418 ANNUAL REPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 32 



University of Leyden, the institute has been exhaustively copying 

 the thousands of lines of " Coffin Texts " preserved in the ancient 

 coffins at Cairo and in the various museums of Europe and America. 

 When these important texts have been carefully edited and pub- 

 lished by these two scholars of the institute staff, it will be possible 

 to date the dawn of the Age of Conscience just as we date the begin- 

 nings of the Age of Metal. 



EARLIEST EVIDENCE OF A SCIENTIFIC ATTITUDE OF MIND 



At the same time the institute has been greatly interested in the 

 development of the human mind as disclosed in the beginnings of 

 science. It has therefore recently published the earliest known sur- 

 gical treatise, an extraordinary papyrus now in the collections of 

 the New York Historical Society. This treatise, written toward 

 3000 B. C, that is, nearly 5,000 years ago, discloses for the first time 

 the beginnings of a scientific attitude of mind and is therefore the 

 earliest known document in the history of science. It is commonly 

 known as the " EdAvin Smith Surgical Papyrus," after the name of 

 the owner, the earliest American Egyptologist, who lived in Luxor 

 and purchased the papyrus there in 1863. 



THE GREAT MONUMENTS OF THE IMPERIAL AGE 



After 2000 B. C. the national developments all around the eastern 

 end of the Mediterranean led to international rivalries and the Im- 

 perial Age began. Early in the sixteenth century B. C. Egypt 

 gained a leading position and for 400 years was imperial mistress of 

 the ancient Oriental world. As the first world power Egypt was 

 able to erect colossal monuments, many of which now survive and 

 await rescue and study. This vast group of monuments forms the 

 largest body of evidence which still lies unsalvaged in the ancient 

 Near East. It consists chiefly of the inscriptions and reliefs on the 

 walls of the great tombs and temples of the Nile. In association 

 with the Egypt Exploration Society, the institute is saving the 

 records of the beautiful Temple of Seti I at Abydos and publishing 

 them in color in a series of folios, of which the first volume is slowly 

 nearing completion. This field work is being carried on by an able 

 woman. Miss Amice M. Calverley. At Ancient Thebes, known to 

 the general public more widely as Luxor, the institute has been 

 working for six years at the coUossal Temple of Medinet Habu and 

 others connected with it. It has recently issued the first volume of 

 a series of 10 or 12 folios, which for all time will save for historical 

 science the enormous body of inscribed and sculptured records cover- 

 ing the walls of the Medinet Habu temples. These records, dating 

 from 1200 B. C, are of particular importance, because they disclose 



