Alabaster Sarcophagus.— Obelisk of red Granite. 393 
EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 
On Friday Sept. 28th the celebrated alabaster Sarcophagus, 
which lately arrived from Alexandria, was uncased and deposited 
in the British Museum. It is for the present in one of the apart- 
ments not open to the public, where probably it will lie until a 
place is prepared for it in the Egyptian Gallery. This antique is 
certainly a very extraordinary and admirable specimen of the Arts 
of Egypt. ‘The Sarcophagus is nine feet long, and about four 
feet high, apparently of a single piece, and that of a very fine 
alabaster. It is shaped like a modern caffin, and is more than 
large enough to-hold the mummy with all its envelopes, which is 
presumed to have been deposited within this costly repository. 
But its chief value is in the innumerable hieroglyphics which 
cover the sides, interior and exterior, from top to bottom. ‘They 
are small, The human figures, of which there are long processions 
in various circumstances and attitudes, erect, linked together, 
towing galleys, bending as if in worship, &c., are from an inch 
to an inch and ahalfhigh. Between those are compartments of 
symbols, the eye, the ibis, the lotus, &c. The serpent occurs 
frequently, and in some instances at considerable size, and with 
much exactness of detail. This noble work Is supposed to be” 
the coffin of Psammis. Conjecture, however, has an extensive 
range in Egyptian antiquity, and some probabilities have been 
suggested in favour of its being no tomb, but a temple—a small 
shrine imitative of the original Cymla, or great Diluvian vessel 
to which so many of the Indian emblems refer, The Ark seems 
to have formed a vast source of Pagan allegoric sculpture. The 
pecuniary value of this Sarcophagus has been estimated at a very 
large sum. ~ It was the property of Mr. Salt, the British consul, 
and was, we understand, the subject of competition by the agents 
of some foreign powers. 
The obelisk of red granite brought home by the Dispatch, for 
Mr. Bankes jun., which had been previously removed down the 
Nile from the island of Philoe, on the borders of Nubia, has 
been safely unshipped at Deptford, and is now lying on the deck 
of the sheer-hulk there, till it is ready to be removed to Mr. 
Bankes’s seat in Dorsetshire. It is particularly interesting, 
being the first ever brought to England. Artists have already 
been making drawings from it for the purpose of engraving; it 
being supposed that it may very possibly furnish a key to the in- 
terpretation of the hieroglyphical character ; since the Greek up- 
on the pedestal, which records its first erection, under Ptolemy 
and Cleopatra, near 2000 years ago, is very probably a transla- 
tion of the hicroglyphics with which all the foursides of the obe- 
lisk itself are richly covered. — 
' Vol. 58. No, 283, Nov, 1821. 3D The 
