Pharaohs, fellahs and explorers

Front matter

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PREFACE,

The following chapters contain, with large additions, notes, and references, the substance of a course of lectures on ancient Egyptian subjects recently delivered in the United States of America. While necessarily recasting the form of these lectures, I have to some extent preserved the colloquial style — in the hope, I confess, of being the better remembered by those w7ho have heard them.

I. The Explorer In Egypt

Our knowledge of Egypt ever on the increase — Continuous march of exploration— Foundation of the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1883 — Egypt an inexhaustible mine of antiquities — Funerary customs of the ancient Egyptians — Approximate number of mummies embalmed during 4700 years — Egyptian mounds — How these mounds were formed, their growth and decay — Story of a typical mound — Excavation of a typical mound — Objects likely to be found in Egyptian mounds — Exploration in Upper Egypt — The tomb-pits of Upper Egypt — Exploration in Lower Egypt — Excavation of Tell Nebesheh in the Eastern Delta — Interesting antiquities discovered at Tell Nebesheh— Tell Defenneh — Hardships incidental to the work of exploration in Egypt — Necessary qualifications of the explorer — Homer in the Fayum— Definition of archaeology — The explorer “born, not made” — Discovery of Naukratis by Mr. Petrie— Kuins of the temples of Apollo, Hera, Zeus, and Aphrodite mentioned by Herodotus — “The potter’s quarter” — The house of the scarab-maker — The house of the jeweller — Evolution of Greek from Egyptian art — Discovery of Masonic deposits— Great historical value of this discovery — Ceramic riches of Naukratis Pages 3-36

II. The Buried Cities Of Ancient Egypt

Extreme antiquity of the ancient Egyptian monarchy — The Horshesu, or “Followers of Horus” — Probable age of the Great Sphinx— Wealth of Egypt in building material — The ancient Egyptians a nation of builders — Destruction of the mounds of the Delta by native laborers — Excavations conducted by the Egypt Exploration Fund — Archaeological survey of Egypt recently undertaken by this society — “Pithom and Raamses ” — The Hebrews in the Land of Goshen — Tell Abfi. Suleiman identified by Lepsius with Pithom and Tell-el-Maskhfitali with “Raamses” — Excavation of the mound of Masklifitah by M. Naville — Tell-el-Maskhfitah proves to be “Pithom of Succoth” — Identification of the route

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Contents

of the Exodus — Store-chambers of Pithom — Bricks of Pithom — Mr. Petrie’s excavations at Tanis (Zoan) — The great temple of Tanis — The largest colossus ever sculptured by the hand of man — House of Bakakhiu at Tanis — Great discovery of papyri and other manuscripts — The granite shrine of Saft el-Henneh — Daphnse of Pelusium — The camps of Psammetichus — Occupation of Daphnse by Greek mercenary troops — Siege of Jerusalem (b.c. 585) and flight of the daughters of Zedekiali into Egypt — Settlement of the Hebrew fugitives at Daphnse — The prophecy of Jeremiah— Mr. Petrie’s excavations at Daphnse (Tell Defenneh) — Palace-fort of Psammetichus I. — Masonic deposits of Psammetichus I. — Identification of the palace-fort with “Pharaoh’s House in Tahpanhes ” — Discovery of the brick work, or pavement, mentioned by Jeremiah — Historical testimony of the ruins of the palace-fort of Psammetichus — Conflicting testimony of Egyptian and Babylonian inscriptions—Discovery of clay cylinders of Nebuchadnezzar. Pages 37-69

