Study of the Neio York Obelisk as a Decayed Boulder. IIT 



edges at the bottom. . . . During the transportation, a large por- 

 tion of the edges at the base was very badly damaged."^ Such 

 rude and clumsy handling, however, is not likely, in view of the 

 known skill of the Roman engineers : their experience twelve years 

 before, according to Strabo, in conveying a pair of obelisks from An 

 to Rome : and the perfect condition of the bases of the Egyptian 

 monoliths now in Rome, and, in fact, that of the delicate pyramidion 

 of this very Obelisk. The mutilation must have occurred at An, and 

 it is significant that it occurs, in both obelisks, in just that part of 

 the shaft which must have been most exposed to the fire. If the 

 obelisks were then overturned, the injury may have been intention- 

 ally increased by mechanical violence. 



It is also highly probable that the destructive action of fire was 

 aided by dashing cold water upon the heated stone, as far up as it 

 could be thrown from below, a method of destruction of rock M-ell 

 known to all the ancient nations, and commonly used in their 

 mining. 



(3). The partial to complete obliteration of a large portion of the 

 inscriptions on all sides of the base of the shaft, with a peculiar 

 smoothing of the surface, up to a height of 10 or 12 feet above the 

 top of the pedestal. The upper limit of this, the so-called "sand- 

 line," running horizontally around the shaft, begins on the N.N.E. 

 side, about half-way between the two lowest rows of cartouches. 

 In addition to the effacement of hieroglyphs, the peculiar even and 

 shining surface should be noted, which is, to a large degree, free 

 from the pitting, often deep, which covers the surface of the shaft 

 above the line. On the E.S.E. and S.S.W. faces, the same round- 

 ing of corners and of edges of the hieroglyphs occurs. But on the 

 W.N.W. face, many sharply carved intaglios remain but little 

 injured, near the bottom of the shaft and for a yard above ; thence 

 the same rounding and partial effacement of characters extend up 

 to the same line. All these facts point to an ancient destruction of 

 the lower surface of the shaft by some agency which left it covered 

 with smoothly cleaved planes and broken corners, and to a subse- 

 quent protection of the smooth surface from the weathering which 

 caused the pitting above the line. 



It is known that at least as far back as the visit of the traveller, 

 Paul Lucas, to Alexandria, in 1714 A. D., the shaft was buried in 



1 Moldenke, idem, 20, 39. 



