8 _ THE FINE ARTS. 
some of which have a phonetic value; then the hieratic writing, which 
appears to have arisen through an abbreviation of the hieroglyphics 
in transferring them to paper; and the demotic, which is still further 
simplified, and approaches nearest to the nature of alphabetical writing. 
This last was used for legal documents, letters, and all the purposes of 
ordinary life. Through the knowledge obtained in recent times of these 
species of writing, and especially of the hieroglyphics, we have been able 
to determine the age of many monuments, which, as Egyptian art remained 
unchanged for thousands of years, could hardly been done from their 
style. 
In Egyptian art the following periods are to be distinguished: 1, before 
the Syro-Arabian invasion of the Shepherd kings, sixteen dynasties; at the 
end of which nothing escaped destruction but the pyramids of Memphis, 
a work of the fourth dynasty. Here fragments of temples are found built 
in, which show exactly the same style as the later buildings. 2. The period 
of the native princes, who, starting from the southern border of the king- 
dom, gradually regained possession of it, and whose glory under Rhamses 
the Great, Sesostris (1472 3. o.), &c., reached its greatest height. The 
names Rhamses, Sesostris, Amenophis, Thutmosis, all belonging to the 
eighteenth dynasty, are found on numberless monuments, and also in Lower 
Nubia. Thebes was then in the height of its splendor. 3. Egypt under 
foreign dominion, first Persian, then Greek, and lastly Roman; which, 
however, produced no essential change in the manners and customs in the 
interior of the country. It was reserved for Christianity with its direct 
assaults to break up this mummy-like, dried up, and therefore imperishable 
Egyptian world. 
With respect to locality, the monuments and productions of Egyptian art 
may be divided into: 1. The Upper Nubian. Here was Meroe, where the 
dominion of the priesthood survived the longest (270 B. c.). Here are still 
found considerable ruins and remains of art, but which exhibit the Egyptian 
style only in its later degenerate stage. 2. The Lower Nubian, which show 
an affinity to those of Upper Egypt. They are mostly in the form of exca- 
vated structures, the Nile Valley being in this portion too narrow to admit 
of large foundations. According to the hieroglyphic inscriptions, they date 
from the flourishing period of Thebes; and their for the most part unfinished 
condition shows that they belong to a transition period. A specimen of 
such grotto-like constructions is found in the temple of Hathor at Ipsambul 
(pl. 2, fig. 10). This is the smaller of two monuments, the larger of which 
is almost wholly buried in the sand. The one here represented is free from 
sand, and is situated close to the Nile. Before it stand six colossi about 50 
feet high, three on each side; in each group the outer figures represent 
priests and the middle one a priestess. The interior has a statue placed in 
a niche. The walls are adorned with painted bas-reliefs. Some scholars 
assert that these two monuments are not temples, but royal tombs or 
cenotaphs, perhaps for Rhamses the Great. 3. The Upper Egyptian, com- 
prising those of the region above Thebes and of Thebes itself; all of which 
date from the 18th and 19th dynasties, and together exhibit one and the 
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