Book: The Treasury of Ancient Egypt

A >> Arthur E. P. B. Weigall >> The Treasury of Ancient Egypt



[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE. A statue of the hawk-god Horus in front of
the temple of Edfu. The author stands
beside it.]

[_Photo by N. Macnaghten._



The Treasury of
Ancient Egypt


Miscellaneous Chapters on Ancient
Egyptian History and Archaeology


BY


ARTHUR E.P.B. WEIGALL

INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF UPPER EGYPT, DEPARTMENT OF ANTIQUITIES

AUTHOR OF 'TRAVELS IN THE UPPER EGYPTIAN DESERTS,' 'THE LIFE AND
TIMES OF AKHNATON, PHARAOH OF EGYPT,' 'A GUIDE TO THE
ANTIQUITIES OF UPPER EGYPT,' ETC., ETC.



RAND McNALLY & COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1912




_TO

ALAN H. GARDINER, ESQ.,

M.A., D.LITT.

LAYCOCK STUDENT OF EGYPTOLOGY AT WORCESTER
COLLEGE, OXFORD,


THIS BOOK,

WHICH WILL RECALL SOME SUMMER NIGHTS UPON
THE THEBAN HILLS,

IS DEDICATED._




PREFACE.


No person who has travelled in Egypt will require to be told that it is
a country in which a considerable amount of waiting and waste of time
has to be endured. One makes an excursion by train to see some ruins,
and, upon returning to the station, the train is found to be late, and
an hour or more has to be dawdled away. Crossing the Nile in a
rowing-boat the sailors contrive in one way or another to prolong the
journey to a length of half an hour or more. The excursion steamer will
run upon a sandbank, and will there remain fast for a part of the day.

The resident official, travelling from place to place, spends a great
deal of time seated in railway stations or on the banks of the Nile,
waiting for his train or his boat to arrive; and he has, therefore, a
great deal of time for thinking. I often try to fill in these dreary
periods by jotting down a few notes on some matter which has recently
been discussed, or registering and elaborating arguments which have
chanced lately to come into the thoughts. These notes are shaped and
"written up" when next there is a spare hour, and a few books to refer
to; and ultimately they take the form of articles or papers, some of
which find their way into print.

This volume contains twelve chapters, written at various times and in
various places, each dealing with some subject drawn from the great
treasury of Ancient Egypt. Some of the chapters have appeared as
articles in magazines. Chapters iv., v., and viii. were published in
'Blackwood's Magazine'; chapter vii. in 'Putnam's Magazine' and the
'Pall Mall Magazine'; and chapter ix. in the 'Century Magazine.' I have
to thank the editors for allowing me to reprint them here. The remaining
seven chapters have been written specially for this volume.

LUXOR, UPPER EGYPT,
_November_ 1910.




CONTENTS.

PART I.--THE VALUE OF THE TREASURY.

CHAP. PAGE
I. THE VALUE OF ARCHAEOLOGY 3

II. THE EGYPTIAN EMPIRE 26

III. THE NECESSITY OF ARCHAEOLOGY TO THE GAIETY OF
THE WORLD 55


PART II.--STUDIES IN THE TREASURY.

IV. THE TEMPERAMENT OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS 81

V. THE MISFORTUNES OF WENAMON 112

VI. THE STORY OF THE SHIPWRECKED SAILOR 138


PART III.--RESEARCHES IN THE TREASURY.

VII. RECENT EXCAVATIONS IN EGYPT 165

VIII. THE TOMB OF TIY AND AKHNATON 185

IX. THE TOMB OF HOREMHEB 209


PART IV.--THE PRESERVATION OF THE TREASURY.

X. THEBAN THIEVES 239

XI. THE FLOODING OF LOWER NUBIA 262*

XII. ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE OPEN 281**


* Transcriber's note: Original text incorrectly lists page number "261".
**Transcriber's note: Original text incorrectly lists page number "282".



ILLUSTRATIONS.


