August 24, 191 1] 



NATURE 



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block of stone, decorated in relief with the figures of gods 

 and of the king in his character of chief priest. At the 

 foot of the altar were found the last votive offerings where 

 they had been laid just previous to the destruction of the 

 city. 



mall temples in the neighbourhood gave further 



information. One was dedicated to the Egyptian goddess 

 Isis. In this ruin two buildings were superposed, and in 

 the foundations of the later one (which was built, for the 

 most part, out of the ruins of the earlier) were found two 

 great statues of columnar form representing the king and 

 queen of Ethiopia. The upper building did duty at a later 

 time as a Christian church. 



The second temple seemed to have been dedicated to the 

 lion god, a primitive cult of which there are a number of 

 indications. It was situated on the east side of the town 

 towards the desert, a fact which recalls to mind that 

 travellers of last century speak of the great number and 

 the ferocity of the lions in this district. Inside were found 

 two sculptured lions in stone, one on each side of the 

 door, and several other emblems of the same animal. 

 Included among these was a slate plaque, carved on both 

 sides, on the one with the design of the king in his 

 gorgeous state robes, on the other the lion god in human 

 form standing upright upon a man's legs. Each sculpture 

 was also inscribed in the language and writing of Meroe' ; 

 and in the inscription, thanks to the assiduous study of 

 philologists, there can now be recognised the names of 

 gods and personages. 



The temple of the sun was discovered and uncovered 

 at the same time. The building is surrounded by a square 

 enclosure wall with four doorways, but the chief entrance 

 is from the east ; in this direction also there are two 

 shrines, also constructed in stone. The outside wall of 

 the temple is decorated with scenes of war, of triumph, 

 and of sacrifice. A sloping way leads up from the east to 

 the chief platform, which is entirely surrounded by a 

 cloister. The architecture, both in the proportion of its 

 columns and interspaces, as well as in the elegance of 

 form and the exactness of construction, recalls the best 

 Greek works of antiquity, and not at all the styles common 

 upon the Nile. The sanctuary is in the middle and raised 

 above, being approached by a number of steps in black 

 stone. Its floors and its walls were originally covered with 

 glazed tiles, blue and yellow, of which a number are still 

 in position. Round the sanctuary was a kind of corridor 

 or perambulation, exposing to view on the outside the 

 processions and the ceremonies of the priests. 



Such were the results of the first year's explorations of 

 Meroe. There was no doubt that it was necessary to con- 

 tinue the excavations, and funds were provided by which 

 the work was able to go forward during the past winter. 

 Some of the results of this season's work are described 

 below. 



NO. 2l82, VOL. 87] 



The temple of Amon was completely excavated ; 

 previously the chambers around the sanctuary alone had 

 been cleared, but in this season's work chambers 272, 

 278, and 277 were found to form a part of the main build- 

 ing. The first two were unimportant, except that in 

 No. 272 there was found just at the foundation-level a 

 remarkable cameo of Greek workman- 

 ship representing a pair of galloping 

 horses, one black and the other white ; 

 its date may be approximately fixed at 

 300 B.C. In the same chamber there 

 was found a small tablet of stone 

 decorated with low reliefs representing 

 the king and the queen making offerings 

 respectively to Ram-headed Amon and 

 the goddess Isis. Below were several 

 lines of inscriptions in Meroitic cursive 

 character. It is unfortunate that this 

 object (now in the museum at Khar- 

 toum) was much broken, as it is a 

 characteristic specimen of Ethiopian art. 

 In the chamber 277 there were evidences 

 of a colonnade, and at its western 

 extremity a small shrine enclosed within 

 a screen of columns. In the main 

 avenue, in the centre, that is to say, of 

 chamber 270, there was found in the 

 paved floor of the building a place speci- 

 ally prepared for the sacrifice of larger 

 animals ; it was about 3 metres square, 

 surrounded by a trench and enclosing a 

 central space about 1 metre square, in 

 which had stood a dish of stone lined 

 with glazed tiles. In the outer hall (No. 

 271) the base of an obelisk of black granite was found 

 in situ just to the left hand of the entrance to chamber 

 270. This obelisk must have been originally about 3 or 

 4 metres in height above its plinth ; the upper part of it, 

 however, was broken entirely away, so that only about 



d, probably Augustus. 



half a metre of the inscribed faces remain. The inscrip- 

 tion is in lines of Meroitic cursive script clearly engraved, 

 and, supplemented by the numerous fragments found 

 scattered around, constitutes one of the longest Ethiopian 

 texts hitherto discovered. To the south of the central 



