THE VICTORIA INSTITUTE ANNUAL 

 ADDRESS, 1889. 



THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS OF TEL EL- 

 AMAENA. By the REV. A. H. SAYCE, M.A., D.D., 

 LL.D., Deputy Professor of Comparative Philology in 

 the University of Oxford. 



THE winter before last, one of the most extraordinary and 

 unexpected archaeological discoveries of modern times 

 was made in Upper Egypt. Egypt has always been the land 

 of archaeological surprises, but its last surprise is, perhaps, 

 the greatest that it has ever afforded us. About midway 

 between Minieh and Assiout, but on the eastern bank of 

 the Nile, are the extensive mounds of an ancient city, now 

 known under the name of Tel el-Amarna. They cover the 

 remains of the capital built by Atnenophis IV. or Khu-en-Aten, 

 " the heretic king/' as he is familiarly called in the histories 

 of monumental Egypt. Alone among the Pharaohs of his 

 country he deserted the religion and traditions of his fathers, 

 and endeavoured to impose upon his unwilling subjects a new 

 form of faith. Forsaking the worship of Amen of Thebes, 

 of Ra of Heliopolis, of Ptah of Memphis, he professed 

 himself the devoted adorer of the radiant solar disk, in which 

 he saw the image and symbol of the Supreme Deity. 



The worship of the solar disk points unmistakably to 



Address .Victoria Institute, 1889, 



