266 



ACCOUNT AND RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION TO EGYPT, &c. 



[1854. 



Preliminary Account ami Results of tlic Expedition of Dn 



Richard Lcpsius to Egypt, Ethiopia, and tlic Peninsula 



of Sinai* Scientific Results of tlie Expedition** 



The scientific results of the expedition have, in almost all re- 

 spects, surpassed our own expectations. In confirmation of this 

 it will be sufficient briefly to survey these results, which I shall 

 do in the following pages, according to their principal objects, and 

 by entering into some of the details. 



The plan of the journey, as a whole, and in its individual 

 parts, was founded principally with a historical purpose in view. 

 The French-Tuscan expedition, compared with ours, was a journey 

 of discovery, with all the advantages, but also with all the dis- 

 advantages, connected with such an undertaking. We were able 

 from the commencement to aspire after a certain completeness, 

 within the wide limits that were assigned us, not, however, failing 

 in making new discoveries, which were as important as they were 

 unexpected. The investigation of the most ancient Egyptian times, 

 namely, the epoch of the first Pharaonic monarchy, from about 

 3900 to 1700 B.C., extending the history of the world almost 

 two thousand years farther back, was left entirely unfathomed by 

 Champollion. He only ascended the Nile valley as far as the 

 second cataract, beyond which existed a great number of Egyp- 

 tian monuments of all kinds, wholly unexamined, in which we 

 must seek for an explanation of all those Ethiopian antiquities 

 which are inseparable from the Egyptian. 



The most important results we obtained, therefore, were in 

 chronology and history. The pyramid-fields of Memphis gave 

 us a notion of the civilization of Egypt in those primitive times, 

 which is pictorially presented to us in 400 large drawings, and 

 will be considered in future as the first section in that portion of 

 the history of man, capable of investigation, and must be regarded 

 with the greatest interest. Those earliest dynasties of Egyptian 

 dominion now afford us more than a ban-en series of empty, lost, 

 and doubtful names. They are not only free from every real 

 doubt, and arranged in the order and the epochs of time, which 

 have been determined by a critical examination, but by showing 

 us the flourishing condition of the people in those times, both in 

 the affairs of the State, civil affairs, and in the arts, they have 

 received an intellectual and frequently a very individual historical 

 reality. We have already mentioned the discovery of five differ- 

 ent burial-places of the sixth dynasty in Central Egypt, and what 

 we obtained from them. The prosperous times of the new mon- 

 archy, namely, the period of splendour in theThebaid, as well as 

 the dynasties which followed, were necessarily more or less com- 

 pleted and verified. Even the Ptolomies, with whom we appear 

 to be perfectly acquainted in the clear narratives of Grecian his- 

 tory, have come forward in' a new light through the Egyptian 

 representations and inscriptions, and their deficiencies have been 

 filled up by persons who were hitherto considered doubtful, and 

 were hardly mentioned by the Greeks. Lastly, on the Egyptian 

 monuments we beheld the Roman emperors in still greater and 

 almost unbroken series, in their capacity of Egyptian governors, 

 and they have been carried down since Caracalla, who had hi- 

 therto been considered as the last name written in hieroglyphics, 

 through two additional later emperors, as far as Decius, by which 

 means the whole Egyptian monumental history has been extended 

 for a series of years in the other direction. 



Egyptian philology has also made considerable progress by 



* Concluding extract from "Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia, and the 

 Peninsula of Sinai." By Dr. Richard Lepsius. Henry G. Bohn, 

 London. 



this journey. The lexicon has been increased by our becoming 

 acquainted with several hundred signs or groups, and the gram- 

 mar has received a great many corrections. Such copious materials 

 have also been acquired for these purposes, especially by the nu- 

 merous paper impressions of the most important inscriptions, that 

 Egyptian philology must be essentially furthered by their being 

 gradually adopted. For, owing to the strict accuracy of these 

 impressions, they are almost as'valuable, in many investigations, 

 as an equally large collection of original monuments. In addi- 

 tion to this, the history of the Egyptian language, which, by the 

 great age attributed to the earliest written monuments, embraces 

 a period of time between five or six thousand years, becomes now 

 of much greater importance in the universal history of the human 

 language and writing. Among the individual discoveries we 

 made, the one which attracted most attention was that of the 

 two decrees on the Island of Phila?, which were bilingual, 

 namely, written in hieroglyphics, and in the demotic character — 

 one of which contains the decree belonging to the Rosetta in- 

 scription, referring to the wife of Epiphanes. 



In spite of numerous writings upon Egyptian mythology, it 

 has nevertheless been hitherto deficient in a fixed monumental 

 basis. In the temple at Thebes we beheld a series of represent- 

 ations whose meaning has not hitherto been recognized, and 

 which see:n to me to afford new conclusions for the correct com- 

 prehension and development of Egyptian mythology. The series 

 of the first arrangement of the gods mentioned by Herodotus 

 and Manetho, which in modern investigations has been differently 

 arranged in its details by all scholars, is at length placed beyond 

 all doubt, and certainly differs in all essential points from what 

 has been hitherto everywhere adopted. I will briefly allude here 

 to another fact, important both in the history of mythology as 

 well as in a purely historical point of view, and which was eli- 

 cited by an attentive investigation of the monuments. The direct 

 succession of the reigning royal family was interrupted towards 

 the end of the eighteenth dynasty. Through the monuments 

 we became acquainted with several kings of this period, who were 

 not afterwards admitted in the legitimate lists, but were regarded 

 as unauthorized cotemporary or intermediate kings. Among 

 these, Amenophis 4th is to be particularly noted, who, during a 

 very active reign of twelve years, endeavoured to accomplish a 

 complete reformation of all secular and spiritual institutions. He 

 built a royal capital for himself in Central Egypt near the present 

 Tel-el-Amarna, introduced new offices and usages, and aimed at 

 no less a thing than to abolish the whole religious system of the 

 Egyptians which had hitherto subsisted, and to place in its stead 

 the single worship of the sun. In all the inscriptions composed 

 during his reign, there is not one Egyptian god mentioned ex- 

 cept the sun ; even in other words the sacred symbols were 

 avoided. Indeed, the former gods and their worship were per- 

 secuted to such an extent by this king, that he erased all the 

 gods' names, with the single exception of the sun god Ra, from 

 every monument that was accessible throughout the country, 

 and because his own name, Amenophis, contained the name of 

 Ammon, he changed it into Bech-en-aten, " Worshipper of the 

 Sun's disc." Therefore the fact, which has often been previ- 

 ously remarked, that at one particular period the name of Am- 

 mon was intentionally destroyed, forms only part of an event 

 which had a much wider influence, and which unexpectedly re- 

 veals to us the religious movements of those times. 



The history of art has never yet been considered in the point of 

 view from which Egypt and all that concerns it is now regarded. 

 This necessarily formed a particular object of ourexpedition, and 



