ACCOUNTS, ESTIMATES, &C. OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. I3 



Three Coptic Papyri, in the Sahidic dialect, relating to the Monastery of St. Phoe- 

 bammon, at Hermonthis. 



24. The number of deliveries of Manuscripts to readers in the Reading-room during the 

 past year amounts to 22,000, and to artists and others in the rooms ot the Department to 

 3,042, exclusive of the volumes shown to visitors on private days. 



Frederic Madden. 



Department OF Oriental, British, and Medieval Antiquities, and 



Ethnography. 



I. — Arrangement. 



Two new cases for the exhibition of wooden coffins have been placed in the second 

 Egyptian room, and several of the wall-cases in the Egyptian rooms have been re-arranged 

 and refitted lor a better display of their contents. 



A railing has been placed round the sarcophagus of Nekhtherhebi, King of Egypt, to 

 protect it from injury. 



162 Egyptian antiquities have been catalogued, 192 have been mounted, including 80 of 

 a large size, and 5 large tablets have been framed and glazed. 



Of the Egyptian Papyri, 6 have been unrolled and arranged for mounting, 3 have been 

 framed and glazed, and 47 fragments arranged and bound ; a reference-list of part of the 

 Collection has been made. 



The Nimrud and Kouyunjik Galleries have been painted in a more decorative manner 

 "than before, and the floors rubbed down and cleaned. 



Part of tiie sculptures in the Assyrian Basement ttoom have been glazed, with a view to 

 their better preservation. 



Two monoliths fmni Kurkh and two conical stones from Babylon, all recently received, 

 have been mounted on pedestals and placed in the public galleries. 



An additional table-case has been placed in the Assyrian Basement Room for the display 

 of a series of early iron weapons and implements, and two presses have been fitted up to 

 contain the bricks witli the names of Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar. 



Some of the cases in the Assyrian Ante-room have been refitted and re-arranged. 



1,762 Assyrian terra-cotta tablets, with inscriptions, have been temporarily classed and 

 arranged in the presses above the Ornament Room, and 303 have been placed in separate 

 card boxes, for their betier preservation. 



The gold ornaments from Mesopotamia and Lower Babylonia have been temporarily 

 arranged in one of the cases of the Ornament Room. 



The Assyrian carvings in ivory have been carefully examined, and the various fragments 

 compared and fitted together. They prove in many cases to be portions of large panels, 

 with figures and designs in several different styles of art. In this operation many hundred 

 fragments have been cleaned and joined, preparatory to mounting. 



Among the minor Assyrian antiquities, 218 objects in iron, 38 seals, and 28 miscellaneous 

 objects have been mounted, and, where necessary, cleaned and repaired. 



309 Assyrian and Oriental gems have been mounted and exhibited. 



Careful copies have been made of the cuneiform inscriptions on 21 dated tablets of terra 

 cotta and 1 of bronze, as well as of the inscriptions on the two monoliths from Kurkh, 

 acquired during the year. 



Type impressions of 300 Assyrian and Babylonian gems have been made. 



The Himyaritic inscriptions acquired in 1862 and in the past year have been exhibited, 

 as well as the limited space would allow, in the Basement and in the Second Egyptian 

 Room. Lithographic fac-similes of the whole Collection, 42 in number, have been pub- 

 lished, with introductory remarks. 



A volume, containing lithographic fac-similes of 90 Phoenician inscriptions from Carthage, 

 in the Department, which had been commenced previously 10 the separation of the Depart- 

 ments of Antiquities, has been edited by Mr. Vaux, with explanatory letter-press, and 

 published. 



The scattered remains of Early Christian antiquity have been brought together, and dis- 

 played in a table-case in the British and Mediaeval Room, together with the acquisitions 

 of the same nature made during the year. 



An extensive collection of antiquities from the Lakes of Switzerland, obtained chiefly by 

 the assistance of the Hon. Admiral HaiTis, H. M. Minister at Berne, has been placed in a 

 table-case in the British Room, together with other remains of the kind. 



45 Mediceval matrices of seals have been mounted, with wax impressions at their sides, 

 and exhibited with the rest of the Collection. 



Li the Collections generally, 2,118 objects have been registered, comprising the acqui- 

 sitions of the year and the arrears previous to the separation of the Departments of 

 Antiquities. 631 descriptive labels, 183 printed numbers, and 3,265 registration numbers 

 have been attached to various objects. 



240. B 3 The 