PLATE PAGE

A STATUE OF THE HAWK-GOD HORUS IN FRONT OF
THE TEMPLE OF EDFU. THE AUTHOR STANDS
BESIDE IT _Frontispiece_

I. THE MUMMY OF RAMESES II. OF DYNASTY XIX. 10

II. WOOD AND ENAMEL JEWEL-CASE DISCOVERED IN THE
TOMB OF YUAA AND TUAU. AN EXAMPLE OF
THE FURNITURE OF ONE OF THE BEST PERIODS
OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ART 17

III. HEAVY GOLD EARRINGS OF QUEEN TAUSERT OF
DYNASTY XX. AN EXAMPLE OF THE WORK
OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN GOLDSMITHS 22

IV. IN THE PALM-GROVES NEAR SAKKARA, EGYPT 36

V. THE MUMMY OF SETY I. OF DYNASTY XIX. 48

VI. A RELIEF UPON THE SIDE OF THE SARCOPHAGUS
OF ONE OF THE WIVES OF KING MENTUHOTEP III.,
DISCOVERED AT DER EL BAHRI (THEBES).
THE ROYAL LADY IS TAKING SWEET-SMELLING
OINTMENT FROM AN ALABASTER VASE. A
HANDMAIDEN KEEPS THE FLIES AWAY WITH
A BIRD'S-WING FAN. 62

VII. LADY ROUGING HERSELF: SHE HOLDS A MIRROR
AND ROUGE-POT 71

DANCING GIRL TURNING A BACK SOMERSAULT 71

VIII. TWO EGYPTIAN BOYS DECKED WITH FLOWERS AND
A THIRD HOLDING A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.
THEY ARE STANDING AGAINST THE OUTSIDE
WALL OF THE DENDEREH TEMPLE 82

IX. A GARLAND OF LEAVES AND FLOWERS DATING FROM
ABOUT B.C. 1000. IT WAS PLACED UPON THE
NECK OF A MUMMY 94

X. A RELIEF OF THE SAITIC PERIOD, REPRESENTING
AN OLD MAN PLAYING UPON A HARP, AND A
WOMAN BEATING A DRUM. OFFERINGS OF
FOOD AND FLOWERS ARE PLACED BEFORE
THEM 100

XI. AN EGYPTIAN NOBLE OF THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY
HUNTING BIRDS WITH A BOOMERANG AND
DECOYS. HE STANDS IN A REED-BOAT WHICH
FLOATS AMIDST THE PAPYRUS CLUMPS, AND A
CAT RETRIEVES THE FALLEN BIRDS. IN THE
BOAT WITH HIM ARE HIS WIFE AND SON 108

XII. A REED BOX FOR HOLDING CLOTHING, DISCOVERED
IN THE TOMB OF YUAA AND TUAU 118

XIII. A FESTIVAL SCENE OF SINGERS AND DANCERS FROM
A TOMB-PAINTING OF DYNASTY XVII. 133

XIV. A SAILOR OF LOWER NUBIA AND HIS SON 144

XV. A NILE BOAT PASSING THE HILLS OF THEBES 159

XVI. THE EXCAVATIONS ON THE SITE OF THE CITY OF
ABYDOS 166

XVII. EXCAVATING THE OSIREION AT ABYDOS. A CHAIN
OF BOYS HANDING UP BASKETS OF SAND TO
THE SURFACE 175

XVIII. THE ENTRANCE OF THE TOMB OF QUEEN TIY, WITH
EGYPTIAN POLICEMAN STANDING BESIDE IT. ON
THE LEFT IS THE LATER TOMB OF RAMESES X. 186

XIX. TOILET-SPOONS OF CARVED WOOD, DISCOVERED IN
TOMBS OF THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY. THAT
ON THE RIGHT HAS A MOVABLE LID 192

XX. THE COFFIN OF AKHNATON LYING IN THE TOMB OF
QUEEN TIY 207

XXI. HEAD OF A GRANITE STATUE OF THE GOD KHONSU,
PROBABLY DATING FROM ABOUT THE PERIOD
OF HOREMHEB 217

XXII. THE MOUTH OF THE TOMB OF HOREMHEB AT THE
TIME OF ITS DISCOVERY. THE AUTHOR IS
SEEN EMERGING FROM THE TOMB AFTER THE
FIRST ENTRANCE HAD BEEN EFFECTED. ON
THE HILLSIDE THE WORKMEN ARE GROUPED 229

XXIII. A MODERN THEBAN FELLAH-WOMAN AND HER CHILD 240

XXIV. A MODERN GOURNAWI BEGGAR 250

XXV. THE ISLAND AND TEMPLES OF PHILAE WHEN THE
RESERVOIR IS EMPTY 269

XXVI. A RELIEF REPRESENTING QUEEN TIY, FROM THE
TOMB OF USERHAT AT THEBES. THIS RELIEF
WAS STOLEN FROM THE TOMB, AND FOUND ITS
WAY TO THE BRUSSELS MUSEUM, WHERE IT IS
SHOWN IN THE DAMAGED CONDITION SEEN IN
PL. XXVII. 282

XXVII. A RELIEF REPRESENTING QUEEN TIY, FROM THE
TOMB OF USERHAT, THEBES. (SEE PL. XXVI.) 293




PART I

THE VALUE OF THE TREASURY.


