provision for the wants of 
 the dead monarch, and the provision grew in 
 completeness and complexity with each successive 
 generation, till it reached its culmination in the 
 gorgeous tombs of the Theban Pharaohs of 
 the New Empire, with their hundreds of feet of 
 rock-hewn chamber and corridor, their glittering 
 canopies, their nests of gilded coffins, their 
 
134 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 wealth of costly amulets and illuminated papyri, 
 their stores of ushabtis, and, at the heart of all, 
 the wonderfully preserved mummy of the man 
 for whom all this magnificence had been prepared. 
 
 It may be questioned, however, whether all 
 these precautions did not rather tend to defeat 
 their own end, and whether Pharaoh might not 
 have slumbered in greater security had his tomb 
 been less gorgeous and less richly equipped than 
 he could hope to do when his tomb was a wonder 
 of the world, and when all men knew that 
 wealth untold was stored within its dark depths. 
 At all events we know that from the earliest days 
 of the Egyptian kingdom to the latest the kings 
 were few indeed whose rest was not rudely broken 
 by the sacrilegious hands of robbers. ‘The fate 
 of King Sebek-em-saf, already described, is 
 typical of that of the royal tombs in general. 
 For five thousand years human greed has proved 
 more powerful than human piety or even than 
 human superstition. ‘To-day, the professional 
 tomb-robber of native birth, though his activities 
 are as skilfully conducted as ever, finds a rival 
 in the scientific explorer, whose disturbance of 
 the rest of the royal dead, though there are still 
 many who object to the work as a profanation 
 of what all men should regard as sacred, is at 
 least conducted with as much reverence as 
 possible, and in the interests not of individual 
 greed of gain, but of the general sum of knowledge 
 of the human race. 
 
 In this respect the situation should be clearly 
 understood. It is not a question of whether the 
 dead kings of ancient Egypt shall or shall not 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 135 
 
 be allowed to rest in peace in their tombs. That 
 question has been settled, and settled in the 
 negative, for many centuries by the persistent 
 habit of the Egyptians themselves. Robbed the 
 tombs of the Pharaohs (such of them as still 
 remain undisturbed) will inevitably be. That 
 is as sure as death itself. The only question 
 is whether the robbery shall be conducted by 
 ignorant fellahin for the sake of private gain, 
 and in such a fashion that the whole of the results 
 shall be scattered among a score of private col- 
 lections, and all their historic value forever lost, 
 or whether it shall be conducted in orderly and 
 scientific fashion, the finds duly catalogued in 
 their true order, and gathered together in one 
 great assemblage in a place where they can be 
 studied in their true relation to one another, and 
 to other finds of similar character. . 
 
 There can be no doubt as to which of these 
 methods is preferable. To deny to the man of 
 science the opportunity of investigating the 
 history, the art, and the life of the past as revealed 
 in the treasures of the royal tombs is simply to 
 make it certain that, without securing in the least 
 the sanctity of the tombs, all the knowledge 
 which might have been drawn from them shall 
 be lost forever to the world. This is the sufficient 
 justification of those excavations which, in spite 
 of all the interest created by their revelations, 
 have so often created also a feeling of repugnance 
 and protest. 
 
 The story of the royal tombs of Egypt begins 
 with the excavation of the Sacred City of Osiris, 
 Abydos. The work there is by no means the 
 
136 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 earliest in point of time of the series of dis- 
 coveries which have been made in connection 
 with the burial of royalty, though Abydos was 
 one of the sites excavated by Mariette, who 
 revealed to the world the wonderful XIXth 
 Dynasty work of the temple of Sety I there. 
 Much had been discovered at Thebes and at 
 Memphis before Amélineau and Petrie began 
 at Abydos those researches which have revolu- 
 tionised our knowledge of early Egyptian history 
 and civilisation, and have given back to us several 
 centuries of the story of human effort which had 
 previously been shrouded in darkness; but it 
 seems best to follow the subject down the line 
 of history rather than to follow the order of 
 discovery with its consequent mixing up of all 
 the dynasties and periods. 
 
 Up to the nineties of last century, it may be 
 said that practically nothing was known of those 
 earliest Kings of Egypt who reigned before the 
 time of the [Vth Dynasty. The history of 
 Eeypt began with the Pyramid-builders, Khufu, 
 Khafra, and Menkaura; and so far as any real 
 knowledge went, Egyptian civilisation sprang, 
 like Athene, full-armed and full grown into 
 being, and offered to the world as its firstfruits 
 the most gigantic structures ever reared by the 
 hand of man. 
 
 Obviously this was an impossibility, for 
 things do not happen thus in real life, and the 
 advance of civilisation is a business, not of leaps 
 and bounds, but of slow and ordered progress ; 
 but before the Pyramid-builders there was 
 nothing in Egyptian history but a gulf of misty 
 
‘SOGAGV ‘I ALAS AO ATMWAL NI AAVNNO‘TOO ‘QI 
 
 
 
ee ¥s ie V7 wha . 
 . i Aa * + ae ts, 
 SE) us 7 3 an 
 A een dee a 4 
 
 i woe aay 7 : 
 
 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 137 
 
 darkness, in which a few dim and mighty shapes 
 could be faintly discerned through the clouds. 
 Manetho, the Egyptian historian of Sebennytos, 
 preserved in the few fragments of his story which 
 have survived the names, and a few more or 
 less incredible legends, of the great men who 
 had lived and reigned before the Pyramid- 
 period ; but they were only shadows, and the 
 bulk of what little he told us of them was too 
 fantastic to command any respect. ‘The chief 
 figure of his story was the king Menes, or Mena, 
 who was said to have founded Memphis, and who 
 seemed to have some semblance of reality among 
 the pale shades of the others ; but even he came 
 to us in Manetho’s pages in such a questionable 
 shape as to seem more a figure of romance than 
 of fact. 
 
 The discoveries of the closing years of the 
 nineteenth century, however, have put an end 
 to all that vagueness, and while our knowledge 
 about the earliest dynastic kings of Egypt is 
 still scanty enough, it is quite solid and real as 
 far as it goes. Not only so, but excavation has 
 resulted in the extension of knowledge to the 
 period before the rise of the earliest dynastic 
 rulers, and such a mass of material has been 
 accumulated bearing on the life of the pre- 
 dynastic Egyptians as to justify Professor Peet's 
 statement, “‘ it may reasonably be said that we 
 are as well acquainted with the material civilisa- 
 tion of this era as with that of any other in 
 Egyptian history, though at the same time it 
 has to be admitted that our knowledge of its 
 actual history amounts to practically nothing.” 
 
138 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 With the pre-dynastic tombs, however, and 
 with their comparatively meagre provision for 
 the dead, we have not to do at present. All 
 that need be said is that the pre-dynastic Egyptian 
 buried his dead in a shallow pit cut in the sand 
 or the soft rock, the body being laid on its side 
 in a crouching posture, the knees drawn up 
 towards the chin, and the hands placed in a 
 supplicating attitude before the face. Around 
 the dead man, who was often covered with a 
 reed mat, were placed the vases for food and 
 drink, the various utensils, flint knives, ivory 
 tablets, and suchlike things which were held 
 to be necessary or useful for him in the life 
 beyond, and above all the carved slate palette 
 which was used for grinding the green face- 
 paint in which the early Egyptian delighted, and 
 the material for making the paint itself. 
 
 From these early tombs we have learned 
 that the pre-dynastic Egyptian was far from being 
 an uncultured savage. Hus funerary equipment, 
 primitive as it is in some respects, shows us that 
 he had already acquired the rudiments of that 
 art of representing human and animal form which 
 was to be carried to such remarkable heights in 
 the dynastic period; he was an accomplished 
 potter, whose vessels, though he was as yet 
 ignorant of the potter’s wheel, are so perfectly 
 moulded by hand that the absence of the wheel 
 is no loss, and who “ belonged to one of those 
 rare and happy periods when the craftsman 
 seems incapable of an error of taste, and in 
 consequence almost every form that leaves his 
 hands is a thing of beauty’; and he had an 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 139 
 
 inexhaustible patience and an amazing skill in 
 the working of vessels of the hardest stone which 
 make the pre-dynastic hard stoneware the 
 standard of quality by which all succeeding 
 periods are judged. 
 
 The disclosure of the tombs of the true early 
 dynastic period, as distinguished from the earlier 
 tombs which we have been describing, was to 
 come from the Holy City of ancient Egypt— 
 Abydos. The reason for the fact that the royal 
 tombs of this period are to be found in the 
 neighbourhood of a town which was never the 
 capital of the land, and not at such important 
 cities as Memphis or Thebes, is, of course, that 
 Abydos had a sanctity to which no other place 
 in Egypt could lay claim, as the burial-place of 
 the head of the God of the Resurrection, Osiris, 
 after his slaughter and dismemberment by Set. 
 Osiris was not the original god of the dead at 
 Abydos, for there existed, long before his supre- 
 macy, the worship of a local god Khenti—* The 
 First of the Westerners,” whose place Osiris 
 usurped, or rather with whom he was identified. 
 But from a very early date Osiris was supreme 
 at Abydos. Every devout Egyptian desired to 
 be buried, if possible, at Abydos, and as close as 
 might be to the burial-place of the God of the 
 Resurrection ; if actual burial was impossible, as 
 in the vast majority of cases, the next best thing 
 was to be allowed to set up a memorial slab in 
 the neighbourhood, or to make a pilgrimage, 
 even after death, to the Holy City, before being 
 laid in the less holy ground elsewhere ; while 
 if none of these expedients was feasible, at least 
 
140 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 one could send a little votive vase of common 
 pottery, and have it laid near to the sacred site. 
 Accordingly the Necropolis at Abydos is full of 
 memorials of all periods of Egyptian history, 
 and in particular the ground is so crowded with 
 broken pottery of all ages and types that the 
 Arabs call the place “‘ Umm el-Ga’ab,” “ ‘The 
 Mother of Pots.” 
 
 It was on this site that M. Amélineau began 
 his excavations in 1895, continuing them till 
 the spring of 1898. He discovered several large 
 chamber tombs, which contained many articles 
 of exquisite workmanship, vases, and plaques in 
 fine stone and in pottery, ebony and ivory tablets, 
 bearing inscriptions in archaic hieroglyphics, and 
 evidence that the tombs had belonged to kings 
 of Egypt earlier in date than the period of the 
 Pyramid-builders. In particular he found the 
 tomb of a king whose name he read as Khent, 
 and whom he identified with Osiris himself, 
 as one of the titles of the god is ‘‘ Khent-Amenti.”’ 
 In January, 1898, he found in this tomb part of 
 a skull which he conjectured to be the skull of 
 the god, and on the same day his workmen 
 unearthed a granite bier of familiar Egyptian 
 shape to which he gave the name of “ The Bed 
 of Osiris.” 
 
 Had these attributions been established M. 
 Amélineau’s discoveries, important enough in 
 themselves, would have been absolutely unique 
 in character. But the somewhat acrimonious 
 discussion which followed the announcement of 
 the finds, established the fact that though he had 
 discovered the tomb of one of the earliest kings 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 141 
 
 of Egypt it was the tomb of a man, and not of 
 a god. The Bed of Osiris proved to be a New 
 Empire copy of some more ancient bier placed 
 there by Egyptians who had made the same 
 mistake as the modern explorer, and imagined 
 that they were restoring the actual tomb of the 
 god of the Underworld. The great discovery 
 thus failed to produce the effect which its import- 
 ance deserved, and rather cast ridicule upon the 
 possibility of retrieving for serious history the 
 period of the earliest dynasties. M. Amélineau 
 shortly afterwards abandoned his uncompleted 
 task, believing that the site was completely worked 
 out, and for a time Abydos remained without 
 any further attempts to unravel its mysteries. 
 
 In the winter of 1899-1900, however, Professor 
 Flinders Petrie began work on the abandoned 
 site, and the results of his patient and skilful 
 study have been of supreme importance for 
 the reconstruction of this earliest period of the 
 history of the ancient Egyptian kingdom. He 
 not only found in the tombs already discovered 
 a great quantity of valuable material, but added 
 considerably to the number of known tombs, 
 and planned with the utmost care all those which 
 came to light. In the main, these royal tombs 
 of the earliest dynasties proved to conform to a 
 single type, though the variations in size and in 
 the number of apartments are considerable. 
 Generally speaking, there is a large central 
 chamber, dug in the soil, and sometimes 
 approached by a stairway. This chamber, which 
 we may believe to have been the actual royal 
 sepulchre, is lined, and sometimes floored, with 
 
142 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 wood, though in some instances the flooring is 
 of stone, in one case of granite, the earliest known 
 examples of stonework. Around the central 
 chamber are grouped smaller cells, in which 
 were stored the provision for the use of the dead 
 king in the Underworld, or where the bodies of 
 his favourites who were doomed to accompany 
 him in his dark journey were laid after they had 
 been slain during his funeral rites. 
 
 The great tomb of King Kha-sekhem of the 
 IInd Dynasty, 223 feet by 54 feet, is unique in 
 the fact that its central chamber, 10 feet by 17 feet, 
 and nearly 6 feet deep, is entirely built of stone, 
 and is the earliest known example of a piece of 
 mason-work. Each tomb, when it was completed 
 and occupied, was roofed with wooden beams, 
 and above it the sand was piled in a low mound, 
 the precursor of the great stone burial mounds 
 which were to appear ere long when the pride of 
 the [Vth Dynasty monarchs was no longer 
 content with anything less than a pyramid for 
 its memorial. Above the tomb a pair of grave- 
 steles bearing the king’s name were placed, so 
 that the royal cemetery of Abydos must have 
 presented an appearance not unlike that of a 
 modern churchyard with its mounds and its 
 headstones. 
 
 No royal bodies, of course, were found in 
 these earliest tombs. Time and the tomb- 
 robber had done their work too well for that, 
 and the art of mummification was as yet unknown. 
 At a very early date the tombs had been rifled, 
 and some of them burned, no doubt in the 
 process of disposing of the bodies after they had 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 143 
 
 been plundered, as the Ramesside robber disposed 
 of the mummy of Sebek-em-saf. The most 
 unquestionably personal relic discovered was the 
 shrivelled arm of the queen of King Zer, which 
 had been stolen by some robber who had not 
 time to carry off his plunder, and had thrust it 
 into a hole in the tomb wall, where it was found, 
 with its four beautiful bracelets still intact, by 
 one of Petrie’s workmen. What was left in the 
 tombs is simply what previous robbers had not 
 deemed worth the trouble of carrying away. 
 Yet these pieces of pottery, these broken bits 
 of ivory furniture, these ebony and ivory plaques, 
 with their archaic inscriptions, have proved of 
 inestimable importance ; for they have enabled 
 us to fashion in our minds a picture, rude enough, 
 no doubt, and sadly lacking in detail, but unques- 
 tionably true in its main outline of the earliest 
 ordered civilisation in the history of the world. 
 We can see that by 3500 B.c., the very latest 
 date to which the Ist Dynasty can be brought 
 down (Petrie dates it from 5500 B.c.), the Egyp- 
 tian state, under ‘“‘ The Scorpion,” Narmer, or 
 Aha-men, the group of kings who probably 
 stand for the Menes of Manetho’s story, 
 had long and completely emerged from the 
 barbarism which swathed the rest of the world 
 save Babylonia, and possibly Crete, and was 
 already thoroughly organised and master of 
 all its own resources. War, which had produced 
 ‘the union of the two sections of the land, the 
 Delta and the Upper Valley, was carried on, not 
 as a matter of chance razzias, but with the move- 
 ment of great armies which could sweep a whole 
 
144 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 populace into their net. The great mace-head 
 of King Narmer records the capture of 120,000 
 men, 400,000 oxen, and 1,422,000 goats. The 
 same king has in his train a Leader of the Cere- 
 monies, a title which shows that the etiquette 
 of the court was already thoroughly organised, 
 and at an early date the Commander of the 
 Inundation shows by his presence that the 
 Egyptian already realised the importance of this 
 great annual event, which, indeed, was no doubt 
 the compelling cause which resulted in the 
 extraordinarily early growth of organisation in 
 Egypt as compared with other lands. 
 
 That the equipment of the royal household 
 was sumptuous and tasteful, and that the personal 
 adornments of the glittering figures who occupied 
 its stage were of the richest material and of the 
 highest artistic quality, even the pitiful relics 
 which have survived are sufficient to assure 
 us. Pharaoh’s palace was adorned with vases 
 and bowls of diorite, breccia, rock-crystal, and 
 alabaster, wrought with matchless skill, and 
 ground to translucent thinness; his furniture 
 was of ebony and ivory exquisitely carved and 
 adorned with hammered gold. Nor was the 
 glow of beautiful colour wanting to the picture ; 
 for the Egyptian craftsman had already mastered 
 that art of glazing objects with brilliant colour 
 which his successors practised with such satisfy- 
 ing results. The ladies of the court found that 
 the goldsmith was capable of meeting their 
 desire for costly and tasteful jewellery in a 
 fashion that has never been surpassed, and the 
 bracelets of the Queen of Zer, of amethyst, 
 

 
 IQ. BRACELETS (Ist DYNASTY) ; CHAIN (vith DYNASTY) ; GOLD 
 SEAL (vith DYNASTY); GOLD UR#&US (x1Ith DYNASTY). 
 
 (From ‘Arts and Crafts of Ancient Egypt.’’) 
 
, oe ‘i aT; : 
 > : 1) -_ f - , is FY : f 
 Gi Vd Ga OR OT Sale ae 
 Cr) y » oh. ss true) ys We} 
 mire . 
 
 i ; ay ; rai i¢@ — { 9 
 
 jee | 
 
 ( 
 
 rT i ae", ' nat: 
 
 ' i ; 
 6. UP a! ’ : al 
 
 ; ee ; x ;*e 
 
 ; ; hits : 
 me ae Was 
 Sb ’ A P i @ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 7) y : : 3 
 7 ony ' - 3 el 
 < ‘ ; i * t i Le ot 
 La 
 : - j 
 i ; N 
 Lies a J “e My t 
 i 1 ; y : 
 i Pk : ea ee ee 
 . : ; ; ‘ 
 : - Wh. : 
 ' A ' ee) a ‘ ) 
 :] ad . - 
 u 
 4 j i e 
 - che 7 ; ‘ 
 ~ i j Ps ‘7. i ad 2 \ 
 ' =. 
 . } i — ae \ f 
 - Pon 17 . ’ 
 —_ ri - 
 F a Xs Z ay 
 4 3 
 j F ma, i. y Y 
 j = ; ae ~ 
 , “eta ; € 
 4 t fi ’ “a tt { be 
 ' F 
 ri ; 
 . : ae 
 sf : if “8 : vt = “ » = 
 : : 
 . = " way . ! 
 ae = | 
 ' 
 Leo? i 
 1 
 = : has . 
 : ' : ‘al b 
 : 4 = ; 
 i F $ : 
 - } \ ’ 
 ? o = 
 - A ‘a “ i ’ 7 
 4 4 
 : ag . 
 ! > ' 
 . i ' 
 : 
 | 
 ; \ 
 1 ! ' ¥ d F 
 rf cme : 
 i 
 i 
 ' . “ 
 _ if \ 1 d 
 ; . a P ' qi 
 1h > 
 ~ = — 
 i a i "2 f 
 3 a 5 . 
 i i 
 eer ‘ i 
 re ! - oe : } p ; 7 
 ed gol 3 ; 5 ea - : E ‘ 
 \ Tene fe 
 ' = al - 8 
 : a 
 i. 
 i i! r ' i 
 - a“ “; si i 
 “ : ‘4 é m u { 
 : eal , 
 é \? " 3 o 
 z ; 5 A 
 : hat : NS | att 7 
 ' F j 
 . : = Z| 
 ; rae ! segst > 
 j ; a - 
 i i \ 
 : : : ! : 4 
 i ‘ : , . 
 j 
 ° | ' j 
 4 a of 1 y , oF ; ; 
 ey 
 ¢ . a* ¥ ‘ 
 sf ' ' * ' 
 7 4 - . ' . : 
 (Cs ; is ' 
 j 
 ; i 7 VJ ‘ g 
 i ea 1 
 . 4 ° ~ i \ 
 , ‘ ee 1 : 
 ' : ; 
 ? J tt ; 0 
 k ; ( 4 4 
 \) , | , e +). ae 
 > 
 * ‘ ls j } «iy, © 4 ee 
 t- f - , » a 
 i] i ’ Pe : : de 
 ; ; af 5 - 
 _ ' , > . 14 ' " : 
 | eer) shy T ~ pad te Dige 
 } . : ; 
 . eg, 4 et) oda 
 4 a hy ~ € 
 i“ AyD 
 . : 
 
 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 145 
 
 turquoise, lazuli, and gold, are of fine design 
 and astonishingly good workmanship; while 
 the existence of a Court barber is attested by 
 the plait of false hair which was found in the 
 tomb of Zer, and was perhaps worn by the lady 
 of the bracelets. } 
 
 The art of hieroglyphic writing was already 
 fully established, and though the hieroglyphics 
 are archaic in form, they are quite intelligible. 
 In many of the tombs are found small ivory 
 plaques, ‘‘ made by the king’s carpenter.”” ‘These 
 are inscribed, each with the records of the events 
 of a single year; so that we have evidence of 
 a regular system of chronicling. The British 
 Museum possesses the lid of the ivory box in 
 which King Semti kept his Great Seal—‘“ The 
 Golden Seal of Judgment of King Den ’’—so 
 that manifestly official documents were in exist- 
 ence, and had to be authenticated by the royal 
 seal. Of art, nothing on a large scale has 
 survived ; but the artist who carved the little 
 ivory statuette of a king (perhaps Semti) wearing 
 the White Crown, and clothed in a long parti- 
 coloured robe, was already, within his limits, a 
 master ; and Professor Petrie says of the statuette 
 of Khasekhem of the IInd Dynasty, found at 
 Hierakonpolis, “the art of these figures shows 
 a complete mastery of sculpture, the face being 
 more delicately modelled than almost any later 
 work.” Altogether we must conceive of the 
 Court of the earliest Dynastic Kings of Egypt 
 as being organised on a high plane of luxury, 
 and indeed of comparative refinement. ‘There 
 is little that can be called barbaric, save the 
 
 K 
 
146 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 possible survival of the custom of slaying the 
 king’s favourites to accompany him in his 
 journey through the Underworld. 
 
 The results of this exploration of the resting- 
 places of the first buried royalties of Egypt may 
 not in themselves be imposing, when compared 
 with the bewildering wealth of some of the later 
 royal interments; but their importance is not 
 to be measured by mere quantity or richness in 
 the precious metals, but by the fact that they have 
 given to us a revelation of a whole period of 
 human activity which was previously hidden 
 beneath the mists of antiquity. Viewed in this 
 light it becomes apparent that these poor frag- 
 ments from the tombs of Abydos have a value 
 far exceeding that of many much more gorgeous 
 finds, and scarcely surpassed by the discoveries 
 of any period. ‘They stand, in this respect, on 
 the same level with the revelation of the Minoan 
 civilisation at Knossos, or that of the city-states 
 of Sumer at Lagash. 
 
 The search for the buried royalties of Egypt 
 next brings us into touch with the great age of 
 the Pyramid-builders, beginning with Zeser 
 and Seneferu, and extending, with gradually 
 diminishing splendour, down to the last relics 
 of the XIIth Dynasty—a period which has 
 already been dealt with in detail. It is followed 
 by the dark period which witnessed the incursion 
 and supremacy of the Hyksos kings, and the 
 War of Independence—a troubled period from 
 which few relics have survived, though the 
 account of the robbery of the tomb of King 
 Sebek-em-saf of the XIIIth Dynasty, with which 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 147 
 
 our chapter began, shows that the kings of even 
 these dark days were laid to rest with at least 
 something of the ancient splendour of Egyptian 
 royalty. 
 
