Hieroglyphical Fragments, 313 



The tablet represented in Plate 51, is remarkable for the 

 confirmation which its date affords of the accuracy of our chro- 

 nology of the Ptolemies. It has no pure hieroglyphics. It be- 

 gins immediately with *' The year 19, otherwise 4, of Cleopatra 

 [NeQtera'jr and Ptolemy surnamed Caesar : that is, the year 

 34 B. C. ; and the same date is repeated in a form some- 

 what more distinct, four times, in the 10th, 11th, 12th, and 

 15th4ines, In the last it is followed by the Queen gave to the 

 Priests and High Priests . , then Ptolemy [Auletes9'\ . . 

 Queen Cleopatra and King Ptolemy surnamed Caesar, 

 ,, Jt has before been observed, that the word surnamed, as it 

 occurs in these tablets, and in Mr. Grey's manuscripts, com- 

 prehends the characters which answer to the Neo of Mr. 

 Champollion's Neocaesaris. The beginning of the group 

 occurs elsewhere in the sense of called^ and can scarcely be 

 read '^ ETO," whether we consider the sacred or the enchorial 

 characters ; nor do we find any thing nearer to this in . Coptic 

 than ETE, meaning ** that is," while the characters are more 

 like TENE. Such are the uncertainties which continually 

 beact us in the application of the best established alphabetical 

 characters even to words of which we know the sounds : to 

 investigate the unknown by them is at present almost hopeless. 

 There are two tablets, from the caverns at Sacchara, about 

 to appear in Plates 70 to 74 of the Hieroglyphics, which 

 Mr. Salt sent over with particular interest, as being likely to 

 contain some useful materials for the comparison of the differ- 

 ent kinds of characters with each other. In this point of view, 

 however, his well-directed zeal has failed of its object : for the 

 sacred characters relate almost entirely to the gods and priests 

 of the temple, while the enchorial inscriptions below them 

 contain dates and records of the successive donations made to 

 those temples. And this seems to be equally true of the 

 generality of double inscriptions, which are scarcely ever 

 identical in this sense, although they may greatly tend to 

 illustrate each other. rdq/f^VL »^ ■^ri'V ' ' ^^- H 



The first in order of these tablets *(H 70, 71, 74 A) was 

 marked number 50 by Mr. Salt ; it has seven stars at the edge 

 of the wings overshadowing the figures. It is first dated very 

 distinctly In the year 6 of Cleopatra ; which ought to have 