III. Portrait Painting In Ancient Egypt

Egyptian sculptures and paintings the oldest in the world — The art of drawing more ancient than that of sculpture — Prehistoric art — Subjects of the earliest Egyptian paintings — Treatment of the human figure by ancient Egyptian daughtsmen — Conventional coloring of ancient Egyptian artists — The skill with which Egyptian artists reproduced the ethnic types of foreign nations — Errors of ancient Egyptian artists — The same errors common to early art in all the nations of antiquity — Ancient Greek painting — The art of painted vases — Ancient criticisms and anecdotes of Polygnotus ; >of Xeuxis ; of Apelles — Unparalleled luxury of the early Greek painters — The Proto - Homeric vases of Athens — Pliny on the priority of ancient Egyptian painting — Early relations between the Pelasgic Greeks and the ancient Egyptians — Inscription of Sankliara in the Valley of Hammamat — The Greeks in Egypt under the Eighteenth and later dynasties — Mr. Petrie’s discoveries at Tell Kaliun and Tell Gurob — Inscribed potsherds found in these mounds — Traces of Foreign settlers at Gurob — The Tursha identified by Lenormant with the Etruscans — Etruscan alphabetic signs at Tell Gurob — Comparative antiquity of the earliest Greek alphabets — Foreign captives in Egypt during the Nineteenth and Twentieth dynasties — Momentous results of Mr. Petrie’s discoveries — Special characteristics of the Egyptian School of figure-painting— The “four races” of men: the typical Syrian, the typical Egyptian, the typical Libyan, the typical Ethiopian — The tomb of Hui — The Sardinian in Egyptian art — The charioteer of the “ pre-Homeric” vases — Archaic Greek painted ware of Daphnse — Egyptian conventionalities reproduced in early Greek painting— First appearance of the Sphinx in Greek art — The Sphinx-plate of

CONTENTS.

IX

Naukratis — The wall-paintings of Etruria ; their relations to ancient Egyptian art — The Cervetri tomb of 1889 — Etruscan reproduction of the conventionalities of Egyptian art— Genealogy of the French eagles — Discovery of the laws of chiaroscuro and foreshortening by Apollodorus — The Labyrinth ; its destruction by the Homan Government — Excavations by Mr. Petrie on the site of the Labyrinth — Ruins of the Roman town on the Labyrinth platform — Mixed character of its ancient population — Successive styles of mummification practised by the inhabitants of this town — The evolution of painting on panel from painted cartonnage and painted canvas — Painting in Egypt in the time of Hadrian— Reaction of Greek art upon Egytian art — Great discovery of panel-portraits in the Fayum — Methods employed by the Graeco-Egyptian portrait painters of this period — The beeswax medium of Egypt not identical with the “encaustic” painting of the Greeks — Pigments employed by Graeco-Egyptian painters— Various nationalities depicted in these portraits — Egyptian names of Greek and Roman settlers — Series of portraits of Greeks, Romans, Syrians, and Egyptians— Styles of jewelry depicted — Diogenes, the flautist — The elderly Roman — The lotus-bud necklace of Etruria an ancient Egyptian design — Antiquity of the “ Oxford pattern ” frame — Inequality of artistic merit in the Fayum portraits — Singularly modern character of the heads— Close resemblance of the ancient Greeks and Romans to the people of modern Europe and America — Unchanged racial types of Egypt, Nubia, and Palestine — Persistence of ancient Egyptian types Pages 70-112

IV. The Origin Of Portrait Sculpture, And The History Of The Ka

Our interest in the past history of the human race — Great value of the art of portraiture as preserved to us in the sculptures of Assyria, Babylon, Susa, Persepolis, and ancient Egypt — Ancient Egyptian portraiture the most ancient in the world — Funerary portrait-statues of the Ancient Empire — Singular custom of immuring these statues — Ancient Egyptian notions regarding the nature of man — The Ka — Various definitions of the Ka — Portraits for the benefit of the Ka — Tablet of Pepi-Na — Tablet of Napu — Voracious appetite of the Ka — Funerary statues and paintings fashioned for the benefit of the Ka — The Ka identified with the life — The three names of the Pharaohs — Sculptured representations of the Ka — Remarkable tableaux of Amenhotep III. and his Ka in the Great Temple of Luxor — Association of the Ka with the “ankli” — Historical sculptures of Seti I. and his Ka on the walls of the Great Temple of Karnak — Invariable inscription accompanying royal Kas — Concrete mode of thought of the ancient Egyptians— Reasons why the Ka needed food and drink offerings — Greek conception of life borrowed from Egyptian sources — The Hebrew notion of the “Khai,”or

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CONTENTS.