 When we resume our story, we find that two 
 great changes have taken place, one in the course 
 of the national history, the other in the burial 
 customs with which we have to deal. The 
 centre of gravity of the Empire has shifted from 
 the area south of the Delta, embracing Saqqara, 
 Memphis, and the Fayum, to the great city 
 from which the Theban princes had been direct- 
 ing the struggle against the Hyksos ; and hence- 
 forward, throughout all the most brilliant period 
 of Egyptian history, Thebes remains almost 
 exclusively the royal abode, and, particularly 
 for our purpose, the place where the great 
 monarchs of the New Empire were buried in 
 the midst of all their magnificence. 
 
 Along with this political change has gone 
 another, which has completely revolutionised 
 the funerary customs consecrated by so long 
 usage. The resting-place of a Pharaoh is no 
 longer marked by a “ star-y-pointing Pyramid,” 
 with its temple and causeway. The tombs of 
 the great nobles of the Middle Kingdom at 
 Beni Hasan and elsewhere had already been 
 indicating a change in the funerary ideal, and 
 the temple of Mentuhotep at Der el-Bahri, with 
 its combination of pyramid and rock-hewn 
 shrine, may perhaps be looked upon as the com- 
 promise between the old ideal and the new. 
 Henceforward the actual tomb and the funerary 
 temple were to be separated by the necessities 
 
148 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 of the locality in which the first was situated. 
 The Temple was to stand by itself, free in the 
 open plain on the western bank of the Nile; 
 the Tomb was to be hidden from human know- 
 ledge, so far as possible, in a wild and desolate 
 valley of the Libyan hills behind the plain and 
 its girdling cliffs. 
 
 On the western bank of the Nile, opposite 
 Thebes, there lies a great bay of the Libyan 
 cliffs, extending for more than two miles from 
 the ruined palace of Amenhotep III and the 
 temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu on the 
 south, to Drah Abu’l Neggah and the temple 
 of Sety I at Qurneh on the north. From cape 
 to cape of the bay there stretches, like the string 
 of a bow, a row of ruined funerary temples, 
 built by most of the notable Theban Pharaohs. 
 Beyond the line of the string towards the Nile, 
 the two Memnon colossi still keep watch and 
 ward—all that remains of the most gorgeous of 
 all the western temples, reared by the most 
 gorgeous of Theban Pharaohs—Amenhotep III ; 
 while between the string and the bow, and 
 clinging close to the curving cliffs, lie the temples 
 of Der el-Medinet and Der el-Bahri. Beyond 
 the northern nock of the bow at Drah Abu’l 
 Neggah, a rugged winding path leads north- 
 westwards into the heart of the hills for about 
 a mile, then turning sharply westwards, it reveals 
 a forked valley, one branch of which is known 
 as the West Valley, and the other and more 
 important as the East Valley. Together these 
 two ravines make up the Biban el-Moluk, or 
 Valley of the Kings, the most famous place of 
 
 _— SESE ee er 
 

 
 20, ENTRANCE-TO THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS, ,THEBES. 
 
=i 
 
 
 
 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 149 
 
 royal sepulture in the world, where for a thousand 
 years the kings of the earliest of world-empires 
 were laid “ all of them in glory, everyone in his 
 own house.” 
 
 They chose for their resting-place one of 
 the wildest and most barren scenes which it 
 is possible to imagine, a sun-scorched wilderness 
 of rock and tumbled stone, where the heat, 
 reverberated from rock to rock under a sky of 
 brass, is like that of Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace. 
 But it was not beauty or richness that they were 
 seeking when they came to the Valley of the 
 Kings ; it was the security which not even the 
 Great Pyramid had been able to give to the mighty 
 dead. ‘The loneliness and desolation of the 
 place were the very things which prompted its 
 selection; for they sought—how vainly the 
 future was to show—a place where human foot 
 had never trod, and where they might expect 
 that their long sleep would be unbroken by any 
 intruder. The sacrilegious attempts of the type 
 of robber who had scattered to the winds the 
 dust of Khufu they foresaw, and tried, though 
 with only imperfect success, to guard against ; 
 what they could not foresee was the advent of 
 the scientific excavator, with a patience which 
 rivals and a skill which far surpasses that of 
 the native plunderer, whose work has put the 
 crown on the lengthy demonstration of the futility 
 of all their pathetic efforts at security. 
 
 The type of tomb which is characteristic of 
 the Valley of the Kings is simple enough in its 
 general idea, though its development is some- 
 times complex enough. An entrance gallery is 
 
150 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 driven into the rock sloping downwards, the 
 passage-way being sometimes an inclined plane, 
 sometimes a stairway. This corridor is some- 
 times interrupted by a deep pit, possibly meant 
 to catch any water which might flow in through 
 the doorway, but more probably to render the 
 task of the robber more difficult. Beyond the 
 pit, the passage is continued, and gives access 
 to chambers and halls varying in number and 
 size, until at last the sarcophagus chamber is 
 reached. Of this general type there are all 
 varieties, from the simplicity of such a tomb as 
 that of Tutankhamen, with its short entrance 
 passage, and its scanty provision of poorly 
 decorated rooms, to the complexity of the tombs 
 of Ramses III or Sety I, with their hundreds of 
 feet of corridor and chamber, brilliantly decorated 
 with the finest art which their time could produce. 
 
 The decoration of the royal tombs, though 
 often of high quality artistically, is generally 
 of a sombre and gloomy character, differing in 
 this from the brilliant pictures of life which are 
 characteristic of the Old Kingdom tombs of the 
 nobles at Saqqara, or even from some of the 
 private tombs, such as those of Nekht and 
 Rekh-ma-ra at Thebes. Generally speaking, 
 the leading conception is that the dead king, 
 accompanied by the sun-god or identified with 
 him, sails in the bark of Ra through the Under- 
 world, bringing light as he passes. On his 
 voyage he is accompanied by all manner of 
 spirits and genii, which ward off the enemies of 
 the soul from the divine boat. ‘The subjects 
 of the illustrations are largely derived from two 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES Ist 
 
 books of funerary ritual, The Book of Him 
 Who is in the Duat (Underworld), and The 
 Book of the Gates, while portions of the Book 
 of the Dead are also illustrated. 
 
 These wonderful tombs have always been 
 more or less known in historic times. Strabo 
 mentions that there were in his time forty tombs 
 worthy of a visit, and we may be sure that the 
 bulk of these had already been long rifled, or at 
 least cleared of their contents to avoid the danger 
 of desecration, before the Egyptian Empire ended 
 its long course. The centuries between the 
 visit of the old geographer and that of the scholars 
 of the French Expedition had brought oblivion 
 to the majority of the tombs, for the French 
 explorers mention only eleven, the others having 
 meanwhile got covered up and forgotten. 
 
 It is with the coming of Belzoni on his second 
 journey in 1817 that the modern search for 
 buried Pharaohs may be said to begin, and since 
 his discovery of the tomb of Sety I, the work of 
 finding Pharaohs has gone on for more than a 
 century with more or less success, until at the 
 present time something like sixty tombs have 
 been found, including a few which are not royal, 
 and some which are merely pits. The prob- 
 ability is that few tombs remain to be discovered 
 in the Valley, for most of the great royalties of 
 the Empire have now been accounted for in one 
 way or another. 
 
 One chance of some importance, however, 
 remains. The last king whom we know to 
 have been buried in the Valley of the Kings is 
 Ramses XII of the XXth Dynasty. In the great 
 
152 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 cache at Der el-Bahri, which will fall to be spoken 
 of shortly, several of the mummies of kings of the 
 XXIst Dynasty were found, along with those of 
 the earlier and more famous lines ; but the actual 
 tombs of the XXIst Dynasty have never yet 
 come to light, and it is possible that some 
 fortunate explorer may yet fall, in one of the 
 desolate valleys among the Libyan hills, on the 
 necropolis of a line of kings who, if they do 
 not fill so great a place in the history of Egypt 
 as their predecessors of the XVIIIth and XIXth 
 Dynasties, were yet sufficiently important to 
 make the discovery of their resting-place a matter 
 of great moment. 
 
 It was on October 6 that Belzoni began those 
 excavations in the Valley which resulted in the 
 discovery of what is still the finest example of 
 a royal tomb of the Empire. On the oth he was 
 fortunate enough to discover two tombs of 
 considerable importance, one of them beautifully 
 painted, the other undecorated, but containing 
 some funerary furniture and two _ female 
 mummies. “ ‘Their hair,” says Belzoni, whose 
 summary method of dealing with mummies we 
 have already noticed, “‘ was pretty long, and well- 
 preserved, though it was easily separated from 
 the head by pulling it a little’?! On the r1th, 
 this amazingly fortunate man, who knew so 
 little the greatness of his good fortune, entered 
 another tomb, evidently one of still greater 
 importance, which, with its contents, is dismissed 
 in half a page of his story. “We found a ~ 
 sarcophagus of granite, with two mummies in 
 it, and in a corner a statue standing erect, 
 

 
 PAC “AKON COLE TRV NII IES IDS WINILILIE NS COM ARIES, TUNIS). 
 

 
BURIED ROYALTIES 153 
 
 6 feet 6 inches high, and beautifully cut out of 
 sycamore wood ; it is nearly perfect except the 
 nose, We found also a number of little images 
 of wood, well carved, representing symbolical 
 figures. Some had a lion’s head, others a fox’s, 
 others a monkey’s. . . . In the chamber on our 
 right hand we found another statue like the first, 
 but not perfect.” Thus summarily Belzoni 
 dismisses a discovery which would make most 
 present-day explorers green with envy. What 
 became of the two mummies, the two funerary 
 statues, and the ushabtis, we are not told, but 
 can easily imagine. 
 
 These, however, were only the preliminaries 
 of the great find which was awaiting the lucky 
 excavator. On October 16 he started operations 
 at a point about 15 yards from the tomb already 
 mentioned (which would seem, therefore, to 
 have been that of Ramses I), and in a spot which 
 seemed to his workmen most unlikely to yield 
 anything. On the 17th they struck the first 
 indications of a cutting, and on the next day 
 the entrance of a tomb was laid bare. Before 
 the close of the day Belzoni had penetrated 
 into the tomb as far as the antechamber to the 
 first of its pillared halls, where his progress 
 was interrupted for the time by a pit 30 feet 
 deep, which had to be bridged before he could 
 advance further. Crossing it on the next day, 
 he gained access to the rest of the tomb, and the 
 next three weeks he spent as a man in a dream 
 wandering through the chambers of the great 
 tomb, and recording to the best of his ability 
 the wonders which he had been the first to see 
 
1564 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 for nearly three thousand years. His attempts 
 at representation of what he saw were imperfect 
 enough, and his nomenclature of the various 
 chambers is merely paltry. ‘Titles like ‘ The 
 Drawing-room,” ‘‘ The Room of _ Beauties,” 
 “The Side-board Room,” seem ludicrously out 
 of place amidst the sombre dignity of Sety’s 
 sepulchre. Still Belzoni cannot be denied the 
 merits of patience and perseverance, and it was 
 no careless worker who spent a whole twelve- 
 month in the stifling atmosphere of a tomb in 
 the Valley of the Kings taking impressions in 
 wax of all the figures on a tomb which measures 
 328 feet from end to end. 
 
 Belzoni attributed the tomb to Necho and 
 Psamtek II of the XXVIth Dynasty, finding 
 evidence to his satisfaction of the attribution in 
 a procession on the walls, in which he saw 
 Persians, Jews, and Ethiopians, all of whom, 
 according to him, ‘‘ Nichao and Psammethis ” 
 had conquered. He was thus a matter of seven 
 hundred years out in his dating of his discovery, 
 for the tomb is that of Sety I of the XIXth 
 Dynasty, and a monument of the art of the New 
 Empire just at that point when it had passed its 
 zenith, and was trembling on the verge of the 
 decadence, though still capable of the wonders 
 of Abydos, which are rivalled by some of the 
 work here. Sety himself, of course, he did not 
 find in the magnificent alabaster sarcophagus 
 which stood in one of the pillared halls of the 
 tomb. Luckily, when we think of how the 
 explorer would probably have treated him, that 
 honourable king and valiant soldier had long 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 166 
 
 centuries before been removed from his splendid 
 underground palace to the obscurer but safer 
 hiding-place where he was discovered in our 
 own time, and treated with a little more reverence 
 than he would have received from Belzoni; but 
 his sarcophagus was in itself a prize more than 
 sufficient to reward the excavator for all the 
 labour he had spent. 
 
 “It is a sarcophagus,” says the lucky dis- 
 coverer, ‘‘of the finest Oriental alabaster, 
 g feet 5 inches long, and 3 feet 7 inches wide. 
 Its thickness is only 2 inches; and it is trans- 
 parent, when a light is placed in the inside of it. 
 It is minutely sculptured within and without with 
 several hundred figures, which do not exceed 
 2 inches in height. . . . I cannot give an idea of 
 this beautiful and invaluable piece of antiquity, 
 and can only say that nothing has been brought 
 into Europe from Egypt that can be compared 
 with it.” He was not far wrong in his enthusi- 
 astic estimate of the artistic value of his find, 
 as anyone who has seen the exquisite piece of 
 carving in the Soane Museum will admit. 
 
 The fame of Belzoni’s discovery was not 
 long in reaching the ears of the Turkish officials, 
 and ere long the chief local authority, Hamed 
 Aga of Keneh, appeared upon the scene with 
 a troop of cavalry, having been so eager over 
 the find that he had made the journey in thirty- 
 six hours instead of forty-eight. It was no love 
 for antiquity, however, which had brought him. 
 All the artistic wonders of the tomb were lost 
 on him and his following; but they ransacked 
 every corner of the tomb with great eagerness. 
 
156 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 After a long search the Aga dismissed his 
 soldiers, and turning to Belzoni, he revealed the 
 true object of his anxiety. ‘* Pray, where have 
 you put the treasure?” he said. Belzoni’s 
 denial of the existence of any such thing was 
 met with an incredulous smile. “I have been 
 told,”’ said this characteristic specimen of ‘Turkish 
 officialdom, “‘ by a person to whom I can give 
 credit, that you have found in this place a large 
 golden cock filled with diamonds and pearls. 
 I must see it. Where is it?’ ‘The explorer at 
 length succeeded in convincing the Aga that 
 there was nothing to lay hands on, and with 
 supreme disgust he rose to leave the tomb. 
 Belzoni asked him what he thought of the beauti- 
 ful figures which surrounded him. ‘“ He just 
 gave a glance at them, quite unconcerned, and 
 said, ‘ This would be a good place for a harem, 
 as the women would have something to look 
 at.’’? ‘Thirty years later, Layard’s experience 
 of the Turkish official was almost identical with 
 that of Belzoni. 
 
 Forty-two years elapsed before anything of 
 importance was added to our knowledge of the 
 buried royalties of Egypt. It was in 1859 that 
 the beautiful jewellery of Queen Aah-hotep was 
 rescued by Mariette from the hands of the worthy 
 successor of Hamed Aga, as has already been 
 told. But it was not till 1881 that there occurred 
 the first of those amazing resurrections of the 
 Theban Pharaohs which since then have been 
 repeated on several occasions, culminating with 
 the discovery of the most splendid of all royal 
 burials in the tomb of Tutankhamen. 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 157 
 The story of the 1881 find is one of the 
 
 romances of excavation, though the credit of it, 
 if there is any, goes, not to the scientific explorer, 
 but to the native practitioner of the gentle art 
 of tomb-robbery. It was in 1876 that evidence 
 began to accumulate, in the shape of various 
 papyri and other articles of XXIst Dynasty 
 date which appeared mysteriously on the market, 
 that the fellahs of Sheikh Abd el-Qurneh had 
 somehow or other gained access to some royal 
 tomb of that period. The Service of Antiquities 
 took the matter up, and suspicion fell on the 
 members of a family named Abd-er-Rassoul. 
 In April, 1881, Maspero arrested with his own 
 hand Ahmed, one of the members of the family, 
 and committed him to the tender mercies of 
 Daoud Pasha, the third Mudir of Keneh who 
 has appeared in this chapter, but who, unlike 
 his predecessors, comes in on this occasion on 
 the side of the angels, so to speak. Justice, in 
 the Egypt of the eighties, had ways and means 
 of arriving at its ends which seem strange to 
 mere Occidentals, and Maspero covers a good 
 deal in his simple statement that Daoud Pasha 
 carried on the investigation “ with his habitual 
 severity.” The Ramesside inspectors, in I100 
 B.C., put things more bluntly—“ They were 
 beaten with sticks both on their hands and feet ” 
 —but probably the facts were not very different 
 in the modern trial. The only result was to 
 produce a flood of testimony that Ahmed Abd- 
 er-Rassoul ‘“‘ never had excavated, and never 
 would excavate, that he was incapable of mis- 
 appropriating the tiniest antiquity, to say nothing 
 
158 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 of violating a royal tomb,” and the spotless 
 victim of oppression had to be liberated “‘ pro- 
 visionally.” “* ‘The vigour with which the inquiry 
 had been conducted by Daoud Pasha’ had, 
 however, impressed the mind of one of the 
 Abd-er-Rassoul family with the conviction that 
 there are cases where honesty, or the best possible 
 imitation of it, is the best policy. Mohammed 
 Ahmed Abd-er-Rassoul came secretly to the 
 Mudir, made a clean breast, or at least a breast 
 as clean as was convenient, to that Rhadamanthus, 
 and on July 5, 1881, Emile Brugsch Bey, repre- 
 senting the Service of Antiquities, at last found 
 the truth about the business, as usual, at the 
 bottom of a well. 
 
 He was led by the penitent sinner Mohammed 
 to a lonely spot at the foot of the Libyan cliffs, 
 not far from Hatshepsut’s famous temple at 
 Der el-Bahri. There, after a long climb up the 
 hillside, and the scaling of a high cliff, he found 
 behind a great rock the mouth of a black shaft 
 about 6 feet square, the well of the unfinished 
 tomb of Queen Astemkheb of the XXIst Dynasty ; 
 and the story of his experiences may best be 
 told by himself, 
 
 ‘* Finding Pharaoh was an exciting experience 
 for me. It is true I was armed to the teeth, 
 and my faithful rifle, full of shells, hung over 
 my shoulder; but my assistant from Cairo, 
 Ahmed Effendi Kemal, was the only person with 
 me whom I could trust. Any one of the natives 
 would have killed me willingly, had we been 
 alone, for everyone of them knew better than I 
 did that I was about to deprive them of a great 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 159 
 
 source of revenue. But I exposed no sign of 
 fear, and proceeded with the work. The well 
 cleared out, I descended, and began the explora- 
 tion of the underground passage.” 
 
 There are many types of courage ; but surely 
 not the least remarkable is that of the man of 
 science who allows himself to be lowered on an 
 Arab rope, down a 4o-feet shaft, to explore a 
 dark gallery of the dead, while the rope which is 
 his only link with life and light is held above 
 by a man who would cheerfully have left him 
 to keep unending vigil beside the Pharaohs whom 
 he was seeking. 
 
 Mohammed’s penitence, however, or perhaps 
 we had better say, his respect for Daoud Pasha’s 
 ‘ habitual severity,” kept him true, and Brugsch 
 had no other terrors to face than those of his 
 strange task. ‘‘ Soon,” he says, “‘ we came upon 
 cases of porcelain funeral offerings, metal and 
 alabaster vessels, draperies and trinkets, until, 
 reaching the turn in the passage, a cluster of 
 mummy-cases came to view in such number as 
 to stagger me. Collecting my senses, I made 
 the best examination of them I could by the light 
 of my torch, and at once saw that they contained 
 the mummies of royal personages of both sexes ; 
 and yet that was not all. Plunging on ahead of 
 my guide, I came to the chamber, and there, 
 standing against the walls, or lying on the floor, 
 I found even a greater number of mummy-cases 
 of stupendous size and weight. Their gold 
 coverings and their polished surfaces so plainly 
 reflected my own excited visage that it seemed 
 as though I was looking into the faces of my 
 
160 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 own ancestors. The gilt face on the coffin of 
 the amiable Queen Nefertari seemed to smile 
 upon me like an old acquaintance.” ‘“‘ The 
 fellahs,” says Maspero, “had unearthed a 
 catacomb crammed with Pharaohs.” Among 
 the mummies were those of several of the most 
 famous Pharaohs of the New Empire, Seqenen- 
 Ra, the hero of the War of Independence, 
 Amenhotep I, and Queen Aahmes Nefertari, 
 Thothmes II, and Thothmes III, the greatest 
 soldier of Egyptian history, Sety I, Ramses II, 
 and Ramses III, the most famous kings of the 
 XIXth and XXth Dynasties, Pinezem I and 
 Pinezem II of the XXIst Dynasty, Queen 
 Hent-taui, Queen Nezem-Mut, and others. 
 
 The question of the removal to a place of 
 security of this astonishing mass of dead royalty 
 presented its own difficulties. The removal had 
 to be as speedy as possible, for now that 
 the secret was out every hour would add to the 
 danger of a violent attack on the shaft, and the 
 dispersal for ever of its previous treasures. Yet 
 the problem of removal was no easy one. The 
 spot where the shaft lies is lonely and difficult 
 of access; and the coffins of some of the kings 
 and queens were of huge size and corresponding 
 weight. ‘That of Queen Aahmes Nefertari, for 
 instance, is 10 feet long, and required sixteen 
 men to lift it. 
 
 ‘‘ Early the next morning,’ says Brugsch, 
 ‘three hundred Arabs were employed under my 
 direction—each one a thief. One by one the 
 coffins were hoisted to the surface, were securely 
 sewed up in sailcloth and matting, and then were 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 161 
 
 carried across the plain of Thebes to the steamers 
 awaiting them at Luxor.” 
 
 It took six days of hard labour, under the 
 blazing sun of an Egyptian July, before the 
 tomb was cleared; and then three days more 
 were spent in waiting for the Museum steamboat 
 to arrive. Brugsch must have been an anxious 
 man as he watched the efforts of the three 
 hundred professional tomb-robbers from whose 
 hands he was snatching what they regarded 
 as their legitimate prey; and no doubt he 
 heaved a sigh of genuine relief when, on July 20, 
 he handed over his precious freight to the 
 Museum at Boulak, and was delivered from the 
 burden of royalty. Sir Gaston Maspero has 
 told us how all along the Nile, from Luxor to 
 Quft, both banks of the river were covered with 
 frantic crowds of fellahs, the women tearing their 
 hair and wailing, the men firing rifles, as they 
 followed the downstream progress of the steamer 
 bearing the mummies. So, no doubt, only with- 
 out the rifles and the steam, their ancestors had 
 followed the funeral barks which bore across 
 the river the dead bodies of these mighty kings 
 three thousand years before ! 
 
 The very richness of the find proved some- 
 what of an embarrassment to the authorities at 
 the Cairo Museum, and it was several years 
 before the results of Brugsch’s great haul of 
 Pharaohs were properly sorted out and classified. 
 It was not till May, 1886, that the unwrapping of 
 the mummies began, and the task was only 
 completed in the end of June. The figure of 
 supreme interest was that of Ramses II, who 
 
 L 
 
162 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 was then believed to be the Pharaoh of the 
 Oppression of the Israelites, and who was then 
 taken more at the estimate of his own overweening 
 vanity than he is at present. The mummy of 
 the great king was solemnly unwrapped in the 
 presence of an illustrious gathering, the Khedive 
 of Egypt himself verifying the existence of the 
 later inscription of the priests of the XXIst 
 Dynasty on the wrappings around the body, 
 before the process of unwrapping began. The 
 state of the mummy agreed with the historical 
 evidence as to the length of the reign of Ramses. 
 The king must have been nearly one hundred 
 years old when he died, and his body bears the 
 marks of extreme old age. 
 
 “The mummy,” says Maspero, “is thin, 
 much shrunken, and light ; the bones are brittle, 
 and the muscles atrophied, as one would expect 
 in the case of a man who had attained the age 
 of a hundred; but the figure is still tall and of 
 perfect proportions. The mask of the mummy 
 gives a fair idea of that of the living king; 
 the somewhat unintelligent expression, slightly 
 brutish perhaps, but haughty and firm of purpose, 
 displays itself with an air of royal majesty beneath 
 the sombre materials used by the embalmer.”’ 
 
