ARCHAEOLOGY. 



31 



those of Barneses II, " yet they can to a cer- 

 tain extent be identified with those of the por- 

 traits of the conqueror. The head and face 

 are closely shaved, and show no traces of hair 

 or beard. The forehead, without being lofty 

 or very broad, is better proportioned and more 

 intellectual than that of Rameses II. The brow- 

 ridge is less prominent, the cheek-bones are 

 less high, the nose is less hooked, the chin 

 and jaw are less heavy. The eyes appear to 

 be larger, but it is not possible to be certain of 

 this last point, the eyelids having been re- 

 moved, and the cavities of the eyeballs having 

 been stuffed with rags. The ears are closer 

 to the head than those of Rameses II, and they 

 are pierced in like manner for the reception of 

 ear-rings. The mouth is disproportionately 

 wide, and the thin lips reveal a row of white 

 and well-placed teeth. The first molar on the 

 right side appears to have been broken, or to 

 have been worn away earlier than the rest. 

 In short, Rameses III is like a smaller imita- 

 tion of Rameses II. The physiognomy is more 

 delicate, and, above all, more intelligent, but 

 the height of the body is less, the shoulders 

 are less wide, and the strength of the man was 

 inferior." Rameses III was also a warrior, 

 but his wars were not aggressive ; they were 

 waged at home, in defense of the kingdom. 

 The two mummies, replaced in their glass 

 cases, will henceforth be exhibited in the mu- 

 seum at Boolak. 



. The communication of the report of the tm- 

 bandaging of these mummies, June 3, was M. 

 Maspero's last official act. He resigned his 

 office on the 5th of June, for reasons relating 

 to the health of Madame Maspero. He was 

 succeeded in the superintendency of excava- 

 tions and archaeology by M. Eugene Grebaut. 



On the 9th of June, if. Eugene Grebaut, as- 

 sisted by M. Maspero and the officers of the 

 Museum of Boolak, unbandaged the mummy 

 of Sekenenra Ta-aken, the Theban king of the 

 seventeenth dynasty, under whom the war was 

 waged against the Shepherd kings, which re- 

 sulted in their expulsion. This king is one of 

 the heroes of a very ancient legendary ro- 

 mance written on papyrus in the hieratic char- 

 acter of the time of the nineteenth dynasty, of 

 which a large fragment is in the British Muse- 

 um. The identity of the mummy was estab- 

 lished by means of the inscription, written in 

 red ink and retouched with the brush, upon 

 the cover of the mummy-case. Upon expos- 

 ing the body, the head was found thrown back, 

 and lying low to the left. A large wound 

 running across the right temple a little above 

 the frontal ridge was partly concealed by long 

 and scanty locks of hair. The lips were wide 

 open, and contracted into a circle, from which 

 the front teeth, gums, and tongue protruded, 

 the latter being held by the teeth, and partly 

 bitten through. The features, forcibly dis- 

 torted, wore a very evident expression of acute 

 suffering. A more minute examination re- 

 vealed the position of two more wounds. One, 



apparently inflicted by a mace or hatchet, had 

 cloven the left cheek and broken the lower 

 jaw, the side teeth being laid bare. The other, 

 hidden by the hair, had laid open the top of 

 the head a little above the wound on the left 

 brow. A downward hatchet-stroke had here 

 split off an enormous splinter of skull, leaving 

 a long cleft, through which some portion of 

 the brain must have escaped. The king had 

 evidently received these wounds, and died 

 from them, in battle a fact which was not 

 known before, although his leadership in the 

 war against the " Hyksos " was matter of rec- 

 ord. Some irregularities which had been ob- 

 served in the embalmment and the disordered 

 condition of parts of the mummy are explained 

 by this fact, and in the light of the probability 

 that decomposition had begun before the body 

 came into the hands of the embalmers. 



The mummy of Seti I, second king of the 

 nineteenth dynasty, and father of Rameses II, its 

 identity being attested by the official priestly 

 entries on the lid of the mummy-case, was un- 

 bandaged on the same day. At about midway 

 of the total thickness of the wrappings occurred 

 two lines of hieratic inscription in black ink, 

 stating that "in the year nine, the second 

 month of Pert (the season of seed-time), the 

 sixteenth day, was the day of reclothing of the 

 King Menma-ra (Seti I), to whom be life and 

 health and strength." Another inscription, writ- 

 ten on one of the smaller bandages, gave the date 

 of the latest restoration of the king's funereal 

 trappings. The body, says M. Maspero, in his 

 account of the unbandaging " presents much the 

 same appearance as that of Rames,es II. It is 

 long, fleshless, of a yellow-black color, and has 

 the arms crossed on the breast. The head 

 was covered with a mask of fine linen, black- 

 ened with bitumen," on the removal of which 

 with the scissors was brought to view "the 

 most beautiful mummy-head ever seen within 

 the walls of the museum. The sculptors of 

 Thebes and Abydosdid not flatter the Pharaoh 

 when they gave him that delicate, sweet, and 

 smiling profile which is the admiration of trav- 

 elers. After the lapse of thirty-two centuries, 

 the mummy retains the same expression which 

 characterized the features of the living man. 

 Most striking of all, when compared with the 

 mummy of Rameses II, is the astonishing re- 

 semblance between the father and son. The 

 nose, mouth, chin, in short, all the features, 

 are the same ; but in the father they are more 

 refined, more intelligent, more spiritual, than 

 when reproduced in the son. Seti I is, as it 

 were, the idealized type of Rameses II. He 

 must have died at an advanced age. The head 

 is shaved, the eyebrows are white, the condi- 

 tion of the body points to considerably more 

 than threescore years of life, thus confirming 

 the opinion of the learned, who have attributed 

 a long reign to this king. The body is healthy 

 and vigorous, notwithstanding the knotty state 

 of the fingers, which bear evident traces of 

 gout." 