“life,” identical witli the Egyptian Ka — Extreme truth to nature of Egyptian Ka-statues — Egyptian funerary portrait-statues carefully studied from the life — The leading schools of Egyptian art — Great superiority of the earliest Egyptian school of portraiture — The oldest historical portrait-statue known — Group of Queen Mertetefs, her Ka, and private secretary, at Leyden — Semnefer and his wife — General Ra-hotep and Princess Nefert — The “Wooden Man” of Bulak — Funerary statue of Ti — Admirable anatomical development of the “Cross-legged Scribe'1 — The Memphite School represents the finest period of Egyptian portraiture— Erroneous estimate commonly formed of the merits of Egyptian sculpture — Comparison of the sculptures of ancient Egypt with those of ancient Greece — The Twelfth Dynasty school — The Hyksos school — The colossal sitting statues of Bubastis— The Eighteenth Dynasty school — Colossal head of Queen Hatasu — The Nineteenth and Twentieth dynasties register a new phase of Egyptian art— Semitic characteristics of this school — Remarkable family likeness of the Pharaohs of the two Ramesside dynasties — Art of portraiture in wood, as preserved in the mummy-cases of this time — Colossal mummy-case of Queen Alunes Nefertari — Beautiful mask of Rameses II. — Probability that this mask may represent Her-Hor Pages 113-157

V. Egypt The Birthplace Of Greek Decorative Art

The irresistible fascination of Egyptology — Ancient Egyptian civilization the earliest known— Extent of the debt of the early Greeks to the ancient Egyptians — First mention of the Greeks upon the monuments of Egypt — The “Hanebu” — The Qanseans in the time of Thothmes III. — The earliest portrait of a Greek in the world — Greeks of Thrace and Asia Minor, in alliance with the Syrian nations, invade Egypt in the time of Rameses II. — Armor of the Achaeans— The Greek greave as an Egyptian hieroglyph — Carian and Ionian Greek troops of Psammeticlius I. — Daphnae of Pelusium, an early Greek settlement— Establishment of Greek traders at Naukratis — The aesthetic debt of Greece to Egypt — The earliest known examples of Greek architecture, sculpture, and decorative design copied from Egyptian sources — Wall and ceiling decoration of the rock-cut tombs of Beni-Hasan — Spiral ornament of Mycenae— Spiral of Beni-Hasan — The herz-blatt and key patterns of Greece copied from Beni-Hasan designs — The ceiling pattern of the treasury of Minyas at Orcliomenos — This pattern reproduces the cornice patterns of Beni-Hasan — “Proto-Doric” columns of the Beni-Hasan tombs — Comparison of these columns with Greek Doric— Egyptian origin of the Ionic capital — The Ionic capital derived from the lotus of the Nile — The lotus in nature and the lotus in art — The conventional lotus of Egyptian art — The earliest temple known to belong to the Ionic

CONTENTS.

xi order discovered by Mr. Petrie at Naukratis — Egyptian origin of the Anthemion and Palmette — Egyptian origin of the ‘ ‘ honeysuckle ” pattern of the Greeks — Early Greek painted vases found at Daphnae — Florid development of Egyptian lotus pattern by Greek potters — The lotus pattern in Greek goldsmith’s work — Various religious conceptions of the ancient Egyptians borrowed by the Greeks — The. Egyptian soul, or Ba, transformed into the harpy and syren of Greek art — Egyptian character of early Greek statues Pages 158-192