 The hero of the battle of Kadesh must in 
 his prime have been a man of large and powerful 
 frame. ‘“‘ Even after. the coalescence of the 
 vertebre and the shrinkage produced by mummi- 
 fication, his mummy still measures over 5 feet 
 8 inches’’; so that we may picture him as a 
 formidable figure over 6 feet in height, perhaps 
 nearer 7 feet with the high war helmet of the 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 163 
 
 Pharaohs crowning his head, as he charged with 
 arrow drawn to the head, in his rattling war- 
 chariot upon the Hittite ranks. His conduct at 
 Kadesh suggests a good trooper, but a dull 
 general, and his mummy does nothing to cause 
 a revision of the judgment. 
 
 An infinitely nobler figure was that of the 
 father of Ramses, Sety I, whose mummy was 
 also found in the cache. ‘‘ 'The fine kingly head 
 was exposed to view,” says Maspero. “* It was 
 a masterpiece of the art of the embalmer, and the 
 expression of the face was that of one who had 
 only a few hours previously breathed his last. 
 Death had slightly drawn the nostrils and 
 contracted the lips, the pressure of the bandages 
 had flattened the nose a little, and the skin was 
 darkened by the pitch; but a calm and gentle 
 smile still played over the mouth, and the half- 
 open eyelids allowed a glimpse to be seen from 
 under their lashes of an apparently moist and 
 glistening line, the reflection from the white 
 porcelain eyes let in to the orbit at the time of 
 burial.”” The somewhat gruesome art of the 
 Egyptian embalmer reached its culmination in 
 this extraordinary piece of work, and while to 
 our minds the whole practice verges upon, if 
 it does not overstep, the limits of the decent 
 into the realm of the horrible, we may admit 
 that it comes as near as possible to the attainment 
 of what Professor Elliot Smith tells us was the 
 aim of the embalmer—‘‘ to make the represen- 
 tation of the dead man so life-like that he should, 
 in fact, remain alive.’ We should never have 
 known how noble and dignified a type the 
 
164 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 aristocratic Egyptian of 1300 B.c. had attained 
 had it not been for the preservation of the grand 
 head of Sety, which teaches us that the sculptor 
 of the exquisite reliefs of Abydos was doing no 
 more than bare justice to his king when he carved 
 the delicate beauty which charms us to-day. 
 
 If the beauty of Sety’s face almost justified 
 both the morbid skill which sought to deny the 
 reality of death and the curiosity which unveiled 
 the secrets of the grave, the same cannot be said 
 of the mummy of Seqenen-Ra, not the least 
 interesting of the grim assemblage. ‘There are 
 few things more ghastly than the head of the 
 old hero of the Expulsion of the Hyksos, with 
 three gaping wounds on skull and face, and the 
 teeth clenched, in the death-agony, upon the 
 mangled tongue. Yet even this grim evidence 
 of a violent death on the field of battle seems to 
 bring the reality of that ancient struggle in which 
 the Pharaoh died more forcibly home to the 
 imagination. 
 
 A still more horrible figure of nightmare was 
 that of the unnamed person whose contorted 
 limbs and writhen countenance suggested to 
 Maspero the most ghastly of all suspicions as 
 to how he met his end. ‘ It makes one’s flesh 
 creep to look at it,” says Maspero, speaking of 
 this mummy ; “the hands and feet are tied by 
 strong bands, and are curled up as if under an 
 intolerable pain ; the abdomen is drawn up, the 
 stomach projects like a ball, the chest is con- 
 tracted, the head is thrown back, the face is 
 contorted in a hideous grimace, the retracted 
 lips expose the teeth, and the mouth is open as if 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 165 
 
 to give utterance to a last despairing cry. The 
 conviction is borne in upon us that the man was 
 invested while still alive with the wrappings of 
 the dead.’ Others have suggested a less horrible 
 interpretation of the condition of the figure. In 
 the report of the trial which took place in the 
 reign of Ramses III of individuals accused of 
 a conspiracy against the life of the king it is 
 significantly said of some of those whose guilt 
 was established, “‘ They died of themselves,” 
 and the suggestion has been made that this 
 figure, whose contortions might well be due to 
 the action of an irritant poison, is that of one 
 of these involuntary suicides. In either case, 
 the thing is sufficiently horrible, and hints, not 
 obscurely, at that darker aspect of Oriental 
 Court life which lay beneath all the glitter and 
 splendour of the Theban palace. 
 
 The find of Der el-Bahri was followed, in 
 1894-5, by the discoveries of M. de Morgan 
 at Dahshur, which have given us the exquisite 
 jewellery of the XIIth and XIIIth Dynasty 
 already alluded to in our chapter on the Pyramids. 
 And then, in 1898, M. Loret discovered in the 
 Valley of the Kings the tomb of Amenhotep II, 
 son of the great conqueror Thothmes III. 
 
 Until the great discovery of last year threw 
 all others into the shade, this discovery of M. 
 Loret was unique, for the mummy of Amenhotep 
 was found still resting in its coffin under the 
 gold-starred and blue-painted roof of the funerary 
 chamber—the first Pharaoh who had ever been 
 found sleeping in the tomb where he was laid. 
 His own records tell us of his prowess. “ He 
 
166 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 is a king very weighty of arm,” so the inscription 
 of the Amada and Elephantine steles runs ; 
 ‘“‘ there is not one who can draw his bow among 
 his army, among the hill-country sheikhs, or 
 among the princes of Retenu, because his strength 
 is so much greater than that of any king who has 
 ever existed.’’ In later days this boast of the 
 old Pharaoh got twisted into the curious legend 
 which Herodotus records of the king of Ethiopia 
 who challenged Cambyses to draw his bow. 
 The redoubtable weapon itself, strange to say, 
 was found in the tomb along with its owner. 
 It bore the inscription: “‘ Smiter of the Cave- 
 dwellers, overthrower of Kush, hacking up their 
 cities . . . the great wall of Egypt, protector of 
 his soldiers.”” Amenhotep was still wrapped in 
 his shroud and adorned with garlands; but the 
 tomb had been ruthlessly plundered in ancient 
 days, and little of artistic value was found. One 
 of the side-chambers of the tomb, however, 
 yielded a store of Pharaohs, only second in import- 
 ance to the great find of Der el-Bahri. Here 
 were gathered nine royal mummies, among 
 them those of Thothmes IV, Amenhotep III, 
 Siptah, Ramses IV, Ramses V, and Ramses VI. 
 Most interesting of all, in view of the idea then 
 prevalent of the date of the Exodus, was the 
 discovery, along with these, of the mummy of 
 Merenptah, who was held to be the Pharaoh of 
 the Exodus. ‘The absence of Merenptah from 
 the royal gathering at Der el-Bahri was explained 
 by interested but casual readers of Scripture by 
 the fact that of course he was drowned in the 
 Red Sea. ‘The narrative of Exodus, of course, 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 167 
 
 makes no such statement, and Merenptah duly 
 appeared, though the interest attaching to him 
 has somewhat waned with the progress of the 
 view that the Exodus took place two hundred 
 years before his reign. 
 
 The fate of the tomb of Amenhotep is sug- 
 gestive of the difficulties which meet the explorer 
 in his attempt to preserve for science and to treat 
 with proper reverence the relics of the past which 
 he unearths. The great king was left in his 
 coffin, with a few articles of his funerary furniture 
 beside him. The result was that in spite of the 
 armed guard which is maintained in the Valley 
 of the Kings, or perhaps with the complicity 
 of the guard, the tomb was rifled in 1901, the 
 mummy of the Pharaoh tumbled out on the 
 floor, and the model boat which had been left 
 beside the king stolen. 
 
 With the suggestion that Tutankhamen should 
 be allowed to rest in the midst of the splendours 
 which accompanied him to the grave, everyone 
 must sympathise ; the question is, will he be 
 allowed to rest in peace, no matter what the 
 precautions which may be taken, in the midst 
 of a people with whom tomb-robbery is a 
 profession of six thousand years standing, and 
 who know the matchless value of the treasure 
 which lies within their reach? Whatever the 
 decision, it may be hoped that if the mummy of 
 the last king in the direct line of the great XVIIIth 
 Dynasty be found beneath his gorgeous canopy 
 it will not be made the subject of a vulgar show, 
 as is done with that of Amenhotep II. 
 
 In 1902 the work of excavation in the Valley 
 
168 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 of the Kings was undertaken by an American, 
 Mr. Theodore M. Davis, or rather the funds for 
 the work were provided by Mr. Davis, while 
 the actual work of excavation was carried on 
 by officials of the Service of Antiquities, first 
 Mr. Howard Carter, then Mr. Weigall, and Mr. 
 Ayrton. In 1903 Mr. Carter found the tomb of 
 Thothmes IV, son of Amenhotep II, and father 
 of Amenhotep III. His mummy had already 
 been found in the tomb of his father, but many 
 articles of funerary furniture, mostly broken, 
 were found, including the embossed leather 
 front of a state chariot, with decoration in gesso. 
 Between 1902 and 1912, the work financed by 
 Mr. Davis was crowned with the most astonishing 
 success. In these years were found the tombs of 
 Queen Hatshepsut, King Siptah, Akhenaten (or 
 rather the tomb of Queen Tiy, with the mummy 
 of Akhenaten), Horemheb, Prince Mentuher- 
 khepshef, and, above all, the tomb which, though 
 its occupants were not of royal rank, proved yet 
 the richest and the most interesting which was 
 ever discovered, till it was outclassed by that of 
 Tutankhamen—the tomb of Yuaa and Tuau. 
 
 It was in February, 1905, that the workmen 
 of Mr. Davis struck the first indication of the 
 tomb in the shape of a well-cut stone step, which 
 promised to prove the first of a flight descending 
 to a tomb-passage. By February 12 the door 
 was cleared, and the next day Mr. Davis, with 
 the late Sir Gaston Maspero and Mr. Weigall, 
 penetrated with some difficulty into the tomb- 
 chamber, and the little party found themselves 
 in the presence, not only of two of the most 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 169 
 
 interesting personalities of Egyptian history, but 
 also of the most wonderful collection of funerary 
 furniture which, up to that time, had ever 
 rewarded the explorer. ‘Their delight was very 
 nearly turned to tragedy before they had begun 
 to realise the importance of their find. In his 
 eagerness to inspect the funeral sledge, on which 
 Maspero had just read the famous name of Yuaa, 
 Mr. Davis stooped with his candle close to the 
 bitumen-covered woodwork, and was pulled back 
 just in time. One touch of the flame on the 
 pitch, and the corridors of the tomb would have 
 been a roaring tunnel of flame, in which Yuaa, 
 his funerary equipment, and his discoverers would 
 probably all have perished together. 
 
 The danger once realised, candles were 
 discarded, and electric light led into the tomb. 
 And then the explorers began to realise the full 
 wonder of their discovery. The tomb was full 
 of furniture of the finest and most careful work- 
 manship. Armchairs carved and inlaid, coffers 
 of wood inlaid and enamelled with that wonderful 
 blue of which the Egyptians had the secret, 
 boxes of painted wood, with figures in gilt gesso, 
 designed to hold the canopic jars which contain 
 the viscera of the dead, ushabti figures, some of 
 them plated with gold or silver, wicker-work 
 baskets for holding perfume bottles, couches of 
 elegant design, a perfectly preserved specimen 
 of the type of light chariot in which the Theban 
 noble of the Empire took his airing, cushions 
 stuffed with down, still soft and resilient after 
 three millenniums, costly alabaster vases, toilet 
 articles of all sorts, and a plentiful supply of the 
 
170 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 mummified meats which the dead might require 
 for their journey through the Underworld ; the 
 chamber was a storehouse of all that the Egyptian 
 deemed desirable for his use in this life or the 
 next. Nor were the needs of the spirit neglected. 
 There stood the magical figures by whose help 
 the occupants of the tomb were to make their 
 way through the dark paths of the Duat, inscribed 
 with the ‘“‘ Chapter of the Flame,’ or the 
 “Chapter of the Magical Figure of the North 
 Wall”; while a great roll of papyrus 22 yards 
 long contained other prayers which would assist 
 the sleepers to conquer all the dangers of their 
 long road. Never had such an assemblage of 
 beautiful and curious things rewarded the seeker 
 even in this land of beautiful and curious things. 
 
 Fascinating as the treasures of the tomb 
 were, however, the main interest was not in them, 
 but in the two gilded coffins in which the owners 
 of all this wealth lay quietly sleeping their long 
 sleep. “ First above Yuaa and then above his 
 wife the electric lamps were held, and as one 
 looked down into their quiet faces there was 
 almost the feeling that they would presently 
 open their eyes and blink at the light. The 
 stern features of the old man commanded one’s 
 attention, and again and again our gaze was 
 turned from this mass of wealth to this sleeping 
 figure in whose honour it had been placed there.” 
 For these two silent tenants of the tomb were 
 the man and woman to whose influence, in all 
 probability, was due not a little of that great 
 religious revolution which in a few years altered 
 the whole course of Egyptian history, and swayed 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 171 
 
 the balance of the destinies of the Ancient East. 
 Prince Yuaa and his wife ‘Tuau were the father 
 and mother of that famous Queen 'Tiy, whose sway 
 over the mind of her husband Amenhotep III 
 prepared the way for the supremacy of that 
 new spiritual faith of which her son, the ill-fated 
 Akhenaten, was in the fulness of time to be the 
 exponent and champion, and whose failure 
 broke his heart in the midst of the downfall of 
 the empire to which he had vainly attempted 
 to teach the creed of the Brotherhood of Man. 
 To few people has it been given to exercise so 
 great an influence upon the course of history as 
 to these two quiet figures whose rest was broken 
 after 3300 years by the representatives of three 
 nations whose ancestors were outer barbarians 
 when Prince Yuaa and his wife were foremost 
 figures in the most glittering court of the Ancient 
 Fast. 
 
 Two years later, the work of Mr. Davis 
 resulted in another discovery, less important 
 from the point of view of the wealth of funerary 
 furniture involved, for in this case there was 
 little found, but even more interesting in view 
 of the personality whose mummy occupied the 
 tomb. The site of the new find was at the 
 corner of the ravine leading to the well-known 
 tomb of Sety I, and was covered with gravel and 
 loose stones. ‘‘ After some days of hard work, 
 the regular rectangle of a pit appeared upon the 
 soil, then two or three steps appeared, followed 
 by a staircase open to the sky, a door, a narrow 
 passage, and a wall of rock-work and beaten 
 earth. ‘The seals affixed by the guardians, more 
 
172 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 than thirty centuries before, were still intact on 
 the lime-wash.’”’ Breaking them on January 6, 
 1907, Mr. Davis and Mr. Weigall penetrated 
 into a narrow passage, which was almost blocked 
 by two panels of gilded wood, which had once 
 formed part of a funeral canopy, like that of 
 Tutankhamen. Wriggling past these with 
 difficulty, they entered a roughly hewn and 
 quite undecorated chamber, on the floor of which 
 lay a few earthen pots, some alabaster ornaments, 
 and a number of amulets. But the sight which 
 arrested the eye was that of the coffin, which, 
 at the first glance, seemed in the glare of the 
 electric light to be made of massy gold. “ It 
 seemed,’ says Maspero, “as if all the gold of 
 ancient Egypt glittered and gleamed in that 
 narrow space.” ‘The news of a wonderful dis- 
 covery of treasure spread far and wide through 
 the neighbourhood, growing as it spread, till 
 the report had reached such fabulous proportions 
 that it was necessary to place a guard over the 
 tomb to prevent an assault. Of course it was 
 more seeming than reality, for the gold turned 
 out to be mere gold-foil, and the tomb was in 
 reality singularly poor in objects of value. ‘The 
 coffin had originally been placed upon a bier of 
 the usual form; but this had decayed, and the 
 heavy coffin had fallen, and its lid had come off 
 in the fall, exposing the head and feet of its 
 tenant, from which the bandages had decayed. 
 The body was wrapped in sheets of gold-foil, 
 and the inscription on the coffin, worked in semi- 
 precious stones, gave the title of Akhenaten, 
 “the beautiful child of the Sun.” 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES 173 
 
 Such a discovery was, of course, most 
 unexpected ; for Akhenaten had made his capital, 
 not at Thebes, which he hated, but at Tell 
 el-Amarna, where he had declared his intention 
 to be buried, and where his tomb was known. 
 Besides, the inscription on the funeral canopy 
 stated that Akhenaten had made it for his mother 
 Queen Tiy. The explorers therefore concluded 
 that they had indeed discovered the tomb, part 
 of the funeral furniture, and the skeleton (it 
 cannot be called a mummy) of Queen Tiy, and 
 in this belief they sent the broken fragments of 
 the skeleton to Professor Elliot Smith for exam- 
 ination, only to be informed by him that what 
 they had sent was not the body of an old woman, 
 but of a young man, who, if normal, which was 
 doubtful, could not have been much older than 
 twenty-six when he died. ‘There seems in fact 
 to be little doubt that the skeleton which was 
 discovered in the tomb of Tiy was that of the 
 man whose action in one direction and inaction 
 in another changed the destiny of the ancient 
 world in one of the most critical periods of its 
 history. Mr. Davis, strange to say, could never 
 bear the idea that he had found the bones of 
 Akhenaten, though one would have thought 
 that the discovery of the most pathetic and 
 interesting figure of Egyptian history would have 
 put the crown on the satisfaction with which he 
 could justly regard his work. He had set his 
 heart on discovering Queen Tiy, and to have 
 even her far more famous son substituted for 
 her was a bitter disappointment to him. 
 
 But how came Akhenaten, the heretic king, 
 
174 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 ‘“‘ that criminal of Akhetaten,’’’ as the priests of 
 Amen always called him, to be buried, not in 
 his own heretic capital at Tell el-Amarna, but 
 in orthodox Thebes, and in his mother’s tomb ? 
 There is, of course, no certain explanation of 
 the facts ; but from what is known of the history 
 of the period an explanation may at least be 
 suggested with a reasonable amount of confidence 
 that it is not very far from the truth. When 
 Akhenaten died, his body was no doubt buried 
 at Tell el-Amarna, as he had decreed. When 
 his son-in-law, ‘Tutankhaten, and his daughter, 
 Ankh. s. en. pa Aten, found the pressure of 
 circumstances too strong for them, and were 
 obliged to return to Thebes, to restore the old 
 religion, and to change their names to Tutankh- 
 amen and Ankh. s. en. Amen, they carried with 
 them, doubtless, the body of the reformer, still 
 revered and beloved, and gave it honourable 
 burial in the tomb of ‘Tiy—the most fitting place, 
 since no royal tomb could have been prepared 
 in Thebes. Butas time went on, the reactionary 
 priests of Amen became more and more the 
 dominant element in the kingdom, and they had 
 none of the chivalrous spirit which prompted 
 Charles V’s “‘ I war not with the dead,” at the 
 tomb of Luther. The only way in which they 
 could strike at the dead heretic was also, to an 
 Egyptian mind, the most certain and the most 
 deadly ; they could destroy his hopes of immor- 
 tality by desecrating his tomb, and blotting out 
 his name from it. So the body of Queen Tiy 
 was removed from the tomb which had been 
 
 i Akhetaten, the town created by Akhenaten, the man. 
 
BURIED ROYALTIES P78 
 
 polluted by the presence of her son, his name 
 was erased from the inscriptions, and the 
 entrance of the tomb was blocked with stones 
 and sealed with the seal of Tutankhamen. Then 
 the body of “ the world’s first great idealist and 
 the world’s first individual” was left in solitude, 
 and, as his enemies fondly believed, in eternal 
 oblivion and shame, to await its resurrection, 
 thirty centuries later, at the hands of a generation 
 which has at least learned to appreciate and to 
 honour the ideals for which he sacrificed so much. 
 
 The remarkable success of Mr. Davis in the 
 search for buried royalties was fittingly crowned 
 a year later by the discovery of the tomb of 
 Horemheb, the usurping reactionary who had 
 formerly been a general in the service of Tut- 
 ankhamen, and who seized the throne after the 
 brief reigns of ‘Tutankhamen and Ay. The tomb 
 had been plundered and wrecked, but the 
 beautiful red granite sarcophagus, 8 feet 11 inches 
 in length by 3 feet 9} inches in width and 4 feet 
 in depth, was intact. In it were found the bones 
 of one person, but in such a condition that it was 
 impossible to determine the sex of the person 
 to whom they had belonged. In 1906 Mr. 
 Davis made another discovery, this time of an 
 uninscribed chamber nearly filled with mud. 
 The presence in the chamber and in the neigh- 
 bourhood of a number of articles bearing the 
 names of ‘Tutankhamen and Ankh. s. en. Amen 
 led him to believe that this was the tomb of 
 Tutankhamen, and the sumptuous volume in 
 which he published the results of these last two 
 discoveries was therefore entitled ‘‘ The Tombs 
 
176 BURIED ROYALTIES 
 
 of Harmhabi and Touatankhamanou.” ‘Time 
 and further investigation have proved that in 
 this respect he was wrong, as also in the con- 
 viction which he expressed in the book that 
 “the Valley of the Kings is now exhausted.” 
 ‘ Another discovery was due sixteen years after 
 his last find, which was to prove that the Valley 
 yet held treasures whose beauty and richness 
 could dazzle the world, and make even those of 
 the tomb of Yuaa seem almost paltry by com- 
 parison. Yet the work of Mr. Davis remains 
 as one of the most remarkable series of successes 
 which has ever rewarded excavation in Egypt— 
 a fitting prelude to the great find of November, 
 LG22) 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 TUTANKHAMEN AND HIS SPLENDOURS 
 
 ONDERFUL as the results of the work 
 \ \ of Mr. Davis and his assistants had 
 been, they were destined to be 
 completely eclipsed by the most remarkable 
 discovery which has ever been made in all the long 
 story of Egyptological research. It may very 
 well prove in the long run that the importance 
 of the find historically is less than that of many 
 less striking discoveries ; but as a revelation of 
 the sheer wealth and artistic quality of the pro- 
 vision which was made three thousand years ago 
 for the journey through the Underworld of even a 
 comparatively obscure and unimportant Pharaoh, 
 there has never been anything to compare with 
 the discovery the news of which was flashed 
 across the world on November 30, 1922. ‘“ This 
 afternoon,” the message ran, “‘ Lord Carnarvon 
 and Mr. Howard Carter revealed to a large 
 company what promises to be the most sensa- 
 tional Egyptological discovery of the century. 
 The find consists of, among other objects, the 
 funeral paraphernalia of the Egyptian King 
 Tutankhamen, one of the famous heretic kings 
 of the XVIIIth Dynasty, who reverted to Amen 
 177 M 
 
178 TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 
 
 worship.” It is not often that newspaper reports 
 err on the side of making too little of their subject ; 
 but as the days and weeks passed on, and what 
 seemed to be an unending procession of marvels 
 defiled from the dark cave in the Valley of the 
 Kings before the astonished eyes of numberless 
 tourists, it became manifest that the half had not 
 been told, and that Egyptology was faced with a 
 wealth of material such as had never before been 
 dealt with, and such as will take many years to 
 appreciate and measure the full significance of. 
 All that can be attempted here is to give a 
 summary account of the find itself, and a brief 
 provisional account of some of the more important 
 of the treasures which have so far been disclosed ; 
 for there can be no doubt that what has been 
 handled is but a fraction of the treasure which 
 still remains to be dealt with when the tomb is 
 reopened and the actual sarcophagus-chamber 
 and its annexe are cleared as the outer chambers 
 have been. 
 
 Some great Egyptological discoveries have 
 been the result of a mere happy chance, as was 
 the case in 1887, when a fellah woman, grubbing 
 for phosphates among the rubbish heaps of 
 Akhenaten’s ruined capital, found that store of 
 cuneiform tablets which have since become 
 world-famous as “ ‘The Tell el-Amarna Tablets,” 
 and disposed of her interest in the find to a friend 
 for the sum of two shillings. Some, as in the 
 case of the Der el-Bahri cache, have resulted 
 from the watch kept on the illegitimate practi- 
 tioners of research ; and some, as in the case of 
 Belzoni’s discovery of the tomb of Sety I, have 
 

 
 GRANITE HEAD OF TUTANKHAMEN, CAIRO MUSEUM. 
 

