of his commentaries, with a remark upon the inaccuracy of Caillaud's.46 By Lepsius the Tablet of Abydos was finally published, for the first time, in complete perfection after the original. By this fac-simile the whole representation is at length made really intelligible, and not only has the termination of each side been ascertained, but also the supposition of a whole row of Kings having been lost from the top, fully disproved. Lepsius most fortunately found a clue for completing the lateral inscription opposite the King's throne, which was much mutilated, and for interpreting the superscription which was entirely lost, as also the Hieroglyphics which connect the separate rows of Kings, on a monument, copied by Burton from the Ramesseum.47 Lepsius's copy therefore is of decisive importance both for explaining the Tablet, and for restoring the entire Egyptian Chronology.* The series of Kings of Abydos is sculptured in fine limestone on the wall of a chamber, now destroyed, within the Temple-palace built or restored by Rameses in that primeval royal city. The lower part, comprising the legs, of a Deity swathed in bandages is seated on a throne, holding with both hands a Kukufa sceptre. Lepsius has restored this as Osiris, who may be here considered as the principal Lord of the West, and the Pluto of the Hades of the deceased Kings. He is looking towards a double row of Royal Rings, 26 in number, of so many Egyptian Kings, who are represented seated under their Rings, swathed like Osiris, and wearing alternately the upper and lower portion of the Pschent, the sign of Lordship of Upper and Lower Egypt. Lepsius has restored the horizontal line of hieroglyphics, which was placed over their Rings as follows: A libation to the Lords of the West, by the offerings of (i. e. offered by) their son the King Rameses, in his abode." (This 46 Mon. Stor. i. 149. &c. Compare iii. A. 13., &c. 47 Burton, Exc. Hierog., plate 56. Compare 57. * In the following explanation of the Tablet I have availed myself of Mr. Birch's suggestions. inscription is directly connected with the vertical lines or columns underneath it, containing the names of the Kings.) The libation is offered "to" (indicated by the zigzag line of water) each King successively "through" or " from the offerings " (i. e. a dual offering because there are two names in each vertical line) "of King Rameses." Now, judging from the two Tablets at Karnak, where the same King is offering to the Deities "Phtha" and "Ra in all their names," and where the Divinities are on the left, and the King with his offerings on the right of the picture, the King Rameses must have been on the right of this Tablet when it was complete. The two perpendicular lines of hieroglyphics on the left, as restored by Lepsius from an analogous inscription, contain the speech of the Kings. They say: (The speech of the Lords [L.]) of the West to their son the creator and avenger, the Lord of the World, the Sun who conquers in truth, we ourselves elevate our arms to receive thy offerings and all other good and pure things in thy palace, we are renewed and perpetuated in the paintings of thy house, we beg to approach at thy side with thee, to rule it like the Solar gate of the heaven, where is the Sun for ever (?). Although therefore the votive inscription is entirely wanting above, and only the lowermost part of the two hieroglyphic columns before the King is preserved, both inscriptions nevertheless can be restored with such general accuracy, by means of the precisely similar one above referred to, as fully to establish the fact that the Tablet terminates with the upper of these two rows of Royal Rings. It must appear strange no doubt, that the array of persons who are doing homage to the Great King, in the two nearest compartments of the second row, begins with his own Rings. But the very same representations occur in the Temple sculptures, and especially in those of this identical King Ramesses. The earthly Sovereign is distinct from him who is one day to be enthroned under "the Lords of the Lower World," and therefore is sacrificing to him, as a God, just as he might have done, in the Persian Mythology, to his Ized, or, in the Etrusco-Roman, to his Genius. The King receives from him in return thanks and the divine blessing. A twofold repre sentation of royalty both as an earthly and as a glorified king, seems also to occur on the sculptures of Persepolis. 49 Darius and Xerxes appear in the former capacity Cyrus, the founder of the Empire, as Ized. Here however one and the same King is delineated in both characters. Four and twenty Rings of this row still remain, so that in the two we have altogether 50. It was remarked in very early times that these Throne-Rings, or surnames, represented the ancestors of the Great Ramesses in historical order, ranging back from his immediate, to his more distant, predecessors. The family names corresponding with each of the surnames or Throne-names immediately preceding, and by which the Rings are usually known in History, were sought for and found in numerous monuments familiar to the European public, as well as in the Royal Rings transmitted from Egypt. For, as has been already remarked in speaking of the Tablet of Karnak, both names are as a general rule found together. It was subsequently observed that the next eleven Rings, which precede those of Ramesses, reached as far back as Ahmes-Amos, the chief of the 18th, or, as others have preferred calling him, the last of the 17th Dynasty. These preceded several Rings of the so-called Osortasida- but the last nine in that row, that is, the most ancient, are entirely wanting. In the upper row, the oldest thirteen are likewise destroyed but the other half of the series is more or less preserved. These names were unknown; but as the arrangement of them was identical with that of those which are known, we can have no hesitation in considering them as historical. Were these, and those which are wanting, all 49 Ritter, Asia, viii. p. 78. Kings, and, if so, of which Dynasties? Were their ancestors of the blood royal, and if so, of what race ? In other words does the Tablet represent a pedigree, or a series of reigning Kings, and is the series, in the one or the other case, continuous, or (which we cannot doubt after our previous conclusions) does it comprise merely a selection of Kings or Princes, although in chronological order? All these are questions, which have hitherto scarcely been so much as asked, still less has it ever been attempted to answer them, on the basis of a critical examination of the Monuments and Lists. No restoration of the Tablet was attempted, properly speaking, beyond the Rings of the so-called Osortasida. These too were supposed to be the immediate predecessors of the 18th Dynasty, and were called usually the 17th, sometimes also the 18th Dynasty; in both cases arbitrarily, and, as we have already seen, beyond a doubt erroneously. The immediate result however deduced by Lepsius from his discovery that those Osortasida composed the whole of the 12th Dynasty, was the fact, that the Dynasties between the 12th and 18th are here omitted altogether. But this, according to the system of our restoration, means nothing more than that the Kings of the Hyksos period, represented on the Tablet of Karnak, find no place in that of Abydos. The subjoined synopsis gives a clear idea of this monument, to which we shall have so frequent occasion to refer in the following Books. We have annexed to the Kings of the 18th and 19th Dynasties the corresponding family names by which they are familiarly known, as tending to place in a more conspicuous light the importance of the Tablet. They indicate at the same time the limits of the researches hitherto undertaken. The Rings of the so-called Osortasida have also been marked according to their position in the 12th Dynasty, as a basis for collation with the Tablet of Tuthmōsis. XIX. 3. XIX. 2. XIX. XVIII. XVIII. XVIII. XVIII. XVIII. XVIII. THE French Consul-General Drovetti, celebrated since the days of Napoleon for his love of Egyptian art, brought to Europe a roll of Papyrus, which, with the rest of that splendid collection despised by the Bourbons, fell to the lot of the Turin Museum. It lay there neglected as a mere mass of illegible fragments until discovered by Champollion in 1824, who inserted a notice of it in a scientific Journal.50 He saw at once that this Papyrus contained a List of royal Egyptian Dynasties, |