EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 
145 
EGYPTIAN GALLERIES. 
The two great Galleries, and the connecting, or Central Saloon, which 
form the chief part of the building on the West side of the Museum, 
as well as the small Vestibule at their Northern extremity, are appro¬ 
priated to Egyptian sculptures. The collection has, until very recently, 
been confined to the Northern Gallery and Vestibule, a space too 
limited to admit either of classification or advantageous display. The 
monuments, however, are now being rearranged, and placed in chrono¬ 
logical order, from North to South, the dynastic divisions of Manetho 
forming the historical basis of the system. In the Vestibule will be 
preserved the remains of the early period; in the Northern Gallery 
those of the eighteenth dynasty: in the Central Saloon the monuments 
of Rameses II.; and in the Southern Gallery those posterior to that 
monarch, descending regularly to the latest times of the Roman 
Empire. The three principal series in the collection of Antiquities, 
the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Greek, will thus, when the contemplated 
arrangements are complete, be exhibited in three parallel lines; whilst 
a fourth or transverse line, running along the Southern extremity of 
the others, will be appropriated to Roman remains. For the present 
the Egyptian monuments must be described in the order of the old 
numbers which are still attached to them, it being impossible as yet to 
follow that of their new positions *. 
No. 1. A lion couchant, w hose mane in front is inscribed with the 
prenomen and name of Amen-asro, supposed to be an ^Ethiopian 
monarch. The base is also inscribed with a dedication from Ame- 
nophis III. (Memnon), in whose reign it must have been sculptured. 
His name has been anciently erased by the disk worshippers and sub¬ 
sequently re-inserted. This lion, with its companion, No. 34, stood 
before one of the gates of a temple at Mount Barkal. Red granite. 
Presented by Lord Prudlioe , (now Puke of Northumberland ,) 1835. 
No. 2. A sarcophagus of Petenesi, a bard, in form of a mummy 
case, with five lines of hieroglyphics dowm the front, the 77th chap¬ 
ter of the sepulchral ritual; the face has been gilt; probably about the 
period of the 26th dynasty. Arragonite. Thebes. From Mr. Sams's 
collection. 
No. 3. Sarcophagus of Sa-atu, or Nesa-tu, a scribe and priest of the 
temples of the acropolis of Memphis; covered with inscriptions and 
figures of various divinities who address the deceased ; from the side 
excavation of a tomb made in the age of the 26th dynasty at Gizeh, 
commonly called Campbell’s tomb. Presented by Col. Howard Vyse, 
1839. 
No. 4. Colossal head of a divinity or king wearing the tesher , 
or possibly the pschent , discovered with No. 6, in an excavation 
* The articles contained in these Rooms, to which the mark (f) is prefixed in this 
catalogue, were collected by the French in different parts of Egypt, and came into 
the possession of the English army in consequence of the capitulation of Alexan¬ 
dria, in the month of September, 1801. They were brought to England in February, 
1802, under the care of General Sir Hilgvove Turner, and were sent, by order of 
Hjs Majesty King George the Third, to the British Museum. 
