158 
EGYPTIAN GALLERIES. 
the greatest monarch of that dynasty, Rameses II., who appears to 
have been the original represented by the Greeks in their legends of 
Sesostris. 
In the Northern Gallery are the large sculptures of the Eighteenth 
Dynasty, which comprehends the most splendid epoch of Egyptian 
history, and has left the grandest memorials of the arts of the Egyptian 
people: with these are also included some sepulchral tablets of the 
antecedent period, and a few likewise of later date, intended to be 
hereafter removed. 
The Vestibule, at the Northern extremity of these galleries, contains 
chiefly the archaic remains of Egypt, prior to the Eighteenth Dynasty; 
the oldest of which may reasonably be regarded as the most ancient 
productions of the art of sculpture now existing in Europe. 
In the ensuing description the objects are mentioned in the order 
of the numbers attached to them before the recent arrangement was 
made, and, in most instances, still remaining upon them *. 
No. 1. A lion couchant, whose 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 Ill. (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 Prudhoe , (now Puke of Northumberland ,) 1835. 
No. 2. A sarcophagus of Petenesi, a bard, in form of a mummy 
case, with five lines of hieroglyphics down 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 
made by Mr. Salt in a line with the vocal Memnon and its com¬ 
panion at Gournah, and possibly from a Colossus placed before a 
door of the palace of Amenophis III., whose features it much re¬ 
sembles, in that quarter. Brownish breccia. From Mr. Salt's col¬ 
lection. 
No. 5. A group, representing the monarch Har-em-hebi ( Horus), 
of the 18th dynasty, standing under the protection of Amen-ra, 
or Khem. Park granite. 
No. 6. Colossal head, exactly resembling No. 4, and probably 
* 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 Hilgrove Turner, and were sent, by order of 
His Majesty King George the Third, to the British Museum. 
