264 



THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



the inner history of mankind, is part 

 of nature's history. By tracing to its 

 source the mental ancestry of man, it 

 shows that our thoughts, habits, and 

 institutions are the outcome of ancient 

 civilisations. And these, in many res- 

 ]>ects Mere higher than ours, both in me- 

 chanical and intellectual achievement. 

 It proves, moreover, that civiUsation 

 itself is an intermittent ])henomenon, 

 reaches its culmination, then declines 

 and perishes, pointing to the ultimate 

 fate of our own. 



The late Lord Carnarvon's find is by 

 no means the first sensational discovery 

 made in Egypt. It is merely a con- 

 himati<m of Maspero's prognostications 

 and the com])letion of work commenced 

 by Davis. These prepared the way, 

 and Mr. Howard Carter's perseverance 

 and luck did the rest. In 1881, at 

 l)eir-el-Bahari, were found the many 

 royal miimmies now in tha Cairo 

 Miiseum. It was a veritable hypogeum 

 of Pharoahs. In 1888, at Tel-el-Amarna 

 on the ruins of x\khenaten's capital, 

 were unearthed hundreds of terra- 

 cotta tablets on which were recorded 

 in cuneiform language the diplomatic 

 correspondence between the courts of 

 Egypt and Babylon about 1440 B.C., 

 a discovery throwing a Hood of new light 

 on the two cradles of civilisation, the 

 valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates. 

 But these and many other epoch-making 

 discoveries did not create the stir this 

 latest and lesser one has caused. What 

 perhaps gives a unique cachet to the 

 Carnarvon find is its richness, and the 

 prevalence of so many unusual objects 

 never before dug up in Egypt, also the 

 excellence of their workmanship. But 

 most of these objects of gorgeous ori- 

 ental splendour do not come u]j to the 

 simpler and nobler art standards of the 

 classic age of Egypt. They are en- 

 tirely foreign, being importations from 

 Mesopotamia, with \\hich country Tut- 

 ankhamen's father in-law and (prob- 

 al)ly) half brother, Akhenaten, and 

 before him Amenhotep III., had many 

 dealings, as the Tel-el-Amarna tablets 

 show. 



1 cannot do better than (piote Pro- 

 fessor Flinders Petrie's comments {Au- 

 cicnt Egi/pf, 1922, pt. IV.) on the ob- 

 jects brought to light. 



A most interesting historical link is seen 

 in the strange animal-headed couches. The 

 cow-head couch has s])otting inlaid on it 'A a 

 trefoil form ; this is foreigii to Egypt, but is 

 well knov^^^ in Mesopotamia, as on the couch- 

 ant bull in the Louvre. The weird dog-head 

 of another couch is also entirely un-Egyjjtian. 

 Now, as Kallimasin, king of Babylonia, 

 sent to Amenhetep III a couch of iishu wood, 

 ivory and gold, with three couches and six 

 thrones of unhn wood aiid gold, it is certain 

 that there were Babylonian couches in the 

 Tlieban jialace ; and this description of 

 ivory and gold I'efers to the dog head with 

 ivory teeth and tongue, while the otlier 

 couches are of wood and gold oiily. Later 

 than Amenhetep 111, Syria was too much 

 distvirbed, and Egyptian jDrestige in Meso- 

 potamia was too slight, for such pre.sents 

 to be .sent. They must be as old as Amen- 

 hetep 111, anil there seems no doubt that 

 these are the vei-y furniture described in the 

 Amarna lettei'. In accordance with this, we 

 find that each was constructed in four parts, 

 with bronze jointing to fit together. Fur- 

 nittu'e made in Egyj^t is naturally all imited 

 in one, with fixed joints. B\it for a rough 

 land jouinej- of over a thousand miles, it was 

 needful to make couches with separate 

 sides, frame and base, in order to ]iack and 

 transport them. 



No doubt theie was an imitation of Egyp- 

 tian motives, as in the Hathor cow-lieads, and 

 the tails cojaied from lion couches. This only 

 shows that they were made for jjresents to 

 Egy^jt, and not that they were the work of 

 foreigners in Egypt, be^-ause there would be 

 no pui'pose in the elaborate bronze jointing, 

 instead of solid joints. This detail would 

 not be necessary if they were merely n^o^■ed 

 abovit the palace oi' ])\it on a Nile boat. We 

 see then, for the first time, court furniture 

 of Babylon, and it will be of great interest to 

 examine the technical details of the con- 

 struction and comjjare it with Egyptian 

 work. The short form of the couches shows 

 that the Babyloniaii slept contracted, like 

 the ])reliistoric people, while the Egyptian 

 couches are all full length. 



If some articles were thus of a previous 

 generation, it is \"ery likely thft others were 

 likewise old ; and the footstool, with nine 

 foreigners under it, may well be that used by 

 Amenhetep II as figau-ed a centiuy before. 

 On the death of Tut 'onkh -amen, who was the 

 last legitimate king of the great family, it 

 seems that the palace furniture was largely 

 biuied with him, a.s there was no heir to 

 inherit. 



Of all the Egyptian work the most informing 

 to us will be the dress and jiersonal detail. 

 The coloui- wea\ii\g, the attachment of orna- 

 ment, the construction of jewellery, \vill 

 show much that is new to us. The glove 

 has astonished jieople, but, as Miss Murray 

 observes, gloves are figured in .scenes, both 

 among offerings and also worn. 



The immediately urgent matter is that till 

 these things should te jjreserved in the dry 

 air of Qui'neh, and not taken to the winter 

 fogs of riverside Cairo. A large new 



