20 



ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES. (EGYPT.) 



less-known successors of those kings; numer- 

 ous works and alterations by Rameses II and 

 Menephthah I, and a block of Seti II, of the 

 nineteenth dynasty ; and a statue of Rameses 

 III, of the twentieth dynasty. After this dy- 

 nasty the city seems to have fallen into decay, 

 and its stones to have been used for other 

 buildings. Large numbers of stones were 

 worked over by Siaraen, of the twenty-first 

 dynasty, and other kings who succeeded him. 

 The later dynasties were represented by a 

 stela of Tirhakah of the twenty-fifth, and an 

 ornament of Psammetik II, of the twenty-sixth 

 dynasty. The most striking monument found 

 in the course of the temple-excavations was 

 indicated in numerous stones worked into the 

 building, which proved to be fragments of a 

 statue of Rameses II, that exceeded in size 

 any other statue known. It appears to have 

 been a standing figure, crowned with the 

 crown of Upper Egypt, and supported in the 

 back by a pilaster. The great-toe measured 

 eighteen inches across, and the figure is esti- 

 mated to have been ninety -eight feet high 

 from the foot to the crown, and, with its ped- 

 estal, one hundred and fifteen feet high, and 

 to have weighed not less than twelve hundred 

 tons. An avenue of granite blocks outside of 

 the wall of Pisebkhanu was found to apper- 

 tain to a temple of the Ptolemaic age, having 

 a pavement of limestone and marked by frag- 

 ments of statues and portions of bas-reliefs 

 and sculptures. 



Excavations in some of the houses near the 

 temple brought to light relics of domestic arti- 

 cles, works of fine art, papyri, weights, etc. One 

 house was called the "House of the Papyri," 

 because of several baskets of manuscripts and 

 waste-papers, partly or wholly burned, which 

 were found in a closet under the cellar-stairs. 

 In another house, called the " House of Statu- 

 ettes," were many green porcelain figures of 

 gods and sacred animals, and burned papyri ; 

 and a third house, the "House of the Glass 

 Zodiac," furnished the fragments of a large 

 sheet of colorless glass, which had been gilded 

 on one side and painted on the other side with 

 a square border-line, inclosing a circular zodi- 

 ac and four heads of the seasons, while the 

 corners between the border-line and the circle 

 were covered with stars done in rhombs of 

 gold-leaf. In one or other of these houses 

 were also found domestic utensils, and vases 

 in granite, basalt, alabaster, and bronze; in a 

 niche in the wall the lamp used by the owner 

 in going into the cellar ; fine pottery curiously 

 ornamented; specimens of blue glaze-ware ; a 

 portrait statue; coins and bronze fittings; a 

 niarblu bust of a term; and specimens of 

 weights, based on the units of the shekel, the 

 k&t, and the drachma. The papyri, of which 

 some two hundred legible fragments have 

 been saved, are of a miscellaneous character, 

 and in various Egyptian and Greek handwrit- 

 ings. Among the documents in stone are the 

 unpublished half of a tablet of Tirhakah, of 



which the other half has been published ; an 

 inscribed obelisk of the twelfth dynasty ; in a 

 curious cruciform Graeco-Egyptian character, 

 a large inscribed stela of Ptolemy Philadel- 

 phus ; and several smaller stelre, a royal statu- 

 ette, and sphinxes. Three cemeteries were ex- 

 amined, the most ancient of which dates from 

 the twelfth dynasty. In it were found a brok- 

 en sphinx of fine early work in black granite, 

 on which Rameses III had cut his name; and 

 a royal tomb containing a rifled sarcophagus, 

 from which the lid had been lost, 14 feet long 

 by seven feet nine inches in width, and without 

 an inscription. The second cemetery was be- 

 lieved to be the chief necropolis of Tanis dur- 

 ing the last stages of its civic history, and con- 

 tained remains dating from just before the 

 Ptolemies to about the time of Diocletian, dur- 

 ing whose reign the city was burned. It con- 

 tained a "rich quarter" and a "poor quarter," 

 and a department for the sacred ichneumons, 

 of which remains were found in thousands of 

 oblong pots. A cabalistic circle of human 

 skulls was found, with the ground strewed 

 with "sacred eyes," in blue and glazed-ware. 

 Among the remains in the third cemetery, 

 which was of Roman times, was the mummy 

 of a woman laid in a kind of open-work basket 

 covered with a board. The robe of the mum- 

 my was edged with a variety of woven bor- 

 ders, white on red and red on blue, and other 

 borders in red, yellow, white, green, and pur- 

 ple; and the jewelry consisted of a nose-ring, 

 ear-rings, and a necklace. The mummy is sup- 

 posed to have been of the time of Constantine. 



None of the domestic and smaller articles as 

 yet recovered at Tanis are of an earlier date 

 than the Ptolemaic period, although the larger 

 works give evidence that the city existed as 

 early as the sixth dynasty. This is because 

 the excavations have not yet reached the strata 

 in which pre-Ptolemaic remains are imbedded. 

 An idea of the magnitude of the work to be 

 done before an expectation can be entertained 

 of finding similar relics of any of the earlier 

 dynasties, is given in the statement by Mr. Pe- 

 trie in one of his reports that, " where there 

 is least accumulation over the earlier remains, 

 I find fifteen feet of Roman and post-Roman 

 dust and rubbish; and this means that from 

 forty to fifty tons of stuff have to be taken out 

 of any hole we dig before we even begin to 

 touch pre-Roman work." The excavations 

 were continued during the season of 1884-'85. 



Egypt Exploration Fund. At the annual meet- 

 ing of the Egypt Exploration Fund, held Oc- 

 tober 29th, Mr. Petrie reported that he had 

 examined twenty sites of ancient cities and 

 remains. The immediate results of the ex- 

 aminations were that some sites supposed to 

 be of importance were really small, and this 

 alone was of geographical value, for it pre-- 

 vented the formation of a mistaken expecta- 

 tion of finding a large city in such a situation, 

 while other sites were of such size and so much 

 encumbered with late deposits that their ex- 



