October iy, 191 xj 



NATURE 



D 1 / 



ARCHAEOLOGY IN EGYPT AND GREECE. 

 "\| O great discovery has marked the progress of 

 •^ archaeological excavation in the Near East 

 during the past season. The fierce heat of summer 

 has now, at the time of writing (August), stopped all 

 excavation by us northerners in the lands of the eastern 

 Mediterranean, and probably only the Cretan 

 archaeologists at Tylissos (and possibly the Italians, 

 also in Crete) are still in the field. The work of winter 

 and spring is over, and we may now sum up the more 

 important results of it. 



In the Nile-basin the most sensational find has been 

 that of Profs. Garstang and Sayce, working for the 

 Sudan Excavations Committee of the University 

 of Liverpool, at Meroe, in the Sudan, the ancient seat 

 of the kingdom of the Kandake queens. The splendid 

 bronze head (Fig. i) of an imperial Roman of 

 the first century a.d. (no doubt Augustus himself), 

 which was on view in June in the rooms of the 

 Society of Antiquaries at Burlington House, and has 

 now been acquired by the British Museum, was 

 alone sufficient to "make the fortune" of any ex- 

 cavator ; while the nuggets and cakes of gold which 

 a lucky chance revealed to Prof. Garstang 's spade 

 are no doubt a very unusual sensation in archaeology. 

 To the Sudani, and not less to the Egyptian and 

 the Nilote Greek, it must have seemed that one 

 antika-hunter, at any rate, had at last obtained what 

 all must really be seeking — gold. 



Gold, far more than iron nowadays, " doth of itself 

 attract a man " ; and for its gold alone the 

 Meroe excavation would be remarkable to the vulgar, 

 while the head of Augustus renders it remark- 

 able to the cognoscenti. But we cannot dignify 

 either the finding of a heap of ancient dross, 

 though intrinsically valuable and useful on account 

 of its value, or that of a fine Roman bronze head, as 

 a great discovery. The great discovery was made 

 Inst year, when the Meroe of the Kandakes was 

 found, and the temple of Amen mentioned by 

 Herodotus was identified. The smaller finds this year 

 are less interesting than those of last year. There 

 is more of the remarkable African-looking, hand- 

 made pottery which to our eyes unmistakably stamps 

 the Meroites as pure negroes of central Africa, 

 Nilotes perhaps, but certainly negroes; as, indeed, 

 we see in their rude pseudo-Egyptian representations 

 of themselves and of the Egyptian gods whose wor- 

 ship they caricatured. 



Of the history of the Roman head and how it got 

 to Meroe, we can only conjecture that in some raid 

 northwards into Upper Egypt the head of an imperial 

 statue of heroic size, set up possibly at Syene, was 

 struck off and carried by the barbarians back to 

 Meroe. Though in the reign of Augustus the Roman 

 general Petronius took Napata (Gebel Barkal) from 

 one of the Kandakes (in punishment for just such an 

 incursion as has been postulated), the place was not 

 retained, and there is no likely place for a big public 

 statue of an emperor anywhere south of Syene : it 

 is not at all probable that so fine a figure as this 

 must have been would be set up at the southern 

 frontier station of Primis (Ibrim). From Syene then 

 we must suppose that the head originally came, and 

 it is most like a young Augustus, of all the imperial 

 family : perhaps one may almost call it an Octavian. 

 Germanicus it certainly is not, nor is a statue of 

 Germanicus in Egypt in any way probable, or even 

 possible, in spite of the honour with which he was 

 received : he was there illegally, in violation of the 

 law of Augustus which forbade those of senatorial 

 rank to visit that country. The head has now been 

 placed in the British Museum through the generosity 

 NO. 2IQO. VOL. 87] 



of the Sudan Excavations Committee, in consideration 

 of a gift of a thousand guineas towards the com- 

 mittee's further excavations by the National Art Col- 

 lections Fund. The photograph here shown was 

 kindly lent by Prof. Bosanquet. 



As for the gold, one might well wish that it could 

 be coined into sovereigns, each with the word 

 Meroe stamped upon it in the manner of the Vigo 

 money, coined of the silver captured out of Spanish 

 galleons at Vigo, of Queen Anne. But it is to be 

 feared that the " Meroe " sovereigns would as soon pass 

 out of circulation as did those of President Kruger ! 



Generally speaking, the Liverpool excavations have 

 been of great interest as showing us more of the life 

 of this curious Egyptianised negro kingdom of 

 Meroe, whose Queen Kandake sent the eunuch to 

 Jerusalem who was converted to Christianity and 

 baptised by St. Philip on the way to Gaza (Acts viii. 

 27). There is no proof that he perpetuated his new 

 religion at Meroe, though long afterwards the Ethio- 



Head of Augustus. 



pians were strong Christians and handed their faith 

 on to the non-negro Abyssinians, who (absurdly) like 

 to call themselves "Ethiopians" to-day. 



Passing northward to the modern border of Egypt 

 and the Sudan, the scene of many an Ethiopian 

 foray in old Roman days and many an Egyptian 

 razzia in days then ancient, we find that at Farras, 

 north of Wadi Haifa and just on Sudanese terri- 

 tory, Mr. F. LI. Griffith, reader of Egyptology in the 

 University of Oxford, has, assisted by Mr. Blackman, 

 excavated a large number of tombs of late period, 

 ranging from Ptolemaic to Christian days. Very 

 interesting pottery has been found, linking up that 

 of Meroe with that of Nubia exemplified by Mr. 

 Randall-Maclver's finds at Areika (see Nature, April 

 2S, 1910), but at the same time presenting constant 

 points of difference and originality. Additions have 

 also been made to our store of inscriptions in the 