 
TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 179 
 
 been made with so little trouble that the wonder 
 is that they were not made long before. But 
 the discovery made by Lord Carnarvon and 
 Mr. Howard Carter fell into none of these 
 categories. It was the result of long and per- 
 sistent and systematic work, carried on under 
 very disappointing conditions, but with a clear 
 appreciation of the object in view. For sixteen 
 years the two explorers had been working together 
 at Thebes, and already in 1912, they had published 
 the results of their work in Five Years Explora- 
 tion at Thebes. Their work had not been 
 particularly fruitful, and when seven years ago 
 they took over the abandoned right to work in 
 the Valley of the Kings, their first efforts yielded 
 no very brilliant success. ‘‘ Mostly disappoint- 
 ments,’ was Lord Carnarvon’s summary of his 
 previous finds. The explorers, however, were 
 proceeding on a plan which was bound to lead 
 to success in the end, if there was anything left 
 to be found, and if their patience, or their 
 resources, held out long enough in the face 
 of a continued monotony of failure. Previous 
 explorers, like Mr. Davis, had proceeded on the 
 method of sondages, or trial pits, sinking a pit 
 here and another there in spots which they 
 judged likely. Such a method, obviously, may 
 lead to success very simply and easily ; or, on 
 the other hand, it may result in your missing the 
 very spot where the treasure lies. The method 
 adopted by Lord Carnarvon and Mr. Carter 
 was much more thorough, though also much more 
 laborious and monotonous. They systematically 
 cleared the ground over a selected area down to 
 
1 TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 
 
 the virgin rock. ‘The labour involved in such a 
 method of work is, of course, enormous; it is 
 said that the two explorers moved 200,000 tons 
 of rubbish in their researches; but it is plain 
 that there is no chance of missing your object 
 by a foot or two, as is quite possible with the other 
 plan. There may, of course, be nothing in your 
 area at all; but if there is anything, you are 
 bound to get it. 
 
 So it proved at last in this case. On the fifth 
 of November, Mr. Carter, who was working on a 
 spot which so far had been untouched because 
 it lay in front of the tomb of Ramses VI, which 
 is one of the regular electrically lighted show- 
 tombs of the Valley, came upon a rock-cut step, 
 which seemed like the beginning of a flight 
 leading toatomb. He cleared a few more steps, 
 and then came to a door, or rather to a cement- 
 covered wall, blocking a doorway. On the 
 cement of the wall was visible the seal of the 
 royal portion of the Theban necropolis, consisting 
 of a jackal couchant above nine captives in rows 
 of three. When the excavation had reached 
 this stage, Mr. Carter cabled to Lord Carnarvon 
 to come out to Egypt at once, as a fine discovery 
 had been made, and the spot was covered up 
 till his arrival. 
 
 The resumption of the excavation showed 
 that in ancient days a thief had broken into the 
 tomb, which had been inspected and sealed by 
 the inspectors of Ramses IX subsequent to his 
 entrance. On the undamaged portion of the 
 wall there could be seen the cartouche of the 
 Pharaoh Tutankhamen, son-in-law and successor 
 
TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 181 
 
 to the famous Akhenaten. After arrangements 
 had been made for protecting the tomb and 
 whatever it might contain from the efforts of 
 the modern successors of the Ramesside thief, 
 the entrance passage, about 8 metres long, was 
 cleared, and another sealed door was reached. 
 It was uncertain whether the explorers would 
 find another staircase or passage behind this new 
 obstacle, or whether it would give access to one 
 of the chambers of the tomb. What followed 
 may best be told in the words of Lord Carnarvon 
 himself : 
 
 ‘““T asked Mr. Carter to take out a few stones 
 and have a look in. After a few minutes this 
 was done. He pushed his head partly into the 
 aperture. With the help of a candle he could 
 dimly discern what was inside. A long silence 
 followed, till I said, I fear'in somewhat trembling 
 tones, ‘ Well, what is it?’ ‘ There are some 
 wonderful objects here,’ was the welcome reply. 
 Having given up my place to my daughter, I 
 myself went to the hole, and I could with diffi- 
 culty restrain my excitement. At the first sight, 
 with the inadequate light, all that one could 
 see was what appeared to be gold bars. On 
 getting a little more accustomed to the light it 
 became apparent that there were colossal gilt 
 couches with extraordinary heads, boxes here 
 and boxes there. We enlarged the hole, and 
 Mr. Carter managed to scramble in—the chamber 
 is sunk 2 feet below the bottom of the passage— 
 and then, as he moved around with a candle, we 
 knew that we had found something absolutely 
 unique and unprecedented. Even with the poor 
 
182 TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 
 
 light of the candle one could see a marvellous 
 collection of furniture and other objects in the 
 chamber. There were two life-sized statues of 
 the king, beds, chariots, boxes of all sizes and 
 shapes—some with every sort of inlay, while 
 others were painted—walking sticks, marvellous 
 alabaster vases, and so on. After slightly 
 enlarging the hole we went in, and this time we 
 realised in a fuller degree the extent of the 
 discovery, for we had managed to tap the electric 
 light from the tomb above, which gave us far 
 better illumination for our examination.” 
 
 Inspection quickly proved that the first 
 revelation was only the beginning of marvels. 
 Beneath one of the state couches a small opening 
 in the wall of the chamber showed where a 
 second chamber opened off the first. ‘This room 
 it was impossible even to enter, for it was crammed 
 to a height of 5 feet with articles of furniture 
 of all descriptions, packed close together in 
 seemingly inextricable confusion. At the one 
 end of the first chamber stood two life-sized 
 statues of the king in bituminised wood with gold 
 adornments, and between them was the evidence 
 that other chambers lay beyond; for this 
 part of the room had been closed with a wall 
 on which the seals of the Ramesside inspectors 
 could still be seen, and in the centre of this wall, 
 on the floor level, there were traces of the fact 
 that a break had once been made in the wall, 
 sufficiently large to admit a small man. This had 
 subsequently been sealed up again, probably 
 by the inspectors of Ramses IX. 
 
 Manifestly there was more to follow behind 
 
TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 183 
 
 that sealed wall. In the two chambers which 
 had been seen there was no trace of any sarco- 
 phagus, or any evidence whatever of any 
 interment. It was obvious, therefore, that, unless 
 this wonderful mass of artistic craftsmanship was 
 only a cache where robbers’ loot was gathered, 
 or a gathering of costly material drawn together 
 for safety from robbers, both of which alternatives 
 seemed somewhat unlikely, the real tomb- 
 chamber, with what was in all probability the 
 unimaginable wealth of the great nest of coffins 
 under its canopy, the coffers for the canopic 
 vases, and all the other funerary regalia of a 
 Pharaoh of the Empire, lay beyond the wall which 
 closed the end of the first chamber. In that case, 
 the revelations which awaited the explorers might 
 well be of a kind which would make even the 
 glories which had so far been disclosed look dim 
 and paltry. ‘lhe explorers must have been sorely 
 tempted to pierce the wall at once, and so arrive 
 at least at some conception of the magnitude of 
 their find; but prudence forbade this. The 
 amount of material already under their hands in 
 the outer chambers was sufficient to occupy all 
 the time of the experts who had gathered to the 
 scene for many weeks. ‘The fabrics concerned 
 were all of them priceless, and some of them were 
 of almost inconceivable delicacy. All of them 
 were at least three thousand years old, and had 
 during all that time been shut up in the still air 
 of a subterranean vault. Until they had been 
 carefully treated with preservatives, and insured, 
 so far as possible, from the risks of exposure to 
 the air and the heat of the upper world, it was 
 
184 TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 
 
 impossible to do anything that would add to the 
 task, already one of great labour and difficulty, 
 which lay upon the explorers and their assistants. 
 Accordingly curiosity was kept in check until the 
 results of the first discovery should be secured, 
 and the opening of what was hoped would prove 
 the first intact royal tomb-chamber ever found 
 in Egypt was deferred for awhile. Meanwhile 
 for weeks the Valley of the Kings was beset, day 
 after day, by throngs of tourists before whose 
 astonished eyes there passed a seemingly endless 
 procession of the marvels of ancient Egyptian 
 craftsmanship of thirty centuries ago, and who 
 seemed to take it as a personal grievance when 
 the articles removed on any particular day were 
 not sufficiently numerous or gorgeous to satisfy 
 their craving for sensation. Tutankhamen 
 became the fashion, and leaped at once into 
 greater prominence than he ever enjoyed during 
 his short and not particularly glorious reign. 
 When the contents of the outer chamber had 
 been /placed in safety, the time came for the 
 breaking of the sealed wall which barred the sarco- 
 phagus-chamber from view ; and on February 16 
 this was at last accomplished in the presence 
 of a distinguished company of Egyptologists, 
 though the formal opening, at which the Queen 
 of the Belgians was present, did not take place 
 till two days later. When it was possible to 
 see through the growing aperture into the inner 
 chamber, the sight revealed was one to take 
 the breath away from the most hardened 
 treasure-hunter. Practically the whole chamber 
 was filled, from end to end, and side to side, by 
 

 
 DECORATION FROM A THEBAN TOMB. 
 
 23 
 

 
TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 185 
 
 an object which no man has seen intact for more 
 than three millenniums—the funerary canopy 
 or shrine of an Egyptian Pharaoh of the New 
 Empire, beneath which, it might be hoped, lay 
 the successive coffins, with all their wealth of 
 amulets and ushabtis, which guarded the mummy 
 of the dead king. The canopy itself was of the 
 most extraordinary beauty and splendour. It 
 was of wood heavily gilded, carved with repre- 
 sentations of the Buckle of Isis and the Pillar of 
 Osiris, and inlaid with panels of that exquisite 
 blue glaze of which the Egyptians were so justly 
 fond. Its upper edge was formed by the familiar 
 Egyptian gorge-cornice, and its roof was of the 
 usual coved type, common in shrines of all sorts. 
 So completely did it fill the chamber, that there 
 was scarcely room to pass between it and the 
 rock walls, which were rather poorly decorated 
 with painted figures. On the east side of the 
 canopy were bronze-hinged doors, and when 
 these were opened, there appeared within a 
 second canopy, entirely gilt, and closed with doors 
 -on which the seals, with their strings, were 
 perfectly intact, a fact of great importance, since 
 it signifies that in all probability the inner shrine 
 remains absolutely as it was left on the day when 
 the Pharaoh was laid to rest amidst all his 
 splendours. Between the two canopies there 
 lay alabaster vessels, amulets, scarabs of rare 
 colour and fine material, and precious stones. 
 Between the outer canopy and the wall of the 
 chamber lay the paddles for the king’s barge on 
 the waters of the Underworld. 
 
 On the same side of the sarcophagus-chamber 
 
136 TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 
 
 as the doors of the shrine, a large opening in 
 the wall, which had never been closed, led into 
 an annexe. On guard near the entrance of this 
 room was an ebony and gold figure of the god 
 Anubis as a jackal couchant on the top of his 
 shrine. Perhaps the most conspicuous thing in 
 the room was a great gilt coffer, standing over 
 5 feet high, and adorned along the top with 
 golden urzei, which in all likelihood is the shrine 
 containing the Canopic Jars in which the viscera 
 of the royal mummy were deposited. On its 
 four sides were figures of guardian goddesses, 
 enfolding the shrine with their arms, and wrought 
 with the most wonderful delicacy of modelling 
 and realism of expression. ‘They seemed, said 
 one observer, to be turning reproachful faces 
 towards the intruders who were disturbing the 
 long peace of the tomb. The whole room was 
 crowded with objects of all sorts, coffers and 
 boxes of splendid material and workmanship, 
 model boats for the king’s use in the Elysian 
 Fields, ushabti figures in gold and silver, aud one 
 exquisite and unique specimen, absolutely com- 
 plete, of the ostrich-feather fans which are so 
 often depicted on the reliefs of royal processions. 
 The handle of this beautiful piece of craftsman- 
 ship was of ivory, delicately carved and adorned 
 with the royal cartouche inlaid in coloured stones. 
 
 Such was something of the general impression 
 which was left on the minds of the fortunate few 
 who were privileged to be present at the most 
 marvellous disclosure of the wealth and artistry 
 of ancient Egypt which has ever been given to 
 the world. ‘The impression was of the briefest, 
 
TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 187 
 
 for the explorers had reluctantly to come to 
 the conclusion that it was impossible to carry 
 the work further this season. The heat of the 
 Egyptian spring in the sun-scorched valley was 
 already growing almost unbearable ; the amount 
 of precious material already collected was such 
 as would require months for its proper preserva- 
 tion and arrangement, and it was impossible to 
 add to it a far greater quantity of still more price- 
 less treasure without risking loss and damage. 
 Accordingly, after the tomb had been kept open 
 for a few days longer, it was decided to close it 
 again until the autumn, when the conditions for 
 work would be more favourable. The gang of 
 workmen was set to work again, and by the end 
 of February the tomb of Tutankhamen was once 
 more piled with many hundred tons of rubbish, 
 and the king was left beneath his gorgeous 
 canopy to enjoy for a few months longer the sleep 
 which had been unbroken for 3300 years. 
 Strangely enough, the incident did not close 
 without an event which seemed to cast a dark 
 shadow across all the splendour of the discovery. 
 Almost immediately after the triumph of the 
 opening, and before the freshness of its interest 
 had faded from men’s minds, Lord Carnarvon 
 was stricken down with fever, and in the begin- 
 ning of April he died in Cairo, leaving his great 
 work still incomplete. There is no need to talk 
 of the flood of superstitious drivel which was let 
 loose over the world by what seemed so tragic 
 an ending to so great a success. It is hard to 
 say whether stupidity or cruelty were more 
 conspicuous in it, and it remains self-condemned 
 
18 TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 
 
 in the eyes of all reasonable people. There is, 
 no doubt, an element of sadness in the thought 
 that he without whom these treasures of the past 
 might never have been disclosed did not live to 
 see the completion of his work; but there is 
 surely also an element of satisfaction in the 
 thought that he knew that his long toil had not 
 been in vain, and that he had accomplished 
 something unique in the story of the exploration 
 of that ancient world to which we owe so much. 
 To leave the scene of triumph while the splendour 
 of accomplishment is still undimmed has ever 
 been esteemed the happiest of destinies. If it be 
 so, then Lord Carnarvon was felix opportunitate 
 mortis. 
 
 Before we turn to the consideration of some 
 of the chief treasures which have so far been 
 gathered from the outer chambers of the tomb, 
 let us devote a moment to the question of who 
 the Pharaoh is whose splendours have thus 
 dazzled the world, and what is known of his 
 reign and his times. Not the least remarkable 
 feature of the whole find is that the man around 
 whom all this magnificence was gathered is just 
 about one of the last of the Pharaohs whom one 
 would have suspected of creating a sensation in 
 the world of Egyptology. His reign is one of the 
 shortest and least fully recorded in the roll of 
 the XVIIIth Dynasty ; indeed the only kings 
 of the Dynasty who seem yet more insignificant 
 than himself are his immediate. predecessor 
 Smenkhara, and his immediate successor Ay. 
 The circumstances of his reign, so far as they are 
 known, are briefly these. ‘Tutankhamen began 
 
TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 189 
 
 his career as one of the courtiers of Amen- 
 hotep IV (Akhenaten), and one of his supporters 
 in the great revolution which he attempted to 
 carry out on the religion of Egypt ; though, from 
 his apparent youth at the time of his death, he 
 can scarcely have had any real share in the 
 movement. Whether he was of the blood royal 
 or not is uncertain. On the lion from Gebel 
 Barkal, now in the British Museum, he calls 
 Amenhotep III his father. If this means direct 
 relationship, then he must have been the son of 
 Amenhotep III by a secondary wife, and in that 
 case he was a half-brother of Akhenaten, whose 
 son-in-law he afterwards became. On the other 
 hand, the title may be only one of respect applied 
 to an indirect ancestor—really his grandfather- 
 in-law. In any case he must have been of such 
 noble rank, and of a family of such influence, 
 that it was worth Akhenaten’s while to secure his 
 adhesion to the new cause, even when he was no 
 more than a boy, by marrying him to one of the 
 young princesses. Accordingly he was married 
 to the third of Akhenaten’s daughters, the 
 princess Ankh. s. en. pa. aten, the first daughter, 
 Meryt-aten, being married to another noble of 
 the court, Smenkhara, and the second, Makt-aten, 
 having died probably between her ninth and 
 eleventh year ; and at this time, and till after his 
 accession to the throne, he bears the name 
 Tutankhaten, the name of Amen being of course 
 proscribed by the new faith. 
 
 On the death of Akhenaten without male 
 issue, Smenkhara, the husband of the eldest 
 princess, naturally, according to Egyptian custom, 
 
190 TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 
 
 succeeded to the throne, and reigned for a short 
 and uncertain period; then on his death or 
 deposition, the succession fell to ‘Tutankhaten. 
 For a time, apparently, he maintained himself 
 in the new capital of Akhetaten (Tell el-Amarna), 
 but the reaction in favour of the old faith of 
 Amen proved too strong for him, and he was 
 obliged to remove the court to Thebes, and to 
 conform to the worship of Amen. His name was 
 changed to Tutankhamen (Living Image of 
 Amen), and that of his wife to Ankh.s.en. Amen 
 (Her Life is from Amen), and every trace of the 
 religious revolution was obliterated so far as 
 possible. ‘The duration of his reign is uncertain, 
 and probably it cannot have been longer than 
 nine years. It has been suggested, from the 
 evidence of some of the articles in his tomb, 
 that he died before attaining maturity—at all 
 events he must have been still a young man at the 
 time of his death. 
 
 As to the events of his reign, we are much in 
 the dark. ‘The brilliance of his funerary equip- 
 ment has led to the rather hasty conclusion that 
 the reign was marked by a great renaissance of 
 Egyptian art and power, and an attempt to regain 
 the Empire which had been largely lost during 
 the pacifist reign of Akhenaten ; but this theory 
 rests on very slight foundations, and, as we shall 
 see, there is another and much more likely 
 explanation of the splendour of the tomb. The 
 only evidences of foreign enterprise during the 
 reign are found in the inscriptions in the tombs 
 of two of the great nobles of the period, Huy 
 and Horemheb, the latter of whom usurped the 
 
TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 101 
 
 throne after the death or deposition of Tutan- 
 khamen’s successor, Ay. In the tomb of Huy 
 there are records of tribute from Syria and 
 the Soudan, so that it is evident that Egyptian 
 influence was not altogether gone in these two 
 quarters ; and one of the statements in the tomb 
 of Horemheb seems to point to military opera- 
 tions in Syria under Tutankhamen. In this 
 inscription, from a fragment in the Cairo 
 Museum, Horemheb describes himself as “‘ King’s 
 follower on his expeditions in the south and north 
 country,” and ‘‘ Companion of the feet of his 
 lord upon the battlefield on that day of slaying 
 the Asiatics.”’ 
 
 Beyond this, there is really no evidence as to 
 any events of importance during the reign, 
 whose significance is not in itself, but in the fact 
 that it marks the triumph of the forces of reaction 
 and the reversion to the ancient customs and faith 
 of the land. The early death of Tutankhamen 
 left his wife, Ankh.s.en. Amen, in a very difficult 
 position. She was the only representative in 
 the direct line of the great XVIIIth Dynasty ; 
 but in all probability her own tenure of the throne 
 was very uncertain, and almost impossible. 
 
 For a woman to rule the land was a thing not 
 unheard of, for Hatshepsut had ruled with 
 vigour and success ; but it was an unusual thing, 
 though a woman could give to her husband a 
 legitimate title to the royal dignity. Further, 
 there was a point which rendered the reign of 
 Ankh. s. en. Amen virtually an impossibility. She 
 was deeply stained, in the eyes of the dominant 
 priesthood of Amen, by the fact that she was the 
 
192 TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 
 
 daughter of ‘“‘ that criminal of Akhetaten,” as 
 her father was now called. Her husband had 
 saved his throne, and probably his life, by his 
 conformity to the old faith, and her conversion 
 had accompanied his; but the daughter of 
 Akhenaten can never have been persona grata to 
 the priests of Amen, and when her husband was 
 gone she must have felt that her tenure of the 
 crown, and her very life, hung by a very frail 
 thread. Accordingly she took steps to place 
 herself in a position of greater security. 
 Curiously enough, there has come to light from 
 Boghaz-Kyoi, the Hittite capital, a letter from one 
 of the Hittite kings, probably Mursil II, telling 
 of some of the events of the reign of his father 
 Shubbiluliuma, which gives us our last glimpse 
 of the poor widowed queen struggling in despera- 
 tion to escape from the net of deadly danger which 
 was drawing closer and closer around her. 
 ‘Then their ruler,’ says the Hittite king, 
 “namely Bib-khuru-riyas [the Hittite version of 
 Neb. kheperu-Ra, the Solar name of Tutankh- 
 amen], just at that moment died ; now the Queen 
 of Egypt was Dakhamun [the Hittite version of 
 Ankh. s.en. Amen]. She sent an ambassador to 
 my father ; she said thus to him: ‘ My husband 
 is dead ; I have no children ; your sons are said 
 to be grown up; if to me one of your sons you 
 will give, and if he will be my husband, he will 
 be a help; send him accordingly, and thereafter 
 I will make him my husband. I send bridal 
 gifts.’ ’’? ‘The negotiations thus frankly opened 
 by the queen apparently proceeded, not without 
 some hitches, to the point when the bridegroom 
 

 
 REAPING, 
 
 NG 
 
 OWI 
 
 EBAN TOMB—S 
 
 AN Abel 
 
 N FROM 
 
 ECORATIO 
 
 D 
 
 #4 
 
 E 
 
 THE VINTAG 
 

 
TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 193 
 
 was selected from among the Hittite princes ; 
 for Mursil’s statement closes thus: ‘‘ And then 
 the lady soon fulfilled her words and selected one 
 of the sons.” Something, however, must have 
 hindered the completion of the marriage. What 
 it was we may Eg but with no assurance that 
 we are right. The Hittites were old enemies of 
 Egypt, and while Ramses II, a century later, 
 obit safely wed a Hittite princess, it was quite 
 another thing for a woman, very insecurely 
 established on the throne, to propose to give 
 Egypt a Hittite king. In itself the plan was 
 likely to be most unpopular with poor Ankh. s. en. 
 Amen’s subjects. Even more fatal to it would 
 be the opposition of the priesthood. They, no 
 doubt, had no desire to see the line of their 
 great enemy established on the throne with a new 
 lease of power, and backed by the might of the 
 formidable Hittite Confederacy. It would be 
 an easy thing for them to play on the native 
 prejudice against the attempt to bring in a Hittite 
 consort for their queen. ‘The probability is 
 that the very step which Ankh. s. en. Amen took 
 to secure herself actually hastened, or at least 
 made inevitable, her downfall. At all events 
 the unlucky young widow disappears, with this 
 letter, from the page of history ; nor is it difficult 
 to imagine the manner of her disappearance. 
 The journey from the palace to the tomb has 
 never been a long one for an unpopular sovereign 
 in the East, whether in ancient or modern days. 
 Such, then, is the story of Tutankhamen’s 
 reign, so far as we know it. It may be that when 
 all the secrets of his tomb are disclosed we may 
 N 
 
194 TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 
 
 learn a little more of the man and his times, 
 though that is rather more than unlikely, for the 
 papyri which may be found in the great shrine of 
 the sarcophagus-chamber will probably be, not 
 historical, but purely religious. Meantime, at all 
 events, we know no more, and the little that is 
 known only seems to underline the contrast 
 between the insignificance of the king and the 
 splendour of the tomb which has dansled all the 
 world. The pathos of the whole thing can 
 scarcely fail to appeal to the imagination. Here 
 you have a dead monarch laid to rest with such 
 pomp and magnificence that a mere glimpse of 
 the glitter of his equipment has left the world 
 bewildered and gaping; and when you try to 
 conceive the actual facts of the lives behind all 
 this gorgeousness, what you dimly discern, so 
 far as you can see anything, is a poor young 
 couple of children, for Tutankhamen and his 
 wife were scarcely more than that, striving for 
 a little to keep their heads above the dark flood 
 of poisonous priestly hatred and intrigue which 
 surged around them on every side, and sinking 
 one after the other beneath their doom. 
 
