112 
EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 
[UPPER 
who dwelt to the North-west of Egypt. — Bas-reliefs taken from the 
tombs of Seti I., Seti II., and other kings of the 19th dynasty, 
in the Biban-el-Molook, or valley of the tombs of the kings, at Thebes. 
— Bas-reliefs from several portions of a fallen obelisk of red granite at 
Karnak, and some large Egyptian wooden coffins. 
To the right, or South side, is the 
FIRST EGYPTIAN ROOM 
In this, and in part of the next room, are placed the 
smaller antiquities of Egypt. Most of these have been disco- 
vered in tombs, and owe their remarkable preservation to the 
peculiar dryness of the climate of the country. They have 
been acquired mainly by purchases from the collections of 
M. Anastasi, Mr. Salt, Mr. Sams, and Mr. Lane, and by dona- 
tions from H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Nor- 
thumberland, Sir Gardner Wilkinson, and other travellers in 
Egypt. The objects may be divided into three principal 
sections : — 
1. Those relating to the religion of the Egyptians, such 
as representations of divinities and sacred animals. 
2. Those relating to their civil and domestic life. 
3. Those relating: to their death and burial. 
I. RELIGIOUS SECTION. 
The Egyptian Pantheon, which was very complex, compre- 
hended a large number of divinities, of which the most im- 
portant were connected with the sun in his annual or diurnal 
eourse, and the lesser were his attendant satellites. The relative 
importance of the divinities depended in some measure on the 
power and wealth of the cities in which they were principally 
worshipped, each city having a distinct group, formed of the 
local god, his wife, and child, with occasionally a fourth divinity 
added. In the representations of the deities, their heads are 
generally exchanged for those of the animals sacred to them. 
The figures in Cases 1—11 are arranged simply as illustrations 
of mythology, and without reference to their original purpose. 
Those which are of wood and stone were found generally 
in tombs and temples ; those of bronze and silver were prin- 
cipally votive ; whilst the small figures in gold, porcelain, 