"History no longer shall be a dull book. It shall walk
incarnate in every just and wise man. You shall not tell
me by languages and titles a catalogue of the volumes you
have read. You shall make me feel what periods you have
lived. A man shall be the Temple of Fame. He shall walk,
as the poets have described that goddess, in a robe
painted all over with wonderful events and
experiences.... He shall be the priest of Pan, and bring
with him into humble cottages the blessing of the morning
stars, and all the recorded benefits of heaven and
earth."
EMERSON.




CHAPTER I.

THE VALUE OF ARCHAEOLOGY.


The archaeologist whose business it is to bring to light by pick and
spade the relics of bygone ages, is often accused of devoting his
energies to work which is of no material profit to mankind at the
present day. Archaeology is an unapplied science, and, apart from its
connection with what is called culture, the critic is inclined to judge
it as a pleasant and worthless amusement. There is nothing, the critic
tells us, of pertinent value to be learned from the Past which will be
of use to the ordinary person of the present time; and, though the
archaeologist can offer acceptable information to the painter, to the
theologian, to the philologist, and indeed to most of the followers of
the arts and sciences, he has nothing to give to the ordinary layman.

In some directions the imputation is unanswerable; and when the
interests of modern times clash with those of the past, as, for example,
in Egypt where a beneficial reservoir has destroyed the remains of early
days, there can be no question that the recording of the threatened
information and the minimising of the destruction, is all that the
value of the archaeologist's work entitles him to ask for. The critic,
however, usually overlooks some of the chief reasons that archaeology can
give for even this much consideration, reasons which constitute its
modern usefulness; and I therefore propose to point out to him three or
four of the many claims which it may make upon the attention of the
layman.

In the first place it is necessary to define the meaning of the term
"Archaeology." Archaeology is the study of the facts of ancient history
and ancient lore. The word is applied to the study of all ancient
documents and objects which may be classed as antiquities; and the
archaeologist is understood to be the man who deals with a period for
which the evidence has to be excavated or otherwise discovered. The age
at which an object becomes an antiquity, however, is quite undefined,
though practically it may be reckoned at a hundred years; and ancient
history is, after all, the tale of any period which is not modern. Thus
an archaeologist does not necessarily deal solely with the remote ages.

Every chronicler of the events of the less recent times who goes to the
original documents for his facts, as true historians must do during at
least a part of their studies, is an archaeologist; and, conversely,
every archaeologist who in the course of his work states a series of
historical facts, becomes an historian. Archaeology and history are
inseparable; and nothing is more detrimental to a noble science than
the attitude of certain so-called archaeologists who devote their entire
time to the study of a sequence of objects without proper consideration
for the history which those objects reveal. Antiquities are the relics
of human mental energy; and they can no more be classified without
reference to the minds which produced them than geological specimens can
be discussed without regard to the earth. There is only one thing worse
than the attitude of the archaeologist who does not study the story of
the periods with which he is dealing, or construct, if only in his
thoughts, living history out of the objects discovered by him; and that
is the attitude of the historian who has not familiarised himself with
the actual relics left by the people of whom he writes, or has not, when
possible, visited their lands. There are many "archaeologists" who do not
care a snap of the fingers for history, surprising as this may appear;
and there are many historians who take no interest in manners and
customs. The influence of either is pernicious.

It is to be understood, therefore, that in using the word Archaeology I
include History: I refer to history supplemented and aggrandised by the
study of the arts, crafts, manners, and customs of the period under
consideration.

As a first argument the value of archaeology in providing a precedent for
important occurrences may be considered. Archaeology is the structure of
ancient history, and it is the voice of history which tells us that a
Cretan is always a Cretan, and a Jew always a Jew. History, then, may
well take her place as a definite asset of statecraft, and the law of
Precedent may be regarded as a fundamental factor in international
politics. What has happened before may happen again; and it is the hand
of the archaeologist that directs our attention to the affairs and
circumstances of olden times, and warns us of the possibilities of their
recurrence. It may be said that the statesman who has ranged in the
front of his mind the proven characteristics of the people with whom he
is dealing has a perquisite of the utmost importance.