 “The glories of our blood and state 
 Are shadows, not substantial things.” 
 
 Obviously the time has not yet come for the 
 discussion of the results of the discovery as these 
 affect our ideas of Egyptian art and craftsmanship. 
 It will be many months, perhaps years, before 
 all the material is before the world in the shape of 
 colour reproductions of the various articles, and 
 until this work is completed comparisons with 
 
TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 195 
 
 already known work cannot be made. Much 
 that has been said with regard to the revolution 
 in our ideas of Egyptian art which is to be 
 brought about by the revelations of Tutankh- 
 amen’s tomb may have to be qualified or with- 
 drawn in the light of fuller and more leisurely 
 study, and certain things which were for the 
 moment acclaimed as masterpieces will beyond 
 doubt be deposed from an eminence which they 
 would never have attained save under the 
 influence of the enthusiasm of the moment. 
 Still, even when all deductions have been made, 
 there will remain an amount of material of the 
 very highest quality, such as has never before 
 been gathered together for the study of one of 
 the most interesting periods of Egyptian history 
 and art. ; 
 Already it is manifest that some of the articles 
 are quite without parallel in any existing collec- 
 tion of Egyptian antiquities. Parallels to most 
 of them, probably to all, doubtless existed, and 
 we can well imagine that even the finest things 
 may have been far surpassed by the magnificence 
 of a really great Pharaoh, such as Amenhotep III ; 
 but these splendours of the culminating period of 
 the Empire no longer exist, or at least have not 
 yet come to light, and we were obliged to form 
 our conception of them from reliefs and paintings, 
 and to fill in the details of their magnificence from 
 our knowledge of the grandeur of the monarch 
 for whose use they were made. Now for the 
 first time we can see the actual creations them- 
 selves, and even if they belong, not to one of the 
 greatest of the Pharaohs, but to a comparatively 
 
196 TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 
 
 undistinguished monarch, still they represent 
 the art of a period not far removed from the 
 historic culmination of Egypt’s greatness, and 
 it is quite within the bounds of possibility, as 
 we shall see, that some of the most striking 
 of them do indeed belong to the greater age 
 of Tutankhamen’s ancestors, rather than to 
 his own. 
 
 Of all the articles so far removed from the 
 tomb, the one which has attracted the most 
 attention, and excited the most admiration, has 
 been the Royal Throne, or Chair of State, which 
 was found in the outer chamber. “ It is one of 
 the wonders of the world,” was the comment of 
 Professor Breasted on his first view of it, and 
 there seems to be little doubt that this enthusiastic 
 praise is well deserved. Within the last quarter 
 of a century, two of the royal thrones of two of 
 the greatest empires of the ancient world have 
 been brought to light, and the simple dignity of 
 the Throne of Minos, discovered by Sir Arthur 
 Evans in the Palace of Knossos, forms a most 
 effective contrast and foil to the gorgeousness of 
 the Throne of Tutankhamen of Thebes, from 
 which it may be separated in date by not much 
 more than acentury, the Cretan throne being the 
 earlier, and indeed the earliest royal throne known 
 to exist. 
 
 The Throne of Tutankhamen is of wood, 
 covered with a thin plating of gold and adorned 
 with finely carved lions’ heads. The arms of the 
 chair are of modelled wood also overlaid with 
 gold, and beneath them, on either side, is a 
 sacred ureeus, partly wrought in glaze, with the 
 
TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 197 
 
 crown of Egypt in silver. On the back of the 
 throne is a panel of beautiful workmanship, on 
 which the king is represented seated, with his 
 legs crossed, and giving his hand to the Queen, 
 who is standing—a motive which in its uncon- 
 ventionality speaks distinctly of the realistic 
 art of Tell el-Amarna, and suggests comparisons 
 with the famous Berlin relief in which Akhenaten 
 leans on his staff, while his Queen Nefertiti 
 holds out a lotus bloom for him to sniff. The 
 exposed flesh of the faces and other parts of the 
 body is beautifully modelled in semi-opaque 
 reddish glaze, while the King’s costume is 
 rendered in painting overlaid with crystal. The 
 queen’s dress is wrought in silver, and beside her, 
 on a table, there stands a charming bouquet 
 formed of semi-precious stones inlaid. ‘The seat 
 of the throne is patterned with blue, white, and 
 gold mosaic squares, set in diagonal lines. The 
 whole effect is gorgeous in the extreme, and the 
 description of the workmanship takes one’s mind 
 back at once to the King’s Gaming Board of the 
 Palace of Knossos, with its blaze of blue and gold 
 and crystal on ivory. Whether we are to infer 
 Cretan influence in the Egyptian splendour, or 
 whether Crete derived from earlier Egyptian 
 work, is a question which may prove of interest 
 in the future. At any rate, we know that the 
 two great cultures were for many centuries in 
 the closest touch, and that each borrowed from 
 the other, adapting the foreign ideas to its own 
 tastes. 
 
 One of the features of the throne is highly 
 suggestive of the conditions of Tutankhamen’s 
 
1988 TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 
 
 reign. On the gold plating of the chair, the royal 
 cartouche has been altered, and shows the name 
 which the king adopted after his conversion to 
 orthodoxy. At the side of the arms, however, 
 the cartouche, wrought in inlay of semi-precious 
 stones and glass, remains unaltered, and still 
 shows the old heretical form Tutankhaten. The 
 manifest reason for the difference is that while 
 it was comparatively easy to alter a cartouche 
 wrought in gold plate, it was very much the 
 opposite with one wrought in inlay. ‘Tutankh- 
 amen, spite of his royal dignity, had, like 
 Mrs. Gilpin, a frugal mind, and could see no 
 sense in discarding his old Tell el-Amarna 
 throne, even though it could not be perfectly 
 adapted to his change of circumstances and of 
 faith, 
 
 So the throne survives to tell us, not only of 
 the wonderful artistic skill of the Egyptian crafts- 
 man of 3300 years ago, but also of the difficulties 
 and inconsistencies of such a period of transition 
 as that in which Tutankhamen’s lot was cast. 
 On the stele which he set up at Karnak, and which 
 is now in the Cairo Museum, the king has 
 described the miserable state of the kingdom on 
 his accession. “When His Majesty became 
 King of the South, the whole country was in a 
 state of chaos, similar to that in which it had been 
 in primeval times. From Elephantine to the 
 Swamps of the Delta the properties of the 
 temples of the gods and goddesses had been 
 destroyed, their shrines were in a state of ruin, 
 and their estates had become a desert." Weeds 
 grew in the courts of the temples.” He tells 
 
TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 199 
 
 us of the wonders of restoration which he 
 accomplished when “‘ Egypt and the Red Land 
 came under his supervision, and every land 
 greeted his will with bowings of submission.” 
 
 But Horemheb’s Coronation Inscription sug- 
 gests a somewhat different state of affairs from 
 the picture of restored prosperity which Tutankh- 
 amen presents, and the hatred with which the 
 later monarch pursued the memory of his 
 predecessor hints that the reign of the half- 
 heretic king was but reluctantly accepted, as a 
 stage on the way to the full restoration of the 
 ancient state of affairs—a stage whose fitting 
 emblem is the throne with its symbols of the old 
 faith and the new intermingled. 
 
 One of the most interesting among the finds 
 of the outer chamber is that of the boxes con- 
 taining royal robes, both of the King and the 
 Queen. Whether it may be found possible 
 to preserve permanently these exquisitely dainty 
 fabrics remains to be seen; meanwhile it may 
 be said that what has been seen of them enhances 
 our respect for the skill of the weavers of the 
 XVIIth Dynasty who wrought such super- 
 latively fine stuffs. Incidentally, the Queen’s 
 robes give us a curious link with the Egypt of a 
 day far earlier than even that of ‘Tutankhamen. 
 
 In the Westcar Papyrus we are told how King 
 Seneferu, the last king of the IlIrd Dynasty, 
 about seventeen hundred years before the time of 
 Tutankhamen, feeling bored one day, called to 
 him the wizard Zazamankh, and demanded a 
 cure for his ennui, and how the wizard prescribed 
 a sail in the royal barge manned by twenty of the 
 
200 TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 
 
 most beautiful maidens of the royal harem. 
 ‘“ Bring me twenty oars of ebony inlaid with 
 gold, with blades of light wood, inlaid with 
 electrum ; and bring me twenty maidens, fair 
 in their limbs, their bosoms and their hair, all 
 virgins ; and bring me twenty fishing-nets, and 
 give these nets unto thé maidens for their 
 garments.’ Now the Queen’s robes, found in 
 the tomb, “‘ are made of the daintiest diaphanous 
 bead net material.’”’ Evidently the taste which 
 inspired the novel prescription of the IIIrd 
 Dynasty wizard persisted in the Egyptian Court. 
 We should have inferred as much from the reliefs 
 and paintings which have come down to us, but 
 the robes from the ‘Tutankhamen tomb are the 
 solitary specimens of the royal dress of ancient 
 Egypt which have survived to the present day. 
 Along with these robes may be grouped the 
 so-called coat of mail, which is one of the wonders ~ 
 of the ceremonial art of the time. ‘The general 
 type of this wonderful garment is familiar from 
 Wilkinson’s representation of the corselet pictured 
 in the tomb of Ramses III, with its overlapping 
 scales of metal. In the case of ‘Tutankhamen’s 
 corselet, however, the scales, instead of being 
 of bronze on leather, are pear-shaped links of 
 faience laid on gold and backed with linen, 
 which, of course, has almost entirely perished, 
 rendering the reconstitution of the coat a 
 matter of great difficulty. ‘The collar shows a 
 rich pattern of concentric rings and rectangular 
 plaques of faience in deep turquoise blue, and 
 red and yellow. Below the collar, and wrought 
 into the breast of this superb piece of mail, is a 
 

 
 25. HEAD OF THE HATHOR=COW, DER /EL-BAHRT,. 
 

 
TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 201 
 
 brilliant design stretching right across the chest, 
 representing the hawk-headed Horus introducing 
 Tutankhamen to Amen. Should it be possible 
 to ERE See the restoration of this beautiful 
 piece of design, we shall be in possession of a 
 unique specimen of the Egyptian armourer’s 
 art, though, of course, it is such a piece of 
 armour as was never destined to be worn on 
 active service, but only on ceremonial occasions. 
 Indeed, it is probable that the ceremonial 
 occasion for which it was designed was that of 
 the King’s funeral; for we know from the 
 Rainer Papyrus that such corselets formed, at 
 least in later days, an essential portion of the 
 royal funerary furnishing—so much so that the 
 funeral could not be completed without them. 
 
 Between six and seven hundred years after 
 the time of Tutankhamen, the funeral of Eijor- 
 horeru, prince of Heliopolis, could not be 
 completed because Ka. amenhotep, prince of 
 Mendes, had stolen his funerary breastplate. 
 Pimay, the son of the dead prince, has to win the 
 corselet back in a tournament before he can get 
 his father buried with the proper ceremonies. A 
 matter of seven hundred years is nothing in the 
 life of an Egyptian custom; and there can be 
 little doubt that the corselet of Tutankhamen is 
 just such a ceremonial breastplate as that for whose 
 possession Pimay and his allies fought in tourney 
 against Ka. amenhotep and his friends, with 
 Pedubast of Tanis, overlord of the Delta, as 
 judge of the passage of arms. 
 
 Among the other articles of royal wearing 
 apparel were the magnificent sandals with their 
 
202 TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 
 
 decoration of golden ducks’ heads and gold 
 roundels. ‘The leather of the sandals had almost 
 entirely perished with the lapse of time, being 
 turned into a substance more like glue; but it 
 retained sufficient tenacity to hold the decorative 
 work together, and to let us see how magnificently 
 a Pharaoh of the Empire was shod and how 
 gorgeous were the feet before which the vassal 
 kings of Syria and the Soudan bowed down, 
 “seven times and seven times.” Interesting 
 too, in their own way, were the child’s linen 
 glove, and the child’s tippet, of linen with sequin 
 decoration. Speculation has framed, on the 
 basis of the small size of these and other articles, 
 the theory that the king died in early youth, in 
 fact when he had scarcely emerged from child- 
 hood. We know nothing, however, of the reason 
 for the presence of these articles in the tomb ; 
 and the foundation for such speculations is 
 far too slight to bear the weight of inference 
 which it is sought to rear upon it. From other 
 and more satisfactory reasons it has been inferred 
 that Tutankhamen died in early maturity ; but 
 that is a different matter. 
 
 Nothing is more fitted to reconcile us to the 
 destiny which has decreed that we should live 
 in the drab and unpicturesque twentieth century 
 than the contemplation of the inconveniences 
 with which the kings and great folk of the bygone 
 ages had to put up in the midst of the glittering 
 splendours which dazzle our imagination. One 
 of these is hinted at by the presence in the tomb 
 of the candlesticks which bore the light of 
 Tutankhamen’s days. They are small bronze 
 
TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 203 
 
 articles, shaped in the form of the Ankh, and 
 carrying fastened to them linen wicks, which were, 
 no doubt, soaked in oil. As small pieces of 
 decorative workmanship, they are pretty enough ; 
 but it is impossible to imagine anything much 
 less satisfactory in the way of lighting than they 
 would seem to be. No doubt there were other 
 and bigger candlesticks than these, and we cannot 
 imagine that a luxurious court like that of Thebes 
 would not have something corresponding to the 
 great stone standard lamps which flared and 
 sputtered in the halls and corridors of the 
 contemporary palace of Minos at Knossos; but 
 even so, the lighting of an Egyptian palace must 
 have been what we should think miserably 
 inefficient, and Pharaoh must have been sorely 
 put to it to find occupation for his evenings, when 
 all the glitter of his gorgeousness grew dim and 
 shabby in the light of the miserable smoking and 
 flickering lamps which at best can have done 
 little more than to make darkness visible. 
 
 A prominent feature among the heaps of 
 wonderful things in the tomb was the group 
 of elaborately carved alabaster vases which has 
 been so often figured and so much be-praised 
 since the discovery was made. Of the interest 
 attaching to these extraordinary vases there 
 can be no question; but when we are told that 
 they are ‘the most beautiful alabaster vases in 
 the world,” it is time to enter a protest. They 
 are nothing of the sort. _ 
 
 As specimens of workmanship they are 
 wonderful enough ; as specimens of art they are 
 flagrantly bad,—characteristic types of an art 
 
204 TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 
 
 which has passed its maturity and is on the 
 downgrade. ‘The over-elaboration and the far 
 too complicated character of their decoration 
 are sufficient to condemn them, and they are not 
 to be compared for one moment, from the point 
 of artistic value, with the simple and graceful 
 forms of earlier work. Indeed, even in Tutankh- 
 amen’s tomb, and in the same chamber with 
 these over-praised and overdone pieces of preten- 
 tiousness, there were vases far more worthy 
 of praise for their artistic quality than the ones 
 whose noisy ornamentation has singled them 
 out for a notice which they do not deserve. 
 
 Of all the objects so far removed from the 
 tomb, none has attracted more attention, and 
 none seems likely to create more controversy, 
 than the group of extraordinary gilt state couches, 
 the Lion, Hathor, and Typhon couches, as they 
 came to be called. ‘The thing which drew atten- 
 tion to them was not their beauty, for anything 
 more hideous it is impossible to imagine ; it was 
 their strangeness. With Egyptian couches and 
 biers the world was pretty familiar before; but 
 these were widely different, with their quiet and 
 shapely lines, from the barbaric monstrosities 
 of Tutankhamen’s tomb. ‘The heads of the 
 couches present, indeed, some resemblances to 
 familiar Egyptian types ; but even so, the sugges- 
 tion which rises to the mind on viewing them is 
 that these are Egyptian types interpreted by an 
 alien temperament and executed by alien crafts- 
 men. It seems almost impossible to believe 
 that an Egyptian craftsman, with his tradition of 
 taste and restraint, would ever have produced 
 
TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 205 
 
 such abortions, calculated to produce nightmares 
 instead of slumber in those who tried to rest 
 upon them. 
 
 Accordingly Professor Petrie has asserted that 
 these couches are not of Egyptian workmanship 
 at all. No Egyptian workman, he says, ever 
 produced work assembled with bronze joints as 
 these couches are ; they must have been produced 
 in a distant country, and jointed in this fashion 
 for convenience of transport, being reassembled 
 on their arrival. Further, the decoration (trefoil) 
 on one of them is characteristically Babylonian. 
 Therefore it seems probable that we must look 
 to Babylon for their origin; and Professor 
 Petrie suggests that these are the identical couches 
 to which the Babylonian king Kadashman-Enilil 
 refers in one of the Tell el-Amarna letters, where 
 he says, writing to Amenhotep III, that he is 
 sending to the Egyptian king “‘ a couch of ushu 
 wood, ivory and gold, three couches and six 
 thrones of ushu and gold,” and other furniture. 
 
 There is nothing unlikely in the idea that 
 couches of such international importance, coming 
 from one great monarch to another, should have 
 been preserved for the matter of forty years 
 or so, and buried as heirlooms in the tomb of 
 the last of the line; and the suggestion lends 
 an added interest to the ugly things. Sir 
 E. A. W. Budge, however, rejects the idea, and 
 asserts that the beast represented on the most 
 hideous of the couches is simply the composite 
 monster Ammit, “the Eater of the Dead,” so 
 often represented in the Judgment Scene in the 
 vignettes of the Book of the Dead. “‘ The 
 
2066 TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 
 
 Mesopotamians knew of no such beast, and the 
 couch or bier could only have been made in 
 Egypt, where the existence of Ammit was 
 believed in and the fear of her was great.” In 
 support of his opinion he quotes from the 
 Papyrus of Hunefer—‘ Her forepart is crocodile,” 
 and anyone familiar with the Judgment Scene 
 will remember that this certainly is so. The 
 trouble is that whatever the hideous monster 
 of Tutankhamen’s tomb may represent, “ her 
 forepart ”’ certainly is not crocodile. It is ugly 
 and sinister enough for anything; but no 
 Egyptian craftsman would have dreamed of 
 trying to pass this clumsy monster off as a repre- 
 sentation of a crocodile—one of the most 
 familiar of objects. 
 
 Especially in view of the methods of construc- 
 tion involved—a point on which no man is better 
 qualified than Petrie to pronounce an opinion— 
 Budge seems to have done nothing to invalidate 
 the Babylonian suggestion, which, for the rest, 
 takes its place very naturally, as we shall see, in 
 the explanation of the extraordinary wealth of 
 furniture found in the tomb of one of the least 
 famous Pharaohs of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The 
 couches seem, to an unprejudiced mind, just such 
 work as would be produced by a clever workman 
 working on motives which were quite foreign to 
 his usual practice, and therefore producing 
 results which, while they have a _ distinct 
 resemblance to the types which he was imitating, 
 yet show these as seen and interpreted by an 
 outsider, and not by one to whom they were parts 
 of his normal training. 
 
TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 207 
 
 Of the statues found in the tomb, two, the 
 life-sized ones of bituminised wood adorned with 
 gold, were fine specimens of the normal type 
 of tomb portrait; the third, the so-called 
 ** Mannikin,” was of a different class. It was 
 only a half-length, and lacked the arms; but in 
 other respects it was a careful and artistic piece 
 of work and obviously a faithfully studied 
 portrait. ‘The idea that its imperfect condition 
 is due to the fact that it was a sort of glorified 
 tailor’s dummy, on which the royal robes were 
 fitted before being worn by the Pharaoh, may 
 probably be dismissed without ceremony. It 
 is not SP vinis why, in a period when court dress 
 was of the most elaborate type, with long robes 
 of fine linen falling to the feet, and wide sleeves 
 coming almost to the elbow, the mannikin should 
 have neither legs nor arms, which one would 
 have judged essential for the purpose of trying 
 the fall of the robe. Another view was that it 
 was a portrait, not of Tutankhamen, but of his 
 wife, Ankh.s.en.Amen. There can be no doubt 
 about the quality of the portrait, though to talk 
 of “ the strange pensive smile playing about the 
 lips, recalling the baffling smile of Da Vinci’s 
 Mona Lisa,” is to invite comparisons which are 
 scarcely fair to the older work of art; but it 
 certainly is not the portrait of a woman. It may 
 be a head-portrait of the type not uncommon in 
 Old Kingdom tombs ; or it may be part of the 
 foundation of a copper statue, like that of Pepy 
 of the Old Kingdom, though in that case it is 
 difficult to see why it should have been so 
 carefully coloured. 
 
208 TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 
 
 In the meantime it is impossible to say much 
 about the treasures of the cihoShayue Cheha 
 and its annexe. Scarcely more than a glimpse 
 has been vouchsafed of these, no more hall 
 enough to whet curiosity and expectation. But 
 there can be little doubt that the splendour of 
 the two inner chambers will be in accordance 
 with the preface to it which the outer chambers 
 have yielded. No onecan doubt the magnificence 
 of the great canopy, which in itself would be a 
 treasure beyond price; and all observers are 
 at one as to the marvellous beauty of the shrine 
 with the four goddesses. The motive of its 
 decoration is, of course, one perfectly familiar 
 in Egyptian art, and is found in all ages. The 
 beautiful pink granite sarcophagus of ‘Tutankh- 
 amen’s successor and enemy Horemheb, for 
 instance, has as part of its adornment another 
 version of the same idea of the protecting goddess. 
 But the detail of the Canopic Shrine, if 1t prove 
 to be such, appears to be of a quality and inspira- 
 tion rare even in the finest Egyptian work. For 
 the rest, we can only wait and hope. 
 
 A good deal has been said about the need of 
 recasting our ideas of Egyptian history in the 
 light of the new information which has been 
 gained from the tomb of Tutankhamen, and some 
 writers have hinted that our whole conception 
 of the close of the XVIIIth Dynasty is wrong, 
 and must be recast to square with the new facts. 
 We are asked to discard the idea of an Egypt 
 beginning to decline from the lofty position which 
 she had held under Thothmes I]I and Amen- 
 hotep III, and to substitute for this the picture 
 

 
 LUXOR. 
 
 S95 ae 
 
 COLOSSUS OF RAM 
 
 20% 
 
| 
 i 
 ; 
 ly, 
 ' 
 n 
 | 
 mye 
 ! 
 y ‘ 
 ji 
 | 
 i ‘ 
 \ 
 re 
 =.6 
 ‘¢ 
 i 
 i 
 - 
 4 
 l 
 ‘ 
 - 
 i 
 i 
 } 
 1 
 ‘ 
 ‘ 
 t 
 " ‘ 
 { 1 
 ¥ ‘ 
 j< 
 
 
 
 
 
 ; ee 
 Soli at ie ae 
 Dig ae rh 
 
 he 
 > 
 
 vale 
 
TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 209 
 
 of an Egypt waking with renewed strength from 
 the uneasy religious dreams of the reign of 
 Akhenaten, and asserting once more, and with 
 greater vigour than ever, her dominion in the 
 realms of both politics and art. 
 
 All this is merely a vain imagination. His- 
 torically, no new facts have emerged from the 
 tomb of Tutankhamen. It is scarcely true to 
 say, with Budge, that “ we know no more now 
 about the reign of this king than we did before 
 Lord Carnarvon made his phenomenal discovery.” 
 That would only be the case on the narrow 
 reading of the meaning of history which would 
 confine it to the mere recording of dates, con- 
 quests, and legislation. The art of any period 
 constitutes no small part of its history, and 
 for the history of far-past times it is one of 
 our most valuable sources of information ; and 
 we may surely look for a large extension of our 
 knowledge of the art of ancient Egypt in the 
 reign of Tutankhamen from the treasures of his 
 tomb. 
 
 But so far as concerns the facts of what the 
 king, and Egypt under his leadership, accom- 
 plished in the matter of raising again the declining 
 prestige and power of the Empire, we know no 
 more than we did before the tomb was opened ; 
 nor is it likely that when the work is completed 
 we shall have gained much more information, if 
 any, on this point. For the likelihood is that if 
 there are any papyri beneath the great golden 
 canopy, they will be of a purely religious type, 
 versions of one or other of the different forms of 
 spiritual guide-book which the devout Egyptian 
 
 O 
 
 —wtbinads 
 
210 TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 
 
 carried with him on his long journey through the 
 dark Underworld. 
 