VI. The Literature And Religion Of Ancient Egypt

Literary activity not a necessary result of the possession of an alphabet — Importance of a material on which to write — Pastoral and literary tendencies of the ancient Egyptians— Great antiquity of papyrus as a writing material — “ The oldest book in the world ” — Second dynasty tablet at Oxford — Varied character of ancient Egyptian literature— Greek and Roman papyri found in Egypt — Homer in Egypt — No contemporary history of ancient Egypt yet discovered — The lost history of Manetho — Peculiar characteristics of ancient Egyptian poetry — “ Chant of Victory” of Thothmes III. — The heroic poem of Pentaur — This poem composed in commemoration of the victory of Rameses II. over the allied forces of Syria and Asia Minor — Stratagem of the Hittites — Brilliant feat of arms of Rameses II. — The battle of Kadesh — Poetic treatment of the facts by Pentaur — Introduction of the JDeus ex machina — Literary style of the poem — Its reproduction on the walls of various great temples in Egypt — A copy on papyrus in the British Museum — Great tableau of the battle of Kadesh at Abft-Simbel — Curious incident of the drowning of the Prince of Aleppo — The scientific literature of the ancient Egyptians — Its value purely archaeological — Astronomical observations of the ancient Egyptians — Their knowledge of the movement of the earth — Mathematical papyri — Medical papyri — The Ebers medical papyrus — Unpleasant character of . ancient Egyptian pharmacopaeia — The moral philosophy of the ancient Egyptians — The maxims of Ptah-hotep — The maxims of the scribe Ani — Romantic literature of the ancient Egyptians— Egyptian origin of HSsop’s fables, and of various well-known popular tales — The story of Rhodopis — The tale of the two brothers — The taking of Joppa— The doomed prince — The shipwrecked mariner — Historic characters introduced into ancient Egyptian fiction — Popular poetry of the ancient Egyptians — A love song — Threshing song from the tomb of Paliiri — The religion of ancient Egypt — Its obscurity and diversity — Religions of various periods — Was monotheism the fundamental principle of the ancient Egyptian religion? — Theories of M. Pierret and Dr. Brugscli — Barbaric origin of the ancient Egyptians — The prehistoric Egyptians and the North American Indians— The “to-

CONTENTS.

xii terns” of the North American Indians — Importance of a tribal name among barbaric and semi-civilized communities — Totemism common to all quarters of the globe — Totemism the origin of animal worship — • Totemism of the prehistoric Egyptians — Subsequent evolution of the Egyptian religion — Exalted pantheism of Ra-worship — Local character of the monotheism of the ancient Egyptians — Great local deities identified one with another — The ancient Egyptians the first people to recognize the immortality of the soul — “The negative confession” — Ancient Egyptian standard of morality Pages 193-233

VII. The Hieroglyphic Writing Of The Ancient Egyptians

A new definition of the genus homo — The infancy of writing and the infancy of language — Limited vocabulary of prehistoric man — Writing a spontaneous growth — The beginnings of writing everywhere the same — Picture-writing — The picture-writing of the Hittites, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Chinese — The origin of picture-writing — Message of the Scythians to Darius — Object-writing the natural predecessor of picture-writing— Picture-writing of Mexico — The tribute-lists of the Mexican kings — General picture-written literature of the Mexicans — Picture-writing of the North American Indians— A petition of certain Indian chiefs — Incised sketches and bone drawings of prehistoric times — Prehistoric Egypt — The age of the “ Horshesu” the probable age of Egyptian picture-writing — Successive stages of Egyptian writing — Ideography — Pictorial plionetism — Monosyllabic character of the earliest Egyptian vocabulary — Common objects of daily life the origin of hieroglyphic characters— Transition from pictorial phonetism to alphabelism — Immense antiquity of the ancient Egyptian alphabet — This alphabet the parent stock of all the alphabets of Europe — The way in which the alphabet was formed — The hieroglyphic alphabet as commonly in use — Conservatism of the ancient Egyptians — Egyptian spelling — Alphabetism in common with ideograpliy — Determinating hieroglyphs — Determinatives of sound — Determinatives of sense — Generic determinatives— The great number and variety of hieroglyphic signs — Pictorial character of hieroglyphic signs — Their archseological and scientific value — Part played by the human figure in the hieroglyphic system — The study of hieroglyphs — Its facilities and difficulties — Perplexing simplicity of ancient Egyptian thought— Hieroglyphs relating to the sky, night, day, rain, and the like, with their esoteric meanings — The hieroglyph for “land,” and its interpretation — Survival of ancient Egyptian words in European languages — Ancient name of Egypt in hieroglyphs — Hieroglyphic spellings of various words in common use — Other scripts in use by the ancient Egyptians — Necessity for a cursive writing—The hieratic script an abridgment of the hieroglyphic— Charac-

CONTENTS.

xm teristics of the hieratic at various periods — The demotic script — The demotic script an abridgment of the hieratic — Great wealth of European museums in demotic documents — Classification of the three writings of the Egyptians — Obscure origin of the Egyptian language — The Egyptian language a member of the Khamitic family of tongues — The Khamitic and Semitic languages derived from a common prehistoric parent — The Egyptian verb as described by Mr. Le Page Renou Pages 234-260