Any archaeologist who, previous to the rise of Japan during the latter
half of the nineteenth century, had made a close study of the history of
that country and the character of its people, might well have predicted
unerringly its future advance to the position of a first-class power.
The amazing faculty of imitation displayed by the Japanese in old times
was patent to him. He had seen them borrow part of their arts, their
sciences, their crafts, their literature, their religion, and many of
their customs from the Chinese; and he might have been aware that they
would likewise borrow from the West, as soon as they had intercourse
with it, those essentials of civilisation which would raise them to
their present position in the world. To him their fearlessness, their
tenacity, and their patriotism, were known; and he was so well aware of
their powers of organisation, that he might have foreseen the rapid
development which was to take place.

What historian who has read the ancient books of the Irish--the Book of
the Dun Cow, the Book of Ballymote, the Book of Lismore, and the
like--can show either surprise or dismay at the events which have
occurred in Ireland in modern times? Of the hundreds of kings of Ireland
whose histories are epitomised in such works as that of the old
archaeologist Keating, it would be possible to count upon the fingers
those who have died in peace; and the archaeologist, thus, knows better
than to expect the descendants of these kings to live in harmony one
with the other. National characteristics do not change unless, as in the
case of the Greeks, the stock also changes.

In the Jews we have another example of the persistence of those national
characteristics which history has made known to us. The Jews first
appear in the dimness of the remote past as a group of nomad tribes,
wandering over southern Palestine, Egypt, and the intervening deserts;
and at the present day we see them still homeless, scattered over the
face of the globe, the "tribe of the wandering foot and weary breast."

In no country has the archaeologist been more active than in Egypt during
the last half century, and the contributions which his spade and pick
have offered to history are of first-rate importance to that study as a
whole. The eye may now travel down the history of the Nile Valley from
prehistoric days to the present time almost without interruption; and
now that the anthropologist has shown that the modern Egyptians,
Mussulman and Copt, peasant and townsman, belong to one and the same
race of ancient Egyptians, one may surely judge to-day's inhabitants of
the country in the light of yesterday's records. In his report for the
year 1906, Lord Cromer, questioning whether the modern inhabitants of
the country were capable of governing their own land, tells us that we
must go back to the precedent of Pharaonic days to discover if the
Egyptians ever ruled themselves successfully.

In this pregnant remark Lord Cromer was using information which the
archaeologist and historian had made accessible to him. Looking back over
the history of the country, he was enabled, by the study of this
information, to range before him the succession of foreign occupations
of the Nile Valley and to assess their significance. It may be worth
while to repeat the process, in order to give an example of the bearing
of history upon modern polemics, though I propose to discuss this matter
more fully in another chapter.

Previous to the British occupation the country was ruled, as it is now,
by a noble dynasty of Albanian princes, whose founder was set upon the
throne by the aid of Turkish and Albanian troops. From the beginning of
the sixteenth century until that time Egypt had been ruled by the
Ottoman Government, the Turk having replaced the Circassian and other
foreign "Mamlukes" who had held the country by the aid of foreign troops
since the middle of the thirteenth century. For a hundred years previous
to the Mamluke rule Egypt had been in the hands of the Syrian and
Arabian dynasty founded by Saladdin. The Fatimides, a North African
dynasty, governed the country before the advent of Saladdin, this family
having entered Egypt under their general, Jauhar, who was of Greek
origin. In the ninth century Ahmed ibn Tulun, a Turk, governed the land
with the aid of a foreign garrison, his rule being succeeded by the
Ikhshidi dynasty of foreigners. Ahmed had captured Egypt from the
Byzantines who had held it since the days of the Roman occupation.
Previous to the Romans the Ptolemies, a Greek family, had governed the
Nile Valley with the help of foreign troops. The Ptolemies had followed
close upon the Greek occupation, the Greeks having replaced the Persians
as rulers of Egypt. The Persian occupation had been preceded by an
Egyptian dynasty which had been kept on the throne by Greek and other
foreign garrisons. Previous to this there had been a Persian occupation,
which had followed a short period of native rule under foreign
influence. We then come back to the Assyrian conquest which had followed
the Ethiopian rule. Libyan kings had held the country before the
Ethiopian conquest. The XXIst and XXth Dynasties preceded the Libyans,
and here, in a disgraceful period of corrupt government, a series of
so-called native kings are met with. Foreigners, however, swarmed in the
country at the time, foreign troops were constantly used, and the
Pharaohs themselves were of semi-foreign origin. One now comes back to
the early XIXth and XVIIIth Dynasties which, although largely tinged
with foreign blood, may be said to have been Egyptian families. Before
the rise of the XVIIIth Dynasty the country was in foreign hands for the
long period which had followed the fall of the XIIth Dynasty, the
classical period of Egyptian history (about the twentieth century B.C.),
when there were no rivals to be feared. Thus the Egyptians may be said
to have been subject to foreign occupation for nearly four thousand
years, with the exception of the strong native rule of the XVIIIth
Dynasty, the semi-native rule of the three succeeding dynasties, and a
few brief periods of chaotic government in later times; and this is the
information which the archaeologist has to give to the statesman and
politician. It is a story of continual conquest, of foreign occupations
following one upon another, of revolts and massacres, of rapid
retributions and punishments. It is the story of a nation which, however
ably it may govern itself in the future, has only once in four
thousand years successfully done so in the past.


