2Q2 



EGYPTOLOGICAL AND ASSYRIOLOGICAL RESEARCH. 



removed to this spot during some time of dis- 

 order, for concealment and preservation. 



THE PYRAMID OF SENEFRU, AT MEYDOTJM. 

 The discovery of the entrance to the pyramid 

 of Senefru, at Meydoum, was published at the 

 beginning of 1882. This pyramid is called by 

 the Arabs the false pyramid, because they be- 

 lieve it to be formed of the rock itself. It is 

 built in three stages, each of which is inclined 



excavations of them for the purpose of learn- 

 ing their real significance. Dr. Brugsch Pasha 

 and M. E. Revillout have begun a study of the 

 demotic papyri of the times from the twenty- 

 sixth dynasty down, of which several thousand 

 documents exist in the European libraries. 

 The demotic was the business and familiar 

 hand of the Egyptians, and these papyri are 

 expected to throw a flood of light upon their 



THE PYRAMID OP MEIDOUM. 



at an angle of 74 10', and rises to a height of 

 one hundred and twenty-two feet from the 

 midst of a high hill of fallen masonry and rub- 

 ble. The outer masonry is of admirable work- 

 manship, and the general effect of the struct- 

 ure is imposing. The pyramid proved to be 

 formed, for at least half its height, around a 

 core of natural rock. The entrance gave ac- 

 cess to a steep descending passage leading down 

 into the living rock, with chambers constructed 

 on a plan reminding the explorers of that of 

 the corresponding chambers of the great pyra- 

 mid. No inscriptions were found except brief 

 hieratic writings recording the visit of two 

 scribes in the twentieth dynasty. This pyra- 

 mid is considered to be nearly one hundred 

 years older than the great pyramid of Gizeh. 

 Its date would be, according to Brugsch's chro- 

 nology, 3766, according to Mariettas, 4200, 

 B. o. M. Maspero believes that the pyramids, 

 beginning with those of the fourth dynasty at 

 Gizeh and ending with those of the thirteenth 

 dynasty at the Fayoom, represent the tombs in 

 succession of the monarchs of those and the 

 intervening dynasties, whose history is as yet 

 wholly unknown ; and he has, since the conclu- 

 sion of the recent war, resumed his systematic 



laws, social condition, and every-day and pri- 

 vate transactions. 



RECENT ASSYRIAN AND BABYLONIAN RE- 

 SEARCHES. The investigations in the mounds 

 of Assyria and Babylonia continue to furnish 

 information of the highest interest and value. 

 Copies of the records and literary works of 

 hundreds and perhaps thousands of years were 

 accumulated in the library of Assurbanipal at 

 Nineveh, and are now recoverable, in a state 

 more or less mutilated, it is true, but of ap- 

 proaching completeness for many works. An- 

 other library of still older date was discovered 

 in 1881 at Sippara, in Babylonia. The Chal- 

 dean narratives of the creation and the deluge, 

 first brought to notice and translated by Mr. 

 George Smith, from the library of Assurbanipal, 

 have been restudied, retranslated and revised, 

 with the result of depreciating some of the re- 

 semblances which Mr. Smith thought he could 

 trace between them and the Biblical record, 

 but without essentially destroying their general 

 parallelism with the Hebrew sacred narrative. 

 The Assyrian historical narratives are clear 

 and precise, and furnish definite statements of 

 the chronological relations of events to each 

 other, by which their dates according to our 



