Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

L

V. THE ANTIQUITY OF THE EXISTING CONTEMPORARY MONUMENTS
AND HISTORICAL RECORDS.

We have already remarked that the ancient King mentioned in the Book of the Dead belonged to the 4th Dynasty. The section in which he occurs, must necessarily be of a later, possibly of a much later date than his own lifetime. But we possess authentic contemporary monuments not only of him, but of the Pharaohs his ancestors, in nearly uninterrupted succession, during the previous two centuries and a half, back almost to the beginning of the 3rd Dynasty, and all written in the same character as that Papyrus exhibits. No nation of the earth has shown so much zeal and ingenuity, so much method and regularity, in recording the details of private life, as the Egyptians. Every year, month, and even day, of their life, under this or that King, was specially noted down. No country in the world offered greater natural facilities for indulging such a propensity than Egypt, with its limestone and granite, its dry climate, and the protection afforded by its deserts against the overpowering force of nature in southern zones. Such a country was adapted not only for securing its monuments against dilapidation, both above and below ground for thousands of years, but even for preserving them as perfect as the day they were erected. In the North rain and frost corrode, in the South the luxuriant vegetation cracks or obliterates the monuments of time. China has no architecture to bid defiance to thousands of yearsBabylon had but bricks in India the rocks can barely resist the wanton power of nature. Egypt is the monumental land of the earth, as the Egyptians are the monumental people of history. Their contemporary records, therefore, are at once the earliest and most certain source of all Egyptian research. Among these,

[ocr errors]

especial value attaches to the tablets of stone- or sepulchral Stela-with the dates of the King's reign under whom they were erected. The most important hitherto known are those of the 12th Dynasty, the last but one of the Old Empire, the so-called race of the Osortasida. Through the judgment displayed by Lepsius in their selection, the Museum of Berlin had become, even before his departure for Egypt, if not the richest in these monuments, at least equal to those of Turin and Leyden. All these Stelæ have certain common forms of preamble. Dr. Hincks of Dublin has shown in an ingenious treatise, how each epoch of the monument is marked by its distinctive peculiarities of style and written character.41 The authentic contemporaneous notation of these dates, by years, months, and days of the different reigns, may be traced four centuries further back up to the 3rd Dynasty. We shall show in the last Section of this Book the importance of these primitive notices to Universal History. The sequel of our researches will prove that such contemporary monuments are not altogether wanting, as has been generally assumed, even during the period between the downfal of the Old, and the restoration of the New Empire-that is, during the Middle Empire, the so-called time of the Hyksos.

But, lastly, we possess among these monuments, besides several of smaller compass, two great series of kings or royal personages, the one of the 14th, the other of the 16th Century. Such documents cannot, indeed, compensate for the want of written History. Even Chronology, its external framework, cannot be elicited from them. But, with the remains we possess of genuine tradition, we may still hope, by connecting the Lists and historical Commentaries with the con

41 Rev. E. Hincks on the Egyptian Stelæ. Dublin, 1842. 4to

temporary Monuments, to rectify, if not completely to restore, the order of the times.

These Lists and Commentaries are usually ascribed to Manetho, an historian of the third century, B. C. But the study of Hieroglyphics has brought to light, besides those Royal series or monumental lists, several written documents relative to remote periods of history, and even a Catalogue of Kings. The preceding introductory observations will enable us the better to understand and appreciate these important documents.

First of all we have the so-called historical Papyri. The most celebrated is that of Sallier. Champollion, by whom it was first examined, discovered in it a narrative of the expeditions and campaigns of the great Rameses, written not long after that conqueror's death. Several extracts, containing the names of the conquered nations among whom are the Ir-hen were pub lished by Salvolini with other historical matter, transcribed, as it subsequently appeared, from papers stolen by him from his master. This Papyrus, with others on cognate subjects—the praises, for example, of Sesostris of the 12th Dynasty-were in 1839 purchased, on the recommendation of Lepsius, for the British Museum, and form one of the gems of that rich collection. The zealous curators of that institution have already published these Records in the most correct and critical form 12, so that the public have now full access to their contents.

Similar Papyrus-rolls have since been acquired for the Berlin Museum, likewise at Lepsius's suggestion, through the timely attention of the King. They all offer precisely the same palæographical character common to other records of the best epochs of the New

42 Select Papyri in the Hieratic character from the collections of the British Museum. Fol. London, 1841, 1842.

[blocks in formation]

Empire, the 18th and 19th Dynasties. Their text is in Hieratic letters of the most elegant form, peculiar to the learned books, and, by consequence, in the Sacred, or Old Egyptian dialect. Owing to the backward state of the philological branch of Hieroglyphic study, our knowledge of this dialect is unfortunately not yet sufficiently advanced to admit of their translation. Such a result can only be attained by a variety of researches, systematically and methodically followed up. There seems to be no doubt, however, that they contained the praises of the more distinguished Kings, and in a poetical form. Hence, as formerly observed, we have here still no History in the proper sense. This is no proof, however, that those songs of the Priests in praise of their Kings were of a mythical nature. They celebrated historical, and perhaps reigning, sovereigns, and may have narrated events and exploits yet fresh in the recollection. They were the work of the most historical and most monarchical of nations, for there is still in existence the amulet of a contemporary private citizen, commemorating the conquests of one of these Kings, the father of the Great Rameses.

Here, it is true, we find no chronology any more than upon the Stela. There exists, however, an authentic chronological document of the same period, which, with the two series of Kings, will form the subject of our next inquiry.

The series of Kings here referred to are palaceregisters from the two most ancient metropolitan cities of Egypt-Thebes and Abydos. The chronological

document is a Papyrus of the Ramessid epoch, containing a register of the previous dynasties. The three mutually illustrate and restore each other in the most satisfactory manner. In the two former the dates are wanting; of the latter, fragments alone remain, where numerous names are also effaced. These

three documents occupy the first pages of that "Selection from the most important Records of Egyptian Antiquity," compiled by Lepsius shortly before he set out for Egypt, under the munificent auspices of Frederick William IV.43 We must refer our readers to that work for a complete account of these monuments. Our present object is limited to a critical analysis and application of the more important heads of historical evidence which they supply. Their philological illustration is reserved for the work promised by Lepsius, as a second part or supplement to his Plates, on his return from Egypt.

B.

THE CHRONOLOGICAL RECORDS OF THE FIRST PERIOD OF THE LATER EMPIRE.

I. THE TABLET OF TUTHMOSIS, OR SERIES OF KINGS OF KARNAK.*

(Lepsius's Records, Plate I.)

THIS invaluable monument was discovered by Burton in a chamber at the south-east angle of the TemplePalace of Thebes, erected by Tuthmosis III. The ruin is now commonly called Karnak after the name of the village. The Tablet was in a tolerable state of preservation, and was given to the public by its discoverer in his "Excerpta Hieroglyphica" (1824), a work that has since become very scarce. Wilkinson again sought for

43 The complete title is: A Selection of the most important Records of Egyptian Antiquity, illustrated by Dr. R. Lepsius; in part now first published the remainder corrected from the Monuments. Leipzig. Wigand, 1842. 23 pl. large folio.

[ocr errors]

Removed by M. Prisse, and presented by him to the Royal Library at Paris, in one of the halls of which it is now placed.

« ForrigeFortsett »