EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY 263 



therefore needed, apart from theoretical rendering of earlier values; happily the French 

 and many English have kept to the older custom of using a, which is the general equiva- 

 lent. At Thebes the great and priceless series of painted tombs has been gradually 

 put into safer condition. Walls have been built, doors put on, and Mr. Robert Mond 

 has added to his provision for these tombs by supplying a custodian to conserve and 

 photograph the paintings. The risks of vandalism are therefore lessened. The largest 

 Sphinx ever moved has been found by the British School at Memphis; it is of alabaster, 

 26 feet long, and probably represents Amenhotep III. In Nubia near Amadeh an 

 entire castle of the age of Thothmes III. has been cleared by Randall-Mad ver *; 

 it is not of Egyptian style, but shows the native system. At Abu Simbel a shrine 

 has been found containing the altar and temple furniture in place. 



XX V-XXX Dynasties. Another historical novel of the princelets of the XXVth 

 Dynasty in the Delta has been published by Dr. Spiegelberg, 2 republishing also the 

 novel of the same period already known. These are most interesting pictures of the 

 social life of the feudal princes of the time, only second in fullness to the late romances 

 of Heliodoros and Achilles Tatius. 



The palace of Apries has been found at Memphis by Prof. Petrie; 3 it covered two 

 acres, the gateways and dados were of stone, and the brick walls were nearly 100 feet 

 high, half filled up by a raised floor. The plan had the same position of quarters as 

 that of the mansions in the Xllth Dynasty. Much armour, a silver and gold furniture 

 ornament, Aramaic labels and Persian seals were found. 



At Philae the great temple is ruined as to its unique colouring, and whenever the 

 water rises to the full holding of the dam, the roofs will collapse and the whole be 

 ruined. This barbaric fate was not in the least necessary; Sir John Aird had offered to 

 transport the whole to a higher level above the water, and there would have been 

 no difficulty in doing so. Thanks to the care of Professors Schafer and Junker all 

 the sculptures of Philae, and other temples that will be injured, have now been com- 

 pletely photographed. 



The new railway has opened up the Kharga Oasis, and the American expedition 

 has been clearing and copying the temple of Darius. 



A development of the history of Nubia has taken place. Dr. Reisner 4 summarised 

 it thus: Nubia and Egypt were on one level in the prehistoric age; in the Dynasties 

 Egypt advanced; by the Xll-XIIIth Dynasty Nubia had progressed in a native cul- 

 ture; in the XVIII-XXth Egypt occupied Nubia and largely modified it. There is 

 no trace of the Ethiopian XXVth Dynasty. Nubia remained Pagan after Egypt, 

 and remained Christian four centuries after Egypt was Muslim. In the 2nd and 

 3rd cent. A.D. there was a large invasion of a foreign people. 



At Meroe Prof. Garstang 5 has cleared much of the palace, and gives the history 

 of it thus: From 700 to 300 B.C. there is the sun temple of Aspelut, and the palace; 

 later the temple of Ammon. From 300 B.C. to 100 A.D. there were palaces, and a 

 classical temple with Meroitic Venus figures, pottery, and glass, and the Roman bronze 

 head of Augustus. From 200 to 700 A.D. there is the decay, the invasion by Axumites 

 in 340, and the destruction about 700. Mr. Griffith has also been largely excavating 

 in Nubia, finding the peculiar painted pottery of the Roman age. His great work is 

 a corpus 6 and study of the Meroitic inscriptions, of which he has almost completed 

 the alphabet and obtained many words and phrases; the resolution of the language 

 of it is yet to be settled. 



Dr. Randall-Maclver 7 has also published a splendid output of the Christian Nubian 

 pottery and other remains. 



1 Randall-Maclver in Areika. 



2 Spiegelberg in Sagenkreis der Konigs Petubastis. 



1 Petrie in Palace of Apries and Meydum and Memphis III. 

 4 Reisner in A rchaeological Survey of Nubia. 

 6 Garstang in Guide to Xlth Annual Exhibition. 



6 Griffith in Karanog &c. 



7 Randall-Maclver in Areika and Karanog. 