 The artistic value of the find is another matter. 
 There can be no question but that this splendid 
 collection of the finest work of the craftsmen of 
 the XVIIIth Dynasty, by far the greatest assem- 
 blage of such work known to exist, will prove of 
 the utmost importance in shaping and correcting 
 our ideas of Egyptian art at one of the most 
 interesting points of its long development. 
 Never before has such a mass of material of the 
 highest class been available for study. Yet even 
 here it would be rash to assume that the result 
 will be any considerable modification of our 
 views as to the period of culmination of the art 
 of the New Empire. At the most, and assuming 
 that all the art of the tomb is strictly of the time 
 of the king with whose burial it is associated, and 
 that its quality is all of the supreme standard 
 which has been attributed to it, the net result 
 would be the shifting of the apex of the curve 
 a matter of thirty or thirty-five years, a small 
 thing when we are dealing with an art whose 
 history is written in millenniums. But it seems 
 likely that even this is more than we need 
 necessarily assume. 
 
 There is always the possibility that in the 
 tomb of ‘Tutankhamen we are dealing, not only 
 with the splendours of one king, but perhaps 
 also with many of the heirlooms of the royal 
 house to which he belonged, in which case we 
 should be faced with specimens of the art, not 
 of one period of a few years’ duration, but with 
 those of perhaps a whole century, perhaps of a 
 
TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 211 
 
 longer period still. The work of sifting out the 
 various sources and periods of the materials 
 found in the tomb will prove a most fascinating, 
 if also a most difficult, task ; when it is accom- 
 plished—the work of years--we may be in a 
 position to speak more definitely about the change 
 or the confirmation which the tomb of Tutankh- 
 amen has brought to our previous theories of 
 the growth and decline of Egyptian art ; mean- 
 while we must wait, with the assurance that even 
 in the extremest case, the discovery can scarcely 
 commit us to anything revolutionary of our 
 previous conceptions. 
 
 The mention of the possibility of some of the 
 articles found in the tomb being family heirlooms 
 of the XVIIIth Dynasty brings up the last 
 question with which it is necessary to deal in 
 this short survey. How does it come about that 
 a Pharaoh of no great standing in the long line 
 of Egyptian monarchs—a mere stopgap king, 
 a pigmy between giants—was buried with sur- 
 roundings whose splendour exceeds anything 
 known in all the story of royal magnificence ? 
 The discoveries of ‘Tutankhamen’s wonderful 
 funerary equipment make us wonder what we 
 may have lost in the fact that his is the only royal 
 tomb which has been found practically unrifled. 
 Had we found, for instance, the tomb of a really 
 great Pharaoh, such as Amenhotep III, as intact 
 as that of his descendant, we should have been in 
 a better position to form a judgment on the 
 matter ; but that unfortunately has been denied 
 us. One suggestion may be made, with the 
 proviso that it is no more than a suggestion, 
 
212 TUTANKHAMEN SPLENDOURS 
 
 which may be confirmed or disproved by subse- 
 quent investigation. It has already been sug- 
 gested that some of the most curious, if not the 
 most beautiful, of the finds are relics, not of the 
 time of Tutankhamen, but of Amenhotep ITI, 
 dating therefore from forty years before the time 
 when they were stored away in the Valley of 
 the Kings; and it has also been suggested that 
 another very interesting article, the footstool 
 with figures of Asiatic captives inlaid upon it, 
 dates from an even earlier period, that of 
 Amenhotep II, and is therefore a century older 
 than the time to which the burial belongs. ° 
 
 Tutankhamen, we know, was the last king of 
 the direct line of the XVIIIth Dynasty. His 
 widow, Ankh. s. en. Amen, was left in a most 
 insecure position from which she made, as we 
 know, a desperate and unavailing effort to 
 extricate herself. May it not be that, with the 
 consciousness that all the glories of her house 
 were in danger of passing to mere usurpers of 
 undistinguished origin, such as the obscure 
 priest Ay, who succeeded ‘Tutankhamen, or the 
 commonplace soldier Horemheb, who drove Ay 
 from the throne, she secured at least some of the 
 most treasured heirlooms of the royal house 
 from desecration by hiding them in the tomb of 
 her dead husband ? 
 
 It is, of course, only an idea, which must stand 
 or fall by the results of future study; but it 
 seems, at least in the meantime, to offer a reason- 
 able explanation of a point on which no other 
 explanation is for the present forthcoming. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS IN THE LAND OF 
 THE NILE 
 
 ledge of the conditions under which life 
 
 was lived in Egypt, of the organisation 
 of society, of the arts and crafts by which the 
 needs and tastes of the people were met, is due to 
 the results of excavation during the last century. 
 We owe, of course, a great deal to the statements 
 of Herodotus and Diodorus as to the conditions 
 which they found existing in their time; but 
 the great source of information must always be 
 the mass of first-hand material which has 
 been gathered, mainly from the tombs with their 
 wealth of funerary furnishings, by the work of 
 the excavator. Therefore it would seem that 
 the fitting conclusion to our brief survey of the 
 various aspects of excavation should be a sketch 
 of the life of ancient Egypt, with the arts and 
 crafts which ministered to its necessities and its 
 luxuries. Such a sketch must, of course, be of 
 the slightest and least elaborated type, for the 
 amount of material is so enormous that only the 
 most salient points can be touched ; but it may 
 still be true so far as it goes, and may perhaps 
 
 213 
 
 P iedse oF the the whole of our _know- 
 
214) MILER OAR TS) AINE GRP ts 
 
 serve as an outline within which further details 
 may be inserted by the student of ancient 
 Egyptian life. 
 
 First of all, we may take the framework of 
 society. ‘Through the whole of Egyptian history 
 the outline of this is very much the same, though 
 there are many variations in the relative 
 importance of the various parts. ‘The head of 
 the state is always the Pharaoh, placed on a level 
 immensely above even the most powerful of his 
 subjects, but, as we shall see, by no means an 
 irresponsible tyrant, but rather a limited monarch, 
 governing in accordance with strictly defined 
 customs. 
 
 Beneath him are the great nobles and the 
 great official class—two sections of society which 
 were not in ancient Egypt, as in so many other 
 ancient realms, virtually different names for the 
 same thing. 
 
 Then came the priestly class, at all times one 
 of the most important in the land, and tending 
 at certain periods, with the weakening of the royal 
 power, to overshadow all the other interests. 
 
 It appears that there was a definitely military 
 class, with definite lands assigned to it for its 
 support, though in the earlier days of the kingdom 
 the wars were not the business of a separate class 
 of professional soldiers, but were carried on by 
 a general levy of the people. ‘The other great 
 land-holding class of the nation was that of the 
 husbandmen, who apparently were much of 
 our own old yeoman type, holding their land by 
 the payment of taxes. 
 
 Behind these classes, which, so to speak, 
 
LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS ~— 215 
 
 formed the backbone of the nation, came the 
 shepherds, hunters, artificers, traders, and workers 
 at other subsidiary occupations. ‘These held no 
 land, and their occupations appear to have been 
 mainly hereditary, no artisan being allowed to 
 pass from one trade to another, or to have his 
 children reckoned in any other class than his own. 
 The various trades must have been organised 
 more or less after the plan of the medizval trade- 
 guilds, though in the case of Egypt the organisa- 
 tion was apparently a national, and not a local 
 affair. Beneath the tradesmen came the slave 
 class, whose number varied pretty much according 
 to the wars on which the nation was engaged, 
 and their fruitfulness, or the opposite, in yielding 
 captives. 
 
 Slave labour was never a prominent feature 
 of Egyptian life, and Petrie estimates the slave 
 population of the land at its maximum at no 
 more than a quarter of a million out of a possible 
 population of twelve millions. 
 
 To the imagination of most folk probably 
 the mention of “ Pharaoh, King of Egypt,” 
 suggests a typical Oriental tyrant, responsible 
 to nothing but his own passions, and governing 
 according to the whim of the moment. Such a 
 picture may have been true of an Assyrian or 
 Babylonian king, like Ashurbanipal or Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, and perhaps the frequency of assassination 
 in the records of the Assyrian kings hints that it 
 was; but it certainly was not true of ancient 
 Egypt. Pharaoh’s own grandiose inscriptions, 
 and the fiction which regarded him as a god 
 incarnate, may suggest unbridled power ; but as 
 
216 LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS 
 
 a matter of fact, Pharaoh was anything but the 
 rampant and romantic despot whom we imagine 
 distributing life and death at his own capricious 
 will, but rather a somewhat humdrum constitu- 
 tional monarch, whose every action was regulated 
 for him centuries before he was born, by an 
 unchanging custom, and who could no more 
 step beyond the limits which immemorial laws 
 had assigned to him than he could jump out of 
 his skin, or off his own shadow. 
 
 The thing which amazed the Greeks, with 
 their experience of irresponsible tyrants, was the 
 fact that so great a king as Pharaoh was not the 
 master, but the servant of the laws. ‘‘ He could 
 not do any public business, condemn or punish 
 any man to gratify his own humour or revenge, 
 or for any other unjust cause; but was bound 
 to do according as the laws had ordered in every 
 particular case. . . . The kings, therefore, carry- 
 ing this even hand towards all their subjects, 
 were more beloved by them than by their own 
 kindred.” 
 
 Petrie has suggested that it is this limitation 
 of the power of the Pharaoh which is accountable 
 for the unusual stability of the Egyptian throne. 
 “The absence of republican interludes, so 
 frequent in other parts of the Mediterranean, was 
 apparently due to the monarchy being strictly 
 limited by law. However bad an Egyptian might 
 be personally, he could not earn the hatred of his 
 subjects like the irresponsible Greek tyrants or 
 Roman emperors.” 
 
 Indeed Pharaoh according to fact is a very 
 different figure from Pharaoh according to 
 

 
 2yomeO RAT leAEL Cie ORME IN DU BVMETA SS CATRO MUS i UIMe 
 

 
LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS = 217 
 
 imagination. We must try to substitute for the 
 gorgeous tiger of our fancies the figure, gorgeous 
 enough indeed, so far as concerns his apparel, 
 of a laborious servant of the State whose life, 
 instead of being spent in wild orgies of licence 
 and wild explosions of ferocity, was mainly 
 occupied, from the time when he rose in the 
 morning to the time when he crawled to bed at 
 night, in a manner quite familiar to royalty in 
 our own country, in signing dull reports, and 
 reading dull dispatches, presiding over long and 
 wearisome temple services, and travelling about 
 the country to see that everything was working 
 smoothly. 
 
 The new picture is by no means so picturesque 
 as the old one; but it is the real Pharaoh, and 
 no doubt it was for the good, both of his subjects 
 and himself, that ‘“‘ Pharaoh had to act every hour 
 according to fixed routine, without room for 
 the licence of a Dionysius or a Caligula.” The 
 brilliant tiger looks romantic in a story, but when 
 his despotism becomes unbearable it has generally 
 to be tempered by assassination, as with Sargon, 
 Sennacherib, and many another ; but as a matter 
 of fact the Egyptian Pharaoh generally managed 
 to die quietly in his own bed when his time 
 came. 
 
 Not that he had not his own power, and his 
 own initiative. His headship of the State involved 
 headship of the army in war, and this was no 
 polite fiction, where Pharaoh reaped the glory 
 while his soldiers had the danger. Seqenen- 
 Ra’s mummy, with its ghastly wounds on head 
 and face, tells us how real was the duty 
 
218 LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS 
 
 of Egyptian royalty in the day of battle. 
 Thothmes III led the van of his army through 
 the defile of Aaruna, when his chosen captains 
 shirked the task, and though we need not believe 
 all that Ramses II tells us about his share in the 
 battle of Kadesh, there is no doubt that he fought 
 hand to hand with the Hittites in the forefront 
 of the battle, and at least proved himself a good 
 trooper, whatever may be thought of his general- 
 ship. Much power also lay in his hands in 
 respect of the selection and advancement of 
 able men from the lower to the higher ranks 
 of the public service, and of rewarding their 
 work with grants of land, of initiating the great 
 public works which were often of such untold 
 benefit to the land, and of conducting the 
 Foreign-Office business of the country, and the 
 negotiation of treaties. In short, Pharaoh had 
 no lack of work to do, and was probably like his 
 modern successors in Kingship, one of the 
 hardest-worked men in the land; but from 
 start to finish, the Egyptian monarchy was a 
 limited one. : 
 
 Two instances of the limitation of the royal 
 power, and its strict subjection to law, may be 
 given. When Queen Amtes was tried, in the 
 reign of Pepy I of the VIth Dynasty, for some 
 unspecified offence, the trial was conducted 
 without even the presence of the king. “ His 
 Majesty,’’ says Una in his famous inscription, 
 *“‘ caused me to enter in order to hear the case 
 alone. No chief judge and vizier at all, no prince 
 at all was there, but only I alone, because I was 
 excellent, because { was pleasant to the heart 
 
LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS 219 
 
 of His Majesty.” Again, in the time of King 
 Ramses III of the XXth Dynasty, there was a 
 great palace conspiracy arising out of an intrigue 
 in the harem to dethrone Ramses, and put the 
 son of one of the harem ladies on the throne. 
 In most other Oriental palaces the discovery of 
 such a thing would have been the signal for a 
 general massacre. Instead of executing sum- 
 mary justice, Ramses appointed a commission, 
 giving them these remarkable instructions: 
 “ What the people have spoken, I do not know. 
 Hasten to investigate it. You will go and 
 question them, and those who must die, you will 
 cause to die by their own hand, without my 
 knowing anything of it. You will also cause the 
 punishment awarded to the others to be carried 
 out without my knowing anything of it.” 
 
 Pharaoh may not always have been a model 
 of propriety or of rectitude; but he was far 
 too strictly hedged about by precedent to allow 
 of the brutal tyranny and licence which have so 
 often marked other Eastern monarchies, and, 
 besides, one fails to see how, with his time so 
 completely filled as we know it to have been, 
 with all sorts of necessary routine, he can have 
 had much opportunity for mischief, even if he 
 had the desire. 
 
 The king’s chief functionary and right-hand 
 man was the Vizier, who must have been just 
 about as hard-worked a man as his master. ‘The 
 inscription in the tomb of Rekhmara, who was 
 vizier under Thothmes III, enumerates thirty 
 separate functions which had to be discharged 
 by the fortunate holder of this great office. “ The 
 
220 # LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS 
 
 vizier is Grand Steward of all Egypt, and all the 
 activities of the State are under his control. 
 He has general oversight of the treasury, and the 
 chief treasurer reports to him ; he is chief justice, 
 or head of the judiciary ; he is chief of police, 
 both for the residence-city and the kingdom ; 
 he is minister of war, both for army and navy ; 
 he is secretary of the interior and of agriculture, 
 while all general executive functions of State, 
 with many that may not be classified, are 
 incumbent upon him. There is indeed no 
 prime function of the State which does not 
 operate through his office. He is a veritable 
 Joseph, and it must be this office which the 
 Hebrew writer has in mind in the story of 
 Joseph.” Altogether we may conclude that, 
 whatever the salary of the vizier may have been, 
 he probably earned it. 
 
 A quaint picture of the way in which a high 
 Egyptian official was hedged about with routine 
 is given’ by Rekhmara in his description of the 
 procedure of the court of justice. ‘“ As for every 
 act of this official, the vizier while hearing in 
 the hall of the vizier, he shall sit upon a chair, 
 with a rug upon the floor, and a dais upon it, a 
 cushion under his back, a cushion under his feet, 
 and a baton at his hand ; the forty skins [parch- 
 ments of the codified law] shall be open before 
 him. Then the magnates of the South shall 
 stand in the two aisles before him, while the 
 master of the privy chamber is on his right, 
 the receiver of income on his left, the scribes of 
 the vizier at his either hand ; one corresponding 
 to another, with each man at his proper place. 
 
PApE ARTS, "AND, CRAFTS 221 
 
 One shall be heard after another, without 
 allowing one who is behind to be heard before 
 one who is in front.” 
 
 The great offices of State, of course, often fell 
 to men of high rank, and of hereditary influence. 
 Rekhmara himself came of noble family, and 
 succeeded his uncle in the vizierate. But this 
 was by no means necessarily the case. Egypt 
 always presented the career open to talent which 
 Napoleon desired. “ All through the history 
 there was a free rising of ability from the lower 
 levels, as we see in England—Wolsey, the 
 butcher’s son, and many others. . . . This was 
 a chief cause of the durability of Egyptian society ; 
 great as the differences were, there was a gradation 
 interlocking all through, as in England.” 
 
 A notable instance of the rise of a talented man 
 is given by the tomb-inscription of that same 
 Una whom we have already seen presiding over 
 the trial of Queen Amtes. Beginning his official 
 career as an “‘ inferior custodian of the domain of 
 Pharaoh,” Una during three reigns steadily 
 climbed up the official ladder, until at last he 
 became governor of the South under Merenra, 
 and was the favoured official chosen to fetch 
 the granite for the royal sarcophagus and pyramid 
 from the quarries at Aswan. Senmut again, the 
 famous architect and minister of Queen 
 Hatshepsut, tells us in the inscription on his 
 statue at Karnak that he was “the greatest 
 of the great in the whole land,” and seems to have 
 held power not inferior to that of the vizier, 
 though there is no evidence that he held that 
 office ; yet he tells us in his Berlin inscription 
 
222 LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS 
 
 that “ his ancestors were not found in writing,” 
 or in other words, that he was a self-made man. 
 
 The elaborately organised court held many 
 offices both ornamental and useful, which gave 
 openings for talent or ambition. Perhaps one 
 of the most influential positions was one which 
 involved no very important duties, but brought 
 the holder of it into close and constant touch 
 with Pharaoh. This was the position of the 
 ‘““fan-bearer at the king’s right hand.’ His 
 function was purely ornamental, and he can be 
 seen in paintings and reliefs carrying a tiny fan 
 beside the king’s litter as the symbol of his office, 
 while the real work of fanning is done by the 
 ordinary fan-bearers with their big business-like 
 fans; but he was the highest court-official, a 
 sort of Lord Chamberlain, with powers of giving 
 or denying entry to the presence, and no doubt 
 his favour was all-important to a petitioner, as that 
 of one who had the ear of Pharaoh. As to the 
 rest of the court, there was a multitude of officials 
 quite comparable to the tail of useless boot- 
 lickers who adorned the court of Louis XIV; 
 but one imagines that, in earlier days at least, 
 the courtier of Pharaoh had to do more for his 
 position than the hanger-on of the Grand 
 Monarque. 
 
 The priesthood formed a very large and very 
 influential class. In theory, the King was always 
 the Supreme Priest, the Pontifex Maximus of 
 the kingdom, and very often several of the high- 
 priesthoods of the ‘different gods were held by 
 members of the royal family, thus securing that 
 the Pharaoh should be represented in the priestly 
 
LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS = 223 
 
 councils whose loyalty or disloyalty might mean 
 so much to the stability of his throne. Thus in 
 the reign of Ramses II, his favourite son 
 Khaemuast, the Wizard-Prince of the Setna 
 papyrus, was high-priest of Ptah at Memphis. 
 No doubt the fact that there was such a multitude 
 of gods, whose priesthoods were all jealous of 
 one another, was some security against the 
 overwhelming influence of the priestly caste, 
 especially in the earlier days; but the fate of 
 Akhenaten’s movement showed that in spite of 
 local jealousies the priestly caste was really one 
 in face of any attempt to diminish its power and 
 privileges ; and in the end the unquestioned 
 supremacy of Amen led to the Amen priesthood 
 gaining a position and influence which was 
 superior to that of the weak Ramesside Pharaohs, 
 and which resulted in the supersession of the 
 true royal line, and the substitution for it of the 
 XXIst Dynasty of priest-kings. Even before 
 things had reached such a pitch, the immense 
 wealth which the piety of successive kings had 
 accumulated in the coffers of the priesthoods, 
 and especially of that of Amen, must have 
 constituted a real danger to the state, while the 
 amount of land held by the priests, and so 
 exempt from taxation, went with the other 
 accumulation to constitute a steady drain on the 
 national resources which in the end they were not 
 able to bear. 
 
 The class of the great nobles was held in 
 strict subordination to the royal power in the 
 days of the strong early monarchs of the Old 
 Kingdom ; but, with the weakening of the royal 
 
224 LIFE, ARTS, AND. CRAFTS 
 
 authority which followed the Vth Dynasty, the 
 honours and powers which Pharaoh had heaped 
 on his faithful courtiers, and which had been a 
 convenient relief to the central authority as 
 shifting part of the burden of local administration 
 to the shoulders of the local great men, proved 
 a danger to the State. A kind of feudal system 
 grew up in which the local chieftains assumed the 
 powers and as much as they could afford of the 
 splendours of Pharaoh himself, claiming to hold 
 their offices by hereditary right, maintaining 
 their own armies, holding their own courts of 
 justice, and even daring to place after their own 
 names in their proclamations the formula, 
 ‘* Living for ever and ever,” which had hitherto 
 been the sacred attribute of the crown alone. 
 
 The revival. of the monarchy, first under the 
 Antefs and Mentuhoteps of the XIth Dynasty, 
 and then under the Senuserts and Amenemhats 
 of the XIIth Dynasty, however, soon curbed 
 the pretensions of these petty princelets, and the 
 changes of the Hyksos invasion and the War of 
 Independence wiped out the last relics of the 
 Egyptian feudal system, which never revived 
 under the New Empire. Even under strong 
 kings like the Pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom, 
 the courts of the local nomarchs were no small 
 things, as they might employ anything from 
 fifty to a hundred officials, from the steward down 
 to the “‘ mat-spreader.” 
 
 Tomb-inscriptions are not perhaps the most 
 trustworthy sources as to the personal character 
 of a class of men, nor are we to expect that Ameny 
 or Khnemhotep will tell us anything of the shady 
 
“dH LHH-HVIid 40 AWOL “MYOM-ARITAWY ALSVNAG UA “Qe 
 
 
 

 
 at. J : te Te ‘ 7 
 ‘\ ; "> Ps 6 Oe a re * 
 . : 24% ar Sees 
 a a 7 : Peel “aN 
 i <a Pe) - Lad Dat Ls Ae > J 
 wu 
 
 PPE ea te fr rt 
 -, a aye eds De yu oe: ae ae Tuucd a 
 
LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS 225 
 
 side of their administration. Yet it must be 
 confessed that Ameny’s story of his administration 
 of the Oryx Nome gives a pleasant picture of the 
 relations of a great local noble and official to the 
 people of his province; and we may say that 
 if Egypt in the time of the Middle Kingdom had 
 many nomarchs of his stamp, she was a fortunate 
 land. 
 
 “There was no citizen’s daughter whom I 
 misused,” says the great man, ‘“‘ there was no 
 widow whom I oppressed, there was no peasant 
 whom I repulsed, there was no shepherd whom I 
 repelled, there was not a foreman of five from 
 whom I took his men for forced work. There 
 was not a pauper around me; there was not a 
 hungry man of my time. When there came years 
 of famine, I arose, I ploughed all the fields of 
 the Oryx Nome to its southern and its northern 
 boundary, I kept its inhabitants alive, making 
 provision so that there was not a hungry man 
 init. J gave to the widow as to her that possessed 
 a husband ; nor did I exalt the great above the 
 small in all that I gave. Thereafter great rises 
 of the Nile took place, producing wheat and 
 barley and all things; but I did not exact the 
 arrears of the farm.’ “‘I gave bread to the 
 hungry,’ says another noble, ‘‘ and clothes to 
 the naked, and gave a passage in my own boat 
 to those who could not cross. I was a father to 
 the orphan, a husband to the widow, a protection 
 from the wind to the shivering; I am one who 
 spake what was good, and related what was good. 
 I acquired my possessions in a just manner.” 
 
 All this may savour a little of Pharisaic 
 
 P 
 
226 LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS 
 
 self-righteousness to us; but at least it shows 
 that there was a recognised idea, among the 
 governing class, of the duties which a great man 
 owed to those under him, and the possession of 
 such an ideal must have made bad government 
 more difficult. 
 