[Illustration: PL. I. The mummy of Rameses II. of Dynasty XIX.
--CAIRO MUSEUM.]

[_Photo by E. Brugsch Pasha._


Such information is of far-reaching value to the politician, and to
those interested, as every Englishman should be, in Imperial politics. A
nation cannot alter by one jot or tittle its fundamental
characteristics; and only those who have studied those characteristics
in the pages of history are competent to foresee the future. A certain
Englishman once asked the Khedive Ismail whether there was any news that
day about Egyptian affairs. "That is so like all you English," replied
his Highness. "You are always expecting something new to happen in Egypt
day by day. To-day is here the same as yesterday, and to-morrow will be
the same as to-day; and so it has been, and so it will be, for thousands
of years."[1] Neither Egypt nor any other nation will ever change; and
to this it is the archaeologist who will bear witness with his stern law
of Precedent.

[Footnote 1: E. Dicey. 'The Story of the Khedivate,' p. 528.]

I will reserve the enlarging of this subject for the next chapter: for
the present we may consider, as a second argument, the efficacy of the
past as a tonic to the present, and its ability to restore the vitality
of any age that is weakened.

In ancient Egypt at the beginning of the XXVIth Dynasty (B.C. 663) the
country was at a very low ebb. Devastated by conquests, its people
humiliated, its government impoverished, a general collapse of the
nation was imminent. At this critical period the Egyptians turned their
minds to the glorious days of old. They remodelled their arts and crafts
upon those of the classical periods, introduced again the obsolete
offices and titles of those early times, and organised the government
upon the old lines. This movement saved the country, and averted its
collapse for a few more centuries. It renewed the pride of workmanship
in a decadent people; and on all sides we see a revival which was the
direct result of an archaeological experiment.

The importance of archaeology as a reviver of artistic and industrial
culture will be realised at once if the essential part it played in the
great Italian Renaissance is called to mind. Previous to the age of
Cimabue and Giotto in Florence, Italian refinement had passed steadily
down the path of deterioration. Graeco-Roman art, which still at a high
level in the early centuries of the Christian era, entirely lost its
originality during Byzantine times, and the dark ages settled down upon
Italy in almost every walk of life. The Venetians, for example, were
satisfied with comparatively the poorest works of art imported from
Constantinople or Mount Athos: and in Florence so great was the poverty
of genius that when Cimabue in the thirteenth century painted that
famous Madonna which to our eyes appears to be of the crudest
workmanship, the little advance made by it in the direction of
naturalness was received by the city with acclamations, the very street
down which it was carried being called the "Happy Street" in honour of
the event. Giotto carried on his master's teachings, and a few years
later the Florentines had advanced to the standard of Fra Angelico, who
was immediately followed by the two Lippis and Botticelli. Leonardo da
Vinci, artist, architect, and engineer, was almost contemporaneous with
Botticelli, being born not much more than a hundred years after the
death of Giotto. With him art reached a level which it has never
surpassed, old traditions and old canons were revived, and in every
direction culture proceeded again to those heights from which it had
fallen.

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