ARCHEOLOGY. 



23 



tine lias become a widow for Egypt " : by Mr. Grif- 

 tith. "Tin' people of Israel is spoiled, it hath no 

 : Syria is "heroine as the widows () f Egypt " : 

 DF. William Spiegelberg, " Israel is a harren land 

 without 1'ear: llor < Palestine) has hecome the widow 

 of Egypt." 



Various opinions have been expressed as to the 

 precise meaning and application of these lines: 

 chiefly as to whether they refer to the Israelites 

 while'still in Egypt, or to some attack upon them 

 in Palestine: and with these questions are con- 

 nected other questions of chronology and the exaet 

 identification of the Pharaohs of the oppression 

 and the exodus. 



Another mention of the Israelites in an inscrip- 

 tion of Mernephthah has been found by Dr. Wil- 

 liam Spiegelberg. It had not been noticed before, 

 because only the first part of the name is preserved. 

 The name is written I-s-1-r-a-e-l-n. with the deter- 

 minations of " man " and " woman." 



II 



THE WOKD " ISRAEL " IN HIEROGLYPHICS. 



Among other discoveries made in these excava- 

 tions are those of a fine tomb of a priest, Sehote- 

 pabra. of die twelfth dynasty, underlying the gal- 

 leries of the Ramesseum. plundered and reused, 

 but with paintings in good condition in the brick 

 iding to it. which have been copied: the 

 funeral temple of Amenhotep II, north of the 

 Ramesseum, with other tombs, a headless statue of 

 the king, and a wine jar bearing his name and the 

 date of his twenty-sixth year, thus confirming 

 Manetho's assignment of twenty-six years to his 

 reign, whereas no later date than the fifth year of 

 his reign had been found before : the funeral tem- 

 ple of Thothmes IV, south of the Kamesseum. de- 

 stroyed by Ramt.'Ses II; the foundation deposits of 

 the Ramesseum. natrnkn. and other relics of the 

 nineteenth and later dynasties. 



Percy E. Xewberry. during a residence of more 

 than a year in Thebes, made a more thorough ex- 

 ploration of the necropolis than had been accom- 

 plished before. He catalogued and classified nearly 

 200 inscribed tombs, of which perhaps only 80 had 

 been previously recorded, including in the number 

 only those which were accessible to the public at 

 the beginning of 1895. 3Iany of these had escaped 

 exploration because they were inhabited by fellahin 

 and others. Among his finds, representing the 

 eighteenth dynasty, he enumerates a tomb of a 

 steward of Amenhotep I. others of important per- 

 sonages of the reigns of Queen Ilatshepsut, Thoth- 

 mes III, and succeeding reigns of the dynasty. He 

 also made a complete copy of the great tomb of 

 Rekhmara. An inscription copied in a tomb at 

 Assiout enabled the author to connect the Herakle- 

 opolite family of princes with that of the Ilepzefas 

 of the twelfth dynasty. 



The temple of Deir-el-Bahari is now completely 

 cleared of rubbish, and may be seen in full view. 

 It appears unlike any other Egyptian temple in 

 plan and details of style. It was built on a rising 

 succession of three platforms, of which the lowest 

 was treated as the garden or orchard of the temple, 

 the plants in which were artificially watered. The 

 uses of the other platforms and of certain unfin- 

 ished chambers opening upon the colonnade of one 

 of them are unknown. A similarity of its archi- 

 tecture to that of Greek temples is suggested by 

 several of its features. 



In the course of the year's work at this temple, 

 M. Kdonard Naville found many fragments of the 

 famous Punt sculptures, all emphasizing the Afri- 

 can character of the country in which the expe- 

 dition landed, but testifying also to the fact that 

 the population of that country was not homo- 

 geneous. In addition to the genuine Puntites, with 

 aquiline features, pointed beards, and long hair, 

 there are also represented negroes of two different 

 shades of color brown and black. The native 

 huts were apparently made of wickerwork. and in 

 front of one of them sits a big white dog with pend- 

 ent ears. Another dog of the same kind and led 

 by a string is being brought to the Egyptians. 

 Birds with long bills are seen flying out of the 

 trees, from which men are gathering the incense, 

 while the nests which they have forsaken are robbed 

 of their eggs. Unfortunately these precious frag- 

 ments do not complete the missing scenes, "of 

 which the destruction must not be attributed wholly 

 to tourists and antiquity dealers ; this work of 

 havoc was begun in ancient times." The discovery 

 by Mariette that the temple was built on the site of 

 a necropolis of the eleventh dynasty was confirmed 

 in a part of the excavations. Several tombs were 

 found in the immediate vicinity of the temple 

 which had been all anciently rifled, and some re- 

 used in the twenty-first dynasty for priests of 

 Amen. The tombs are all on the same plan rec- 

 tangular pits dug in the soft and flaky rock to a 

 depth of 10 or 12 feet. On one side, generally on 

 the west, opens a small chamber, originally closed 

 by a brick wall, which contained one coffin only. 

 The interments of the eleventh dynasty were ap- 

 parently made with a certain amount of luxury, 

 and the tombs originally contained valuables. The 

 original character of the necropolis may be judged 

 from a tomb which had been only partly plundered. 

 In emptying the pit two pieces of the gilt case of 

 the inner coffin and the blue glassware bead neck- 

 lace of the mummy were found. The chamber con- 

 tained a coffin in the style of the eleventh dynasty, 

 made of sycamore wood, very thick and heavy, and 

 in a perfect state of preservation. Outside, on box 

 and lid, are lines of blue hieroglyphs giving the 

 name of the deceased, and two glass eyes, a deco- 

 ration characteristic of the coffins of that period. 

 The angles are lined with gilding. The inside is 

 entirely covered with paintings and inscriptions. 

 Above are horizontal lines of large hieroglyphs 

 most exquisitely painted," as well as representa- 

 tions of the objects supposed to be placed near the 

 deceased mirrors, necklaces, bracelets, etc. Below 

 and on the bottom are funerary texts in a script 

 intermediate between hieratic and hieroglyphic. 

 In the coffin had been left pieces of a very thick 

 cartonnage. entirely gilt, except the necklace, which 

 was painted in colors, and the hair. The mummy 

 probably had jewels, which had been stolen, but 

 the plunderers seem to have done their work hastily. 

 The sandals and the pillow, both gilt, had been 

 left, as well as many objects that had been deposited 

 near the coffin. These objects are similar to those 

 discovered at Meir in tombs of the sixth dynasty, 

 but they are of less artistic value. Two wooden 

 boats were found, with their crews, in one of which 

 the figure of the deceased is seen sitting under an 

 awning: two models of houses containing numerous 

 figures, one of them emptying bags of corn into a 

 granary, and in the other model a bull lying on 

 the ground with his legs tied, while a man cuts his 

 throat with a knife : and statuettes of men and 

 women carrying jars, loaves, and various pro\ 

 in basketsobjects recalling some adjuncts of the 

 earthly life of the deceased, and presumed to be in- 

 tended to answer the same purpose as the pictures 

 on the walls of the tombs of Gizeh and Sakkara. 