 The same praise can scarcely be given to the 
 ideals of the other important, though minor, 
 official class, the scribes. The Egyptian scribe 
 belonged to a type with which we are perfectly 
 familiar still, the type of the petty official who 
 thinks that there is nothing in all the world so 
 fine as petty officialdom, unless it be superior 
 officialdom, and who looks down on all other 
 professions with a scorn which is only equalled 
 by his ignorance. In a land where writing was 
 so complicated a matter, and where it so early 
 assumed supreme importance, where also the 
 annual inundation with its obliterating of land- 
 marks made the possession of written records a 
 matter of great importance, the scribe obviously 
 had a splendid field for his work, and for the 
 development of all his peculiar vices. It was 
 possible for a careful scribe to climb from the 
 humblest position to one of great dignity and 
 power, and the Egyptian scribe never forgot that 
 every scribe carried in his writing-case the wand 
 of office of a potential vizier. 
 
 The scribes have left us many examples of 
 what they thought of themselves and of all other 
 people and professions, and it may be safely 
 said that of no other class of Egyptian do we 
 carry away so unpleasant an impression as of 
 that one which no doubt imagined that it was 
 
LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS 227 
 
 impressing its own immense superiority on the 
 minds of all posterity. ‘The Egyptian cherished 
 a profound admiration for learning; but his 
 devotion to letters was not because of the beauty 
 of learning in itself, but simply because it was 
 the avenue to preferment and the way of escape 
 from the miseries of toil or the dangers of war. 
 Both the admiration and the mercenary reason 
 for it are expressed in the words of an ancient 
 sage recorded for us in the Sallier Papyrus: 
 
 “Give thy heart to learning and love her like a mother, 
 For there is nothing that is so precious as learning . . . 
 Behold there is no profession which is not governed, 
 It is only the learned man who rules himself.” 
 
 The scribe saw himself, because of his 
 possession of letters, immeasurably above all the 
 poor creatures who had to earn their bread by 
 the sweat of their brow. He was exempt from 
 all the pains and anxieties of the workman, and 
 loved maliciously to contemplate them while 
 he issued the orders which imposed further 
 burdens on backs already heavily burdened. 
 “The poor ignorant man, ‘ whose name is 
 unknown, is like a heavily-laden donkey, he is 
 driven by the scribe,’ while the fortunate man 
 ‘who has set his heart upon learning’ is above 
 work, and becomes a wise prince.” ‘‘ The 
 learned man has enough to eat because of his 
 learning.” ‘Therefore, “‘ set to work and become 
 a scribe, for then thou shalt become a leader of 
 men.” 
 
 No matter what the trade was, or how 
 wonderful its results, it seemed to the smug 
 
228 LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS 
 
 scribe a contemptible thing in comparison with 
 his own precious profession of letters. Here 
 is his opinion of the craftsmen who created the 
 miracles of metal- and wood-work of the Middle 
 Kingdom : 
 
 ‘“[ have never seen the smith as an ambassador, 
 Or the goldsmith carry tidings ; 
 But I have seen the smith at his work 
 At the mouth of his furnace, 
 
 . His fingers were like crocodile skin, 
 He stank more than the roe of fish... 
 Each artist who works with the chisel 
 Tires himself more than he who hoes a field. 
 ‘The wood is his field, of metal are his tools. 
 In the night—is he free? 
 He works more than his arms are able, 
 In the night—he lights a light.” 
 
 No doubt this seemed very fine and humorous 
 to our scribe; but we who have the chance of 
 comparing his literary achievement with the 
 works of the craftsmen whom he satirised may 
 be pardoned for preferring the diadems of 
 Khnumit and Sat-Hathor, or the statues of 
 Senusert and Amenemhat to all the paltry drivel 
 he ever wrote. 
 
 Nor was his opinion of the soldier’s calling 
 any higher. Indeed the ancient Egyptian was 
 no more of a warlike person than his successor 
 the modern fellah, who makes a good enough 
 soldier under British officers, but is about the 
 most unmilitary person on earth when left to 
 the freedom of his own will. There is no more 
 curious inversion of fact than the common idea 
 which pictures the Egyptian as one of the great 
 
"SOGAGV ‘I ALAS AO AIMNWAL ‘MUOM-AAITAN ALISVNAC U}X1LX 162 
 
 
 
 
 

 
LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS — 229 
 
 warrior races of the world, and classes him along 
 with that bloodthirsty tiger the Assyrian. Only at 
 one period of his history did the Egyptian ever 
 show the least sign of developing a craving for 
 world-dominion and the warfare which goes 
 along with it ; and when the brief imperial fever 
 of his early XVIIith Dynasty had wrought itself 
 out, he reverted for the rest of his history to his 
 natural role of the finest craftsman on earth, 
 only bestirring himself when there was need 
 to defend his frontiers, a business which he did 
 fairly, but only fairly, well. On the whole, he 
 would have thoroughly agreed with Alan Breck 
 Stewart that war “‘ is generally rather a bauchle 
 of a business.” 
 
 But it was reserved for the smug and flabby 
 scribe—you can see him still in the Louvre with 
 his cunning eyes and his rolls of unhealthy 
 flesh—to make a mock of the calling which won 
 for Egypt all the empire she ever possessed, and 
 which was that of her greatest Pharaohs. 
 
 “Oh, what does it mean,” says this early 
 pacifist, “‘Oh, what does it mean that thou 
 sayest : ‘ The officer has a better lot than the 
 scribe ?? Come, let me relate to thee the fate of 
 the officer, so full of trouble.’ Then he goes 
 on to relate in a fashion which he no doubt 
 thinks humorous, the life of an officer on active 
 
 duty in Syria: 
 
 “ Come, let me relate to thee how he travels to Syria, 
 How he marches in the upland country. 
 His food and his water he has to carry on his arm, 
 Laden like a donkey ; 
 This makes his neck stiff like that of a donkey, 
 
230, LIFE; ARTS, AND CRAFTS 
 
 And the bones of his back break .. . 
 
 If he arrives in face of the enemy, 
 
 He is like a bird in a snare... 
 
 If he arrives at his home in Egypt . . 
 
 He is ill, and must lie down. 
 
 They have to bring him home on the donkey, 
 
 Whilst his clothes are stolen, and his servants run away. 
 
 Therefore, O scribe, 
 Reverse thine opinion about the happiness of the scribe 
 and of the officer.” 
 
 As literature this precious effusion is merely 
 contemptible ; but it is very illuminating as to 
 the character of the class which was responsible 
 for the production of it. Generally speaking, the 
 Egyptian leaves you with the pleasant impression 
 that he is a decent kindly fellow, with a cheery 
 outlook on life, and a love of pretty things and 
 laughter ; but the scribe is an undoubted fly 
 in the ointment. He thought himself its finest 
 perfume ; but that is just precisely what makes 
 him so unquestionably the fly. 
 
 We need not imagine that the condition either 
 of the soldier or of the artisan was quite so miser- 
 able as the scribe would have us believe. The 
 misfortune is that it was only the scribe who 
 was vocal. If the soldier or the craftsman had 
 been able to leave behind him his opinion of 
 the scribe, it would probably have been quite 
 as unflattering, and perhaps more pungently 
 expressed. It would not have required great 
 genius to make fun of a profession which lived 
 by the favour of the great man, and whose typical 
 figure is the kneeling scribe of the Cairo Museum, 
 with his twisted deprecating smile, and _ his 
 
CIFE; ARTS, AND CRAPTS |: 231 
 
 submissively crossed hands, waiting, like a dog, 
 uncertain whether his master will kick him or 
 fling him a bone. 
 
 Behind all the glitter of the court and official 
 circle, with its innumerable hangers-on, there 
 comes the great mass of the people, the farmers, 
 the skilled workmen, the shepherds, fishers, 
 toilers of all sorts. Of no race in the world can 
 it be said that the conditions of its workers have 
 been so fully depicted as of the Egyptians. On 
 the sculptured and painted tomb-reliefs we see 
 the workmen of almost every trade under heaven 
 busily engaged in the prosecution of their calling. 
 Whatever the scribe might think of the indignity 
 of being a smith or a carpenter, his impression 
 was confined to himself, and the great man had 
 not the least objection to see these and a score of 
 other common occupations pictured on the walls 
 of his ‘‘ eternal habitation.” But while the out- 
 ward aspect of these callings is thus fully repre- 
 sented, so that it might be possible to produce 
 a handbook of the Egyptian crafts, we are not so 
 well informed as to the environment in which 
 these wonderfully skilled workmen spent their 
 lives, what were the conditions of their service, 
 the manner of their housing, and the question of 
 whether their lot was a happy one or not. 
 Petrie’s excavations at Kahun have given us the 
 almost complete plan of an Old Kingdom 
 workmen’s town, where the skilled masons who 
 were building the pyramid of Senusert IT were 
 housed. Though this is only a temporary town, 
 we may probably take its conditions as more or 
 less typical of those which prevailed for the 
 
232 ‘LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS 
 
 artisan class in the Old Kingdom. ‘The houses 
 are of all sizes, ranging from four rooms to sixty, 
 the larger houses being, no doubt, those of the 
 overseers and clerks of works. ‘The streets are 
 narrow, varying from 11 feet to 15 feet wide, 
 and having a drain down the middle of each. 
 The simplest type of small house has an open 
 court opposite the entrance, a common room 
 on one side, and two storerooms on the other, 
 with a stair leading up to the roof. The larger 
 class of artisan’s house has a court, four rooms 
 opening off it, and five other rooms dependent 
 on the main rooms. On the whole, one would 
 imagine that the housing conditions were not so 
 very bad; though certainly the houses were too 
 crowded together. The average artisan’s house 
 of the present day has not the number of rooms 
 which were possessed by the pyramid mason of 
 four thousand years ago, though his advantages 
 in other respects are considerable. 
 
 The workman’s wages were at all events 
 partly paid in kind. Herodotus tells us of the 
 amount expended in provision for the workmen 
 who built the Great Pyramid : ‘ On the pyramid 
 is shown an inscription, in Egyptian characters, 
 how much was expended in radishes, onions, and 
 garlic, for the workmen ; which the interpreter, 
 as I well remember, reading the inscription, 
 told me amounted to one thousand six hundred 
 talents of silver.”’ Payment was still in kind 
 in the time of the New Empire. One of the 
 foremen of the craftsmen of the Theban 
 necropolis in the time of Ramses [IX (1142- 
 1123 B.C.), fortunately kept with great care a 
 
¢ 
 
 ReKORCOLIL “I Sal 
 
 SAVA HO Hw 
 
 TAWNHL ‘MUYOM-AAITHU ALSVNAC U}XIX * 
 
 oy 
 
 sco he ear 
 
 o£ 
 
 
 

 
LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS 233 
 
 record of all that happened to his gang, noting 
 whether the men were on full work or were 
 “idle.” Festival days broke in considerably on 
 their working time,'as we hear of two full months’ 
 holiday, and again of another month, in the same 
 year ; but the workmen’s rations ran on all the 
 same whether they were working or not. The 
 worry was that the rations were often behind 
 time, and when that happened there was trouble. 
 One month the rations were only one day late, 
 but another they did not come at all, and then the 
 workmen went on strike. This produced the 
 supplies ; but ere long the same thing happened 
 again, and this time the gang went in a body to 
 Thebes, and complained to the “ great princes,”’ 
 and the “ chief prophets of Amen.” Again the 
 result was good, and the journal of the carefu 
 foreman gives us a quaint hint of how it had been 
 necessary to use a little palm-oil in the case ot 
 the influential “‘ fan-bearer ”’ to secure the desired 
 end. ‘‘ We received to-day our corn-rations ; 
 we gave two boxes and a writing-tablet to the 
 fan-bearer.”’ 
 
 We cannot be sure whether the condition of 
 the necropolis workmen, who were mostly skilled 
 craftsmen, metal workers, carvers, painters, and 
 so forth, was worse than that of the workmen 
 in the city of the living ; probably the conditions 
 in both cases were much the same. In any case, 
 it is the necropolis workmen who supply us with 
 our instances of insufficient or delayed payment, 
 and who give us the first historic examples of 
 strikes. In the twenty-ninth year of Ramses III 
 (1170 B.C.) things were pretty bad in the 
 
234 LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS 
 
 necropolis, and wages had not been paid for half 
 a year. After giving the officials nine days’ grace, 
 the workmen naturally went on strike in a body. 
 
 They left the necropolis, with their wives and 
 children, and though the two overseers tried to 
 entice them back to work “ with great oaths,” 
 the workmen were not to be caught with chaff, 
 and stayed outside the necropolis walls. Finally 
 the affair assumed so threatening an aspect that 
 two chiefs of police and a number of priests 
 tried to make them return to duty ; but in vain. 
 Their answer was, ‘‘ We have been driven here 
 by hunger and thirst, we have no clothes, we have 
 no oil, we have no food. Write to our lord the 
 Pharaoh on the subject, and write to the governor 
 who is over us that they may give us something 
 for our sustenance.” ‘This unheard-of request 
 had its effect—‘‘ on that day they received the 
 provision for the month Tybi.” In another 
 month, however, they were back again, as 
 supplies had failed once more. ‘This time the 
 governor of the town met them, and though he 
 asked them how he was to pay their wages when 
 the storehouses were empty, he at least ordered 
 that they should receive half of the overdue 
 rations. 
 
 Altogether the evidence goes to show that 
 life was not all pleasure in ancient Egypt, any 
 more than in other lands; but it is only fair to 
 say that the other side of the matter has been 
 grossly exaggerated, and that life in the Land of 
 the Pharaohs was not the gloomy, morbid, 
 perpetually death-contemplating thing which it 
 has been represented as being. ‘This idea, of 
 
LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS — 235 
 
 course, we owe, partly to the amiable Herodotus 
 and his picture of the model coffin and mummy 
 being carried round at all their banquets, with the 
 words, “ Look on this, then drink and enjoy 
 yourself ; for when dead you will be like this,” 
 and partly to the fact that practically all the 
 knowledge we have of the Egyptians comes from 
 their tombs. 
 
 The necessary corrective to this one-sided 
 view of a great nation is given by their books, and 
 particularly by the romantic fiction which they 
 were the first nation to cultivate. Erman has 
 said that ‘“‘ the romances are not to be relied 
 upon; the country which they describe is not 
 Egypt but fairyland.” This may be so as regards 
 scenery and detail; but the writer of the Tale 
 of the Doomed Prince, or of Setna and the Magic 
 Roll, whether he may cast the scene of his story 
 in Naharina or in Egypt, cannot help revealing 
 in his tale the habitual outlook on life of the 
 Egypt of his time; and in this respect the 
 romances are far more to be relied upon than 
 either the vainglorious vauntings of a royal 
 inscription or the carefully dressed-up moral- 
 isings of a scribe. The picture which they give 
 of the Egyptian nature is that of a simple, kindly 
 race, singularly free from the savage cruelty which 
 disgraced their great rivals the Assyrians, loving 
 pleasure, and all the brightness and beauty of 
 life, with a straightforward and childlike affection, 
 not greedy of power, but ready to live and let 
 live, singularly advanced in their conception of 
 family life, and especially worthy of our admira- 
 tion in the respect which they paid to women, and 
 
236 LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS 
 
 the position accorded to woman from the very 
 earliest times. 
 
 It is time to rid our minds of that sinister 
 conception of the Egyptian as a dark, uncanny, 
 supernaturally wise and diabolically malignant 
 being, which is still to be found in second-rate 
 fiction, and in the vain imaginings of gropers in 
 the occult and the miraculous, and to see this 
 great race as it really was—a race of true children 
 of the Sun, leading in the dawn of the world’s 
 story a clean, healthy, open-air life, with its 
 own imperfections and weaknesses, but with its 
 plain virtues as well, and with a moral standard 
 not unworthy of comparison with that of any 
 race in the world. What they have accomplished 
 is plain for all the world to see; surely it is 
 common sense to see also that such things were 
 not the work of gloomy fanatics or of drivelling 
 dabblers in the black arts, but of men. 
 
 We turn now to consider the art of ancient 
 Egypt as it has now come to be known by the 
 accumulation of specimens of it during the last 
 century. Egyptian art has been somewhat slow 
 in coming to its own in the judgment of the world, 
 and that for two reasons. First that opinion, 
 which had been accustomed to very different 
 
 things, had to be gradually trained to appreciate 
 
 the merit of work which differed from the 
 accepted canons in many respects, even in the 
 type of material which it used for its self-expres- 
 sion ; and next, that the Egyptian work by which 
 the national art was first introduced to the atten- 
 tion of the modern world was mostly of a period 
 which we have now learned to know as decadent. 
 

 
 31. xxth DYNASTY RELIEF-WORK, TEMPLE OF RAMSES IH, 
 MEDINET HABU. 
 
i 
 
 
 
 ; “J weil f an 
 
 * 159 
 
 
 
LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS — 237 
 
 Denderah, Esneh, Edfu, Phila, these were the 
 products of Egyptian art which first roused the 
 wonder of European visitors ; and very naturally, 
 for these great shrines are not only wonderful in 
 themselves, but are also in a state of preservation 
 which renders them intelligible and attractive to 
 everyone who sees them. But all the same they 
 are very unworthy to be taken as examples of 
 what Egyptian art could do at its best, and so we 
 need not wonder that, when the first impulse of 
 surprise had passed away, the voice of criticism 
 was heard, pointing out the conspicuous faults 
 in this claimant for recognition among the great 
 arts of the world, and refusing to allow the claim. 
 Similarly with the works of sculpture on which 
 another part of the Egyptian claim must be based, 
 in almost all cases the specimens of Egyptian 
 sculpture which were first brought under the 
 eyes of the judges were colossal fragments of a 
 style and a period which had their own merits, 
 but were far from being representative of the 
 actual work of the Egyptian sculptor at its best, 
 as we have now come to know it. 
 
 In these circumstances it is not to be wondered 
 at that Egyptian art has only found slow and 
 erudging recognition as one of the great arts of 
 the world. What is strange, however, is that 
 even to-day, when the periods of Egyptian 
 architecture are as clearly defined, perhaps more 
 clearly defined than the periods of Gothic, and 
 when Egyptian sculpture is represented all over 
 the world by either originals or reproductions 
 of its best work in all respects, the judgment which 
 was not unaccountable, or inapplicable in the 
 
238 LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS 
 
 day of the beginnings of knowledge of things 
 Egyptian should still be repeated, and Egyptian 
 art be characterised as a thing, interesting indeed, 
 but essentially crude and barbaric, the product 
 of a race which has no claim to rank alongside 
 the other great artistic races of the world. 
 
 Thus we find so learned an art critic as Lord 
 Balcarres remarking (Donatello, p. 21), ‘‘ The 
 massive and abiding art of Egypt ignored the 
 personality of its gods and Pharaohs, distin- 
 guishing the various persons by dress, ornament, 
 and attribute.’’ For the gods, this may pass, but 
 when such a thing is said of the Pharaohs one 
 can only say that it is simply the opposite of the 
 truth. Is it possible that the author of such a 
 statement had never seen, before he made it, 
 such vivid impressions of personality as the great 
 diorite Khafra, with its splendid dignity, or, at 
 the opposite end of the scale, the Reisner 
 Menkaura, the very embodiment of a bourgeois 
 ‘““ Farmer George” royalty, doing his best to 
 look as dignified as becomes the wearer of the 
 double crown, and failing so absolutely? Here 
 are two successive occupants of the Egyptian 
 throne, whose personality, according to Lord 
 Balcarres, should be ignored in Egyptian art, 
 and yet the sharp discrimination of personality 
 is just the thing that immediately strikes everyone 
 who sees the two statues together. 
 
 Lord Balcarres, however, is not the only 
 sinner in this respect. ‘“‘ The emptiness of the 
 Sphinx’s face,” says Mr. March Phillipps in 
 his charming book, The Works of Man, “is a 
 prevailing trait in all Egyptian sculpture. All 
 
LIFE, ARTS,-AND CRAFTS 239 
 
 Egyptian faces stare before them with the same 
 blank regard which can be made to mean any- 
 thing precisely because it means nothing... . 
 The truth is, Egyptian sculpture is a sculpture 
 barren of intellectual insight and intellectual 
 interest.” 
 
 Has the writer of this confident condemnation, 
 one wonders, ever seen the granite Senusert III, 
 either of the Cairo or of the British Museum, 
 with the strong harsh features which express, if 
 ever any work of the sculptor’s hands expressed, 
 both the pride and the bitter weariness of power, 
 or, to take a New Empire instance, the masterful 
 Thothmes III of the Cairo Museum, the face of 
 a daring soldier, if there ever was one, or the ugly 
 capable face of Prince Mentuemhat, also at 
 Cairo? Mentuemhat has no claims to personal 
 beauty, and, one imagines, no illusions on that 
 matter; but strong character has seldom been 
 more admirably expressed than in this specimen 
 of the art which, as we are told, is “‘ barren of 
 intellectual insight and intellectual interest.” 
 
 The fact is, that both these criticisms, and 
 many others similar to them, rest upon a funda- 
 mental misconception about Egyptian sculpture. 
 It is quite obvious that both Lord Balcarres and 
 Mr. March Phillipps, in making them, are 
 founding upon the colossal pieces of Egyptian 
 sculpture which are the prominent objects in the 
 galleries of our Museums, and taking them as 
 adequately representative of the art which they 
 are criticising ; and to do this is hopelessly to 
 misconceive the actual position. 
 
 Egyptian sculpture in the round had two 
 
240 LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS 
 
 entirely different objects, which were reached by 
 different methods, and are seen in different 
 examples. The first was purely monumental 
 and decorative, and its purposes are served by the 
 production of the colossal statues, monuments 
 of royal pride and glory, and, not less, pieces 
 of decoration in a great architectural scheme. 
 These gigantic works are not to be viewed as 
 portraiture in the strict sense, and that the 
 Egyptians themselves did not so view them is 
 manifest from the fact that a reigning Pharaoh 
 seldom hesitated to appropriate to himself any 
 convenient statues of one of his predecessors by 
 the simple process of cutting his own cartouche 
 on the figure, and obliterating that of the original 
 owner. | 
 
 The question of likeness or unlikeness was a 
 very small one; what was required was a figure 
 which should convey the impression of power and 
 dignity, linked with the name of a particular 
 Pharaoh. In this respect, and as elements of an 
 architectural whole, these statues unquestionably 
 served their purpose ; more was never expected 
 of them, and to criticise them as lacking in 
 expression, and in individuality, is to do them an 
 injustice. They can only be judged as what 
 they were designed to be, not as something 
 radically different. 
 
 The position is quite different Hith regard 
 to the other object of Egyptian sculpture, which 
 was definitely portraiture. Apart from his monu- 
 mental work, which in a limited sense may be 
 said to have ideal elements in it, the Egyptian 
 sculptor, unlike his successor,the Greek, produced 
 
‘“SOdWO WOM ‘MNOM-AAITAY OIVNATOLA “ZF 
 
 
 
” 
 
 -4 
 i 
 j 
 ' 
 i} 
 Te 
 i 
 > 
 * 
 : 
 ; 
 ‘ 
 7 
 de 
 } 
 " 
 ‘iy 
 ! 
 “4 
 4 
 « 
 o@x b's 
 ae | A 
 4 
 iv 
 oe 
 
 r 
 ! 
 ; 
 ‘ 
 i 
 “4 
 ' 
 4 
 j 
 * 
 s' 
 , 
 » 
 
 il 
 
 
 
LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS _ 2ar 
 
 no ideal work. He was simply and solely, from 
 first to last, a portrait sculptor, and in this respect 
 he has seldom been excelled. The whole object 
 of his work was to produce a tomb-statue, which 
 should be the refuge of the Ka of the dead man 
 when his mummy had perished by lapse of time. 
 Therefore the one condition of his art was that 
 it should produce likenesses as absolute as the 
 power of man could compass. The result of 
 such an aim is manifest, both in the successes 
 and in the limitations of Egyptian sculpture. In 
 the one point to which he gave his whole strength, 
 the sculptor scored, not always, of course, but in 
 many instances, a most astonishing success. It 
 is impossible to imagine anything more lifelike 
 than the heads of some of the Old Kingdom 
 statues—the Ti or the Ranefer of the Cairo 
 Museum, or among royal statues, the Menkaura 
 with the figures of the Nomes, or in later times 
 the exquisite Berlin head of Queen Nefertiti, 
 the astonishing ebony head of a royal princess 
 of the same period, who may be Queen Tiy, or, 
 to come down to still later days, the other head 
 of Mentuemhat which Miss Benson and 
 Miss Gourlay unearthed from the temple of 
 Mut, or in the very latest days of Egyptian inde- 
 pendence, the head of an unknown man in green 
 schist which is now in the Berlin Museum. 
 Until the rise of Roman portrait-sculpture, 
 no ancient school of art presents anything to be 
 ‘compared with the realism of the ancient Egyptian 
 sculptor. 
 
 Unfortunately for the completeness of his 
 art, the absolute dominance of the need for 
 
 Q 
 
242 LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS 
 
 recognisable likeness in the head limited his 
 work in other respects. So long as the head was 
 a success, the rest of the body did not matter so 
 much ; and consequently we have, even in such 
 fine examples as the ‘Ti and the Ranefer, a noble 
 head joined to a body which is much less 
 thoroughly studied, while in examples of poorer 
 quality the contrast between the care with which 
 the head is worked out and the rude blocking 
 out of the torso and the extremities is almost 
 ludicrous. Still, Egyptian art, like all art, is 
 entitled to be judged by its best, and not, as has 
 so often been done, by its worst ; and even when 
 we admit all its limitations the fact remains that 
 to charge it with incapacity to interpret indi- 
 viduality is, to anyone who is familiar with its 
 best work, merely ridiculous. 
 
 The case is the same when we turn to the 
 criticisms which have been directed against the 
 other great branch of Egyptian sculpture—its 
 relief-work. The great reliefs of the temples, 
 with their battle pictures and scenes of offerings, 
 are what at once commands the attention and 
 invites the criticism. We are told, and very 
 justly so far, that ‘ Kings, gods, prisoners, the 
 smiting champion, and the transfixed victim 
 are all equally expressionless. Clearly the idea 
 that art can be charged with, and visibly body 
 forth, the emotions and ideas of the human mind 
 was never grasped by Egyptian sculptors ”’ ; 
 but who in the world ever dreamed of taking 
 the vast advertisements of the glory and valour 
 of Pharaoh, for that is what the battle reliefs of 
 Karnak and Medinet Habu are—contract work, 
 
LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS —— 243 
 
 at so much the square yard—as fair repre- 
 sentatives of the delicate and most decorative 
 work which has given us the tomb-reliefs of the 
 Old Kingdom ? 
 
 In some respects Egyptian relief-work is 
 decidedly inferior to the remarkable animal 
 sculpture with which the Assyrian kings decorated 
 their palaces. The Egyptian sculptor rarely 
 attempts anything like the difficulty of the 
 problems of motion which the Assyrian tackled 
 with such dash and light-heartedness, and when 
 he does make the attempt his work is apt to seem 
 stiff beside that of his rival, whose hunting 
 scenes have rarely been equalled; but in his 
 portrayal of quiet scenes of home, field, and 
 farmyard the Egyptian comes to his own again, 
 and it is difficult to imagine anything more 
 effective as wall decoration than his quiet and 
 unstrained work, which, unlike that of the bitter 
 Assyrian, almost invariably leaves a pleasant 
 impression on the mind. 
 
 The comprehension and appreciation of 
 Egyptian architecture has been hindered by the 
 same fact which has delayed the appreciation of 
 the art of the Nile Valley—namely, that the 
 specimens of it which are to-day the most 
 complete, and which command for that reason 
 most attention, belong, not to the days when 
 Egypt was at the summit of her achievement in 
 all respects, but to periods when taste and artistic 
 feeling were decaying along with power. To 
 take, as is often done, such a temple as Medinet 
 Flabu as fairly representative of Egyptian archi- 
 tecture, is simply to make adequate appreciation 
 
244. LIFE, "ARTS, AND CRAKTS 
 
 of what Egyptian architecture is a _ thing 
 impossible. ‘The Egyptian builders had, no 
 doubt, great faults, which have already been 
 touched upon. ‘They were often, indeed almost 
 always, strangely careless about the very factors 
 which should ensure the “ eternal duration ”’ 
 which they craved for the works of their hands ; 
 they had, generally speaking, comparatively little 
 of that exquisite sense of proportion which makes 
 a fine Greek temple seem a thing inevitable, 
 though sometimes, as at Der el-Bahri, and the 
 little temple of Amenhotep III at Elephantine, 
 now, alas, destroyed, something of this was 
 revealed to them ; they sometimes mistook mere 
 mass for greatness, and the multiplication of 
 forms for beauty, as in the Hypostyle Hall at 
 Karnak, where a magnificent opportunity was 
 lost because the architect did not know that too 
 much is too much. But with it all they have 
 left us a heritage of which it can safely be said 
 that few of the works of man can surpass it in 
 impressiveness. ‘‘ It is a part of my intention,” 
 says Mr. Lethaby (Architecture, pp. 65, 66), ‘ to 
 try to point out what contributions were made to 
 universal architecture by the several civilisations 
 as they arose and passed away, but to do so of 
 Egypt would be practically to rewrite what has 
 been said; to a large degree Architecture is an 
 Egyptian art.” 
 
 The nation of which such a statement can be 
 made needs no further witness as to its place 
 among the great master-building nations of the 
 world’s history. 
 
 Whatever hesitations and doubts there may 
 
LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS ~— 245 
 
 be as to the right of the ancient Egyptian to rank 
 high among the artistic nations of the world, 
 there can be none as to his place as a craftsman. 
 In prehistoric days he was already the finest 
 flint-worker that the world has ever known, so 
 that his flint knives are to this day the standards 
 by which all other similar work falls to be tested, 
 and in presence of which it always comes short ; 
 while his vessels of hard stone were shaped, with 
 a skill and a patience which to us seem little 
 short of marvellous, into shapes of grace and 
 beauty which have never been surpassed by 
 the workers of any land or time. Later he 
 translated these into fine pottery, and was always 
 a skilful and satisfying potter, though his work 
 never perhaps attained the grace and beauty of 
 that of his brother craftsman over the sea in 
 Crete. His greatest gift to us in this respect was 
 his development of the art of covering pottery of 
 all kinds with the exquisite glazes which still 
 charm us on scarabs, amulets, ushabti figures, 
 and all sorts of vessels. 
 
 As a linen worker, of course, he was incom- 
 parable, and the finest specimens of modern 
 linen look wretchedly coarse when viewed under 
 a microscope alongside the best products of his 
 loom. The earliest jewellery of the world was 
 of his workmanship, and the bracelets of the 
 Ist Dynasty queen found at Abydos show us 
 that the Egyptian jeweller of six thousand years 
 ago needed no lessons from any of the most skilled 
 modern practitioners of the crafts. Indeed, all 
 through the history of the land the craftsmanship 
 of the goldsmith was beyond reproach. In the 
 
246 LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS 
 
 later periods his design was much inferior to the 
 happy inspirations of the morning of art, though 
 his technique was fairly well maintained to the 
 end; but in the best days of the craft, which 
 pretty closely correspond to the best days of 
 the history, design and technique were alike 
 admirable. 
 
 Anything finer in their own way than the 
 diadems of Khnumit, the royal crown, or the 
 pectorals of the Lahun treasure, it is impossible 
 to imagine, while if the standard of the furniture 
 in the tomb of Tutankhamen is maintained by 
 the jewellery, we may look for evidence from this 
 source that the skill of the craftsman had not 
 degenerated in the interval between the Middle 
 Kingdom and the New Empire. 
 
 With regard to woodwork, the evidence of the 
 furniture which has been found in the tombs is 
 conclusive both as to the skilful and sound design 
 of the Egyptian cabinet-maker, and as to his 
 careful and accurate workmanship. The chairs, 
 the coffers, and the couches from the tomb of 
 Yuaa and Tuau are delightful to the eye, with 
 their simple and sensible lines, and suggest that 
 they would be equally satisfactory in use. ‘The 
 wonders which have been disclosed in the tomb 
 of Tutankhamen have already been discussed 
 in their own place, so far as that is possible at 
 present, and while they reveal nothing new, save 
 the ugly and clumsy state couches, whose 
 provenance has been also discussed, they show 
 an amount of richness in detail and material 
 for which even previous discoveries had scarcely 
 prepared us. 
 
LIFE, ARTS, AND CRAFTS — 247 
 
 Professor Petrie tells us that structurally the 
 work of the Egyptian joiner was as good as it 
 was satisfying to the eye, and the state in which 
 his works have come down to us through so many 
 centuries bears witness to the soundness of the 
 materials which he used, and of the work which 
 he put out upon them ; and perhaps the carefully 
 moderate estimate of so great an expert is more 
 impressive as to the quality of Egyptian crafts- 
 manship than the multiplication of superlatives 
 would be. ‘The powerful technical skill of 
 Egyptian art, its good sense of limitations, and its 
 true feeling for harmony and expression, will 
 always make it of the first importance to the 
 countries of the West with which it was so early 
 and so long connected.” 
 
 In sum the debt which the modern world 
 owes to the culture of ancient Egypt is no small 
 one. We owe to Egypt the first book, the first 
 building, the first ship, the first statue, the first 
 romance, the first relief, and the first picture, in 
 the modern sense, of which we have any 
 knowledge ; and if some of these anticipations 
 are crude and primitive, and show but little sign 
 of the wonderful development of which the 
 future was to prove them capable, yet it is only 
 due to this pioneer nation to remember that it 
 is to her that we owe the seed which has borne 
 so manifold a harvest. 
 
WOR Fi 
 sta ah 
 
 on 
 Puan | 
 
 Bahay 
 
 nae, a’ 
 TTS sy 
 
 
 
INDEX 
 
 AAHMES NEFERTARI, Queen, 160 
 
 Aah-hotep, Queen, 27, 156 
 
 Aashait, Princess, 99 
 
 Abbott Papyrus, 128 
 
 Abd-er-Rassoul, Ahmed, 
 Mohamed, 158 
 
 Abu-Roash, 49, 52 
 
 Abusir, 50, 68, 69 
 
 Abydos, Temple of Sety I, 31; 
 Royal Tombs, 135 et seq. 
 
 Akerblad, 14 
 
 Akhenaten, 113, 118, 168, 171, 
 172 et seg., 189 
 
 Akhetaten, 174, 190 
 
 Amélineau, 136, 140, 141 
 
 Amen, III 
 
 Amenartas, 26 
 
 Amenemhat I, 72; II, 
 Lids, 73, 31) 32 
 
 Amenhotep I, 160; II, 100, 130, 
 tomb of, 165 et seqg.; III, 
 116, 148, 166 
 
 Ameny, 224, 225 
 
 Amherst Papyrus, 128 
 
 _Ammit, 205, 206 
 
 Amtes, Queen, 218, 221 
 
 Ankh.s.en.Amen (Ankh.s.en.pa. 
 Aten), 174, 189, 190 et seq. 
 
 Antefs, the, 224 
 
 Anubis, 186 
 
 Apis, 19 
 
 Archeology, methods and aims 
 of, 35 ef seq. 
 
 Architecture, Egyptian, 243 et 
 seq. 
 
 Art, Egyptian, 236 et seq. 
 
 Artisans, condition of, 231 et 
 seq. 
 
 157 5 
 
 735 
 
 Ashurbanipal, 112 
 Astemkheb, Queen, 130 
 Ay (Pharaoh), 113, 188, 191 
 Ayrton, Mr., 168 ~ 
 
 Baccarres, Lord, 238 
 
 Begarawiyah, 50 
 
 Belzoni. /O)) 115 424/231) Os Oa 
 105, 151-3 
 
 Benson, Miss, 118, 241 
 
 Biban el-Moluk, 148 et seq. 
 
 Bib-khuru-Riyas (Tutankhamen), 
 192 
 
 Boghaz-Kyoi, 192 
 
 Book of the Dead, 151 
 
 Book of the Gates, 151 
 
 Book of Him who is in the Duat, 
 
 151 
 
 Breasted, Prof., 41, 196 
 
 Browne, Sir T., 61 
 
 Brugsch, E., 158 et seq. 
 
 Brune, 94 
 
 Budge, Sir E. A. W., 205, 206, 
 209 
 
 CANOPIC JARS, 186 
 
 Carnarvon, Lord, 177 et seq. 
 
 Carter, Mr. Howard, 168, 177 
 et seq. 
 
 Caviglia, Capt., 63 
 
 Champollion, J. F., 13, 14, 92 
 
 Clarke, Somers, 96 
 
 Corselet of Eiorhoreru, 201 
 
 Corselet of Tutankhamen, 200 
 
 Couches, State (Tutankhamen’s), 
 204. et seq. 
 
 Craftsmanship, Egyptian, 245 et 
 seq. 
 
 249 
 
250 
 
 DADEFRA, 49 
 Dahshur, 73, 77 
 Dakhamun (Ankh.s.en.Amen), 
 
 192 
 Daoud Pasha, 157-8 
 Davis, T. M., 168 et seq. 
 Denon, V., 8, 18 
 Der el-Bahri, 31, 87 et seq. ; 
 Cache of, 158 et seq. 
 Description de lL Egypte, 8 
 Devilliers, 86, 91 
 Diodorus, 213 
 Drovetti, 9 
 
 EDFU, 32 
 
 Edwards, Miss A., 45-6 
 Elliot Smith, Prof., 163, 173 
 Eugénie, Empress, 29 
 
 FAN-BEARER, the, 222, 233 
 Fayum, the, 49 
 
 GEBEL BARKAL (Napata), 50 
 Gizeh, 48, 49, 50, 52 
 Gourlay, Miss, 118, 241 
 
 Ha tt, H. R., 96 
 
 Hamed Aga, 155-6 
 
 Hasan, Sultan, 62 
 
 Hathor, shrine, Der el-Bahri, 100 
 
 Hatshepsut, Queen, 31, 78 et seq., 
 119g, 120, 168 
 
 Hawara, 51, 73, 75, 76 
 
 Henhenit, Princess, 99 
 
 Hent-taui, Queen, 160 
 
 Herodotus, 7, 213, 232, 235 
 
 Hichens, R., go 
 
 Hierakonpolis, 145 
 
 Horemheb, 118, 168, 175, 190,199 
 
 Hunefer, Papyrus of, 206 
 
 Huy, 190, 191 
 
 Hyksos Sphinxes, 26 
 
 Hypostyle Hall, Karnak, 113 
 
 ILLAHUN, 51, 78 
 
 Imhotep, 70 
 
 Ismail, Khedive, 29 
 
 JEWELLERY, Egyptian, 78, 79, 
 82, 142, 144 
 
 Jollois, 86, gt 
 
 INDEX 
 
 KA.AMENHOTEP, 201 
 
 Kadashman-Enlil, 205 
 
 Kagemni, 71 
 
 Kahun, 75, 231 
 
 Karnak, temple of, 105 ef seq. ; 
 Mariette’s work at, 31 
 
 Kauit, Princess, 99 
 
 Kemsit, Princess, 99 
 
 Keneh, Mudir of, 27, 155, 156-8 
 
 Khemuas, the Governor, 129 
 
 Khafra, pyramid of, 53, 5_ 
 
 Kha-Sekhem, tomb of, 142, 145 
 
 Khenti, 139, 140 
 
 Khnemhotep, 224 
 
 Khnumit, Princess, 178, 182 
 
 Khonsu, 111 ; temple of, 118 
 
 Khufu, pyramid of, 52 et seq. 
 
 LABYRINTH, the, 15, 108 
 
 Lahun, 73, 75, 80 
 
 Layard, 43, 156 
 
 Legrain, work of, at Karnak, 108, 
 III, 124 et seq. 
 
 Lepsius, 14-16, 93 
 
 Lesseps, F. de, 24 
 
 Lethaby, W. R., on Egyptian 
 Architecture, 244 
 
 Lisht, 51, 73 
 
 Loret, 165 
 
 Luxor, work of Amenhotep III 
 at, 117 
 
 Maca ister, R. A. S., 9, 16, 
 39, 41, 43 
 
 Maghareh, Wady, 15 
 
 Makt-aten, 189 
 
 Mamun, 62 
 
 Manetho, 137 
 
 Mannikin, the, 8, 207 
 
 March Phillipps, on Egyptian 
 Art, 238-9 
 
 Mariette, A., 10, 17, 18, 34, 93, 
 156 
 
 Maspero, Sir G., 10), 247 Seema: 
 40, 41, 68, 101,124, E57; FO, 
 164, 165, 168 
 
 Mastabas, 58, 71 
 
 Medinet Habu, Mariette’s work 
 at, 31 
 
 Medum, pyramid of, 54 
 
 Memphis, 19 
 
INDEX 
 
 Mena, 45, 137, 143 
 
 Menkaura, pyramid of, 54-64, 
 65; statue of, 238 
 
 Mentu, 117 
 
 Mentuemhat, Prince, 239, 241 
 
 Mentuherkhepshef, Prince, 168 
 
 Mentuhotep-neb-Hepet-Ra, 89, 
 96 et seq., 147 
 
 Merenptah, 117, 166 
 
 Merenra, 70, 221 
 
 Mereruka, 71 
 
 Meroé, 15, 50 
 
 Mertisen, 89 
 
 Meryt-Aten, 189 
 
 Moeris, Lake, 15 
 
 Morgan, J. de, 78, 165 
 
 Murray, Miss M. A., 102 
 
 Mursil II, 192 
 
 Mut, 111, 117, 118 
 
 NAPATA, 15, 50 
 
 Napoleon I, 7 
 
 Napoleon III, 24 
 
 Narmer, 143, 144 
 
 Naville, E. de, 31, 95 et seq. ; 
 102 et seq. 
 
 Necho, 154 
 
 Nectanebo, 20 
 
 Nefer-ka-Ra, 68 
 
 Nefer-ka-ra-em-per-Amen, 129 
 
 Nekht, tomb of, 150 
 
 Nesamen, Pharaoh’s Scribe, 129 
 
 Ne-user-Ra, temple of, 69 
 
 Nezem-mut, Queen, 160 
 
 OsIREION, Abydos, 31, 102 et 
 seq. 
 
 Osiris, 139 ; bed of, 140, 141 
 
 Osiris-Apis (Serapis), 19 
 
 Passer, Governor of Thebes, 128, 
 129 
 
 Passalacqua, 10 
 
 Pedubast, 201 
 
 Peete rit.) 0. o, 132, 137 
 
 Pentaur, poem of, 116 
 
 Pepy I, 70, 218 
 
 Pepy II, 70 
 
 Perring, 14 
 
 Petrie, Sir W. M. F., 47, 53, 61, 
 66, 67, 73, 74, 75, 78, 79, 80, 
 
 251 
 
 PEM ber ER eo ee TERS hp 
 145, 205, 216, 231, 247 
 
 Pewero, 128, 129 
 
 Pharaoh, conditions of rule of, 
 215 et seq. 
 
 Philz, Obelisk of, 13 
 
 Philip Arrhidzeus, chapel of, at 
 Karnak, 121 
 
 Pimay, 201 
 
 Pinezem I and II, 160 
 
 Pococke, 91 
 
 Pool of Osiris, Abydos, 102 et seq. 
 
 Predynastic tombs, 138 
 
 Priesthood, the Egyptian, 223 
 
 Proctor, R. A., 54 
 
 Psamtek II, 154 
 
 Ptah, 19 
 
 Ptah-hetep, 71 
 
 Ptolemaic work at Karnak, r1o, 
 113,125 
 
 Punt, 32, 95 
 
 Pyramids, the, 48 et seq. 
 
 Pyramid temples, 58 et seq. 
 
 Pyramid texts, 70, 71 
 
 QuFT, 161 
 
 RAINER PAPYRUS, 201 
 
 Ramses I, 110, 112, 113 
 
 Ramses II, 26, 40, 113, 114, 117 
 160, 162, 218 
 
 Ramses III], 31, 111, 148, 160, 
 165, 219, 233 
 
 Ramses IV and V, 166 
 
 Ramses VI, 166, 180 
 
 Ramses IX, 128, 232 
 
 Ramses X, 129 
 
 Ramses XII, 151 
 
 Razedef, 49, 52 
 
 Rehoboam, 112 
 
 Reisner, G. A., 68 
 
 Rekhmara, 122, 150, 129 
 
 Rosellini, 14 
 
 Rosetta Stone, the, 13 
 
 SADHE, Princess, 99 
 
 Said, Khedive, 24-7 
 
 Sallier Papyrus, 227 
 
 Saqqara, Mariette’s work at, 31 ; 
 stepped pyramid at, 70 
 
 Sat-hathor-ant, Princess, 79 
 
252 
 
 ‘* Scorpion,” the, 143 
 Scribes, the Egyptian, 226 et 
 
 seq. 
 
 Sebek-em-saf, 13, 130, 146 
 
 Sekhmet, 117 
 
 Semti, seal of, 145 
 
 Seneferu, pyramid of, 51, 69, 
 146, 199 
 
 Senmut, 89, 122, 221 
 
 Senusert I, 72 
 
 Senusert IT, 51, 73, 75, 87, 231 
 
 Senusert ITI, 73, 125 
 
 Segenen-Ra, 160, 164, 217 
 
 Serabit el-Khadem, 15 
 
 Serapeum, Serapis, 19 et seq. 
 
 Setna-Khzmuast, 40, 223 
 
 Sety I, 11, 113, 148, 160, 163; 
 tomb of, 153 et seq. 
 
 Sety II, 113 
 
 Sheshanq, 112 
 
 Shubbiluliuma, 192 
 
 Siptah, 166, 168 
 
 Smenkhara, 188, 189 
 
 Society in Egypt, 214 et seq. 
 
 Sphinx, temple of, 60 
 
 Strabo, 19, 102, 103, I51 
 
 Strikes of workmen, 233, 234 
 
 "TAHARQA, II2 
 
 Tanutamen, 112 
 
 Tell el-Amarna, 174; 
 178 ; art of, 197 
 
 Temples, Der el-Bahri, 86, 87 
 et seq. ; Karnak, 105 et seq. 
 
 tablets, 
 
 THE 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Teti, 70 
 
 Thothmes I, 119 
 
 Thothmes II, 119, 160 
 
 Thothmes III, 26, 100, 119, 120, 
 E2r, 122, £25, 160,279 
 
 Thothmes IV, 166, 168 
 
 Throne of Tutankhamen, 196 
 
 Lay at 
 
 Tiy, Queen, 168, 171, 173, 174 
 
 Tuau, 168 et seq. 
 
 Tutankhamen, 36, 113, 
 177 et seq. ; reign of, 188 
 
 Tutankhaten, 174 
 
 175» 
 
 UMM EL-Ga’AB, 140 
 Una, 218, 221 
 Unas, 70 
 
 VALLEY OF THE KINGS, 148 et seq. 
 Vizier, duties of, 219-221 
 Vyse, Col. H., 14, 64, 65 
 
 WEIGALL, 168, 172 
 Westcar Papyrus, 199 
 Wilkinson, 92 
 
 YOUNG, 14 
 Yuaa, tomb of, 168 et seg. 
 
 ZAWIYET EL-ARYAN, 68 
 Zazamankh, 199 
 
 Zer, King, 142, 144, 145 
 Zeser, pyramid of, 51, 70, 146 
 
 END 
 
 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 LONDON AND BECCLES, 
 
a va f er wae 
 
 . 
 iy 
 
 iy i 
 Me Mek 
 Nae pic 
 
 **) U ; 
 
 Sere 
 
 
 
| 
 
 | 
 
 I 
 
 Speer Libra 
 
 cavation in the land of 
 Ih 
 1 1012 00023 6887 
 
 || 
 
 | 
 
 > 
 o 
 = 
 = 
 a 
 Yn 
 rs 
 4 
 a 
 Be 
 ° 
 © 
 P= 
 ed 
 3 
 Ss 
 w 
 Vv 
 c 
 a 
 
 A century of ex 
 
 DT60 .B15